Rep. Spencer Bachus faces insider-trading investigation.
Proposal for gay marriage referendum moves forward in New Jersey.
The ultimate 2012 SXSW trailers page.
Obama plans shift in birth control fight.
A star is born (and scorned).
Click here for pictures photographer Bob Willoughby took of Audrey Hepburn from 1953-66.
We're not exactly batting a thousand in this category, but we're pretty sure we got this year's winner pegged. Stupidly, we placed our bets the last two years on wrenching docs—one about the aftermath of the massive earthquake that rocked the central region of China, the other about a female soldier's post-traumatic stress disorder—only to see the voters indulge other fetishes. So, if topicality isn't exactly an asset for a film nominated in this category, we can safely rule out Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday's warmhearted but mundane The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, about a now-deceased activist who looks back on the early days of the movement in the days leading up to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 election. Yes, the 2008 election, which, at least for AMPAS members with proven short-attention spans, probably now feels as old as the silent-film era. Continue Reading »
Eric Kohn interviews Béla Tarr.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's new video may cause seizures.
The fight for gay marriage may hinge on Supreme Court's Anthony Kennedy.
Rescued dog bites anchor on the wrong network.
For Filmmaker, Cannes Artistic Director Therry Frémaux on the future of film festivals.
Ethan Hawke follows his heart.
David Phelps takes some notes on William A. Wellman's Wings.
Is it just us or can the Academy's infatuation with The Artist be felt even in categories where the film isn't nominated? Grant Orchard's The Morning Stroll, about a chicken stopping a passerby on a city street dead in his tracks, first in a time when films were referred to as moving pictures, then in our present day, and finally in a post-apocalyptic tomorrow where zombies have come home to roost, is cute up to the point that its artistry adopts the very ADD it increasingly thumbs its nose at throughout. A sweeter, more quaint vision, Patrick Doyon's Sunday is in essence also a study of human routine, only this one waxes nostalgic on the different world children and adults inhabit without a shred of condescension. Both Terrence Davis and Bill Plympton would love it…and we know how many Oscars each of those filmmakers have. Continue Reading »
A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday threw out a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage passed in 2008, upholding a lower court's ruling that the ban, known as Proposition 8, violated the constitutional rights of gay men and lesbians in California.
Bilge Ebiri presents the Amadeus Blogathon.
David Hudson collects trailers for films in competition at this year's Berlinale.
And The Guardian selects 10 films from the festival to look out for.
Chris Christie's whole Jersey fat-guy authenticity thing is, um, wearing thin.
Why Detroit loves Clint Eastwood.
And that Eastwood ad was David Gordon Green's best work in years.
The White House responds to Virginia anti-gay adoption bill.
Press Play kicks off its Oscar-prediction coverage.
Amazon stores might invade your neighborhood.
Josh Melnick and Water Murch in conversation.
Simpsons dolls banned in Iran as "promoters of Western culture."
The New York Giants win Super Bowl XLVI with 21-17 win over the New England Patriots.
M.I.A. upstages Madonna by flipping off the world during the Super Bowl halftime show.
And for those who only care about the ads, click here.
Ben Gazzara, the original Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway and star of numerous John Cassavetes films, passed away Friday. He was 81.
Iranian hardliners versus the Oscar.
Yesterday, the Art Directors Guild announced the winners of its 16th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards.
And the Annie Awards spread the wealth last night.
Bridesmaids is just glad to be invited, no? A "memorable" quote from the film according to IMDb: "You're like the maid of dishonor." Which makes me, an admitted fan of the film, cringe and feel as if I'm misremembering its high hit-to-miss ratio. Margin Call possibly fares worse, because is a line like "I don't get any of this stuff" a refreshing acknowledgement that market-speak is a language that even stock brokers struggle with or a sure sign that J.C. Chandor was too lazy to do his homework? Also out is Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, which faces the uphill battle of having to appeal to voters resentful of actually having to read the screenplay while watching the film. Then there's Michel Hazanavicius's blasé approximation of a silent film that would have been forgotten and lost to time—or an attic fire—had it been actually made in 1925. The reason The Artist won't win is easy: Continue Reading »
Susan G. Komen for the Cure said on Friday it was retreating from a decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood.
Megaupload founder refused bail in New Zealand.
U.S. jobless rate falls to 8.3 percent, a three-year low.
Roseanne Barr is running for president as a Green Party candidate.
Joshua Land on David Cronenberg and the challenge of the impossible adaptation.
Putting aside the Academy's shocking diss of Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin in this category, I was with Eric here at first: "I guess we should never underestimate this branch's desire to make the category look like it deserves to exist." The branch, after all, passed up Cars 2 and Happy Feet Two, films few seem willing to go out on a limb for—and Winnie the Pooh, well, that wasn't exactly the second coming of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. But after rallying to see the five films that made the final cut, I'm thinking that singing penguins might have actually legitimized this category.
The most delightfully animated feature in this bunch, Kung Fu Panda 2 is still at best a slab of warmed-over holiday seconds, and one whose statistical chance of winning is perhaps smaller than Demián Bichir's. Then you have Puss in Boots, another glossy trifle from the House that Shrek Built that frequently, if shamelessly, brought a smile to the face of this recently anointed cat person. A better dissertation on family than either of them is The Cat in Paris, the wafer-thin but quaint account of a young French girl who discovers that her kitty moonlights as a jewel thief's partner in crime. The film gets my personal vote by virtue of being the most unpretentious and least corporate-looking nominee in the category. Continue Reading »
SXSW has announced its film lineup.
Moments after being released by the Capitol police on Wednesday afternoon, Oscar-nominated Gasland director Josh Fox told POLITICO that by arresting him at a committee hearing, Congress made it clear he is persona non grata on Capitol Hill.
Sometimes you have to put a dog in Joan Didion's name.
Jean Dujardin is going into another meeting.
Head over to The Film Experience as Kurt Osenlund joins Ali Arikan, Mark Harris, Nick Davis, and Nathaniel Rogers to discuss the Oscar race for a few days.
NYPD arrest for marijuana soar in 2011, second highest on record.
Mitt Romney crushes Newt Gingrich with a big Florida win.
Soul Train creator Don Cornelius shot himself to death Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home. He was 75.
Photos by Renaud Monfourny.
Philip Glass is 75 and he is still an East Village staple.
Matt Zoller Seitz says Justified redresses its race problem.
MUBI rounds up reviews of Mark Cousins's The Story of Film.
Press Play contributors argue their favorite Oscar nominees.
Watch Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in Game Change.
Unease lingers amid a rebirth in Crown Heights.
Author Damien Bona, who I met some 15 years ago right out of NYU and humbled me not long after by thanking me in the pages of Inside Oscar 2, passed away yesterday at the age of 57. He will be missed for his wit, sensitivity, and bringing sanity to the yearly Oscar chatter.
Why Viola Davis gets it right.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky reviews HBO's Luck.
Why has Lana Del Rey's reinvention caused such a stir?
Armie Hammer is going places.
Peet Gelderblom re-cuts Brian De Palma's Raising Cain.
How the Academy Awards slant our views of movies.
What were the gayest (and straightest) Super Bowl halftime shows?
Ben Marcus urges writers to march on the enemy.
The Artist didn't get the most César nominations today.
Sasha Frere-Jones peers at Lana Del Rey's fixed image.
Related: Lana has bought the rights to her first "unreleased" record.
Fidel Casto is sometimes right.
The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony will reflect "people's Games," and hundreds of children will be pulled from ghettos all over the world for the production, says Danny Boyle.
D'Angelo is back.
The 12 worst ways to be killed by Liam Neeson.
John Hawkes chats with Jada Yuan at Sundance.
NBC is considering giving Dwight Schrute an Office spinoff.
What it's really like working for Mark Zuckerberg.
Setting your film in New York City can't hurt when it comes to Oscar.
Salman Rushdie is back on trial.
Nintendo losses deepen...but the Wii U will change that come Christmas.
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