‘The Big Short’ Film Review: A Morality Play Dressed Up as Modern Farce
Dec 10, 2015 The mortgage and banking crisis of 2007 gets the business in this fast-paced, hilarious and, yes, frightening outline. It's a tale powered by lots of villains and a handful of not-exactly-villains.
What Happened After Brad Pitt and a Group of Star Architects Went to Rebuild New Orleans
Aug 29, 2015 In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, movie star Brad Pitt -- perhaps the city’s most famous resident -- established his Make It Right Foundation to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward, one of New Orleans' poorest and hardest-hit neighborhoods. Attached to the project was a group of star architects including Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne and Shigeru Ban. Ten years after the storm, what have they achieved?
Angelina Jolie Imagines a World in Which Rape in War Zones Can Be Stopped
Jun 11, 2014 It all sounded very inspiring, the vision that actress Angelina Jolie presented during her opening speech in London on Tuesday at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict.
‘World War Z’: Still Fun at Twice the Price
Jun 26, 2013 I read in the press that this movie can never, ever recoup its cost, but it does have its charms.
Romney’s FEMA Flip-Flop, Brad Pitt’s Big Political Donation, and More
Nov 1, 2012 A look at the day's political happenings, including Mike Huckabee's scary new political ad and Chris Christie's Halloween announcement.Clooney, Pitt, Sheen, Lynch & Co. Make a Play for Marriage Equality
Mar 5, 2012 On March 3, director Rob Reiner led an all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Martin Sheen and Jamie Lee Curtis, through Dustin Lance Black's play "8," about the court battle over marriage equality in California that was set in motion by the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008.
‘Moneyball’ Isn’t a Home Run
Sep 26, 2011 "Moneyball" is a good story and people who have little interest in baseball don’t need to fear it. On the other hand, it has its largely overlooked problems.
‘The Tree of Life’: Terrence Malick Syndrome Strikes Again
May 29, 2011 This will not do—either as philosophy or as the conclusion of a picture that has wasted close to two and half hours of our time with its twaddling pretenses. But it is not quite the end of our concern with it. I think of it as the “Hiroshima Mon Amour” scam.
Do the ‘Brad Pitt Houses’ Help New Orleans?
Dec 1, 2009 Does Brad Pitt's housing development project in New Orleans' Katrina-ravished Ninth Ward represent a much-needed boost to the neighborhood, no matter from whence it came? Or do his efforts amount to yet another example of a Hollywood do-gooder's personal crusade (continued).
Irresponsible ‘Basterds’?: Mulling Over Tarantino’s WWII Do-Over
Aug 25, 2009 Quentin Tarantino certainly took full cinematic license and ran with it in his Nazi-bashing big-screen extravaganza "Inglourious Basterds," but as Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman explains, some people are getting pretty fired up about the film's convention-busting climax, worrying that it could lead impressionable future generations astray about what really happened at the end of World War II.
