Pat Saperstein

Pat Saperstein

‘She Looks Like Me’ Review: Family Secrets and Public Scandals Brush Shoulders In a Scattered Documentary

A tale of disability, abuse, expectations and family secrets, “She Looks Like Me” from director Torquil Jones has a headstart on most documentaries, given its subject matter’s winding twists and turns. Some key details end up obscured — there’s enough real-life material here to fill an entire miniseries — but the film has an alluring […]

Sam Mercer, Producer on M. Night Shyamalan Movies and ILM Executive, Dies at 69

Sam Mercer, producer on several M. Night Shyamalan movies and former head of ILM, died Feb. 12 of younger onset Alzheimer’s in South Pasadena. He was 69. Raised in Weston, Mass., he attended Occidental College and then started working as a location manager on 1980s classics including “Stripes,” “The Escape Artist,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Pee-Wee’s […]

Sydney Sweeney and Chloe Troast Decorate Terrible AirBnBs Including the Willy Wonka Experience on ‘Saturday Night Live’

“Saturday Night Live” host Sydney Sweeney and cast member Chloe Trost were the nation’s No. 1 interior designers for Airbnbs in one of the final skits on Saturday. The pair rolled out all the clichés that Airbnb guests have experienced, from hard-to-operate locks to bland words used as artwork on walls. “Bland. Generic. Downright uninviting. […]

Xavier Dolan to Head Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Jury

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan, whose film “Mommy” received the Cannes Jury Prize in 2014, will head the jury of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. “I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” he said in a statement. “Even more than making films myself, […]

Who Was Cynthia Plaster Caster, Who Inspired Miley Cyrus’ Character in Ethan Coen’s ‘Drive Away Dolls’?

SPOILER ALERT: This article continues spoilers for the film “Drive-Away Dolls.” In Ethan Coen’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” an homage to the colorful, brash world of exploitation cinema, there’s a notable cameo from none other than Miley Cyrus. Cyrus appears in a psychedelic swirl of flashbacks as Tiffany Plastercaster, seen titillating a college-aged version of Matt Damon’s […]

‘The Taste of Things’ Consulting Chef Pierre Gagnaire on Why Cooking Is More Than Seduction: ‘It’s Much Deeper Than That’

In the months since it has premiered at Cannes, “The Taste of Things,” a lushly romantic love letter to French cooking, has quickly been anointed one of the best food-focused movies ever made. The film, now playing in selected theaters, revolves around the romance between Juliette Binoche’s Eugénie and wealthy gourmet Dodin Bouffant, played by […]