film

As we’ve seen several times over the last 30 years, adapting sketches from “Saturday Night Live” into full-length movies is a hit-and-miss proposition. For every “The Blues Brothers,” we get five “Coneheads.” Or worse, “It’s Pat.” Will Forte and his “MacGruber” writing crew wisely didn’t try to expand their 30-second “Macgyver” spoofs from the show […]

Stephenie Meyer’s not the only novelist moving millions upon millions of copies these days. So is Stieg Larsson, although he sadly died before his books saw print. Nonetheless, the Swedish author became an instant crime favorite with “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” first published on these shores in 2008. “The Girl Who Played with […]

Art, in its purest form, isn’t about money or fans or Facebook liking or even about making sense to anyone in particular. It’s about the artist doing whatever he or she feels like to move an inner vision of reality into the outside world. Some people paint, some people write, some people sew, and some […]

“Letters to Juliet” opens with shots of kisses taken from classical paintings and vintage photos, a montage proudly proclaiming its chick-flick romantic-comedy bona fides. It also serves notice not to expect much in the way of sophistication, invention or emotional depth. That’s not necessarily a criticism. Romcoms aren’t exactly renowned for edginess, and “Letters to […]

Movie buffs can have a lot of fun playing the “what if” and “what the hell” games with this new version of Robin Hood’s adventures, of which there have been countless variations in film or on TV since Douglas Fairbanks hippety-hopped through the Sherwood Forest of Southern California in 1922. The most fondly remembered re-telling […]

The lessons in “The Art of the Steal” aren’t like those generally found in made-for-TV documentaries like those on the Discovery Channel or, even, PBS stations supported by viewers like you. Don’t be mislead by that. Don Argott’s (“Rock School“) compelling film about the transfer of The Barnes Collection of art from its home in […]

“Mid-August Lunch” is so delicate, it’s more like a soft sigh than the written, directed, acted and distributed thing we generally call a film. Under that soft breath of sweetness, however, is an emotional intelligence of a high nature. Written, directed and starred in by Gianni Di Gregorio, this film is an Italian love letter […]

Those who likely would call “The Human Centipede (First Sequence)” the most disgusting movie they’ve ever seen aren’t likely to see it at all. A mere scan of its plot summary would send a majority of moviegoers fleeing for far lighter fare. That’s completely understandable, but those with strong stomachs and a jones for horror […]

Days before their trial was to start, four men were dragged from an Ada jail by an angry mob. Shortly after midnight on April 19, 1909, the vigilantes made a public statement against rampant lawlessness by tying nooses around the necks of Jim Miller, Joe Allen, B.B. Burrell and Jesse West, and lynching them from […]