Tag Archives: films

REVIEW: Never Let Me Go Can’t Get a Handle on Its Understated Source Material

For those viewers who haven’t read Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, and aren’t expecting an elegantly understated, devastating allegory of the human condition, Never Let Me Go might work on its own terms, as a classic love story with a sci-fi twist. But, like last year’s The Road , another loving adaptation of a contemporary classic, Never Let Me Go teases out the novel’s central drama but neglects the mysteries at its margins — the gathering clouds that actually produce the storm.

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REVIEW: Never Let Me Go Can’t Get a Handle on Its Understated Source Material

Jennifer Lopez Will Earn the American Idol Paycheck Paula Abdul Fought For

Our long national nightmare is over: According to TMZ , Jennifer Lopez has finally, absolutely , officially signed on to be your next American Idol judge. Lopez reportedly signed a one-year deal that will pay her $12 million to sit on the dais next to Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler, and if that amount sounds like a lot, just remember what Paula Abdul was asking for.

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Jennifer Lopez Will Earn the American Idol Paycheck Paula Abdul Fought For

When Werner Herzog Rescued Joaquin Phoenix: The Adorable Animated Version

Since I’m Not Here came out, have you been a little down on Joaquin Phoenix ? Remember the happier, somewhat saner times with this brand-new animated clip , which dramatizes an odd, years-ago encounter between Phoenix and director Werner Herzog where the latter came to the former’s aid after a car crash. We promise: There’s absolutely no face-defecating or back hair removal .

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When Werner Herzog Rescued Joaquin Phoenix: The Adorable Animated Version

Michael Sheen on His Latest TIFF Premiere, the Art of Preparation and Breaking Dawn Limbo

Another year of TIFF almost always means another year featuring Michael Sheen, and 2010 is no different. Though the subject most definitely is: The Welsh stage and screen veteran arrives this week with the world premiere of Beautiful Boy , featuring Sheen opposite Maria Bello as a dissolving married couple who must relearn how to live with each other after their son goes on a mass murder-suicide gun rampage at his college. Writer-director Shawn Ku’s debut feature goes a few places you might expect and a lot more you probably wouldn’t; Sheen spoke about the film, his role, his diligence at character “fusion,” and intriguing news about his future (or possible lack thereof) with the Twilight franchise.

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Michael Sheen on His Latest TIFF Premiere, the Art of Preparation and Breaking Dawn Limbo

At TIFF: Brighton Rock Extends the Graham Greene Adaptation Curse

In one of his sidelong memoirs, Graham Greene suggested that not only was the bullying he suffered as an English schoolboy the main reason that he became a writer, but that the character of Pinkie Brown, the anti-hero of his early novel Brighton Rock , was based on the scruffy ringleader who sent him running for the typewriter in the first place. Perhaps it’s a testament to just how much Greene loathed the punk he was modeled on that Pinkie is perhaps the least redeemed character in the author’s canon.

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At TIFF: Brighton Rock Extends the Graham Greene Adaptation Curse

20 Questions About Last Night’s VMAs…Answered!

America was faced with a very important decision last night: Watch Don Draper swim laps at the YMCA while delivering a haunting inner monologue about life or tune into the 2010 Video Music Awards. If you have any self-respect, you chose the former viewing option, but a sea of you masochistic little monsters probably parked your television on MTV to see Chelsea Handler unleash one untrained white dove from her nether region. Because that was the least confounding moment arising from the Nokia Theater last night, Movieline has decided to answer some of the other questions that you undoubtedly shouted at your television during last night’s 2010 VMA s.

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20 Questions About Last Night’s VMAs…Answered!

‘Get It Up or I’ll Cut It Off’: A Meditation on the Cinematic Brilliance of Machete Maidens Unleashed!

A few days back, after a festival day that began with two-hours-plus of French people talking incessantly while hiding their secrets from one another (Guillaume Canet’s snoozy Little White Lies ), progressed to a moody meditation on the agonies of preteen vampirism (Matt Reeves’ bracing Let Me In ), and was rounded off, just before dinner time, with a trapped James Franco sawing his arm off with a teensy knife (thank you, Danny Boyle), I wandered listlessly around the excessively dazzling and noisy Scotiabank screening complex. I wanted one more movie to finish the day, but what? A nice little Macedonian film, perhaps? Maybe I could find some three-hour Japanese thing with nice scenery.

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‘Get It Up or I’ll Cut It Off’: A Meditation on the Cinematic Brilliance of Machete Maidens Unleashed!

TV Bites: Jennifer Lopez Still Inching Slightly Closer to Becoming Your Next American Idol Judge

Also in this morning’s TV Bites: Fox makes parents Outnumbered … a Garth Brooks song becomes a Lifetime movie… Dan Aykroyd might stage a semi- Blues Brothers reunion on The Defenders … and more ahead.

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TV Bites: Jennifer Lopez Still Inching Slightly Closer to Becoming Your Next American Idol Judge

"We Have Everything": Mad Men Recapped

Because of S.T. VanAirsdale’s commitments up north at the Toronto International Film Festival — and perhaps because of last week’s knock-down-drag-out twelve rounder — the part of your trusty Mad Men recapper will be played by… me. Welcome all! Pull on your best pair of swimming trunks and click ahead for some thoughts on “The Summer Man.”

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"We Have Everything": Mad Men Recapped

Sofia Coppola Wins Venice Film Festival While Jury President Quentin Tarantino Is Accused Of Favoritism

Che dramma ! It’s been a whirlwind of emotions for Hollywood scionette Sofia Coppola in the last few days. Her new film Somewhere underwhelmed the audiences at the Venice Film Fest — Sad! But then she won the Golden Lion! — Happy! And now her ex-boyfriend and jury president Quentin Tarantino has been accused of blatant favoritism by the Italian press — Gasp!

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Sofia Coppola Wins Venice Film Festival While Jury President Quentin Tarantino Is Accused Of Favoritism