My rule of thumb with graphic novels is that damn near everyone short of my mother has to recommend a specific title before I start buying up back issues. This way, I get to experience grand stuff like Sandman and Hellboy while avoiding a heap of crap I would absolutely waste my time reading if … Continue reading
Frankly, I just hope this story is the truth, as the last time I linked to a Variety piece about a new Ricky Gervais movie, it had a very deep foundation in bullshit. This project, however, sounds like the genuine article. Currently titled This Side of the Truth, it’s a comedy set on an alternative … Continue reading
"There is a large, loud question right at the center of “Cruising,” and because the movie lacks the courage to answer it, what could have been a powerful film dissipates its force and leaves us feeling merely confused and annoyed. The question is: How does the hero of this film, an undercover New York policeman, … Continue reading
One year after Laura Ziskin presided over the blandest Oscar broadcast in my lifetime (as opposed to the most disastrous broadcast in my lifetime, which entailed Rob Lowe warbling "Proud Mary" with Snow White), producer Gil Cates is back in the saddle for the 754th time, and he’s wisely bringing back Jon Stewart, who, in … Continue reading
The following is excessively juvenile even by my standards. Whether you took David Fincher’s Fight Club as satire or generational rallying cry (FYI, there’s only one correct reading, and if you’ve at any point slugged it out with your bare-chested buds in a suburban basement to… feel… something, you read poorly), there’s no denying that … Continue reading
Paul Haggis is one of the most divisive artists of our era, and not just because of his politics. After Crash, his microcosmic examination of race relations in America, shocked many industry observers by winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2006 over Ang Lee’s generally favored Brokeback Mountain, Haggis has been either hailed … Continue reading
You could choose to believe that the forthcoming strike by the Screen Actors Guild is responsible for Roman Polanski backing out of the $100 million Pompeii, but that would require buying producer Robert Benmussa’s excuse that he just now discovered the June 30, 2008 work stoppage might prove problematic for the production’s August 2008 start … Continue reading
Let me get this a little less than straight: Jennifer Hudson, hot off of winning Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Effie White in Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls, has just joined the cast of Sex & the City: Bigger, Deeper & Unprotected? While I loved Hudson in Dreamgirls (and, by the way, loved Dreamgirls in … Continue reading
The twisted team of David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen prove persuasive enough to distract from screenwriter Steven Knight’s parade of contrivance and convention in the Russian mob melodrama, Eastern Promises. Though far from Cronenberg’s best, the director is certainly more comfortable within the confines of the prestige picture than he was a decade ago with … Continue reading
If you were watching the MTV Video Music Awards just now… I’m sorry. Thankfully, one of my good friends was sacrificing his brain cells for reasons he’ll explain later (I’m the high-minded sort, watchin’ some Indians/Angels baseball), and was good enough to pass along the news that loyal CHUD reader Shia LaBeouf says the title … Continue reading