Gustavo Steinberg Setting Free Tito and the Birds By Jay S. Jacobs Brazilian director Gustavo Steinberg has finally broken through to the American market, and it is with his first animated film. However, even though it has been made for children, Tito and the Birds is a trenchant and surprisingly nuanced film about the modern … Continue reading
Joel Edgerton Rewriting Boy Erased By Jay S. Jacobs This seems to be a fertile time for actors to take a more hands-on approach to filmmaking and write and direct their own films. Take Joel Edgerton. The Australian-born actor has been slowly-but-surely building a big name in the States with roles in such films as … Continue reading
Jason Reitman Looks Back at a Political Shift with The Front Runner By Jay S. Jacobs Director Jason Reitman is known for taking on some pretty big subjects in his films. He took on lobbying in Thank You for Smoking. He set his sights on teenage pregnancy in Juno and corporate soullessness and greed in … Continue reading
Paul Dano It’s A Wild Wildlife By Jay S. Jacobs We know Paul Dano as an actor with over a decade of quirky movie choices behind him. Perhaps you remember him best as the twin preachers in There Will Be Blood. Or perhaps as the young Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. Or, then again … Continue reading
Richard E. Grant Forms an Odd Couple with Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Jay S. Jacobs Richard E. Grant has been quietly putting together one hell of a career for himself in the three decades since he exploded on the scene as the title character in the film Withnail & I. … Continue reading
Olivia Lichtenstein & Nick Bedu If You Don’t Know Teddy Pendergrass by Now by Jay S. Jacobs In the early 1980s, Teddy Pendergrass was just on the cusp of superstardom. The Philly-native soul man was known for his silky voice, charismatic performances and athlete’s physique. He had platinum albums, sold-out concerts and was a massive … Continue reading
Duane Betts Musician Makes the Case for Both Nature and Nurture When It Comes to Rock N’ Rolling by Brad Balfour Genetics may not determine everything, but for rocker Duane Betts, it was a great place to start. As the son of veteran musician Dickey Betts, who had been a co-founder of the Allman Brothers … Continue reading
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Revisiting the Ghosts of Christmas Eve by Jay S. Jacobs 2017 was a very difficult year for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. In April of last year, the popular band which mixes rock, theater, classical and holiday music into a stunning and popular stage show, lost its leader. Paul O’Neill died suddenly in April of 2017, … Continue reading
Melissa McCarthy Shows Another Side of Her Talents with Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Jay S. Jacobs Melissa McCarthy is mostly known for playing broad comic roles, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that she decided to take on the dramatic real-life story of Lee Israel. Israel was a fairly popular … Continue reading
James Frecheville Plays Hardened Fighter Feeney Getting Revenge in Black 47 by Brad Balfour In the Irish film Black 47, times are not good. Thanks to Draconian laws imposed on the Irish people by their genocidal British occupiers, the potato famine that had hit Ireland in the mid-1840s depleted the starving populace of their main … Continue reading
