There is no doubt that The Coppola family gene is infused with above-normal talent. Gia Coppola’s sophomore effort as director, “Mainstream,” doesn’t reach the deeper level of her first film (2013’s “Palo Alto”) but she and co-writer Tom Stuart’s screenplay has a lot to say. Frankie (Maya Hawke) is a young woman on a journey to find herself in an artificial world. She works in a dive that ... more >
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Reality isn’t real anymore, “MAINSTREAM”
The satire for the social media age
Maya Hawke, Andrew Garfield and Kalena Yiaueki
Directed by Gia Coppola
The Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed tick, tick…BOOM! is one of the YEAR’S BEST!
Musical/Drama
Starring Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesus
Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda
“tick tick… BOOM!” is the name of the musical Jonathan Larson wrote and performed about the failure of “Superbia,” his rock-opera adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 that was to be his ticket to Broadway. Sadly, this didn’t happen. If something good came out of that piece’s failure, it would be the powerfully personal follow up that would lead to the legendary Broadway groundbreaker ... more >
“UNDER THE SILVER LAKE,” an enjoyable faux-David Lynch procedural scorched by L.A.’s sunshine
Portrait of a disabused youth
Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
Summer 2011. Los Angeles. After he has breakfast, Sam goes home and tears up a note that's stuck to his door. It says that he has five days to pay his rent or else. Between taking a call from his mother, smoking his morning cigarette and oggling his neighbor, Sam doesn't do much else. He's a bit of a dilettante. He notices a strange woman, Sarah (Riley Keough), swimming in his apartment's swimming ... more >
CANNES FESTIVAL, “Under the silver lake” wows the Croisette
David Robert Mitchell's previous film is "It Follows"
Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough and Topher Grace
There is much going on in David Robert Mitchell’s new film “Under the silver lake,” one of the most thematically-dense feats of hardboiled storytelling of this 71st Cannes Festival. In this highly-entertaining “Lake,” to be catalogued under film noir, a tormented, and unemployed, young man, Sam (Andrew Garfield) who dreams of being famous, notices a new occupant in his L.A. apartment complex. Sam ... more >
The Social Network
The wow factor
Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake
Directed by David Fincher
I know I’m supposed to get out and help push. The fight for great cinema is on, and I’m expected to throw it into neutral, hop out, and chug-chug-chug with my hands on the door. We all have to get behind “The Social Network” and push the crowds to every mall across the country to see this, The Movie of a Generation. Can I tap the brakes just a little, just a little, without people saying ... more >