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David Frankel’s THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 is the extremely slick sequel about life in a high fashion magazine. Meryl Streep again plays the imperious editor and Anne Hathaway her foil. The script traffics in changes in publishing and how social media has affected it. With most of the original cast back everyone with predictable story arcs. There is some dried eyed sentiment here and there. All...

I must admit I have never been that much of an Elvis fan even though there is no denying his influence on music and pop culture. Baz Luhrmann’s EPIC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT shows that under all the layers of tacky and grotesque outfits and hair styles and disturbing deification he had real talent. The film is a major feat in film editing, stitching together a variety of performance and rehears...

The elaborate and lavish 1935 Warner Brothers production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is an interesting amalgam of Shakespeare and Hollywood which despite some longueurs is still pretty amazing. Directors Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle use most of the studio’s stock company to blend the characters in the play with the established personas of the various stars. The chief among these are James...

Frank Perry’s 1969 LAST SUMMER is an adaption of Evan Hunter’s novel with a screenplay by his wife Eleanor Perry. Set on Fire Island three teenagers (Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, and Bruce Davidson) bond and fall into ever darker behaviors. They meet another teen (Cathy Burns) who they slowly bring into their group. The finale, which is still shocking, originally gave the film an X rating. ...

Alain Resnais’ STAVISKY is a 1974 French biographical drama film based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the charismatic and yet mysterious lead. By turn fascinating and confusing it is beautiful to look at with lovely period settings and costuming. This has a rare film score by St...

Martin Ritt’s 1963 HUD is a Texas set family drama based on a novel by Larry McMurtry. Paul Newman is the alienated son of rancher Melvin Douglas and the script sets up their conflict rather baldly as good versus evil. But Newman, even playing a real bastard, has so much audience appeal that despite the awful things he does and says they adore him. This was more or less the beginning of the per...

Tom Tywker, Lana Wachowski, and Lilly Wachowski’s CLOUD ATLAS is a three hour epic spanning six different time periods. Most of the cast plays multiple characters. The basic theme is, I guess, that souls are born and reborn and are connected through the ages. There are elements of sci fi here with a couple of futuristic sections and lots of CGI throughout. By turns interesting and baffling th...

Victor Fleming’s 1932 RED DUST is pre-code joy with three perfectly matched stars. Jean Harlow and Mary Astor vie for the attentions of Clark Gable on a steamy rubber plantation. Expert camerawork by Hal Rosson and sly dialog enhance the performances. A delight and highest recommendation. (Remade in 1953 where Gable again plays the lead this time pursued by Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.). Yet ano...

In James Vanderbilt’s NUREMBERG a WWII psychiatrist (Rami Malek) evaluates Nazi leaders before the Nuremberg trials, growing increasingly obsessed with understanding evil as he forms a disturbing bond with Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe). While something this serious does reek of Oscar bait and reportedly some of the facts were altered for dramatic effect, this is still an absorbing film boosted b...

Angus MacLachlan’s A LITTLE PRAYER is a lovely little gem about the complicated relationships in a southern family. The authenticity of the accents and behaviors are small miracles when characters from below the Mason-Dixon Line are so often portrayed as cliches with bad accents painful to the ear. Strong cast with David Strathairn as a protector of his daughter in law (Jane Levy) when he discov...