WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN SCREENWRITING
By Marc Norman.
Harmony, 560 pages, $27
There have been thousand of books about actors and hundreds about directors, but you can practically count the number of books about screenwriters on two hands.
This latest is the best—by far.
In What Happens Next, Read More
ERICA: I’ve been agonizing over shoes for my wedding. Not the ridiculously priced $400 pair of shoes I’ll likely buy to wear for my ceremony and pictures and then immediately kick off at the reception the moment no one’s looking. It’s the flip flops I plan to put on afterwards that have been keeping me Read More
Has any honest-to-God movie star ever been given sleazier settings in which to shine than Pam Grier? With her stately bearing and voluptuous build, regal high cheekbones and proud, prominent nose, Ms. Grier is one of those rare performers who seem to command the attention of the camera by nothing more than natural right. But Read More
Out of the delirium of Judiana (Gawker’s coinage), a paradigm shift? Out of the welter and whirlwind of exegesis of intelligence leaks comes … redesigned intelligence? An epistemological extreme makeover? We’re way beyond meta now when we talk about the media. We’re beyond self-examination (Rather); self-congratulation (Deep Throat); beyond heroes (Murrow) and villains (Capote virtually Read More
Remember the moment in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 when Uma Thurman plucks out Daryl Hannah’s last remaining eyeball and crushes-really squishes it-between her bare toes, to the evident delectation of Quentin Tarantino’s camera? (Vol. 2, you’ll recall, we were told by critics was the “more humanistic” of the two parts.)
What’s that-don’t tell me you Read More
Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2 , from his own screenplay, based on the character of “The Bride” created by Mr. Tarantino and Uma Thurman, can be enjoyed both on its own and as a continuation of Vol. 1 . At the very least, it hangs together better than the three parts of the simultaneously Read More
Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River , from a screenplay by Brian Helgeland, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, has turned out to be a more-than-worthy choice to open the 41st New York Film Festival, and I must say, as an involved witness to the first New York Film Festival back in 1963, I’ve ceased to Read More
On Oct. 1, New Yorkers paused to mourn and remember the employees of Windows on the World who were lost in the terrorist attack of Sept. 11. On that same day, a group of the city’s restaurateurs met with Senator Chuck Schumer to discuss ways that the food-service industry members could band together and reverse Read More
Absurd things are always absurdly welcome in our house. The news that Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner, who played Siamese twins in the musical Side Show , can qualify for a Tony Award as one actress is a deliriously funny case in point. The New York Times gravely announced that the producers of the long-since-closed Read More
Quentin Tarantino closed his eyes and gave himself over to K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight.” China Club’s dance floor was full on the night of Sunday, April 5, and the deejay was pushing the crowd to a peak of disco-era euphoria. Actress Rosie Perez, in a miniskirt, go-go boots and skin-tight top, Read More
