Stefania Sandrelli in I Knew Her Well. (1965) I Knew Her Well: The merciless, soul-crushing world of celebrity aspiration is at the core of director Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1965 inverse/repudiation of La Dolce Vita (Criterion, $26.19 Blu-ray, $19.69 DVD), which alternates between the blackly comic and beautifully dolorous. Stefania Sandrelli, still riding the box-office … [Read more...]
Hilarious ‘Spy’ leaves no secret-agent bit unscathed
In the aftermath of Zero Dark Thirty, you’d think that any film set among the inner workings of the CIA would be a lightning rod for controversy. Not so with Paul Feig’s Spy, a gleeful, anarchic, outrageous sendup of spy-game bombast. The fact that Feig’s presentation of the CIA’s operational compound in Langley, Va. is routinely assailed by CGI bats and mice — and that those … [Read more...]