Sara Vilkomerson

We were able to get into a screening for Twilight on Tuesday night. Anticipation for this film, based on the blockbuster series by Stephanie Meyer, has reached a frenzy that words really can’t quite convey. On Tuesday there was a line that wound round the block, and women who seemed, um, older than we would have expected were begging for extra tickets over at the press line. The movie – about a young and clumsy girl named Bella (Kristen Stewart) who falls hard for a vampire named Edward (Rob Pattinson) – is incredibly faithful to the book. We’d guess that a good chunk of the screening audience knew exactly what was coming next, but it didn’t stop various whistles and cheers as favorite characters appeared onscreen, and when Mr.  read more »

Yesterday we were able to catch an early screening of the highly anticipated Australia. This is the first film from Baz Luhrmann since 2001’s Moulin Rouge! and there’s been an awful lot of chatter among those who like to chatter about such things (Oprah loves it!) over whether or not this film was going to bring it come award show time. We’ll leave the proper reviewing to the distinguished Rex Reed and Andrew Sarris next week, but we'll throw in a couple cents in of our own in the meantime.  read more »

Forty years ago, on a chilly afternoon in November, the Harvard and Yale football teams met at Harvard Stadium to play their final game of the season. For the first time since 1909 both schools were undefeated, and when the game was all over it was an instant classic, a thing of collegiate and sports lore. Sitting up in the stands that day in 1968 was undergraduate Kevin Rafferty, who would grow up to become a filmmaker (Blood in the Face, The Atomic Café) and now has made a documentary about the historic game, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (the title was a Harvard Crimson headline).  read more »

It was quite a crowd at last night's midnight screening of Quantum of Solace at the Ziegfeld Theater. Perhaps the most intriguing moviegoers were the block of young, floppy-haired men who arrived wearing natty tuxedos and British-looking umbrellas--midtown caterers fresh off their shift or James Bond enthusiasts? Either way, we suspect the booze they were drinking throughout the film was neither shaken, nor stirred … just sneakily sipped from a flask from under the seat.  read more »

But wow, the previews for this thing! It's fascinating to see what Hollywood thinks of the audience who has chosen to see the 22nd James Bond film: first up there was the Will Smith

Well, we suppose it’s that time of year: Last night Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello reported that NBC has canceled My Own Worst Enemy (otherwise known as that Christian Slater show no one was watching. Gosh, people, have a little respect for someone who once played a man with a baboon heart!). But, for us, the sad news is hearing that Lipstick Jungle is also getting tossed (though we were starting to get suspicious when the network moved it over to the badlands that is Friday night primetime).

We don’t care what anyone says, we really sort of found ourselves loving this show – and here’s why: it was for adults.  read more »

Milk

We only needed to see the kick-ass trailer for Milk to slot this Gus Van Sant film straight into Best Picture contention. After all, it has all of those gold statuette elements: a true story—of California’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who was murdered alongside San Francisco Mayor George Moscone by Supervisor Dan White (who used the Twinkie Defense in court!)—and a cast that boasts Sean Penn, doing his Sean Penn thing and disappearing completely into his role of Harvey Milk while bringing out yet another side to Josh Brolin, who plays Dan White. Plus, there’s an awful lot of pretty boys—James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna—who might not have quite enough to do, but manage to do plenty with what they were given.  read more »

For those of you who are closely following the November and December horse race of potential Oscar films, don’t count out Slumdog Millionaire. It might not have a Leo or a Kate or even a Batman in it, but this latest film from Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later) is just the kind of feel-good, energetic film that will have voters feeling magnanimous come voting times. And rightly so, because Slumdog Millionaire (in spite of having a title that really does nothing for you until you’ve actually seen the movie) is very sharp, smartly executed and has just enough sneaky sentiment that reviewers will surely bust out all their clichés (“you’ll be cheering in your seats!”).  read more »

Variety is reporting some pretty fascinating news today: Jaden Smith, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s precocious spawn (seen with his dad in The Pursuit of Happyness) has been tapped to be the next Ralph Macchio (or Hilary Swank!) when the Karate Kid franchise gets new life. Jerry Weintraub, an original producer, is on board as a producer together with Will Smith. Jaden is going to be next seen in next month’s Keanu Reeves-starring remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still (looks like New York will get thrashed again. Terrific.). We smell a dynasty. 

Of course, we can think of some immediate problems.  read more »

From the Least-Surprising-News-Ever file: looks like there will be more (yes more!) Sex and the City coming to movie screens sometime in our future. After SATC: The Movie made more than 153 million dollars last summer, we could practically hear these wheels get set into motion. Now, the question is – what’s left for these ladies left to do? It seemed like a lot of loose ends got tied up in the last one, but we suppose there’s always more to go. Will Carrie and Big break up and make up again? Is there a way to show Kim Cattrall’s Samantha character, in her ‘50s, be a sassy single gal beholden to no one without the audience feeling just a little bit like killing themselves? Maybe Charlotte’s adopted kid Lily will turn on her biological child? And, we assume, Miranda and Steve will move to Jackson Heights.

At the Bipartisan Election Night Party hosted by Harvey Weinstein and Georgette Mosbacher, Mr. Weinstein was remembering to another party guest about things were going around 6pm in 2004 for John Kerry. Then Michael Moore called Mr. Weinstein to say that something was wrong in Ohio.

This year, "I'm gonna stay nervous ‘til Ohio and Florida," he said.

In case anyone questioned his loyalties, Mr. Weinstein was wearing an Obama/Biden pin

"I was gonna wear my other pin that says Vote Twice," he joked. Tonight, "we're just gonna sweat it out."

By Tuesday afternoon, The Onion's ‘War For the White House Election Night Spectacular,' at Fontana's on the Lower East Side, was already sold out. Three hundred and fifty people were on the waiting list, and 800 others had been turned down.

As things got underway around 7 p.m. this evening, Onion features editor and party organizer Joe Garden joked that he was still hoping for a win for Bob Barr. He'd voted earlier in the day in Windsor Terrace, where it only took five minutes. (And we think we know who he really voted for.)

So, would it be harder to make jokes about an Obama administration than it has been about Bush?

"No way, that's bullshit.  read more »

"This is fucking nuts," said Kaylan Keane, 36, summing up the sentiments of everyone in the stretched-as-far-as-the-eye-could-see line that snaked its way around the block of the alternative high school City as a School on Clarkson Street in the West Village. Ms. Keane, who works at EMI, had her 2-and-a-half month old son, Tor, strapped around her torso and she shifted her weight back and forth as she inched (slowly) forward. "He's an Obama supporter, of course," she said, rubbing Tor's back. Tor blinked a few times in response. "I've been voting here for over ten years," she said. "And it's never ever had a line past the [school's] steps.  read more »

In The World Unseen, we learn (unsurprisingly) that Cape Town, South Africa, in the 1950s—at the start of apartheid—was anything but good times for blacks or Indians or really anyone who wasn’t lily white. In this film, adapted and directed by Shamim Sarif from her own novel, so many hot issues are at play that it’s a bit dizzying to keep track of who is being oppressed by whom. But here goes: Amina (Sheetal Sheth), an Indian woman who dresses just like the Mary Stuart Masterson character in Fried Green Tomatoes (there are other similarities, too, but more on that in a minute), is living dangerously by running a popular cafe with the “colored” (i.  read more »

On Monday, Oct. 27, Amy Redford was juggling her 2-month-old baby, Eden, chatting with a reporter and readying herself for a photograph when she suddenly remembered that she hadn’t really had time that day to look at herself in the mirror. She shrugged apologetically in the universally accepted new-mother-what-can-you-do way, and grinned at her daughter. The youngest child of Robert Redford and Lola Van Wagenen, the 38-year-old Ms. Redford looked great anyway; she inherited a thick, sandy mane of hair and those startling cerulean eyes from her father, which translate to a visage that clearly does not require any primping or fuss.  read more »

When Kevin Smith’s Clerks came out in 1994, who could have known that the first-time filmmaker from Jersey was paving the way for filmmakers like Judd Apatow to take over the world? “Bromance” may not have been in our cultural lexicon 14 years ago, but that’s what Mr. Smith was dealing with—whether it be Jay and Silent Bob, or Ben Affleck and Jason Lee in Chasing Amy, or Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in (the underappreciated!) Dogma. But now, Mr. Smith has turned his attention to a more typical kind of romance, even though at the beginning it’s obscured by, well, porn.  read more »

Sometimes the universe delivers gifts we didn't even know we wanted! To wit: Florence Henderson, better known as Carol Brady (or Wesson Oil lady) will be making her Feinstein's At Loew's Regency debut on November 5th with the show "All the Lives of Me...A Musical Journey". Holy. Cow. According to a press release, the show will feature songs from her starring roles "in such Broadway hits as Oklahoma!, South Pacific and Annie Get Your Gun. Audiences will be treated to personal anecdotes of a life on the boards of Broadway and the Brady set."  

Is it just us or is there something kinda Brady in the air? Jan? We're waiting on you!

Our brain is simply spinning with the news that Steven Soderbergh is planning on making a 3-D rock musical about Egyptian sexpot ruler Cleopatra. First, the casting: Variety reports today that Mr. Soderbergh is sniffing around Catherine Zeta-Jones to take on the role, previously held by both Claudette Colbert (in 1934) and Elizabeth Taylor (1963) with Hugh Jackman stepping into the gladiator sandals, once filled by Richard Burton, to play Marc Anthony. We can sort of see Ms. Zeta-Jones rocking the eyeliner, can't you? But then, there's the music, which will be provided by Guided by Voices. Guided by Voices! Could this be as exciting as when Shudder to Think wrote all those songs for  read more »

It’s a story that can still amaze after 35 years: In October 1972, an airplane carrying members of the Old Christians, a young Uruguayan team of rugby players, took off for a match in Chile. The plane lost contact with the control tower, and for 10 days, search-and-rescue teams sent out by Argentina, Chile and Uruguay found no trace of any plane or the 45 passengers. Heavy snow started to fall and hope was lost. Ten weeks later, a shepherd in a valley by the Andes Mountains saw two very skinny, dirty and tired men (who “smelled of the grave”), who turned out to be two of the 16 survivors of the crash.  read more »

The ubiquitous ad campaign for the new Kevin Smith movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno, opening Oct. 31, is coy, to say the least. Calling to mind the hilariously austere campaign for Woody Allen’s 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask, the giant posters feature a plain white backdrop and two stick figures. Above them it reads: “Seth Rogen & Elizabeth Banks made a movie so titillating that we can only show you this drawing.”

The film, which is about two best friends and roommates named Zack and Miri, is, in fact, about the pair making a homemade porno after their debt spirals out of control.  read more »

We’ve been looking forward (sorta) to seeing the no-doubt downer that will be The Road, directed by John Hillcoat and adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel, which, to be honest, we’ve always been too scared to read, as it’s one of those post-apocalyptic tales of wandering bleak landscapes. Viggo Mortensen stars, and we maintain that if Daniel Day-Lewis hadn’t been in the running for last year’s Best Actor Oscar, Mr. Mortensen would have — should have! — gotten a statue for Eastern Promises.

But we digress. The Road had been slated to open in New York and Los Angeles November 14th, putting it nicely in awards territory, but  read more »

On the night of Monday, October 13, Oliver Stone was being chauffeured around downtown Manhattan, looking for the dinner party he was running late for, and talking about what the subject of his new film, W., has in common with the Wizard of Oz. Connecting W., which examines and chronicles the life of George W. Bush leading up to and including his presidency, to the 1939 Judy Garland flying-monkeys extravaganza might not seem all that intuitive. But in conversation about his latest subject, Mr. Stone was drawn back again and again to the moment that Dorothy discovers that the great and most powerful wizard was
really just an ordinary man, hiding behind a curtain, desperately pressing buttons and pulling levers to keep up the illusion of his control.  read more »

There are surprises (some good, some not as good) in The Secret Life of Bees. For me, the biggest shock of all was realizing that the actress portraying the lead 14-year-old protagonist was none other than formerly creepy child star Dakota Fanning. Don’t get me wrong, she’s definitely still a little spooky—there’s a preternatural stillness about the budding beauty, and her eyes convey a wise weariness that makes her seem older than she is. But it’s less startling now than it was, say, when she starred in I Am Sam or Man on Fire. Plus, there’s the fact that in this film it’s a plus for her to be a little haunted-looking, as she’s playing a young girl who (as we learn in the opening of the film) killed her own mother at the age of 4.  read more »

Good gravy! Will the former teen autobiographical revelations madness never end? Today we learn that Maureen McCormick, better known as shiny-haired Marcia Brady from The Brady Bunch struggled with drug addiction, dated Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady, ewww), went out with Michael Jackson and Steve Martin (!), and was involved in, “cocaine binges and parties at the playboy Mansion and the home of Sammy Davis Jr., an unwanted pregnancy and trading sex for drugs.”

Ms. McCormick (who, btw, was awesome on Celebrity Fit Club) has written the book Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice) which will be available at bookstores tomorrow. It goes without saying that we can not wait.  read more »

On Saturday, Oct. 4, the paparazzi were in full blitzkrieg blast outside the Ziegfeld Theatre for the premiere centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, Changeling. Director Clint Eastwood, tall and ever-elegant in a dark suit and blue-printed tie, posed with his film’s star, Angelina Jolie—glam and sultry, and apparently back to pre-twins shape in a black Versace dress. Brad Pitt was beside her, and when they posed together the wall of photographers’ flashbulbs lit up the sky. But further down the line it was a different story.

Jason Butler Harner, who plays the role of Gordon Stewart Northcott, infamous serial killer of the late 1920s in Los Angeles, was taking his first major red-carpet stroll.  read more »

Okay, we don't want to get our hopes up....but this Tim Burton-directed Alice in Wonderland which will combine live action with performance-capture "technology" (meep!) is beginning to sound kinda awesome. In addition to Mia Wasikowska (from HBO's In Treatment) being cast as Alice, and Johnny Depp signing on as the Mad Hatter, The Hollywood Reporter reports today that Anne Hathaway, fresh off all her good reviews for Rachel Getting Married, has signed on to play the White Queen while Helena Bonham Carter will play the Red Queen. Good for Anne Hathaway! Not only has she handled a difficult time in her personal life with grace and aplomb in interviews, but she's doing the smartest thing possible: making good movies for people to talk about instead (it worked for Nicole Kidman, too). As for Mr. Burton's new production, we eagerly await casting news on who will play the Cheshire Cat. Is Jack Nicholson available?

It’s entirely probable that Mike Leigh is having a bit of fun with audiences with his new movie, Happy-Go-Lucky. When we meet Poppy (Sally Hawkins) at the start of the film, she’s a suspiciously bubbly 30-year-old, riding a bicycle, wearing brightly colored clothes and trying to spread good cheer to a foul-tempered bookstore worker. It’s much easier to identify with his mood than hers, and in fact, you might wonder: What’s the deal with this annoyingly cheerful weirdo? Just what the hell is wrong with her? The joke of the film, of course, is that nothing is wrong with Poppy … unless you count being happy and in a good mood even after your bicycle is stolen, you throw your back out or you’re being stalked by your driving instructor.  read more »

At the September 21st Emmy Awards AMC cleaned up: Mad Men became the first basic cable series to win best drama (and won for writing, too), and Bryan Cranston had a surprise win in the best actor category for Breaking Bad. And the network is not stopping there.  read more »

Security was nutty this morning (bag searches and wands?) up at the Walter Reade Theater for the first American screening of Clint Eastwood’s Changeling. Based on a true story, the film is about Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single mother who returns home from work in 1928 only to discover her son has vanished. After five months, with lots of publicity, the LAPD reunited mother-and-son--only problem was that Christine knew the boy wasn’t hers. And that’s just the beginning of the movie! The rest of it involves untangling the corruption and cover-ups of the Los Angeles Police Department. After the film (which is 2.5 hours long and flew by) 78-year-old Clint Eastwood – tall, elegant, and dry – sat for a press conference. The man looks really good – we just can’t stress that enough. And he’s funny too!  read more »

We saw The Strangers when it came out (we only made it through to the end so we could talk to Scott Speedman) and it scared us into the next week. Very. Scary. Movie. So were a little freaked out to open our mail today and to discover this mask sent to promote the DVD release, out  October 21st. You have been warned. 

Ever since Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and inspired one of those famed late-night bidding wars in Toronto , everyone has been all aflutter to see the film. It’s due to close the 46th New York Film Festival on October 12th (and released by Fox Searchlight in theaters in December) but those wrinkled press and industry types got to see the film this morning. Mickey Rourke, who is in practically every scene of the film, turned in as good a performance as promised, playing an aged professional wrestler who still likes to suit up for the ring, and listen to 80s hair metal as he drives around New Jersey (holla!). People are already talking about an Oscar for Mr. Rourke, and maybe for Mr. Aronofsky too (which is a far cry from how they responded to his last film, The Fountain).

At the press conference following the film, it seemed clear that Mr. Aronofsky is quite the taskmaster on set. “I won’t say he’s tough because he doesn’t like that,” said Mr. Rourke. “Relentless. Let’s say relentless.”  read more »

“I really believe I’ve known two saints in my life, maybe three,” said writer-director Robert Benton via telephone from his office on Monday, three days after the death of his longtime friend Paul Newman. “William Sloane Coffin, who used to be head of Riverside Church and was a chaplin at Yale when the civil rights movement was won. And the other was Paul Newman. He was, I think, one the best human beings I’ve ever known … one of the most decent, the most honorable. He was extraordinary.” He laughed. “Of course, he would be appalled if he could hear me calling him a saint.  read more »

Do you have plans for Sunday, October 12? Cancel them.

If, in the wake of Paul Newman's death last Friday, you've been wishing to revisit the great actor's work and have been thwarted at your local video store, Turner Classic Movies has stepped in with a 24-hour block of Newman movies.

Per the TCM site, here's how it will go:  

6 a.m.  The Rack (1956) - Paul Newman plays a Korean War veteran who has been brainwashed and is now on trial for treason in this taut drama based on a Rod Serling teleplay.  Walter Pidgeon and Wendell Corey co-star.

8 a.m. Until They Sail (1957) - This drama directed by Robert Wise tells the story of four sisters each struggling to find love and happiness in New Zealand during World War II.  read more »

Bill Maher is a brave man. He’s also a smart and witty one, which is why sometimes watching his HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher can be very entertaining or occasionally cringe-inducing, as he appears entirely unafraid to go there on topics polite society tends to shy away from. (His comments on Politically Incorrect after 9/11—“We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly”—led to ABC firing him.) Because of his outspokenness, people either tend to love Mr.  read more »

We consider ourselves something of an amateur expert on David Letterman, as we've spent an hour a day with him, five times a week, for the past two decades. And so we knew already that the big guy had a lot of affection for Paul Newman (who didn't?). Newman appeared on the Letterman show often, and was always a stellar guest -- elegant, funny, and a great sparring partner for Mr. Letterman, who clearly got a huge kick out of the actor/race-car driver/humanitarian.

Last night, Mr. Letterman was clearly emotional as he talked about his friend and fellow car nut. He told a long and funny story involving the pair's shared geekdom over car engines (Newman apparently put a Porsche engine inside his VW Rabbit).  read more »

We learned a long time ago to always, always take Will Smith seriously. The man can do anything - fight aliens or zombies, be Ali, love German shepherds, etc. Mr. Smith is on a winning streak: last year I Am Legend made a truckload of money. Ditto last summer's Hancock (which we maintain was secretly Jason Bateman's movie, but whatever). But now we've come upon the trailer for actor's next film, Seven Pounds. The story, as far as we can tell, is about a man who did something really bad (we'll guess murderous drunk driving) and is possibly suicidal over it. But he looks for redemption when he decides to change seven strangers lives.  read more »

Earlier this week we learned about the social networking site YA for Obama, started by Young Adult writer Maureen Johnson. Judy Blume was the first author up at bat, and today we have two more. There's "Do The Math" by Scott Westerfeld (um, no), which involves charts and percentages (double no). And then there's "Gossip Girl for Obama" by Cecily von Ziegesar, writer of the Gossip Girl series.

Ms. Von Ziegesar poses the question, is Barack Obama a "Nate, a Dan, a Chuck, a Serena, or a Blair?". Turns out the answer is Blair (hmmm), but for our money the most fascinating thing about this post is the detail of Ms.  read more »

The 46th New York Film Festival officially opens tonight with The Class (reviewed this week by Andrew Sarris), but soggy members of the press and industry showed up this morning for a screening of Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky. The film is all about a thirty-year-old woman named Poppy, an irrepressible schoolteacher in the north of London who is (almost crazily) optimistic and upbeat even when facing down the unhappy people who cross her path...or steal her bicycle, or borderline stalk her. Sally Hawkins stars and owns this one. The actress, previously seen in Mr. Leigh's Vera Drake, will surely be one to watch during award season -- she's already won the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival.  

This weekend brings Nights in Rodanthe to theaters. It's an unapologetic tearjerker, a love story starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane (click here for Rex Reed's review), based on a Nicholas Sparks novel and directed by...George C. Wolfe?

It's certainly not an obvious partnership. After all, Mr. Wolfe has made his reputation as being an edgy and inventive playwright (The Colored Museum, Spunk, Jelly's Last Jam), theater director (he staged Tony Kushner's Angels in America for which he won the Tony), and producer of the Public Theater (he was the man behind Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk). Nicholas Sparks spins tales of big gut-busting romances like The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember and Dear John.  read more »

Uh oh. Last December we wrote about how much I am Legend freaked us out (seriously, we think the workout our heart got during the film qualifies as aerobic activity). The movie, based on the 1954 Richard Matheson book and starring Will Smith, laid out a vision of New York City almost completely wiped out of humans after the spread of a virus (thanks a lot, Emma Thompson!). The movie left us wondering if we should move to an apple farm in Vermont or, at the very least, go ahead and get that German shepherd.  Since the film made $584 million dollars internationally, it's probably not so surprising that  read more »

It was reported today that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (perhaps freaked out by the train wreck that was the Emmys) have gone for new blood in the form of Laurence Mark and writer/director Bill Condon for next February's 81st annual telecast. The two men previously worked together on 2006's glittery musical Dreamgirls, which Mr. Condon wrote and directed and Mr. Mark produced.  

Late in the day we caught up with the always-delightful Mr. Mark, who said he was both thrilled and daunted in equal measure at the undertaking. The first order of business, he said, was to try and pick a host. "That's a hard nut to crack. It's like the movies...casting is everything." And what of all those Ricky Gervais rumors that were making their way around the web today? "We haven't approached anyone yet," he said. "But all doors are open."  

Choke, based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel, opens in theaters this weekend and it's already getting some, ahem, mixed reviews but we, for one, kinda enjoyed it! This is due in part to our deep and abiding love for the film's star Sam Rockwell. We think it started with 2000's Charlie's Angels (which we happened to revisit on TV the other night and enjoyed his dancing bad guy-ness all over again). We know we're not alone, either: Mr. Rockwell was picked to star in George Clooney's directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and was truly excellent in Matchstick Men,  read more »

Anytime a movie opens with the words “based on actual events,” it is understandable to pause. Add to that a sports movie with metaphors about how to play that brutal game of life, and it’s perfectly O.K. to want to actually press pause, and switch over to ESPN. Don’t get us wrong, cinema has given us plenty of wonderful sports movies—Hoosiers, The Natural, Raging Bull (not to mention Mystery, Alaska!)—but the genre is anything but unpredictable. There’s a troubled hero/team, a coach whose tough exterior hides a soft underbelly of love, an insurmountable challenge (usually a championship game) and then a satisfying win—preferably at home.  read more »

The Hollywood Reporter reports that The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes has signed on to direct The Beautiful and The Damned, which would tackle the shiny, bright, and often thorny relationship between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. Though the glamorous duo were considered the jazzy embodiment of the Roaring Twenties, things did not end well (you know a relationship has gone south when one of you ends up in a sanitarium). Reportedly Mr. Cassavetes is sniffing around Keira Knighley to portray Zelda Saye, perhaps inspired by just how awesome the actress looked in Atonement. But who should play F. Scott Fitzgerald? After seeing Brideshead Revisited we know Matthew Goode could go period, but is he too dark-haired? Hey, what about Ken (Aaron Stanton) from Mad Men?

Unpack the tweed, suckers! It’s time to get serious … the economy is in the toilet, the election is dragging and the sun is disappearing before cocktail hour. The upside: It’s good-movie time, the seasonal cinematic equivalent of trading in your gazpacho for hearty stew.

Up first for the movie-heavy weekend of O