'An Enemy of the People' on Broadway

Want to see an awesome Broadway play? 'An Enemy of the People,' is excellent. It stars Richard Thomas and Boyd Gaines who play brothers without a common ground in a historical political setting. It's at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on 47th Street.

 

The 50th New York Film Festival and Directors Dialogues with Ang Lee

The 50th New York Film Festival started last night with 'The Life of Pi,' Ang Lee's latest film.

I went to the first of the Directors Dialogues  today and listened to Ang Lee talk about his career. I've been a fan since I saw 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' when it came out. He makes the most beautiful movies.

They talked about his variety in film choices: 'Sense and Sensibility,' 'Hulk,' 'Brokeback Mountain,' and 'The Ice Storm.'

Where many directors have a theme, Ang Lee does it all, but each one he does with such beauty. There's a dance of color and expression, a visual feast for the eyes if you ask me and I haven't even seen 'The Life of Pi' yet. The trailers tell me that it will be just as magnificent. The only reason I missed it was because tickets were gone so quickly.

But tomorrow, I got lucky. I am going to see 'Hyde Park on the Hudson' with Bill Murray. Excited!!!

Here are some pictures of Ang Lee from today's talk.

 

A fantastic classic...'The Graduate' and writer/director/actor Buck Henry

If you've never seen some of the old movies like 'The
Graduate,' 'What's Up Doc?,' and 'The Owl and the Pussycat,' maybe you should check them out.

'The Graduate,' is a classic and as I watched it I thought it may be very possible that Wes Anderson was influenced by it. Buck Henry wrote the screenplays for these movies and others. And I love each of them.

Another of my all time favorite movies is: 'Heaven Can Wait' with Warren Beatty. Buck Henry directed that and also plays the part of
The Escort in the movie which also stars Dyan Cannon and Julie Christie.

I had the great pleasure of attending a screening of 'The Graduate' this week and hearing Buck interviewed by Robert Milazzo of The Modern Film School.

Tomorrow I'll be attending the New York Film Festival and seeing Ang Lee again. 'The Life of Pi' is kicking off the festival tonight.

Next week I'll be attending the tribute to Nicole Kidman so stay tuned for more.....

 

Second weekend movie "Trouble With The Curve"

Nothing but homeruns this weekend. Pun intended!!!
"Trouble With the Curve" stars Clint Eastwood as a baseball
scout who the nasty Matthew Lillard character wants put out
to pasture. Amy Adams is the adorable daughter and Justin
Timberlake the love interest. Also I can't forget the ever great
John Goodman. Fantastic cast and scenery and story. The
magic is definately in the theaters this weekend. You'll have to
read yesterday's post to find out what else I loved...

 

Tony Danza wrote a book and did a talk at Gramercy Park

 

 

 

Movies...today....."The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

There are 2 must see movies for me this weekend. The first one I saw today at 4:20 and there wasn't an empty seat and it was playing on 2 screens an hour apart. I'm guessing big, big hit.

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

Boy coming of age movie. They are always among those most memorable types of movies. Logan Lerman plays Charlie and he is fantastic. Emma Watson is awesome and Ezra Miller superb. It was written (novel and screenplay) and directed by Stephen Chbosky.  Great cast, great dialogue, made me cry three times and people in the theater applauded like crazy when it ended.

 

Two Greats this week .... Geoffrey Rush and Glenn Close

Mid week this week Geoffrey Rush joined Annette Insdorf and Fred Shepisi and Alexandra Shepisi for a Q & A following a screening of 'The Eye of the Storm.'

The film is Australian as is the director, Fred Shepisi and his beautiful daughter, Alexandra, Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis who star in the film.

Excellent performances and an excellent director who also directed 'Roxanne' and 'The Russia House.'

The following night I went to see 'Albert Nobbs,' starring Glenn Close with a Q & A following with Glenn and Robert Milazzo, the director of the Modern Film School.

I had not seen 'Albert Nobbs' and found it to be a great film. Glenn talked about how difficult it was to raise the money for it. That was a discussion both nights.

It's interesting because I recently listened to a Comic Con webcast and that was about how all the money is going into action, super hero movies right now, but the gentleman who writes books about the topic and who was talking during the webcast, seems to think that it will peak out. He said there were a lot of frustrated people in San Diego at Comic Con this year. It has become too big.

What does this mean for films? I'll share the highlights of what I learn here. I am holding out for big and little films since my trilogy will be in the big realm. :)  But I also love the independent, low budget movies. I think there's a place for everything.

Here are some pictures of Glenn Close. Geoffrey Rush's was held in a place where photos are not allowed.

 

More of 'The Best Man' on Broadway

These were taken on John Stamos' birthday, August 19th. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Kristin Davis posed for some extra birthday photos with him. Cybill Shepherd, Dakin Matthews, Mark Blum and the always great, John Larroquette.

 

"Expendables 2" "Total Recall" "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" "Lawless" "Hope Springs" "Bourne Legacy"

Just because I haven't been writing about all the movies I've seen doesn't mean I haven't been going. For me going to the movies is like breathing. I'll be there. I've been so busy writing movies, that I have ignored writing about movies. I am working on a trilogy that will be completed in the not too distant future. And then....premiers.....la la la.

I have some pics I took to share of Meryl Streep when she and Tommy Lee and Steve Carell went to the Apple Store in Soho to talk about the movie. They all jumped out of their own SUV's and ran inside.

I'll begin with "Hope Springs." I am not a fan of movie demographics. I love all movies, but I suppose if you didn't look at this as a movie with the finest of actors playing interesting characters, a beautiful location, and finding resolution to problems that plague people throughout their lives, you may narrowly think that this film is for couples who've been married for decades. That would be wrong. It's for everyone and for all the reasons just mentioned.

Moving on to something way different...."Lawless" which just started this Friday. Anything with Shia Lebeouf will have me in the audience. Add to that the always magnificence of Gary Oldman and Guy Pierce. I had to close my eyes a lot in this one, but I loved Shia's character as I love every character he plays. Lots of ick. Smash. Slug.

I loved the "Bourne Legacy." That was a real nail bitter and I am such a fan of Matt Damon that I didn't know how Jeremy Renner would stand up to  stepping into the series. Here's how....Excellent....And Rachel Weisz is always awesome.

"The Expendables 2." I love Jason Statham and I go see every movie that he is in. I liked this one mostly because he was in it and Sly was such a sweetie that I liked him too. A bonus is that Charisma Carpenter plays Jason's girlfriend.

"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" is awesome. What a beautiful movie. Jennifer Garner is always great and that little boy is precious.

Enjoy the pictures from Soho.

 

Boston or Bust an Adventure

I took off with a friend to Boston last weekend. We didn't go to any movies, read any books, see any plays or meet any celebrities, but we sure had fun. We even had dinner at 'Cheers' where we did see the gang on the wall.

If you're planning a trip to Boston, don't believe it when someone tells you that it's the walking city. NYC is the walking city. Very different in Boston. One taxi ride was $34.00. Things to see are far apart.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and a cool breeze. We took a ferry from the wharf in Boston over to Salem. It takes an hour and it is fabulous. Especially on a gorgeous day. In Salem we went into a Witch store and a store that sold books and candles and crystals. I asked for a book that wasn't commerical and got some mumbo jumbo about all books being commercial. The girl just didn't have one in the shop. I'm sure such things can be found.

Back in Boston, we visited Harvard, Fenway Park, The Boston Common, and a church built in 1669. That was really awesome.

Here's another travel tip for you if you go to the wharf in Boston to catch the ferry, and you're hungry, and you're vegetarian like me.....forget about it. You can have fried dough. I had a giant doughy pretzel. Likes of hot dogs and sausages around if you eat that. I mean lots.

I have a friend who lives there who told me before hand that there are vegan places around. I just didn't find them on this trip.

Lots of stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned......
Here's some Boston photos....