My favorite part of talking with Paul Feig about THE HEAT on June 6, 2013 happened right before we started the interview. Having sworn off coffee, he was sipping tea (see photo) and telling me how much he missed a cup o’ java. When I offered to move my coffee where he couldn’t see it,… Read More »
Tiffany Ward & Rob Minkoff Bring MR PEABODY & SHERMAN to Glorious Life
You better be careful when you take on a classic. For more than one generation, Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman were must-see television, as were the other denizens of the Jay Ward animation world, which includes Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Dudley Do-Right. Other adaptations for the big screen of Ward’s work have not been successful,… Read More »
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE says Justin Simien
To say that talking with Justin Simien was a master’s class in film and culture theory is understating it. Simien believes that film is the culmination of everything we do as a culture. This is why he invoked Spike Lee, Paddy Chayefsky, George Orwell, and Moliere in our conversation about DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, his bracing look… Read More »
TOP FIVE = Top Flight
TOP FIVE starts a little out of chronological sequence with two protagonists walking down a Manhattan sidewalk discussing art and life. Specifically art versus life with one opining that a movie is just a movie while the other disagrees. The man, as we will shortly learn, is Andre Allen (Chris Rock), superstar funnyman and recovering… Read More »
Kristen Wiig & Bill Hader are THE SKELETON TWINS, Craig Johnson Is Their Writer/Director
Click here to listen to the intervew. With the quick wits of THE SKELETON TWINS stars Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader in play, it was perhaps inevitable that our interview on May 1, 2014 occasionally dissolved into laughter and fol-de-rol. Along with director and co-writer Craig Johnson, they regaled me with a sharp stream-of-consciousness humor… Read More »
THE PROPOSAL
What almost saves THE PROPOSAL from itself is a pair of performances by Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds that have a bold and bracing bite of snarkiness to them. Alas, the formulaic nature of the script requires that they both warm up to each other and in the process, while their characters find true love,… Read More »
BIG TROUBLE
BIG TROUBLE, you might recall, was pulled from its original fall 2001 release because of the incidents of 9/11. The film’s finale features a plane hijacking and a really big bomb. Releasing it then would have been so far beyond wrong that a whole new circle would have had to be added to Hell order… Read More »
TAMMY
There is a reason that the trailers for TAMMY show star/co-writer/co-producer Melissa McCarthy at her manic best. Those are, without doubt, the best moments of the film. Its not that McCarthy isnt equally adept at a poignant sort of drama, with which TAMMY is, unfortunately, rife. I have no doubt that one day McCarthy will… Read More »
THE SHAPE OF THINGS
Neil LaBute starts his latest film, THE SHAPE OF THINGS, off with a sly dig at what the story is going to be about. His stars are not given character names in the credits, they’re listed as “actress” or “actor” in much the same way that credits traditionally list “director” or “writer”, both of which… Read More »
SAVED!
What would Jesus do? That’s the theological conundrum at the heart of SAVED!, a smart, sharp, and ultimately compassionate consideration of just that question. And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, consider the biblical injunction to judge not lest ye be judged. Open your mind, the way many people in this film just won’t, and… Read More »