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Film

80 Wonderful Michael Caine Quotes for His 80th Birthday

By Jason Bailey and Chloe Pantazi on

Break out the cake, light up the candles, and trot out your best Cockney-accented imitation: the great Michael Caine is 80 years old today. Sir Michael, who first came to international fame clear back in 1966’s Alfie, has always struck us as a particularly down-to-earth chap, blessed with fierce intelligence, a quick wit, and a rather astonishing work ethic — he’s appeared in well over 100 films since his first credited role in 1956’s Hell in Korea, and during his most productive period in the 1980s, he would frequently star in three or four pictures per year. That doesn’t just mean he’s done a lot of movies; it’s means he’s done a lot of interviews. So in celebration of his 80th year on Earth, we rounded up some of our favorite quotes from his many interviews (and from his own writing); enjoy the wit and wisdom of Sir Michael Caine after the jump. … Read More

Film

‘Side Effects’ and the End of the Soderbergh Era

By Jason Bailey on

In the 24 years since his debut feature sex, lies, and videotape won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh has directed 26 features, plus a handful of shorts and television episodes — a spree of productivity and creativity that puts most of his peers to shame. (Example: he directed seven films in the period between Quentin Tarantino’s third and fourth.) And now, it would appear, he’s done. After teasing and threatening for months, it seems that his latest theatrical release — the thriller Side Effects, out today — is his last, with only the HBO Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra on deck. So why, then, does Side Effects feel so anti-climactic? … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Flick of the Week: ‘Anna Karenina’ Is a High-Spirited, Robust Adaptation

By Jason Bailey on

Joe Wright’s new adaptation of Anna Karenina opens with a wide shot of a stage, the sounds of an orchestra tuning, and a curtain rising. The telling of the story that follows is immersed in artifice, much of it taking place in a fluid theatrical space with lighting and staging effects, and moving flats, backdrops, and scenery. What Wright and his screenwriter Tom Stoppard (who knows a little something about The Theatre) have done is not adapt Tolstoy’s novel so much as they’ve staged it, creating a fluid three-way dialectic between the page, the stage, and the frame. It’s a fresh and ingenious approach, and results in a surprisingly high-spirited picture. … Read More

Fashion

The Fug Report: Highs and Lows from the Week in Fashion

By Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan on

Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

This week, on Go Fug Yourself, we expressed concern about the… Read More

Film

The Most Insufferable Holiday Movies of All Time

By Jason Bailey on

Everybody loves a good holiday movie. When we wrote last week about the beginning of the season, and our favorite annual Christmas movies (Die Hard and It’s A Wonderful Life), our readers threw in their favorites: A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Bad Santa, Muppets Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, etc. But, lest we forget, every film of the season ain’t White Christmas; there are plenty of rotten holiday movies. (And, in fact, one of them is coming out tomorrow: steer clear of New Year’s Eve as though your life depends on it.) As many great Christmas movies as there are, it’s also a very tricky style to get right, requiring the proper mix of holiday cheer, sentiment, laughs, and warmth. It is pretty easy to screw that elixir up, and end up with something sickly sweet and utterly unwatchable. After the jump, we’ll gather up a few lumps of coal from our previous Christmas stockings. … Read More

Film

Flavorpill’s Incredibly Comprehensive Fall Movie Preview

By Jason Bailey on

Ah, fall. The fall movie season is when we film lovers do our very best to shake off a summer’s supply of Transformers, ‘80s remakes, and wilted comic book heroes, and open our arms to the “prestige pictures”: the smart movies for grown-ups that studios trot out as close to Oscar time as possible, so that they can pretend like these are the kind of movies they make all year long.

Of course, those studios still have bills to pay, so it would be a mistake to presume that quality and intellect will be the sole flavor of the season. Too often, your fall movie previews tend to focus on the most promising releases, as though Oscar bait is all we’re going to see this autumn. Make no mistake: there will still be plenty of dumb comedies, mindless action, and copious amounts of 3-D. So in order to present the most complete picture of fall 2011 at the cinemas, we’ve assembled a comprehensive list of the major fall releases, good and bad alike. Of course, that’s quite a big list of movies, so we’ve boiled our comments down to the basics: who’s in it, what it is, who it’s for, and if we’re in or out. Break out your calendars and join us after the jump. … Read More

Film

Trailer Park: Scorsese, Soderbergh, Spielberg… and Sandler

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got new films from Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, and Guy Ritchie — but don’t get too excited, there’s a new Adam Sandler movie too. Check ‘em all out after the jump. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Judy Berman on

1. David O. Russell is in talks to direct a film about Russ Meyer‘s life. The writer for the project is Merritt Johnson, who scripted porn-star biopic Lovelace. Looks like someone found her niche. [via Deadline]

2. A hacker ring has attacked the computers, emails, and mobile phones of 50 female celebrities, including Scarlett… Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Hear the World

By Doug Levy on

Phonak’s Hear the World initiative is on a mission to educate people about the dangers of hearing loss and how to handle it — and it has some high-profile friends on board.

Musicians and other celebrities, including Amy Winehouse, Peter Gabriel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jude Law, Moby, Common, and Lindsay Lohan, have lent their faces (and voices) to the campaign as Hear the World “ambassadors.” Through their endorsement, the program’s numerous offerings are being noticed on a wide scale, giving the public access to vital information, and those in need invaluable support. … Read More

Books

Photo Gallery: When Hollywood’s Leading Men Were Boys

By Paul Laster on

Widely known for his black-and-white portraits of celebrities, which have graced the pages of Interview, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair, Greg Gorman has worked on both sides of the camera for more than 40 years. He was the photographer for Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video, directed by Martin Scorsese; an actor in Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie; and a cameo player in John Waters’ film about an amateur photographer-turned-art-world-sensation, Pecker.

Now Gorman is being touted for his new photography book, In Their Youth, which captures male actors and models in their early days. Featuring intimate images of Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashton Kutcher, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, and Mark Wahlberg, amongst others, Gorman’s stylish selection spans an era — from the late ‘70s to the late-‘00s — and flaunts some of Hollywood’s leading men, long before they acquired a single wrinkle or ounce of fat. … Read More