NYT > Movies

To Blacks, Precious Is ‘Demeaned’ or ‘Angelic’

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:31:17 GMT

“Precious,” about a disadvantaged young woman played by Gabourey Sidibe, left, has sparked controversy over its meaning.“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” has sparked heated debate about its meaning since its limited release.

Movie Review | 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon': Abstinence Makes the Heart ... Oh, You Know

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:51:57 GMT

Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) transforms to a wolf and approaches Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) in The Twilight Saga: New Moon.The big tease turns into the long goodbye in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

Movie Review | 'Broken Embraces': Almodóvar’s Happy Agony, Swirling Amid Jealousy and Revenge

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:59:25 GMT

Penélope Cruz and Lluís Homar watching television in a scene from Pedro Almodóvar’s “Broken Embraces.”Can there be such a thing as exuberant melancholy? I can’t think of another way to describe the spirit of “Broken Embraces.”

Movie Review | 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans': A New Orleans Mystery: A Cop So Bad, He’s Good

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:31:28 GMT

Nicolas Cage plays the title character, and Eva Mendes is his girlfriend, in “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.”Pain, addiction and craziness fuel “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.”

Oscar Short List of Documentaries Draws Controversy

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:02:49 GMT

Mike Tyson in a scene from the documentary “Tyson.”A screening committee from the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences overlooked at least a half-dozen prominent films.

Film: Opening Wide His (Repaired) Heart

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:05:14 GMT

After heart surgery, the comedian Robin Williams has become more introspective and more grateful for what he has.

A Surprise Gets Buzz for Oscars

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:28:29 GMT

Worth the Oscar campaign? Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart.”“Crazy Heart,” a low-budget film about a washed-up country singer, finds itself at the heart of the Oscar race.

Movie Review | 'The Blind Side': Steamrolling Over Life’s Obstacles With Family as Cheerleaders

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:34:55 GMT

Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher in “The Blind Side,” directed by John Lee Hancock.“The Blind Side” is a movie made up almost entirely of turning points and yet curiously devoid of drama or suspense.

Movie Review | 'Mammoth': Bourgeois Bohemians, There’s a Price to Pay

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:50:24 GMT

Michelle Williams, Gael Garcia Bernal and Sophie Nyweide in “Mammoth,” directed by Lukas Moodysson.In “Mammoth,” when a rich child eats her lunch in New York, a poor boy in the Philippines cries.

Movie Review | 'My Dear Enemy': Feelings Close to the Surface

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:41:27 GMT

Ha Jung-woo and Jeon Do-youn in “My Dear Enemy.” Lee Yoon-ki’s “My Dear Enemy” may confound your expectations of a South Korean film.

Movie Review | 'Planet 51': A Misunderstood Alien, but Not as Smart as E.T.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:58:10 GMT

“Lem” voiced by Justin Long and “Chuck” voiced by Dwayne Johnson in “Planet 51.”The agreeable but flagrantly unoriginal “Planet 51” belongs to the mix-and-match school of animated moviemaking.

Movie Review | 'The Sun': When Dusk Finally Settled on the Emperor

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:21:48 GMT

Issey Ogata as Emperor Hirohito and Georgi Pitskhelauri as a bowing American adjutant in "The Sun."Alexander Sokurov’s “The Sun” looks at the emperor Hirohito in the murk of Japan’s surrender.

Movie Review | 'Red Cliff': It’s Good Guys vs. Bad Guys on a China-Size Scale

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:52:17 GMT

Tony Leung stars in the epic film “Red Cliff,” which reunites him with the director John Woo.With “Red Cliff,” the director John Woo goes back to his violent roots.

Movie Review | 'Staten Island, New York': Gazing Longingly at Manhattan

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:45:44 GMT

Ethan Hawke in “Staten Island,” directed by James deMonaco. If “Staten Island, New York” is an ode to what it calls “the forgotten stepchild of Manhattan,” it is a barbed and quirky one.

Movie Review | 'The Missing Person': Probing Psychological Wounds

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:46:38 GMT

Michael Shannon in “The Missing Person,” directed by Noah Buschel. “The Missing Person” is a moody, modern-day noir about derailed lives and suppressed memories.

Movie Review | 'Defamation': The Past in the Present

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:46:56 GMT

A scene from “Defamation,” directed by Yoav Shamir. In his disorganized and somewhat annoying “Defamation,” Yoav Shamir, an Israeli filmmaker, tries to stir up a tempest.

Movie Review | 'Fix': A Single, Frantic Day

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:44:36 GMT

Shawn Andrews and Olivia Wilde in “Fix,” directed by Tao Ruspoli. “Fix” dashes headlong through Los Angeles with a little charm and a lot of verve.

Movie Review | 'The War on Kids': What Ails Public Schools? Better Ask, What Doesn’t?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:40:12 GMT

A student at Columbine High School, which has many surveillance cameras.A shocking chronicle of institutional dysfunction, “The War on Kids” likens our public school system to prison and its disciplinary methods to fascism.

Film Series and Movie Listings

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:07:27 GMT

MOVIES.

Essay: Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:51:34 GMT

Scientists give many reasons not to worry about predictions based on the Mayan calendar that the world will end in three years.

Hollywood Dinner Has Oscars on Menu

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:51:11 GMT

Something remarkable happened at the new awards ceremony sponsored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences: Hollywood let its guard down.

In Search of a Father in Search of the Blues

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:19:34 GMT

Robert Palmer depicted in “The Hand of Fatima.”Music critics’ lives don’t often inspire much fascination. But Robert Palmer, the chief popular music critic of The New York Times in the 1980s, was different.

‘2012’ Opening Earns $65 Million

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:53:30 GMT

Roland Emmerich’s thriller about a global cataclysm opened at No. 1 with a higher-than-expected $65 million in ticket sales.

Screen Memories

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:41:21 GMT

The most important films of the past decade — and why they mattered.

Film: Madness or Method? Tough to Tell

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:59:06 GMT

Lucius Baston, left, and Nicolas Cage, who plays as a tormented, drug-addled cop in a scene from “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.” The film is a loose remake of a 1992 movie starring Harvey Keitel.With “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” I was reminded of how exhilarating it can be to watch an actor go far and then just a little too far.

Film: Media Vampires, Beware

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:40:13 GMT

Kristen Stewart in Beverly Hills.For Kristen Stewart, life is not easy as a teen idol, but she has learned to dodge the limelight.

Film: Taking a Man, Then Removing His Myth

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:54:26 GMT

Right, Issey Ogata as Emperor Hirohito of Japan in a scene from “The Sun.” The dour reputation of the filmmaker Alexander Sokurov belies the beguiling strangeness of some of his work.

DVDs: Russian Story, German Director, Hollywood Film

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:27:26 GMT

Linda Darnell plays a Russian peasant in Douglas Sirk's “Summer Storm” adapted from Chekhov's “Shooting Party.”A look at Douglas Sirk’s dark, doom-laden social drama “Summer Storm,” a Blu-ray edition of “The Prisoner” and more.

Television: Filming a Friendship, Founded on Film

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:43:05 GMT

Vilmos Zsigmond, left, and Laszlo Kovacs last year during the production of the documentary about them.“No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos,” to be shown Tuesday on “Independent Lens” on PBS, is an account of the long friendship between two influential filmmakers.

A Writer Tries to Take the High Road as the Low Jokes Fly

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:07:16 GMT

In a panel discussion on “The Future of Funny,” the writer Ken Auletta found engaging Judd Apatow was different from talking with Barry Diller.

Film: Filmmakers’ Controversy: Their Dad

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:30:32 GMT

William M. Kunstler, the civil rights lawyer, and his daughter Sarah in 1977. Two sisters have captured their father’s long and tumultuous career in the documentary “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe.”

The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:41:13 GMT

How America’s leading starlet made herself up for the multimedia age.

A Teacher’s Dream Gets to the Screen

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:03:36 GMT

Robert Kaplow, who teaches English at a high school in Summit, N.J., wrote a novel, “Me and Orson Welles,” that has just been made into a movie.

Burdened by Billions in Debt, MGM Puts Itself Up for Sale

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:46:09 GMT

Estimates for the studio, which owns a 4,000-title film library, range from $1.5 billion to almost $3 billion.

Home of the Mouse Finds Box Office Success in the Land of the Bear

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:43:00 GMT

The Walt Disney film "The Book of Masters" is based on Russian folk tales.“The Book of Masters” is Disney’s first attempt at a film specifically for a Russian-speaking audience.

Fox Overhauls the Leadership of Its Entertainment Divisions

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:24:05 GMT

Riding a wave of successful films as the president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, Peter Rice will become the top entertainment executive.

Carpetbagger: Soderbergh and Bana at TriBeCa Festival

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:23:08 GMT

Eric Bana (and his beast) in his documentary “Love of the Beast.”New films from Steven Soderbergh, Eric Bana and Cheryl Hines join the lineup at the coming TriBeCa Film Festival.

William Morris and Endeavor Explore a Merger

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:50:26 GMT

The merger of the two talent agencies would challenge the leadership position of Creative Artists Agency.

Tullio Pinelli, Screenwriter for Fellini, Dies at 100

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:33:52 GMT

Mr. Pinelli’s prolific screenwriting career included a long partnership with the director Federico Fellini, with whom he wrote “I Vitelloni,” “La Strada,” “La Dolce Vita” and “8 ½.”

Arts, Briefly: Sundance Festival Chooses New Director

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:30:47 GMT

The Sundance Film Festival has found its new director.

Arts, Briefly: Ruling Against Novelist in ‘Sahara’ Movie Case

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:20:41 GMT

A judge has ruled that the novelist Clive Cussler must pay $13.9 million in legal fees to the production company that made the film “Sahara.”

Carpetbagger: And the DVD Goes To…

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:53:14 GMT

A large number of the Times’s critics’ picks release on DVD this week.

Film Society Chooses Executive Director

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:12:24 GMT

Mara ManusMara Manus, the Public Theater’s top financial executive, is taking the helm as the Film Society undergoes a $38 million expansion.

Front Row: We’re Off to See the Ruby Slippers

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:49:31 GMT

One of Betsey Johnson's sketches.Betsey Johnson and 20 other designers are recreating Dorothy’s glittering ruby slippers to commemorate the 70th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz” next year to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Arts, Briefly: Cannes Winner to Open New York Film Festival

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:36:11 GMT

The 46th New York Film Festival will open with the North American premiere of “The Class” (“Entre les Murs”).

Charles H. Joffe, Movie Producer, Is Dead at 78

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:46:29 GMT

Charles H. Joffe and Diane Keaton on Oscar night 1978.Mr. Joffe was a co-producer of Woody Allen’s movies and the business expert in the talent agency that managed the careers of a host of high-profile comedians.

Paramount Drops Out of Plan to Raise $450 Million for Films

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:02:21 GMT

Paramount Pictures said it had pulled out of a planned film finance deal that was meant to raise as much as $450 million.

Out of Control

Sat, 31 May 2008 02:08:21 GMT

Chris FarleyAn oral biography of the comedian Chris Farley.

‘Sex and the City’ Leads Weekend Box Office

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:45:32 GMT

The film has earned an estimated $55.7 million since Thursday, making it an unconventional summer hit.

Fire Destroys Parts of a Popular Movie Lot in California

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:13:36 GMT

A fire erupted Sunday at NBC Universal’s studio lot in Universal City, Calif. In the foreground, a set from “War of the Worlds.”A fire at NBC Universal’s studio lot in Universal City, Calif., destroyed a vault full of movie and television images and parts of the popular studio tour. At least six firefighters were injured.

The Media Equation: Slumber Parties Go Digital

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:23:46 GMT

In the gender wars, men generally win the race to the bottom. This past week though, women were the ones who seemed completely preoccupied by the reproductive act.

Financier in Hollywood Strikes Deal in D.W.I.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:04:48 GMT

Ryan KavanaughRyan Kavanaugh pleaded no contest to, and was convicted of, one count of driving under the influence of alcohol, while more serious charges were dropped.

Film: That License to Kill Is Unexpired

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:34:44 GMT

The Bond films, like “Octopussy” (1983), with Roger Moore, have given the character a popular identity beyond the page.Ian Fleming, had he lived, would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday. James Bond, his greatest invention, is ageless and immortal.

Film: Beauty, Brutality and Three Tough Mothers

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:54:46 GMT

An unsettling vision from “Mother of Tears,” directed by Dario Argento. Dario Argento’s latest danse macabre, “Mother of Tears,” starring his daughter Asia, is now on DVD.

Fashion Review: 10 Years Later, Carrie Coordinated

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:53:28 GMT

Fashion has been a regular character defining trait throughout the “Sex and the City” series, and in the film version, the fashion is jaw-droppingly fantastic.

Disney and Pixar: The Power of the Prenup

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:57:06 GMT

Pixar, co-founded by Steve Jobs, left, and Disney, run by Robert A. Iger, have a Hollywood marriage that works. Starring in their newest animated film is a robot named Wall-E.Two years in, the merger of Disney and Pixar is notable for how well the two companies have made it work.

Movie Review | 'Speed Racer': Gentlemen, Start Your Hot-Hued Engines

Fri, 09 May 2008 05:21:47 GMT

Emile Hirsh stars in "Speed Racer," directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski.“Speed Racer” sets out to honor and refresh a youthful enthusiasm from the past and winds up smothering the fun in self-conscious grandiosity.

Movie Review | 'Surfwise': A Family That Surfs to a Beat: Its Own

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:13:28 GMT

Dorian Paskowitz and his wife, Juliette, with their nine children, around 1976. “Surfwise” has a bohemian vibe and a cool sheen, but it’s an eager-to-please, pleasing commercial enterprise with a reassuring narrative arc.

Movie Review | 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead': Going for the Finger-Licking Gusto

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:18:04 GMT

Jason Yachanin and Kate Graham in "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead," directed by Lloyd Kaufman.“Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” is just about as perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be.

A Night Out With Ellen Page: Just a Girl From Halifax

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:07:53 GMT

While many actresses fantasize about wearing Valentino or Zac Posen on the red carpet, Ellen Page has a completely different idea.

A Knack for Being the Bad Boy

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:22:04 GMT

The British actor Ian McShane outside the Cort Theater, where he’s starring in a revival of Harold Pinter’s “Homecoming.” “You do battle with the audience,” he said.The British actor Ian McShane opens next week as the patriarch Max in Harold Pinter’s “Homecoming,” a man-monster of diminishing powers and, of course, many vulgarities.

Tomorrow’s Oscar Hopefuls Today

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:29:03 GMT

The “Black List” has become the kind of underground document that writers with projects in development pray will mention their script.

Under a New Watch, Miramax Still Homes in on Awards

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:49:36 GMT

A scene from “No Country for Old Men.”Miramax may be a smaller and calmer organization under Daniel Battsek, but the studio has nonetheless remained in the thick of the awards race.

For Struggling Black College, Hopes of a Revival

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:33:37 GMT

“The Great Debaters,” starring Denzel Washington, left, tells the story of the winning 1935 Wiley College debate team.Wiley College is suddenly feeling the glow of celebrity with the release of a film about the school’s debating team.

Critic’s Choice: Respect in a Box: Giving John Ford the Major American Artist Treatment

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:26:30 GMT

Henry Fonda in the 1946 film “My Darling Clementine.” “Ford at Fox” is a gargantuan boxed set that assembles 24 of the 50-some films John Ford made for the studio that was his most consistent home.

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