Michael Sheen as David Frost and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon
Frost/Nixon is one great scene surrounded by a Ron Howard picture. Whether that’s good news or bad news depends on your patience for the director’s trademark incapacity for subtlety or nuance. I have little, but in this case he’s a bit less irritating [...]

Filed under: Reviews | 35 Comments »

Frost/Nixon: surprisingly un-crappy
My part of this week’s Watercooler is Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon. I went in with low expectations but an open mind and surprisingly it wasn’t too bad. It’s occasionally marred by Howard’s trademark lack of subtlety - he’s not just content to tell rather than show, first he tells and then he shows - but [...]

Filed under: Watercooler | 66 Comments »

Michael J. Smith Sr. in Ballast
Ready or not, it’s officially awards season with the IFP announcing its nominees for the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards (formerly known as the Gotham Awards).
Several films that might be familiar to you if you’ve been reading LiC lately have been showered with a little early awards loving and [...]

Filed under: Awards | 12 Comments »

Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson in Vicky Cristina Barcelona 
Like a fleeting love affair in a beautiful foreign country, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona is probably best appreciated for what it is rather than analyzed for what it means. It’s a bit of a trifle to be sure, but a supremely engaging and entertaining one. More [...]

Filed under: Reviews | 128 Comments »

It’s late so I’ll spare you the story of the drunk guy form Michigan at the Arclight bar who tried to share the secret of The Secret with me (”I’m not gay but you have amazing, mystical green eyes.”  Wah??!) and I’ll pass up the trailers to get right to the weekend’s movies.
LiC’s first rule [...]

Filed under: Watercooler | 80 Comments »

Penelope Cruz is neither Vicky nor Cristina in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
You can almost feel summer winding down and the fall movie season arriving, can’t you? Here’s what’s on tap this weekend:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Woody Allen’s tale of two American women, the sensible one (Rebecca Hall) and the adventurous one (Scarlett Johansson), who travel to Barcelona [...]

Filed under: Weekend Forecast | 20 Comments »

Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rebecca Hall is turning up everywhere these days. She began appearing in made-for-television BBC productions when she was 12, then disappeared for a decade before reappearing as Sarah in Christopher Nolan’s underappreciated 2006 film The Prestige.
She’ll soon be seen in Woody Allen’s upcoming Vicky Cristina Barcelona (she [...]

Filed under: Casting, News, Pre-Production | 27 Comments »