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- The planarian is not as well known as other, more widely used subjects of scientific study ? model creatures such as the fruit fly, nematode or mouse. But University of Illinois cell and developmental biology professor Phillip Newmark thinks it should be. As it turns out, the tiny, seemingly cross-eyed flatworm is an ideal subject for the study of germ cells, precursors of eggs and sperm in all sexually reproducing species. |
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- Film Reviews: "The Straight Line" pretty much hits the spot. Jose Maria de Orbe's often compelling, brutally clear-eyed study of the non-life and loves of an alienated twentysomething is low-frills, cinema-verite-style fare, defiantly made without the comforting trappings of cause and effect, characterization and music.. |
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- Film Reviews: The building of a model airplane becomes an engaging, thought-provoking parable in the less-than-snappily-titled "Pulqui, a Moment in the Native Land of Happiness." Wacky docu about the kind of wacky subject Latin America so often throws up, the film tells of two enthusiasts trying, in a spirit of optimism and nostalgia, to recreate a little part of Argentine history. |
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- Film Reviews: Starting out as a docu about a literary sham before morphing into a provocative, politically incorrect item about a group of ecologists working close to the Argentina-Uruguay border, provocative "The Great Simulator" is ultimately little more than a showcase for its bumptious helmer-star, motormouth Eduardo Montes-Bradley, bidding to be Argentina's Michael Moore. |
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- Film News: 'Outsourced' wins audience award -- Pan Nalin's "Valley of Flowers" took the top prize at the fifth edition of the Indian Film Festival of L.A., which wrapped Sunday at the ArcLight. Berlin winner "Vanaja," directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli, got a special mention. |
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- TV News: Pact gives CH the network brand -- Starting in September, Canadians will get E! for free. The broadcast division of CanWest Mediaworks of Winnipeg has inked a deal with E! Networks to give CH the E! |
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- Legit Reviews: While Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" oozed flop sweat and testosterone, Laura McGhee's "Reservoir Bitches" takes the same heist-gone-wrong scenario and flips it on its head, recasting all the familiar characters -- from the undercover cop to the homicidal maniac to the crumb in search of redemption -- as women. Result is a fast-paced show that never really aspires to rise above entertaining parody. While previously staged at the New York Intl. Fringe Festival, this Red Eye production comes from a company that generally specializes in the avant-garde but makes the transition nicely to lighthearted farce with an arthouse undertone. |
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Correction (Apr 25 2007 00:58 GMT) - Corrections: Mel Gibson used the Panavision Genesis on "Apocalypto." Information was incorrect in the April 13 paper. |
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- Music News: Live Nation pacts with Blender for redubbing -- Live Nation is renaming Gotham's Gramercy Theater as the Blender Theater at Gramercy in a branding effort with Blender magazine. Live Nation will book the venue with plans for about 250 concerts annually. |
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- Legit Reviews: Nicky Silver might be mellowing. His latest play involves coldly ungiving parents and emotionally spastic children, as usual. But "Past Perfect" tones down the grotesque, near-farcical tenor that made Silver's previous works distinctive. |
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- Legit Reviews: Please don't preach. The overwhelming impression left by "Helen's Necklace" is of playwright Carole Frechette on a pulpit. A play that is a metaphor of loss and suffering at different levels does not also have to be a sermon. |
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- Front Page: Festival kicks off sixth edition -- A person sizing up the Tribeca Film Festival would be entitled to ask, with that classic New York inflection, so what is it already? Is it a film marketplace? A supersized studio junket? Hip downtown international cinephile convention? |
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- International News: Polley wins feature film award for 'Away' -- Toronto writer-director Sarah Polley won the feature film award for her directorial debut "Away From Her" at the 2007 Canadian Screenwriting Awards held Monday night in Toronto. |
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- Business News: Company teams with Apax in venture -- Haim Saban's Saban Capital is involved along with Apax Partners in a bid for Euro reality giant Endemol. However, two unrelated sources, each familiar with Saban Capital, believe the company is at this point less enthusiastic about proceeding. |
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- TV Ratings: 'Idol' captures the week -- The swan song for Sanjaya kept Fox rolling in primetime last week. Net captured its 11th consecutive week in the adults 18-49 demo thanks to two nights of "American Idol," while its "House" was the frame's top scripted program. |
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- Home Ent News: Executive VP of home entertainment named -- Barry Gordon has signed on with the Weinstein Co. as executive vice president of home entertainment. Gordon will report to Bob and Harvey Weinstein and will be the liaison for the company's activities in the homevid arena. |
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- Exec Shuffle: Former 'GMA' producer fills for Regan -- Lisa Sharkey, the former "Good Morning America" producer selected by HarperCollins to fill the shoes of Judith Regan, has tapped several editors from Regan's former imprint to join her staff. |
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- Film News: Actress takes on Sylvia Plath -- Julia Stiles is taking on Sylvia Plath. Actress will produce and star in "The Bell Jar," the semi-autobiographical novel by the late poet Plath, for Gotham shingle Plum Pictures. |
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- VC Pamela Advice Column: The most difficult question to answer ? "tell me about yourself" |
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- Legit Reviews: "Sliding Into Hades" features a seven-member cast that impressively entwine themselves within and around the travails of superstar Orpheus as he breaches the inner sanctum of Hades to rescue his deceased bride, mirroring our modern age conceit that we now can control our destinies and the process of aging and dying. |
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Diggers (Apr 25 2007 00:58 GMT) - Film Reviews: Low-key, likeable ensembler "Diggers" is a quintessential Amerindie for better and worse. Basically "Diner" in wading boots, it feels very familiar in conceit and unadventurous in execution, but offers the undeniable pleasures of a well-observed, well-played modest seriocomedy. |
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- Home Ent News: Studio pacts with Daum on content -- Sony Pictures Television Intl. and Korean Internet portal Daum Communications have pacted to provide free video-on-demand content on Daum's Web site. |
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- Exec Shuffle: Network hires new chief financial officer -- MTV Networks Latin America has tapped Juan C. Acosta for the position of VP-chief financial officer. He will be responsible for managing short and long-term financial planning and reporting, as well as overseeing the general accounting functions for the operation. |
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- Film Festivals: Smithson expresses ambivalence to filmmakers -- The majority of feature documentaries should be "strangled at birth," according to a top-drawer docmaker at the 14th annual Hot Docs fest in Toronto. |
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- Film Reviews: As the first bigscreen starring vehicle for World Wrestling Entertainment star "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "The Condemned" offers yet another reheating of "The Most Dangerous Game," distinguished only by an already stale reality angle and some of the thickest necks in showbiz. Pic aims for nonstop thrill ride, but for all its brainless brawn, it has plenty of stops and few real thrills. In line with that of prior WWE feature productions, hardtop biz is likely to be modest, with core auds checking in en masse once it's available as a slow night's rental. |
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- Legit News: Cirque du Soleil show finds title, plot -- Cirque du Soleil's new Gotham production at the Theater at Madison Square Garden now has a title and a plot. "Wintuk," which preems Nov. 1, centers on a boy's quest to find snow, taking him from the city to an Arctic-like landscape. |
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- Film Festivals: Deadline for submission is May 31 -- The Hollywood Film Festival has announced a call for entries for features, docs, shorts, and musicvideos for its 11th edition, running Oct. 17-22 at the Arclight Cinemas. |
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- International News: Third-party group evaluates stock purchases -- Internet powerhouse Rakuten's attempt to raise its stake in the TBS web enters a new phase Friday, when a third-party panel meets to evaluate Rakuten's stock purchase plans. |
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- Film Reviews: Watching Olympia Stone's affectionate and intelligent bio-docu about her father -- New York-based art dealer and collector Allan Stone -- is a pleasant experience, one roughly akin to viewing a casual acquaintance's unexpectedly witty homemovies. |
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- Location: Tax incentives spur surge in production -- When she took over as the city's film commissioner, Katherine Oliver began ridiculing movies that show audiences "fake" New York -- scenes supposedly shot on location in Gotham but actually filmed in cheaper, less chaotic substitutes on the West Coast or in Canada, and even Eastern Europe. |
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- Location: Harlem streets run gamut from clean to mean -- When producer Brian Grazer and director Ridley Scott set out to make the forthcoming crime saga "American Gangster," there was little disagreement that the Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe film had to be shot in Harlem, where notorious drug lord Frank Lucas ran an operation that involved smuggling heroin to the U.S. in the coffins of soldiers who were killed in Vietnam. |
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Assassins (Apr 25 2007 00:58 GMT) - Legit Reviews: Stephen Sondheim's 1990 excursion into the dark side of U.S. history can be likened to a bad bet, as if someone dared Sondheim and John Weidman (who penned the book) to write a musical about folks who had tried, or had succeeded, in assassinating a U.S. |
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- Film Reviews: Helmer Daniele Luchetti keeps the mood light and winning in "My Brother Is an Only Child," a micro-tale of Italy's troubled years in the late '60s and '70s, viewed through the prism of a politically divided family. |
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Coriolanus (Apr 25 2007 00:58 GMT) - Legit Reviews: William Shakespeare's paean to monumentally inept public relations, "Coriolanus," makes a stirring visit to the nation's capital with this stylish offering from the Royal Shakespeare Company. The RSC's final production in its five-year residency agreement with the Kennedy Center is hoisted high by William Houston's powerful interpretation of the arrogant Roman general. |
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- Legit Reviews: A small miracle from beyond the grave of a long-dead faith healer, Kathie Lee Gifford's new tuner about evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, "Saving Aimee," is an engaging little musical with a compelling storyline and plenty of spunk. |
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- Film Reviews: A tremendous, largely wordless perf by Arturo Goetz is at the heart of the intense and intimate "The Mugger," an urgent, real-time study of a man in search of unusual kicks. Following a 60-year-old around Buenos Aires, docu-style, as he robs a couple of people may not sound like the most thrilling premise. |
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- Legit Reviews: A young couple's struggles to live the American dream during WWII and its aftermath don't quite stretch to fit the ambitious format of "The Nibroc Trilogy." But that doesn't diminish scribe Arlene Hutton's Southern storytelling skills in these three regional plays or take away from Eric Nightengale's well-tempered production for the 78th Street Theater Lab. |
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- Legit Reviews: Roger Guenveur Smith does not offer any conspiracy theories about the death of reggae legend Bob Marley in his unfocused one-person multimedia stage piece. "Who Killed Bob Marley?" takes its title from the Arthur Jafa film that featured Smith portraying a suicidal poet, filmed in Jamaica. Combining Smith's surrealistic spoken-word narrative, music (Marc Anthony Thompson) and video (Jafa), legiter attempts to engage the audience in a very personal journey that meanders through myriad autobiographical memories and thoughts. |
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- Legit Reviews: Originally produced by L.A. Theater Works as part of a radio series, "The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial" retains much of its radiogenic quality: The actors read their parts and speak into microphones, while an onstage narrator, with a classic radio announcer's voice, provides running commentary. |
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Karen Akers (Apr 25 2007 00:58 GMT) - Music Reviews: For her eighth annual spring turn at the Oak Room, Karen Akers offers the music of prolific Broadway composer Jule Styne. "Simply Styne" is an hour abundant with tuneful memories, including "Bells Are Ringing," "Funny Girl" and "Gypsy," and the willowy Akers gives a keenly focused performance that is not only stately and serene, but incisively detailed with a knowing actor's art. |
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- Legit Reviews: In her incisive one-woman, autobiographical play, "When Something Wonderful Ends," playwright Sherry Kramer recalls coming of age, the death of a beloved parent, Judaism, the Middle East crisis and a concise history of the durable Barbie doll. |
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- Watching 26 (Fox) in Philly, lip sync is a problem. Haven't had this problem on ANY channel in months. Watching Idol right now and it's a mess. Tried the "list" and "exit" quickly and the old "change channels" and go back and nothing! What's up with WTXF? |
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