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Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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A friend sent me a
A friend sent me a list of scripts, and I'm wondering which (if any) seem the most intriguing to readers. (1) Casino Royale by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, second set of revisions by Paul Haggis (12.13.05); (2) Believe it or Not! by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (5/6/05); (3) The Last Kiss by Paul Haggis (10.31.03); (4) Night At The Museum by Scott Frank (2.4.5); (5) The Martian Child by Seth E. Bass & Jonathan Tolins (3.14.05); (6) The Astronaut Farmer by Mark & Michael Polish (6.16.05); (7) Steven Soderbergh and Terrence Malick's Che; (8) Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:17 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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Sir Carol Reed made three
Sir Carol Reed made three masterpieces in a row in the mid to late '40s -- The Fallen Idol, Odd Man Out and The Third Man And what does he win his Oscar for? Oliver (1968), a mediocre big-studio musical that seems a little less each time you reflect upon it. (Forwarded by reader Jeremy Fassler.)
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:34 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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"I was fortunate enough to
"I was fortunate enough to meet Paddy Chayefsky at the Carnegie Deli very near the end of his life. I asked him if he had any idea, when he wrote Network, how life would follow art. He said that his original script had been twice as cynical but he had been forced to dilute it to get it made. When he asked why I was so interested, I told him I worked in TV news. 'Oh wait', he said, 'just wait.'" -- Christopher Dalrymple, Digital Verite.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:17 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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The deadline for the Oscar
The deadline for the Oscar ballots to be filled out and received happened exactly fourteen minutes ago -- 5 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, 2.28. Please, please...give us a surprise in one of the major categories.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:11 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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I suggested a continuation of
I suggested a continuation of David Carr's
"Carptebagger"/Red Carpet column a few days ago, and now it looks like Carr is giving the idea some thought. "Although his 'Carpetbagger' movie awards season blog is supposed to go dark after the Oscars, Carr said that he might consider continuing to blog for the Times as an add-on to his regular media column. He told us that blogging has taught him spontaneity and gave him more confidence with his writing." -- Zack Barangan writing about Carr's visit last weekend to some kind of NYU blogging class.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:56 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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Toughest Job on Oscar Night
Toughest Job on Oscar Night Award contenders, from a piece in Time magazine: (a) Jennifer Aniston's publicist: Has Jen seen Brangelina's sonogram? Will she attend the shower? Red carpet chatterboxes have many rude questions for this presenter. Wells comment: Those fearless vampire killer questions asked of tabloid victims like Aniston, Brangelina and Tomkat are beyond sickening. (b) Isaac Mizrahi: the grabby E! co-host must keep his hands in his pockets, and off of starlets. Wells comment: More brash tittie feels...go for it, Isaac...make it a lifelong signature thing. (c) Dolly Parton's stylist...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:37 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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Guy goes to see The
Guy goes to see The Pink Panther with his mom, laughs in a weird and too-loud way, audience members complain, and the guy gets thrown out. This is frontier justice, and if I were there I'd probably support the eviction. If you can't keep it together in a movie theatre, you're going to tick people off, and being handicapped is no excuse. This is where the DVD solution comes into play.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:25 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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I failed to mention in
I failed to mention in an earlier riff about Warner Home Video's All The President's Men double-disc special edition DVD that it contains three brilliant mini-documentaries by Los Angeles-based documentarian Gary Leva, and that two of these are especially valuable and noteworthy because they're serious looks at the state of U.S. journalism today rather than typical celebrate-the-movie puff pieces...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:57 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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Here's a gripping piece by
Here's a gripping piece by N.Y. Times writer Juan Forero (it ran last Sunday, 2.26) about 32 year-old Rachel Boynton's just- opened documentary Our Brand of Crisis (Koch Lorber), a behind-the-scenes look at how U.S. campaign strategists (including James Carville) helped the faltering campaign of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:20 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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"If Crash wins the Best
"If Crash wins the Best Picture Oscar, it won't just take home a statuette [but will] claim a new title: the most indefensible Best Picture winner since 1956's tax shelter spectacle Around the World in 80 Days," says Matt Zoller Seitz on his "House Next Door" blog. "Yes, I admit, the movie's more primally exciting than, say, American Beauty or A Beautiful Mind or The English Patient, and more superficially 'edgy.' But it's also dumber and meaner and uglier, an Importance Machine...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:23 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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Does the crocodile grab hold
Does the crocodile grab hold of the bungee jumper and drag him under and presumably eat the poor guy in this "Crocodile Bungee" short? I've watched it six times and I don't see any evidence of the bungee jumper bouncing above in the aftermath but...no! It's bullshit, according to Snopes.com....fake footage put together by some guys working on a Foster's TV ad.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:19 PM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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Sidney Lumet talking about Network
Sidney Lumet talking about Network on the occasion of the new 30th anniversary double DVD, mostly for perspective but also because Lumet's Find Me Guilty is hitting theatres on 3.17.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:30 AM on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
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Guilty Surprise
Guilty Surprise
Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty (Freestyle, 3.17) isn't just about the rebirth of Lumet's career (at age 82!) and that of his star, Vin Diesel. It's also a kind of Damon Runyon-esque joyride -- an ethnic-Italian, New York-attitude sociopath movie for those who wink at the bad guys and chuckle when they manage to maneuver their way around the law.
Maybe I'm jaded or I've just been Godfather-ed and Soprano...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:56 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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Warner Home Video's DVD of
Warner Home Video's DVD of The New World (due 5.9.06) will offer the shorter 132-minute version that was put into theatres in mid January, which I imagine will disappoint Manohla Dargis and other fans of the 149-minute version that critics and NY/LA audiences saw in November-December. The only extras, I'm told, will be a 60-minute "making of" documentary plus the theatrical trailer.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:35 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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Jacques Audiard's The Beat That
Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which was curiously ignored by the Oscars as a Best Foreign Language Feature nominee, won eight Cesar awards last Satuday night in Paris, including ones for Best Film and Best Director. Audiard's podium speech included a salute to James Toback, whose 1978 film Fingers was the remake inspriation for Heart. Best Actor prize went to Michel Bouquet in The Last Mitterrand . Variety...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:11 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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"Your analysis of David Grubin's
"Your analysis of David Grubin's LBJ doc is dead on," says Overnight co-director Tony Montana. "He's absolutely my favorite president. No one knows what he went through and how hard he tried. He demonstrated a higher threshold for dealing with adversity than any president I've ever aware of. I recently picked my favorite docs for Hot Dog magazine and that film was my number one choice, ahead of Steve James' Hoop Dreams. (Here's an interview with Montana in an issue of 78 magazine that hit newstands last week.)
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:32 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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I'm working on setting up
I'm working on setting up a Reader Response page on each and every article and WIRED item that goes up, so that each and every letter in response to whatever will be fully viewable to everyone. Coming in a couple of weeks, give or take. I'm also going to set up a Trailer of the Week thing in which the weeks' best trailer-teaser will be highlighted in a prominent box or frame somewhere on the main page, with some kind of smart critique with links. (This will basically replace the defunct Trailer Trash.) Nothing revolutionary, but...
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:20 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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Film critic TV guys Roger
Film critic TV guys Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper echoed the sentiments of HE reader "III Rathbun" on Sunday's (2.26) show in saying they'd love to see legendary director Robert Altman let fly with his core feelings about the mainstream Hollywood establishment when he accepts his career Oscar on Sunday, 3.5. I'll never forget my asking Altman about the Los Angeles riots of '92 when I ran into him at the Cannes Film Festival in their immediate wake. Knowing I was reporting for Entertainment Weekly...
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:56 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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What changes in the style
What changes in the style and tone of Oscar telecast is David Thomson precisely suggesting? He's basically saying make it looser and goosier...like the MTV Awards. "I'd...give Oscars for the best deal, the best promotion campaign, the most outrageous agent of the year," he wrotes. "I'd give a chutzpah award...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:38 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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Fuck the perfect gown..fuck the
Fuck the perfect gown..fuck the wow factor...fuck designer- grovelling. All right, it's dishonest of me to say this because I like watching the hot ladies on the red carpet as much as anyone else, but who will be the actress of distinction and character who wears something coolly stylish but different? Who holds back and maybe wears something that doesn't indicate a desperate attempt to make a big impression with Isaac Mizrahi...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:07 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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It's interesting, I think, that
It's interesting, I think, that Fox 411 columnist Roger Friedman is on the V for Vendetta train, since his Fox News employers have reason to greatly despise this lefty political pic.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:02 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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This is three-week-old news, but
This is three-week-old news, but DV Republic is claiming that the great Harry Belafonte (whom I met during the junket of White Man's Burden, and whose come-what-may candor I found enormously appealing) was disinvited from funeral services for Coretta Scott King because of the attendance of President George Bush, according to "reliable sources...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:12 PM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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It's really spooky about how
It's really spooky about how the rule of three -- celebrities always seeming to leave the earth in trios within the same two- or three-day period -- keeps happening. I was on the verge of saying it hadn't occured last weekend with the deaths of Darren McGavin and Don Knotts, but now comes the news of Dennis Weaver's passing in Connecticut last Friday. The three actors were all in their early '80s and had their greatest triumphs on television in the '50-s, '60s and '70s. Weaver called his Sam McCloud character, based on an Arizona lawman played by Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:37 AM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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I was looking at this
I was looking at this Ramey pix micro-shot (top left) this morning of Dyan Cannon, giving what looks like the finger to the guy shooting this photo of her and Jim Carrey at a Laker's game. (I may be wrong...it's a small image.) It led me, in any event, to this Christian website story about Cannon having become "an evangelist to the Hollywood community" with her Saturday night "God's Party with Dyan Cannon & You...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:13 AM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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In June, Warner Home Video
In June, Warner Home Video will finally cough up a DVD of one of the most intriguing late-'60s era films ever made: Richard Lester's brilliant, wonderfully textured, time-jumpy Petulia (1968). (WHV has it on the DVD market in England right now.) It's about an impulsive, airy-fairy wife (Julie Christie) half- cheating on her stiff-necked husband (Richard Chamberlain) with a vulnerably grumpy divorced surgeon (George C. Scott) whom she's deeply in love with...as far as it goes. Shot in San Francisco during the flower-power summer of '67, Petulia...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:29 AM on Monday, February 27, 2006
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Well, whoop-dee-doo...Universal production chief Stacey
Well, whoop-dee-doo...Universal production chief Stacey Snider made a firm call on Sunday to become chief executive and co-chairperson of DreamWorks...as if everyone was on pins and needles wondering if she'd stay with Universal. (Hah!) Snider will share the same creative and corporate authority that DreamWorks founders David Geffen and Steven Spielberg hold, and will report directly to management genius Brad Grey, the chairman and CEO of Paramount, which bought DreamWorks in December for $1.6 billion. The Snider thing was a Geffen move, of course. Hiring Snider was Geffen basically giving NBC/Universal's owner General Electric...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:32 AM on Monday, February 27, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
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If someone wants to give
If someone wants to give me free-of-charge a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, a big stack of high-def DVDs and a really good high-def widescreen TV, I'm an instant fan. But having seen demon- strations of both Sony's Blu-Ray high-def player and its Toshiba-manufactured HD-DVD competition, I can honestly say that the difference between them and how DVD's look right now on my big Sony flat-screen is noticable, yes, but not stunningly so...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:07 PM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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Profile of an eternal lightweight...a
Profile of an eternal lightweight...a guy with not even a trickle running through him, much less a river.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:04 PM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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No question that the Criterion
No question that the Criterion Collection's high-def transfer of Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar 1966) is one of the most beautiful ever seen. But I don't get the website claim that says the image is "presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1." Looks more like 1.75 to 1 to me, and damn close to 1.85 to 1. Consider the shot below (top) of the opening image from Warner Home Video's DVD of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, as it appears on my own TV. This, according to the info provided by WHV...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:22 PM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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Running Scared's Paul Walker, who
Running Scared's Paul Walker, who acted in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers last year, says, "I grew up on Eastwood [but] I was afraid that I was going to be completely let down. I'd heard nothing but good things about him, but I guess I'm a bit cynical. Like, who's going to talk trash about Clint Eastwood? I mean, c'mon, the guy's on top of his game right now, you have no choice but to say you like him. But you know, he is a good guy. He's not real wordy...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:43 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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I spoke to Lamont Johnson
I spoke to Lamont Johnson a few minutes ago, and he says the cut of The Last American Hero that Pauline Kael saw and reviewed back in early '73 ran "10 or 12 minutes" longer than the 95-minute version of the current Fox Home Video DVD. He doesn't know if the longer version exists anywhere, but his agent might.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:26 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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Prosecutors are squeezing "Hollywood superlawyer"
Prosecutors are squeezing "Hollywood superlawyer" Bert Fields with "evidence" against Fields and/or his partners regarding arrangements Fields may have made with Anthony Pellicano that may have involved illegal wiretapping, according to a N.Y. Times story by David Halbfinger and Allison Hope Weiner. They want him to spill, of course. The net is closing. Perspiration beads are forming.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:30 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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Yesterday morning's projection about Madea's
Yesterday morning's projection about Madea's Family Reunion was accurate: Box Office Mojo is estimating that Tyler Perry's film will finish the weekend with $30.3 million. And that Frank Marshall's Eight Below, an inoffensively decent dog movie, will earn $15.7 million for a cume of $45.1 million, and that Shawn Levy's The Pink Panther...forget it.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:19 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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Marc Weingarten's N.Y. Times article
Marc Weingarten's N.Y. Times article about Lamont Johnson's The Last American Hero being revived as a DVD release 33 years after being dumped, re-cut and then re-released by 20th Century Fox in 1973 is an okay recap, but it leaves out a significant detail. He reports that while Johnson was out of the country following the film's initial release, "Fox made a number of edits [and] renamed the movie Hard Driver and released it in a few theaters in the South in spring 1973." Then Pauline Kael wrote "a glowing review for The New YorkerRead More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:44 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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Don Knotts' N.Y. Times obit
Don Knotts' N.Y. Times obit says he was one of the original cast members of "The Steve Allen Show," the comedy-variety show from the mid to late '50's, and was one of a group of memorable comics backing Mr. Allen." But it says nothing about Knotts' "Mr. Morrison" character, and not getting into this a little is like writing a Lana Turner obit without mentioning William Wilkerson and Schwab's drug store. On the Museum of TV Broadcasting site, it says that "Allen's man-in-the-street interview segments launched the careers of comedians ...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:50 AM on Sunday, February 26, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
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"I would love to see
"I would love to see Robert Altman take the stage at the Oscars next Sunday and give this speech: 'I thank Hollywood and The Academy for absolutely nothing, and I dedicate this award to Ingmar Berman, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and Frederico Fellini -- all of whom, like myself, succeeded primarily outside the Hollywood circle, and have never been recognized by the Academy for any achievement whatsoever.' Then he would leave the Oscar on the podium as he walks off the stage." -- a reader...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:57 PM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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I heard Darren McGavin died
I heard Darren McGavin died early today, but the big news sites weren't on it. The IMDB still doesn't have it as I write this at 8:45 pm on Saturday. It was only Ain't It Cool News, and apologies to Harry but I didn't quite feel safe. So I called McGavin's son Beau and his daughter Graemme (whom I've known pretty well since '82) and nothing. Then Beau just called back and confirmed. Very sorry. A memorial service is set for Sunday, March 5, at Hollywood Forever.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:45 PM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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A smart and funny N.Y.
A smart and funny N.Y. Times piece by Allison Hope Weiner on the tribal customs of Oscar partying. I've been given a very hard time by dates in the past for not introducing them at parties when I'm speaking to some big-name actor or director or studio guy (they're right -- it's a bit thoughtless), but Weiner's first rule of Oscar party etiquette ("an oxymoron," someone says) is "IF YOU'RE SOMEONE'S DATE, DON'T EXPECT TO BE INTRODUCED." She says that "no one cares about spouses, relatives and arm-candy at Hollywood parties...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:55 PM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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Poor Daniel Craig, whom the
Poor Daniel Craig, whom the old-line fans despise for having been cast as James Bond in the currently-shooting Casino Royale, is getting more support, this time from
Die Another Day villain Toby Stephens...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:33 AM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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Hey, this Robert Koehler Variety
Hey, this Robert Koehler Variety review of Richard Donner's 16 Blocks (Warner Bros., 3.3) makes it sound pretty good. "The last chance of an aging cop" -- Bruce Willis -- "to redeem his soured existence provides the sturdy frame...closer to a compact film noir than to the many gimmicky entertainments of [Donner's] past...not up to the level of Sidney Lumet's Gotham police pics, [but] it does raise the banner for the tradition of the textured urban cop drama...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:07 AM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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Liam Neeson, whom I spoke
Liam Neeson, whom I spoke to twice last summer about making his Abraham Lincoln voice sound just right when he finally starts shooting that Lincoln biopic for Steven Spielberg, "tried out his Lincoln chops before a live audience last week on C-SPAN," reports "Page Six" in the N.Y. Post...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:28 AM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion,
Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, which would have gotten killed by critics if Lionsgate had been dumb enough to show it to them (they weren't and they didn't), took in $10,169,000 yesterday (Friday, 2.24) on 2194 screens, and will end up with something like $30 million for the weekend. (My source believes "they had about 800 screens they didn't need...some of those theatres are like bowling alleys." Len Klady at Movie City News says Madea took in a bit more -- $10.5 million.) The other two wide releases, Doogal (Weinstein Co.) and Running ScaredRead More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:29 AM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
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George Clooney and pal Les
George Clooney and pal Les Moonves intend to re-do Network on CBS. One assumes they believe that Paddy Chayefsky's dialogue can be performed better than, say, what Bill Holden, Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway did with it in this scene from Sidney Lumet's original 1976 feature. (It's lifted from the new Network double-disc DVD, which has a very fine making-of doc and a great-looking transfer -- like the film just came out of the lab.) I don't care what Clooney and Moonves think -- this...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:08 AM on Saturday, February 25, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
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Universal chairwoman Stacey Snider is
Universal chairwoman Stacey Snider is almost certainly going to take "a significant pay cut" to run the Paramount-based DreamWorks, with a task of overseeing four to six films instead of the sixteen to eighteen she watches over at Universal each year. And she'll be able to spend more time with her two daughters... great. But who really cares about this development, outside of those whose jobs and movies will be affected? A nice woman is going to switch jobs...big deal.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:25 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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When it comes to burning
When it comes to burning one's flesh, context is everything. In Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole's willingness to singe his fingertips indicates a curiously likable apartness...a certain charisma...especially when he says that the trick is "not minding" that it hurts. When Hal Holbrook talks about Gordon Liddy having held his hand over a candle at a Washington party and offering the same answer when someone asks "what's the trick?", it indicates a slight nutter mentality -- somebody you don't want to get too close to.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:01 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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The Guardian's Sharon Krum takes
The Guardian's Sharon Krum takes another look at how women directors are faring these days, or rather the view of same by "guerrilla girls" (www.moviesbywomen.com) Kathe Kollwitz and Tara Veneruso.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:17 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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I missed this yesterday, but
I missed this yesterday, but Ain't It Cool's "Quint" is hearing that Eric Bana is in negotiations to play the Van Heflin role (the good guy) in the remake of 3:10 to Yuma, in which Tom Cruise is reportedly hot to play the Glenn Ford villain role. A few minutes ago I asked director James Mangold whether the Bana thing is likely or half-true, but he didn't answer my Cruise question yesterday so I guess we'll have to wait for Variety's Michael Fleming to announce it.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:03 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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Zap2It's Daniel Fienberg again, this
Zap2It's Daniel Fienberg again, this time about my riff about industry attitudes and hurdles commonly thrown in front of women filmmakers: "You're gonna get plenty of angry e-mails regarding your comments about female directors, but the point is this: white male filmmakers don't need to go out of their way to tackle issues important to white males, because there are oodles of films out there showing just how darned difficult and complicated it is to be a white male. Somebody like Curtis Hanson can step outside of his personal interest group to direct an In Her Shoes...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:01 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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Congrats to Hollywood Reporter columnist
Congrats to Hollywood Reporter columnist and blogger Anne Thompson for landing an Oscar-day gig as an ABC red-carpet chit-chat commentator (along with Leonard Maltin and Joel Siegel) during the network's pre-Oscar coverage, which will start sometime around 3 pm on March 5th. ABC wanted a woman critic and general industry know-it-all to round things out with Maltin and Siegel, and Thompson is a perfect choice. I'm told the producers first went to N.Y. Times film critic Manohla Dargis but the notoriously camera-shy scribe begged off.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:54 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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David Germain's AP story about
David Germain's AP story about Brokeback Mountain fading and Crash looking more and more like it might actually take the Best Picture Oscar gets your blood going a little, but it seems to me like a Big Reach. If it happens, I know a lot of people who will scream and shout and throw things and punch the refrigerator. But not me. Brokeback...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:42 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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"Just saw V Is For
"Just saw V Is For Vendetta (Warner Bros., 3.17) at an A-list screening [in Manhattan] and you can tell the crowd thinks the conservative-values, government-allied network is Fox News," a New York critic confides. "And the Bill O'Reilly stand-in gets it in the shower. The movie, for me, is a really great ride at the beginning and the end...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:35 PM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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At the start of her
At the start of her column piece about Don't Tell director Cristina Comencini, who is the only female director behind all of this year's Oscar-nominated films, Anne Thompson asks, "What is it with Italian female directors and the Oscars? In 78 years, only three women -- Italy's Lena Wertmuller (Seven Beauties), Australia's Jane Campion (The Piano), and Hollywood's Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:23 AM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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Latino Review's Kellvin Chavez is
Latino Review's Kellvin Chavez is reporting that Joaquin Phoenix has to pay the bills like anyone else, and has therefore agreed to play the lead in John Singleton's Without Remorse for Paramount Pictures. Pic will be an origin story thriller about how an Elite Navy Seal Commando named John Kelly becomes the C.I.A. operative known as Mr. Clark, the pivotal recurring character in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan books who was played by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:44 AM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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Zap2It's Daniel Fienberg reviews Madea's
Zap2It's Daniel Fienberg reviews Madea's Family Reunion, feeling more or less the same as I. The film hasn't been screened for critics so there's nothing out there. As I said in my Wednesday review, guys like me so aren't the point.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:30 AM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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Roger Ebert is offering positive
Roger Ebert is offering positive and thoughtful reasons for his prediction that Crash will take the Best Picture Oscar, but in my mind he's essentially predicting that older-Academy- member homophobia is going to ultimately call the tune. I think it's a tiny bit derelict of Roger to not at least acknowledge what I've been referring to as the Tony Curtis factor. The 81 year-old actor was widely quoted...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:42 AM on Friday, February 24, 2006
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Robert Redford on how he
Robert Redford on how he got interested in wanting to make a movie about Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who wrote the early stories indicating there was some kind of White House involvement in the June 1972 Watergate break-in. And his attempts to get in touch with Woodward in '72 and '73, and initially getting blown off. Excerpted from Redford's commentary track on the just-released two-disc special edition DVD of All The President's Men.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:07 AM on Friday, February 24, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
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"Truman Capote was short --
"Truman Capote was short -- 5 foot, 3 inches -- and spoke in a strange, high-pitched Southern accent. He was a wildly camp gay who effortlessly held whole parties in thrall with his anecdotal brilliance and cool outrageousness...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:02 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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"To his credit, Gavin Hood's
"To his credit, Gavin Hood's meditation on truth and reconciliation doesn't traffic in the cheap thrills of art-house exploitation, like City of God; he wrings tears with sincerity, not cynicism." -- N.Y. Times critic Manohla Dargis on Tsotsi.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:28 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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New York journalist Lewis Beale
New York journalist Lewis Beale acknowledges there's "no buzz" on Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty (Freestyle/Yari Film Group, 3.17), but says "it's quite good and contains a really fine performance by no less than Vin Diesel. It's the true story of the longest criminal trial in U.S. history, involving members of the Lucchese gang, and Diesel plays a low-level mobster who decides to defend himself. Given that 90% of the movie takes place inside a courtroom it's still quite watchable (Lumet is an old hand at procedurals in this vein -- Prince of the City, ...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:14 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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In a run-up to tomorrow's
In a run-up to tomorrow's debut of Madea's Family Reunion, here's a Salon piece about the Tyler Perry phenomenon by Russell Scott Smith. "Blacks and whites don't always understand each other," it begins. "But in Hollywood, everyone's favorite color is green. So movie executives of all races took notice last February when a movie called Diary of a Mad Black Woman hit No. 1 at the box office -- despite no bankable stars, scant mainstream press attention and reviews that were almost laughably bad...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:59 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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That website put up by
That website put up by old-line James Bond fans that's basically about trashing Daniel Craig is back up after going down earlier today. The anti-Craig thing is a bore anyway. He's a well-planted actor with a cold flinty interior, which is precisely what the Bond films haven't had since Sean Connery walked. So he's not quite as tall...big deal. As Roger Moore says....
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:19 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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I'm using this conversation with
I'm using this
conversation with Running Scared director Wayne Kramer to fill up most of today's "Elsewhere Live" broadcast, but here it is in advance. Kramer talks for a bit about his next film, Evilseek, a satanic supernatural thriller mixed with social commentary that Kramer describes as "Heaven Can Wait meets Seven." The Weinstein Co. production will star Thomas Jane (or Tom Jane...which is it?) with lensing to begin in the late spring or early summer.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:19 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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Went to one of the
Went to one of the most serenely cool parties of my Hollywood life last night -- a gathering for Capote's director Bennett Miller, thrown by his agents at Endeavor, inside a candle-lit sixth- floor suite at the Chateau Marmont with a sizable, south-facing balcony. Low-key, not crowded, soothing (the view of West Hollywood is what did it), waiters constantly hovering with hors d'oeuvres. Plus a few prominent names to lend a certain punctuation -- Naomi Watts, Adam Sandler (whose next film, Reign O'er Me for director-writer Mike Binder...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:43 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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The thing that killed the
The thing that killed the belief in Will Ferrell being a hot star, I gather, is the relatively paltry $62 million and change earned by Bewitched last summer. It didn't make more, producers and agents decided, because Ferrell can't be and never will be a romantic star (not with that chest-hair problem). And now there's a faint aroma of concern over his next big studio movie, Stranger Than Fiction (Columbia, November '06). Directed by Marc Forster (Neverland, Monster's Ball) from a clever script by last year's hip-screenwriter-of-the-moment Zach Helm, it costars Maggie GyllenhaalRead More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:41 AM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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This is most definitely a
This is most definitely a movie that I would pay to see. (A significant admission from a journo freeloader like myself.) Earlier this week six armed British thieves nabbed $40 million pounds...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:22 AM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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This Peter Howell blog riff
This Peter Howell blog riff (basically a q & a with himself) underlines the general consensus that the last possible cliffhanger element in the March 5th Oscar telecast -- i.e., will it be Cinderella Man's Paul Giamatti or Syriana's George Clooney taking the Best Supporting Actor Oscar? -- has been settled. Clooney will win it because he's the charming get-around Guy of the Moment, and has been credited with doing the most to launch the current wave of political films, and because Academy folks want to hand him something for Good Night and Good Luck...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:06 AM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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Tom Cruise is reportedly keen
Tom Cruise is reportedly keen to play the Glenn Ford bad-guy role in James Mangold's forthcoming remake of 3:10 to Yuma, a 1957 black-and-white western directed by Delmer Daves and co-starring Van Heflin. (I've never seen this High noon-type drama, but something tells me I'll be looking at the DVD fairly soon.) And yet, according to Variety's Michael Fleming, Cruise hadn't even sat down with Mangold to chew things over. He just likes Stuart Beattie's rewrite of the Michael Brandt-Derek Haas...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:04 AM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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Is Stuart Beattie prolific or
Is Stuart Beattie prolific or what? The 3:10 to Yuma re-writer (who broke into the big-time with his Collateral screenplay) and Baz Luhrman have co-written "a sweeping Aussie [period] romance in the tradition of Gone with the Wind" that will costar Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, according to Dark Horizons. "Despite the amusing working title of 'Project Oklahoma', Luhrmann says that 'it's not a musical [but] uses the sweeping landscape of Australia and spans from the mid-1930s to the bombing of Darwin during World War II." Luhrman says he's going the non-CGI, Lawrence of ArabiaRead More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:52 AM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
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Variety's Justin Chang is calling
Variety's Justin Chang is calling Wayne Kramer's Running Scared "a ferociously energetic piece of filmmaking," a "potent" and "nasty little number offering a harrowing descent into a New Jersey underworld replete with hoods, hookers and hot merchandise." Wait a minute...this New Jersy-based thriller was shot largely in Prague? Odd. I've been there three or four times and didn't spot a hint of this.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:19 AM on Thursday, February 23, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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"Sexy tomboy beanpole" Keira Knightley
"Sexy tomboy beanpole" Keira Knightley is the statistical favorite to win the Best Actress Oscar on March 5th. Film Jerk has run the numbers and balanced it all out, and this is how it shakes down. Really. She's not expected to actually win, but...
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:05 PM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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A Matt Dillon interview by
A Matt Dillon interview by the AP's Jake Coyle ran on 2.21, and of course -- naturally! -- the piece manages to refer to Dillon's City of Ghosts, his directorial debut that I saw and quite admired in March of '03, in terms of its financial failure instead of how atmospherically pungent and dramatically haunting...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:18 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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Variety's Ben Fritz noted last
Variety's Ben Fritz noted last Sunday that "if there's one thing the Academy can't be accused of this year, it's catering to popular whims," adding that "in a year when the five best picture nominees combined grossed only about $200 million domestic- ally, and four of them can be called hits only compared with their low budgets, some argue there's a profound disconnect between what appeals to the industry vs. the public at large." What...that lament again?...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:56 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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Variety has finally run Robert
Variety has finally run Robert Koehler's review of Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? more than two weeks after it played the Santa Barbara Film Festival, but the review has two errors. The boozy rock genius died on January 15, 1994 (doc says that his funeral service happened on the day of the big '94 California quake, or 1.17.94) and not '92, as Koehler has it, and Nilsson's hot song "Coconut" (as in "put the lime in the...") was heard in Reservoir Dogs but was not...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:50 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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Intriguing Guardian piece by Paul
Intriguing Guardian piece by Paul Hoggart about a new Nick Broomfield doc called His Big White Self, about Eugene Terre Blanche, the "hippo-shaped, rhino-tempered" leader of South Africa's extreme racist Afrikaner Resistance Front. It's being aired 2.27 on British TV along with a retrospective of Broomfield's past docs (Biggie and Tupac, Kurt and Courtney, etc.) Hoggart mentions that`Broomfield is "busy editing his first original drama, based on the death of Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay, which is due to screen later this year." This naturally raises the question, "Whatever happened to Indecent Exposure...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:10 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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It's fair to ask why
It's fair to ask why Patrick Goldstein's Gail Berman column hasn't been linked on Movie City News as of this morning (i.e., Wednesday, 2.22). The "Big Picture" author has gone after MCN's David Poland...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:47 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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Wellspring's theatrical distribution operation is
Wellspring's theatrical distribution operation is being shuttered and the Weinstein Co.-controlled operation will henceforth be based in Santa Monica and focus entirely on DVD distribution. (And I never got paid for that Reel Paradise ad I ran last summer...shit. Has that train left the station or can I chase it down and talk to the conductor?) The spiritual loss will be felt. Any distributor that puts films like Werner Herzog's The White Diamond, Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Arnaud Desplechin's Kings and Queen, Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny and Jonathan Caouette's TarnationRead More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:31 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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A decent, boilerplate, right-down-the-middle piece
A decent, boilerplate, right-down-the-middle piece about the social legacy of Brokeback Mountain by USA Today's Scott Bowles (with help from Anthony Breznican). Many celebrity quotes, same old territory. But at the end of the piece along comes Judy Shepard, mother of the murdered gay martyr Matthew Shepard, telling Bowles that her son "gave her a copy" of the Annie Proulx...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:16 AM on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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Of all these godawful titles
Of all these godawful titles in Mark Caro's "Pop Machine" blog piece, which draws from decades of Hollywood history, none rankle (or have rankled) as profoundly as Oliver Stone's World Trade Center. (Whoops...repeating myself.)
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:09 PM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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Patrick Goldstein's Big Picture column
Patrick Goldstein's Big Picture column got into the Gail Berman hoo-hah today (Monday, 2.21), and used a quote from that "Scent of Toast" piece...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:05 PM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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A little touch of Charles
A little touch of Charles Bukowski to pass the time..."The Genius of the Crowd" and "The Soldier, the Wife and the Bum".
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:19 PM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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When I think back to
When I think back to Peter Jackson's far-reaching, underwhelming King Kong, which arrives on DVD next month, I think of the sad sequence atop the Empire State Building at the very end, with Kong's eyes starting to dilate just before he bids his final farewell to Naomi Watts...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:22 AM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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Flying back to L.A from
Flying back to L.A from San Fran this morning, a Gavin Hood interview this afternoon at the Four Seasons regarding Tsotsi...no further posts until late this afternoon. Okay, maybe one more.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:55 AM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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Josh Horowitz talks to director
Josh Horowitz talks to director Whit Stillman (Barcelona, Metropolitan) about his disappearing act. Horowitz: "What about the 'whatever happened to Whit Stillman?' stuff that's been written about you? Does it bother you? Stillman: "That doesn’Äôt bother me. What bothers me is that I haven't done anything." (laughter) Horowitz: "It is noteworthy, I think, to realize that Terrence Malick has released two films in the time since you released your last one." Stillman: "That's embarrassing." (laughter)
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:49 AM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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Better late than never: N.Y.
Better late than never: N.Y. Times DVD guy Dave Kehr riffs on Lamont Johnson's The Last American Hero ...a longish reflective lead piece and everything. Released in '73, Hero was "the sort of midlevel movie that would soon disappear from Hollywood as American movies fragmented into big-budget event films (Mr. Bridges lent his presence to one, the 1976 remake of King Kong) and no-budget genre pictures. The uncondescending, eye-level view of the American South here seems perfectly pitched, its triumphalism muted (Jeff Bridges...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:37 AM on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
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Forbes magazine has asked three
Forbes magazine has asked three critics (Richard Roper, Neil Rosen, Jeffrey Lyons) which are the ten best films ever made about money. What a question! Aren't 80% to 90% of all the films ever made in one way or another about people trying to make, steal, hold onto or somehow get hold of more money? They didn't choose Rififi or Heat or Eric von Stroheim's Greed or L'eclisse...this is lame. The ten they chose suggest their real criteria was choosing the best movies about greed, avarice and scam artists, are ...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:27 PM on Monday, February 20, 2006
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Here's a mildly amusing N.Y.
Here's a mildly amusing N.Y. Times piece on the "daunting" challenges being faced by Jon Stewart and his team of writers over Stewart's hosting of the Oscar telecast 13 days from now. Screw daunting. The only way to look at Oscar hosting is to assume you won't be asked to return. Just do the job according to your best instincts...as long as they're not like Chris Rock's. Ben Karlin, Stewart's head writer, tells Jacques Steinberg...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:34 AM on Monday, February 20, 2006
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David Carr's piece about the
David Carr's piece about the trepidations and nail-bitings over possible indictments stemming from the Anthony Pellicano wire-tapping mess ("A B-Movie Becomes a Blockbuster") is another reason why Carr should continue doing his Carpetbagger column 24/7 after the Oscar race concludes. It's always a tasty read, it's got attitude, and is well-reported and well-written. The wire-tapping case against Pellicano "could ultimately threaten the reputation and even the freedom...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:09 AM on Monday, February 20, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
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The BAFTA Awards bestowed one
The BAFTA Awards bestowed one very cool award Saturday night: Their Best Film not in the English language honor went to De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrete (The Beat that My Heart Skipped (Pascal Caucheteux/ Jacques Audiard). Otherwise their choices were either nationalistically self-serving or way too Hollywood: Best Film -- Brokeback Mountain; Alexander Korda award for outstanding British film of the year (bullshit!) -- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit; Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British Director, writer or producer in their first feature film...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:54 PM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
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Poor Richard Bright (pot-bellied button-man
Poor Richard Bright (pot-bellied button-man Al Neri to Al Pacino's Michael Corleone) was run over by a bus on Columbus Avenue and killed. He was a Texas con artist who stole a black briefcase full of cash from Ali McGraw in The Getaway, and then was elbowed in the face three times by Steve McQueen. I'll never forget his portrayal of a gay guy who was left by Tom Berenger in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and wailed as Berenger walked away, "Doohhnnn't go!" He was "Burt" to Harry Dean Stanton's "Curt" in Rancho Deluxe...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:32 PM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
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A guy wrote me and
A guy wrote me and said he was "baffled by [my] fascination with the silly Film Snobs book. Leone really is a greater director than Fellini, so what's the problem?" And I answered back, "Leone... endless closeups, closeups, closeups....middle-aged guys with lined, leathery faces staring hard at other guys with lined, leathery faces at the train depot, and somebody finally shoots. He's a stylist, not an artist..not even in the same realm as early '50s to early '60s Fellini."
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:27 PM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
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It felt for a while
It felt for a while like I was the only one carrying the ball for Fox Home Video's DVD of Lamont Johnson's The Last American Hero -- now Glenn Erickson (a.k.a., DVD Savant) has stepped up to the plate. "This unpretentious and uncluttered mini-epic about moonshining and stock car racing in the rural south accomplishes an impressive feat," he says. "It's intelligent enough to make viewers forget the idiocy of good-ole-boy action comedies like Smokey and the Bandit and The Dukes of Hazzard...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:37 AM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
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Visiting Jett in San Francisco
Visiting Jett in San Francisco today, tomorrow and Tuesday. The Wi-Fi at the Tropicana hotel (south of Market, near the Castro) supposedly works. Here's hoping.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:34 AM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
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I happened to come upon
I happened to come upon this color shot of Lee Harvey Oswald (snapped on 11.23.63) on The Smoking Gun earlier today, and it hit me that every photo I've seen of the guy my entire life has been in black and white...until today. And I now think Oliver Stone should have gotten somebody besides Gary Oldman to play him in JFK.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:28 AM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
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Former Salon critic Charles Taylor
Former Salon critic Charles Taylor (a major film critic who warrants absolute respect, despite the fact that he likes Mission to Mars) and Jeremiah Kipp talk frankly about movies and the political currents that led to Taylor's dismissal from Salon in early '05. The piece appears on Matt Zoller Seitz's The House Next Door blog.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:20 AM on Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
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There's an attractive "Great Performers"
There's an attractive "Great Performers" gallery in Sunday's N.Y. Times magazine with photos by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and a quickie intro by Lynn Hirschberg. Neat impressionistic face- and body-painting shots of Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Vera Farmiga (great in Down to the Bone), etc. But I don't get the cat eyes on George Clooney. It's just not in the same vein as the other shots...not decorative...oddball ...creepy no matter how you slice it.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:29 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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Just can't do those Gurus
Just can't do those Gurus of Gold inputs no more. Many thanks to David Poland for honoring me with an invitation to keep voting, but I'm Guru'd out, man. I've been Heath Ledger-ed, George Clooney-ed, Felicity Huffman-ed, Academy-soaked, Karen Fried-icized, Tony Angelotti-sized, Reese Witherspoon-ed, Philip Seymour Hoffman-ed and Paul Haggis-ed to death. Two weeks and two days and it's over. I love the hoopla and those Oscar contention ads and the parties and all, but I can't be the only one feeling this way.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:44 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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Terrence Rafferty on Robert Altman's
Terrence Rafferty on Robert Altman's finally getting an honorary career achievement award from the Academy on March 5th, and how he "pretty emphatically qualifies as overdue...he has been overdue for 30 years." Of course, Rafferty's New York Times piece zeroes in on Altman's great five-year period when he made M*A*S*H ('70), McCabe & Mrs. Miller ('71), The Long Goodbye (which was barely paid attention to when it opened in '73), Thieves Like Us ('74), California Split ('74) and Nashville ('75), and says they "...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:57 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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My favorite all-time Robert Altman
My favorite all-time Robert Altman film is California Split, closely followed by McCabe, The Long Goodbye and The Player. I haven't seen Nashville in eons, and I've seen M*A*S*H* too often. My all-time favorite improvised line in an Altman film (which may have been written by Leigh Brackett for all I know): Elliot Gould's Phillip Marlowe is asking a small-town Mexican official about the alleged death of his amoral, sleazy friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:56 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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I attended a cinematographer's seminar
I attended a cinematographer's seminar at the Newport Beach Film Festival a year or two ago, and asked a question of Vilmos Zsigmond, whose camerawork on Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye was entirely composed of slowly arc-ing tracking shots, always gently floating from right to left (or vice versa) and never sitting still. I told Zsigmond I loved this because it seemed like an apt metaphor for the fluid, always-moving impermanence of life in Los Angeles...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:45 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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Hold up on those "Halle
Hold up on those "Halle Berry was a good sport when she got her Hasty Pudding Award in Cambridge" stories. Here's why.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:40 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica, a drama
Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica, a drama about a Bosnian mother and daughter struggling to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday. And The Road to Guantanamo co-helmers Michael Winterbottom and and Mat Whitecross shared the Best Director award. Moritz Bleibtreu won a Silver Bear Best Actor award for his role as "a sexually disturbed teacher" in The Elementary Particles. Sandra Hueller was named Best Actress for her acting in Requiem...
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:17 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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Here's that piece about Cuba
Here's that piece about Cuba Gooding coming clean about how and why he made so many crappy movies and let his career slide into the shit-house, written by Lewis Beale and appearing in Sunday's (2.19) New York Times.
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:29 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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The March issue of Maxim
The March issue of Maxim magazine has a piece about Hollywood's Great Movie Drunks (or words to that effect). W.C. Fields, Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa, Paul Giamatti in Sideways, etc. Maxim doesn't even mention Lee Marvin's Oscar-winning performance as the lushy gunfighter in Cat Ballou. Hilarious shit, except for the fact that Marvin was affected by alcohol in real life and died on the young side (63, I think) partly because of this, which makes his Cat Ballou shenanigans seem a little less amusing. Harry Nilsson...Read More
posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:01 PM on Saturday, February 18, 2006
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A DVD of Ridley Scott's
A DVD of Ridley Scott's 190-minute director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven (which I