Mysteries

Natalie Portman’s Secret Film

Natalie Portman’s next film comes out in theaters–well, ‘theater,’ singular, in New York. Portman has two movies in wide-release right now, one arty and one tarty–she’s a major movie star. How did her movie end up getting dumped?

It’s her celebrity, in fact, that’s the reason it’s even gotten this far–without the current Portmania, Read More

The Deadpan Don Juan: Murray Takes Humor Tips

Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, from his own screenplay, received the Grand Prix (second prize after the Gold Palm) at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This meant that it had been widely reviewed before I had a chance to see it at a special screening sponsored by the Directors Guild of America and the Museum of Read More

A Marriage Made at Miramax

My crystal ball is on the blink. The new Gwyneth Paltrow–Ben Affleck love story called Bounce has been under lock and key for such a long time, and Miramax made it so difficult for critics to see-usually two signals that a movie is in trouble-that I suspected it would be nothing to write home about. Read More

NBC’s Opposite of The Opposite of Sex ?

Wednesday, June 9

Don Roos has an unlikely deal at NBC: to make a TV show based on his 1998 movie The Opposite of Sex . And Garth Ancier, the new NBC entertainment president (Warren Littlefield’s old slot) who arrived from the WB just about a month ago, has told Mr. Roos to keep it Read More

Looking for Love, Having Babies Instead

Don Roos’ The Opposite of Sex , from a screenplay by Mr. Roos, turns out to be a happy exception to the rule that any movie with “sex” in the title must be mediocre. Indeed, nothing I had known or anticipated in advance alerted me to the possibility that The Opposite of Sex would materialize Read More