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Best of Venice: Ghesseha, Iranian Tales That Have Found a Way to Be Told
Fatemeh Motamed Aria in Ghesseha (Tales) by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad The best parts of writing about films is learning the stories behind the story. Meeting the filmmakers, discovering the passion of the...
View ArticleHow To Have Fun With a Serious Song
This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from the forthcoming book Field Notes from a Music Biz Life. In the wake of "Ebb Tide," Carl's 1953 oceanic collaboration with composer Robert Maxwell,...
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Feline-ious Assault: The Temple of Bad Discusses A Talking Cat!?!
We have to be clear about this: There are bad movies; there are reprehensible movies; there are movies that make you consider taking out a contract on the entire DGA, just to be sure that never in the...
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Grrl's Guide to Filmmaking: Faith Soloway (Transparent)
In the premiere episode of a fresh new docuseries featuring women filmmakers, Faith Soloway invites me onto the Paramount lot to talk about what it's like writing on the breakthrough Amazon series,...
View Article'Boyz in the Hood': Approaching 25 Years
I met an acquaintance of mine recently - a woman with many years' experience working in the world of feature films - and she had just read a piece I wrote called "Making Movies Matter." In it, I...
View ArticleHow to Become a Star
Some people come into Show Business for all the wrong reasons. Their goal is just to become famous. This will not work. They're not really interested in any training or the acting process. They are...
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4 Reasons Why Jennifer Lawrence Is Brilliant: Her Class Is No Act
More than 100 female victims (and one male) were a part of what is being called the "biggest showbiz hacking scandal." The red carpet starlets were shaken by the invasion of privacy, but are busily...
View ArticleMy Conversation with Ed Harris
Tomorrow night on PBS I'm joined by Ed Harris, four-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner, to talk about his new film, Frontera, co-starring Eva Longoria and Micheal Peña. The indie film just out...
View ArticleShowtime's Ray Donovan Makes TV the Place to Be Sunday Night
Showtime's Ray Donovan triumphs over Boardwalk Empire, The Leftovers and Masters of Sex on Sunday night's festival of the best in TV series. Well, we do have Steve Soderbergh's The Knick. But that is...
View ArticleIs Bravo's 'Below Deck' Hurting the Yachting Industry? 10 Examples of How...
What is BravoTV's Below Deck doing TO or FOR the yachting industry? If you haven't seen it, Below Deck is a show about the crew of a multi-million-dollar luxury yacht and their adventures doing...
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Golden Door International Film Festival: The Stuff of Dreams
"I lift my lamp beside the golden door." That final and very famous line from the poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty was the inspiration behind the birth of the Golden Door International Film...
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Teenage Film Maker Matthew J. Evans Wins Prestigious Art of Making Peace Award
18 year-old Matthew J. Evans' mission as a filmmaker is to produce movies and videos that entertain, educate, inspire, and empower audiences to find value and meaning in their lives and in the world. He...
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The MovieFilm Podcast: Summer in Review + Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig on The...
For our first episode of the fall season, the MovieFilm Podcast is proud to present a roundtable interview with actors Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, and director Craig Johnson, about their new film The...
View ArticleJoan Rivers: Say Anything -- Except 'Sorry'
In this world of the easy out, there are few apologies that are profoundly genuine. Most are as gloriously fake as, well, Joan Rivers after another Botoxifcation. Too soon? Joan wouldn't have thought...
View Article15 Minutes With Kristen Wiig
I'm in Beverly Hills for a screening of Kristen Wiig's new film The Skeleton Twins, and I've arrived early and hungry. I walk down Wilshire Boulevard -- with Amy Winehouse's "Tears Dry On Their Own"...
View ArticleLalah Hathaway Does the Impossible and So Can You
Lalah Hathaway making the impossible seem easy I came to this video way later than over two million others. If you want to understand why it got all those hits, move the little counter button up to...
View Article'Anaconda': Why You Should Watch Nicki's Video Again
There have been two immediate reactions to Nicki Minaj's new video, "Anaconda": 1. "Hide your kids, hide your wife." 2. "Dat ass." Rap Genius described the song as such: "a truly polarizing track,...
View ArticleBehind Elevator Doors: It's Time for All Men to Stand Up Against Domestic...
Behind closed doors. Even elevator doors. That's where domestic violence usually occurs. We are disturbed by its aftermath -- the bruising, black eyes, broken bones -- but not enough to take real...
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Thales Corrêa: Filmmaker Tackles Suicide in Short Film
Some filmmakers make films to purely entertain the masses. During the summer blockbuster season, this is very apparent. However as this season comes to a close, audiences will begin to see the crop of...
View ArticleMy Conversation With Quincy Jones
Tomorrow night on PBS I'm joined by the incomparable Quincy Jones, a true renaissance man. His latest project is a labor of love for him -- it's a documentary called Keep On Keepin' On that pays...
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