Last week when I posted a news item on Facebook about the controversial film **“The Interview”** being reinstated into 331 theaters and VOD on Christmas Day, my friends were split into two camps. About half wondered if the Sony hack had all been a part of some long-term marketing ...
“Unbroken,” the WWII drama directed by **Angelina Jolie** now playing at Southwind 12, is based on the best-selling nonfiction book by **Laura Hillenbrand** — which itself is based on the extraordinary story of **Louis Zamperini**, who died this summer at age 97. The movie wants to be ...
It could have been pretentious as hell: An aimless young woman, searching for herself, discovers her own courage by hiking 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone. That’s pretty much the one-sentence description of **“Wild,”** now playing at [Liberty Hall][1] and starring **Reese ...
The mammoth cinematic achievement of **Peter Jackson** — adapting the rich world of **J.R.R. Tolkien**’s Middle-earth since 2001 — will always come with an asterisk; a sad irony. Turning “The Lord of the Rings” novels into a filmic trilogy was possible only with the latest in ...
The Kansas City Film Critics Circle named **Alejandro González Iñárritu**'s genre-defying **"Birdman"** the best film of 2014, as the second oldest movie critics' organization in the country voted for the 48th time Sunday. In addition to best film, "Birdman" also won awards for best ...
Hype is a dangerous thing. It’s a double-edged sword, because any movie studio publicist will agree that buzz helps get people in the theater, but then high expectations from an audience can sink a mediocre film. That’s exactly what happened when I saw **Chris Rock**’s **“Top ...