TLA Video on Fourth and South streets is closing its doors. Actually, it’s already closed for inventory and will re-open on Friday for sales only. The South Street institution, long a prized destination for the kind of quirky indie fare not easily found in big box retailers like Blockbuster and Hollywood video, will remain open through Thanksgiving or until it sells through its inventory. The TLA Video location at 1520 Locust St. will remain open. “It was an amazing 24-year run for our South Street store,” said TLA president Ray Murray, “but changing viewing habits of our customers (internet, cable, […]
The Yes Men Punk The Chamber Of Commerce
YES MEN: In a dramatic announcement at the National Press Club today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reversed its position on climate change policy, and promised to immediately cease lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill. Not. Within minutes of the announcement, it was revealed that the “Chamber spokesperson” was an impostor, and the press conference an elaborate hoax designed by activists to draw attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fight against public interest on climate change. At the close of the news conference, real Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Eric Wohlschlegel barged into the room visibly rattled, and declared the event […]
THE EARLY WORD: For The People, By The People
POLITICO: The movie, “By The People: The Election of Barack Obama” screens tonight at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington in advance of a release on HBO on the anniversary of last year’s election. And it represents a rare glimpse behind the curtain of discipline and discretion that surrounded the Obama campaign – a glimpse that came even though some highly-placed campaign operatives feared the presence of cameras in their midst. It’s this cycle’s version of “The War Room” or “Journeys With George” – the political documentary whose unparalleled access will make it a defining document of the […]
CINEMA: That Barton Fink Feeling
A SERIOUS MAN (2009, directed by Joel & Ethan Coen, 105 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The re-focusing of purpose that the Coen Brothers exhibited so breathtakingly in No Country For Old Men continues with their latest film, A Serious Man. An Old Testament fable set in a square Jewish suburb circa 1970, this black comedy of one man’s weakening faith has many of the elements of a classic Coen’s film: garish period detail, fleeting interactions with the grotesquely plain and a normal guy done in by the wickedness of fate. Yet with its exceptionally tight script, theCoens’ […]
EARLY WORD: Calling All Copyright Criminals
[[ [Copyright Criminals Trailer] Next Tuesday, October 20, head on down to The Rotunda at 40th and Walnut for a free screening of the documentary COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS. Presented by ITVS’s Community Cinema program, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and money. The film includes interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground, and the world’s most funky drummer Clyde Stubblefield — while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux, Rhymesayers, Ninja Tune, and more. […]
CINEMA: The Two-Way Mirror Between Life And Art
SALON: I am not claiming that a work of art has nothing to do with the person who made it, since that’s a stupid idea, and I’m certainly not claiming that the work of art is somehow co-guilty of its creator’s crimes, since that’s an even stupider idea. (Wagner’s music will always be identified with fascism; it can’t be reduced to fascism.) I am certainly not speaking out in defense of Roman Polanski, who apparently did something that was both heinous and illegal, and should long ago have faced the consequences. I guess I’m saying that it’s hypothetically possible to […]
CINEMA: Lost In Adaptation
NEW YORKER: The opening sequences of Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are”—a live-action feature based on Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s classic—are sensationally good. Max (Max Records) is an angry nine-year-old boy: his teen-age sister has abandoned him for her friends, and his divorced mother (Catherine Keener) noodles on the couch with her boyfriend. The way Max Records plays him—with darting eyes, and lips pressed together in rage—the boy has no idea that anyone’s feelings but his own could be real. He builds forts in his bedroom and an igloo in the front yard. He wants to be enclosed in […]
Bill Clinton Awards Spielberg The Liberty Medal
INQUIRER: Steven Spielberg has grown accustomed to praise. One of the world’s most successful filmmakers, ever, anywhere, he has received Oscars and honorary doctorates, won awards for public service and humanitarianism, and been granted nearly every superlative a man of art, thought, and heart could imagine. But he still seemed sincerely moved last night to be joining the ranks of the distinguished recipients of Philadelphia’s Liberty Medal. “I am very, very genuinely humbled by this,” Spielberg said after bowing his head so former President Bill Clinton, chairman of the National Constitution Center, could slip on the red, white, and blue […]
ZOMBIELAND: You Are Soaking In It
TIME: In the race between a bunch of zombies and three stars who are also directors — Ricky Gervais, Michael Moore and Drew Barrymore — the humans never stood a chance. The horror-comedy Zombieland won the weekend in North American theaters by scaring up $25 million, according to early studio estimates, which is more than the $23.6 million it cost to shoot the thing. 1. Zombieland, $25 million, first weekend 2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, $16.7 million; $82.4 million, third week 3. Toy Story 3-D and Toy Story 2 3-D, $12.5 million, first weekend 4. The Invention of […]
CINEMA: Love Hurts
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (2009, directed by Michael Moore, 120 minutes, U.S.) THE INVENTION OF LYING (2009, directed by Ricky Gervais & Matthew Roberts, 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRICTIC Michael Moore has reached the point in his career where critics seem to feel like they can just dismiss him out of hand. Vague accusations of shuffling events in his documentaries dog him, complaints of egotism for appearing before the camera (isn’t the term “personal documentary” in our vocabulary yet?) and other grumbling, most of which seems to boil down to: “I just don’t like him.” But of […]
CINEMA: Walk The Line
STILL WALKING (2008, directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, 114 minutes, Japan) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Holed up at the end of the night in his parents guestroom, forty-ish Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) tries unsuccessfully to wheedle a secret out of his wife Yukari (Yui Natsukawa). Giving up he tells her, “Women are scary”. “”People are scary, she corrects, “All people.” The most seemingly benign folks can be scary, especially when you’re related to them. In what appears to be his most conventional film yet Japanese minimalist Hirokazu Koreeda (director of Afterlife and Nobody Knows), the lionized modern master bring his acclaimed […]
CINEMA: With Friends Like This Who Needs Enemas?
THE INFORMANT! (2009, directed by Steven Soderbergh, 108 minutes, U.S.) JENNIFER’S BODY (2009, directed by Karyn Kusama, 102 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC In the 20 years since Steven Soderbergh’s debut, his versatility has left him somewhat of an enigma. Over the course of 20 films, you would expect a theme, a driving concern or even a visual vocabulary to emerge. Instead, Soderbergh comes off as an reserved, unbiased observer, poking and prodding whatever idea tickles his curiosity (philosophical sci-fi! Leftist biography! old Hollywood recreations!), yet never giving the sense that he’s emotionally tied to any idea. This […]