Some actors draw me to a movie before I even read a review. For example, I would likely watch Russell Crowe do most anything. Ryan Gosling has also turned in a number of strong performances. And so I went to see The Nice Guys, the new action/comedy/noir/crime-drama set in 1970s LA. [pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I hope they both check that off their list before either goes into a “real” modern comedy where according to the last comedy plot mandate, they would, inevitably have to make terrible faces because some inanimate object has just been forced up their butt.[/pullquote] The retro fashions, cars, and music – and the lack of any Digital Era technology – make it a fun visit to what was

In the Economics and Finance classes I teach, the most stimulating class session covers the topic of money. Students express a curious confusion when I introduce a specific riddle, a koan for them to mediate upon. I ask them to explain the statement: “The prices of food, oil, gold, and property often don’t rise at all.” [pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”One year, for example, the price of gold is 1200 dollars per ounce,” I suggest. “And one year later gold is 1300 dollars per ounce.  If I tell you that gold did not go up, what else could possibly have happened?”[/pullquote] They wonder if I am joking and prepare to rebut my assertion with evidence of consistent increases in the prices of just about

It was only coincidence, but I happened to watch the 2003 classic School of Rock on cable Friday night. That movie—which launched Jack Black’s career and held a box office record for the genre until 2015, was about kids whose lives were transformed by creating a good band. They get some mentoring of course, and viewers have to accept that they had more than a little studio help with regard to the quality of the sound, but the theme works–probably because we want so badly for it to work. [pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]For the price of admission, you get an extra pair of tickets: one to Dublin and another back in time to the era of Boy George, big hair, and Duran

This little indie gem popped up out of nowhere; I didn’t even have it on my radar as I usually do from previews or the NYT movie reviews I get every week. Based on real events, Papa Hemingway in Cuba depicts a few years in the late 1950s when Ernest Hemingway lived in Havana with his wife Mary. These were no ordinary years. The Miami Globe reporter Ed Myers  meets and befriends the man who is his  idol as well as America’s most famous author.  There’s no lack of drama in this one. The events leading up to the Castro Revolution in Cuba, Hemingway’s battles (both internal and external), and the personal and professional adventures of a young journalist make this film compelling and dramatic.

“Miles Ahead” is Poignant, Timely, and Oscar Bound I would bet anyone that this film gets nominated for a few Oscars in December. Don Cheadle is almost certainly a Best Actor contender for his portrayal of Miles Davis. Sadly, part of my reaction is due to the political reaction during awards season over the paucity of nominations and roles for African American actors. In other words, the film and the acting are deserving of praise, but because this film (without presuming to) responds to the controversy, it draws even more energy than it might have on its own merits. [pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Cheadle plays a man whose muse is at once his savior and slaver: in one frame his eyes flash fear

John LeCarre’ is the greatest spy novelist alive today. He has been the greatest for decades. Since The Spy Who Came in from the Cold debuted in 1963, his métier has been Cold War espionage, the Russians and the British: MI6 against the KGB and all its sister agencies in Eastern Europe. Many of his books were made into BBC series, and others became feature films. I found it remarkable that based his 1995 book of the same name, The Night Manager miniseries debuted on AMC Tuesday of this week. It’s remarkable because the story centers on a super-rich British national who runs arms and manages laundered money from the Caribbean (some of it perhaps for members of parliament or the ministry) and in the

Criminal, starring Kevin Costner, has a good cast and a compelling plot, but more than once during the movie I muttered “Ug, Gamah!”—which is “Oh, come on!” with a mouthful of popcorn.  I have a story to inject here. It was the Camelview Theater (which to my horror, was torn down last fall) near Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, Arizona. I was attending a private screening of “The Postman,” a Costner-starred-and-directed film.  My friend Linda saved the seats while I got the popcorn and soda. When I got to the salon, she was sitting in a rear section that had been roped off for cast and crew. She waved me in. Some guys from the film had invited her to sit in the reserved section.

Sometimes, moments after I read and digest it, there’s a headline that has an ominous quality about it. When I read about the leak of material from the Panamanian law firm Massack Fonseca, I sensed a socio-seismic event that could send shockwaves through the upper crust of the globe. There is so much material here—much it in a web of phony corporations and cutouts–that it will take weeks and months for all of it to come out. There are already hundreds of journalists working on the story, and there can be no doubt that it will include more big, big names. This gradual flow of facts might be for the best: there is so much pure Truth here that, like light or oxygen, we can’t

Sally Field is as charming as she’s ever been, even when she’s playing someone who has her not-so-charming moments. Hello, My Name is Doris is a worthy little independent film about a 60-something single woman who bursts out of her shell and her sheltered world when she forms and feeds a crush on a new employee at work. “John” is at least young enough to be her son, but he’s authentic enough to show her some attention. Because Doris is hyped-up on a steady diet of romance novels, her imagination is working overtime with every interaction they have: she’s a kind of “Dona” Quixote and John her “Dulcineo.” The supporting cast does well enough, but Tyne Daly, in the role of a best friend, stands out

Terrence Malick is a director’s director and an art film icon. He doesn’t make movies so much as he creates long gorgeous slideshows to music and a little dialogue. He attracts great acting talent. He wins awards.  And people walk out of his movies and sometimes ask for their money back. [pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It’s like walking through a museum and focusing on a collection of masterpieces from one period, and being infused by the spirit of that time.[/pullquote] As with most “art” films, it helps to know in advance that the director is a stylist. I have heard his work referred to as “impressionistic.” That description comes close. It’s like walking through a museum and focusing on a collection of masterpieces