While the story in The Company Men is not literally “ripped from the headlines,” the film deals with a current and important problem. Although the film is not without flaws, the subject matter is compelling, the performances are strong and the film really resonated with me. [Read more →]
A student of mine just said she has “writer’s block.” It got me thinking about something I rarely consider.
I’m not sure how to say this without sounding smug or arrogant, so I’ll just say it: I have never had an issue with writer’s block, nor will I ever. If you have dealt with creative blocks, I don’t mean to be offensive or condescending. It’s just that I believe that writer’s block is a myth and that once we believe in the myth, it can take us over and drive our creativity into the ground, becoming real to us. I don’t believe in it; therefore, I render it impotent. Consider this the reverse of that scene in Peter Pan where the kids clap for Tinkerbelle to show they believe. Together, we can kill the mythical creature that is writer’s block by simply not clapping. [Read more →]
Here is what you call a “non-story:” The upcoming film “Captain America: The First Avenger,” will be dropping the “Captain America” part of the title when it is released in South Korea, Russia, and Ukraine.
The choice was made by Marvel, Paramount Pictures’ international team and distributors in those three countries based on market research results. Those involved in the decision are being careful to frame the move as a matter of brand management and consumer awareness and not as a decision tilted by cultural or political winds.
In private, Marvel insiders said that early on in the project’s planning there was talk that the title might need to be changed in numerous international markets but that there was a ”pleasant surprise” — the brand recognition of the comic-book superhero was so strong that it overrode those considerations in many places. That was not the case in Russia, South Korea and the Ukraine.
Most Americans don’t care what happens in any of those three countries, anyway. I’m not entirely sure that “Ukraine” is even a real place. Show it to me on a map. I’m waiting. [Read more →]
We’re coming up on the fiftieth anniversary of the fabulous Frank Loesser musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. To celebrate, Daniel Radcliffe will star as window washer turned business hotshot, Finch, along with John Larroquette as the big boss, J.B. Biggley. I’m looking forward to this one, not only because of the dissonance of watching Harry Potter sing “Brotherhood of Man,” but because of my personal history with this play. Yes, readers, a much younger Broadway Fred was one of the great Finches of his time, in one of the finest productions of the mighty Studio Y Players.
Mega producer Ivan Reitman has been producing and directing comedies for over 30 years. He directs and produces a standard romantic comedy here, and that is not such a bad thing. No Strings Attached is amusing, even if it is predicable. But Natalie Portman and a remarkable cast of supporting actors give this unremarkable comedy added laughs and energy. [Read more →]
Remember Dickens’s Thomas Gradgrind, with his meaty, square-ended finger pile-driving into his lectern as he tells the kids in his classroom that the world has no room for “fancy”? — that “fact” is all that matters? Well, he is alive and well. There are people walking around who think that imagination and creativity are extraneous human endeavors. Of course, they probably think this because they often witness artistic idiots skipping around and scattering rose petals up to the harsh winds of reality. It is a cultural snake that eats itself, really. [Read more →]
This week I am teetering closer and closer to my first nervous breakdown. I am knee deep in graduate school work, we have an uninvited “mouseguest” problem, and my little boy bounces off the walls until midnight every night. My sleep is messed up, I’m out of shape, unmotivated, and out of sorts. The realization of my problems came to a head last night when I hazily sat through 1/4th of the movie “You’ve Got Mail” with my girlfriend and was actually getting into the storyline. My cure-all for this is time traveling in my mind back to the glorious mid-90s. The band joining me on this journey is the much misunderstood band The Goo Goo Dolls. [Read more →]
10. “Oprahsourced”
9. “Gayle King and I”
8. “Saturday Night Oprah”
7. “America’s Got Oprah”
6. “Extreme Makeoprah: Home Edition”
5. “Dr. Phil’s Crap-a-Thon”
4. “$#*! Oprah Says”
3. “The Bold and the Oprah”
2. “The Stedman from Atlantis”
1. “The Story of O”
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
Marvel published the top comic book of 2010. Do you know what it was? Do you even care? It was The Avengers #1.
“The Avengers” No. 1, Marvel Comics’ relaunch of its superhero property featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man and Wolverine, was the best-selling comic-book title for 2010.
A relaunch, of a comic book that was first published in 1963, then relaunched in 1996, then relaunched in 1997, then relaunched in 1998, then relaunched in 2004 (actually a resumption of the original series launched in 1963), then relaunched in 2010. You can try to follow it all here, if you like.
In 1998, the great cartoonist Frank Miller told The Comics Journal
When I was in my 20s, putting together Ronin
and feeling the handcuffs come off creatively, I thought that we just had to win a certain number of business victories and there would be an absolute explosion of all this fine talent producing work that they were dying to do. And there’s no politic way to put it– it’s been a crashing disappointment to see what’s actually happened. And as time has gone by, my expectations have lowered. Talent is being squandered by people just becoming the next person to do whatever old Marvel comic. That’s not just squandering an opportunity, it’s suicide. Creative suicide. In one of my nastier moments, I started comparing the industry to a bunch of Elvis impersonators, trying to sell records. Understand, I grew up on the old Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko stuff and loved it and will always have affection for it. But repeating it would be like staying in first grade the rest of my life. [Read more →]
In her director’s notes, Emma Rice, Artistic Director of Kneehigh Theatre, writes of a creature from Scottish and Irish folklore called the Selkie. This is a seal who sheds her skin, assumes human form, and dances at the beach. In some versions of the tale the Selkie is kidnapped by a man, has children, and lives among the humans. Eventually, however, she locates her seal skin, puts it on, and jumps back into the ocean forevermore. [Read more →]
At this year’s Golden Globe Awards, the comedian and actor Ricky Gervais ruffled a few feathers by performing jokes that were considered by some to be disrespectful. You might think that Mr. Gervais is the only Ricky to have provided entertainment services to members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but you would be wrong. Once upon a time I, myself, got a taste of entertainment greatness, in a story I shall relate to you now: [Read more →]
It’s not that Country Strong is a terrible film. It is just not a very good film. The talents of Gwyneth Paltrow are wasted in this derivative and formulaic film in the milieu of country music. The music is pleasant enough, the story is momentarily diverting and the performances are pretty good. But in the category of films about music, Country Strong is not even close to as much fun as Burlesque or as good as Crazy Heart. [Read more →]
“You are listening to a machine. Do the world a favor and don’t act like one.”
Computers and the internet revolutionized our society from an efficiency standpoint like no other invention since perhaps indoor plumbing. Everyday human transactions have been made simpler and quicker for everyone with access. Online banking, ordering take out sans translator, and buying books minus the snide remarks from the aficionados at Barnes and Noble, can all be accomplished from the comfort and privacy of your home without interacting with anyone at all. But as we all know, all good things should be taken in moderation. [Read more →]
Paradigms do shift, don’t they? It occurred to me that — what? — fifty or sixty years’ worth of musical conflict is now evaporating. I mean, kids and parents still work diligently to find new things to shake their heads behind each other’s back about, but the old “how-can-you-listen-to-that-noise?” bit is now sort of resolving itself into a dew, isn’t it? If teenagers today have parents who grew up on Led Zeppelin, it is sort of hard for them to shock the old gene-donors with long hair, screaming vocals and raunchy guitars anymore. [Read more →]
I wasn’t wild about the original movie, La Cage Aux Folles, which came out when I was a freshman in college. Maybe it was the subtitles, but no matter how many friends told me between guffaws that the guy buttering the toast was pee-leaking comic perfection, I just didn’t laugh that much. Then, in the 80’s I was aware of the original Broadway musical version, but it wasn’t on the top of my list and the revival in 2004 was not that highly regarded. Now, a year into its ecstatically received third incarnation, I finally scored half-price tickets and made the visit.
“I am in a post graduate delirium,” says Aura (Lena Dunham) the main character in Tiny Furniture. That may be true, but this small film is more than an indie post graduate comedy. Tiny Furniture contains memorable characters, a good cast and a fresh new voice. It made me laugh and it also moved me. [Read more →]
Over the past week, the Internet has been crackling with angry reactions to NewSouth Books’ upcoming n-word-free edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, edited by Alan Gribben. Many of of these reactions, including my own recent blog post, carried a good deal of anger and shock. But as a writer and a teacher of literature, I think I need to step back now and take a more dispassionate look at Gribben’s reasoning — reasoning which is deeply flawed. I have no doubt the man is sincere and well-meaning. He’s probably even a great hugger. So let’s forget outrage for awhile and just think this through. [Read more →]
When I was a lad I watched lots of weird, psychotronic movies very late at night. You know the kind of thing I mean — Italian zombie movies, French vampire movies, usually from the 70s, with weird proggy soundtracks etc, etc.
The problem with all such films of course is that the plots are almost invariably dreadful, the acting awful, and the exciting freak-out horror sections are separated by long stretches of narrative tundra. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if somebody took all the interesting bits- the psychedelic breakdowns, the grinning skulls, the orgy scenes, the flashing strobe lights and melting flesh and stitched it all together in one continuous montage of hallucinatory imagery? [Read more →]
Have you ever sat in the dark? Really dark. You can’t see your hand if you hold it inches from your face. No movie projector. No spill from the concession stand. No cracks from the parking lot. No LED’s for the steps. No flash lights. No iPhones.
How about no exit light?
Perhaps you’ve heard that a new edition of the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is to be published with certain words removed. It’s been all over the internet for the last day and a half:
NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the “n” word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”
There are four and only four ways in which to examine this story in a blog post. All four of these I present now.
Angle the First: Presenting actual quotes about the novel and the author, carefully edited and amended by me to ironically justify the new, edited version:
“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. It’s only too bad it has ‘the n-word’ in it.” –Ernest Hemingway
