Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ll admit it: I don’t read the art coverage on Slate so I’m unfamiliar with the rest of Lee Siegel’s work. I also am not a huge Spike Lee fan. I think he’s made a few great movies, a large number of incredibly mediocre ones, and he hasn’t really changed much as a director allContinue reading “STILL DECIDING IF THIS IS THE DUMBEST INTERVIEW I’VE EVER READ: SPIKE LEE TALKS TO SLATE, AND I FEEL SORRY FOR HIM”

You see, my little rant yesterday about the cafe Tillie’s in my new Brooklyn ‘hood was truly written with sadness and not venom. And just now I discovered why I really need a place like Tillie’s. You see, there’s this Starbucks I found in Manhattan, and, as I’ve alluded to, I come here regularly becauseContinue reading “THIS IS WHY I NEED TILLIE’S”

December is here and that means we can look forward to plenty of new releases timed specifically for awards consideration. The coming weeks will be chock full of Oscar bait from Brokeback Mountain and Memoirs of a Geisha to Munich and The New World. And that doesn’t even take into account wanna be blockbusters likeContinue reading “THE WEEKEND IN PREVIEW: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM”

So yesterday I wrote this little ditty about the Gotham Awards and I suppose, to some degree, I questioned their credibility. Today, after reading about the winners (via indieWIRE), I can’t help but question it further. Capote as Best Feature? Are they kidding? Capote is not a great movie. It’s a great performance — several,Continue reading “SHOCKED BY THE GOTHAMS: FORGETTING WAS A BETTER IDEA”

I’m always sad when I learn about a writer whom I admire saying goodbye to his or her website. Obviously, it’s sadder when it involves someone actually dying, and that’s certainly not the case here. (In fact, it appears some of the opposite end of the life spectrum is involved.) Still, I just learned tonightContinue reading “SADNESS (ALBEIT NOT TRAGEDY) IN THE FILM BLOGOSPHERE”

Over at MBToolbox today, Claire Zulkey posted what’s basically an outline of a chunk of Robert McKee’s infamous “Story Seminar” (which she actually found here). Her premise was that McKee’s seminar (which in my book went from localized film-community “fame” all the way to infamy with its dead-on representation in the brillian Adaptation) is soContinue reading “COMPLETE McKEE FOR ALMOST FREE”

Oh dear. I don’t mean to get away from the whole entertainment thing so quickly again, but I have to vent just a wee bit. As I’ve mentioned (over-and-over-and-over), my apartment search and move was somewhat horrific. Now, I’ve been in my new apartment nearly a month, and I’m still not completely settled. My roomContinue reading “THE FIRST NEIGHBORHOOD DISAPPOINTMENT — TILLIE’S OF BROOKLYN”

The Independent Feature Project was started back in 1979 to support independent filmmakers making no-budget films. Over the past 26 years, the IFP had grown into an important institution within the film community, quickly spawning a Los Angeles-based chapter in 1980 and eventually also expanding to Chicago, Seattle and Minneapolis. (There was also a MiamiContinue reading “OH YEAH, THE GOTHAMS. SORRY, I FORGOT (SILLY IFP)”

Since I already have the tribe on my mind today, it seems only natural that this unbeknownst to me news should hit especially powerfully. On Monday I posted at Gothamist about the “Evening with Woody Allen” at Lincoln Center during which Allen would apparently sit for a Q&A and audience members (for between $30-100 aContinue reading “WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE’S JEWISH?!?!?”

The newly renamed Film Independent (formerly IFP/LA, recently split-off from the rest of IFP and decided to show its independence by creating the incredibly stupid acronym FIND — Film INDependent) announced its nominations for the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards today, and while the qualification of movie for consideration as an “independent” film is always aContinue reading “OH YAY! IT’S TIME TO START OBSESSING OVER NOMINEES”