January 2008
14 posts
Still Not Rated
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (1996) - 1 hour, 38 minutes. Watch (via Nerve)
“Kirby Dick’s documentary cannily combines Super Size Me’s mischievous muckraking with the sanguine raunchiness of The Aristocrats. It’s only natural, making an exposé about the secretive institution that is the Motion Picture Association of America, that Dick would want to show us just what it is...
Trailer: 'Son of Rambow'
Imported quirk for 2008: coming across as something like Lil’ Rushmore or Harry Potter and the First Blood - Garth Jennings’s (director of Hitchhiker’s Guide, one half of music video production duo Hammers & Tongs) Son of Rambow, an homage to the 80’s, camcorder creations, and childhood do-it-yourselfing.
Will, unable to make new friends and forbidden to watch TV or...
'Michael Clayton' Script
Bourne Trilogy screenwriter Tony Gilroy’s first directorial outing, Michael Clayton, was just re-released to theaters over the weekend as Warner Brothers capitalizes on new interest due to its 6 Oscar nominations. Gilroy’s original screenplay and Direction received Oscar noms, George Clooney is up for Best Actor, and co-stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson are also in the race for...
How She Reviewed
In lighter news, Joel McHale of The Soup introduces the movie of the week:
Ledger
Tuesday evening, Pat O’Brien was among a panel of six or so guests to appear on Larry King Live, talking about how he had earlier rushed to the scene outside Heath Ledger’s Manhattan apartment - no doubt to offer some invaluable analysis of the star’s personal life. As he recounted the events, CNN replayed a loop – the second-go-round was in slow motion - of Ledger’s body...
'There Will Be Blood', 'No Country' Lead Oscar...
NYT/Associated Press
Whether the eight nominations for both P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood and the Coen Brother’s No Country for Old Men lead to Oscar night payoffs is another thing altogether, but for today the two best films of 2007 received their just deserts. No huge surprises for pictures selected as the year’s best at this morning’s announcements by the...
Trailer: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in 'Baby Mama'
We’re in the middle of the Preggo-dy renaissance. What with Juno being Knocked Up and now Baby Mama, they comprise the much ballyhooed prenatal trilogy that harkens back to the golden (bronze?) age of baby laughs, where Junior, Three Men and a Baby, and Look Who’s Talking left off. Tina Fey stars as 37 year-old exec, infertile but looking to have a child at any cost, until it rings...
Top 20 Most Filth Flarn Filthy Films
So a documentary about the origins and use of the word “Fuck” takes the top position for the most F-words used in a film, according to Box Office Psychics (hat tip to Film Junk), and good on them. In fact, it nearly doubles the use of the F-Bomb as the runner up, the 1998 Gary Oldman drama, Nil By Mouth. Martin Lawrence has the prestigious honor of landing on the Top Ten all on...
iTunes Movie Rentals Launched
Everyone saw it coming, including Netflix, who just yesterday took the cap off their “Watch Instantly” service, allowing for unlimited streaming movies (LAT). Just as speculated, at this morning’s Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs announced that iTunes will feature movie rentals, effective today. All major studios represented, including Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline,...
The Four Minute 'Wire'
Although you don’t have to look long to find HBO’s The Wire heralded as the Best Series on Television, or The Best Drama at least, one thing the series is not, is new-viewer friendly. Trying to brief a first-timer looking to jump in at the season 5 premiere required some disclaimers, like “you know, there’s about a hundred reoccuring characters. It’s very...
Get Your Scripts: No Country, Juno, The Savages,...
Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney in The Savages
Update: sorry folks, Fox Searchlight has removed the PDF links for their scripts.
Miramax Films and Fox Searchlight have made the screenplays from some 10 Oscar hopeful films available for download on their respective For Your Consideration pages. (Hat tip: I Watch Stuff)
Miramax:
— No Country for Old Men: script (PDF). Written and...
I’m Calling to Procure a Hasty Pop Reference
By now we’ve all had ample opportunity to latch on to pop-juggernaut Juno, with its Oscar worthy performance from break out star Ellen Page and memorable supporting work from Jason Bateman. That young Michael Cera was around for a short stint, though the trailers and ads-on-repeat would have us believe that he offered much more in both screen time and presence. Directed by Jason Reitman -...
Old Business: 2007 Archives
A sampler of popular entries from the year that was:
— Charlie Rose with the Coen Brothers, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin on No Country For Old Men (30 minutes)
— Head-slapper of the Year: Entertainment Weekly asks, “Would you feel swindled if you showed up to see a movie called There Will Be Blood and got a period piece about crude drilling? Is this a case of smart...
Letterman’s Shot to Take Back the Night?
After two months of WGA strike induced downtime, David Letterman, strike-beard and all, joined Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and Craig Furgeson in returning to their late night slots (NYT) Wednesday night for fresh programming. Thanks to an exclusive deal reached last Friday between Dave’s Worldwide Pants production company and the Writer’s Guild, he and Craig Ferguson were the only...