Room 237 Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel The Shining has been confounding for the three decades since its release to mostly lukewarm reviews and sluggish box office. The movie turned off both of its target audiences – Kubrick fans felt that the ghost story was a squandering of the master filmmaker’s talents … Continue reading
Pablo Berger Gives a Spanish Flavor to a Beloved Fairy Tale with Blancanieves by Brad Baflour Spanish director Pablo Berger took a leap with his second film, Blancanieves, in re-imagining of the Snow White fable with enough grit to validate the film. However to construct it as a silent film was a real jump into … Continue reading
Director Spike Lee Has His Red Hook Summer by Brad Balfour When New York-based director Spike Lee makes a film, it’s almost always an event. That’s been the case virtually from the moment he emerged as a hot young indie filmmaker breaking both the color barrier by dealing with subject matter most mainstream directors neither touched … Continue reading
Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks and Tom Hooper – Bringing a Broadway Classic to the Big Screen with Les Misérables by Brad Balfour Based on the legendary Victor Hugo novel – by way of the operatic stage musical created around it – the recently released cinematic version of Les Misérables spans 17 … Continue reading
Michael Haneke Makes A Loving Statement in Amour by Brad Balfour A cultivated couple in their 80s, retired music teachers Georges and Anne have a nice apartment in a fine Parisian neighborhood. One night, after seeing a former student perform, Anne blanks out at home, presaging the condition to come. Afterwards, surgery to correct her blocked … Continue reading
Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin Like The Film’s Subjects, Undefeated Directors Defy Odds and Get An Oscar Nom by Brad Balfour I was glad to have interviewed doc directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin – whose film Undefeated cleared nearly all the award hurdles and got into that rarefied place of being a Best Documentary … Continue reading
Wayne White’s Playhouse by Ronald Sklar http://www.popentertainment.com/waynewhite.htm The brilliant creative mind behind Pee Wee’s Playhouse and other cultural landmarks continues to pop our eyes. You may not know him by name, but you know him as that guy behind the scenes responsible for blowing your mind. Wayne White is an artist, art director and puppeteer … Continue reading
Chimpanzee’s Filmmakers Tell A True Tale of Loss and Bonding by Brad Balfour While Marvel’s The Avengers is tentpole cinema’s paean to superhero glory, DisneyNature salutes a different sort of heroics through the true primate story told in Chimpanzee. British directors/producers Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield have fashioned this rousing drama out of three hard … Continue reading
Jada Pinkett Smith Channels Her Inner Hippo and More by Brad Balfour As the rail-thin Jada Pinkett Smith bounds into the Waldorf Astoria suite for a friendly chat about life and family, she exudes energy and an intensity that makes this petite 40 year-old actress a lot bigger in the chair than she seems. Opening at Cannes Film Festival 2012, Madagascar … Continue reading
Michael Biehn and Jennifer Blanc-Biehn Play the Victim by Jay S. Jacobs When sci-fi legend Michael Biehn was looking to write and direct a movie, he went back to basics. Biehn, who is beloved in genre circles for lead roles in The Terminator and Aliens, recently worked with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino on … Continue reading
