MARSHALL FINE COMMENTARY

ENTERTAINMENT
Remembering Paul Kantner
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
News of the death of Paul Kantner, formerly of the Jefferson Airplane, reminded me of an early encounter I had with him.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the 2016 Sundance Film Festival: Wednesday, Jan. 27
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
If the films that are released by Hollywood and the larger film companies each year are the major leagues, then the films that show up at Sundance are AAA and AA prospects, looking for their slot on the roster and a shot at the majors. And Sundance is spring training.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from the Sundance Film Festival: Tuesday, Jan. 26
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Of the five-and-a-half films I took in (I sampled Lovesong for a half-hour while killing time between two other movies and was not sorry to walk out early), the three best ones all dealt with issues of family in emotionally complex, compelling and sometimes funny ways.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from Toronto Film Festival: Wednesday Sept. 16
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I saw three films in a row today at the Toronto International Film Festival that have generated heavy buzz in the early festival days of fall - and found that none of them actually has the makings of the awards-season juggernauts they're being touted as. In other words, don't believe the hype.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Toronto Film Festival: Tuesday Sept. 15
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
As Jason Bateman's new film, The Family Fang, shows, Bateman is a filmmaker with an edge and a vision. It was one of the better films I saw during a four-movie day Tuesday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Toronto Film Festival: Monday Sept. 14
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Peter Sollett's Freeheld was, for me, the find of the day -- an intensely emotional film based on a true story that could easily win Julianne Moore her second Oscar in a row (and, perhaps, earn a nomination for the terrific Michael Shannon).
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Toronto Film Festival: Sunday Sept. 13
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
This year's edition will be remembered for putting both Jay Roach's Trumbo and James Vanderbilt's Truth in contention for the Oscar race. I saw the two films back to back on Sunday -- and they are guaranteed to both grip you and infuriate you
ENTERTAINMENT
Gen-X: Please Stop
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
The Art of the First Draft
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
A few years ago, a film historian unearthed what he claimed was the only existing copy of the first version of John Cassavetes' film, Shadows. He ultimately was told to cease and desist because he had no right to the film.
ENTERTAINMENT
Tears, Tears and More Tears: On Crying at the Movies
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Crying at movies seems to happen more frequently of late. A side effect of aging? Perhaps that's just the way it works. I am not embarrassed by the fact that I have this tendency more often of late. Not that I don't take grief about it from my grown sons.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from the Nantucket Film Festival
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
This is my second year at the Nantucket Film Festival, and this will probably be my one dispatch, mostly because I'm having too much fun to take time to write about it.
ENTERTAINMENT
The Jurassic Puppet Show
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
And I'm not talking about Avenue Q or Hand to God or the various Muppet movies or anything else in which the idea of the puppet is as much a part of the joke as anything else.
ENTERTAINMENT
The World Through a Bubble
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Nils Lofgren: The Sun Hasn't Set on This Boy Yet
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
As I sat at B.B. King's Blues Club and Grill in New York Monday evening watching Nils Lofgren do a stunning 90-minute solo show, I was hurtled 40 years back in time, when writing about rock'n'roll was as much a passion for me as writing about movies.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from the Tribeca Film Festival: Wrapping Up
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
When I'm in New York, the Tribeca screenings have to get in line with all the other things on my calendar -- and most of those take precedence over spending Saturday or Sunday at a multiplex in Battery Park City watching films I probably wouldn't review even if they were released.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from the Tribeca Film Festival: Friday, April 17
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I rarely miss either the Sundance or Toronto film festivals each year -- but my relationship with the Tribeca film fest has been spottier. Partly that's due to scheduling: For a variety of reasons, I've been out of town for large chunks of the festival each of the past couple of years. 
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Sundance: Wednesday, Jan. 28
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I make a point of knowing as little as possible about the films I see at the Sundance Film Festival (or any other film festival -- or just films in general, for that matter) before I see them because I want to see them with a blank slate.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Sundance: Tuesday, Jan. 27
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
There is plenty to distract you at the Sundance Film Festival, from parties to gifting suites (which journalists are invited to report on but never to actually visit) to other film festivals going on in Park City at the same time.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live from Sundance: Monday, Jan. 26
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Craig Zobel's Z for Zachariah is a post -apocalyptic love triangle that is haunting and lovely -- a distinct change of pace from Zobel's last film, the chillingly neon-lit Compliance.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From Sundance: Sunday, Jan. 25
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I hit the ground running, arriving not-quite midway into the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in time to crank out a five-movie day on Sunday. That's less a testament to my stamina than to luck and logistics.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the Marrakech Film Festival
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
You've been to Ouarzazate, Morocco -- at least visually -- even if you don't know it.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the Marrakech Film Festival: Dec. 8
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
Here's the best thing about attending an event like the Marrakech International Film Festival: It's one of the rare opportunities that a critic has to truly walk into a screening knowing absolutely nothing about a film.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the Marrakech Film Festival: Dec. 7
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
It was a three-movie day at the Marrakech International Film Festival, with all of the films set against stark, harsh vistas in which people scramble and struggle just to stay alive. The best of those was Far From Men, by director David Oelhoffen.
ENTERTAINMENT
Live From the Marrakech Film Festival: Dec. 6
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I had never been invited to dine with royalty before I arrived at the Marrakech International Film Festival. Sundance, you've got a lot to live up to.
ENTERTAINMENT
The Screen Image Deteriorates
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
As I sat in an early screening of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 last week, I realized that I was experiencing a first in my career -- which, at my age, is a rare thing.
ENTERTAINMENT
New York Film Festival 2014: The More Things Change...
By Marshall Fine, Contributor
Author and film critic, hollywoodandfine.com
I've been covering the New York Film Festival since 1987 and have, over the years, developed a bit of a love/hate relationship with it, as an institution (specifically, Film Society of Lincoln Center) and as a festival.
PREVIOUS NEXT
Page 1 2 3 4 5 ...