The Coen Brothers’ creepy No Country For Old Men (based on the creepy Cormac McCarthy book of the same name) is out in limited release today, and the reviews are ridiculously great. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 93% positive, the likes of which I personally haven’t seen since, what, Ratatouille? And as much as I love adorable French rats, I like Javier Bardem’s haircut even better.
The film will open wide in the US on November 21st. What to do in the meantime? Well, I’ve got this trailer…
Add another notch to Ethan Hawke’s belt. The actor, writer, and now second time director is bringing his 1997 debut novel, The Hottest State, to a screen near you. Hawke wrote, directed, and stars in the semi-autobiographical film, which is expected to hit theaters on August 24th. While the jury is still out on whether the film is good, (so far it’s made the rounds at the Venice Film Festival and at Cannes) the accompanying soundtrack is sure to be. Featuring songs from artists including Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Cat Power, and Feist, the soundtrack will be coming out on August 7th.
Judging from this picture, there are worse places to live than Provence. Rolling Hills, quaint villages, and endless wine, Provence is almost perfect. Perhaps that’s why Peter Mayle has devoted eleven (!) books to extolling the virtues of the place. And readers around the world have gotten the message. Tourism in Provence has gone up since Mayle’s first book, A YEAR IN PROVENCE, was published. And it’s sure to increase again with the release of the film “A Good Year” based on Mayle’s novel of the same name. Vintners from Aix to Arles rejoice.TOURJOURS PETER MAYLE
In this hilarious online chat with college newspaper editors, Bret Easton Ellis suggests that in the movie version of Lunar Park, he would like to see his character portrayed by Forrest Whitaker.
Here’s the full transcript (read the whole thing — it’s highly amusing):
Moderator: We are pleased to have as our guest Bret Easton Ellis, author of AMERICAN PSYCHO, LESS THAN ZERO, THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, GLAMORAMA, THE INFORMERS, and now LUNAR PARK, his most recent national bestseller. (more…)
Our inboxes have been swamped with glowing reviews for Showtime’s new original series “Dexter,” based on Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Alessandra Stanley for The New York Timeswrites, “I for one cannot wait to see the next episode.” The Chicago Tribune, not to be outdone, effuses, “Dexter’s dry, witty narration is so perfectly pitched that I immediately wanted to buy Lindsay’s novels to hear more of it.” Now that’s what we like to hear! Television critics trading their remotes for a book! (more…)
Unfortunately, you’re going to have to wait a while before you can see Perfume for yourself. The film is currently being rolled out across Europe, and it hits stateside December 27th. Word on the Straße is that the Germans love it.
Stanley Kubrick, the director of incredible film adaptations of books as varied and complex as Lolita, The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, once remarked that Patrick Süskind’s Perfume was simply unfilmable. Of course, such judgments have been of little use in preventing directors from trying their hand at adapting other supposedly “unfilmable” novels, such as Ulysses or Tristram Shandy, and so I now find myself anticipating the release of Tom Tykwer’s attempt to prove Kubrick wrong. (more…)
A handful of reviews have come in for Kevin Macdonald’s film adaptation of Giles Foden’s The Last King of Scotland, and the consensus is that watching the film is a powerful, gut-wrenching experience. But, you know, in a good way. (more…)
A PBS documentary film, “Marie Antoinette” airing on PBS September 25, 2006 (check local listings), by David Grubin (“Napoleon”) features Antonia Fraser as one of the main speakers. It’s is a surprising portrait in which the monarch emerges as a sympathetic and, in the end, courageous figure. (more…)
In this hilarious online chat with college newspaper editors, 
