A Monster Calls

This is how movies have to be done. Borrows freely from "Pan's Labyrinth" but is much better grounded, psychologically and metaphorically.

La La Land

The chorus of critics predicting the movie a flurry of the Golden Globes to the "La La Land" demonstrates how low the audience of the Hollywood movies has fallen. Not that the moviemakers cannot produce a fairly good fare anymore. The genial "Moonrise Kingdom" and very strong thriller "Drop" and "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" (eccentric tragicomedy) testify to the continuing strength of the movie industry. But it cannot exist without a sophisticated ecosystem of critics, promoters and moviegoing public. And in that department we are sorely lacking. Even traditional Hollywood know-how of the group dances--otherwise uneven "Hail Caesar" shows how to do it--is lame and is performed by a semi-amateur or haphazardly assembled crew.