Into the Woods might very well be Stephen Sondheim’s most beloved, or at least most accessible, musical, and the notion of an eventual film version was in the works pretty much from its opening night on Broadway in 1987. With a winning score and a de …Read more

After his bizarre performance at the Republican National Convention in 2012, in which he addressed an “invisible” President Obama and blamed him for all that was wrong in the country, it seemed as if Clint Eastwood had finally become the ultimate pos …Read more

Let’s not kid ourselves, Tim Burton’s Big Eyes has very little value as a film worthy of the filmmaker’s talents. When Burton wants to, he can be absolutely brilliant as he proved with his inventive Batman Returns, his gothic romance Edward Scissorha …Read more

Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken opens with an impressive shot that suggests we’re about to see a much better movie than the one we end up with. The camera captures a beautiful, bright orange sun and then turns slowly towards the right as we see a squad of …Read more

As a collective audience this time of year, many of us enjoy revisiting holiday films because they themselves have become a part of the festivities. There are the critically acclaimed classics, and then there are those that aspire to be classic – bot …Read more

“It’s not science fiction,” says Edward Snowden, in reference to the NSA’s secretive gathering of metadata. “This stuff is happening right now.” Laura Poitras’s documentary Citizenfour is verité in the purest sense, being that everything you see in t …Read more

There is probably not a single musical theater lover unfamiliar with the 1987 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. The James Lapine-directed show became the ultimate how-to-make a musical guidebook once it was broadcast on PBS in 1991 (wi …Read more

John Huston was a true Hollywood legend  – a maverick writer who by sheer force of talent and personality made the then unheard-of transition to directing in the early 1940s, only to continue writing and directing films for the next five decades. Hus …Read more

If you’re looking for something to do in New York between Christmas and New Year’s, a time of year I’ve affectionately labeled the “denouement of the holiday season,” you’re in luck. Film Forum is holding a week-long screening event of Ernst Lubitsch …Read more

John Huston left behind a body of work so imprinted with his style and sensibility that it is often hard to understand why critics like Andrew Sarris didn’t hail him as an auteur. It is arguable that John Huston has one of—if not the—greatest debut f …Read more