Nell Minow's Blog, page 6
April 25, 2017
Premiering Tonight: Great News
Tina Fey and Robert Carlock are the producers of "Great News," from their "30 Rock" colleague Tracey Wigfield. It's the story of a television news producer and her mother, who becomes an intern on her show. And it's adorable. Here Wigfield and her real mother talk to Briga Heelan and Andrea Martin, who play versions of their real-life relationship on the show. The whole cast is terrific, including John Michael Higgins, Horatio Sanz and (yes) Nicole Ritchie.
It premieres April 25,...
It premieres April 25,...
The post Premiering Tonight: Great News appeared first on Movie Mom.
Descendants 2 is On the Way!
Disney's "The Descendants" was an immediate smash, with one of the biggest audiences ever for a cable movie on its premiere and over 100 million viewers since then. "High School Musical's" Kenny Ortega was behind the smart and engaging story of the children of some of Disney's most popular characters, including good guys like Belle and the Beast and villains like Cruella De Vil, Jafar, and Maleficent. The sequel will be available on the Disney-owned networks plus on-demand on the Disney Channel,...
The post Descendants 2 is On the Way! appeared first on Movie Mom.
April 23, 2017
Ebertfest Panel: The Handmaiden
Here's the Ebertfest panel on "The Handmaiden" that I moderated. (Sorry there's a problem with the sound at first -- skip ahead about five minutes and it should be all right.
...
...
The post Ebertfest Panel: The Handmaiden appeared first on Movie Mom.
April 20, 2017
The Promise
The massacre was so monumental, the attempt to wipe out an entire culture and ethnicity so savage, that a new word had to be invented to describe it. The word was "genocide," and while it would be applied many times over the course of the 20th century, it was created to describe the murder of 1.6 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) during the first World War. It is difficult to acknowledge that...
The post The Promise appeared first on Movie Mom.
The Lost City of Z
From the early 19th to the early 20th century, the British Empire exemplified a spirit of adventure, devotion to duty, and confidence bordering on hubris that led to extraordinary achievements like the Oxford English Dictionary and the arrogant imposition of colonialism around the world. All of that is in this true story of Percy Fawcett, an officer in the British Army whose eight trips to South America in search of ancient ruins inspired characters in books by H. Rider Haggard and Arthur...
The post The Lost City of Z appeared first on Movie Mom.
Interview: Director Joseph Cedar on “Norman”
Israeli-American Joseph Cedar wrote and directed one of my favorite movies, the Oscar-nominated Beaufort, and I am a fan of his film "Footnote" as well. Both are in Hebrew. So it was a great pleasure to...The post Interview: Director Joseph Cedar on “Norman” appeared first on Movie Mom.
April 19, 2017
New Documentary: BANG! The Bert Berns Story
If you like behind-the-scenes-of-the-hits films like "20 Feet from Stardom," "Muscle Shoals," and "The Wrecking Crew," you will enjoy "BANG! The Bert Berns Story." Like "Wrecking Crew," this is a love letter from a son to his father. You have not heard the name Bert Berns, but you have heard -- and I am sure, you have sung -- the songs he wrote or produced include "Twist and Shout," "Brown Eyed Girl," Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart," "Hang on Sloopy," "I...
The post New Documentary: BANG! The Bert Berns Story appeared first on Movie Mom.
Why Do Mega-Budget Movie Directors Make Small Films About Kids?
On Vulture, Kyle Buchanan has a fascinating column about three directors who took time off between blockbusters to make remarkably similar small budget films about gifted kids and their single parents. It is well worth reading in full.
Take "Gifted," this week’s dramedy about a precocious child and the overwhelmed uncle (Chris Evans) who serves as her single parent. It’s directed by Marc Webb,...
Take "Gifted," this week’s dramedy about a precocious child and the overwhelmed uncle (Chris Evans) who serves as her single parent. It’s directed by Marc Webb,...
The post Why Do Mega-Budget Movie Directors Make Small Films About Kids? appeared first on Movie Mom.
April 18, 2017
Opening This Week: “The Promise,” “The Lost City of Z” and “Born in China”
Two films open this week that could be described as old-school, grand epics like those from the classic era of Hollywood. Both are based on true stories. "The Lost City of Z" (with Z pronounced "Zed," as the British do), is based on the life of dashing explorer Percy Fawcett, who inspired many fictional characters, including Indiana Jones. "The Promise" stars Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale in a story inspired by the Armenian genocide in Turkey around the time of World War I.
Also this...
Also this...
The post Opening This Week: “The Promise,” “The Lost City of Z” and “Born in China” appeared first on Movie Mom.
Trailer: Step, Documentary on a Baltimore Step Team
"Step" documents the senior year of a girls’ high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore. As each one tries to become the first in their families to attend college, the girls strive to make their dancing a success against the backdrop of social unrest in the troubled city....
The post Trailer: Step, Documentary on a Baltimore Step Team appeared first on Movie Mom.
