Most Wanted
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Il Grido
(Antonioni, 1957)

The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)

-30-
(Webb, 1959)

Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)

Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)

The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)

Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)

The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)

In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)

That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)

The Fox
(Rydell, 1967)

Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)

Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)

At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)

Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)

Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Mike's Murder
(Bridges, 1984)

Reader Submissions

1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
'Doc'
(Perry, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing
(Pakula, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Running on Empty
(Lumet, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Men Don't Leave
(Brickman, 1990)
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

June 11

Tetro

June 12

Call of the Wild 3D

Food, Inc.

Imagine That

Moon

Sex Positive

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love

June 16

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

June 19

$9.99

Dead Snow

The Proposal

Whatever Works

Year One

June 24

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

June 26

Cheri

Fireflies in the Garden

The Hurt Locker

My Sister's Keeper

The Stoning of Soraya M. 

Surveillance 

July 1

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Public Enemies

July 3

The Girl from Monaco

I Hate Valentine's Day

July 10

Bruno

I Love You, Beth Cooper

Soul Power

July 15

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

July 17

(500) Days of Summer

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

July 24

All Good Things

The Answer Man

G-Force

In the Loop

Orphan

The Ugly Truth

July 29

Adam

July 31

The Cove

Funny People

Lorna's Silence

They Came from Upstairs

August 7

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Julie & Julia

Paper Heart

Shorts

When in Rome

August 14

A Perfect Getaway

Bandslam

District 9

The Goods: The Don Ready Story

I Sell the Dead

Ponyo

Pool Boys

Spread

Taking Woodstock

The Time Traveler's Wife

August 21

Five Minutes of Heaven

Goose on the Loose!

Inglorious Bastards

It Might Get Loud

Post Grad

World's Greatest Dad

August 28

The Boat that Rocked

Final Destination: Death Trip

H2

September 4

All About Steve

Amreeka

Black Dynamite

Carriers

Citizen Game

Extract

Pandorum

Shanghai

September 9

9

September 11

The Red Canvas

Tyler Perrys: I Can Do It All Myself

Whiteout

September 17

The Burning Plain

September 18

Armored

Brand New Day

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Jennifer's Body

Splice

September 25

Fame

The Invention of Lying

Surrogates

October 2

A Serious Man

More Than a Game

Sorority Row

Toy Story/Toy Story 2

Lowball

There are two grabbers in Katrina Onstad's 3.23 N.Y. Times profile of Stop-Loss director-writer Kimberly Peirce. One is a blunt comment from Peirce about her career, the second is her non-response to a cheap-shot question by Onstad (and a cheap-shot collusion on the part of her editors).


Stop-Loss director-writer Kimberly Peirce, Ryan Phillipe.

The first, following a statement that "after almost a decade in the Hollywood wilderness trying to find a project that would equal her first film, she earned just a single directorial credit, for an episode of the television series The L Word," is Pierce saying "Yes, I should have made a movie sooner...yes, I should be a lot richer than I am....mea culpa.”

I'm not going to quote from or describe the second thing, but check it out and tell me what you think. I think it's an icky paragraph.

Just Another Poll<< previous | next >>Under Fire

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 22, 2008 at 7:01 PM

comment #1

Mgmax Author Profile Page says ...

Kimberley Peirce looks shockingly like the young Hillary in that photo, no?

Posted by Mgmax Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 8:07 PM

comment #2

T. Holly Author Profile Page says ...

There's enough in this piece to get me really interested, even though there aren't enough quotes from Peirce. The whole idea is to weave the interview into the story, which is what makes feature stories so much more interesting than Lunch with David and the SXSW audio interviews. You/Wells manage(s) to make the audio interviews work, probably because you/he had to do it "the print way" in the past.

The writer's lucky Peirce didn't sock her in the face for asking her if she's a lesbian. How conscientiously private does she need to be in order to be demure about it?

. For all the good will she garnered in gay circles after “Boys Don’t Cry,” Ms. Peirce demurs on the subject of her own sexuality

Posted by T. Holly Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 8:48 PM

comment #3

berg Author Profile Page says ...

K Pierce told me, during an interview stop (loss) in houston, that her second film was going to be about the William Desmond Taylor murder, had Evan Rachel Wood cast as Mary Myles Minter and script by Robert Towne, but the studio pulled the plug. Part of her deal to make stop loss had the provision that the film was green lit from day one

Posted by berg Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 9:30 PM

comment #4

Gus Petch Author Profile Page says ...

Mgmax, I thought it made her look like Tea Leoni.

On the paragraph in question, I agree with Jeff. Onstad wants us to believe she's saying something socially relevant, but really she's just being a gossip columnist.

Posted by Gus Petch Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 9:50 PM

comment #5

Mr. Peel Author Profile Page says ...

Am I the only one who thought that if Boys Don't Cry had been directed by Jonathan Demme it would have been nominated for quite a few more Oscars than just performances?

Yeah, probably.

Posted by Mr. Peel Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 10:34 PM

comment #6

scooterzz Author Profile Page says ...

she also mentioned during my interview with her that ben kingsley and hugh jackman had been signed for the desmond project.....and then said, 'it WILL get done....i WILL make this movie'.....
so,.....maybe....?

Posted by scooterzz Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 10:44 PM

comment #7

MikeSchaeferSF Author Profile Page says ...

As a gay guy, I'm rather torn here. I looked at the picture before reading the post and my first thought was "if she's not a dyke than she's the butchest-looking heterosexual woman ever". There's a part of me that respects people who flat-out refuse to discuss their personal lives -- there's a certain integrity to that, compared with those who live elaborate charades ("arranged" relationships etc). But on the other hand, I get very annoyed with people who wear their lefty politics on their sleeves, yet refuse to discuss their sexuality (yes, Tracy Chapman, I'm looking at you). Is Hollywood swirling with rumors about Kimberly Pierce? That would make such a question semi-legit. If not, then no. However I'm looking forward to the interview in which that same writer asks the "gay question" of Tyler Perry.

Posted by MikeSchaeferSF Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 11:23 PM

comment #8

D.Z. Author Profile Page says ...

Gus: More like an unattractive Tea Leoni.

Anyway, the way it's being promoted by her, this project feels as exploitive as United 93, but in the opposite direction.

Posted by D.Z. Author Profile Page at March 22, 2008 11:29 PM

comment #9

scooterzz Author Profile Page says ...

i've met kimberley peirce a few times and i've never thought her sexuality was a question (nor did i think it was any of my business).....that said, she does make jodie foster look positively feminine...

Posted by scooterzz Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 12:04 AM

comment #10

Terry McCarty Author Profile Page says ...

From the NYT profile:
Ms. Peirce’s first tangle with the complexities of success was “Silent Star,” a screenplay based on a piece of Hollywood lore about the unsolved 1922 murder of the actor and writer William Desmond Taylor. In 2001 she took the story to DreamWorks and began as a co-writer of the script. Two years later Evan Rachel Wood and Annette Bening had signed on to act in the film, but the deal with DreamWorks fell apart over budget issues, Ms. Peirce said.

I wish I could empathize with Ms. Peirce; maybe if she had figured out a budget she and the attached talent could live with and gone back to studio boutiques such as Fox Searchlight (which released BOYS DON'T CRY), Picturehouse, Paramount Vantage or Warner Independent--and been turned down AGAIN, I would understand.

Instead, she seems to not want to travel less than first cabin (sort of like Steven Spielberg, who ought to have shot THE TERMINAL guerilla-style in an actual airport in off-hours rather than blowing money on building a giant airport terminal set), wallking away from projects if they're not associated with "major" studios like DreamWorks (which tends to not know what to do with their occasional specialty-related product).

Posted by Terry McCarty Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 12:13 AM

comment #11

Craptastic Author Profile Page says ...

The Hilllary comparison was my first thought when I saw that pic.

And as a straight man I can honestly say that Jodie Foster is f'ing hot. From "Silence..." up to "Flightplan" she's been the cat's meow.

Never been able to pinpoint exactly why.... just always found her extremely attractive. But, then again, I'm strange in regard to taste. I'd love to have a Jodie, Bellucci, Diablo Cody, Delpy (insert sloppy metaphor here).

Wait. I got it! Smart and exotic. Screw you, Freud!

Posted by Craptastic Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 12:26 AM

comment #12

The Winchester Author Profile Page says ...

"Gus: More like an unattractive Tea Leoni."

So, DZ, you mean Tea Leoni.

Posted by The Winchester Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 1:57 AM

Posted by D.Z. Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 3:14 AM

comment #14

D.Z. Author Profile Page says ...

closer to=more like

Posted by D.Z. Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 3:16 AM

comment #15

The Hoyk Author Profile Page says ...

Strange...in last week's Sunday L.A. Times profile on Peirce by Paul Brownfield, there was this:

"I look back and it's like 'Boys' asked me and asked my culture some of the seminal questions that I will ask in my life," said Peirce, who is gay. "Same thing in this. My baby brother, who I brought home from the hospital and who represented pure innocence, was taught to be a soldier and to kill."

Why so matter of fact here and yet so gossipy in the N.Y. Times?

Posted by The Hoyk Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 5:52 AM

comment #16

corey3rd Author Profile Page says ...

Jonathan Demme could have made Boys Don't Cry, but he's been creatively dead since Oprah broke his ass on the set of Beloved.

Posted by corey3rd Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 6:20 AM

comment #17

Mgmax Author Profile Page says ...

So Kimberly Peirce made an independent film about a cross-dressing teenager, and we're debating whether she might be a lesbian? As I said another time on this site, "We're debating whether there might be something vaguely homoerotic about a movie in which the Phantom of the Opera runs around with his shirt off in a leather jockstrap?"

Posted by Mgmax Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 7:36 AM

comment #18

T. Holly Author Profile Page says ...

Hoyk, it sounds like the writer is clarifying Peirce's quote in a non-direct question about her sexuality, so it's ok. I don't think Peirce is hiding, she's just not wearing it on her sleeve.

Posted by T. Holly Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 9:32 AM

comment #19

MilkMan Author Profile Page says ...

#1: Pierce is a dead ringer for Hillary Clinton.
#2: With the exception of Hilary Swank's performonce, Boys Don't Cry was magnificently mediocre.
#3: What happened to Jonathan Demme. I mean, seriously, how the can the man who made Something Wild and Melvin and Howard not make a good film in, what, 17, 18 years?
#4: Demme gave hands down the worst acceptance speech in Oscar history.

Posted by MilkMan Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 10:05 AM

comment #20

DarthCorleone Author Profile Page says ...

Yeah, I agree it's an icky paragraph.

How is not profusely talking about her relationship demurring regarding her sexuality? She's not denying she's gay. She acknowledges her partner and gives a brief summary of what her partner does professionally.

The thing that she is demurring is talking specifically about her personal life, which anyone in her position has a right to do regardless of sexuality.

It's really rather ridiculous. Or just a very poor choice of words by Onstad.

Posted by DarthCorleone Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 11:10 AM

comment #21

George Prager Author Profile Page says ...

Icky paragraph. In the New York Times? Impossible!

Here's some Tea Leoni lookalikes (saying Kim Pierce looks like Tea Leoni is like saying she looks like Sam Elliott)

Andy Williams:
http://www.biography.com/biography/images/episode_images/Andy_Williams_320X240.jpg

William F. Buckley
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbuckleyW.jpg

Hal Hartley
http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_02_img0693.jpg

Jonatha Brooke
http://www.hrpac.org/summer2007/3_sum07.jpg


(I hope I didn't just create the D.Z. version of "Boner Jam 2003")

Posted by George Prager Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 11:47 AM

comment #22

The Bandsaw Vigilante Author Profile Page says ...

Since Arthur C. Clarke, like, just died and shit, a related question:

Wasn't Peirce at one point attached to an adaptation of Clarke's "Childhood's End"?

(Or still is? Big shock that both it and Kapur's "Foundation" movie will probably never see the light of day, considering that other intellectual-sounding film of hers got cancelled faster than a baby at Planned Parenthood.)

Posted by The Bandsaw Vigilante Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 11:56 AM

comment #23

D.Z. Author Profile Page says ...

Milkman: "With the exception of Hilary Swank's performonce, Boys Don't Cry was magnificently mediocre."

But was it as good as The Next Karate Kid?

Posted by D.Z. Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 12:12 PM

comment #24

AndrewOwens Author Profile Page says ...

After being ripped off by V and Independence Day, Childhood's End would probably be deemed as "unoriginal" nowadays; but I'd love to see those helpful, Satan-looking aliens on the big screen. Perhaps if you focused more on that rather than the "giant saucers hovering over the Earth" first part you could get it made.

Hope it's not 10 years until KP's next film.

Posted by AndrewOwens Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 12:34 PM

comment #25

Mgmax Author Profile Page says ...

Be careful what you wish for.

"Aw damn... I'm gonna hafta kick me some devil-lookin' alien ass!" -- Will Smith in Childhood's End

Posted by Mgmax Author Profile Page at March 23, 2008 12:57 PM

comment #26

Carl LaFong Author Profile Page says ...

Pierce on the Oscar red carpet: http://tinyurl.com/2zpevl

Posted by Carl LaFong Author Profile Page at March 24, 2008 11:24 AM

comment #27

Doug Author Profile Page says ...

Peter Sarsgaard was amazing in "Boys Don't Cry."

Posted by Doug Author Profile Page at March 24, 2008 2:32 PM

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