Thor-Ragnarok: Of hammers and horns, Avengers and Revengers Add humour. Suspended in mid space inside a trap-net by the fire demon Surtur, Thor asks a fellow prisoner how long has he been there. Pans out the fellow has already turned into a skeleton by this time, and, on hearing Thor’s query, his jaw (bone) drops off, literally. That’s the first scene, and the first laugh. After a marathon bout as gladiators in a cosmic arena, Thor and Hulk are freshening up, and Hulk comes out of...

  Mortdecai, Review: Mortal art Directed by David Koepp and written by Eric Aronson (who co-wrote 2001’s On the Line, which nobody wants to remember), the film is inspired by the books of Kyril Bonfiglioli. Bonfiglioli died in his late-fifties, in 1985. After attending Oxford, he worked as an art dealer. He described himself as "a marrier of beautiful women and a fair shot with most weapons". He wrote four Charlie Mortdecai novels, and left a fifth unfinished, which was co...

  by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   On March 14, catch up on LE WEEK-END; it's a cinematic flu shot. Because, instead of Caped Crusaders tasked with their Superhero schemes, this movie presents a human-sized dose of adult life. "People can change," Lindsay Duncan's character avers. As in, "they can get worse." Already an award winner for Linsday Duncan (BIFA), Jim Broadbent and writer Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Launderette), the film ...

Thursday, January 11-----One of the highlights of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival (at least for me) is the opportunity to see the latest film from Hal Hartley, who really put independent film on the map back in the day when it was still a small community of individual risktakers. With such films as THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH (1989), TRUST (1990), SIMPLE MEN (1992) and AMATEUR (1992), Hartley stood at the nexus of European film artistry and American independent virtuosity. His last few films h...

Saturday, November 4---Following the triumphant screening of the Festival Centerpiece Film PITTSBURGH last evening at the Parker Playhouse, Online Festival Dailies Editor Sandy Mandelberger sat down with Chris Bradley, the co-director and co-cinematographer of the entertaining mockumentary, in the lounge of the official Festival hotel, the Gallery One Doubletree Suites. Bradley and his production partner Kyle LaBrache are the principals behind International Orange, a Los Angeles-based produ...

Friday, November 3----The theater was packed on Friday evening at the historic Parker Playhouse for the highly anticipated Festival Centerpiece Film, PITTSBURGH, a deliciously funny mockumentary that spotlighted the comic sensibility of actor Jeff Goldblum. Although the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (affectionately known as FLIFF) has been showing films for more than two weeks now, it is the next 10 days that are the meatiest, with the addition of the Parker Playhouse and the La...

Friday, November 3-----The spotlight is on the noted actor Jeff Goldblum this evening as the Festival presents its Centerpiece Film, PITTSBURGH, tonight at 7:45pm at the historic Parker Playhouse. The film is a rollicking mockumentary of Goldblum's decision to take a breather from his active Hollywood career to take up the lead role of Professor Harold Hill in a low-budget local theater production of THE MUSIC MAN, in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. The circumstances of what led him to this ...

Saturday, October 7----The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, which this year celebrates its 21st edition as one of the most important venues in the US for independent and international cinema, has announced that its Centerpiece Film will be PITTSBURGH, a non-fiction comedy starring Jeff Goldblum, Illeana Douglas and Ed Begley Jr. The film will screen on Friday, November 3 at the historic Parker Playhouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The special event is followed by the Festival's "...