Movie City News Archive for April, 2019

Grauniad

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

There is a future for independent, progressive, enlightened, committed, quality journalism. Thanks to @guardian for showing the way forward, after years of constant efforts and initiatives. To understand how it was done, read @arusbridger Breaking News. https://t.co/fUvPvRwGlL https://t.co/Pa4boKcFZw — jean-paul marthoz (@jpmarthoz) May 1, 2019

Read the full article »

Koehler on Scorsese

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

Yes! Can we please retire this loathsome corporate-speak word “content”? Can we all agree to avoid the word, when it comes to art? “Content” is about cereal, soup, crackers, powdered soap. It’s not about books, movies, music, poetry, dance, art. https://t.co/HbXcoeinK6 — Robert Koehler (@bhkoe) May 1, 2019

Read the full article »

Ruimy poll

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

Critics' Poll: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Movie of the 2010s. https://t.co/gwWS4oGX6p pic.twitter.com/Y2SmkFeq0h — Jordan Ruimy (@mrRuimy) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

Keanu

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

https://twitter.com/dazed/status/1123285890812354560?s=21

Read the full article »

Keanu

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

The Legend of Keanu Reeves https://t.co/fh6rMLJb4G pic.twitter.com/76DuCTu5Zc — GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) April 21, 2019

Read the full article »

Stephanie Allien

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

‘Boys N the Hood’ Producer Stephanie Allain on John Singleton: ‘He Changed History’ https://t.co/9gMuqFA4n7 via @variety — Stephanie Allain (@StephanieAllain) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

Green Book

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

'Green Book' Producer Says Film Was Aimed at Older White Audiences https://t.co/1hPoddlYf1 — Cinema In Noir (@CinemaInNoir) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

Clayburgh

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

A remarkable actress. https://t.co/RgO5BUAEmC — Michael McKean (@MJMcKean) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

Patty Jenkins

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

Simply shocked by the loss of the great John Singleton. I'll never forget seeing his films for the first time. Changed the world for everyone. Will be missed and remembered. — Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

Rechristened Film at Lincoln Center Celebrates 50 Years

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

Rechristened Film at Lincoln Center Celebrates Fifty Years

Read the full article »

motherfuckers

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

I’ve always admired that John Singleton kept the rejection letters for BOYZ N THE HOOD framed in his office "just to remind me these motherfuckers don't know shit.” RIP. — Sean Burns (@SeanMBurns) April 29, 2019

Read the full article »

Satter / DuVernay Singleton

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

Beautifully said! John Singleton was a giant anong us, his films broke ground and will be long remembered. It’s a very sad day. https://t.co/PkzBrgUBEt — Michelle Satter (@SundanceSatter) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

singleton best moment

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

This is just beautiful. Captures what made John Singleton a joy to be with… https://t.co/Ou6sMozPMb — Larry Karaszewski (@Karaszewski) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

So, very sadly, I am re-upping my earlier memory of talking with John Singleton for his brilliant Boyz N The Hood. He told me his local library was his refuge, opening his eyes to the world outside his 'hood…. https://t.co/3rcYyR2kUJ — Joanna Langfield (@Joannalangfield) April 30, 2019

Read the full article »

Memphis Singleton

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

John Singleton was a significant presence during what now seems like a heyday of Memphis filmmaking. Craig Brewer, Al Kapone, others remember: https://t.co/6KIf6lY73Q pic.twitter.com/5iUUTk5bI3 — John Beifuss (@JohnBeifuss) April 29, 2019

Read the full article »

Sam

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

Mourning the loss of a collaborator & True Friend John Singleton. He blazed the trail for many young film makers, always remaining true to who he was & where he came from!!! RIP Brother. Gone Way Too Soon! — Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) April 29, 2019

Read the full article »

Rodriguez

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

27 years ago, I was newly landed in Hollywood and got to visit my already legendary filmmaking hero John Singleton on the set of Poetic Justice. He took the time off from set to talk, offer words of encouragement, and told me to work from the heart. Rest in peace, John. pic.twitter.com/mZe0guejvv — Robert Rodriguez…

Read the full article »

Peele on Singleton

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

RIP John Singleton. So sad to hear. John was a brave artist and a true inspiration. His vision changed everything. — Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) April 29, 2019

Read the full article »

Young John Singleton

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

At 24 years old, John Singleton became the first black person, and youngest person ever, to be nominated for Best Director. #RIPJohnSingleton pic.twitter.com/jIklyT5ycQ — Dusty (@huskydusty) April 29, 2019

Read the full article »

Siskel Singleton

By Ray Pride - Monday, April 29th, 2019

"It's…risky to proclaim a new force in film based upon just one film, but BOYZ N THE HOOD is good enough to suggest that John Singleton is going to be a major player for a long time."- @chicagotribune critic Gene Siskel in his 1991 ★★★★ review of the film. #RIPJohnSingleton pic.twitter.com/YjTHymBN6H — Gene Siskel Film…

Read the full article »
« Older Entries

Movie City News

Comments Most Recent Archives

“I don’t think it’s cruel to say this, because John himself would undoubtedly have turned it into a gleeful anecdote: When he had the stroke that killed him, he was at a local dinner theater. Hell of a review.”

“I am inclined to aver that every activity needs its critics, from narcissists bloviating in Washington to exhibitors of knee holes in their blue jeans by way of following a fad. So, too, tennis players and others wearing their caps backward. There is, to be sure, only fairly innocuous folly in puncturing pants or reversing caps, but for political or artistic or religious twisting of thought or harboring holes in the head there is rather less excuse. I have always inveighed against the bleary journalism practiced by newspaper reviewers, as opposed to the real criticism performed by, well, critics.”

“I often felt a twinge of grief at the idea that John Simon had devoted his life to a method of work that could only make him increasingly unhappy. Here was a man, elegant, articulate, and vastly knowledgeable, fluent in at least half a dozen languages, whose gifts of mind gave nothing back to the arts he wrote about except a few unkind remarks that made fun of someone’s performance, ethnicity, physical attributes, or, with a pun, on his target’s name. (“If this is Norman Wisdom, I’ll take Saxon folly.”) Other theatre critics keep such darts in their rucksacks for occasional use; John lived by them.”

“One person’s critic is another person’s crackpot. That they are not united in their opinions is ascribable to the Latin saying: quot homines, tot sententiae. I myself prefer being considered a creep, but that is what you get for having what Vladimir Nabokov called ‘Strong Opinions.’ It is odd that in a country so wallowing in negativity, starting with mass shootings and climaxing with Trump, such an unimportant matter as theater criticism should generate so much hostility. The only target patently more important is lead in the drinking water.”

Review: Little Women (no spoilers)

The DVD Wrapup: Cold War, Betty Blue, Official Secrets, Demons, Olivia, American Dreamer, Land of Yik Yak

20 Weeks To Oscar: Cinema, Trump, and Oscar

E. Scott Weinberg On Youthful Fangoria Encounters

Rome Bookstore Closes

With a Grauniad-Alleged $300 Million Budget, Could The Yet-Unseen But Surely Weird Cats Pass A Billion Dollars at The Box Office?

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon