Steph Green Living on the Short Circuit by Jay S. Jacobs It’s not like film directors just appear working feature films with no prior experience. Most great directors have gotten their feet wet working on short films: including Steven Spielberg (“Amblin’”), Martin Scorsese (“What’s A Nice Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This?”), … Continue reading
Emily Deschanel The Doctor Is In by Jay S. Jacobs In the second season finale of the popular series Bones, the main characters Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) ended a couple of years of flirtation standing together at a wedding altar in front of a clergyman and a … Continue reading
SWEET LAND (2007) Starring Elisabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, Alan Cumming, Lois Smith, Ned Beatty, John Heard, Tom Gilroy, Alex Kingston, Robert Hogan, Karen Landry, Patrick Heusinger and Paul Sand. Screenplay by Ali Selim. Directed by Ali Selim. Distributed by 20th Century Fox. 110 minutes. Rated PG. Hollywood does not make enough films that can literally … Continue reading
ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. TO THE FUTURE, DARKLY BY JAY S. JACOBS When director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, Before Sunset) decided to film sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick’s extremely autobiographical 1977 drug cautionary tale A Scanner Darkly, he knew he was taking a big chance artistically and commercially. He’s not the first – Dick’s pitch-black world … 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
DAVID CRONENBERG A DIRECTOR LOOKS AT VIOLENT AMERICA by Brad Balfour Now transformed from a horror genre master (Rabid, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome) to a full-blown, critically acclaimed and analyzed auteur, Toronto-based director David Cronenberg finally has made A History of Violence – the film that may be the Oscar-garnering capper of his career. With Cronenberg having … Continue reading
ATOM EGOYAN FINDING THE TRUTH IN DIRECTING by Brad Balfour For Canadian director Atom Egoyan creating Where the Truth Lies offered a challenge of constructing something that was almost a genre film but not quite. Wrestling with musician/composer Rupert Holmes’ novel of the same name, Egoyan takes a story that plays on the conventions of the classic … Continue reading
Curtis HANSON The director steps into a WOMAN’S WORLD by Brad BALFOUR Veteran director Curtis Hanson loves to confound people. As the Oscar-winning director of L.A. Confidential, who would have thought he would take on a project like 8 Mile – the fictionalized telling of cross-over rapper Eminem’s rise to success in the Detroit ghetto. Yet now he again defies expectations of him by doing … Continue reading
Joshua Malina Hail to the Chief by Jay S. Jacobs There are lots of ways that people go about trying to get their first big break in acting. Some people kill themselves working a minimum wage job while floating from audition to audition. Some try other arts, like music or modeling, as an entrance. Some people sit on a stool in … Continue reading
George Dzundza Finding Grace in Hack By Jay S. Jacobs You know the face. It is a tough-but-fair mug that has dissolved selflessly into well over seventy roles in a film and television career that has lasted about thirty years. You know the characters. He was Gus Moran, the good–hearted but protective partner of Michael Douglas’ self-destructive cop in Basic Instinct. He was … Continue reading
