Her Screen Thoughts - Movie & TV Reviews

Hollister & O'Toole pay tribute to the late, great Garry Marshall, whose amazingly successful 56-year Hollywood career in both television (The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley) and film (Overboard, Beaches, Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries) helped catapult the careers of such A-list actors (and future directors) as Ron Howard, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Ann...

Hollister & O’Toole celebrate their 100th episode with two selections which have our listeners talking: The Lobster (a dystopian parable - and Cannes Jury Prize Winner) and BBC's Thirteen (a TV miniseries about an escaped girl held captive in a basement for 13 years). Our back-up plan was... cake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hollister & O'Toole ring in Bastille Day with a look at the French film Mon Roi (My King) - an intense tale of an amour fou, nominated for 8 César Awards. ​ Starring Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) and Emmanuelle Bercot - who not only took home a very well deserved Best Actress Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for this film (tying with Rooney Mara for Carol) - but who also wrote & direct...

This week we cheer on the underdog - or, perhaps more appropriately, the underhorse. Dark Horse is the inspiring documentary (and Sundance Audience Award Winner) about a group of Welsh villagers who pool their resources and breed Dream Alliance, a come-from-behind racehorse. ​ Hollister thinks the movie could have been called Pride & Patience. O'Toole would have pitched it as Billy Elliot - as...

This week it's all about adaptation. ​ First Hollister & O'Toole discuss Our Kind of Traitor - based on the 22nd novel by John Le Carré (The Night Manager; Most Wanted Man). ​ Film directed by Susanna White; starring Ewan McGregor, Damian Lewis, Stellan Skarsgård and Moneypenny - a/k/a Naomie Harris (Spectre).   ​ Then hear from the authors of The Danish Girl; Still Alice; and The Finest Hours...

Hollister & O'Toole podcast from the 18th annual Provincetown International Film Festival - making "P-Town" P(odcast)-Town!. Inspired by its location on the very tip of Cape Cod (P-Town is America's oldest art colony), the festival celebrates filmmakers "on the edge". ​ Hear about this year's honorees: Cynthia Nixon (a 2x-Emmy, Tony, and Grammy winner) and 3x-Oscar winner Ang Lee (Sense and Se...

What is the best thing that could ever happen to your unpublished novel? Your friend Rebecca Miller asks if she could adapt it for the big screen. ​ Rebecca Miller (yes, daughter of Arthur) helms her 5th feature as both writer & director in Maggie's Plan - a quirky, academic romance set in NYC with ficto-critical anthropologists, a pickle entrepreneur, and some sensible (and not so sensible) s...

Get ready to weep. Jojo Moyes' 9th novel, Me Before You, became a runaway bestseller, selling over 5 million copies around the globe. As Vanity Fair put it: “It’s an existential work that’s masquerading as a beach read.” ​ Now the author of 13 novels, the film version of Me Before You marks a first: Jojo Moyes' very first screenplay - the naturally visual writer adapted her own novel for the big s...

Director Whit Stillman, Kate Beckinsale & Chloë Sevigny (The Last Days of Disco) reteam in this film adaptation of Jane Austen's novella Lady Susan (which the author herself never submitted for publication). Given their usual sense and sensibility, Hollister & O'Toole needed no persuasion - they were both sure they would love Love & Friendship. Alas, only one declared a victory for Aus...

Hollister & O'Toole are at opposing wits' ends in this week's podcast - one calls the film brilliant; the other thinks that Nice Guys, well, finish last. An ode to Abbott & Costello? Or a film that makes How To Be Single look like Ms. Magazine? Listen in - and let us know what you think! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hostage thriller meets Morality Tale: Money Monster makes its premiere at the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival. Starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell (Unbroken), and Dominic West (The Affair). Directed by Jodie Foster, who was aiming for Sidney Lumet-esque (Network) - did she achieve it? Also mentioned: #Flatgate and the unwritten rules of the Cannes Red Carpet; The Man Who Knew I...

Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton; Trainwreck) and director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) re-team in A Bigger Splash, an adaptation of the 1969 French film La Piscine. Can Hollister & O'Toole crack the film's symbolism? Co-starring Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient), Dakota Johnson (How to be Single; Fifty Shades of Grey), and Matthias Schoenaerts (The Danish Girl). Also mentioned: sa...

Tom Hanks reteams with director Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas) in A Hologram for the King, based on Dave Eggers' acclaimed novel, a 2012 National Book Award finalist. Co-starring Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury (Learning to Drive), and Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) - with Ben Whishaw (Spectre, London Spy) as the hologram. A LitLovers selection, Hollister & O'Toole discuss both book and movie. Lear...

A real-life premise even Hollywood couldn't dream up: December, 1970. An uninvited Elvis shows up at the White House, requesting a meeting with President Nixon (and asking to be made a federal agent at large). The result: the most requested image in the history of the National Archives. Amazon Studios marks its theatrical debut with Elvis & Nixon (starring Michael Shannon & Kevin Spacey)....

The Night Manager - the bestselling novel by John le Carré (A Most Wanted Man) is adapted for the big screen in a 6-part miniseries (BBC/AMC). Directed by Oscar-winner Susanne Bier (After the Wedding) and starring Tom Hiddleston (the next Bond?) as the night manager-turned-avenging-angel/spy, Olivia Colman (Broadchurch) as the British intelligence chief (a part originally written for a man), and H...

Shonda Rhimes' Year of Yes. Scandal & #TGIT (unless you're about to get chaired). Reese Witherspoon as Hollywood tastemaker. American Crime Story and the trial of O.J. Simpson. Catastrophe and Season 2 on Amazon Prime - would Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan offer creativity time management seminars already. For our podcast on Catastrophe Season 1, click here: https://soundcloud.com/screen-though...

Screen Thoughts turns its lens on 3 new network TV offerings: Shondaland's latest - The Catch (ABC); The Real O'Neals (ABC); and Crowded (NBC). Find out who feels no shame in indulging a guilty pleasure, and where Hollister & O'Toole stand on sitcoms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hollister & O'Toole pay tribute to 2x-Oscar winner Sally Field - one of the first actors ever to successfully make the transition from TV to film - and discuss her new movie Hello, My Name is Doris. Also discussed: Everything is Copy, the new HBO documentary about Nora Ephron - directed by her son, Jacob Bernstein. For more on Nora, don't miss our previous tribute at https://soundcloud.com/scr...

Hollister & O’Toole interview writer/director Joe Castelo (The War Within; American Saint) & producer Travis Burgess about the making of their award-winning film The Preppie Connection (starring Thomas Mann, Logan Huffman and Lucy Fry) - and inspired by a real-life drug-smuggling scandal at Choate. Aspiring filmmakers will want to hear what Joe and Travis have to say about how to get an in...

Saying goodbye to Downton Abbey; House of Cards Season 4; and the 33rd annual Miami International Film Festival - where Oscar-winner Gavin Hood was on hand to discuss his latest film, Eye in the Sky. Helen Mirren in a part written for a man. The late great Alan Rickman in his last on-screen role. A morality tale about drone warfare and its collateral damage; a master class in maintaining suspense....

Hollister & O’Toole, or, in keeping with the title’s NATO Phonetic Alphabet, Hotel & Oscar debate the merits of Tina Fey’s latest offering: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love). Cinematography by Xavier Grobet. Screenplay by Robert Carlock; based on a fictionalized account of Kim Barker’s book "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanis...

Hollister and O’Toole weigh in on the 2016 Oscars. O'Toole is fascinated by the history behind the Academy Awards: whose idea they were; who gave them their nickname; and what happened in 1941 to cause the first female president of the Academy to resign in frustration. As for this year's ceremony, hear which acceptance speech was Hollister's favorite, what she thinks of the Best Picture winner, an...

A singular critique of Hollywood’s take on How to Be Single (loosely based on the book by SATC writer and co-author of He’s Just Not That Into You, Liz Tuccillo). Starring Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson. Find out what Hollister identifies as the common thread running between this film, Lena Dunham’s Girls, and Judd Apatow’s new series Love. Hear which movie O’Toole touts above all others as truly...

Taking a look at an actress known for The Look: Dame Charlotte Rampling, in her Oscar-nominated turn in 45 Years - a haunting and intimate look at the potential fragility of a long and stable marriage. How well does one really know one's own spouse? Co-starring Tom Courtenay; written and directed by Andrew Haigh; based on the short story "In Another Country" by David Constantine. Also, hear what H...

Pride and Prejudice... and Zombies. Hear which of us thinks it's nothing short of sacrilege; and which actually welcomes the inversion of the typical marriage plot. Based on the international bestseller by Seth-Grahame Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter); screenplay and direction by Burr Steers (who also wrote How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days). Starring Lily James and Sam Riley as zombie-fighters...