MetaFilter posts tagged with movies and hollywood

The Big Apple

flatluigi — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:11:39 -0800

Telling lies about Poliwood

philip-random — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:34:58 -0800

As I write this, I realize I am about to do something that, for the most part, is never done. I am going to criticize a critic. Filmmakers are never supposed to respond to a critic about their work. It's an unspoken rule of engagement. But in this case, I feel compelled. Barry Levinson (film maker) versus Alessandra Stanley (TV critic for the New York Times) on the topic of her getting her facts WRONG about his latest film Poliwood an "essay" which looks at celebrity involvement in the 2008 Democratic and Republican national conventions. Apparently, this is not the first time Ms. Stanley has got it wrong, wrong, wrong.

The greatest teen exploitation flick ever, 30 years later

mediareport — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:26:30 -0800

OVER THE EDGE: An Oral History of the Greatest Teen Rebellion Movie of All Time Vice Magazine gets Matt Dillon (it was his first movie) and a bunch of other cast and crew together for a detailed oral history of Kurt Cobain's favorite flick and "the Apocalypse Now of teen films." Buried by Orion on its original 1979 release, in part because of violence in theaters which had just shown The Warriors, it found a big cult following among kids with HBO in the early 80s. Co-writer Tim Hunter would later go on to direct River's Edge. Part 1 Part 2 etc. More details 1981 Vincent Canby NYT review 2001 Village Voice chat with director Jonathan Kaplan

Ozmapolitan

crossoverman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:59:20 -0800

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

The MGM musical version of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz turned 70 this week. It wasn't the first time it was a movie, nor the last time it was a movie or a movie musical. You just keep on keepin' on the road that you choose Don't you give up walking cause you gave up shoes Ease on down, Ease on down the road (come on) Many people read politics into the story, some read queer sexualties into it. Adapted as a radio play in 1908, Oz has been sequalised, reinterpreted, reimagined twice as science fiction and Muppet-ised. So if you care to find me Look to the western sky As someone told me lately - Everyone deserves the chance to fly Gregory Maguire's literary reinterpretation is a parallel novel (and the musical a further interpretation on top of that), while Ruth Plumly Thompson followed Baum's 14 Oz books with 19 novels - the bulk of the "Famous Forty" canon novels. Talk of another film. The Wiki of Oz.

To be or not to... not to... Dammit! LINE!

grumblebee — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:21:08 -0800

Hollywood Bloopers: 1936-1947 A couple of the years won't load for me, but the ones I can watch are fun.

He wrote a score they couldn't refuse

crossoverman — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:51:46 -0800

One Hundred Years, One Hundred Scores. The Hollywood Reporter and a jury of film music experts select the 100 greatest film scores of all time. One of the jury is Dan Goldwasser, editor of Soundtrack.net, which publishers interviews with composers, reviews of soundtracks and keeps a valuable list of trailer music - for when a new trailer uses old film music and you can't quite remember where it's from. The AFI's equivalent Top 100 scores list from 2005.

Gore Verbinski... in Hollywood... with Universal.

crossoverman — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:48:52 -0800

Clue : 60 years, the movie, the books, the TV series, the fan site, the musical, the Harry Potter edition, the movie remake.

An Early Hollywood Murder Mystery

amyms — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:58:45 -0800

The bumping off of a famous person is the sort of oyster that any detective delights to open, so you can just bet the family jewels that I was pretty much elated when my Chief, the late Thomas Lee Woolwine, District Attorney of Los Angeles County, called me into his private office on the morning of February 3rd, 1922, and assigned me to represent his office in the investigation of this greatest of all murder mysteries. -- Excerpted from an article archived at Taylorology, a site exploring the life and death of William Desmond Taylor, a silent movie actor and director whose unsolved murder was among the earliest Hollywood true crime scandals. Researcher Bruce Long first published his accumulated information about the case as a small fanzine which evolved into a monthly electronic newsletter and is now a vast archive of articles and interviews, official documents, photos, and more. Although the Taylor case is the main focus, there's also a wealth of supplemental information about the silent film industry and its stars. The Taylorology electronic newsletter is also archived at Silent-Movies.Com

Wishful Blogging

crossoverman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:44:47 -0800

"The biggest problem with the metal bikini, was that it wasn’t metal. ——Not that metal would’ve been an improvement over what it was actually made of, which was kind of a hard plastic. Whatever it was, it didn’t adhere to one’s skin. MY skin. My young, soon to be popular, unlucky skin. SO, when I was relaxing leisurely against Jabba the Hutt’s gigantic, albiet grotesque stomach, my hard, plastic bikini bottom……….well, it had the tendency to make my now not so private privates quite public. Especially for the actor standing behind Jabba playing Bobba Fett—–I believe his name was Jeremy—–from where Bobba/Jeremy stood, so straight and tall and severe behind his mask——to put it simply and weirdly, Jeremy could see beyond my yawning, plastic bikini bottoms all the way to Florida."

- Carrie Fisher goes from writing the occasional book to daily blogging, from substance abuse to abusing punctuation

I've got to admit it's getting better

peachfuzz — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:58:09 -0800

Brad Pitt is no spring chicken, but it still took some work to put an 85-year-old version of his face on a child's body in his newest movie. The first step: a new markerless, wireless, uncanny-valley-clearing motion capture process, termed "volumetric cinematography" by the effects studio. And that's only the beginning of the magic routine a single movie can go through: a story spaning ninety years might pull out CGI, old-fashioned matte painting, "youthening", and more.

Hollywood Chinese

LinusMines — Sun, 04 May 2008 11:35:33 -0800

Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films (official site w/Flash) Filmmaker Arthur Dong covers the good (YT), the bad and the players (link to Flash video clips) in his latest award-winning documentary. Related MeFi post.

"I gotta sleep under some Chinaman named after a duck's dork."

amyms — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:05:55 -0800

Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes? Related: Whatever Happened to John Hughes? which has an accompanying photo gallery: Where are Hughes' teen stars now? [A previous post about John Hughes here.]

The Year of Flops

Iridic — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:34:48 -0800

On Tuesday, A.V. Club critic Nathan Rabin's reassessment of the rabidly ambitious Perfume: The Story of a Murderer marked the culmination of his Year of Flops project, a reviewing marathon of 104 commercial and critical failures. Here's the index of the films, sorted into Elizabethtown-derived categories of good but luckless movies, ordinary losers, and disasters of mythic proportions. For a bit of context, clips from some of the films in question: The Apple Batman and Robin The Wicker Man The Island of Dr. Moreau Under the Cherry Moon Billy Jack Goes to Washington Freddy Got Fingered (Not safe for work) Howard the Duck (Not safe for ducks) The Jazz Singer Toys Pennies From Heaven Return to Oz Cruising Cool World North

Wallace Seawell - Photographs of Classic Hollywood

The Deej — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:55:30 -0800

Wallace Seawell's portraits virtually created the classic Hollywood look.

Obit with small gallery.

More photos via Google Images.

Your favourite film sucks

chuckdarwin — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 03:13:41 -0800

'In defense of film critics' posits that 'Film critics [unlike food critics, etc] are expected to be cheerleaders.' I guess we're not supposed to think it's odd that the piece was written by paper's resident film critic. He does ask at least one good question, though: why have so many truly awful [and poorly reviewed ] films done so well at the the box office this year?

Roscoe Lee Browne. RIP, Mr. Nightlinger.

loosemouth — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:34:43 -0800

Roscoe Lee Browne, class act from beginning to end. The first time I ever noticed him was in The Cowboys, a western I've watched many times just to hear him speak.

P-p-p-p-p-please!

Faint of Butt — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:25:12 -0800

Who Delayed Roger Rabbit? Rich Drees lays bare the backroom bickering and production studio drama behind one of the 1980s' most successful comedies. For an encore, Drees reviews the unproduced script of Roger Rabbit II: Toon Platoon. Weep for what might have been.

Lobby card invasion

mediareport — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:45:18 -0800

Lobby Card Invasion. A searchable collection of a wide variety of lobby cards for all kinds of interesting films. [via PCL LinkDump]

David Denby on the future of Hollywood

russilwvong — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:39:04 -0800

Essay by David Denby on the future of our predominant art form: the film. Via Arts & Letters Daily.

So I showed up and found myself literally standing in the valley of the skanks

elgilito — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 02:37:24 -0800

Sly talks! Rounds [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9-10][11][12][13].

Let’s face it; my powers of communication were a little bit below that of a knuckle-dragging, ooze-dwelling cretin from another galaxy. Actually, I haven’t progressed that much. I just lie better. A 13 (so far)-part interview where Rocko/Ramby answers fans with oodles of extremely quotable, self-deprecating, sarcastic one-liners about the (few) ups and (many) downs of a Hollywood career. Tips on: how to get Sharon Stone naked, how to use the 3 seashells, how to direct dancers with a "crotch tartar" problem and how to bench press with owls. We also learn the final truth about some guy named Rocky - an inbred, druid outcast from Stonehenge whose specialty is weaving whistle chains and leaping face down onto pointed objects - and another one named Rambo - a savage turned loose in Microsoft’s headquarters.

Cool Film Blog: Your Humble Viewer

mediareport — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 09:40:16 -0800

Perfection and Eraserhead. Discussing Singing in the Rain and Goodfellas with prisoners. The link between Pasolini, Blind Willie Johnson and Carl Sagan. If you like hanging out at the corner of Film and Word, you might enjoy spending time in the archives at Your Humble Viewer, a wide-ranging, well-written, funny and literate film blog.

"I f&$$^&d Nicole Ritchie."

docgonzo — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 13:46:15 -0800

"Not today, sir, probably not tomorrow": Alternatively titled "Me and My Shadow, Part I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX"; the long, touching, interesting, hilarious, disturbing story of how 'Jay' kicked his drug habit, written by 'Silent Bob', aka Kevin Smith.

Forgotten silent film genius Larry Semon

mediareport — Mon, 01 May 2006 12:13:50 -0800

Forgotten silent film comedian Larry Semon. Part II - Heyday. Part III - Trouble Brewing. In 1920, he was the world's 2nd-most-famous Hollywood star, with a contract and creative control rivaling Chaplin. In 1921, he made a popular series of films with Oliver Hardy as his main comic foil, six years before Laurel & Hardy became a household name. In 1925, he directed a truly bizarre silent version of The Wizard of Oz, just as wild overspending, erratic behavior and lawsuits ruined his career. The Larry Semon Research site has an interesting picture gallery.

Adapted from a work by Allan Smithee?

hwestiii — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 18:05:08 -0800

"He said to me, 'I'm going to hang up on you if you don't stop talking to me,' " Graphic novel author Allen Moore takes a hard line with Hollywood. Reminds me of this story about Ex-Door John Densmore.

Oscar Roundups

mediareport — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 10:47:30 -0800

"Mixed" reviews of John Stewart's performance last night. A reminder that someone warned in February that Crash might win best picture because many Academy members were "unwilling to screen Brokeback Mountain" [permalinks broken, scroll down]. Marvel that YouTube somehow managed to get rights [cough] to Oscar video, at the Oscar frocks and that thing on Charlize Theron's shoulder, and at the persistent myth that a billion people watched the awards.