Many of the shorts that are later expanded into a feature film seem to have been designed backwards for this specific purpose: an eye-catching flavor of what is clearly intended to be a larger work, though perhaps not quite as satisfying as a mini-film. Bogdan Muricanu’s critically acclaimed 2018 short film A Christmas Present — … Read more
One of Them Days, starring Keke Palmer and SZA as fast-talking Los Angeles roommates with nine hours to collect rent money, is a successful throwback to the day-in-the-life genre. The comedies they used to make in the ’90s — movies like “Friday” (1995) and “The Players Club” (1998), which squeezed enough texture between the laughs … Read more
Linda Lavigne, the Tony Award-winning stage actress who became a working-class icon when she wore a paper hat as a waitress on the TV sitcom “Alice,” has died. She was 87 years old. Lavigne died unexpectedly Sunday from complications of recently discovered lung cancer, her representative, Michael Gagliardo, told CBS News in an email. After … Read more
The first word heard in “Feeling Randy” is “boner,” which, when taken with the film’s title, promises a raunchy, raunchy comedy. But writer-director Dean Lent’s debut feature (not counting the 1987 anthology “Border Radio”) is prettier and more glamorous than the usual rom-coms about teens trying to lose their virginity. That may be its plot, … Read more
Can animals act? Reasonable people might say no: our four-legged friends can’t read a script or build character, and if they appear charismatic on screen, it’s simply due to obedience to commands, plus the deft touch of an editor. The more adaptive among us might say that these last two points apply to some human … Read more
Arguably one of the most insufferable characters in literature is the main character in Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther – a martyr of unrequited love who ultimately commits suicide. The author quickly distanced himself from this early work, despite the fame it brought him. There is no doubt that this is … Read more
In recent years, films about aging and death have taken on an unflinchingly bleak and frightening tone, particularly in awards shows like “Amour,” “Vortex” and “The Father.” What Holland prefers is a less bleak approach to her international Oscar nomination this year. Director Jilli de Jong’s “Memory Lane” is a sometimes raucous, ultimately serious comedy … Read more