

Columns By Noah ForrestForrest@moviecitynews.com
Precious is Great Melodrama
I have to start this piece by saying that I’m a young, white male. I’ve lived in New York City since the early part of this decade. I have no idea what it is like to be a sixteen-year-old black girl in 1987 Harlem. I cannot comment with any authority about whether or not the story told in Precious is…
Read the full article »O Christmas Tree
Published under 1,000 Monkeys. I love everything about the Christmas season, from the decorations to the Christmas music piped in to all the stores to the lights brightening up all the houses. I love planning what to get each of the kids, baking Christmas cookies, and listening non-stop to Christmas music on the radio until…
Read the full article »Gobbling to (Ex)Success
It was the biggest Thanksgiving box office ever with last weekend’s leaders continuing to lead the way. Twilight: New Moon added an estimated $43.1 million to its burgeoning larder and The Blind Side was close behind with a $40.2 million tally for the three-day portion of the holiday carving. The five-day frame generated revenues of…
Read the full article »Of Indie Film and Insularity
This Thanksgiving weekend, as I ponder my abundant blessings, one of the things I’m most thankful for is having a job that allows me not only to watch a lot of movies, but to see many of them at film festivals far and wide. As I write this, over the past couple years we’ve seen…
Read the full article »Me and Orson Welles Red Cliff, The Road, and Ninja Assassi
Me and Orson Welles, Red Cliff, The Road, and Ninja Assassin Me and Orson Welles (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.; Richard Linklater, 2009 In Me and Orson Welles, Richard Linklater, a director whose films I usually like, takes on a highly ambitious subject that really appeals to me — a portrayal of the astonishing…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs Three Monkeys , Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Angels & Demons, Funny People, and more…
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW Three Monkeys (Three and a Half Stars) Turkey/France/Italy; Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2008 (Zeitgeist Films) Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the brilliant Turkish cineaste (Distant, Climates), whose exquisite visual tableaus, minimalist plots and flair for long dramatic silences, irresistibly recall the heyday of Michelangelo Antonioni, here offers more plot than usual, in the…
Read the full article »Scott Z. Burns Screenwriter of The Informant

In this podcast, Noah talks to Scott Z. Burns, the screenwriter of The Informant! about working with Sodebergh and Damon, unreliable narrators, and Dog Day Afternoon. Listen to Noah Forrest Podcast with Scott Z. Burns
Read the full article »Rebecca Miller and the Trials of Woman
Every time the latest romantic comedy opens, I am befuddled when it’s successful. Films like The Proposal or He’s Just Not That Into You make tons of money and when I ask why, I’m inevitably told it’s because women flock to these films. When I inquire as to why women would flock to such inane films, I’m told that…
Read the full article »Home is Where My Heart Is
Published under 1,000 Monkeys. Why 1,000 Monkeys? David and I spent a lot of time talking back and forth about a new name for this more philosophical, life-stuff column. One day in frustration, I said to David, “If you put 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters, they could never write the craziness that is my life…
Read the full article »Green Moon, Emerald Moon
Wow! Twilight: New Moon set a clutch of records as it rocked weekend movie going with an estimated $141.6 million debut. It was the biggest fourth quarter debut of ALL-TIME. In what ranks as the second biggest grossing weekend box office EVER, there was also a potent second place bow for the inspirational race drama…
Read the full article »Gone With the Wind
Despite its antebellum subject (it opens with a text scroll that suggests slave ownership was somehow ‘gallant’), Gone with the Wind was the first ‘modern’ film, the first color epic to make extensive use of special effects (albeit matte paintings) and to replicate the sweep and depth of a novel, while instilling it with the excitement…
Read the full article »Downhill Racer
Four decades and umpteen Warren Miller films later, the skiing sequences in Michael Ritchie’s 1969Downhill Racer are still hold-your-breath-and-don’t-blink thrilling. In fact, the whole movie is thrilling. Deftly staged and then masterfully edited, every sequence in the 101-minute feature is exquisitely succinct and yet abundantly rich in conveying the psychologies and emotions of the characters. Robert Redford stars…
Read the full article »Lukas Moodysson Director of Mammoth

This week Noah talks to one of his favorite filmmakers, Lukas Moodysson, about his new film Mammoth, working with Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, globalization, and Margot at the Wedding. Listent to Noah Forest Podcast with Lukas Moodysson
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Star Trek, Gone with the Wind, The Exiles, Fight Club, Humpday and more…
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW Star Trek (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.; J. J. Abrams, 2009 The latest Star Trek movie, called simply Star Trek, is a genuine audience-pleaser, a film that
Read the full article »Let’s Blow Up the Planet!
How is it possible that some critics have given 2012 a pass? I’m not an elitist. I understand that sometimes you just want to put down your twelve bucks and see a spectacle. I don’t always need my films to be contemplative or poignant, sometimes I enjoy seeing a purely visual feast that shows me some really…
Read the full article »Memory Lane
Published under 1,000 Monkeys. Why 1,000 Monkeys? David and I spent a lot of time talking back and forth about a new name for this more philosophical, life-stuff column. One day in frustration, I said to David, “If you put 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters, they could never write the craziness that is my life…
Read the full article »Not with a Whimper … but a Bang!
Critics were derisive of 2012 but the new age apocalyptic disaster saga was warmly embraced by the public to an estimated debut of $63.7 million. The competition largely steered clear of the cinematic tsunami though the oft-delayed rock valentine Pirate Radio went limited wide to OK returns of $2.9 million. The frame also saw a…
Read the full article »Precious Things
Back at Sundance last year, when Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire was first unveiled for critics with little fanfare but high hopes, quite a few folks thought it would never see the light of day off the fest circuit. Too dark, too depressing, too tragic … with little redemption or justice to buoy…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Up, Wings of Desire, The General, Heat, The Ugly Truth, Mamma Mia!, Monsters, Inc. and more…
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW Up (Four Stars) U. S.; Pete Docter, 2009 Up, this year’s new Pixar picture, flies
Read the full article »The Best Film of the Decade
As the aughts near a close, we’ll be seeing more and more lists dedicated to the best films of the decade. It’s only natural; as film fans and writers, we love to put things in lists. I like making lists, looking at other lists, having discussions about how stupid or smart a certain film writer…
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