George R. R. Martin took a break from killing Starks today to send us this list of the notes he would send to the producers of TV shows if he were put in charge of them. [NOTE: We made this up.] Here’s what he dashed off for us, in between…
Anyone trying to run a civilized country should know that throwing musicians in jail for making music is always a bad idea. That didn’t stop Vladimir Putin’s government from arresting three members of the punk collective Pussy Riot, after the group stormed the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the…
Superman is an idea. OK, fine. Technically he’s an intellectual property—a set of data points slammed together by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the 1930s, sold for $130 to National Allied Publications (later DC Comics/TimeWarner), and subsequently transformed into a nugget of multivariously exploitable content that has netted entertainment…
Eager young people can’t find jobs; qualified older people can’t find jobs. There’s nothing funny about that, which is exactly why someone ought to be making comedies about it. The Internship, in which downtrodden old-school salespeople Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson enter the 21st century and land internships at Google,…
Grab a sweater and your snack of choice, you’ve got some movies to see. Here are our top picks for flicks this June. Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector @ FilmBar No matter the niche, there’s almost always a following. Take, for instance, VHS. The entertainment…
Take that film degree and stick it where the sun don’t shine, because Arizona’s own Grumpy Cat (a.k.a. Tardar Suace) just landed her first movie deal. See Also: Our Nine Favorite Faces of Tardar Sauce, The Grumpy Cat from Arizona The Grumpy Cat Does the Harlem Shake (Sort of) The…
You’re either with Brit Marling or you’re against her. The 29-year-old filmmaker (who describes herself on Twitter as a tree climber/actor/writer/producer) catapulted out of obscurity in 2011 with two obfuscatory indies — Sound of My Voice and the mournful sci-fi drama Another Earth. Marling specializes in films about faith, loyalty,…
For the fans left bereft by his 2012 death, it’s impossible to imagine a more exquisite, honest, and beautifully detailed documentary about the life of Levon Helm than Jacob Hatley’s Ain’t in It for My Health. This film seems as much man as it does movie, capturing the many sides…
There are times during the affecting tumult of What Maisie Knew when you may think, “At last, a first-rate American movie about what being a kid actually feels like!” And then there are times when, despite the scrupulousness of co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s adherence to the perspective of…
Turns out, Ricky Jay is one of those guys who has to sit in the restaurant with his back to the wall. That’s not just because the sleight-of-hand master and historian of magic is — as interviewees in this new doc attest — a cantankerous sort who is thick with…
“Least you got to see a motherfucker crucify himself,” Richard Pryor spits in the most surprising footage director Marina Zenovich has unearthed for her new documentary Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic. The scene is of Pryor’s last great cock-up just before his last, great comeback. Pacing restlessly before a Hollywood…
Wait, you didn’t know that After Earth, the Will Smith–Jaden Smith sci-fi adventure hitting theaters this weekend, is the latest from Shyamalan, he of The Sixth Sense fame and Lady in the Water infamy? Columbia Pictures has done everything in its power, in both trailers and print and TV advertisements,…
The surprise twist in the new M. Night Shyamalan film is that the film is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a fact that the movie—like the posters and commercials—won’t admit until after you’ve already sat through it. While at heart a Pinkett-Smith family bonding project, the kind of sci-fi play…
How would you feel if the object of your affection canceled plans with you? How would you feel if, earlier that day, you expended a lot of energy preparing for those plans — plus you were late for work and class and just had an overall disappointing day and this…
The newest season of ABC’s The Bachelor/ette television legacy begins this week. It’s bound to be full of drama and romance with new bachelorette Ms. Desiree Hartsock sweeping her gents off on grand adventures all over the world. But let’s be honest, that’s only half the reason to watch. The…
Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, and Zach Galifianakis are back. Fans of the trio (a.k.a. The Wolfpack) will find it hitting the road and theaters this weekend in The Hangover Part III. And, if the movie’s poster is any indication, then all bets are off. See also: Lens Flares and the…
The unlikeliest of all the Hangover trilogy’s comic implausibilities might be its four pampered, rich-boy leads unironically calling themselves the “Wolf Pack” without anybody ever making fun of them. In the slobs-versus-snobs comedies of the 1970s and ’80s, the snooty rich kids were always the antagonists, bullying the nerds and…
There’s one key truth that separates the tank-topped gearheads of the Fast and Furious movies from the rest of us. Every problem these lugnuts face can be solved by doing the one thing these lugnuts love most: driving really fast. It’s what it would be like if you could deal…
New York is a cruel and beautiful place, just as 27 is a cruel and beautiful age. In Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig plays a woman who’s feeling the weight of both. Frances is an aspiring dancer who has reached the age when “aspiring” really means not cutting it. Life with…
Expectations here in Cannes were high — or at least semi-high — for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, in which Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Gosling play a mother-son duo with what might politely be called unresolved issues. Gosling’s Julian has always played second fiddle to his older brother,…
You know those two little lines you get in your forehead when you frown? The ones that, if you frown too much, stick there for good? The French have a name for that: “the lion wrinkle.” And by the 10th day of Cannes, there are a lot of lion wrinkles…
Ladies and gentlemen — anyone, really, who cares about his or her mug — step right up. According to a bit of advice proffered in one of the festival editions of The Hollywood Reporter a few days back, the beauty product to buy while in Cannes is Avibon, an “only-in-France…
