Results tagged “jasonschwartzman”

       

Some critics have derided Wes Anderson as a victim of his own precious taste. His movies take place in "Andersonville" it's said -- a singular, specific world from which he needs to free himself. To that I say, "Pah!". Anderson's latest film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, takes place in the stop-motion animated version of Andersonville and it's, well, fantastic. I can't recommend it highly enough. I can't say the same for 2012. I mean, honestly, how is it really different from The Day After Tomorrow? Sure Richard Curtis is a bit schmaltzy, but I always give extra-credit to the open-hearted. Plus, Pirate Radio has Philip Seymour Hoffman in it so it's worth seeing.

The season finale of HBO's "Bored to Death" is this Sunday at 9:30pm and it is a must-watch. There are plenty of McShows out there but this is not one of them and nor will it ever be. The brainchild of author and memoirist Jonathan Ames, the show about an author and part-time amateur private investigator bursts with uncompromised originality in every episode.

       

Despite facing a brutal marketing challenge, Funny People managed to top the box office this weekend. Though it was the lowest-performing champ of the summer, the Judd Apatow-helmed laugher brought in $23.4M to hold off a resilient Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($17.7M | $255.4M). The awful G-Force was a hair behind ($17M | $66.4M), followed by the awful The Ugly Truth ($13M | $54.4M) and the, uh, awful Aliens in the Attic ($7.8M). Orphan ($7.2M | $26.7M), Ice Age 3 ($5.3M | $181.8M), The Hangover ($5M | $255.7M), The Proposal ($4.8M | $148.8M) and Transformers 2 ($4.6M | $388.1M) rounded out the top 10.

                     

If you're planning to see one movie this weekend, you should re-jigger your schedule and see four! Funny People would be an excellent place to start. It's Rogen, Apatow and Sandler's best film to date (LAist review here). Sure, it's not a straight comedy, but it is damn funny. You'll leave the film in a good mood, but that will quickly turn into righteous anger once you've seen The Cove. The best movie at the Sundance Film Festival this year (LAist reviews here and here), it's a thrilling and sad documentary about the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. I mean seriously, how many eco-documentaries have scenes inside ILM? The Cove is that cool. More to the point, it almost feels like a narrative film with all the intrigue and plot that go into capturing the wrenching footage of dolphins being mercilessly pitchforked in the water by giggling fisherman. See it!

                     

The lazy response to Judd Apatow's Funny People will be that it isn't as, well, funny as his two previous films, The 40 Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up. The subtext of that observation, of course, is that it isn't as good as those other films, and that is a howlingly wrong presumption. True, Funny People is not Apatow's funniest film, but -- true also -- it is his best. While not a straight comedy, it has plenty of laughs and inspired lunatic performances (Eric Bana, in particular, is a revelation). What it also has, though, is an interest in exploring the intersection of mortality and human failing, and it does so with great clarity and a requisite lack of pity.

Tonight Australian-American singer-songwriter Rick Springfield (LAist Review) will be performing at Club Nokia. Social Distortion (LAist Review) front man Mike Ness is closing out his extensive stay at the El Rey Theatre. Grammy Award winners Los Lobos will be rocking out at the House of Blues Sunset. Local musician/producer extraordinaire Jon Brion (LAist Review) is slated to jam with friends at the Largo at the Coronet. The Hotel Café will kick off their three-night "ho-ho-tel" holiday extravaganza with an impressive array of singer-songwriter types, like Meiko (LAist Review, #2, #3, #4), Greg Laswell (LAist Interview, Review, #2, #3) and Gary Jules. And, lastly, LAist favorites Radars to the Sky (LAist Review, #2, #3) are slated to celebrate the release of their forthcoming full-length at Spaceland with Swedish husband/wife act Wildbirds and Peacedrums. But we recommend doing whatever it takes to get into the Troubadour. Phantom Planet, who have struggled endlessly with their musical identity since the untimely departure of Jason Schwartzman (LAist Review), will be playing their last show ever!

I'll lead this review by saying,"If only the DVD of ." The film is one of Wes Anderson's best tales of whimsy and familial dysfunction. Three brothers who've long since grown apart decide to travel across India on a sort of spiritual odyssey that ends, fittingly, at the base of the Himalaya where they encounter their long-lost mother. As with any road movie, the point is really the journey and not the destination and this journey is a joy to watch.

Wes Anderson doesn't have many casual fans. You either love the strange worlds of whimsy he creates or you find it all a bit precious and twee. Count me in the former camp and count .

Yes, we have some new seasons and series awaiting us over the next couple months but it's remarkable that we've settled into a similar groove from the previous season. We know what's good and has held up over at least a season. It's a shame that 30 Rock continues to lag in the ratings despite being so consistently well-written and funny. We're nearing the end of the season for the remarkable program, Mad Men -...

This week seems to be the week that new sitcoms will be unleashed upon us. Tonight we have the bizarre historical moment in which commercial characters have now secured themselves an actual network television series. We're of course talking about Cavemen. While GEICO may have created a successful commercial campaign, one would think that the idea of a series could have been tested online much more economically. Everyone is predicting a flameout and that the...

Though it opens Wednesday, I'm including in this guide because Wes Anderson is a director whose films you just automatically have to see and the more advance warning, the better. His latest jewel box follows three brothers (Wilson, Brody, Schwartzman) who decide to travel together across India in an effort to mend the rift that has grown between them all. Expect fantastical plot twists and plenty of whimsy.

As if Wes Anderson didn't already have the undying respect of fanboys across the world for directing Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, he has now done the ultimate: convinced Natalie Portman to do her first nude scene for his short, The Hotel Chevalier. The film is a companion piece to Anderson's forthcoming The Darjeeling Limited and stars Portman and Jason Schwartzman. They are ex-lovers who meet...

The Darjeeling Limited is about three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Jason Schwartzman, who go off on a train voyage through India to try and re-establish their relatinship. But their journey takes an unexpected turn (thanks to over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray) and they end up alone and in the middle of the desert.

Released: May 19th, 2007

You'd think working on a film with pros like Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, and Naomi Watts would make for a totally chill and fun environment. But according to these outtakes that were uploaded onto YouTube this weekend, director David O. Russel seemed to be having a very difficult time. And even though we realize that many things can go on during the years that it takes to put together a...

A Word Or 62: I hope to get a hold of at least a couple pints of this new Ben & Jerry's flavor. I am perennially pissed that I can never make it to the local B&J store to get the Pumpkin flavor so I know that this is all a conspiracy. Hopefully this will make red staters boycott B&J which just means - more for me!!! [Note that a lot of late night...

Somebody once said that all rock stars want to be actors and all actors want to be rock stars. And everyone responded: Why? For God's sake, why?

Shopgirl is undoubtedly a uniquely Los Angeles kind of movie. From the romanticized sky-high shots of freeway traffic and hyperbolic starry skies over Los Feliz, almost every frame radiates LA the cinematic, LA of the lovelorn, LA the coolly distant, and LA the eternal optimist. Steve Martin, who adapted his novella into the screenplay, and, not surprisingly plays the surprising romantic lead, has once again penned a paean to this glimmering jewel of a city; a city whose residents may sparkle on the surface, but when they dare to draw you close may reveal their deeply cut flaws.

One of the best perks of living in LA is access to movies in limited release. After all, they help counteract the proverbial blockbuster fizz. Here are a few movies opening in limited release right now.

• American Zion - Western starring Sam Hennings and Brenda Strong. In 1833 Missouri, the Steed family witnesses the persecution of a community of Mormons, which eventually spurs a massive migration to the West. [local showtimes]
• Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - Comedy starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan. A petty thief (Downey Jr.) lands a high-profile acting gig. He enlists a detective (Kilmer) to show him the ropes. The two get involved in a real murder case that may involve the theif's high-school crush (Monaghan). [local showtimes]
• Protocols of Zion - Documentary by Marc Levin. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a century-old [forged] document claiming to document a Jewish master plan to take over the world. This documentary explores anti-Semitism, hate, bigotry and religious intolerance in America. [local showtimes]