Film & TV
Point/Counterpoint: The Oscars
Hell, yeah! The Best Picture is awarded to the movie that has mastered all of the individual elements of film-making — musical score, direction, casting, script, acting and more — making them work together to produce a real piece of motion picture art.
Guilty Pleasures: For Richer or Poorer (1997)
How would the Academy have received Witness minus Harrison Ford and all that murder mystery stuff?
Street Leads The Vote
Not to knock the Oscars or anything, but it’s been 81 years — we think it’s about time the Academy got a little more innovative with its categories.
Taking Names
Looks like bank failure isn't the only thing to worry about in the financial world. In The International, one of the world's most successful banks gets its dough from the small arms trade, prompting Interpol agent Clive Owen, doing his normal shtick as the rugged, intense hero, and Manhattan ADA Naomi Watts, foregoing her natural Aussie accent, to go after the bad guys (do the filmmakers really expect us to think that forces from completely different jurisdictions would work so well together?). Thankfully, for the first time in recent movie history, our two leads do not hook up, but they do kick some serious ass.
Class is in Session
The critical darling of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Class snuck in under the radar and screened on the last night of the competition, surprising many and deservedly taking home the illustrious Palme d’Or.
Defibrillator: Charade (1963)
Director Stanley Donen is remembered, when he’s remembered, for films like Singing in the Rain and Arabesque, big-budget musicals designed to be instantaneous crowd pleasers.
The Pros and Con-fessions
A recent headline from The New York Times read: "Stocks Slide as New Bailout Disappoints." Okay, so the economy is at an all-time low.
Preview: Human Rights Film Festival
It’s tough to think of people other than your love du jour over Valentine's Day. But if you prefer the Peace Corp to petunias, check out this week’s selections from the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Not So Pretty in Pink
We've all heard the adage “if you don't have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” So instead of bashing The Pink Panther 2, a film whose very existence should make one question the sanity of movie execs (no one liked the first one, guys), I'm going to try to extol its few-and-far-between merits.
It's Business Time
The film adaptation of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s bestselling book attempts to be a treasure trove of relationship wisdom, but the title, He’s Just Not That Into You, is really the only advice it provides.
Guilty Pleasures: She's the Man (2006)
Shakespeare + the two Step Up boys + some sick soccer skills = pure joy. Starring Amanda Bynes as a cross-dressing, soccer-loving teenager, it also features Channing Tatum and Robert Hoffman, both of Step Up fame.
The Big Push
January movies are generally amusing films that tend to lack-in content. Push, a January movie released in February, is entertaining but not worth 10 economically devalued U.S.
Actors I Thought I Wanted to Marry
Going to a movie is much like going on JDate. We scope out the leading men, assess their talents and qualifications and ultimately decide whether they’d function as good first husbands.
Ciao Baby
Street: Tell me about how Ciao came into being. Yen Tan: The idea came about because [actor] Alessandro [Calza] wrote me an email in 2003 to tell me how much he loved my first film, Happy Birthday, and then we just started corresponding.
Thankfully Uninvited
It’s that time of the year again, when studios seem to empty out their trashcans onto multiplexes around the country.
So Long, Farewell...
The premise of Ciao — a film in which two strangers from different parts of the world develop a deep, unexpected friendship — could have led to a laughably bad movie.
Guilty Pleasures: Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
"Fuckin' beauty queens blowing chunks everywhere." Intrigued? You betcha. Drop Dead Gorgeous explores the dark underworld of beauty pageants.
The Top Ten Movie Quotes We Do Not Understand
You voted on Under the Button, and here are the results — the top 10 movie quotes we know were meant to impress us, but instead left us scratching our heads. 10.
Guilty Pleasures: What Women Want (2000)
Despite his overt anti-Semitic tendencies, there’s something undeniably irresistible about Mel Gibson shaving his legs.
