Twilight star Stewart to play Joan Jett in The Runaways
On the heels of her massive success in Twilight (she plays the lead role of Bella, for all you non-16-year olds), the Hollywood Reporter has announced that Kristen Stewart will play Joan Jett in The Runaways.... read more
White Dog
Even with the presidential election behind us, America’s issues with race won’t... read more
Scorsese adds another project to his queue
Martin Scorsese has long put out a movie every couple of years, and given the rate his queue has been filling up lately, his twilight years look to be no less prolific. According to Production Weekly, he’s now attached to direct Falcon’s Tale, a new film based on an unpublished book optioned by Paramount. ... read more
Paste celebrates 10 years
On Dec. 3, 1998, Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy and Jordan Feibus launched PasteMusic.com... read more
Stephen Colbert launches "Operation Humble Kanye"
When Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak dropped last week, so did Stephen Colbert's Christmas spirit (as well as his album's place on the iTunes chart). As West sits at #1, the Colbert Christmas soundtrack hangs tentatively at #16. But the Comedy Central pundit has a master plan to change the fate of his disc.... read more
Will the real Michael Cera please stand up in Paper Hearts?
When Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist came out this October, TheMovieBlog posted a short lamentation: "Already Bored With Michael Cera." They were neither the first, nor the last, to voice such opinion—film and TV critics had long been noting the stark similarities among the roles of his career—but they did state the concern with a certain amount of pith:... read more
Independent Spirit Awards topped by tight budgets
The debate for what exactly constitutes an "independent" film is as old as the studio system itself and doesn't seem likely to end anytime soon. This year, the Spirit Award nominations seemed to honor films that seem a little bit more independent, with an emphasis on truly small films instead of the arguably studio-funded pictures by Quentin Tarantino or Ang Lee that have done well in the past. Not one of the best pictures nominees were above $8 million in budget, sending the message (intentionally or not) that what it takes to make a great movie is vision over financing.... read more
Atom Egoyan's Adoration to open in early May
Atom Egoyan is best-known for his non-linear films focused on alienation. He's perhaps equally well-known for being really Canadian, and is in fact one third of what I like to call The Canadian Contingent, which is a filmmaking/crime-fighting supergroup with fellow canucks David Cronenberg and Guy Maddin that I just made up. Together they travel to high-profile film festivals to fight against their arch-nemeiss, the evil master of cliches Dr. Commercial Success.... read more
The Betrayal - Nerakhoon
Ellen Kuras is probably best known as one of the strongest... read more
Shopgirl director finds new muse in Amy Adams
Perhaps that project Anand Tucker announced recently—The Danish Girl with Nicole Kidman playing a transsexual—was a bit too heavy for his liking. While he's still attached to the project, Tucker's announced he's in talks to direct another picture that's, shall we say, a bit more commercial.... read more
Criterion offers streaming movies for $5
As streaming films became more commonplace online, the drive was to offer the highest-profile titles possible to entice consumers to the new format. But Netflix and other providers seem to have concluded that the titles themselves are only half the allure, and have also focused on new platforms—streaming video for TiVo users, in one instance.... read more
Life, Camera, Action: Movie Hopping While Rome Burns
David Lynch once called film “a magical medium that allows you to dream in the dark.” Walking the carpeted hallways and miniature lobbies of a Times Square megaplex, then, is like... read more
Noise Pop 2009 date, films and musical acts announced
Early announcements are being made for San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival for 2009. The 17th annual film and music festival is set for Feb. 24-March 1 at venues sprinkled throughout the city. ... read more
ABC Family casts 10 Things I Hate About You TV series
When it came out in 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You was a surprisingly good teenage comedy. A light adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, the film held the perfect balance of schmaltz and funny and had a great cast in Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (among others), to boot. ... read more
Milk
Today, Harvey Milk is remembered as a local hero... read more
Vera Farmiga, George Clooney confirmed for Up in the Air
A couple months back we mentioned that Jason Reitman was working on getting George Clooney on board (rimshot!) for his forthcoming dramedy, Up in the Air. Now, per Variety, comes news that The Departed's Vera Farmiga will star opposite Clooney in the film. ... read more
On Long Island, Memories of Harvey Milk Have Expired
The irony of Bay Shore Furriers and Leather Salon is that, while it’s the only building on the block that survived a fire six years ago, nobody seems to remember the lanky kid... read more
Napoleon Dynamite outed as culprit for bad Netflix picks
Netflix’s lifeblood comes from the movies it recommends, a gesture of exclusivity that supplies less-known titles based on user ratings. Through Cinematch, which analyzes viewers’ individual ratings and trends, Netflix generates new suggestions and uses them to keep queues full and customers committed. ... read more
Australia
The country's tourism board may have sunk a tidy sum... read more
Four Christmases
Proving that quantity does not equal quality, director Seth Gordon... read more
