Amy Nicholson

Stacy Martin in Nymphomaniac Volume I; Credit: PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GEISNAES

What Separates Nymphomaniac From Porn? A Lot

Amy Nicholson
Let's start with Nymphomaniac's ending, the closing credits disclaimer that insists that none of the lead actors in Lars von Trier's two-part erotic epic filmed penetrative sex. If there is real sex in the movie, and it sure looks like there is, it must have been the duty of the......
Divergent; Credit: PHOTO BY JAAP BUITENDIJK

Shailene Woodley Proves More Human Than Divergent

Amy Nicholson
Dystopian movies don't have to make sense. As the audience, we're obligated to sit down with our popcorn and soda and pretend that, yes, of course, in the future monkeys rule the earth, women can't bear children, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is an everyday construction worker. It's a mutual contract of......
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts sails into Spain in Vessel

To Fed-Up Texans, Pro-Choice Doc Vessel Was the Best of SXSW

Amy Nicholson
The Texas State Capitol is just three blocks north of the State Theater. If you stretch your legs between movies during SXSW, you could squint up the appropriately named Congress Street and see the small, green park that climbs to the Capitol's dome. And at the world premiere of Diana......
Emjay Anthony and Jon Favreau in Open Road Films' Chef; Credit: Open Road

Jon Favreau's Chef, a Romantic Comedy Between a Man and a Sandwich

Amy Nicholson
Chef, the back-to-his-roots indie flick that Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) just premiered at SXSW, is to modern foodie culture as his own Swingers is to '90s swing revival. Favreau plays Carl Casper, a culinary bad boy, barreling egotist and divorced father with a chef's knife tattoo stretching......

Aaron Paul Vehicle Need for Speed Goes Nowhere Fast

Amy Nicholson
Think adapting War and Peace is hard? Try adapting the race-car video game Need for Speed. Tolstoy's 1,225-page behemoth has nothing on the Electronic Arts franchise's irreconcilably complicated, 20-year, 20-installment history: Sometimes cars are subject to physics; sometimes they aren't. Sometimes they're invulnerable; sometimes they break. Maybe you're in London;......