Pages tagged “alexander payne”

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The Descendants

Despite the acclaim surrounding the name Alexander Payne, the new drama from the celebrated director doesn’t live up to the high standards usually associated with him. Due to a flat performance from its star, George Clooney, and an emotional disconnection between the story, characters and audience, The Descendants instead settles for mediocrity....  read more

The Best Feature Films About Food

Many excellent films have been made in honor of the preparation, celebration and eating of food...  read more

George Clooney in Talks for Alexander Payne's Next Film

George Clooney is in talks to play the lead role in the first feature film Alexander Payne has directed in five years, the follow-up to 2004’s Sideways. Payne also directed 1999’s Election and currently executive produces HBO’s series Hung. Produced by Fox Searchlight (where Payne has a first-look deal), the new film is a family “dramedy” called The Descendants, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’ 2007 novel of the same name....  read more

Alexander Payne Signs Up For His First Movie Since Sideways

Alexander Payne has signed up for his first post-Sideways feature, The Descendants, about a father who embarks on a search for his incapacitated wife’s lover with his 10- and 17-year-old daughters in tow. ...  read more

Five Non-Anatomical Reasons You Should Watch HBO's Hung

HBO's new comedy series Hung chronicles a high-school history teacher who decides to sell sex when he can't afford to give his kid $50 for a concert, among other things. Formidably endowed, he soon finds business. The ratings have been promising, and based on what we've seen so far, here are five reasons you should help keep it that way: ...  read more

Payne announces "small" film with Giamatti, Witherspoon

It seems Alexander Payne is partnering with screenwriting collaborator Jim Taylor again to pen his first feature film since 2004's Sideways won an Oscar for the duo's adaption of Rex Picket's novel of the same name. Rejoining the director for the film will be Paul Giamatti, who starred in Sideways, and Reese Witherspoon, who hasn't acted for Payne since her breakout film Election in 1999....  read more

HBO picks up black-comedy series Hung

To be fair, HBO has always tended toward informative names for its series: Entourage, The Sopranos, Sex and the City. But in the case of the network's new black comedy Hung (about an embattled basketball coach who is, um, naturally gifted elsewhere), the double-entendre seems perhaps a little extreme. ...  read more