Love it, hate it….pretend to hate it but really love it… whatever your feeling is, there’s a good chance you probably feel something about the upcoming SEX AND THE CITY movie. But if you’re still undecided, it seems that it won’t be too tough to find ample assistance in making up your mind. The first reviews, articles and “extended teasers” have popped-up this week, showing early signs of what’s bound to be a havoc-reeking Gucci-storm of reviews, press and non-stop media coverage until the May 30th premiere.
FoxNews.com called it “the Neiman Marcus catalog on steroids”, which, depending on your interests/values/opinion of steroids, is [intentionally?] vague and kind of indeterminate. New York Magazine also ran a feature-story on Sarah Jessica Parker in which they conclude that she is a total down to earth New Yorker- mom-at-the-playground lady who acts and “looks her age” (although the cover-photo seems to indicate she is still smitten with her favorite “glam-freak” Carrie Bradshaw pose), and YouTube has come upon a four-and-a-half minute sneak peak/press junket extravaganza that might have uber-fans tripping over their Manolos on the way to be first at the box office.
Glamorous, fun movie-version of the best television series ever created? It’s too early to say, but either way, you should probably still check it out, or risk feeling socially irrelevant until mid-June.
SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE opens Friday, May 30 at the Angelika Dallas & Houston and at the Cinemas 1,2,3 and East 86th St. Cinemas in NYC.
The hormones just about drip off the screen in WATER LILIES (NAISSANCE DES PIEUVRES), a sexually charged story about teenage French girls coming of age and wrestling, both literally and figuratively, with hetero and homosexual urges. Set amid an all-girls synchronized water ballet group, the film abounds in locker room and shower scenes populated by pubescent girls in various states of undress. Dirty old (and young) men and lesbians of every stripe will be the enthusiastic audience for this ravishing, painfully perceptive depiction of sexual awakenings among the young and the horny.
WATER LILIES, directed by Céline Sciamma, opens at the Angelika Houston and the Angelika Dallas on Friday, June 27.
PARANOID PARK, the new movie from the always compelling Gus Van Sant, has been garnering critical acclaim since it first made the festival rounds. New York Times critic Manohla Dargis continued the trend right before opening day with a categorically exceptional review in which she called Van Sant’s work, “…a haunting, voluptuously beautiful portrait of a teenage boy…”.
Click here to read the full review, and here to see an exclusive interview with cast member Taylor Momsen.
PARANOID PARK opens tonight, March 7 @ the Angelika New York.
The National Board of Review has chosen its winners for the year in eleven different categories, naming The Coen Brothers’ NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Best Picture of the Year.
The NBR’s revered list encompasses much of the Angelika’s 2007 lineup, noting Ellen Page’s performance in the upcoming JUNO, George Clooney as the title character in MICHAEL CLAYTON, and director Julian Schnabel’s French film THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY.
Mark your calendars - our sneak recently caught a screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s THERE WILL BE BLOOD and came back with much impassioned applause for the stellar adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s novel “Oil!”. See what he had to say below:
The Academy should just send the Oscar for Best Male Performance right now to Daniel Day Lewis for his mesmerizing role in There Will Be Blood. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s stunning Citizen Kane-like saga of a ruthless oilman in the late 1800’s in a Western United States where entrepreneurs were as dangerous and deadly as any gunslinger. This is truly an American masterpiece.
Look for THERE WILL BE BLOOD @ the Angelika Dallas in early January ‘08.
Revered New York Times critic Manohla Dargis calls director Richard Kelly’s SOUTHLAND TALES a “funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired look at America and its discontents”, and proclaims that the film “has more ideas, visual and intellectual, in a single scene than most American independent films have in their entirety…”.
Dargis is not one to dish out such high praise on a regular basis, it goes without saying that SOUTHLAND TALES is not to be missed! The film is playing now @ the Angelika New York and opens this Friday, 11/16 @ the Angelika Dallas. Click here to read the full review,
and check out the trailer below.
The French have always known that great animations features were not only for the kiddie- matinee set (the phenomenal grosses for RATATOUILLE proved to be a slam dunk in France), so it should come as no surprise that this stunning black and white animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel (or what the intellectuals call “comic books”) about a young Iranian woman’s coming of age is such an unalloyed delight. This French feature has already won critical acclaim in film festivals from Cannes to Toronto, and will appeal to all ages - even the ones that can’t read the subtitles - either because they haven’t mastered English yet or because they left their bifocals at home.
The prospect of PLANET B-BOY, a full length feature documentary about break dancing, was certainly daunting for this old codger, (true age a secret) but once this fascinating, incredibly entertaining “Dancing with the Stars” for the hip hop set began I was hooked! Some of the routines I would swear were CGI productions, and I had to ask - could real life kids actually do that stuff with their bods? Not only are dance routines spectacular and beautiful, the back stories about an international world championship meet were truly touching. How do these kids, most from backgrounds not too conducive to artistic endeavor, create such intricate choreography combined with startling athleticism? I know that the history of Hip Hop/Graffiti/Punk movies have quick fades but if one is ever to succeed, this one is it. Watching this by myself I was applauding every set, and I can only assume that an audience of young people will be dancing in the aisles. Terrific!
Director Jonathan Demme’s smart, low-key chronicle of former president Jimmy Carter’s controversial book tour for his book Palestine Freedom or Apartheid confirms Demme’s mastery of the documentary form (STOP MAKING SENSE) and of the inherent decency and intelligence of this subject. Leisurely building to a moving climax, this is a forceful reminder (along with Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore) that America can still produce leaders of integrity and intelligence even if we do not always agree with all of their positions. One of the year’s best documentaries in a year of terrific non-fiction films.
The great Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in two of the most anticipated films of the fall film season: Sidney Lumet’s tense neo film noir BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD and the both witty and deeply moving THE SAVAGES, both film sensations at this years Toronto Film Festival. And then proving once again his versatility he will provide super support to Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Mike Nichols’ CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR. Not since the likes of Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino, who proved character faces could carry starring roles, has there been an actor who could move with such ease from small art films to big Hollywood productions. Perhaps someday an inspired casting director will pair that other terrifically talented 3 name Philip - Philip Baker Hall in a film (father and son) that would be a truly terrific trifecta.
