Only a few days ago a panhandler in a wheelchair was shot and killed not too far north of downtown Miami. The motive of the suspected shooter — who was taken into custody after a police chase — remains unknown, but it’s doubtful the deceased, 58-year-old Israel Zequra, had enemies…
Genius is hell, both for the blessed and those stuck in the shadows, cursed to spend a lifetime of smashing their heads against the glass. In its presence we find ourselves dwarfed and dumb, like moths. We know we’re before brilliance we can’t comprehend — and we know we’ll never…
Weep at another whiff of an Elmore Leonard adaptation, one that nails down neither the peppery laughs nor the street-crime desperation that are key to the writer’s work. Instead, the comedy is too broad to take the characters seriously, and the vibe is breezily aimless, a mistake in a story…
Jean-Paul Belmondo in a white dinner jacket. There. That should be enough to sell you on Philippe de Broca’s 1964 crime caper/spoof That Man From Rio, but if for some reason it’s not, let’s throw in Jean-Paul Belmondo on a motorcycle, Jean-Paul Belmondo elbowing his way onto a flight from…
After The Princess Bride made Robin Wright a star, she shocked Hollywood by saying no. No to The Firm and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. No to Jurassic Park, Dirty Dancing, Born on the Fourth of July, and Batman Forever. She even said no to the cover of Vanity Fair…
Here’s what an R rating gets you these days: a few splattery headshots, some glimpses of cable TV-style background nudity, a couple kids and families popped by assassins, a brace of fucks, in dialogue, and one un-bracing fuck, in bed, mostly clothed. During its longueurs, this engagingly grim spy-versus-spymasters time-passer…
There has been a lot of talk, Tweets, and Instagrams since Beyonce’s powerhouse performance at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday and Sofia Vergara’s spinning skit at the Emmys Monday night. The stark contrast between the two showings has caused a stir, with “feminism” and “sexist” hashtag-storming social media…
Why did so few people see Sin City: A Dame to Kill For over the weekend? That and other topics are discussed in this week’s edition of the Voice Film Club podcast with the Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek, joined as always by Amy Nicholson of the L.A…
It’s only been a couple of years since the great filmmaker Sidney Lumet passed away and seven since his final feature graced our screens, but many of his works still influence modern works and are incredibly reflective of today’s society. This is why it’s not surprising that he’s one of…
You’re nobody until you own your own yacht. Or charter one. Or maybe just work on one, because yacht rides are hard to come across these days. That’s how Kate Chastain and Kat Held scored cabins on the Ohana, not to mention starring roles on the second season of Bravo’s…
The world has had its attention on Ferguson, Mo., and the shooting death case of Michael Brown, a young, unarmed black man who was killed by police officer Darren Wilson. Because of the nature of the case, it’s only natural that many would think back to the shooting of Trayvon…
Photo by Phil Bray – © 2014 – LionsgateWell, who was it? Find out in this week’s pod.On this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice and Amy Nicholson of L.A. Weekly sift through the smoldering pile of action movie that is the…
Sin City, population unknown but dropping every minute, is a gorgeous place, but you wouldn’t want to live there. Even the shadows and broken glass are beautiful in this black-and-white world. Only the women — all gorgeous — give the streets a pop of color. That is, only the women…
In a year full of film adaptations of fantastical young-adult novels (Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, Vampire Academy, The Giver), If I Stay confronts the audience with stark reality. Adapted from the book by Gayle Forman, the film finds its main character, Mia Hall, in a coma after a…
Should grownups be spending their time reading young-adult novels, at the risk of missing the supposed riches of fiction written for actual grownups? A recent essay in Slate groused about the legions of adults who long ago graduated from the 12th grade but still devour YA fiction at the expense…
Jennifer M. Kroot’s To Be Takei is an affectionate portrait of the hardest-working member of the original cast of Star Trek, George Takei. That’s pronounced tuh-KAY, not tuh-KAI, as so many have misspoken it over the years, including but not limited to William Shatner, whose strained nonrelationship with Takei —…
According to inspirational sports movies, winning demands you train hard, play with heart, be a team, and not care about winning. So it goes in the sturdy, crowd-pleasing When the Game Stands Tall, a profile in saintliness puffed up from a true story: the Northern California Catholic school whose football…
Last month, television viewers were treated to one of the most highly anticipated so-bad-it-might-be-good sequels this side of Godfather 2: Sharknado 2: The Second One. The shark tale was so successful — we’re talking 4 million viewers successful — that SyFy and filmmakers The Asylum are partnering with Fathom Events…
In a year full of film adaptations of fantastical young-adult novels (Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, Vampire Academy, The Giver), If I Stay confronts the audience with stark reality. Adapted from the book by Gayle Forman, the film finds its main character, Mia Hall, in a coma after a…
Ambient sounds, a screeching monkey, and some out of focus imagery greet you when Olho Nu (Naked Eye) begins. It’s arguably a jarring experience, and yet, the moment one sees Ney Matogrosso donning real goat horns, goatskin, bull tooth, and monkey hair, it makes perfect sense. This documentary is all…
It’s documentaries about famous figures always make me realize just how limited my views on certain subjects tend to be. With Revelando Sebastião Salgado (whose English title is Meeting Sebastião Salgado), the subject is photography, and more specifically, a man who I was formerly unacquainted with: renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. The film by Betse…
Action movies once reigned supreme with films like Die Hard and The Terminator dominating the ’80s and ’90s, yet it seems like in the early 2000s the genre laid dormant. But now, it’s making a comeback. One could say action movies evolved with the times; the term has come to…
