PARANOID PARK (2007, directed by Gus Van Sant, 85 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITICEarly in Gus Van Sant’s hypnotically lulling new film Paranoid Park, the lead character Alex lets you know what you’re in for: “I’m writing this a little out of order,” his narration says, “Sorry. I didn’t do so well in creative writing, but I’ll get it all on paper eventually.” There is the slenderest thread of a detective story at the center of this skater drama, but with the endlessly dazzling camerawork by superstar cinematographer Christopher Doyle (favorite of Wong Kar Wai) and Rain Kathy […]
CINEMA: Show Trial In The Kangaroo Courthouse
THE CHICAGO 10 (2007, directed by Brett Morgen, 110 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC In 1980, radical activist Abbie Hoffman titled his autobiography “Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture.” Poor Abbie, his revolution never arrived and when he committed suicide in 1989, his Hollywood biopic was nowhere in sight. Robert Greenwald took a well-meaning yet flat-footed stab in 2000 with Steal This Movie (it’s hard to imagine that the hulking Vincent D’Onofrio was anyone’s idea of Abbie Hoffman), and now documentarian Brett (The Kid Stays In The Picture) Morgen tells the story of the 1968 Democratic National […]
CINEMA: All Fun & Games Until Somebody Gets Hurt
FUNNY GAMES (2007, directed by Michael Haneke, 107 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC “People have criticized me for making films just to provoke, That was never the case. But in this film yes. It made me happy to give an awakening kind of slap”. That’s Austrian director Michael Haneke being interviewed on the DVD of his breakthrough film, 1997’s Funny Games. Funny Games was a rigorous study of a viewer’s complicity with on-screen violence that invited the audience to watch helplessly (or not, which may be the film’s point) as a nondescript upper-class family are tortured to death […]
CINEMA: Frances McDormand Will Have Her Revenge
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (2008, directed by Bharat Nalluri, 92 minutes, U.K.) COVER (2008, directed by Bill Duke, 98 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Trying to resurrect the spirit of Hollywood screwball comedies decades after their era died rarely bears fruit yet a new generation of filmmakers are continually foolhardy enough to try. The screenwriters of Finding Neverland and The Full Monty (David McGee & Simon Beaufoy respectively) have dug up Winifred Watson’s 1938 novel for some authentic source material yet as fizzy entertainment Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day lacks the snap and personality needed […]
A VERY SPECIAL CONTEST: How To Win Two Tix To Watch The Wire Finale With Mayor Nutter At City Hall!
Just answer this question: Who wrote (wrote, not performs) the song that plays during The Wire‘s opening credits? Send your answers ASAP to feed@phawker.com and you could be our very lucky winner! Why? Because we love you! UPDATE: We have a winner! The response was overwhelming, thanks to everyone for playing! PREVIOUSLY: Mayor Nutter To Host City Hall Screening Of The Wire Finale FRESH AIR ON WHYY: Novelist and screenwriter Richard Price discusses his latest novel, Lush Life, which follows the repercussions of a shooting on the Lower East side. Price has written extensively about the realities of inner city […]
HIGH ROLLER: Q&A With Mob-Rocker Michael Imperioli, AKA Chris-tuh-fuh From The Sopranos
BY AMY Z. QUINN Life is, in fact, pretty sweet right now for Michael Imperioli. He’s the darkly handsome 41-year-old New York actor best known for playing Italian-American guys who meet untimely-yet-unsurprising ends, like that stutterin’ prick Spider from Goodfellas and everybody’s favorite cousin, Chrissy Moltisanti, on The Sopranos. As an actor, Imperioli has done stage work, TV (everything from Mitch Albom’s For One More Day to “The Simpsons” to “Law & Order”) and movies (including one of my own favorites, Household Saints). He and his wife, Victoria, have two kids; the couple are co-artistic directors of Studio Dante, a […]
JACK NICHOLSON: Hillary Endorsement
Wow, turns out every Jack Nicholson movie going back to China Town contains some thinly-veiled Pro-Hillary meme. And they say truth is stranger than fiction.
CINEMA: Michel Ma Belle
BE KIND REWIND (2007, directed by Michel Gondry, 101 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Named after the greatest poem ever mass-produced on a sticker (although I always preferred “Bee Kind Rewind,” with the bumble bee), Michel Gondry’s latest twee ode to hand-crafted production design shows that the French haven’t completely lost their love for their imperious little brother across the ocean. Only a Frenchman would see Passaic, New Jersey as the perfect site for a movie-lovers fantasy, a multi-ethnic post-industrial land of possibility, like Popeye’s old home of Sweet Haven. Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) is the proprietor of […]
Q&A: Dancing With The Devil & Daniel Johnston
WIKIPEDIA: Daniel Dale Johnston (b. January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in a house adjacent to his parents’ home in Waller, Texas. Johnston has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is autistic.[1] His songs are often called “painfully direct,” and tend to display a blend of childlike naïveté with darker, “spooky” themes. MORE Phawker: Hi. How are you? Daniel Johnston: Good. I just woke up. And I just found a bunch of comic books I haven’t even looked at […]
CINEMA: Do You Know Where You’re Going To?
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (2007, directed by Alex Gibney, 106 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Everything I know about politics I learned at the movies. Take torture. It was watching all those WWII movies with my older brother that introduced me to the U.S. policy on torture and war, especially prison camp films like The Great Escape, The Bridge On the River Kwai and Stalag 17. In each of them, the U.S. soldiers were left fairly unmolested, forced by dumb luck to wait out the war in lousy P.O.W. camp conditions. Occasionally a Japanese or German commander […]
COMING ATTRACTION: An Exclusive Interview With I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Director Sam Jones
In honor of you-know-who playing the Tower on Saturday we will be running an in-depth Q&A with Sam Jones, the director of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Sam is probably better known for his photography — you have seen his work, believe me. He recently published Here And Now (Harper Collins), a collection of his stunning celebrity portraiture, with forward by George Clooney. Speaking of which, Sam shot Clooney on Monday for this week’s TIME cover story. Small world.
COMING ATTRACTION: An Exclusive Interview With I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Director Sam Jones
In honor of you-know-who playing the Tower on Saturday we will be running an in-depth Q&A with Sam Jones, the director of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Sam is probably better known for his commercial photography — you have seen his work, believe me. He recently published Here And Now (Harper Collins), a collection of his stunning celebrity portraiture, with forward by George Clooney. UPDATE: Sam shot Clooney for this week’s TIME cover story
CINEMA: The Ungrateful Dead
DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007, directed by George Romero, 95 minutes, U.S./Canada) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Before they can declare the New Wave of zombie films officially dead (no surprise they keep coming, they’re zombies after all) George Romero has decided to shamble in for another go around. With his fifth Dead film since his 1968 genre-sprouting classic Night of the Living Dead, Romero has scaled back his ambitions in order to maintain a control over production he hasn’t had since 1978’s Dawn of the Dead. With its limited budget, Romero has made Diary of the Dead more of […]