Atlanta’s largest annual film festival begins Feb. 19 with the regional premiere of “Bad Shabbos” at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre with director Daniel Robbins, producer Adam Mitchell and actors in attendance including Kyra Sedgwick and Milayna Vayntrub. The Atlanta film premiere kicks off three weeks of screenings across the metro. It will feature 88 […]
Tag: Arts & Entertainment
Posted inColumns
‘Our Kind of Traitor’ turns a book thriller into boring movie
If you’re having a hard time remembering the title of the movie you plan to review – and you’ve just seen it – well, that probably isn’t a good sign.
Alas, such is the case with “Our Kind of Traitor,” a disappointing bore based on a 2010 John le Carre thriller.
Posted inColumns
‘Free State of Jones’ portrays shared humanity despite race and class
Like its hero, Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey), “Free State of Jones” finds itself caught between two opposing sides. Northerners interested in the Civil War don’t want to hear about good Southerners. And Southerners interested in the Civil War don’t want to hear about bad Southerners.
“Free State of Jones,” an entertaining and perceptive picture, offers both. Plus, it’s a true story.
Posted inColumns
‘Genius’ melds the expected with intelligence in sharp view of 1930s literary world
“Genius” is actually about two geniuses: Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, the legendary novelist who wrote “Look Homeward, Angel” and “Of Time and the River.”
Posted inColumns
‘DePalma’ captures director’s smugness as it reminds of his many bad movies
How you feel about the new documentary, “De Palma,” is pretty much tied to how you feel about director Brian De Palma’s pictures. For those who find his work boorish, simplistic, and misogynistic – with a weakness for sensationalism and imitation (he calls it “homage”) – listening to the filmmaker go on about himself can be trying.
Posted inColumns
‘Maggie’s Plan’ provides a lovely time at the movies
Robert Burns was right. Best-laid plans of mice and men “gang oft agley.”
That’s pretty what happens in Rebecca Miller’s delightful new film, “Maggie’s Plan.” The title character, cleverly played by Greta Gerwig, is ready to have and raise a child. However, she’s not ready to get married.
Posted inColumns
‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ – Take cue from Hollywood execs and run
So many of us read “Alice Through the Looking Glass” when we were young that that I’m sure we all remember the famous opening scene where Alice, having taken over as captain from her deceased father, steers her sailing ship through a deadly storm.
Oh, you don’t? Well, brace yourself because that’s how “Alice Through the Looking Glass” begins. And that’s only the first of repeated offenses this blasphemous atrocity commits against Lewis Carroll, to say nothing of billions of “Alice” fans.
Posted inColumns
‘Dark Horse’ a fairy tale of working class Brits who beat the odds
“Dark Horse” is “Rocky” with a mane and a tail.
Plus, it’s a true story.
Posted inColumns
“The Lobster” is delicious; see it before it’s gone
Chilly, perverse and pitch-black absurd, “The Lobster” is unlike any movie you’ve ever seen.
There is, perhaps, a soupcon of David Lynch. A smidgeon of David Cronenberg. The little-seen and absolutely mind-blowing “Holy Motors” comes to mind, as does the obscure but better known, “City of the Lost Children.”
Posted inColumns
‘Money Monster’ has everything going for it, still goes wrong
Though it centers on a hostage crisis in New York City, “Money Monster” is no “Dog Day Afternoon.”
It is, however, a dog.
Posted inColumns
‘A Hologram for the King’ allows Tom Hanks to portray re-birth of a life
In the pensive and nimble “A Hologram for the King,” Tom Hanks isn’t waiting for Godot. But he might as well be.
Hanks plays Alan Clay, once one of the best salesmen at one of the best companies in America: Schwinn Bicycles. But then he became part of a move to outsource most of the company’s labor to China (“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he ruefully explains) and before long, Schwinn was a mere shadow of itself, with hundreds of employees out of a job. (One of Alan’s recurring nightmares is the day he had to lay off all those people).
Posted inColumns
National Park Service hits home with King-Carter exhibit – possible peek into future
An axis of peace. That’s probably the best way to define the relationship between two of Atlanta’s greatest leaders and their families – the late Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Jimmy Carter.
It is a special multi-layered relationship that keeps building upon a shared foundation of non-violence, human and civil rights. And both MLK Jr. and Carter were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.
Posted inTom Baxter
The year the music died
The passing this year of so many who gave music a creative spark comes at a particularly ominous time. Last year, for the first time ever, golden oldies — more precisely, music that was 18 months old or older, outsold new releases. However much you like Lefty Frizzell or the Stones or Basie, this is not a positive sign.
Posted inColumns
‘Mother’s Day’ may be interesting – if this were 1986
Having ruined “New Year’s Eve” and Valentine’s Day,” Garry Marshall now takes dead aim at “Mother’s Day.”
Moms of every shape, size, and soap-opera lineage run amok in this insultingly simple-minded tribute to the holiday made in Hallmark heaven.
Posted inMain Slider
‘The Jungle Book’ is simply breathtaking
For the second time in a matter of weeks, the supposed “kids” movie turns out to be the best thing on screen.
“The Jungle Book” is just wonderful. Better than wonderful. There’s more sheer WOW!!! in this adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic than in a dozen superhero flicks.
Posted inColumns
‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ is one hot mess of a movie
Richard Linklater’s latest, “Everybody Wants Some!!,” is so terrible, so utterly disappointing that I actually came up with four leads for this review (Now, that’s a severely miffed critic).
Posted inColumns
The memory of Madam C.J. Walker lives on in an Atlanta museum and new hair product line
Ricci de Forest is a Madam C.J. Walker devotee and curator of a small Atlanta museum that honors her legacy. That’s why he so pleased that the name and history of the woman who “is credited with being the grand dame of the Black beauty industry” is being revived with the launch of a new line of hair products in her honor.
