RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008, directed by Jonathan Demme, 113 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It is odd to see a director of the stature of Jonathan Demme fumbling around as awkwardly as he does in his latest film, Rachel Getting Married. Before the phenomenon of his Silence of the Lambs, Demme was known for creating quirky and well-observed characters as well as demonstrating a pulpy sense of excitement carried over from his years of making b-movies with Roger Corman. Since Lambs, Demme’s films have become increasingly turgid and self-important (like his two Philly-lensed pictures, Beloved and Philadelphia), so […]
SLUDGE REPORT: Drudge Pimping Shady Story About Pro-Obama Slasher Disfiguring A McCain Volunteer
So, while you were sleeping, the Drudge Report has been blaring (upper left hand corner!) an outrageous story about a white McCain volunteer from Texas working in Pittsburgh who was mugged by a black man, who then noticed a McCain sticker on her car and proceeded to punch the woman in the face and carve a “B” in her face. Here’s how the Pittsburgh TV news station WTAE covered it… PITTSBURGH — A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, apparently because of her political views, Pittsburgh police said. According to […]
New York Times Endorses Obama For President
NEW YORK TIMES: Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance. The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable. As […]
PHUCK: Phils Lose Game Two Of World Series 4-2
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Squeeze plays, a wacky checked swing and a fresh face out of the bullpen. These plucky Tampa Bay Rays pulled out all their tricks at Tropicana Field to tie the World Series. James Shields stymied the slumping Philadelphia Phillies, rookie David Price got the final seven outs and Tampa Bay rebounded from a rare home loss with a 4-2 victory Thursday night that made it 1-all. MORE RELATED: Dear Tampa Bay Rays fans: Your stadium is shit. We Philly fans know all about shit stadiums. Yours is one. We don’t have one anymore. I hate looking at the […]
TURNABOUT: McCain Needs To Come Clean About His Association With Convicted Felon Raffaello Follieri
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Anne Hathaway’s former boyfriend was sentenced Thursday to 4 1/2 years in prison for cheating investors of millions of dollars by claiming he had Vatican connections that enabled him to buy Roman Catholic Church property at a discount. U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl said Follieri had engaged in a significant fraud that hurt investors, will financially ruin him and will cause him to be deported after his prison term. The judge also cited Follieri’s “lavish personal expenditures,” which prosecutors have said were financed with his investors’ money. MORE THE NATION: The photograph substantiates reports that in late […]
THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT: Q&A with Palmyra Delran
BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS EDITOR Every scene is forever trapped in a cyclical process of being loved, hated after going mainstream, and then, with the passage of time, finding its niche again amongst the ever-stubborn contrarians of the new age. These trends are inevitable, what is cool now will be deemed uncool given enough time and will eventually resurface again amongst a new generation to be heralded as cooler than ever. Garage rock, coupled with ’60s pop and surf have been going in and out of style since, well, the ’60s. The Friggs, who ruled the local garage-rock roost […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaption) is known for his disjointed narratives and quirky characters. Now he brings that off-beat sensibility to his directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. The film features Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director who builds a life-size model of Manhattan’s theater district in a warehouse in upstate New York. As Hoffman’s character becomes increasingly obsessed with his mock-up of Manhattan reality, he starts to lose control of his own. ALSO, Once best known as a star of action and Western films, actor (and former mayor of Carmel, California) Clint Eastwood is also […]
ASSTASTROPHE: Lohan Depantsed By America
NY POST: One episode, titled “Granny Pants,” was about how Lohan, playing Betty’s high school nemesis, would “de-pants” Ferrera. But Ferrera exacts her revenge and pulls down Lohan’s pants instead. “Lindsay wasn’t wearing any underwear,” the source said. But a Lohan pal fumed, “Bull [bleep]! Lindsay wears underwear all the time now. She was wearing a G-string. And it was America’s fault. They were rehearsing the scene and America wasn’t supposed to pull Lindsay’s pants down — but she did. Lindsay was so embarrassed, she started crying.” MORE
KILLADELPHIA: Two Dead, One Arrest
INQUIRER: Police this morning identified two recent homicide victims and announced arrests in one of the slayings. Marta Martinez-Lozada, 37, was shot dead Tuesday afternoon during a botched robbery in Kensington. A witness flagged down police in the 2600 block of Lawrence Street and said Martinez had been gunned down by an unidentified male who fled the scene in a red Honda driven by woman, police said. Detectives yesterday arrested Oscar Alvarado, 25, and Cynthia Alvarado, 28, and charged them each with murder, robbery, and various weapons counts. A man killed yesterday in a Frankford alleyway was identified as Thomas […]
THE MONEY SHOT: Got Mustard?
[Photo by PRETTIE77]
JOHN MCCAIN: When Hollywood Robocalls
If John Woo, Kevin Smith and Wes Anderson went negative for McCain. [Hat tip to WOOKIFIED]
PAPERBOY: ‘The Good, The Bad & The Chutley’ Edition
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
SHAZAM: Phils Win Game One Of World Series
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Chase Utley hit a two-run homer and Cole Hamels pitched out of trouble several times, giving the Philadelphia Phillies a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series opener Wednesday night. MORE ATTYTOOD: The Blow By Blow