Dianne Wiest

‘Sisters’ delivers plenty of huge laughs and is required viewing for fans of slob comedies

Excavating through the vastness of television history to feature programs from broadcast past that were critically maligned and/or lost on the way to home video.

In 2009, New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani referred to Philip Roth’s novella The Humbling as “an overstuffed short story, […] a slight, disposable work about an aging man’s efforts to grapple with time and loss and mortality, and the frustrations of getting old.” In 2015, that sentiment rings just as true of Barry Levinson’s adaptation of the same work. The Humbling runs too long, dawdles too much, makes hollow caricatures of its women, and muddles its intentions. Its most redeeming features are its performances; Al Pacino is in top form, with Greta Gerwig playfully keeping up. But neither can elevate this failed attempt at pathos above what it is: bland.

When Mike Nichols’s The Birdcage was released in 1996, it made $185 million worldwide, a truly astonishing fact. There are so many reasons why The Birdcage would never ever be made today, let alone make so much money. We’re talking about an R-rated comedy with no gross-out or potty humor.  It isn’t a buddy comedy …

Originally Posted in Creative Loafing Tampa. Very few filmmakers are known for their casting power. Woody Allen may be one of the best. He is always great at getting Hollywood’s biggest movie stars and the latest indie up and comers into his films (and with perfect timing). He worked with Sally Hawkins and Samantha Morton right …