Adventures in Words

            Kirsten Stewart in “Spencer.”  Photo courtesy of Pablo Larrain via IMDB Like an angel hovering over this season of miracles, Diana Princess of Wales is everywhere these days, almost a quarter-century after her tragic death. She's the subject of documentary series on PBS and CNN. She is a principal character on Netflix's multi-Emmy-winning “The Crown.” She sings and dances in “Diana, The Musical” on Broadway. And now early Academy Award forecasts have Kristen Stewart high in the Best Actress race for portraying her in “Spencer.”  For those not up on their Princess Di trivia, Spencer was her family name before she married Prince Charles and signed on for the fairy tale. “Spencer” is set a decade after they wed, spanning three days of a royal family Christmas holiday celebration at their magnificent Sandringham country estate.  Celebration isn't really the word for the tightly regimented goings-on in the opulent environs where every move is a matter of protocol and

 Get Back                                                                                                                                                    gettyimages.com This is the season that keeps on giving, at least to members of the Hawaii Film Critics Society. Being an emeritus but still voting member of the tiny group that bestows its own year-end movie awards in the shadow of the Golden Globes and Oscars, there's rarely a day when there's not a big box at my door emblazoned with a red “N” in a white circle. The boxes contain not only screener DVDs, but sometimes huge coffee table books, or key chains, or sweatshirts “For Your Consideration.”  The honchos in the Netflix marketing department are probably too young to realize that at least one of the people receiving the swag was around in the early days of the modern entertainment industry, when payola was about as big as scandals got in that more naïve and trusting society. But isn't that unethical? ask friends an

               Will Smith, Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton in “King Richard.”  Warner Bros. image via IMDB After doing everything almost else in entertainment – breakout TV star, Grammy-winning rapper, comedy superstar, most popular action hero in the world – smart money is betting Will Smith will finally add Academy Award winner to the list this year. Lucky for audiences, his performance as “King Richard” (not to be confused with any Shakespearean or other classical contenders in this year's Oscar race) comes wrapped in what would be a wonderfully entertaining feel-good movie even without him. Like a feminist answer to “Rocky” – with two underdog heroes instead of one – it has the added distinction of coming straight outa Compton. And being a true story. It tells of two girls in their early teens before they became the phenomenal sister act that would revolutionize the sport of tennis forevermore – Venus and Serena Williams. Smith plays Richard Williams, their dad. He was the gu

Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Michael Rianda and Doug the Pug are pursued by flying robots in "The Mitchells vs the Machines."  Sony Pictures Animation image via IMDB Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg gets a worse drubbing in a new kids' movie than he recently received from Senators on Capitol Hill. That's probably because the filmmakers behind “The Mitchells vs the Machines” – in contention for a best animated-feature Oscar – are way hipper to the dangers of technology than our elected leaders, who have never been known as the brightest bulbs in the socket. Mark (voiced by Eric André) doesn't have a last name in the movie, and his tech empire is branded with the friendly sounding name PAL Industries. But the resemblance to mastermind behind FB is hard to miss: the trademark hoodie and rah-rah auditorium launches for his latest products are all just camouflage for his greed, and his little boy's wish that creating technologically enhanced “Friends

          Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker. Fox Searchlight photo via IMDB Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, each a past Maui Film Festival honoree, generally show up on screens at this time of year. I was going to say “on movie screens,” but as that term becomes more archaic, it marks those who use it as pretty archaic ourselves. Still, this is awards season at the movies – no matter what size screen you watch them on – and Jessica and Andrew are A-team players, persistent contenders even if they haven't actually won the big O yet. Having long questioned the competitive nature of film awards, wondering how you can actually give scores to creative acts, I'm now revising my judgment. For actors, certain roles are like athletic tests, not of speed and strength necessarily, but of range and how far they can stretch. “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” calls for lots of stretching. Why would Chastain choose to play a role as bizarre and caricatured as disgraced '90s televangelist

           Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in “Passing.”  Netflix image via IMDB It comes as one of those aha moments when you remember that what we call black and white is, instead, an endless palette of grays. Our shared longing for simple answers keeps reminding us how hard they are to come by in these technologically trying times. Black and white promises sharp, clear choice – gray, just the opposite. This cosmic irony informs every glorious frame of Netflix's new Oscar hopeful, “Passing,” right up to its climax, whose ambiguity keeps resonating days after seeing it. It marks an impressive writing and directing debut for English actress Rebecca Hall, following the similar career trajectory that led “Promising Young Woman's” Emerald Fennell to an Oscar win last year. Set in mostly Harlem in the 1920s, “Passing” tells of two friends who grew up poor and black in Chicago. They are reunited after losing touch for decades, by a chance encounter in a Manhattan tea room. Irene, or “