How to Watch “The Lone Ranger”

So The Lone Ranger comes out today, and I kind of feel like I already saw it. It’s a western by way of Pirates of the Caribbean, right? Same director (Gore Verbinksi), same producer (Jerry Bruckheimer), same star (Johnny Depp), and if the trailer is any indication, it will feature the same type of breathtaking,…

The Scary, Silly Hypocrisy of “White House Down”

If future historians are ever looking for evidence of the political schizophrenia and tribalism that engulfed American in the post-9/11 era, they could do much worse than White House Down, a film that presents itself as an argument for peace and reason but is built on a foundation of cartoonish, consequence-free movie violence and a…

“Big” and the Body-Swap Movie Renaissance

I had a piece in The Atlantic this afternoon on Big and the other body-swap movies (Vice Versa, 18 Again!, Like Father, Like Son) of the late ’80s. Here is an excerpt: The dominant, lasting image in all these films is that of a grown man acting like a child. In Big, Vice Versa, and Like Father, Like Son, the…

AFI Docs Festival Review: Part 2

Last weekend, Anthony Flores and I tackled the AFI Docs Festival (formerly Silverdocs). Here is the second part in our series of capsule reviews (see part one here): Cutie and the Boxer When we first meet the famed Japanese painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife Noriko in Cutie and the Boxer, they come across as…

Obama Asks Celebrities to Help with ACA Rollout

I’ve already covered in detail the close relationship President Obama has fostered with folks in  Hollywood. The entertainment industry has always skewed liberal, but in this funny political era when nearly every industry has turned against national Democrats, the support provided by folks like George Clooney and Jeffrey Katzenberg was vital to Obama’s re-election. But…

AFI Docs Festival Review: Part 1

Yesterday, AFI Docs concluded here in Washington, DC. Formerly known as SilverDocs, it is the premiere documentary film festival in the United States. For example, all six 2009 Academy Award-nominated documentary films were screened at Silverdocs 2008. This year, guest writer and documentary aficionado Anthony Flores and I tag-teamed the festival. Over the course of…

Jim Carrey’s Latest Move: Weird, Brave, or Both?

It’s a controversy as old as Hollywood itself with a contemporary twist. Here is a scenario that occurs fairly routinely: an actor to completes work on a film, gets worried that it’s not going to turn out well, and trashes the film in advance of its release. The example that jumps to mind is Marlon…