Free Republic

In Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Oscar Isaac’s folk musician is trying to make it on his own, without his longtime partner. He travels to Chicago to audition for Bud Grossman, who gives the damning judgment: People need time to get to know you, he says, "buy you as a solo act.” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Joel Coen’s first time directing without his brother, is going much better for him than it did for Llewyn. An intoxicatingly expressionist Shakespeare adaptation dense in fog and shadow, Coen's “Macbeth” is a solo debut from a filmmaker whose visual virtuosity has...

Even if terrible reviews and the exploding scandal around Harvey Weinstein were not an issue, past as prologue informs us that director George Clooney’s Suburbicon would still be in trouble. While the Hollywood bubble, which includes the lackey entertainment media, likes to pretend Clooney is a Big Star, moviegoers disagree, most especially when it comes to the films he directs. Other than the forgettable mess that was Monuments Men, which squeaked over $75 million (and probably still lost money), American audiences have expressed a startling indifference towards everything Clooney’s directed. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) grossed just $16 million,...

The third new offering of the weekend, Nicholas Sparks' film adaptation 'The Choice,' is also struggling; 'Kung Fu Panda 3' will beat all three to stay at No. 1. Ethan and Joel Coen's Hail, Caesar! grossed an underwhelming $4.3 million from 2,222 theaters Friday for a projected $11.6 million debut, the lowest nationwide start of the duo's directing career. The news is even more grim for mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The movie may only debut to $5 million after earning $2 million on Friday from 2,931 theaters. That puts it behind the the third new movie daring to...

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that “Unbroken” had been directed by somebody who wasn’t Angelina Jolie. It easily could have been. This tale of wartime adventure and survival, adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfiction bestseller, definitely called for a big-name Hollywood director, but it would have been highly plausible – maybe more plausible – as a project for Ron Howard or Ridley Scott or Steven Spielberg or Clint Eastwood than as the second film for the star-turned-director best known as the female half of the world’s most famous celebrity couple. Would it be getting less attention if one of those guys...