My reaction to *Elle*—a prequel to the *Legally Blonde* films—mirrors my reaction to the originals: it is a light, trivial comedy that is easy to watch but just as easy to forget. The franchise owes its strength to Elle Woods, a charming character memorably brought to life by Reese Witherspoon; I am pleased to say that Lexi Minetree proves more than capable of recreating and sustaining Woods’s endearing appeal (I will refer to her by her surname throughout this review to distinguish her from the series title). Minetree nails that distinctive crying sound, that accent that is both funny and sweet, and the entire personality that blends intelligence with a somewhat ditzy demeanor. She even makes it believable that this teenage Woods could naturally evolve into the version played by Witherspoon a few years later. The casting choice is spot-on. Creator: Laura Kittrell Stars: Lexi Minetree, June Diane Raphael, Tom Everett Scott What I am not convinced by is the very existence of this s...
Servilely tethered to the source material—except where it shouldn't be—Julian Schnabel’s adaptation of *In the Hand of Dante* yields uneven results. While it boasts beautiful cinematography and remains more or less faithful to Nick Tosches’s sprawling, cynical pseudo-biography of Dante Alighieri, the film’s nearly three-hour runtime makes it hard to overlook its pretentiousness and absurdity. One assumes half the cast participated in the project as a tribute to the late, great Nick Tosches. The other half, however, overacts in what plays like a conventional mob movie with intellectual pretensions. Like the book, the story toggles between Dante’s life and the criminal fantasy of an ill-fated writer—named Nick Tosches—who gets entangled in a Mafia plot to authenticate pages from the original *Divine Comedy* manuscript. Director: Julian Schnabel Writers: Louise Kugelberg, Julian Schnabel, Nick Tosches Stars: Ibrahim Elouahabi, Gavin Weingarten, Al Pacino The literary work is simultan...