It looks like me placing The Squid and The Whale at the top of my Best of 2005 list really worked out for writer/director Noah Baumbach – he’s got a new dramedy in the works at Paramount Classics and it will star Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Leigh is Baumbach’s newlywed wife, by the … Continue reading
I was in the bookstore a few weeks back and a copy of Marley & Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog caught my eye. It’s a book by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan, about his dog Marley, a Labrador retriever who was very poorly behaved. I flipped through the book and came … Continue reading
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is brilliant, hilarious, wonderful and warmly entertaining. The concept is simple and complicated – Tristram Shandy is known as a book that is impossible to adapt for film because of its purposefully jumbled structure (it’s an autobiography that gets so sidelined by tangents and asides that the author … Continue reading
The strangest thing about Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble isn’t that it was shot on a shoestring budget with non-actors in all the roles, or that it’s being released essentially simultaneously in theaters, on cable and on DVD. It’s that what begins as a meditation on the lives of small town people suddenly veers into a murder … Continue reading
Annapolis is the perfect movie for someone who has never before seen one. The film is aggressive in its attempt to hit as many clichés as possible in its running time, while shamelessly cribbing – and occasionally flat out ripping off – other, better movies. The only interesting character arc in the whole thing is … Continue reading
Steven Soderbergh is one of the most important directors working today. You just can’t argue that. His Sex, Lies and Videotape kick started the indie film revolution in the 80s, and since then he and his peer Richard Linklater have gone on to define the ultimate modern career path, balancing thoughtful, intelligent and personal films … Continue reading
Sweet thing Zooey Deschanel will bring her incalculable adorability and mushmouth delivery to the front of the classroom for Bridge to Terabithia, Disney’s adventure flick based on author Katherine Paterson’s award-winning children’s book. The story follows a young small-town boy who befriends the new girl in class, and together they create an imaginary realm where … Continue reading
Steven Soderbergh is one of the most important directors working today. You just can’t argue that. His Sex, Lies and Videotape kick started the indie film revolution in the 80s, and since then he and his peer Richard Linklater have gone on to define the ultimate modern career path, balancing thoughtful, intelligent and personal films … Continue reading
I gave up on the Tuesday New York Times crossword puzzle. This was ego shattering – I can always solve the puzzle easily up through Thursday. See, the puzzle gets harder every day, starting very simply on Monday and ending in insanity on Sunday. The Sunday Times Magazine puzzle is the kind of thing you … Continue reading
Joe Wright made last year’s really excellent version of Pride & Prejudice, which made me very interested in the future of his career. Now he’s turning his eye to remaking a thriller – but don’t worry, it’s nothing you’ve ever heard of, so you probably won’t be able to muster much more than the bare … Continue reading