Thompson on Hollywood

Review Roundup: Critics Go Ga-Ga for Soderbergh's Outrageously Mesmerizing 'Behind the Candelabra'

Reviews

Critics are over the glittering, bedazzled moon for Steven Soderbergh's Cannes competition entry "Behind the Candelabra," set to premiere on HBO on May 26 and starring a no-holds-barred Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as the famed pianist Liberace and his younger lover, Scott Thorson. The Telegraph refers to it as a "gay Pygmalion myth: call it My Fair Laddie," while the Guardian raves that "the film is mesmeric, riskily incorrect, outrageously watchable and simply outrageous." Roundup below.

By Beth Hanna
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May 21, 2013 12:51 PM
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Review: Rama Burshtein's Luminous 'Fill the Void' Looks at the Strange, Painful Romance of Choice

Reviews

Rama Burshtein’s “Fill the Void,” Israel’s official Oscar entry earlier this year, is set in the Haredi Orthodox Jewish community in Tel Aviv. It focuses on one young woman’s turbulent experiences with traditional matchmaking -- a custom which, it should be noted, differs from arranged marriage, and is abundantly foreign to many of us Westerners. Yet Burshtein renders a portrait that is universal: of the necessity of choice, and its connection to putting away childish things.

By Beth Hanna
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May 21, 2013 6:05 AM
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Cannes Review: Douglas and Damon Shine in Soderbergh's Funny, Poignant Melodrama 'Behind the Candelabra'

Reviews

The Cannes Film Festival accorded Steven Soderbergh's lush period melodrama "Behind the Candelabra" a prime competition slot (his fourth) for a reason. While it's not the first time an HBO movie has played in the mainbar (Stephen Hopkins' "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" was in competition in 2004), it will be Soderbergh's last, if he sticks to his planned retirement from making films.

By Anne Thompson
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May 21, 2013 4:30 AM
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Cannes Film Fest Diary 3: Seduced by 'The Past,' Abandoned by a Brazilian Beach Bikini Party

Reviews

At 8:30am Friday morning, I got it. What Cannes is truly all about. You get something in theory, and then there’s the moment you get it through experience. Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past” had just begun, and I thought back to what a friend said was the real reason to attend Cannes: because you see the best films in the world. Literally, according to one of the money men in James Toback’s new documentary about Cannes, “Seduced and Abandoned” – more on that later – half of the year’s supply of big films debuts at the festival. Farhadi won the Oscar for best foreign film with his last, “A Separation,” and as the new film began, the audience just relaxed into their seats as the film, with its first shot, took over. It’s a wonderful feeling when you realize you are in very, very, very good hands.

By Tom Christie
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May 20, 2013 11:11 PM
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Cannes Review: 'Inside Llewyn Davis' Is Vintage Coens

Festivals

There is a moment in “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the new Coen brothers film that stormed the Palais Saturday, when the owner of Manhattan's Gaslight club circa 1961 asks Davis what he thinks of the four Irish sweater-clad singers performing. Davis, a struggling folk singer with an edge, ponders the question. “I like the sweaters,” he says.

By Tom Christie
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May 19, 2013 8:41 PM
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Weekend Preview: Sarah Polley's Must-See Doc 'Stories We Tell,' Baz Luhrmann's Showy but Sagging 'Great Gatsby'

Reviews

Canadian writer-director-actress Sarah Polley's brilliant documentary on her enigmatic family history, "Stories We Tell," leads the pack of a slew of top-reviewed limited releases this weekend. Ben Wheatley's "Sightseers," the follow-up to frightfest "Kill List," also hits theaters and VOD, along with Irish director Lenny Abrahamson's coming-of-age drama and fest favorite "What Richard Did," and Maiken Bird's fest-circuit sports biodoc "Venus and Serena."

By Beth Hanna
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May 10, 2013 2:08 PM
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Review: Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen Shine in James Marsh's IRA Drama 'Shadow Dancer' (TRAILER)

Reviews

Andrea Riseborough is a chameleon actress who makes her mark in everything she does, from Madonna's "W.E." as fashionplate Wallis Simpson and Tom Cruise's seductive housemate/overseer in "Oblivion" to terrorist in James Marsh's elegantly crafted IRA thriller "Shadow Dancer," which played the Sundance Fest in January. The movie is available now on iTunes and On Demand and hits theaters May 31.

By Anne Thompson
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May 3, 2013 2:20 PM
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Hot Docs Wrap: Canadian International Film Festival Celebrates 20th Anniversary, Winnows World's Best Docs

Festivals

Like a lot of people, the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival (official name) is "trying to figure out who we are," according to program director Charlotte Cook: In other, trying to figure out where they’re going to go, now that the fest has hit its 20th year -- a convenient moment to reassess, if not necessarily change your whole MO. Which the festival certainly is not about to do.

By John Anderson
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April 28, 2013 2:47 PM
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Now and Then: Olivier and the Bard

Reviews

"I can smile, and murder while I smile," confides that notorious noble, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Laurence Olivier), "and frame my face to all occasions." For Olivier, pronouncing "frame" like "feign," it's an auspicious beginning. In Shakespeare's words, he finds his performer's credo.

By Matt Brennan
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April 26, 2013 3:03 PM
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Review: Godard's 'Le Petit Soldat,' From Geneva, with Angst (TRAILER)

Reviews

Set in 1958 and shot in 1960, "Le Petit Soldat" begins the way "Breathless" begins: with a man in a car. But there’s an immediate difference. "Breathless" is relentlessly present-tense, moment-to-moment: car to cop to gun to girl. "Le Petit Soldat," Godard’s fourth feature, doesn’t barrel ahead. It looks back. Even as we see the man in the car (Michel Subor), we hear his voice intone: “For me the time for action has passed. I’ve gotten older. The time for reflection begins.”