From “Say Anything ….” to “Almost Famous,” Cameron Crowe has made his name with movies that strike the right tone – a bittersweet balance that’s funny, melancholy, romantic and observant. It’s one his idol, Billy Wilder, perfected decades ago.
Which is what makes “Elizabethtown” so curious, and such a disappointment.
In telling the story of a young man who returns to his small-town Kentucky roots after his father’s death, it’s as if writer-director Crowe wanted to make several movies but couldn’t decide among them, so he just made them all, then trimmed for time.
Characters say and do things real people don’t say and do, and they frequently come up with poignant turns of phrase that are so perfectly timed, they clang self-consciously – especially Kirsten Dunst as the perky flight attendant with whom Orlando Bloom’s character strikes up an unexpected romance.
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WHEN ALICE WU’S “Saving Face” finishes its run in theaters, the video stores will have a difficult time figuring out exactly where to shelve the DVD. After all, this elegant charmer defies categorization. Call it the American film as melting plot.
It is at once a gay romantic comedy, a knowing mother-daughter buddy picture and a dramatic retelling of the age-old story of what happens when old-world cultures clash with a fully realized American life.
“A lot of what I’m trying to do is take the standard romantic comedy and turn it on its head,” says Wu, a first-time director. “I
Lexus, the premium car manufacturer, today unveils its Lifestyle Barometer – a unique measure of which luxuries we really value in the UK. The Lifestyle Barometer looked at the luxury tastes and desires of the nation, and found that despite, or perhaps due to our stressful lives, we love to spoil ourselves – some of us more than others.
In fact, contrary to popular belief, it’s men who have proved to be have the most sensitive souls, with further surprising results revealing:
• A third of men (36.5%) and nearly half of women (52.7%) chose a city break when it
Christopher Hampton proves to be a trump card for the Donmar again. His Tales From Hollywood, revived four years ago, was outstanding. And now The Philanthropist, with Simon Russell Beale playing the titular spineless don, is a brilliantly entertaining and startlingly poignant evening - surely one of the best productions of 2005. On paper, it may sound slightly tiresome: a satire from 1970 set in academe, written as a response to Moličre's The Misanthrope. An egghead called Philip throws a dinner party, infuriates everyone by being over-agreeable, is seduced by a nympho then ditched by his vain fiancée, Celia. In
In my high school and college English classes, I was always told to write about what I knew, and that's what I finally did at the age of fifty-eight -- when I was old enough to know a lot more than I used to. That's when I wrote and self-published my first novel, "I Started a Joke."
As a preacher's kid and a Christian, I could have attempted a predictable and preachy work that would satisfy the strict standards of the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA). But that wouldn't do; I wanted to write for everyone, including non-believers.
So I delved into
In an unprecedented move by an organization not exactly known for unbridled creativity, the Chemical Heritage Foundation has lit a match under its oxygen tank. Its newly opened "The Sky's the Limit" exhibit examines the role of atomic technology and the impact of polymers in 1950s pop culture. The display captures the innocence of the day and the widespread belief that through chemistry, anything was possible.
Here's the short of it: WWII ended with a bang, we patted ourselves on the collective back for a decimation job well done, but — oh, hell — we left a surplus of research