Michael Peña, from the film Lions for lambs
Friday, November 9th, 2007Felicia Feaster speaks with actor Michael Peña about his role in Lions for lambs - Download.
MOVE ON: Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise in Lions for Lambs
Photo by David James
The advocates
Lions for Lambs and Darfur Now reveal why and how people take action
Lions for Lambs strikes a compellingly strange note with its mix of both patriotism and left-leaning angst. It has the tone of a highly verbal ’30s stage play from a socially conscious playwright of the Clifford Odets school.
But what makes the film interesting is how attuned it is to class and power. It is the difference between the moral certitude of a Republican senator and an ever-doubtful journalist. And it expresses the very different worldview held by working-class kids such as Rodriguez and Finch and spoiled, upper-class ones such as Hayes. While Hayes zones out in front of the frat-house TV, others risk their lives for the cause of America.
Read the rest of the review here.
The queen of drag finally comes full circle – once a hopeful young gay man looking for acceptance, now a returning heroine – on his trip back to Atlanta for the Out on Film premiere of his first self-written and self-produced feature film, Starrbooty.
Ray McKinnon and his filmmaking partners prove you can take the actors out of the South without taking the South out of the actors. That’s not always the case when the South’s native sons and daughters go Hollywood. Reese Witherspoon and Julia Roberts have deep Southern roots, but trafficked in grating Dixie caricatures in Sweet Home Alabama and Steel Magnolias, respectively.
Superbad contains, along with a big heart and a dirty tongue, the funniest running gag of the year. As if imitating an early 1980s sex comedy, two high school friends, Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), seek to buy beer and hook up with comely classmates at a party. They rely on an even bigger geek (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) with a fake ID, but are aghast to see that the driver’s license gives their friend the one-word name “McLovin.”
While he is considered one of the most respected film critics in the country, as evidenced by his work with Time magazine, Richard Schickel is also widely known for producing documentaries about Hollywood and its most important figures. As the producer of works such as Woody Allen: A Life in Film and Scorsese on Scorsese, Shickel allows legendary filmmakers to explain their work.
Year of the Dog: Puppy love
“Ralph Nader.” Say the name and the blood of many liberals runs cold. The party line finds Nader in the crosshairs as the man who single-handedly cost Democrats the 2000 presidential election by running as a third-party presidential candidate who siphoned off critical votes. In more ludicrous spasms of blame, it is Nader, not George W. Bush, who is responsible for the loss of life in Iraq, according to Nation writer Eric Alterman.
