A helping of ‘Sugar,’ from an unlikely place
By Steven Zeitchik It seems fitting to make as one of our final Risky Business blog posts (more on that in a second) an item recounting the charms of/pleading in the name of Oscar for “Sugar,” Anna Boden’s and Ryan Fleck’s story of a young Dominican baseball prospect who arrives in the U.S. to find that [...]

Is ‘Crazy Heart’ a best-picture contender?
By Steven Zeitchik After missing a few of the early showings, we finally caught “Crazy Heart,” the last-minute Fox Searchlight awards hopeful, at a media screening. Comparisons to “The Wrestler” danced in our heads (and on the lips of bloggers) coming into the pic. And indeed, it’s hard to avoid the numerous similarities between the Mickey [...]

Disney, in a potentially froggy position
By Steven Zeitchik When art from Disney’s animated fable “The Princess and the Frog” surfaced last March (the pic seen here to the left), it created a bit of a stir. The studio had been earning praise for making the title princess a black character, deviating from the studio’s historically white princesses. The prince, on the other [...]

New Moon’s (possible) halo effect
By Steven Zeitchik People who get paid handsomely to watch box office were surprised to see just how well “The Blind Side,” Sandra Bullock’s feelgood football pic, did this weekend. The ode to all things American (or at least to all things Hollywood uplift) earned a strongly impressive $35 million — and over a weekend when it [...]

Is there a silver lining in the success of ‘New Moon’?
By Steven Zeitchik It’s hard for many avid film fans and industry insiders to know how to read the insanely successful  weekend of “New Moon” (unless you’re Summit, the Weitz family or a distant cousin of Taylor Lautner’s,  in which case the only thing you probably need to read at the moment is your bank statement). On [...]