Pro: she’s worked with some of the best video directors of all time and probably has been ‘influenced’ by them. I can hear you snicker and shrug, and maybe being a great movie director doesn’t make one a good movie director but there are some notable exceptions: David Fincher or, when he’s actually working, Spike Jonze. So anyway, by osmosis, or otherwise, Madge has known great music video directors and that has to have affected her stylistically. You can’t spend seven days inside a room with Jonas Åkerlund without getting some benefit out of it. And I’m a huge fan of Madonna’s collaborations with New York photographer Steven Klein (one of my very favorites out there).

Baldwin’s forays into politics have been mostly via his chronicles in the Huffington Post. He’s no Hendrik Hertzberg but the world could always use more politically-committed actors (as long as they’re not taking an Academy Awards telecast with their pleas—Susan Sarandon and Tim Robins).

Last April Baldwin wrote an article bemoaning clean-nuclear politics’ “dishonest” agenda in HuffPo (he’s a contributor). Most recently, also in the media outlet, Baldwin wrote a commentary of the recent Anthony Weiner debacle, saying, “He exists under a constant pressure cooker of self-analysis and public appraisal. Like other politicians, he needs something to take the edge off.”

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is planning a massive retrospective of Judy Garland’s movies between July 26 and August 9.

Highlights will include a sing-along screening of “The Wizard of Oz” (1939); screenings of the Andy Hardy classics that teamed Garland with Mickey Rooney classic and beloved musicals (“Meet me in Saint Louis; 1944) and her Academy Award-nominated performances in “A star is born” (1954) and “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961)—thirty-ones titles in all.

Quick Facts: won a Caméra D'Or at the Cannes Festival and the Special Jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival (both in 2011); shot in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, Calif.; alternate title: “Satisfaction.”

In an independent film scene which has been stagnant of late filmmaker Miranda July is a breath of fresh air. The Berkeley, California-born, filmmaker who reminds one of a more sprightly Michel Gondry mixed with a dash of Todd Solondz, is also a performance artist and a writer.

[post_author_posts_link] [post_date] [post_comments] [post_edit] More frequently than not I get [...]

[post_author_posts_link] [post_date] [post_comments] [post_edit] The tweetosphere is alive with the [...]

New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center is bringing out the best and the brightest of Asian cinema with its now-venerable Asian Cinema Festival, happening between July 1-14. This year marks the fest’s tenth year in existence. The festival will include premieres of Takashi Miike’s “Ninja Kids!!!” and Eiji Uchida’s 60s throwback “The last days of the world,” the international premieres of the Johnnie To-produced thriller “Punished” and Yu Irie’s love letter to rock’n’ roll, “Ringing in their ears.”