With two first-round picks in the 2012 NFL draft the Cleveland Browns were favorites to trade up to the number two overall pick and land the rights to Heisman trophy-winner Robert Griffin, III. They were outbid by the Washington Redskins, whom Griffin would lead to the playoffs. The Browns kept their picks and chose running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden. Two short years ... more >
ARCHIVES
Here’s the nicer NFL (“Draft Day”)
Here comes the nicer NFL
Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner and Ellen Burstyn
Directed by Ivan Reitman
NEXT-GEN RISING: Rebecca Zlotowski
Which new filmmakers are leading the fray in France?
"Belle Epine," "Grand Central"
French born and bred
A great film school does not a great filmmaker make, but it helps. And in terms of academic cred Rebecca Zlotowski is a force to be reckoned with. She attended the two best schools in France, La Femis (France’s best film school) and the renowned Ecole Normale Supérieure where she was a Lit. major. Sometimes last year Zlotowski (picture Sylvia Plath crossed with Amélie Nothomb; she's about ... more >
Resnais’s swan song
Aimer, boire et chanter (2014)
Sabine Azéma, Hippolyte Girardot and Caroline Sihol
Directed by Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais, master of irony and, in his last decades, of whimsical comedy, would have appreciated the fact that his latest oeuvre, “Aimer, Boire, Chanter,” opened in Paris on March 26, not even a month after he himself took his final bow at age 91, on March 1st (see our OBITUARY) The romp, set in the English countryside and based on an Alan Ayckbourn play, “Life of Riley” never introduces us ... more >
Jodorowsky’s “Dune”
Sci-fi moviemaking--on a large scale
(Sony Classics; documentary)
Directed by Frank Pavich
"This picture was going to change the public's perceptions" (Alejandro Jodorowsky) Alejandro Jodorowsky's "Dune" project is a sci-fi geek's ultimate fantasy, the holy grail of genre movies. And yet, "Dune" exists only in the imagination: it's such a broad and complicated project (think "Avatar" crossed with Terry Gilliam's "Don Quixote") that it was never actually made. "Dune" is forever ... more >