'Divergent,' 'Captain America,' 'Spider-Man 2': Must-see movies of 2014

Directors Round Table: Paul Greengrass on embracing 'blind panic'

What's a filmmaker to do when his climactic final scene just isn't working? For Paul Greengrass, director of the hijacking thriller "Captain...

'Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones' marks a Latino-accented twist

Few who worked on — and the few who bought tickets for — "Paranormal Activity 4" were pleased with the outcome.

Santa Barbara fest to honor Scorsese and DiCaprio

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will honor director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio with the Cinema Vanguard Award at...

Analysis: Producers Guild Awards provide added clarity to Oscar race

We've known since September  that "12 Years a Slave," "Gravity" and "Captain Phillips" would be prime players in this year's best...

Holiday movies, now new and improved

The holiday season brings quality cinema entries. But sometimes one leaves the theater thinking, "That was good, but it could have been...

Directors Round Table: J.C. Chandor on his 'years of mediocrity'

Henry Ford said that "failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." That's a sentiment shared by some...

Leaps of faith and appetites for work attract Tom Hanks

In 1979, when Tom Hanks was just another struggling New York actor, he withdrew a biography of Walt Disney from the public library and found...

'American Hustle,' '12 Years a Slave' earn Producers Guild nominations

The Producers Guild of America, a leading bellwether for the best picture Oscar, announced on Thursday the 10 films whose producers are...

The eight movie stories to watch for in 2014

We may still be digesting “American Hustle,” “Her” and the surge of movies from the end of 2013, but with the...

Predictions in top Golden Globe categories

When the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced its nominations last month, the biggest surprise was that there were no surprises. There...

Christian Bale delivers straight talk on his 'American Hustle' con man

Sometimes, when adapting history for the big screen, a few fabrications are required.

When movies don't let the facts get in the way of a good story

It may not be factual, but it's truthful.

Artful cons in 'Blue Jasmine,' 'Wolf of Wall Street,' 'American Hustle'

American moviegoers love a good con man. Burt Lancaster won an Academy Award for playing one in 1960's "Elmer Gantry." Michael Douglas...

Meryl Streep is a given for another Oscar nod. Or is she?

For the last several weeks, the Oscar race for lead actress felt fairly settled, with five familiar faces, each of them previous winners...

Love, longing and 'The Invisible Woman'

Every year, the glut of serious films at the holiday season means that the best ones run the risk of getting overlooked, and it would be a...

'Frances Ha's' Greta Gerwig has it all planned out, actually

She hornswoggles you, but there's a method to Greta Gerwig's madness.

Juanita Moore, actress Oscar-nominated for 'Imitation of Life,' dead at 99

Juanita Moore, a pioneering African American actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the classic 1959 drama “...

New 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' trailer teases Times Square battle royale

'Wolf of Wall Street's' excess, corruption hit a nerve

Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" hit at the end of 2013 like a contraption that is part stun gun and part paintball, jolting...