Thompson on Hollywood

Rising Star Tom Hiddleston Talks Davies' 'Deep Blue Sea,' Spielberg's 'War Horse,' Marvel's 'Thor' and 'Avengers'

Features

Five years ago rising star Tom Hiddleston could not have imagined that he would have a year like 2011. At the time, as the theater actor was shooting the "Wallender" crime series with Kenneth Branagh in Sweden, he went to see Marvel's "Iron Man" and asked himself if he could ever star in a film like that.

By Anne Thompson
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March 21, 2012 8:10 PM
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Weekend Preview: Laugh with '21 Jump Street' & 'Footnote'; 'Kid with a Bike' & "Detachment' Bring Drama

Box Office

It is a great weekend to laugh or cry at the movies. Joseph Cedar's "Footnote" (Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film) is the dramedy for intellectuals, while "21 Jump Street" and "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" deliver the sillier, satisfying fun...

By Sophia Savage
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March 15, 2012 4:44 PM
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Now and Then: Gay Biopics 'J. Edgar' and 'Milk' Reveal How History Is Made

Reviews

"We must never forget our history," growls aging anti-Communist lion J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) near the end of "J. Edgar." "We must never lower our guard." Here, Janus-like in their fusion and opposition, lay the film's two faces: To narrate the past and hopefully to redeem it.

By Matt Brennan
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February 27, 2012 7:30 AM
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Ponsoldt's Sundance Hit 'Smashed' Heads to SPC, Stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul

News

Sony Pictures Classics has grabbed James Ponsoldt's "Smashed," which had its premiere at Sundance. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("The Thing," "Scott Pilgrim") and Aaron Paul ("Break Bad") as an alcoholic married couple, Kate and Charlie...

By Sophia Savage
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February 6, 2012 1:20 PM
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Now and Then: Making Sense of Miranda July

Reviews

I am not a Miranda July hater. "Me and You and Everyone We Know" (2005) felt almost painfully fresh to me — I'd never seen anything like it. It had, in offbeat colors and patterns, a preternatural understanding that love and sex vibrate on wavelengths we can't quite see or hear, only sense.

By Matt Brennan
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January 30, 2012 12:46 PM
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Will Baz Luhrmann's 3-D 'Great Gatsby' Find New Intimacy in Film?

Features

When we learned that Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" was going to be done in 3-D, we weren't happy. Now, with the success of Martin Scorsese's 3-D "Hugo," it seems a 3-D "Great Gatsby" would have indeed been much safer in his hands. The New York Times now has a defense piece up for Luhrmann and the film...

By Sophia Savage
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January 17, 2012 1:14 PM
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Now and Then: In Directing Debut, Farmiga Reaches 'Higher Ground'

Reviews

"Higher Ground," the actress Vera Farmiga's directorial debut, plays like a fugue. It circles back and folds in on itself, its repeated images — a children's book, worshippers in song, immersion in water — propelled not by forward momentum but by changes of key.

By Matt Brennan
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January 16, 2012 12:42 PM
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Now and Then: In 'Contagion' and 'Children of Men,' Disaster Runs Cold and Hot

Reviews

The opening minutes of "Contagion" are all surface, literally. A bowl of peanuts on the bartop, a swiped credit card, an elevator button, the human hand: each is a vector of death itself, a pandemic already in motion. With the rasp of a cough, a title card tells us we're in "Day 2." It's terrifying.

By Matt Brennan
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January 9, 2012 11:02 AM
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Now and Then: Why The Descendants Should Win Best Picture

Reviews

"The Descendants" starts slow, muddied by voiceover and unclear intentions. But it soon sneaks up on you, deepening — ripening, really — until it achieves something approaching wisdom.

By Matt Brennan
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December 30, 2011 2:55 PM
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Now and Then: For Woody Allen, the Place is the Thing, from Manhattan to Midnight in Paris

Reviews

When asked about Woody Allen's New York, critics often cite the glorious black-and-white Gershwin cinepoem that opens “Manhattan” (1979). I’ve always been partial, though, to the rough magic of Diane Keaton’s terrible driving in “Annie Hall” (1977). (See clips below.)