The world seems to be divided into those who loved last year’s heartfelt, Ryan Gosling-starring Crazy, Stupid, Love and those who loved last year’s head-stomping, Ryan Gosling-starring Drive. I’m not saying who’s right or who’s wrong. I am saying all right-minded folks should feast their eyes on our exclusive preview of the new, limited edition Drive poster the good folks at Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas and its collectible merch arm Mondo will be selling online starting this Thursday.
Image Credit: D Dipasupil/FilmMagic.com
Last night, I had the great honor of moderating a reunion of the Big Lebowski cast — Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, and the film’s music archivist T Bone Burnett — at New York’s Hammerstein venue. I learned a lot of things during the course of the night. Here’s the top 5…
1. People really love The Big Lebowski
Okay, as a veteran of several Lebowski Fests, this is something I thought I knew already. But I don’t believe I fully appreciated quite how much love this film inspires until I was faced with a sea of Dudes, Maudes, and Walters going berserk every time they heard the words “Lebowski,” “The Dude,” or “occasional acid flashback.”
2. These days, Walter raises pigeons READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Everett Collection
For me, today is like Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, my birthday, and International Bring-A-Pomeranian-Bowling Day all rolled into one. What in God’s holy name am I blathering about? Tonight, I will have the huge pleasure and honor of moderating a Big Lebowski cast reunion live onstage at the Hammerstein venue as part of this year’s Lebowski Fest New York. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, and the movie’s music archivist T Bone Burnett will all be present to talk about one of my favorite films of all-time, which is debuting today on Blu-ray.
While the event itself is sold out, EW.com will be live streaming and tweeting (#lebowskifest) the whole shebang. The pre-show starts at 6:30 p.m. ET and is hosted by Jeff Dowd, who inspired Jeff Bridges’ character, the Dude. Then the cast themselves will hit the stage at 8 p.m. So come back at 6:30 p.m. ET to watch EW’s live stream (embedded below) and me ask a bunch of incisive questions about working on the Coen brothers’ noir-stoner comedy classic — or to watch me get totally overcome by proceedings and start weeping White Russian-flavored tears. (Strong men also cry… Strong men also cry.)
Either way, it should be worth catching. Come on, that’s a great plan. If I understand it correctly, it’s a Swiss f—in’ watch!
Watch the live stream after the jump and entertain yourself with the trailer for the Big Lebowski Blu-ray, which is also below. And you can check out Bridges’ track “What a Little Bit of Love Can Do,” from his self-titled solo CD, which is released today. (UPDATE: Replay of pre-show and panel follows live stream.) READ FULL STORY »
One big problem with Hollywood “true-love” stories is there’s often very little “truth” in them.
Then along comes a movie like Like Crazy — an indie, not a studio picture — where the relationship is allowed to be so real, so subtle, and so heartfelt that it almost feels voyeuristic. Like a love note you find, and probably shouldn’t read, but …
That was the experience many had at Sundance watching director and co-writer Drake Doremus’ film at Sundance this year, about two star-crossed lovers (Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones) who fall intensely for each other in college only to find themselves separated by a continent and an ocean, but bound — hopefully — by something stronger.
When the movie’s first screening at Sundance ended, there weren’t just a lot of tear-streaked faces, but a lot of thumbs texting loved ones from afar. “This guy came up to me right after and he just broke down and said he’d just talked to the ex-girlfriend he hadn’t spoken to in five years, just there, there in the audience,” Doremus recalls. “He said, ‘The movie inspired me to act on something I’ve been feeling and thinking for many years.’ I was blown away.”
Like Crazy won Sundance’s grand jury prize and a best actress award for Jones, while Paramount Pictures and Indian Paintbrush bought the distribution rights for $4 million. Come Oct. 28, when it debuts in limited release, it’ll start playing to the masses.
But Like Crazy is one of those movies that will inevitably find its audience through word of mouth, just like the beautiful but shy friend you know others will swoon for if you just make the right introduction
So here it is — that intro: the first look at Like Crazy‘s trailer and a poster with an almost subliminal message, after the jump. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Everett CollectionAnyone who thought the 1986 movie About Last Night… was sorely underappreciated should consider this an excellent piece of development news: EW has learned that Screen Gems is considering whether to remake the romantic comedy that starred Rob Lowe and Demi Moore.
There’s no script at this point, much less a pair of actors who have agreed to fill the roles of a young man and woman who are attempting to date despite their personal issues and disapproving friends. (For your consideration, Screen Gems: We’d like to nominate Mila Kunis and Chris Pine!). But the interest is definitely there to dust off the movie and remake it for today’s audiences, insiders confirm.
The original flick was directed by Edward Zwick and based on the 1974 David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. It also starred James Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins.
Lowe continues to hold the film, which grossed north of $38 million, in high regard. When asked by EW in May to identify his five favorite roles, he ranked Night’s Danny Martin at No. 2. “It holds up really well,” he told EW. “It had a great pedigree, it was a David Mamet play adaptation, and it was funny and sexy.”
I’m surprised there’s been little media reaction to the casual comment President Obama made the other day about Where the Wild Things Are: The president was visiting a local public school, he’s known to be a big fan of Maurice Sendak’s book, he’s screened the movie, and, as reported in The Washington Post, he told his kid constituency, “it’s worth seeing.” Given the dust stirred up by adults when Obama made a speech to schoolchildren last month on the apolitical subject of studying hard and doing one’s homework, it’s easy to imagine a grown-up anti-Wild Things faction criticizing this Presidential film review as a partisan attack on moviegoers who don’t like stories about furry monsters.
You know what other movie President Obama really likes? This one: READ FULL STORY »
'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' fantastic year for animated movies
Owen loves Fantastic Mr. Fox and Disney’s A Christmas Carol, and so do I. And by my count , adding in Coraline, 9, Ponyo, and Up, that makes at least six animated feature films on my short list for best movies of the year.
On a related note, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences just announced that 20 titles have been submitted for Oscar consideration this year in the category of Best Animated Feature–guaranteeing that, for only the second time in Oscar history, there will be a full five nominees for the award.
I’m less interested in analyzing the tipping-point reasons why 2009 is a golden year for animation than I am in observing how animation in its many forms–hand-drawn, computer-assisted, stop-motion, motion-capture, 3-D, etc.-frees up inventive filmmakers to create original yet universally accessible stories that defy live-action logic and transcend audience demographics .
All by way of saying that Mr. Fox and his animal kingdom, Mr. Scrooge and his ghosts, and the box-headed old guy who hooks up his house to a bunch of balloons and flies south in Up are some of the most memorable characters of 2009. Which leads me to to a couple of questions: For fans, what’s your favorite animated movie this year? And for foes, well, what will it take for me to convince you to give the best pictures of 2009 a try?