PHILADELPHIA – On February 15th, the Hiway Theatre, located at 212 Old York Road in Jenkintown, will premiere the film series, Road Trips and Amazing Journeys to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the historic theatre’s reopening. The opening night celebration will begin with a screening of director Walter Salles’ acclaimed feature The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), chronicling the adventures of a young Che Guevara, followed by the featured selection for the evening – the critically acclaimed comedy Last Stop for Paul. Hailed as, “A unique accomplishment. Always entertaining. Very funny and at times quite touching” by film critic Richard Roeper, the […]
CINEMA: Brutal Youth
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH (2007, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 124 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Back in September of last year, The New York Times ran an article called “Francis Ford Coppola, A Kid To Watch.” A.O. Scott’s article spun a tale of how the sixty-eight year old director had re-stoked the fire in his belly while working quickly and efficiently with a young Romanian crew on his brainy and reflective comeback. It was an enticing idea, that after poking around his vineyard for the last decade Coppola had kicked off whatever funk had led him to make misfire […]
CINEMA: Locust Abortion Technician
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS & 2 DAYS (2007, directed by Cristian Mungiu, 113 minutes, Romania) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC If this is the Romanian New Wave than I’d hate to see their Punk. Raw and unflinching, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a bleak journey into the darkest days of two young female students during the waning years of Communist Romania. Cristian Mungui’s unblinking look at a black market abortion won the Golden Palme at last year’s Cannes Festival and it probably needed that title to receive distribution in the U.S., its dour Eastern European outlook and […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
RIP: Actor Roy Scheider Dead At 75, Shark Not Involved Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said. Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of […]
POST TV: Life After Cable
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Me and the wife haven’t looked back after getting rid of the digital cable a year or so ago, what with the ubiquity of DVDs and our entertainment energies drifting towards the internet, television programming has begun to seem superfluous. While killing time with Google’s video search engine recently I was surprised to see that there is a poor man’s “On Demand” function on-line as well. On the Google.com homepage you’ll need to go to the upper left-hand corner and click on “more,” then “advanced search” and from there I chose to search for videos […]
THE EARLY WORD: Here Comes The Goon Squad
Before Monty Python invaded television, The Goon Show – famed not only for its surreal humor, puns, and catchphrases but also for its groundbreaking sound effects – made an entire nation laugh week after week. The Goons met in the 1940s, and like many of the post war entertainers, they all began performing while serving in World War II. Running from 1951 – 1960, the show changed the face of British comedy and greatly influenced Python, the Beatles, and many others. Monty Python star Michael Palin has said, “For me, the Goons were to comedy what Elvis was to music.” […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
HOLD THE PHONE: Obama Claims Delegate Lead Over Clinton In a surprise twist after a chaotic Super Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) passed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in network tallies of the number of delegates the candidates racked up last night. The Obama camp now projects topping Clinton by 13 delegates, 847 to 834. NBC News, which is projecting delegates based on the Democratic Party’s complex formula, figures Obama will wind up with 840 to 849 delegates, versus 829 to 838 for Clinton. Clinton was portrayed in many news accounts as the night’s big winner, but Obama’s campaign says […]
BLACK MIRROR: Heath Ledger’s Fatal Obsession
DAILY MAIL: This haunting image of doomed actor Heath Ledger shows him apparently drowning in a bath – in a bizarre tribute to the tragic British folk singer with whom he was obsessed. The picture comes from a film Ledger made about Nick Drake, the cult singer-songwriter whose death bore disturbing similarities to his own. Ledger made the dark, brooding film to accompany one of the last songs Drake recorded before killing himself with antidepressants in 1974, at the age of 26. Like Drake, Ledger, 28, was found dead in his bed after taking prescription antidepressants. In stills taken from […]
CINEMA: A Honey Drippin’ Beehive
HONEYDRIPPER (2007, directed by John Sayles, 123 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC After the recent long-winded political rants Silver City and Sunshine State, it’s a relief to see indie film Godfather John Sayles pursue this more conventional story, of Danny Glover’s struggle to keep his Alabama juke joint open in the year of 1950. At its best, blues fable Honeydripper reminds one of his early 90’s hit Passion Fish; both films transcend their conventional stories with perceptive performances and a smattering of Southern regionalism. Yet even with its de-politicized story, Sayles still winds up stepping in his own […]
HOORAY FOR PHILLYWOOD: Tom Quinn’s Mummer Double Bummer Takes Top Prize At Slamdance Festival
VARIETY: Slamdance has bestowed its top film awards on Tom Quinn’s family drama “The New Year Parade” and to Greg Kohs’ doc “Song Sung Blue.” MORE …Philadelphia’s colorful Mummers’ Parade bookends an unsentimentalized portrait of 21st-century divorce in “The New Year Parade.” Winner of the Slamdance grand jury prize, Tom Quinn’s first feature combines non-professional actors with hundreds of actual marching band participants to yield an almost documentary-like look at a family left reeling after the parents separate. Quinn, who hails from the emerging “Phillywood” independent scene, possesses a strong artistic sensibility and the confidence to build his story around […]
CINEMA: ‘Vagina Dentata’ Is The Nice Word For It
TEETH (2007, directed by Michell Lichtenstein, 93 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It is my sad duty to report that the great cinematic essay on the subject of Vagina Dentata has yet to be made. Points for getting to the subject first should be awarded to Mitchell Lichtenstein (the son of Pop artist Roy) with his directorial debut Teeth. While Spielberg may have defined high concept filmmaking with his “fish that eats people,” Lichtenstein’s got a twist that can’t be beat, he’s sexed it up as “the vagina that eats people.” Like Jaws, Teeth supplies the giddy thrill […]
NEWS CLUES: ‘So Local It Hurts’ Edition
A WHITER SHADE OF TRASH: Judge Rules Family Not Safe On At Any Speed A judge in Camden County said yesterday that the 5-week-old baby abandoned last weekend in Cherry Hill could not be returned to her family. The baby’s mother, Felicia Mikels, 17, was beaten to death Friday night and dumped into Pennsauken Creek, authorities said. Prosecutors have charged two men in the teenager’s death — her uncle, Christopher Mikels, 26, and Douglas Mandichak, 25. Christopher Mikels told police he may also be the father of Felicia’s baby, Miciana Ramos. Both lived in Pennsauken, in a home shared by […]
RIP: Actor Heath Ledger Dead At 28
NEW YORK TIMES: The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in an apartment building at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, according to the New York City police. Mr. Ledger was 28. At 3:31 p.m., a masseuse arrived at Apartment 5A in the building for an appointment with Mr. Ledger, the police said. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Mr. Ledger’s bedroom. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger unconscious. They shook him, but he did not respond. […]