Actor Turned Director Diego Luna Celebrates Cesar Chavez by Brad Balfour Born on December 29, 1979 in Mexico City, Diego Luna Alexander lost his mother in a car accident when he was only two. Therefore, Luna became immersed in his father’s passion for entertainment. His father was Mexico’s most acclaimed living theatre, cinema and opera … Continue reading
The Wait The Wait is both gorgeously filmed and acted and annoyingly artsy at the same time. A very loose variation on Samuel Beckett’s classic play Waiting For Godot, the film mostly hovers around three adult children in differing stages of mourning four their mother, who dies of an unspecified-but-apparently-long-term illness as the film begins. Soon after … Continue reading
ABOUT TIME (2013) Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Tom Hollander, Will Merrick, Richard Cordery, Joshua McGuire, Margot Robbie, Tom Hughes, Clemmie Dugdale, Harry Hadden-Paton. Vanessa Kirby, Mark Healy, Mitchell Mullen and Lisa Eichhorn. Screenplay by Richard Curtis. Directed by Richard Curtis. Distributed by Universal Pictures. 123 minutes. Rated R. … Continue reading
Liv Ullmann The Legendary Swedish Actress Recalls Life with Ingmar Bergman in Film and in Person by Brad Balfour One of the many things a benchmark film festival like the New York Film Festival can do is anoint a new documentary with the stamp of importance just by inclusion in the fest. Such is the … Continue reading
Asghar Farhadi Iranian Writer/Director Gets Oscar For A Separation & Retrospective at Lincoln Center by Brad Balfour Iranian director Asghar Farhadi manages to both enlighten and mystify. Maybe that’s why he’s been able to evade both the censors and jailers who police filmmakers for thought crimes against the mega-fascist Iranian state. Or maybe because this … Continue reading
Stefan Ruzowitzky and Karl Markovics A Director and an Actor Make an Authentic Holocaust Film out of The Counterfeiters by Brad Balfour Just when you think everything that happened during the Holocaust has been chronicled, another film appears based on a true story that offers another look at that horrible experience in a way which … Continue reading
Julian Schnabel Continues to Dive Into Filmmaking with The Diving Bell and The Butterfly by Brad Balfour Director Julian Schnabel comes to filmmaking under odd circumstances. Long before he made his first film, he was a world-class fine artist – the self-proclaimed lion of the New York art world – whose paintings and other works … Continue reading
Rachael Lawrence Doesn’t Really Mind Entering Her 30s by Jay S. Jacobs Fame can come from lots of different directions. Rachael Lawrence is determined to meet it head on. A California-born-and-bred multi-hyphenate; Lawrence has spent the last decade or so working as a singer, songwriter, actress, director and producer. She has even been a popular … Continue reading
United Stages Off Broadway by Ronald Sklar The New York small-venue theater scene is — as it has always been — vibrant with new and even established talent – both on and off the stage. However, small venue – or as it is sometimes called, off-off Broadway – is an artistic endeavor that faces many … Continue reading
ALEXANDER PAYNE STAYING STRAIGHT WHILE MAKING SIDEWAYS by Brad Balfour With Sideways, Alexander Payne really proves he’s a true contender, not just the creator of smart, snarky idiosyncratic comedies but solid filmmaker who tackled humanity with aplomb. In this humorous on-the-road buddy flick, leads Paul Giamatti (failed writer Miles Raymond) and Thomas Haden Church (former hot actor Jack) grapple with Jack’s … Continue reading
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