Wire Entertainment - Movie News

"Before Midnight" - The final scene of 2004's "Before Sunset" was so romantic it drove moviegoers crazy - happily crazy - especially because it was so tantalizingly ambiguous. Jesse and Celine, that appealing (and extremely talkative) couple played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who had fallen in love in the 1995 "Before Sunrise," had reunited at last. In the gorgeous afternoon light of Paris, no less. But we didn't know what would happen next. Nine years later, we have our answer, and it was sure worth the wait. "Before Midnight," the third movie in the Richard Linklater series, is not only as good as the first two, it's arguably better, tackling weightier, trickier issues with wit, humor and breathtaking directness. The setting is still gorgeous - it's a summer vacation in Greece. (Will these two ever venture to an ugly locale?) But the rest is different. Delpy gives Celine a new hardness here, an edge that we saw only a bit in the previous film. And Hawke is extremely effective as a man who adores his partner but is increasingly frustrated with her. It all comes to a head in a humdinger of a fight - just Jesse and Celine in a hotel room, plus a bottle of wine that doesn't get drunk. It gets poured, though, and you'll be so frazzled, you'll want to reach through the screen and chug it down yourself. Rated R for sexual content/nudity and language. 109 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

To convince Kristin Scott Thomas to play the bloodthirsty matriarch of "Only God Forgives," director Nicolas Winding Refn appealed to Scott Thomas - how else? - with the flattery of his own mother.

There's a school of writing that holds that even the most ordinary lives, deeply and thoughtfully observed, can be rendered into art. Another theory suggests that some movies so defy convention as to be graded on the curve as far as things like dialogue and incident and actual drama are concerned.

ORLANDO, Fla. - All those years since "Ice Age" and "Robots," you'd figure Chris Wedge had retired on the "Scrat" bucks he and Blue Sky Animation pulled in from that saber-toothed squirrel.

EPIC

LOS ANGELES - It didn't have to be like this. In the age of green screens and VFX houses, filmmakers responsible for the sixth installment of the "Fast & Furious" franchise didn't have to actually destroy hundreds of cars.

American movies are faring well this year in Cannes, with the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" holding on to the No. 1 spot in the competition for the Palme d'Or, according to a poll of critics compiled by Screen International. Set in 1960s Greenwich Village, "Davis" focuses on a struggling folk singer who's a predecessor of Bob Dylan.

James Franco's filmography is starting to look like a book shelf - and a very respectable one, at that.

A New York City woman has been sentenced to probation for stalking actress Marion Cotillard (koh-tee-YAR') on the Internet.

The attorney for an 87-year-old woman who accuses Donald Trump of cheating her in a skyscraper condo deal told jurors in Chicago on Wednesday that he was personally repulsed by the "Apprentice" star whom he said lied on the witness stand.

Robert Redford makes actions speak louder than words in shipwreck drama "All Is Lost."

Ratings by the Motion Picture Association of America are: (G) for general audiences; (PG) parental guidance urged because of material possibly unsuitable for children; (PG-13) parents are strongly cautioned to give guidance for attendance of children younger than 13; (R) restricted, younger than 17 admitted only with parent or adult guardian; (NC-17) no one younger than 17 admitted.

Ratings by the Motion Picture Association of America are: (G) for general audiences; (PG) parental guidance urged because of material possibly unsuitable for children; (PG-13) parents are strongly cautioned to give guidance for attendance of children younger than 13; (R) restricted, younger than 17 admitted only with parent or adult guardian; (NC-17) no one younger than 17 admitted.

The problem with New York these days is there's just not enough litter.

The Cannes Film Festival is missing one of its biggest stars of this year's festival: Ryan Gosling.

A publicist for an upcoming Marilyn Monroe exhibition in Prague says that photographs of the star have been stolen.

Vice President Joe Biden is praising Jewish leaders for helping change American attitudes about gay marriage and other issues.

Bolivia's culture minister calls it actor-activist Sean Penn's "worst performance" ever. He isn't talking about a movie.

Nicole Kidman is the chameleon of Cannes.

Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

La dolce vita came to Cannes on Tuesday, thanks to a pair of films set in Italy exploring lives of affluent ennui.

A phrase you will hear often at Cannes is: "Let me run the numbers."

The Muppets may have taken Manhattan, but they're getting a spiffy new home in Queens.

The line between "cute" and "cutesy" is violated, repeatedly, in the sometimes funny, often cloying comedy "The English Teacher." We're treated to the rare talents of Julianne Moore in a gently predictable "dark" comedy sprinkled with the most adorably heavy handed flourishes.

The movie with the Nazi martial-arts fight and drag queens dressed as clowns had just ended when Nicolas Winding Refn, giddy with excitement, or as giddy as droll Danish film directors get, leaned forward in his seat and initiated a rousing round of applause.

French actor Gerard Depardieu will star in a drama about a Chechen man who seeks revenge for the killing of his son.

DETROIT - What did the stars of "The Hangover Part III" do with their free time on the set? Just your average sarcasm-driven male bonding, according to Zach Galifianakis.

Joel and Ethan Coen had almost given up on casting the lead for their film "Inside Llewyn Davis." The part, a folk musician in early 1960s Greenwich Village, demanded the elusive combination of someone who could both carry a movie and perform the songs central to the film.

LOS ANGELES - Now that Seth MacFarlane has tweeted that he simply can't find the time to host the Oscars again, is it too early to say: "Tina Fey, come on down!"

Hollywood is hell.