Hollywood has given us its fare share of over-the-top Christmas comedies -- cynical and secular Yuletide pictures in which acts of Christmas-tree terrorism fry felines (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) and cat burglars hold dysfunctional families hostage (The Ref). In holiday movies, family is something to be endured and tolerated, not celebrated. There was even a film … [Read more...]
Film fest seeks ‘swedes’; Lynn Phil’s free concert is tonight
PALM BEACH GARDENS – Mainstreet at Midtown, based at the Borland Center for the Performing Arts, has launched the county’s first festival of “swede” films and is now accepting entries. A “swede” is an intentionally awful remake of an established film, and since 2008, festivals of the parodistic shorts have taken place in Fresno, Calif., and Tampa Bay. SwedeFest Palm Beach will … [Read more...]
Kline and Kasdan: Two cut-ups making their sixth film together
Just as director Martin Scorsese has had a longtime collaboration with Robert DeNiro and, more recently, with Leo DiCaprio, filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan has made six features with Kevin Kline. Their work together began with 1983’s The Big Chill, includes such varied movies as Silverado, Grand Canyon and French Kiss, and continues with Darling Companion, which will be released … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Film Festival focuses on the independent lens
Over the years, the Palm Beach International Film Festival has had its share of celebrity visits and Hollywood glam. But that’s not what Randi Emerman wants you to remember about the 17th edition of PBIFF. “The focus of this year’s Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) is on the film,” says Emerman, director of the festival. “Pure and simple, our emphasis is on … [Read more...]
Bruegel film beautiful, but too bloodless at the core
Film adaptations of plays, books and even video games are as common as rain in Seattle, but a movie adaptation of a painting? That’s an undertaking so ambitious – and probably presumptuous – that it’s hard to fathom it. Polish director Lech Majewski is up to the task in The Mill and the Cross, attempting to delve beyond the canvas of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous The Way to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 24-25
Film: American remakes of foreign films rarely improve on the original version, but that is exactly the feat that director David Fincher has pulled off with his take on Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There were reasons to worry about what the maker of Fight Club and Se7en would do to this dark, dense cold case mystery, but he has been extremely faithful to the … [Read more...]
Crowe’s bubbly ‘Zoo’ proves a charmer
What kind of small watering hole in a rural zoo in a family film has a one-sheet poster for The Third Man on its wall? The kind in a Cameron Crowe movie, that’s what. There are no cinephile characters in the film, no justification for the poster’s being there, no subtle connection between this pleasant commercial product and Carol Reed’s masterpiece. Nevertheless, I was … [Read more...]
The View From Home 33: New releases and notable screenings, Dec. 6 to 31
Bravo, once again, to maverick distributor Olive Films for releasing yet another brave, cinephilic film for a microscopic but dedicated audience. For many of my movie-obsessed brethren, the release this month of Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du Cinema ($44.99) is the most exciting home-video news of the calendar year, a monumental achievement in experimental self-reflection … [Read more...]
‘Gainsbourg,’ ‘3,’ engrossing, compelling
Most Americans who are aware of Serge Gainsbourg know him from the curiously controversial recording of Je T’Aime . . . Moi Non Plus, a steamy slice of aural sex he made in the 1960s with his then-lover, Jane Birkin. It is enough to turn anyone interested in knowing more about this enigmatic Frenchman who was a giant on the European pop music scene. Now comes … [Read more...]
Lauderdale Film Fest enters 26th year feeling expansive
The oldest consecutively running such event in Florida, the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival (FLIFF), returns this week for its 26th incarnation, with an ambitious lineup and a far-reaching program. Opening Friday and running through Nov. 11, FLIFF features six world premieres, 15 U.S. premieres, 61 Florida premieres and more than 150 films from more than two dozen countries, … [Read more...]