Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:36:13 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Meghan Keane :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Meghan+Keane istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/antiques/the-peoples-house/86030/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Gracie Mansion has seen its share of ups and downs. The site of the mayor's official residence has been bombed, foreclosed on, and used as an ice cream parlor. Mayor Bloomberg has never lived in the space. He refers to the building that overlooks Hell Gate, where the Harlem and East rivers meet, as "The People's House," and has increased accessibility to the public and to city agencies. Fittingly, the contents of the house reflect the varied history of the building — and the city. One of the... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/an-unspeakable-act-hounddog/86182/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Known colloquially as "The Dakota Fanning Rape Movie" since its premiere at last year's Sundance Film Festival, Deborah Kampmeier's "Hounddog" arrives in theaters Friday after a long distribution struggle with a handicap that it just can't shake. Young Ms. Fanning plays Lewellen, a motherless 12-year-old growing up poor in the Deep South circa the mid-1950s. Living with her bitter grandmother (Piper Laurie) and disturbingly callous father (David Morse), Lewellen distracts herself from the... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/save-me-nothing-a-little-praying-cant-fix/85227/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST When a film about an ex-gay Christian ministry begins with drug-addled homosexual sex, it's pretty clear where it's going to end up. Robert Cary's redemption tale "Save Me," which opens in the city on Friday, spends a lot of time flirting with a subsection of evangelical Christianity, but from the beginning it's clear that the relationship isn't going anywhere. Robert Desiderio's screenplay tries to paint its fictional ex-gay ministry in an empathetic light, but the story's clear rejection of... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/portraits-on-the-walls-of-city-hall/86540/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The foreign dignitaries who are convening at the United Nations this week will certainly be the subjects of many photographs, but in the 19th century, honored guests were entered into New York City history with painted portraits. And a tour through the Governor's Room of City Hall shows off a legacy of hospitality. Since its completion in the early 19th century, the Governor's Room has served as a museum and a space for ceremonial use. It houses one of the largest collections of American... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-a-thousand-years-of-good-prayers/86186/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Mr. Shi (Henry O), the lead character in Wayne Wang's new film, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," suffers from the occasional translation problem. Visiting America from China, he interacts with strangers in broken English with surprising ease. But it is in emotional discussions with his daughter that he has trouble communicating. Adapted from a short story by Yiyun Li, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," which opens Friday at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, follows a widower who has come to America to... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-the-little-red-truck/85686/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The new documentary "The Little Red Truck" does not lack in enthusiasm, heart, or compassion. But Rob Whitehair's film, essentially a 102-minute endorsement of community theater, has a problem with execution. The documentary follows the travels of the Missoula Children's Theater, an unusual touring company that specializes in sending teams of two directors around the country to visit communities lacking in theater programs in an attempt to whip novice actors into stage stars. Missoula's program... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/elegy-lust-love-and-everything-in-between/83419/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Isabel Coixet's "Elegy" posits what happens when a proud and self-defined womanizer finds himself falling in love for the first time. Nicholas Meyer's adaptation of Philip Roth's novel "The Dying Animal" tries to break into the glass house that its protagonist has built, but the film's own abject superficiality obscures its message. Columbia professor David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) soliloquizes about fulfilling desire and the intractability of marriage. But when Cuban-American Consuela Castillo... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-sisterhood-of-the-traveling-pants-2-growing/83235/ Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Surrounded as it is by teenage entertainments caught up in increasingly mature pursuits, the "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" franchise, with its more mature, self-affirming focus, has a charming earnestness about it. On the other hand, the childish attachment of four postadolescent girls to the rituals related to a pretty dirty pair of jeans grates with some of the more adult themes woven into the sequel, often leaving "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," which makes its premiere... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/frozen-river-living-life-on-thin-ice/83005/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Melissa Leo owns "Frozen River." The film dwells in that uncomfortable place where long bets are about to go bad, and Ms. Leo's unrelenting focus carries the viewer through it all, her determination maintaining the unrealistic hope that things will work out in her favor. The accomplished actress, who earned a devoted following for her turn as Sergeant Kay Howard on the television series "Homicide," has failed to gain traction in mainstream films, but that may change with her performance in... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/august-the-boys-of-summer-take-a-chilly-fall/81645/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST There is something extremely maladroit about films set in Manhattan that center on really sweet automobiles. The majority of New Yorkers view the irrelevance of cars in their city as a bonus rather than a shortcoming, but many filmmakers still seem intent on having rich men in New York drive convertibles through Midtown Manhattan. This discrepancy can be tolerated in certain venues, but in "August," in which Josh Hartnett plays a smooth-talking dot-com hotshot trying to capitalize on the... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/very-young-girls-new-yorks-children-left-behind/81285/ Sun, 6 Jul 2008 21:46:39 EST It's difficult to fathom that a sex act between an adolescent girl and a grown man would land the child in jail, but it happens every day on the streets of New York. Much time and effort is spent combating the sexual exploitation of children and the trafficking of foreign girls in our country, but young Americans who are trapped or tricked into prostitution often find themselves facing either jail time or further abuse. These girls are the subject of David Schisgall and Nina Alvarez's... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/pleasing-the-court-in-gunnin-for-that-1-spot/80787/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Outsize talent in basketball can get a high school senior many things — piles of free sneakers, college scholarships, and now, a Beastie Boys movie. Adam Yauch, aka MCA, took a year off from recording with his bandmates in 2006 to film "Gunnin' for That #1 Spot," a documentary as committed to showcasing the world of top-rank amateur basketball players as it is to the music that serves as its backdrop. "Gunnin'" follows the eight best high school basketball players in the country as they travel... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-expired/80348/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST If anyone can earn sympathy for the plight of the meter maid, it's Samantha Morton. In "Expired," which opens Friday at the Angelika Film Center, Ms. Morton stars as Claire, an introverted but sweet meter maid who struggles with the guilt of working in one of the world's most hated professions. Written and directed by Cecilia Miniucchi, "Expired" explores the relationship between two lonely parking officers in downtown Los Angeles. Claire (Ms. Morton) lives with her sick, mute mother (Terri... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/putting-a-face-on-the-franchise/80351/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Teaching little girls about the Great Depression as a means of selling them stuff seems an odd approach to storytelling, but that is the premise of the new film "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," which arrives in theaters today, as well as the series of books and dolls on which it is based. While the business model may be a bit discomfiting, it has raked in more than $69 million for Mattel in the first quarter of this year alone. Since 1986, American Girl dolls and books have tapped lucratively... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/what-just-happened/79922/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST If the road to movie hell is paved with good intentions, M. Night Shyamalan is getting pretty close to his destination. The well-compensated writer-director's new eco-thriller, "The Happening," takes retribution for human destructiveness to a new level of absurdity. Toying with the ingrained human instinct for survival, "The Happening" depicts a viral outbreak that causes humans to kill themselves. Beginning in Central Park and supposed to be a terrorist attack, the contagion quickly spreads... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-take-out/79447/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Following in the footsteps of Lars von Trier and the Dogme 95 tradition of austerity, "Take Out" is a bare-bones account of a day in the life of an illegal Chinese immigrant. And though Sean Baker's economical new film, which opens Friday at Quad Cinema, gets a lot of mileage from its realist style, its "vow of chastity" often seems necessitated by its budget constraints more than its artistic vision. "Take Out" begins as Ming Ding (Charles Jang) receives an unwelcome wake-up call from two... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/savage-grace-cultivating-the-root-of-all-evil/78912/ Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Despite its admiration of all the things that money can buy, Tom Kalin's new film "Savage Grace" is especially preoccupied with the things it cannot. Based on the true story of one of the most sensational murder cases in American history, "Savage Grace" dissects life in the Baekeland family in the years leading up to Antony Baekeland's (Eddie Redmayne) cold-blooded murder of his mother, Barbara (Julianne Moore), in 1972. Jetting between Paris, Majorca, and New York, Barbara and her husband... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/sex-on-tv-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/77332/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST As the continued presence of tour buses parked throughout the West Village and lines outside Magnolia Bakery prove, it's hard to ignore the effects of HBO's "Sex and the City" on Manhattan, even four years after it went off the air. Michael Patrick King's film of the series, which opens next Thursday, is well aware of this fact. "Sex and the City: The Movie" begins with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) reminiscing about the descendants of the show's characters: "Year after year," she... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/coming-to-america-to-stay/76558/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST "Sangre de Mi Sangre" is a film bent on desperation. As it follows the parallel journeys of two Mexican teenagers who smuggle themselves to New York, the film's relentless focus on the adversities faced by illegal immigrants eventually tips from heartbreak to preachy pulp. The film, the debut feature by Christopher Zalla, won a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year, a testament to the themes and performances at play. But the story itself tends too often toward cliché to sustain the drama set... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movie-brief-viva/75746/ Fri, 2 May 2008 01:48:50 EST For those who were hoping that the more embarrassing elements of the sexual revolution were slowly fading into oblivion, Anna Biller is here to make sure that doesn't happen. The director and star of "Viva," which opens Friday at Cinema Village, has spent the past three years culling all of the awkward moments, bad decisions, and schmaltz of the '70s-era skin flick into this nouveau twist on sexploitation. "Viva" is the story of Barbi (Ms. Biller), a bored housewife in the 1970s who gets swept... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-made-of-honor/75747/ Fri, 2 May 2008 01:48:50 EST Patrick Dempsey may have re-established his heartthrob status as Doctor McDreamy on NBC's "Grey's Anatomy," but his sex appeal still isn't getting him quality film roles. That fact is made painfully evident by the disappointing premise of his new film "Made of Honor," to say nothing of the film itself, which boasts all the charm of a tampon commercial. Mr. Dempsey plays Tom, a misogynist gad-about-town who made a fortune creating "coffee collars" — cardboard coffee sleeves that provide the... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-tribeca-growing-up-is-hard-to-do/75754/ Fri, 2 May 2008 01:48:50 EST As the Tribeca Film Festival winds down its seventh edition this weekend, Robert De Niro's pet project, which is sandwiched between international programs at Sundance and Cannes, continues to feel its way in the film market. Though some of Tribeca's biggest films may have made their premieres elsewhere ("The Wackness," "Elite Squad"), or have no need for a festival opening ("Baby Mama"), the wide array of films on display this year ensures that Tribeca is making strides toward coming into its... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/hunts-debut-behind-the-camera-finds-uneasy-laughs/75304/ Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Helen Hunt's new film, much like its star and director, is a slow burn. The story of a lonely woman confronted with the betrayal of her husband, her mother, and her God, "Then She Found Me" flirts with cinematic cliché but finds surprising rewards in its idiosyncratic story. The film gets off to a sluggish start by dropping the audience into the lonely life of Ms. Hunt's character. April Epner, an unhappy elementary school teacher, desperately wants a baby. Adopted into a Jewish family, April... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/dont-act-so-broken-up/74917/ Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST If Jason Segel hadn't written "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" himself, it would be easy to assume that he had made some extremely compromising promises on the casting couch to win his role in the film. Bookended by full-frontal shots of Mr. Segel in the buff, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the latest in a seemingly unending series of comedies associated with Judd Apatow (he serves as producer here), navigates the indignities of a big breakup while providing enough romantic comedy elements to keep... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/was-that/74937/ Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST If Judd Apatow is an evangelist spreading the gospel of nonsexual nudity on-screen, then his minions may well inherit the earth. Last year, the comedic guru vowed to offer a visible penis in every new movie he makes: "America fears the penis and that's something I'm going to help them get over," he declared. This proclamation came after members of a test audience walked out of a screening of his Johnny Cash spoof "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" during extended shots of a penis behind actor... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/on-the-road-with-a-translator/74160/ Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST "My Blueberry Nights" is a road movie that keenly displays Wong Kar Wai's aptitude for relationship drama and showcasing the female form, but the Chinese director's American debut often makes the earnest miscalculation of a dubbed foreign film. Mr. Wong's first English-language feature transports his familiar style of storytelling across the globe, from the cramped quarters of Hong Kong to the vast landscapes of America. It is strangely exhilarating to watch Caucasian faces populate Mr. Wong's... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/penn-raises-the-stakes-on-comedy/73374/ Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST With all of the famous (and almost famous) faces in Zak Penn's film "The Grand," which opens Friday at City Cinemas Village East, it's a bit hard to distinguish his improvisational documentary from an average evening on the celebrity poker circuit (former "American Pie" hottie and poker fanatic Shannon Elizabeth even makes a cameo). But Mr. Penn has gathered a well-qualified crew of familiar faces to populate his film, which is helped dramatically by a real-life poker game that decides the... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-2008-03-14/72963/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Watching your dad drunk-drive himself to death can be such a bummer. But not if it supplies you with enough rage to fight your way to the top of the high-school food chain! "Never Back Down" combines teen-style "Fight Club" with the dance competition film, a style of cinema that just keeps coming off the assembly line. The film combats its generic cast and plotline with heaps of violence, chiseled abs, and Djimon Hounsou. Fetishizing blood sport to the point of pornography, the characters exist... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/they-once-were-lost-but-now-are-found/72334/ Wed, 5 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Sending six blind Tibetan teenagers up Mount Everest seems more like a perverse form of torture than the premise for a documentary. But Lucy Walker's "Blindsight," which opens today at IFC Center, makes a strong case for what a determined group of people can accomplish. In 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to scale the world's tallest peak. But "Blindsight" is not the story of that hard-won journey; rather, it's about how his example inspired six untrained Tibetan children to... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/whats-in-a-nose/72077/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST The premise of a poor little rich girl who is cursed with a pig nose until one of her own can truly love her has the potential to ignite a successful feature film, especially when the film stars Christina Ricci fitted with an adorable pig snout, whimsical costumes, and a dreamy love interest. But Mark Palansky's "Penelope," opening today, suffers from an incurable bout of flat writing. Ms. Ricci plays the title character, whose porcine characteristics are the result of a curse placed on her... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/ferrell-pleases-the-court/72068/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST If the trailer for "Semi-Pro" leaves you with that odd feeling of familiarity, it's not your fault. With all the overgrown children that Will Ferrell has brought to the big screen, at this point it can be difficult to tell them apart. He took off running as a leading man in "Anchorman," and has since flooded the market with lovable idiots from Ricky Bobby ("Talladega Nights") to Chazz Michael Michaels ("Blades of Glory"). He even graciously took a breather while John C. Reilly attempted his... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/duchess-of-look-but-dont-touch/71704/ Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Jacques Rivette's new film, "The Duchess of Langeais," is an exercise in delayed gratification that may entice the director's fans, but will leave a few viewers sleeping in their seats when it opens this weekend at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza. Mr. Rivette, master of the French nouvelle vague, has kept his latest project (at just over two hours) relatively short, but it is an exercise in patience. Searching for a subject to showcase the talents of his stars, Guillaume Depardieu and Jeanne... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/money-fate-the-root-of-evil/71695/ Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST The now familiar vocabulary of concentration camps on movie screens comes with so much baggage that it can stifle a film before it has even begun. But "The Counterfeiters," this year's Austrian nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, uses a true story and a complicated moral landscape to plumb new territory in this historic tragedy. Based on the tale of Operation Bernhard, perhaps the largest counterfeiting undertaking in history, "The Counterfeiters" follows skilled forger Salomon... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/different-ties-for-different-binds/71376/ Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Thoughtful and beautifully executed, Brazil's entry for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," tells the story of a young boy exiled from his own life. The year is 1970, and 12-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) spends most of his energy on tabletop soccer. But he gets a rude awakening when his parents go on "vacation" to avoid the secret police. Left at his grandfather's door, Mauro learns that, unlike his father, his grandfather Mótel (Paulo Autran)... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/maybe-too-much-information/71296/ Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Just in time for Valentine's Day comes a film about the restorative powers of divorce. "Definitely, Maybe," from the producers of "Love, Actually" and "Notting Hill," steals a comma splice from one of its predecessors and the premise from a CBS sitcom to create an often witty, if flawed, romantic comedy. As the film opens, advertising executive Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) receives divorce papers on his way to pick up his daughter from school. When he greets 10-year-old Maya (Abigail Breslin), he... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/hell-never-have-paris/71017/ Fri, 8 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST In the grand tradition of female makeover films, from "She's Out of Control" to "The Princess Diaries," Tom Putnam's "The Hottie and the Nottie" stars a perfectly adorable girl in the role of the unattractive misfit. Also, Paris Hilton is in it. More dedicated to the ugly trope than most films of its ilk, "The Hottie and the Nottie" doesn't stop at hiding its cute "nottie" behind a pair of glasses and a bad haircut. Mr. Putnam and a crack makeup team have veiled Christina Lakin, who plays June... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/this-development-cant-get-itself-arrested/70583/ Fri, 1 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST With the writers' strike stretching on and little to watch on television other than reality programming and game shows, a new network show with an ensemble cast of familiar faces offers hope for a welcome alternative. But CBS's new sitcom "Welcome to the Captain" premieres Monday with a resounding thud. The show follows Josh Flum (Frank Kranz), a down-on-his-luck writer with an Academy Award on his résumé, who moves into "a fabled Hollywood apartment building" called El Capitan, which the... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/docs-lift-the-light-the-heavy/70381/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST PARK CITY, Utah — The competition to get noticed at Sundance can be steep. Taking on a big topic, or a big name, can provide much-needed attention, but with the documentaries on offer here this year, it was usually the smaller projects that impressed. One of the most anticipated documentaries was Morgan Spurlock's "Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?" With "Super Size Me," Mr. Spurlock's personal anatomy of an all-McDonald's diet, the director rocketed to fame as someone willing to put his... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/romania-and-a-hard-place/70197/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Communism in practice takes the first half of its slogan — "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" — to the vicious extreme. Cristian Mungiu's new film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" proves just how far a negligent regime can reach in stamping out ingenuity, intellect, and dignity. Communist Romania was cursed by malevolent indifference. Dispassionate about the needs of its people, the Romanian government, specifically that of Nicolae Ceausescu between 1965 and '89... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/style/stay-warm-or-look-good-trying/69895/ Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST PARK CITY, Utah – It stands to reason that even the most style-conscious among us would put fashion on the back-burner when the mercury dips well below the freezing mark. But when you're guaranteed to have your picture taken — or just hoping to stand out in a crowd — cold toes and ice skids are small concessions. With Park City once again playing host to the Sundance Film Festival, actresses, directors, film financiers, and film fans have descended on this picturesque winter enclave — bringing... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/making-picks-for-draft-day/69795/ Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST The specter of involuntary military service strikes fear in the hearts of men across our country — but mostly upper-middle-class white men between the ages of 18 and 35. And filmmakers. The actual prospect of conscription being reintroduced in this country may be far-fetched, but that does not stand in the way of "Day Zero," a new film starring Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, and Jon Bernthal. First-time feature director Bryan Gunnar Cole has not set his film in the 1960s, but in the near future, as... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/someone-wake-up-woody-allen/69794/ Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST The entirety of Woody Allen's new film "Cassandra's Dream" is spent in dire anticipation of the fate that will befall his two main characters. The relentless monotony of the film's inevitable conclusion leaves the audience to hope that the film's one relief — the final credits — will come sooner than it seems. After a career resurgence brought on by 2005's London-based thriller "Match Point," critics and fans may have believed that the New York filmmaker just needed a change of scenery to... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/mother-of-the-bridesmaids/69374/ Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Katherine Heigl may have been the sleeper hit of 2007. The buxom blonde managed to position herself as a model young spinster by helping Hollywood to avoid the unpleasantness of having to watch an unattractive woman be lonely and unhappy. In both Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" and the ongoing NBC series "Grey's Anatomy," Ms. Heigl disappears into successful ensemble casts. But in Anne Fletcher's "27 Dresses," which opens in sneak previews today in New York, she takes top billing while retaining her... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/those-arent-the-voices-of-reason/68029/ Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST The perennial staying power of high, squeaky voices singing along to popular music is astounding. Alvin and the Chipmunks have been singing helium-voiced odes to Top 40 songs for nearly 50 years. They'll return tomorrow, this time in an animated, big-screen adaptation, with some old standards and some new attempts at hip-hop and silver lamé. Not since Casey Kasem has such career longevity been built from a vocal oddity. In 1956, a struggling songwriter named Ross Bagdasarian, who used the stage... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/problem-child/67503/ Wed, 5 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST The predicament of unwed teenage mothers is not supposed to fill the populace with warm, fuzzy feelings. But first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody has written a new role model for teenage girls — one who happens to get pregnant at 16 after a one-night stand. A lead character that lacks the most basic of human concerns can often devolve into misanthropy, but sometimes — as with the characters of Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones in HBO's "Sex and the City" — figments of the imagination can... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/blown-up-in-translation/66920/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST The new Japanese action film "Midnight Eagle" has a certain artistry, but its distaste for the bounds of believability is astounding. Underdeveloped action films, it seems, know no language barrier. Incredibly, the film suffers from the translation foibles that afflict many foreign stars when they attempt to cross over into the English market — despite speaking in its native tongue. "Midnight Eagle" tries to impose the vocabulary of Hollywood blockbusters on a cast and screenplay that are... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/building-a-hero-to-tear-him-down/66914/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Translating unspoken thoughts to the screen is a difficult task, one that Andrew Wagner's new film, "Starting Out in the Evening," attempts with the best of intentions. But like the thesis that is proffered at the end of the film, the glowing accolades that the filmmakers attempt to bestow on the novelist Brian Morton ultimately result in an undercooked product. Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose) is a master's candidate at Brown hoping to resuscitate the career of an aging novelist named Leonard... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/when-you-wish-upon-a-skyscraper/66855/ Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Most fantasies don't have the stamina to withstand the demands of the real world, but Disney's new film "Enchanted" defies expectations by creating a sweet fairy tale for the modern era. Starting in the realm where Disney has had the most success — the cartoon world — and segueing to a live-action adventure, "Enchanted" paints a sweet, tongue-in-cheek portrait of a young forest-dwelling maiden named Giselle (Amy Adams) who has just met the man of her dreams, Prince Edward (James Marsden). But... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/sister-soldiers-on-the-homefront/66493/ Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST The affection that the director Noah Baumbach feels for his characters often surpasses the affectations he burdens them with. His best films make audiences care about tightly wound, self-involved people. But without a compelling emotional draw, "Margot at the Wedding," which opens in the city tomorrow, feels like a cold-hearted character study. Nicole Kidman stars as the title character, a talented short-story writer who lashes out at everyone within earshot. Her Margot is all sharp edges and... MEGHAN KEANE http://www.nysun.com/arts/white-christmas-for-a-black-sheep/66181/ Fri, 9 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST There's a chill in the air and the leaves have finally begun to change, but the surest sign of the impending holiday season is the exploitative children's fare we've come to expect in the months leading up to Christmas. Tim Allen is probably trying as we speak to pry himself into parents' pockets one more time with "The Santa Clause 4: The Actor in Need of Paycheck Clause." In the meantime, David Dobkin's "Fred Claus" slides into theaters today. "Fred Claus" tells the story of Santa Claus's...