Amy Nicholson

Kristen Wiig; Credit: PHOTO COURTESY OF PATTI PERRET

In Hateship Loveship, Kristen Wiig Plays a Debbie Downer

Amy Nicholson
Watching Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live, you maybe sometimes wondered if she was from outer space, perhaps some planet where women have big foreheads and tiny hands, and sing like chickens on helium. As sheltered housekeeper Johanna in Liza Johnson's proudly frustrating Hateship Loveship — a pun on the......

Tom Hiddleston Wants to Play a Normal Guy Who Wears Jeans

Amy Nicholson
Tom Hiddleston can pull off extreme looks. In The Avengers, he strutted around in Loki's 2-foot-tall, horned helmet. In Midnight in Paris, he finessed F. Scott Fitzgerald's prim finger waves. And in his latest, Jim Jarmusch's vampire romance, Only Lovers Left Alive, Hiddleston lounges bare-chested in velvet-cuffed robes. The only......

Nicolas Cage Captures the Hardships of Rural Texas in Joe

Amy Nicholson
It's been 5 million years since humanity hauled itself from the swamp, and according to Joe director David Gordon Green, we're devolving back into muck. While the stoners of Green's Pineapple Express regressed from men to boys after a few puffs of weed, this grimly beautiful drama starring Nicolas Cage......
Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina flank Jim Carrey.; Credit: Eric Charbonneau

Can Pussy Riot Conquer Hollywood?

Amy Nicholson
America isn't sure what to make of Pussy Riot. The Russian protest group disguised as a band appears to fit a mold that we think we invented - the rock and roll riot grrl - but the women refuse to play along. To them, rebellion is serious business. Sunday night......
Errol Morris

Errol Morris Says He's Tired of Interviewing People

Amy Nicholson
"I've interviewed a lot of nasty characters over the years," a cheerful Errol Morris says over lunch on a bright Los Angeles day. "I'm a connoisseur of bullshit." He's sampled some of the finest: Holocaust deniers, murderers swearing their innocence, a beauty queen who claims she only kidnapped and raped......
Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America Goes to Washington

Amy Nicholson
Tucked into a pocket of his workout sweats, Steve Rogers — aka Captain America, the serum-enhanced Yankee Doodle Dynamo who's spent the last six decades in deep freeze — keeps a notebook of cultural beats he's missed: Star Wars, Marvin Gaye, Thai food. ("We used to boil everything," he mock-groans.)......

In Dom Hemingway, Jude Law Goes for Greatness

Amy Nicholson
Going bald is the best thing that ever happened to Jude Law. Britain's prettiest export did the best he could with his burden of good looks. He played a genetic ideal in Gattaca, a robotic ideal in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and in The Talented Mr. Ripley, his golden-god perfection got......

The Raid 2 Is 148 Minutes of Kill, Kill, Kill

Amy Nicholson
A grave has been freshly dug in the opening shot of director Gareth Evans' ultra-violent Indonesian flick The Raid 2. It's a start, but Evans is going to need 400 more. In the first few minutes, Evans dispenses with three-quarters of the survivors of 2012's The Raid: Redemption, the writer-director's......