BEST PERFORMANCES of 2015

1. Rooney Mara, Carol 2. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies 3. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn 4. Charleze Theron, Mad Max Fury Road 5. Brie Larson,  R...

MOST PROMISING FILMS of 2016

Hail, Caesar! — Coens (Jan)  The Witch — Eggars  (Feb)  Triple 9   — Hillcoat, C. Affleck  Knight  of Cups — Malick, Bale ( March )  Midnig...

REVIEW: STAR WARS Episode VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS (dir. Abrams)

'Let’s get verdicts out of the way: Star Wars Episode VII; The Force Awakens is probably the best in the series since The Empire Strikes...

BEST FILMS of 2015

1. Carol 2. Brooklyn 3. Bridge of Spies 4. The Revenant 5. The Big Short 6.  Son of Saul 7.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens 8 .  the Look of S...

PROFILE: J J ABRAMS

'Dressed in his customary Blundstone boots, dark navy jeans, and plaid shirt,  Abrams is a boyish 49-year-old, with a curly high-rise of...

BEST TRACKS of 2015

1. Ode — Nils Frahm 2. Should Have Known Better — Sufjian Stevens 3. Be The One — Dua Lipa 4. Grace — Clem Snide 5. Depreston — Courtney...

BEST ALBUMS of 2015

1. Carrie and Lowell — Sufjian Stevens 2. Strangers — RAC 3. Solo — Nils Frahm 4. My Love is Cool —Wolf Alice 5. Darling Arithmetic —  Vil...

REVIEW: THE REVENANT

'Alejandro Inarritu's  The Revenant  is a visceral, immersive man-against-the wilderness tale with full  metaphysical reverb : Jack ...

Attachment theory and the movie audience

'Great artists are not supposed to think of their audiences, of course — that is supposed to be one of the signs of their artistry. But ...

INTERVIEW: ERICA JONG

'“I suppose I had better get some clothes on,” says Erica Jong, flitting barefoot across the floors of her   Upper East Side apartment, ...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer

'So now we know. The Force has awoken. And it’s female.  The third and possibly final trailer for the new Star Wars film, Star Wars: Th...

Woody Allen: A Retrospective reviews contd

“No American dramatist has done more to document the pleasures, pitfalls, and withdrawal pains of imagining the world other than it is,” Tom...

On my iPod, Oct 17th: Outfit

1.  On The Water, In The Way — Outfit 2. Homecoming — Josh Ritter 3. 3AM — RAC 4. Bad Blood — Ryan Adams 5. What Do You Mean? — Justin Biebe...

QUOTE of the DAY: Del Toro on Spielberg

'It’s preternaturally nimble with such grace in the way it’s staged. It’s so brisk. It’s so breathless. It’s so apparently effortless an...

Woody: A Retrospective Reviews Cont.d

"The British critic and journalist Tom Shone wrote the above-average text for an Abrams book on Martin Scorsese last year – it was a tr...

QUOTE of the DAY: THOMSON on BANKS

'We know from the way she grips her clipboard and pulls her skirt down a half inch when Brian wants to sit in the Cadillac with her with...

WOODY ALLEN: REVIEWS

' Drawing on several years’ history of first-hand interviews, Shone’s book betrays an equal degree of personal investment in Allen’s wor...

'... In many ways, Allen has been working and reworking this reversal since Annie Hall and Sleeper, the romantic plot of both films ess...

Are we underestimating Woody Allen?

'Introverts often grow up thinking themselves invisible — a fear perhaps but a strangely comforting one, and something of a sustaining f...

IN MEMORIAM: INGRID BERGMAN

“Mother always had to say the truth, sometimes to the point of embarrassment. The phone would ring, and she would pick up. We all trembled —...

REVIEW: LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST

'Freeman is that undefeatable quarry: the merry philistine. Cultural tastes being the last refuge for the snobberies and attendant anxie...

INTERVIEW: THE WOLFPACK

'The rules of the apartment were simple: never go out, except when supervised by Oscar. Never talk to strangers. And never go into the r...

REVIEW: MISTRESS AMERICA

' The actress Greta Gerwig has had same liberating effect for Noah Baumbach what Diane Keaton had for Woody Allen: she has opened him up...

Best movies of 2015 so far

1. The Wolfpack 2. Mistress America 3. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation 4. Listen To Me Marlon 5. Inside Out 6. The Look of Silence 7.  Mad ...

REVIEW: LISTEN TO ME MARLON

'The suspicion that the rest of mankind is lying to you is a keen insight in an actor and, at the same time, a recipe for great personal...

So Farewell, Then: Jon Stewart

'There’s been a demob-happy, end-of-school looseness to Jon Stewart as he counts down the days to his final show on Thursday night. For ...

Face-to-face with cinema's Mona Lisa

'Collecting movie posters has always been among the more socially acceptable of cinema-related perversions. Above my desk hangs a 5-ft p...

Coming soon to bookstores

Yes, it's time. My book on Woody Allen, whose 45-film ouevre tested but did not defeat my hardy completist impulses — bring it on! — is ...

INTERVIEW: Laura Linney

'Linney has the droll, sympathetic manner of a veteran novelist: the kind of woman you might talk to all evening at a dinner party befor...

On my iPod June 29th 2015

1. Life's Work — The Weather Station 2. Vapour —Vancouver Sleep Clinic 3. The Only Thing Worth Fighting For — Lera Lynn 4. I Know I'...

The origins of the summer blockbuster

' Not for nothing does the trailer for Jurassic World feature a 15-ton Monosaurus, rearing up from a Seaworld-style lagoon to devour a d...