The new Ryan Gosling vehicle The Fall Guy is, as stuntman-turned-director David Leitch has said, “a love letter” to the stunt industry. It’s a business model that can use some love. In the trades and on the picket lines in recent years, there has been much chatter of artificial intelligence replacing flesh-and-blood stunt performers with digital replicas. In this environment, … [Read more...]
‘First Man’: An epic flight, grounded in gritty character
As a rule, I try not to pay much attention to the snap polling conducted at the end of advance screenings. But the audience’s tepid response to this week’s preview of First Man was too telling to ignore. The universal round of applause did not greet the final credits, and most of the praise offered at egress was muted and lukewarm. “It was too long” seemed to be the … [Read more...]
‘La La Land’ ties record for most Oscar nominations
When the movie musical La La Land went seven for seven earlier this month at the Golden Globes, naysayers predicted the sweep would result in a backlash. Well, not exactly. This morning, the Damien Chazelle-directed contemporary song-and-dance romance received 14 Oscar nominations, tying the all-time record high held by Titanic and All About Eve. The Los Angeles-based … [Read more...]
‘La La Land’: A love letter to the movies, with a painful P.S.
In R.E.M.’s visionary music video for “Everybody Hurts,” a familiar traffic jam becomes an unfamiliar act of protest. Connected by their shared pain, commuters of all creeds and colors begin an exodus from their cars: first one, then a few, then everyone, until they just disappear. I can’t think of a more appropriate post-11/8 song. The opening of Damien Chazelle’s La La … [Read more...]
2016-17 Season Preview: Film (winter)
With a winter season that includes a Marvel Comics flick and a couple of science fiction yarns, the summer still seems to be with us. Still, if the past is any indication, the Oscar winners are embedded somewhere in the list below. Can you find them? The Birth of a Nation (Oct. 7) – The sensation of this year’s Sundance Festival is this biopic of slave/preacher/rebel Nat … [Read more...]