While “The Wrestler” is busy thrusting Mickey Rourke back into the spotlight and picking up Golden Globes wins and Oscar nominations, its screenwriter, Robert Siegel, is starting to promote his directorial debut, “Big Fan.” “Big Fan,” which premiered at Sundance last week, explores the other side of the issues addressed in “The Wrestler”: the sports fanaticism that graces/plagues many American households. (Click here to read more…)
“Mammoth” features Gael Garcia Bernal (”Amores Perros,” “Y Tu Mamá También,” “The Motorcycle Diaries”) and Michelle Williams (”The Station Agent,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Wendy and Lucy”) as a successful New York couple whose busy careers have consequently taken a toll on both their own lives and, albeit indirectly, the lives of the individuals around them.
Leo (Garcia Bernal) handles entrepreneurial decisions for his booming website; Ellen (Williams) spends long hours dedicated to saving lives as an emergency surgeon. Tom’s business ventures eventually land him a trip to Thailand that changes his life forever; Ellen grows increasingly frustrated as she struggles to spend time with her own daughter because of the nature of her work. Triangulating the narrative is Gloria (Marife Necesito), the couple’s Filipino maid, whose absence from the Philippines is a cause of discontent for her own loved ones back home.
Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (”Show Me Love,” “Together,” “Lilja 4-ever”) directs in the English language for the first time, weaving together a tale of three individuals across national boundaries and cultural dividing lines. It’s all inevitably reminiscent of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Babel”, but here’s hoping Moodysson’s unique approach toward cinema—combining rich naturalism with profound Christian spiritualism—can push “Mammoth” above the sea of hyperlink movies dealing with the collective human experience that has emerged in recent years.
The lineup for Indio Valley’s BEST (…well, only) Spring alternative music festival is officially online.
This means you finally get to a) start compiling your “Who To See” list for each day, b) bitch about why your favorite “underground” band didn’t make the list or how “it’s not as good as last year…” (to which I’d have to disagree) and c) start figuring out how you’re going to get down there.
So along with this year’s batch of blog favorites (No Age, Vivian Girls, Crystal Castles) and mainstream ticket-sellers (The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio), you’ve got your classic artists (The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Leonard Cohen!!), PUBLIC motherfuckin’ ENEMY (just a little bit in love with Chuck D and the boys, that’s all), and … oh yeah, that one guy from the Beatles. Paul … something? I swear it’s on the tip of my tongue. Oh God, it’s going to bug me until I can remember…
For the past decade, Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky have been individually responsible for some of contemporary cinema’s most original and exciting works. Here the two auteurs discuss the making of their latest films—”Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Wrestler”, respectively—in this series of studio clips released last month by Fox Searchlight. Definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of either director and/or of their films. Enjoy!
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
It’s no stretch to say that “Slumdog Millionaire” has come a long way since its world premiere at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. A really long way. In hindsight, it looks like winning the festival’s Best Picture award did nothing if not jump-start the Western world’s obsession with Danny Boyle’s kinetic mix of heart-warming love story and Dickensian portrait of urban life. Already the winner of four Golden Globes and the odds-on favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, “Slumdog” made even bigger advances in its awards season run when it snagged top prizes at both the Producers Guild Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards this past weekend.
I wonder. In line with public perception of films like these (and by this I mean technically accomplished, feel-good films with little hype surrounding them that transform into awards season darlings), what place does “Slumdog Millionaire” have in cinema history? (Click here to read more…)
If you never thought that action and adventure could blend so seamlessly with quirky Mac software, oh how wrong you were. MacHeist is a site that purveys independent Mac programs in bundles for extremely low prices. Clever tools, fun games and useful apps are plentiful here. What’s more, the site runs alternate reality events to promote their sales, giving the users a dossier, a mission and clues to solve. For every mission solved, you get a discount to the purchase of the software bundle, which is only $49 to start with.
Did I mention that you get something like seven programs, each worth $30 or so dollars alone?
This week’s opening is a big one. I’m sure you’ve all seen the poster in the BART stations for the last couple of months. I’m also sure that most of you have heard of this show, and many of you have probably even seen it. But did you know that “Wicked,” the “popular” (haha, get it?) Tony-award-winning musical got its start in our very own San Francisco? “Wicked” spent some pre-Broadway time in San Francisco in 2003 before it went on to be an international hit, with productions in London, Germany, Tokyo, Australia and of course LA and New York. But now the show is coming back to SF and will starting off it’s run at the Orpheum Theater with previews beginning tonight, Wednesday. (Click here to read more…)
It’s pretty safe for me to say that my roommate Vinod knows little to nothing about my favorite band of the past 10 years, the Black Lips. That being said, I can certainly assume that the Black Lips know nothing about my roommate Vinod.
However, if by some act of a higher being, the two parties were to have met, he could have delivered a very important warning to the self-proclaimed “flower-punks.” Namely, “stay out of India.” (Click here to read more…)
So it turns out that everyone’s favorite pot-dealing mom, Mary-Louise Parker of the popular TV show “Weeds” (who is actually also a Tony winner), is now on Broadway, playing a much more psychotic woman in a revival of Henrik Ibsen’s famous 1890 play, “Hedda Gabler.” The play follows the mental unraveling of it’s title character, who has married well to an aspiring academic, only to find her life void of excitement, love, and heavily dictated by social constraints. Produced by Roundabout Theater company, directed by Ian Rickson and featuring a new translation (from the original Norwegian) by Christopher Shinn, I first thought that this new “Hedda” could be appealing.
Appealing, that is, until this afternoon when I read Ben Brantley’s review in the New York Times, which is probably one of the most negative theater reviews I’ve read in a while. I mean, he really didn’t like it. After all, the title of the review is “Hedda’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day”. I am not sure it is possible to be more clear about how bad the show is without devolving into vulgarity. And it’s the NY Times, so that’s pretty much as vulgar as you can get. One of my favorite lines: “With this “Hedda” it’s not just that everyone is bad. It’s that they’re all bad in their own, different ways”. Ouch.
ns
I think we all can agree that UC Men's Octet should have won it all....
warriorwoman
Save your snarky comments with regards to Cornell. It's apparent you haven't taken the time to listen to the album Scream more than once. If you WOULD take the time to read through some of the lyrics, you'd see Cornell in them. Listen to his voice and his harmonies in the music. Pure...
