Todd Haynes talks the contemporary parallels of Mildred Pierce and his possible next project with Julianne Moore.
Glenn Kenny relates to Steve McQueen's Shame.
The DVDs and Blu-rays of 2011 according to Sight & Sound.
James Franco sucks cock in The Broken Tower.
Madonna reveals new album title.
Slate's Katherine Goldstein recalls sitting in the back of a car with Arianna Huffington.
For Salon, Glenn Greenwald on the application of the word "terrorism" by Iran.
The original Planet of the Apes series was an unsubtle yet striking response to the turbulent times from which the films were made. In its own way, Rise of the Planet of the Apes seems to be branching off from a kind of apolitical unrest, not sure what it's fighting against but mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. While the human characters are presented with mild sympathy (particularly the attractive lead actors, James Franco and Frida Pinto), the audience is clearly intended to side with the apes. Maybe because the culture watching this film is generally dissatisfied, yearning for more, and not necessarily articulate about how they want to make it better, but it sure feels good to see the old system torn down.
Let's jump right to the most enticing part of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which is the final act where the apes have acquired a stunning level of self-awareness and storm the Golden Gate Bridge. Even though these beasts are obviously CGI, a post-production magic trick that's occasionally distracting in its obviousness, their spectacle of mayhem feels oddly vindicating. Who would have thought that an anarchic, cartoon-realized "dawn of the apocalypse" could pack such a crowd-pleasing jolt? Continue Reading »
The ascension of Louis C. K. from comic's comic to show business saint brings with it what the comedian himself might call "white-people problems."
In a stellar year for the novel, these five books stood above all others for Laura Miller.
A professor claims NYU fired him after he gave James Franco a D.
According to Slavoj Žižek, Ralph Fiennes's film adaptation of Coriolanus shows its versatility—and proves it is a better play than Hamlet.
James Benning on time.
David Fincher updates us on his upcoming projects.
Eddie Murphy follows his homophobic buddy Brett Ratner out of Oscar's door.
For The Paris Review, James Franco shows his love for the star-crossed films of Gus Van Sant.
J. Hoberman and Amy Taubin talk Lars von Trier's Melancholia and Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar.
Bill Keane, creator of The Family Circus, dies at 89.
Errol Morris interviews Stephen King.
President Obama and Congressional leaders of both parties said late Sunday that they had agreed to a framework for a budget deal that would cut trillions of dollars in federal spending over the next decade and clear the way for an increase in the government's borrowing limit.
Roman Polanski's Carnage has been selected to open the 49th New York Film Festival.
For Roger Ebert's blog, Odie Henderson contributes a piece on Sleep Furiously.
Our own Jesse Cataldo on Josef Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich's substance of style.
Now playing, 100 essential directors according to PopMatters.
Congrats to our friends Rose and Jen for getting married and making it into Glamour!
That's exactly what I would do, Michael.
Bilge Ebiri reviews Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Mike O'Brien spends seven minutes in heaven with Kristen Wiig:
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
Here are 45 reasons why you should donate $1 to the people of Somalia.
Why House Republicans are confident they have the upper hand in the debt-ceiling negotiations.
Download my girl Robyn's cover of "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" here.
Tune in to General Hospital today as the ubiquitous you know who makes a return appearance.
The muppets from Sesame Street break it down to my favorite Beastie Boys track.
Below is Michel Gondry's music video for Björk's "Crystalline":
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
If the U.S. defaults on its debts and sends the world hurtling into a global depression, will Eric Cantor be to blame?
Avant-garde pop yetis Portishead have announced a new North American tour.
Isabelle Huppert is set to be stripped bare by Hong Sang-soo.
James Franco felt trapped as an Oscar host.
Last night ABC News aired an investigation confirming that Michele Bachmann's husband tries to convert fellow homosexuals into heterosexuals.
Speaking of which, a sudden, inexplicable urge to play ping pong is clearly how the gay starts:
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
Confirmed: The penis above belongs to Anthony Weiner.
Tom Six's The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) gets banned by the Brits.
Over at GOOD, why white men should refuse to be on panels of all white men.
EW predicts the Tony Award winners.
James Franco's scarring collaboration with THE THING.
The owners of the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin are gangsta.
Is J.J. Abrams's Super 8 headed for box-office disappointment?
World's best or worst Dad? Leaning toward best at the moment.
A.O. Scott on David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, out today on Blu-ray:
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
It was a weekend of awards shows: The King's Speech was king at the Oscars while The Last Airbender was, um, tops at the Razzies and Black Swan prevailed at the Spirit Awards.
Gary Winick, director of Tadpole and, most recently, Letters to Juliet, died last night. He was 49.
James Franco to work with Harmony Korine?
Dave Kehr on the unleashed id of The Cable Guy.
Franco shares his Top 10 with the Criterion Collection
Matt Zoller Seitz on Franco's Oscars of apathy.
J. Hoberman reports on the death of his friend and Bob Dylan muse Suze Rotolo.
Last night's intro to the Academy Awards, featuring Franco and Anne Hathaway:
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
For Fandor, Nick Davis and Nathaniel Rogers talk Best Picture.
Eric Hynes celebrates the quiet performances that make loud, Oscar-winning ones possible.
Andrew O'Hehir and Matt Zoller Seitz ponder Oscar's Best Actor race.
The Guardian's Tom Shone wonders who calls the Oscar shots.
A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis answer a few Oscar-related questions from their readers.
There are eight ways the Oscars are going to be radically different this year.
Ricky Gervais wrote a fake script for Anne Hathaway and James Franco.
This ought to be chapter three in a series of prediction entries no longer than the amount of time it takes the orchestra to cut off the acceptance speeches of the winners in the short film categories. If you don't think Colin Firth is taking this one with, if anything, even more ease than Jeff Bridges coasted to his win last year, then you may as well put your money down on Hailee Steinfeld winning this category in a shock upset. Because she has as good a shot as at least two of the nominees that actually have a penis and roles nearly as central as hers. Not that being attached to a penis matters quite so much as being attached to a Best Picture nominee, especially one that recently all but swept the BAFTAs. A number of pundits have already pointed out, in comparing Firth's easy win here against Annette Bening's increasingly uphill battle to reach endgame over in Best Actress, how AMPAS continues to think that men age like fine wine and that women spoil faster than leaky, raw chicken breast tenders in a Styrofoam tray. Firth's emerging worry lines and crow's feet are as much to account for his easy win as his affected stammer as the emotionally crippled King Bertie, and the presence of a couple of actors whose youth and charisma make Oscar feel all funny in his special area only underline Firth's win. (For that matter, you might say Firth's Oscar chances last year weren't so much dashed by Bridges's battles with the bottle as they were by Tom Ford's taste in men, culled from the very same smoldering age bracket Oscar simply can't stomach.) Jesse Eisenberg managed to ride the coattails of what was once considered an Oscar juggernaut, and James Franco's extracurricular bid to snatch the title once held by James Brown. But Ryan Gosling and Andrew Garfield learned the hard way that the Academy is truly No Country for Young Twinks, just as Firth will now have to come to terms with the notion that his time as the thinking woman's sex symbol may not extend much longer beyond the time it takes to say, "I'd like to thank the Academy."
"Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Wednesday left intensive care for the first time since she was shot in the head in Arizona more than two weeks ago, the latest big step in the long road to recovery." Read the full story at The Huffington Post here.
The New York Review of Books on the truth about The King's Speech. Related: In Contention's Guy Lodge, one of the very few smart awards pundits out there, doesn't think Academy members are thinking too hard about this.
Patti Smith, the next Agatha Christie?
Azazel Jacobs's Terri is emerging as one of the richer Sundance entries.
FX's Archer hits its stride in its second season according to Matt Zoller Seitz.
Ridley Scott's Prometheus just got sexier.
Keith Uhlich has a new blog, Immediate Impressions.
Michael Atkinson on an LACMA series, running from Friday through February 5, honoring the late Claude Chabrol.
According to Paste, the 40 best robots of all time (fictional and real).
Brian De Palma's new one will be Passion, an adaptation of Alain Corneau's Crime d'Amour.
It would appear that Alejandro Jodorowsky has granted interviews to everyone except us. For The A.V. Club, Noel Murray chats with the cult director.
In more Sundance news, at least the kind that matters: Jury duty was was not an easy task for Kim Morgan, and James Franco explains how he will try and film what many consider the unfilmmable:
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
The second I heard Scott Foundas splooge over David Fincher's The Social Network prior to the film's New York Film Festival premiere for representing our cyber-obsessed times as importantly as All the President's Men captured its own eight-track era, I knew we had our Best Picture Oscar winner. Even then, it didn't seem like its star, a young Jewish kid who stammered his way memorably, if unimaginatively, through a handful of high-profile indies since 1999, would make it into the Best Actor horse race, even if the actor had finally, and scarily, succeeded in articulating on screen the sort of personal neuroses that might actually be attributed to someone other than himself. Flash forward four months and Jesse Eisenberg is the only actor standing in the way of Colin Firth's regal march toward Oscar victory—and by standing in the way I mean the shadow cast by the topmost curl on Eisenberg's head. Continue Reading »
Anne Francis, star of the sci-fi film classic Forbidden Planet and the TV series Honey West, died on Sunday of complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 80. Head over to The A.V. Club for a sweet collection of clips celebrating the actress's career.
Click here for the Producers Guild of America 2010 nominees.
Featuring a ballot from our own Glenn Heath Jr., DVDBeaver's yearly poll on the year's best DVDs and Blu-rays is now live.
The Social Network is tops with the Online Film Critics Society.
James Franco has some mighty, Southern-fried ambitions.
This year's Slate Movie Club is currently in progress.
According to the film critics at The New York Times, the Oscar nominees should be…
The folks over at The Playlist anticipate this year's movies.
3D Blu-ray is leading the charge to bring 3D into the home.
Colin Firth has opened a can of worms.
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
A video gallery of classic screen types produced by The New York Times Magazine. Tilda Swinton doing Falconetti. James Franco giving himself "one more." Music by Owen Pallett. Hawt.
The dinosaurs in the MPAA have overtuned Blue Valentine's NC-17 rating. Maybe now more people will actually get to see one of the most beautifully performed American films of the year.
Rolling Stone tool film critic Peter Travers predicts this year's Best Picture nominees has gifted us with his Top 10 of the year. For a palette cleanser, head over to The New Yorker where David Denby and Anthony Lane have also published their Top 10s.
Dan Callahan relives the glories of silent film goddess Gloria Swanson.
Richard Brody's DVD of the Week is Jean Renoir's great Boudu Saved from Drowning.
It won't be good, but Ridley Scott's Alien prequel will at least be sexy.
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.
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