‘‘Barbie’’ directed by Greta Gerwig film review © Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) 10.08.2023   Audiences and critics will remember ‘‘Barbie’’ for a long time as a light-hearted film that came at a time when the entire world was going gaga over big films such as Oppenheimer and MI-dead reckoning part one. It is said that most children play with toys in their childhood. However, there are also a lot of people who never got to play with toys especi...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Los Angeles, CA (1/23/20): Margot Robbie from BOMBSHELL lands at Hollywood & Highland tonight with her BIRDS OF PREY crew along with musical performances by the film’s soundtrack artists Charlotte Lawrence, Doja Cat and a DJ set by Whipped Cream. Actually, Robbie and some of the cast of Birds of Prey will take over Hollywood’s most famous intersection with an immersive space filled with possibi...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent There’s something in the smog, in the air that is, in Hollywood, whereby stunt men and women are getting their due. Take Gary Kent, for example, one of the derring-dudes which inspired Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD character Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt.   If you could blow it up, Kent could ride, fly, stroll, or shimmy through it. As a young boy, director Joe O’Connell was paying attention. So, t...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent “On the QT, and very Hush, Hush” is a line from LA CONFIDENTIAL, and that’s what’s happening in Hollywood right now in reaction to Quentin Tarantino’s much-ballyhooed 9th film, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. By anyone’s standards, to resurrect the ghost of a slain pregnant woman killed by the Manson Family on Aug. 9, 1969, is questionable. (Anniverary of Hiroshima bomb drop, Aug. 9, coincidence?) Especially ...

Peter Rabbit, Review: Fertile comedy Peter Rabbit is an irreverent, computer-generated (largely) animated comedy, based on a 125 year-old story that has been updated to present times. Most of the story undulates as a never-ending, recurring chase, and battle of wits, between the live action hero and the cartoon animals, in Tom and Jerry style. While it should appeal naturally to kids in the age-group of 3-12, some adult-ish content makes it more relevant to the 13-18 bracket. Adults, who are ...

The Legend of Tarzan, Review: Gorillas in the Midst Remember the immortal lines, “Me Tarzan, you Jane”?  Now try this, "He's Tarzan, you're Jane. He'll come for you," says her captor to Jane. He sure will. He’s been coming on to the screen for the last 98 years, in 41 movie and 57 TV outings. Adds up to 98 again. The Legend of Tarzan, preceding the character’s on-screen centenary by a whisker, is a slightly over-written exercise, without too ...

Focus, Review: Romcom.Concon Romantic comedy masquerading as sublime love tale pretending to be a confidence trickster story... is about as deFocused as it could get. The title is relevant after you have seen the film, but adds to the complexity of the film’s profile before you decide to watch it. Indeed, it is a highly unlikely romcom involving a pair of con persons (one is a woman). Will Smith is a seasoned pro, while Margot Robbie is a bumbling amateur, whom he takes under his tutela...

SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS   MARGOT ROBBIE AND MILES TELLER TO HOST ACADEMY’S SCI-TECH AWARDS, BY Adrienne Papp   By Adrienne Papp   Actors Margot Robbie and Miles Teller will host the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, February 7, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills.  They will present 21 awards to 58 individual recipients during the evening...

The history of money is strewn with hoaxes and the anti-heroes who rise and fall by them. Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street sends up an especially bracing example based on the bestselling memoir of Jordan Belfort, played with Oscar-nominated flair by Leonardo DiCaprio. To convey the debauched life and times of this high-rolling shyster who conned unsuspecting investors into forking over $100 million plus in the late '80s and '90s, the filmtakes us deep into the lairs ...