Film & TV
Guilty Pleasures: A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
Until I saw A Very Brady Sequel, I thought I was the only person who harbored a secret desire to break into an amateur song-and-dance routine aboard a flight to Hawaii.
We Love You, Man
Street: Are you involved in any real-life bromances? Jason Segel: Well, my best friend since I was 12 years old lived with me until six months ago.
It’s Guy Love, Between Two Guys
Today’s mainstream media is overflowing with bromances. Take, for instance, Superbad’s glorification of male bonding and Brody Jenner’s eponymous reality show Bromance.
A History of Violence
The history of Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s 1986 graphic-novel-turned-movie, is a long and complicated one.
Mob Rules
Street: What in particular drew you to Saviano's book and made you want to turn it into a screenplay? Maurizio Braucci: Before becoming a screenwriter I was a novelist.
Keeping An Eye On Watchmen
The Comedian: The Comedian is one of the only superheroes allowed to continue his work after the Keene Act, the government’s ban of masked crusaders, is passed.
Defibrillator: El Topo (1970)
“If you are great, El Topo is a great film. If you are limited, El Topo is limited,” director Alejandro Jodorowsky said of his epic spaghetti-western, whose wide-scale distribution is owed largely to the efforts of John Lennon.
A Whole New Kind of Evil
In Gomorrah, director Matteo Garrone offers a refreshingly meditative take on the crime movie.
La Primavera
Cherry blossoms are traditionally known for their brevity. They bloom during one season and make audiences wait another year for the pleasure of their company.
Top Ten Movies Snubbed by Oscar
Nominated, but robbed: 1. Citizen Kane (1941) Lost to: How Green Was My Valley 2.
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.
