If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Over the years, I've developed what I refer to as the 20-minute rule. It basically says that a movie that hasn't hooked me in the first 20 minutes probably isn't going to.
It's puzzling why an African American director would choose this unsettling project in the first place; his fans will be perplexed. All that went right in his previous film has gone awry in this sour, bitter-tasting mint julep.
The Paperboy shoots for greatness (a serious meditation on Southern race relations and sexuality in the 1960s) instead of fully embracing what it should be: a campy cinematic cesspool in which talented actors are ritually degraded in lurid scenes.
Lee Daniels's The Paperboy is a movie that frankly skirts by purely on the good will of its actors. The story is pretty much a wash, even if its mundane nature wins points for probable realism.
Lee Daniels' touch is all over this movie, which is as sensational as it is nonsensical, with its overheated blend of sex, race and murder.
I went to a screening The Paperboy at the screening room at 500 Park Avenue last night. It's director Lee Daniels' down-and-dirty version of Pete Dexter's 1995 book. Both Dexter and Daniels are credited with the screenplay. I have three words for it. Lord. Have. Mercy.
Liberal Arts is Radnor's second film after Happythankyoumoreplease, where the characters' habit of earnestly saying exactly what they were thinking definitely made it feel like a first film. In contrast, Liberal Arts feels more mature, poignant, and real.
Operating on a level of ridiculousness so high it suggests possible intention, Lee Daniels' The Paperboy is a trash pile packed high, high and higher still.
There are two lessons to be learned here. First, bad trends die. Hard. Whenever you decide to buy into one, expect to be made fun of in the near future. Second, YOLO is dumb. Everyone does stupid things.
In theaters now is The Lucky One, the latest Nicholas Sparks romance novel brought to the big screen. The film stars Zac Efron as Logan, a Marine who returns home and attempts to locate the girl in a photo he found in Iraq. A photo that, through luck, winds up saving Logan's life. This search leads Logan into a series of events that are quite preposterous. So preposterous, in fact, that Matt Singer (from Indiewire) and I decided that an Obsessive Chat was in order. (Spoiler alert, obviously.)
Luckily, the talented Mr. Renner has a day job--real estate. It has been a genuine passion for him, and he's made a success of it. He also studied psychology before he fell into acting. All the better to deal with agents, managers, directors and Us Weekly.
Everybody needs a Thneed. The question is, does anybody need Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, the feature-length, CG animated, 3D, big screen adaptation of the legendary children's author's environmental parable?
On Read Across America day, we need to remember that in addition to teaching our children to love reading, we also need to teach them HOW to read to between the lines in order to understand what the slick market makers and product placers are selling them.
I'm not going to go into all the subplots, except to say that they all end as happily as you know they will from the very start.
When is a comedy not a comedy? When it's one of what apparently is becoming a series of holiday-themed movies by Garry Marshall.
You don't need to have a lot of money -- or be a celebrity -- to get in shape!
