Movie City News

Journalism Fails

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

Astonishingly, history might argue that Sam Zell was only the *third-worst* owner in recent Tribune history.https://t.co/qIuKLRE0ai — Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) November 20, 2019 Michael Ferro sells Tribune Publishing stake, prompting fears of staffing cuts

Read the full article »

“When the cars are swept into that big sandstorm and the music escalates, ” Bong Joon-ho Says Of Fury Road, “I felt like my soul was escalating too, and tears just came out of my eyes. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a master at work.'”

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

“When the cars are swept into that big sandstorm and the music escalates, ” Bong Joon-ho Says Of Fury Road, “I felt like my soul was escalating too, and tears just came out of my eyes. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a master at work.’”

Read the full article »

About The New Book On Manny Farber As Critic And Painter

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

About The New Book On Manny Farber As Critic And Painter

Read the full article »

Behind Pentagram’s Revamp of the Historic WB Shield

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

Behind Pentagram’s Graphic Revamp of the Historic WB Shield

Read the full article »

Arthouse Deaths in LA

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

First the Westside Pavilion Cinemas, then the Sunset 5, now the Music Hall….all the arthouses of my youth have bit the dust https://t.co/wOryTFaWGZ — Micah Gottlieb (@micahgottlieb) November 20, 2019 In the 30's thru the 50's going 2 movies was convenient as theaters in cties & villages were short walking distance. Convenience, not always content,…

Read the full article »

“I’ll assure you, I’m not as bad as in the movie,” Almodóvar says. “I have the feeling now that people love me more than before. And they think that they have to express that feeling toward me, which is wonderful, but they think I’m much worse off than I am.”

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

“I’ll assure you, I’m not as bad as in the movie,” Almodóvar says. “I have the feeling now that people love me more than before. And they think that they have to express that feeling toward me, which is wonderful, but they think I’m much worse off than I am.”

Read the full article »

Taxi Driver origins

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

“I had to create this character or else I was going to become him.” —Paul Schrader on the origins of TAXI DRIVER and its main character Travis Bickle. pic.twitter.com/nn1LrXROcn — TIFF (@TIFF_NET) November 20, 2019

Read the full article »

Google Places Some Restrictions On Targeted Political Ads

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

Google Places Some Restrictions On Targeted Political Ads

Read the full article »

Excerpt from Get Out: The Complete Annotated Screenplay

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

An Excerpt from “Get Out: The Complete Annotated Screenplay”

Read the full article »

Diablo Cody On Musicalizing “Jegged Little Pill”

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

Diablo Cody On Musicalizing “Jegged Little Pill”

Read the full article »

UK-Educated Russians Are Upholding Putin Regime, Says Newly Released Ukrainian Filmmaker Oleg Sentsov

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

UK-Educated Russians Are Upholding Putin Regime, Says Newly Released Ukrainian Filmmaker Oleg Sentsov

Read the full article »

Breznican Avengers

By Ray Pride - Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

So consider this an exit interview for #AvengersEndgame If you love it 3000 — and have seen it almost as many times — I hope you'll still discover surprising things here.https://t.co/UpJodTJErj — Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) November 20, 2019

Read the full article »

Gurus o’ Gold: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor (Nov 19, 2019)

By The Gurus of Gold - Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

Now The Gurus take on the four acting categories. Netflix represents about a third of the nominations. Two people of color slot in the Top 5s. A surprise in the Supporting Actress Five.

Read the full article » 2 Comments »

Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)

By David Poland - Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

In a weird way, since the original started with the women’s childhoods, they made Frozen 2 into a prequel or origins story, even as it moves forward.

But the problem… the stakes are external, not internal. Arendelle needs to be saved… again. Elsa has to learn about her magic… again. Anna is adorable… again.

And the songs are… good. It’s like writing a sequel to Grease. Or writing a sequel to any great-song musical. Good. Luck.

Read the full article » 7 Comments »

Randy Newman Remembers His Earliest “Square” Rock ‘n’ Roll: “Peyton Place”

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

Randy Newman Remembers His Earliest “Square” Rock ‘n’ Roll: “Peyton Place”

Read the full article »

Lord On Knives

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

Well. #KnivesOut is a masterpiece. An instant classic. Quietly incendiary, riotously joyous, hysterically funny and absolutely vital. Screw @rianjohnson and his poopy head — Phil Lord (@philiplord) November 15, 2019

Read the full article »

Gurus o’ Gold: Best Picture (Nov 18, 2019)

By The Gurus of Gold - Monday, November 18th, 2019

The season has started at least a dozen times by now. But today is the day that The Gurus are back. A first look at Best Picture today, with Best Actor & Best Actress coming tomorrow.

And guess what? The #1 slot on the chart belongs to… 2 movies.

Read the full article »

“I wish that I’d have had your experience when I was in my teens. Jane Tennison was the first. Her ambition and her self-interest and the fact she knew she was better than most of the people—most of the men—around her. The way she had to be quite ruthless. The way her relationships with her parents, her family, her boyfriend all got pushed to one side for her job. There hadn’t been anything like that.”

By Ray Pride - Monday, November 18th, 2019

“I wish that I’d have had your experience when I was in my teens. Jane Tennison was the first. Her ambition and her self-interest and the fact she knew she was better than most of the people—most of the men—around her. The way she had to be quite ruthless. The way her relationships with her…

Read the full article »

Local Content

By Ray Pride - Monday, November 18th, 2019

Have you ever heard of "Magnificent Century"? The Turkish TV drama has hundreds of millions of global viewers, and it's part of a rising wave of cultural movements emerging from the East and eclipsing American soft power around the globe. https://t.co/JHTT3ZlzwH — New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) November 15, 2019

Read the full article »

Anthony Hopkins

By Ray Pride - Monday, November 18th, 2019

Thank you Harte International Galleries.It was a pleasure to meet everyone. Thank you for inspiring me to continue painting.@HarteIntGallery pic.twitter.com/y1IUxgL7t7 — Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) November 17, 2019

Read the full article »
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Movie City News

Archives Comments Most Recent

“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