'What About Bob,' and other things only Bill Murray can get away with :
Bill Murray might be America's favorite celebrity prima donna.
Bio: Simon Abrams writes about comics, books and movies for The Comics Journal, L magazine, The New York Press and Slant Magazine. You can find a lot of his writing here.
If he’d had an eye for irreverence, Norman Jewison might have been the next Nicolas Ray. Like Ray, the director of Rebel Without a Cause and various other dramas about radical outcasts, Jewison’s films celebrate the underdog. “Relentless Renegade,” the comprehensive retrospective of Jewison’s work this week from the Film Society at Lincoln Center, highlights some of his best films and a number of also-ran titles. More
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on May 27th, 2011 7:10amIf you want to know about why Taiwan's culture is what it is, go to the Film Society at Lincoln Center’s “Taiwan Stories,” a then-and-now retrospective of Taiwanese cinema, and focus on the “then” part of the survey. More
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on May 6th, 2011 9:35amWhen you think of tsunami relief, you probably don’t think of low-budget zombie movies featuring girls with chainsaw-swords for arms.
Apparently, Japan Society programmer Samuel Jamier didn’t either, at first. But sure enough, Helldriver, a grisly zombie horror comedy directed by Tokyo Gore Police director Yoshihiro Nishimura, is screening this Thursday at Japan Society to help raise money for relief efforts in Japan. More
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on April 28th, 2011 12:00pmKaneto Shindo’s melodramas are about war, but they’re not about combat or fighting. In focusing on the domestic aftermath of violence, Shindo’s movies are like the war movies that François Truffaut tried to imagine when he posited that there was no way to make an anti-war film. More
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on April 22nd, 2011 7:49amRobert Redford’s career as a director has become defined not by what his films prove that he can accomplish but rather what they promise to deliver. His works range in quality from the excellent Quiz Show to the abysmal The Legend of Bagger Vance. Redford’s new film, The Conspirator, is not a great one. More
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on April 14th, 2011 9:59pmBrian De Palma’s thrillers depend on two kinds of conspiracies. There’s the kind that emboldens the individual and destroys his or her sense of self. And there’s the kind that seeks to bury him or her alive. “De Palma Suspense,” BAMcinemathek’s 13-day series, showcases the struggle between both kinds of intricate plots. More
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on April 8th, 2011 3:28pmWhen you first meet Joe Cross in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, he looks about as slick as any other self-made guru and weight-loss expert. Cross spends much of his film stumping for something called the "Reboot juice fast," a detoxifying crash diet that requires participants to consume only home-made juices made from a blend of green vegetables and fruits. He talks with easy confidence and he clearly has his sales pitch down cold. More
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on April 4th, 2011 1:39pmWhen actress Setsuko Hara retired in 1963, she disappointed her fans and further deepened her allure as “The Eternal Virgin,” a nickname she was lovingly given when her acting career was at its peak. Hara is best remembered for her starring roles in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) and Late Spring (1949), both of which are playing at Film Forum’s tribute to “5 Japanese Divas,” which also highlights the work of former child star Hideko Takamine and international starlet Machiko Kyo. More
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on April 1st, 2011 1:47pmComfort and Joy is a comedy about a Scottish DJ who settles a dispute between warring ice cream distributors. The film, by Bill Forsyth, perfectly encapsulates his blue-collar, hubris-deflating philosophy of life, premised on the notion that random circumstances more responsible for major changes in people's lives than individual choices. His heroes win when they accept their limitations. More
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on March 25th, 2011 12:19pmOur first act, when we hear about anyone doing a remake, is to ask why.
That's just how it goes most of the time. Remakes have to work harder to justify their existence than any other kind of film, harder, even, than literary adaptations. More
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on March 18th, 2011 12:35pm
