Hollywood loves a remake. Sometimes it’s a successful foreign film recast with English-speaking celebrities. Sometimes it’s a decent story that just didn’t work the first time around. Most of the time, it’s a hollow-minded cash-grab by a studio rejiggering its … Continue reading WEST SIDE STORY
There is a scene roughly halfway through Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 backstage masterpiece The Red Shoes where Ballet Russe impresario Lermontov comforts his understandably nervous principal dancer, Vicky Page. “Nothing matters by the music,” Lermontov assures her. He hums … Continue reading BABY DRIVER
Men, Women & Children is the latest from Jason Reitman, who garnered his fame with well-made, well-plotted, well-paced movies like Thank You For Smoking (2005), Juno (2007), and Up in the Air (2009). Following that impressive run, Reitman’s value dropped considerably with Young Adult (2011) and Labor Day (2013)—which was dumped … Continue reading MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN
Michael J. Cinema 