

Columns By Noah ForrestForrest@moviecitynews.com
I Want to be The Son of Rambow
Director Garth Jennings is one half of the British production team known as Hammer & Tongs (along with producer Nick Goldsmith) and together they made a bunch of commercials and music videos. I took note of who they were about nine years ago when I saw their video for Blur’s “Coffee and TV” which I thought was…
Read the full article »Poehler Opposiyuks
Comedy was king as a rare instance of a trio of laughers led weekend movie going. At the top of the list were newcomers Baby Mama and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay that bowed to respective estimated grosses of $18.2 million and $14.5 million. The session’s third national opener – the thriller Deception…
Read the full article »Leatherheads and The Ruins
When I finally caught up to George Clooney’s latest directorial effort, I found myself kind of astounded by the critical reception; most just shrugged it off as something of a light, fanciful throwback film. t’s true that it’s all of those things, but that doesn’t really get to the heart of the matter, which is that…
Read the full article »Fagetaboutit!
The anticipated dust up between the Jackie and Jet in Forbidden Kingdom and the naughty bits of Forgetting Sarah Marshall saw the martial artists draw in an estimated $20.8 million and the latest comedy from the Apatow corral gross $17.4 million. The opening strength of the two films left poor seconds for the Al Pacino…
Read the full article »Vadim Perelman
Vadim Perelman had the sort of feature film debut most filmmakers dream about but rarely are able to realize. An acclaimed director of commercials, he optioned the novel House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, adapted it for the screen with Shawn Lawrence Otto and co-produced the film with Michael London. The tale of a young woman…
Read the full article »Summer Movie Preview
Only the most elitist curmudgeons do not look forward to the summer movie season. Sure, it’s not likely that we’ll find works of art that stand the test of time, but that’s not what we look for during the summer months. I’ve long been of the belief that quality movies should be released year-round, not…
Read the full article »Into the Wild
As an actor, Sean Penn has exhibited an appreciable range in the characters he has portrayed, but as a director, he seems permanently locked into one emotional aesthetic, that of the sophomoric adolescent male. Each of his movies has been gratingly obvious and whiny, striving so hard and with such tunnel vision to achieve certain emotional…
Read the full article »Hop To It
Weekend movie going dressed up and gave its corsage to the scare fare Prom Night that bested all comers with an estimated $22.8 million. Another freshman, the tough cop Street Kings ranked second with a so-so $12.1 million and the limited wide release preem Smart People entered the fray with respectable revenues of $4.2 million….
Read the full article »This and That
My Blueberry Nights Wong Kar Wai is definitely a visionary filmmaker; perhaps one of the best currently working. This is a man who has credits like Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046under his belt. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the man’s work, but I’ve always respected the loving care…
Read the full article »Pulitzer Day

When the Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, I was working at a small newspaper a few miles down the interstate, editing copy and reviewing the occasional movie. No other film critic had been so honored, and I suffered no delusions about following in Roger’s footsteps any time soon, if…
Read the full article »Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was the sort of movie icon that received either grudging respect or abject derision rather than the praise or affection extended such contemporaries as William Holden and Burt Lancaster. The caricature is one of a face permanently cemented in some tense fashion with teeth clenched. The verity of his filmography contradicts such easy comic illustrations….
Read the full article »Leathertails … Oops!
The thrill of victory eluded the debut of Leatherheads as its estimated $13.4 million weekend trailed the $15.4 million sophomore session of 21. The frame’s other freshmen releases also opened on the dull side with the family friendly Nim’s Island grossing $13.2 million and the horror entry The Ruinsbowing to $7.6 million. In the continuing…
Read the full article »Bonnie and Clyde
In the throes of my adolescence, I loved Bullitt madly, and the company that had produced and distributed the film, Warner Bros., also produced and distributed Bonnie and Clyde, a movie that I saw when it first came out and greatly admired. In those days, there was no such thing as home video and successful…
Read the full article »Can’t Get Him Pegged
Run, Fatboy, Run is a fine movie; it’s simple, entertaining and utterly forgettable. Still, for some reason this viewing experience was a profound disappointment – despite the fact that I knew going in that the film would be a strictly by-the-numbers affair, replete with all of the usual clichés of the tired genre of “lazy…
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