Thompson on Hollywood

Now and Then: 'Side by Side,' I'll Still Take Film Over Digital

Reviews

Smart, wide-ranging, and informative, "Side by Side" may be a postcard from the future of movies, but it's still intoxicated by the past. Its dreamiest moment comes at the outset, a montage of clips from the first century of cinema: Eadweard Muybridge's horses to "Do the Right Thing."

By Matt Brennan
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February 5, 2013 1:29 PM
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Now and Then: The Soul of Netflix's New Series? The BBC's 'House of Cards'

Reviews

"Lilyhammer," Netflix's first foray into original programming, failed to generate sustained attention when it premiered last year. One suspects this won't be true of its star-studded second attempt, "House of Cards," debuting Friday. Except Netflix's latest isn't so novel after all: its animating force is the BBC's mostly excellent original.

By Matt Brennan
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January 29, 2013 12:03 PM
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Now and Then: A 'Zero Dark Thirty' Piece That's (Mostly) Not About Torture

Reviews

We are Maya. That's the first thought that comes to mind about Jessica Chastain's tireless, obsessed CIA analyst in "Zero Dark Thirty," a "motherfucker" who's been chasing Osama bin Laden for twelve years — nearly the same length of time as this country's impossible war.

By Matt Brennan
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January 22, 2013 1:22 PM
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Now and Then: In Must-See 'Detropia,' the Many Lives of an American City

Reviews

It is a story we think we know already. Unions weaken. Corporations outsource. Politicians waver. The economy collapses. Public resources shrivel. A city dies. But that's only the bird's-eye view: in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's powerful document of an age of grief, "Detropia" is the way we live now.

By Matt Brennan
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January 14, 2013 12:55 PM
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Now and Then: 'Enlightened,' HBO's Masterpiece of Heartbreak

Reviews

"Enlightened" opens with Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern) gag-sobbing in a bathroom stall, mascara streaking down her cheeks in mournful black rivulets. Like the rest of Season 1 of HBO's masterpiece, which returns for Season 2 on Sunday at 9:30, it isn't all that funny. But to call "Enlightened" simply a comedy is unjust: it's a symphony of regret.

By Matt Brennan
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January 7, 2013 2:01 PM
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Now and Then: 'Justified' and the Anti-Antihero

Television

Tony Soprano. Dexter Morgan. Walter White. Television's latest "Golden Age," on cable and in the ancillary afterlife, is full of men who break bad. Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), the U.S. Marshall at the heart of "Justified," may not be squeaky clean, but he's a saint by comparison — and the key to the series' subtle genius.

By Matt Brennan
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January 3, 2013 7:22 AM
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Now and Then: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Reviews

Early in "Meet Me in St. Louis," Esther Smith (Judy Garland) pines for the boy next door. Lent silky grace by Garland's perfect warble, Esther describes love — and, by extension, Vincente Minnelli's 1944 classic. "I want it to be something strange and wonderful," she says. "Something I'll always remember."

By Matt Brennan
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December 24, 2012 2:51 PM
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Now and Then: 'Brazil,' Terry Gilliam's Dystopia — And Ours, Too

Reviews

To my discredit, I had never seen "Brazil." It sat atop my pile of screeners for a few weeks, its length and reputation forbidding. Like all dystopian fictions, Terry Gilliam's 1985 epic is a prophecy of sorts, guesswork for a grim future. And it turned out he was right.

By Matt Brennan
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December 18, 2012 4:20 PM
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Now and Then: The Rachel Weisz Argument, or the Best Performers of the Year

Reviews

Last week, the NYFCC awarded Rachel Weisz its Best Actress prize for her sumptuous period turn in "The Deep Blue Sea," and well-deserved it was. But it reminded me of what I'm calling the Rachel Weisz Argument: an actor's entire body of work in a given year is a better measure of "best."

By Matt Brennan
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December 11, 2012 4:49 PM
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Now and Then: In Harmony, 'Life of Pi' and 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' Are the Best Films of the Year

Reviews

One is a grand, sea-borne spectacle, a master's first glorious foray into 3-D. The other, like its breakout star, is a furious miniature whose impact far outweighs its size. But both "Life of Pi" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" are fervently alive to the world of nature, of spirit — two halves of the same double helix.