Essays

  • NewsYahoo Movies

    Oscar Frontrunner 'La La Land' Is a Good Movie, but a Bad Musical

    How do you solve a problem like La La Land? On Tuesday, the film confirmed its status as the Best Picture frontrunner, racking up 14 Oscar nominations to accompany its record-setting seven Golden Globe Awards. Because La La Land breezed into theaters on a wave of near-universal praise from last fall’s film festivals, it was immediately a prime target for backlash — and if you’ve been following the conversation, you may already be exhausted by the back-and-forth between critics who find the fil

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    We Saw 40 Minutes of 'Logan,' and It's Going to Change Superhero Movies

    By now, the trailers for Logan (in theaters March 3) have made it very clear that this is not a typical superhero movie. Quiet and despairing, light on special effects and heavy on character drama, the third Wolverine solo film looks to be a drastic departure from previous X-Men films, not to mention the Marvel and DC Comics films that dominate the genre. At a December press event last year, I previewed the first 40 minutes of Logan, and I can tell you that superhero films are never going to b

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    How Carrie Fisher Helped Create the 'Star Wars' Legend

    “I got in character and I never got out again — and really, I’ve tried everything.” — Carrie Fisher on ‘Good Morning America,’ 2015

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    'Rogue One': The Digital Grand Moff Tarkin Is Terrifying for All the Wrong Reasons (Spoilers)

    At this point, Star Wars fans are accustomed to seeing their favorite characters return from the dead, and their favorite stories recycled with new computer effects. The new Star Wars movie Rogue One takes both ideas to the next level by resurrecting a familiar human character — Grand Moff Tarkin, Darth Vader’s formidable right-hand man in A New Hope — in a CGI performance. True to George Lucas’s forward-thinking vision for the Star Wars films, it’s an impressive piece of special-effects craft

  • NewsYahoo Movies

    'Moana' Doesn't Have a Prince Charming — and That's a Big Deal

    There are a lot of wonderful things in Disney’s new animated film Moana: The lively animation, the loving depiction of Pacific Islands culture, the clever and catchy songs. For a Disney princess movie, this is revolutionary. True, the character of Moana is not technically a princess.

  • NewsYahoo Movies

    Why 'Moana' Is the Movie We Need Right Now

    A lot of entertainment journalists are asking themselves these kinds of questions right now, and I know I’m not the only one who considered skipping the press screening of the Disney princess movie Moana earlier this month. At a time when I was feeling bad about the state of America, Moana — which opens in theaters today — reminded me of everything that makes this country special.

  • NewsYahoo Movies

    'Doctor Strange': Let's Hope Rachel McAdams Is the Last Great Actress to Play a Useless Superhero Girlfriend

    The many dimensions of Doctor Strange contain plenty of juicy roles. Unfortunately, Rachel McAdams didn’t get one of them. The Oscar-nominated actress plays Dr. Christine Palmer, a colleague and ex-girlfriend of surgeon Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Like too many superhero girlfriends before her, Christine exists only to help and nurture the main character’s journey from self-centered Dude With Potential to self-actualized Dude Who Saves the Universe. ...