Bier does a lot of things right with “Love is all You Need.” Most importantly, she draws fantastic performances from her actors. Every character in the film is well drawn even though there’s a lot going on. This is particularly true when the action moves to Italy for the wedding of Ida’s daughter, Astrid (Molly Blixt Egelind), and Philip’s son, Patrick (Sebastian Jessen).  . Bier, Brosnan and Dyrholm do such a fine job fleshing out the characters individually that it’s natural to want more interaction between them, especially since they are the engine that drives the project. 

Denzel Washington earned his sixth Oscar nomination for “Flight,” a film in which he delivers a brilliant portrayal of a booze-and-drug-addled pilot who crash lands a disabled airplane. The great thing about Washington is his characters always have enough depth to move beyond movie archetypes, and his drunken pilot – Whip Whitaker – is no exception.  Ultimately, “Flight” isn’t about an aircraft crash. It’s about Whip’s demons, and the movie offers a surprisingly realistic view of addiction. 

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Lowbrow comedy. Lowbrow comedy who? It’s lowbrow comedy everywhere because it’s easy to write and cheap to produce. The entertainment industry is bigger than ever. Therein lies the problem:  Hollywood has produced lowbrow comedy for every generation,  and it now has the capability to produce dumbed-down movies in every genre tenfold. 

Where is the Latin-American Tyler Perry? In his career, Perry has earned more than $500 million with his movies alone. This does not include the earnings from stage productions and his television show. Madea, Perry’s alter ego, has made bank by bringing African-American “urban” theater to the silver screen. According to the 2010 United States Census, 12.6% or 38.7  million of the total U.S. population is African-American, and 16 percent or 50.5 million are of Hispanic or Latino descent.