Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok

Posted November 5, 2017

Ragnarok is a moderately decent Marvel movie. But it isn’t a good Thor movie. The standalone movies each have distinctive styles. An Iron Man film is contemporary and flashy with trusty sidekicks Pepper and Happy and Rhoddy and quippy one-liners. Captain America lost both his sidekicks (the Roaring Commandos) and his wonderful love interest (the incredible Peggy Carter) when he jumped forward in time. Since then his movies haven’t really been his – they’ve served as vehicles for the MCU with Cap as the centerpiece. And Thor… well a Thor movie has a bit of epic grandiosity and beauty. There’s […]

Angelina Jolie Solo

Angelina Jolie Solo

Posted September 19, 2017

There’s the Angelina Jolie who’s now a single mother—managing the day-to-day chaos of six kids, and the trauma of her split from Brad Pitt—and there’s the Angelina Jolie whose latest movie, a groundbreaking film about Cambodia’s genocide, is also a thank-you to the nation that transformed her. At her new L.A. mansion, Jolie reveals the tension between the two Angelinas and the reason her life will never be normal. Like most things involving Angelina Jolie, stepping foot into her house is an experience so heightened one wonders if it’s for real or the product of careful orchestration. The large gates […]

The Robert Pattinson No One Noticed

Posted September 7, 2017

Robert Pattinson is one of the most recognizable movie stars on earth. But for his most recent film, Good Time, he managed to go undercover in New York. He worked in a car wash. He took the subway. “Basically was just trying to think, okay, how can you change yourself so people never recognize you once the entire time,” he explains. Miraculously, he got away with it. Here, the actor explains his method, and path to superstardom. Did you always want to be an actor?Uh, no. I was not at all into it. In fact, my drama teacher when I […]

Chris Hemsworth on Why Weightlifting Alone Isn’t Enough to Get In Superhero Shape for Thor

Chris Hemsworth on Why Weightlifting Alone Isn’t Enough to Get In Superhero Shape for Thor

Posted July 14, 2017

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth recently suited up as the face of the Boss Bottle’s latest fragrance, Tonic, but off-duty he’s much more casual. “I spend so much time in board shorts at the beach, and so I don’t tend to wear that with the kids,” explained the father of three on a recent afternoon in New York. “But when I’m dressing up and going out, this is nice and light.” Okay, so what’s it like to be a real life superhero?It’s great. The kids think it’s pretty cool. One of them in particular is more impressed than the other two. […]

Brad Pitt Talks Divorce, Quitting Drinking, and Becoming a Better Man

Brad Pitt Talks Divorce, Quitting Drinking, and Becoming a Better Man

Posted May 12, 2017

Brad Pitt is making matcha green tea on a cool morning in his old Craftsman in the Hollywood Hills, where he’s lived since 1994. There have been other properties in other places—including a château in France and homes in New Orleans and New York City—but this has always been his kids’ “childhood home,” he says. And even though they’re not here now, he’s decided it’s important that he is. Today the place is deeply silent, except for the snoring of his bulldog, Jacques. Pitt, who exudes likability, general decency, and a sense of humor (dark and a little cockeyed), says […]

Emma Watson| Rebel Belle

Posted March 10, 2017

Since her years as Hermione ended, Emma Watson has fought to assert her own identity. Now that she has found her voice—most notably as a U.N. ambassador—she’s revamping a classic stereotype, the Disney princess, in Beauty and the Beast. Watson talks to Vanity Fair about her metamorphosis from child star to leading woman. Emma Watson and I are standing on the 23rd Street platform of an uptown-bound E train in New York City and we’re littering. Literally. And literature-ly. The 26-year-old actress is scattering hardcover copies of Maya Angelou’s book Mom & Me & Mom throughout the station—tucking them between […]

Tom Hiddleston on Taylor Swift, Heartbreak, and Great Bolognese

Tom Hiddleston on Taylor Swift, Heartbreak, and Great Bolognese

Posted February 14, 2017

Tom Hiddleston love this amazing Bolognese, the most incredible Bolognese you’ve ever had. (You braise it in the oven after browning it on the stove—that’s the thing. Also: Bacon! Also: Butter! He also loves bacon and butter!) He made this Bolognese last night, after we’d parted following day one of our two-day early-January walking tour of London. He settled into his Camden house and spent the evening cooking and watching a screener of Moonlight, which he could now confirm for me was as amazing! and riveting! and touching! as everyone has said. He heats up some Bolognese for me and we […]

Chris Pratt’s Call to Stardom

Chris Pratt’s Call to Stardom

Posted February 12, 2017

Chris Pratt’s rise to fame is so improbable he sees it as divinely ordained: the friend who sent him a ticket to Hawaii, the stranger who led him to a church, the actress he waited on at Bubba Gump Shrimp. Recalling the leaps of faith that turned him from a door-to-door salesman into a box-office king, Pratt considers what he has to prove now. Chris Pratt wanted to cook me lunch. And not just any lunch—a lunch made from an animal that Pratt himself had killed, in Texas, where the mesquite blooms and the wild boar does not care nor […]

Passengers

Passengers

Posted December 26, 2016

I’ve been interested in seeing Passengers since I first saw the trailer. Shiny sci-fi with a bit of romance, a bit of fun and a bit of danger. Even a mystery to unravel. Plus a chance for two endearing actors to prove themselves in a starring vehicle. Then after hearing whispers that critics weren’t kind, I wasn’t sure. I refuse to read any reviews or judge a film on anything but the trailer until I’ve seen it myself… so I went to see it for myself with a bit of trepidation. It was pretty much exactly what I thought it’d […]

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Posted December 17, 2016

You know those movies where the crew says they’re probably all going to die but they go in and fight against impossible odds and manage to (mostly) survive? Rogue One isn’t that story. This is good, gritty sci-fi. It’s rough characters that would be more complex in a smaller movie but are interesting enough in this one. It’s a decent story but with all the sci-fi and the characters it doesn’t need to be much more than that. Rogue One starts off a bit choppy. The prologue works well and sets a good foundation for both Jyn (Felicity Jones) and […]