MARSHALL FINE BLOG

ENTERTAINMENT
Don't Believe the Hype
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
The dividing lines have already been drawn -- and continue to be drawn -- about what should or shouldn't be among the year-end awards contenders. And the biggest line, of course, has to do with The Master.
ENTERTAINMENT
Toronto Festival Conclusions: The Oscar race Begins
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
While this year's best-picture winner may in fact have played at TIFF 2012, there was no huge critical groundswell around a realistic contender, the way there was last year.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Toronto Film Festival: Tuesday, Sept. 11
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
It's easy to mock the feelings it evokes, but that's a shallow reading of a much deeper film. Cloud Atlas is one of the best films I've seen this year and one of the most satisfying.
ENTERTAINMENT
Defending Fact-based Reality Against Propaganda
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
An End to "Found Footage" Films -- Please!
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I'm declaring a moratorium on the "found footage" mock documentary. And, while we're at it, how about the same thing for movies shot to look like they're hand-held documentaries, even when they're just fiction films?
ENTERTAINMENT
What Is Reality on Reality TV?
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Indeed, all these shows had their forebears in the days of radio. But, for the sake of argument, let's leave our family-tree tracing to the early days of TV. There are really only four models for most reality shows, four shows from which all others spring.
ENTERTAINMENT
Wrapping up Sundance 2012 - Pt. 2
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Network fall TV 2011: DOA
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from Toronto Film Festival: Wednesday 9.14.11
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from Toronto Film Festival: Tuesday 9.13.11
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Sundance 2011: Parting Thoughts
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Sundance has transformed over the years from a film festival -- which implies the celebration of film and filmmakers -- into a film market, where products are bought and sold.
ENTERTAINMENT
2010: The Year in Non-Audience-Friendly Movies
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Annals of the Overrated: Tony Scott and Unstoppable
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Why the Oscars Are Irrelevant
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Some people have greeted this week's selection of James Franco and Anne Hathaway as hosts for next February's Oscar broadcast as a harbinger of doom. Yeah, right -- like this annual ritual wasn't already one of the walking dead.
ENTERTAINMENT
Attention, Hollywood: High-Concept Idea for Sale!
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
The following has been copyrighted and registered with the Writers Guild. But feel free to contact me to buy it: It's a ribald romantic comedy called Grandma Is a Cougar.
ENTERTAINMENT
Insanity over obscenity
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Shame on Bravo
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Yes, I understand the appeal of the Real Housewives -- and also the way they dull the minds and intellects of all who watch them. Bravo obviously doesn't own a patent on creating garbage, but it is absolutely an industry leader in its production.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the Toronto Film Festival: Last Day
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
My last full day at the Toronto International Film Festival was a day of hits and misses.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from the Toronto Film Festival: Sunday, Sept. 12
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the Toronto Film Festival: Saturday, Sept. 11
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
The most persistent feeling one has at a big event like the Toronto International Film Festival -- other than the feeling of exhaustion -- is that you're somehow running behind.
ENTERTAINMENT
In Praise of Woody Allen
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Where his films once excited a certain keenness, I often read reviews of a new Woody Allen film these days that convey the attitude of, "Oh, give it a rest already."
ENTERTAINMENT
A Real Critic's Choice
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Recently, I had to choose between two screenings, both happening at the same time. One was Lottery Ticket, a comedy starring Bow Wow. The other was A Film Unfinished, a Holocaust-themed documentary. That seems like a no-brainer, right?
ENTERTAINMENT
I Saw Elvis in His Coffin
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
When Elvis fell off a toilet and straight into rock'n'roll heaven, I was the reporter the paper called to drive up to Memphis to cover it. But I didn't want to go.
ENTERTAINMENT
Didn't I Just See That ...?
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I just saw that whole "army of the dead" in a movie. Well, actually, a couple of movies. If you want a demonstration of the studios' imagination deficit problem, just screen-hop at your local multiplex.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cody's Critical Generation Gap
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Who gets to be a critic? These days, just about anybody with a working computer, it seems. Or, in the case of Cody Gifford, anyone whose mom has her own TV show.
ENTERTAINMENT
Reading Too Much Into Movies
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
What's amazing to me is how hard some people work at reading political meaning into works that had no such ideas. Just because you can make a case for a metaphorical reading doesn't mean you should.
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