That she was … although she was born as James Slattery. More famous for being famous than for any discernible talent, she became a fixture of New York’s avant-garde scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, thanks to her association with artist Andy Warhol. He, of course, coined the famous “15 minutes of fame” […]
film
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Page One: Inside the New York Times
Startling admission: As a career-long journalist in one form or another, it is difficult for me to be truly objective about the documentary “Page One: Inside The New York Times.” No such problem exists with the Times’ own Michael Kinsley, who panned it as “a mess,” but don’t listen to him — I’m guessing most […]
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Cowboys & Aliens
But in one of the pleasant surprises of the summer-movie season, this genre mash-up is lean, handsomely crafted entertainment. It works precisely because it acts as if there’s no joke. You’ve got cowboys, and you’ve got aliens. ’Nuff said. It certainly starts with a bang. A man (Daniel Craig, “Quantum of Solace”) wakes up in […]
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We Are What We Are
Father knows best, but when the patriarch pukes up bile on the sidewalk and dies a most undignified death, that leaves the clan on their own for food. His two sons man a watch stand at an outdoor flea market to support the fam, but one of the young men’s hotheadedness gets them kicked out. […]
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Stake Land
In this film by director/co-writer Jim Mickle (“Mulberry Street”), the monsters are a mix of zombies and vampires. The characters call them “vamps,” but if not for the fangs, you wouldn’t think “bloodsuckers” at all. You may, however, think “horses,” because I swear the sounds of their attack-mode hiss contains an equestrian whinny. Co-writer Nick […]
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Limitless
Then a chance meeting on the street with a former in-law introduces him to a wild, new experimental drug called NZT-48 that unlocks all of the brain’s synapses to make you super-smart and super-productive before the effects wear off. Suddenly, he’s not only on a creative spree, but making a fortune playing the stock markets, […]
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Captain America: The First Avenger
That would be bad, however, because Marvel has saved the best for last. It’s miles better than that Norse god with the magic hammer, and just a hair below the greatness of Robert Downey Jr.’s first go-round in his iron armor, both of whom will team with Cap in next summer’s guaranteed nerdgasm, “The Avengers.” […]
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Beginners
They range from the witty (Mae West’s “You’re never too old to become younger”) to the philosophical (Seneca’s “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”). Writer/director Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” a sweet if sometimes irritatingly twee film playing exclusively at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, encompasses that same range. It doesn’t always succeed in […]
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Poetry
It’s ironic that “Poetry” would open with the image of a dead body floating near the film’s superimposed title, but the best of world cinema subverts viewers’ expectations. Director Lee Chang-dong (“Secret Sunshine”) does that through the entirety of this Cannes-blessed work from South Korea, even before it begins: Doesn’t a drama about a woman […]
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Turbulent Skies
While the disaster-movie craze of the 1970s and its rebirth in the late 1990s are long behind us, you wouldn’t know it with writer/director Fred Olen Ray’s take, which may as well as have been titled “Turbulence 4.” (Yes, two sequels to “Turbulence” actually got made.) Consider this: An airplane’s maiden flight controlled by new […]