ROBIN WILLIAMS TAKES A WILD RIDE IN RV by Brad Balfour Though it’s nearly impossible to capture a Robin Williams conversation as text, he’s mastered enough restraint over the years to lend his movie insights a measure of coherency. He brings the same maturity to director Barry Sonnenfeld’s droll new family comedy, RV. This time Williams … Continue reading
HUGH GRANT Shares His American Dreams By Brad Balfour Having been AWOL for a while, British comic great Hugh Grant finally resurfaces in the biting satire, American Dreamz. Playing the smarmy host Martin Tweed, he outdoes Simon Cowell in being the heartless destroyer of dreams. Grant has played this part before and virtually defines the character, … Continue reading
GRETCHEN MOL GETS NOTORIOUS AS PINUP LEGEND BETTIE PAGE by Brad Balfour Before making The Notorious Bettie Page, 30-something actress Gretchen Mol had been working solidly, but had not quite found that signature role that would recoup her early momentum. Thanks to her role as 1950s cultural icon – S&M pinup girl Bettie Page – Mol … Continue reading
SHARON STONE BASIC INSTINCTS AROUSED AGAIN by Brad Balfour For Sharon Stone, the first Basic Instinct film, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was quite an odyssey; it established her as a provocative sex symbol, an actress willing to open herself up (and her legs) for the camera. In that film, she played a lesbian crime novelist accused of … Continue reading
AARON ECKHART THANKS YOU FOR SMOKING By Brad Balfour Though actor Aaron Eckhart transforms the most insidious of characters into memorable moments of cinema – witness what he did with his character in director Neil Labute’s In The Company of Men – he makes the master pro-smoking lobbyist, Nick Naylor, of Thank You for Smoking almost heroic. With relative newcomer Jason … Continue reading
SALMA HAYEK TALKS TOUGH AND ACTS WITH VULNERABILITY By Brad Balfour Wow, can you believe it? Salma Hayek is turning 40 in September. Yet for her to do this interview while battling a cold, you would never believe she was hitting the big four zero, let alone be in her 30s. That’s why, when you see … Continue reading
HEATH LEDGER MAKES HIS STAND ON BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN By Brad Balfour Doing Brokeback Mountain, was as much a challenge for Heath Ledger, taking on what might seem to be a risky role — playing Ennis, a gay cowboy in love with Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) — as it was taking on a complex restrained character at … Continue reading
RACHEL WEISZ STEPS THROUGH THE GARDEN By Brad Balfour Though Rachel Weisz has received accolades before, none are more appreciated than an Academy Award nomination. And given that she dies a few minutes in the film The Constant Gardener, it’s even more appreciated she got this attention. But the film is a powerful statement – about … Continue reading
LUC JACQUET A DIRECTOR DOCUMENTS A NEW GENERATION OF EMPERORS By Brad Balfour For French documentary director Luc Jacquet, making The March of the Penguins, might have been success enough, but to see his tale of an emperor penguin colony under some of the harshest conditions on earth, become a summer sleeper family hit and one … Continue reading
THE TRANSFORMATION OF FELICITY HUFFMAN by Brad Balfour Although Felicity Huffman’s name has been before the public through the high-profile award winning ABC TV series Desperate Housewives, seeing her in Transamerica is the real shocker. In taking on the role of a man becoming a woman, Huffman tests her acting skills in ways the TV show could never possibly do. … Continue reading
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