The New York City I grew up in is gone. The streets are still there, and most of the buildings, but there’s something fundamentally changed. And there’s something fundamentally changed in me, too. New York City isn’t the same in 2006 as it was in 1986, and neither is Devin Faraci.A Guide to Recognizing Your … Continue reading
You might remember me talking about a low-budget, completely indie movie coming out of Seattle called June & July. It’s been described as “Jim Jarmusch does Unbreakable,” and I think that’s perfect – it’s about 20-something twins, brother and sister, who live in a nowhere town and have nowhere lives. Oh, and she’s got super … Continue reading
Last night NBC’s new Monday line-up debuted in full with the first episode of Heroes, which was followed up by Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The media has been salivating about the possibility of Studio 60 failing – show creator Aaron Sorkin is, I guess, hated for being wildly talented and having the ability … Continue reading
One of my favorite elements of Robert Heinlein’s Job: A Comedy of Justice, is the concept that creation is cyclical, and that a pantheon of deities vie to see who will make the next one. The current creation was overseen by a very crabby, puritanical Jehova – the next one, in Heinlein’s book, is overseen … Continue reading
Things get dark for Harry Potter and the other students of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in the series. After the events of the last film – which saw Lord Voldemort returned – the magical world is in an uproar. Fearing that Dumbledore is building an army … Continue reading
Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland is complete. He seems to spiritually, as well as physically, metamorphasize into the brutal African dictator; his every action and movement is that of Amin, and while his face, with the droopy eye, remains recognizable as Whitaker, everything else reads completely, totally as … Continue reading
It’s hard to fault a movie marketing campaign that has people giving blood, always a worthy endeavor. I’m going to do my best to fault it, though, since it’s Saw III and I really dislike those movies. According to the folks at Posterwire, the first Saw blood drive collected 4,200 pints of blood. Saw II … Continue reading
Note from Devin: Thanks to Travis, a volunteer at this year’s Fantastic Fest, for taking some time to write up what he’s seen. Many films at Fantastic Fest don’t get wider releases, which means I won’t be seeing them at press screenings, so it’s great to have an early word on some interesting and weird … Continue reading
The first official stills from the 5th Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, appeared in The Scotsman, and one picture has made its way online. The image has Harry on the floor, about to unleash a patronus on a Dementor coming after him on the Hogwarts school grounds. There’s a … Continue reading
Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain – still the best film of the year in my eyes – has had a roller coaster reception at a couple of different festivals, and that reception probably foreshadows the critical and public reaction when this heady and emotional film is released in November. Some people get it and some people … Continue reading