The Old Abnormal

In 1966, Bruce Lee threw himself (literally) into the role of Kato, the Green Hornet's sidekick, when he costarred in a TV series based on the Silver Age comic book. Alas, the ...

A Masterful Acting Clinic

The Master, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix in a period piece very loosely based on the origins of Scientology, is a sumptuous viewing experience. Yet nobody ...

How Robots Push Our Buttons

Robot & Frank is a clever little sci-fi dramedy about a semi-senile old coot whose concerned son buys him a robot as a valet and minder. The film is well crafted and timely ...

Projecting Talent Onto Criminals

Are criminals in real life ever even one-tenth as fascinating as they are in Christopher Nolan movies? Can you think of a real criminal as intriguing as the late Heath Ledger's ...

Lars von Trier

Twilight of the Übermensch

You probably haven"€™t heard of Get the Gringo, a recent Lethal Weapon-like action movie starring Mel Gibson and directed by his right-hand man Adrian Grunberg. Mad Mel plays ...

Roseanne Barr

Roseanne Barr & The Comeback That Never Came

I"€™m so old, I remember when Ellen DeGeneres was straight; Rosie O"€™Donnell wasn"€™t merely straight, she was the "€œQueen of Nice"€; and Joan Rivers would never eat ...

Mr. Toback, I”€™m Ready for My Close-Up

"€œSorry, I"€™m in makeup; if it's something important, call my agent, Israel Goldfarb."€ This is how I"€™ve been fending off the myriad calls from eager females trying ...

Sacha Baron Cohen

Comedy That Never Forgets

The Dictator is Sacha Baron Cohen's fourth and"€”surprisingly"€”funniest movie, a definite improvement over his biggest hit Borat. But critics, who raved in 2006 about how ...

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp

Dark Shadows: Not Gay, Just Fey

In Tom Stoppard's 1982 drama The Real Thing, a middle-aged playwright and his daughter discuss Elvis Presley's death: Henry: I never went for him much. "€˜All Shook Up"€™ was ...

The Avengers: Kicking Ass and Selling Tickets

It was a bad weekend for Nicolas "€œThe American in Paris"€ Sarkozy but a great weekend at the global box office for what the French sniffily call l"€™empire américain's ...

Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Lawrence

Mortal Combat From a Feminine Perspective

As female authors increasingly dominate popular fiction, they are confronted with whether or not to try and appeal to the remnant male market. The authors of this century's three ...

Damsels in Distress

Return of the WASP Woody Allen

Metropolitan, the 1990 dramedy about a group of chivalrous preppies whose debutante ball after-parties are so articulate and decorous that they might have driven J. Alfred ...

Tehran Comes to Hollywood

The Iranian film A Separation, a domestic drama-turned-courtroom mystery, is among the most acclaimed of recent movies. It won a host of film festival awards, the Best Foreign ...

Sacha Baron Cohen

The Not-so-Great Dictator

So Jewish people don"€™t run Hollywood after all? That was my first snarky thought when I heard about the flap between comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Talladega Nights) and ...

The Hangover II

Goodbye, Mr. Chimps

Although future behavioral taboos are notoriously hard to predict, it’s clear that within this decade America will end the use of chimpanzees in entertainment. I’ll go much ...

The Fires This Time

The New Year literally blazed into Los Angeles with dozens of fires set over several days. One of the worst arson attacks ever, it sent Angelenos scurrying for their garden hoses. ...


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