The Ziegfeld Theatre has had a busy week, and it was overrun again last Thursday night for the world premiere of Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, the film adaptation of the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, which fictionalizes a young boy’s experience post 9/11. Read More
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a bold and honorable film, beautifully made, and sensitively acted (especially by a kid named Thomas Horn, in his first acting role, who literally steals the movie right out from under everyone else). It is meticulously directed. It is richly photographed, with the kind of dreamscape quality that makes New York look like a museum mural. It is also preposterous.
Every talent involved with this endeavor is first-rate. Based on the 2005 best seller by Jonathan Safran Foer, it boasts a screenplay by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump). The cast is exemplary. The direction is by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot). Chris Menges (The Killing Fields) is behind the camera and the music is by Alexandre Desplat (The King’s Speech). The word “quality” is stamped on every frame, and as movies go, it does indeed tower above the norm. In addition, the story is a wrenching mix of hope and despair about disrupted lives in the aftermath of 9/11. So what’s wrong with this picture? Or what’s wrong with me? I was told going in to bring a box of Kleenex. But nobody around me was sobbing. It was two hours and 10 minutes long. I kept checking my watch. I admired all the good work by so many good people, but clearly I found something about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close labored and muddled, and it wasn’t just the title. Read More
The New York Public Library is facing a $40 million budget cut that it calls the biggest in its 100-year history. Loyal library patrons facing a four-day library week, fewer new books, branch closures and staff reductions have initiated a campaign of non-violent resistance, like their recent library “hug” (aw) and an impressive Read More
There is a very silly tree in Nicole Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer’s front yard. It is made of metal and has hands.
In lieu of a facile cutesy-Brooklyn joke, we give you a link to a recent interview with Jonathan Safran Foer, wherein he says that writing is like fleeing Read More
Perhaps you have found yourself wondering what Joshua Foer, younger brother of Foers Franklin and Jonathan Safran, is up to. Wonder no more, for The Architect’s Newspaper knows:
Hoping to challenge not only New Yorkers’ notions about sukkahs but also the world’s, Joshua Foer has launched Sukkah City for this coming Sukkot. From Read More
So, David Paterson–not doing so great.
Among the week’s other discoveries: Radar Online’s surprising ability to drive the news cycle (or not); Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to cosmetology; and word that British pod hotels are coming to New York. Also: There’s such thing as pod hotels! We love learning.
The press continues to hit up Jonathan Safran Foer for smug sound bites regarding his vegetarianism, and he continues to deliver.
Today’s Financial Times interview with Emily Stokes achieves something new, however. Over the course of a vegan lunch in the West Village, Foer makes clear his disdain not just for meat but Read More
Jonathan Safran Foer sat down with The Brooklyn Paper‘s Gersh Kuntzman to discuss his latest book, Eating Animals. Over a lunch of lentil soup (J.S.F.) and a chicken sandwich (Kuntzman), they sparred on topics ranging from factory farms to Foer’s self-professed status as a non-journalist writing nonfiction.
And yet! Though J.S.F. may be Read More
Last spring, author Jonathan Safran Foer was invited to teach a creative writing class at N.Y.U. It seems to have been a mutually felicitous experience, because he’s returning in the fall, with a course called “Impossible Writing,” to be held on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. From the catalog description:
“As with any Read More
