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Interviews
"Social Network"-ing with David Fincher & Jesse Eisenberg
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- Category: Interviews
- Published on Thursday, 30 September 2010 14:42
- Written by Frank Lovece
If The Social Network were on Facebook, everyone would want to friend it. Opening the 48th New York Film Festival, director David 
Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's story of Mark Zuckerberg's controversial founding of Facebook premiered to ecstatic reviews spanning highbrow to lowbrow, from The New Yorker to the New York Post -- where Lou Lumenick hyperbolically called it "quite possibly the first truly great fact-based movie of the 21st century."
The comment, aside from other eye-rolling considerations (United 93, The Queen or Fincher's own Zodiac, anyone?), is ironic given the hotly contested nature of just what is true and what's not in the Facebook creation myth. Sorkin worked in loose collaboration with author Ben Mezrich, who provided an outline and showed chapters of his in-progress book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal -- a 2009 best-seller for which Mezrich was castigated by critics for spinning entirely made-up scenes and dialog, and by providing no footnotes or other typical tools of the non-fiction trade.
Mónica del Carmen Leaps Past Mexican Taboos
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- Category: Interviews
- Published on Saturday, 21 August 2010 17:00
- Written by Laura Blum
Mexico is no stranger to violence. And sadly, "feminocidio" in border town Juárez has serialized images of marred women on national news. But it remains to be seen how Mexican filmgoers will stomach the fiendish sex play lensed with auteurist naturalism in Leap Year/Año bisiesto when the film opens in domestic theaters September 24.
Here at the 2nd Chihuahua City International Film Festival -- in the capital city of the same state as Juarez -- Michael Rowe's first go at directing a feature has ignited fiery debates. Exploring the carnal abyss during February of a leap year, the Australian-born filmmaker eyes his adoptive culture with the distance needed to vault taboos.
Some hail Leap Year as the nerviest entry in Mexico's New Wave of sacrificial eroticism let loose by Carlos Reygadas (Battle in Heaven, Japón). Others dismiss it as a frontal assault on morality and the senses; some 15 of the latter fled Festival venue Cinépolis half-way through the August 20 screening.
Classic 3-D at Film Forum August 13 – 26
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- Category: Interviews
- Published on Thursday, 19 August 2010 14:10
- Written by Seth Shire
Upon observing certain aspects of the world around him, my father used to say, “The more things change the more they remain the same.” Nothing could be more apropos to Dad’s favored expression than the film industry’s current trend of releasing 3-D movies.
Hollywood’s first Golden Age of 3-D films lasted briefly, from 1953 to 1954, and came about as a response to the competition -- television. “I’m amazed that, almost 60 years after the first 3-D heyday, which lasted two years, Hollywood once again sees 3-D as the future and savior of the industry,” explained Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Director of Repertory Programming, who put together the Classic 3-D screening series at Film Forum running August 13th – 26th, 2010.
Billy Magnussen Gives Em Hell in "Twelve"
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- Category: Interviews
- Published on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:18
- Written by Brad Balfour
In light of television's fascination with the lives of others, especially those of different economic orders either up or down the scale, the recently released Twelve fit right into the general zeitgeist. Though veteran director Joel Schumacher's film didn't exactly charm the critics or audiences when it came out, one bright spot in the film's ensemble cast was the face time from actor Billy Magnussen.
His very non-hero of a character (not a bad guy but a pained, tortured guy), older brother Claude to Rory Caulkin's younger bro Chris provided great fodder for anyone who's ever had a gripe with the offsprings of the rich and privileged. Having lived on the Upper East Side, deejayed in preppie clubs (such as long-shuttered Surf Club) and gone to the area waterholes, I have an informed knowledge of these spoil brats. These are the kids who people such series as Gossip Girl or NYC Prep and provided material for 17-year-old author Nick McDonell, whose book inspired this film.
