Welcome to New York Observer‘s Golden Globe coverage of the 2012, where you’ll be able to read (and participate!) in real time as Drew Grant and Dan D’Addario take bets on which acclaimed actor will be the first to slap that lopsided grin right off Ricky Gervais‘ face. Let the fun begin! Read More
Steven Spielberg at the top of his powers as one of the most successful and creative film directors of the past century is the best reason I can think of to get off your duff and head for the cinema on Christmas Day. You will not believe the epic splendor, sweeping drama and heart-stopping passion he brings to War Horse. It’s a rare and genuine movie masterpiece that deserves the label in a thousand ways.
Turning a beloved play into a movie is a job for either a fool or a daredevil. Mr. Spielberg is neither, but he is a visionary with unflinching faith in his own instincts. Read More
There comes a time in a social worker’s life when trusting your own judgment may not be enough. For Margaret Humphreys, it came with the discovery that in order to cover up the shame and scandal of women who bore children out of wedlock during and following World War Two, the British government rounded up thousands of innocent toddlers and deported them to Australia. Devoting her life and career to opening up sealed records, pointing fingers at the guilty, exposing injustice and straightening out a tangled web of deceit that led to panic, confusion, family upheaval and years of depression in both children and parents, her efforts to repair damaged lives led to a controversial, best-selling book, “Empty Cradles”, which has now been adapted for the screen as Oranges and Sunshine. It’s uneven and flawed, but definitely worth seeing. Read More
As we take our seats for Twelfth Night or Uncle Vanya , playing in repertory at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, we see projected on the back wall of each set the same unifying message: “O learn to read what silent love hath writ.” Hmmm, we surely think. Food for thought there!
Sam Mendes, the Read More
Harald Zwart’s One
Night at McCool’s , from a screenplay by the late Stan Seidel (1952-2000),
is the kind of movie that, as I was watching it, I was preparing to dismiss as
a broad, cartoonish sex farce, straining for
as many cheap laughs as it could get this side of Three Stooges–like
smuttiness. That Read More
Raja Gosnell’s Never Been Kissed , from a screenplay by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein and Jenny Bicks, emerges unexpectedly as the most exhilarating American movie I have seen this year–which isn’t saying much. Most of the credit should go to Drew Barrymore, who has taken charge of her career with her own production company, without Read More
