By Charlotte Lytton 11/14/12 4:24pm

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

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Plays Aplenty at Montblanc’s One Day Broadway Spectacular

For actors, 24 hour plays are like the last day of class – the illusion of working remains, but everybody knows it’s just a thinly veiled disguise for goofing off with your friends and wearing fake Mexican mustaches. And at Monday night’s event at the American Airlines Theater, the pranks were in full swing and the faux facial hair put to good use as a host of stars took to the stage to support the Urban Arts program. “This is the most fun you can have with your clothes on that benefits children and is sponsored by Mont Blanc,” joked the charity’s Executive Director Philip Courtney as he stood under the spotlight, eagerly watched by his A-List peers.

Mischief and mishaps undeniably characterized the event, but a wave of hush fell over the audience as student poets Janessa Terry and Canice Munroe performed their work at the show’s opening. Their words had audience members and celebrities alike enthralled, and highlighted the excellent forum provided by Urban Arts in enabling young creatives from underprivileged backgrounds to showcase their talent. Read More

By Rex Reed 10/09/12 7:56pm

movies

Harrelson and Walken in Seven Psychopaths.

Going to the Dogs: With Seven Psychopaths, The Once-Masterful McDonagh Stays Bent on an Ill-Advised Hiatus from Theater

Garbage comes in all sizes, and every one of them seems to fit into a load of violent, hateful and incomprehensible trash called Seven Psychopaths. Written by talented Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, who shocked Broadway audiences with dark, funny, gothic creepshows like The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan and A Behanding in Spokane,this movie is proof that moving to Hollywood is poisonous Kool-Aid to the creative process. Kneeling at the trough of Hollywood pop psychobabble that has come to symbolize the New Cinema, Mr. McDonagh seems to have taken leave (temporarily, I hope) of his senses. He proved in 2008, with a brooding job called In Bruges, about hit men on holiday in Belgium, that he cannot stretch his bristling ideas into one full-length feature. Unfortunately, he also thinks he’s a director—a job for which he shows no patience, aptitude or proficiency. The result is a twitching convulsion of vicious drivel passing itself off as a movie, which can be best appreciated by the kind of people who dig Showgirls, the Saw franchise and Spike Jonze-Charlie Kaufman flicks.

For starters, the title means nothing. Read More

By Nate Freeman 12/07/10 11:43pm

Nightlife

Sam Rockwell, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Billy Crudup Talk Monopoly Strategy at Celebrity Charades After Party

Monday night The Observer found ourselves pulled into a full-on huddle with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell and Billy Crudup.

“Sam is our spokesman,” Hoffman said, pointing to his fellow actor.

The three of them had come to the Hudson Hotel for a particularly raucous after-party celebrating LAByrinth Theater’s “Celebrity Charades 2010: Fight Night,” in Read More

By Rex Reed 12/01/09 9:03pm

No Thanks to Leftovers!

Everybody’s Fine
Running time 100 minutes
Written and directed by Kirk Jones
Starring Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale

The week’s second remake (never a good idea) is Everybody’s Fine, an Americanization of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Italian comedy Stanno tutti Bene. Originally, Marcello Mastroianni played a retired bureaucrat who discovers his five Read More

By Christopher Rosen 10/30/09 1:00pm

Opening This Weekend: This Is Thriller Night!

When Zack and Miri Make A Porno and The Haunting of Molly Hartley could only combine for just over $15 million in box office grosses on this weekend last year, Hollywood learned a harsh lesson: don’t open movies on Halloween! In an effort to rectify that error in judgment, this Halloween we’re being treated to Read More

By Christopher Rosen 9/28/09 1:40pm

The Week in DVR: Peter Berg’s Trauma Premieres and Sam Rockwell’s Genius (and Other Things) are on Display in Choke

Monday: Trauma
Not to be confused with Mercy, here comes Trauma. This new NBC series—which has the snazziest ad campaign of the fall (non-Man Men edition)—eschews whiny nurses for tough-as-nails EMT workers and hopes to give action junkies a boost of adrenaline. Of course, that all sounds perfectly generic, but remember: Peter Berg Read More