Jonathan Demme won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Director, for The Silence of the Lambs. He directed Tom Hanks to the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor, for Philadelphia. He’s had any number of other critical and commercial successes as a movie director, with concert films, political documentaries, big-budget remakes and indie-style films. Now Read More
As much as we loved seeing the inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday, our long national nightmare doesn’t officially end until tomorrow morning. After what feels like eight years, the Academy Award nominations will finally (finally!) be announced, putting an end to the endless season of speculation. In lieu of any predictions–be honest, how many times Read More
IndieWIRE news reports that the Woodstock Film Festival and the IFC Center are partnering to present three screenings as part of the Stranger Than Fiction series. The mini-fest is filmmaker/programmer Thom Powers’ weekly screenings of hard-to-find documentaries and subsequent Q&As with their filmmakers. On consecutive Tuesdays in May at the IFC, directors Barbara Kopple Read More
My Favorite Merkin
To the Editor:
Thanks for Suzy Hansen’s fine piece on Daphne Merkin [“Vagina Mama-Log,” Feb. 27], but in addition to the many references to Ms. Merkin’s fiction, essays and reviews, etc., allow me to recall her introduction to the late Janet Hobhouse’s exquisite novel, The Furies, about which Ms. Merkin Read More
Jonathan Demme’s The Truth About Charlie , from a screenplay by Mr. Demme, Steve Schmidt and Jessica Bendinger, has been widely panned for presuming to remake Stanley Donen’s Charade (1963), from a screenplay by Peter Stone, with Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton in the roles originally played by Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Indeed, I Read More
The acting debut of repugnant rap star Eminem in a thing called 8 Mile can be summed up in one sentence: If he coulda he woulda, but he cain’t so he ain’t. This brainless debacle, tailored for the insurmountable limitations of its star attraction, was headed for vehicular homicide before it left the factory. Who Read More
