Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:31:28 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss S. James Snyder :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/S.+James+Snyder istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/choke-hard-to-swallow/86642/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST We keep waiting for "Choke" to up the ante, to elevate its crude antics into some kind of ethos. Instead, the story keeps asking us to search an emotional vacuum for hints of humanity that simply are not there. It's almost as if first-time director Clark Gregg failed to sit down with his cast and discuss the tone of the project. As the movie reaches for loony absurdity, the actors play their caricatures with gusto and conviction. Considering the peculiar particulars of the plot, "Choke," which... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-lucky-ones-nothing-salves-the-soul-like/86644/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST There are so many untold stories about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the intentional implausibility of "The Lucky Ones" is truly cause for concern. Have we already given up on trying to transmit any shred of reality to the big screen? Is this all we have left to expect from our filmmakers — the ongoing wars reduced to prologue, used solely to add an air of gravitas to the most routine Hollywood melodrama? Screenwriters Dirk Wittenborn and Neil Burger (the writer and director of the... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/cantet-jumps-to-the-head-of-the-class/86366/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST People assign a lot of terms to the films of the French director Laurent Cantet, terms that typically point to the social themes of his stories or the naturalism of his methods. Mr. Cantet, who frequently wraps his fictional tales in documentary threads, has spent the last decade focusing chiefly on the ways in which class differences tug at the soul of a society. In 1999, Mr. Cantet made "Human Resources," which parlayed a family scuffle into a labor dispute, with a white-collar son finding... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/passing-strange-moving-on-to-life-at-ifc-center/86286/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST It's been a while since we've had a bona fide documentary blockbuster. But as far as Thom Powers, a documentary programmer at Toronto International Film Festival and the organizer of the weekly Stranger Than Fiction documentary series at Manhattan's IFC Center, is concerned, the rumors surrounding the genre's demise are greatly exaggerated. "There have been plenty of doom-and-gloom articles about the documentary market, but these pieces often focus on the wrong indicators, looking only at... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/seeing-things-for-the-first-time-ghost-town/86174/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Love may be a many-splendored thing, but when it comes to capturing the euphoria of new romance on the silver screen, it can be a hard sell. We all know the flashy love epics, where seduction occurs naturally and effortlessly between two impossibly beautiful people, usually via love at first sight. But what of the movies in which two ordinary humans scratch and claw their way through a maze of neuroses, foibles, and missed opportunities to find that love is possible even for the distinctly less... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/ifp-runs-on-platform-of-change/85799/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST For those even casually familiar with America's independent filmmaking scene, it's clear that these are times of profound change. In fact, it's so obvious to Michelle Byrd, executive director of New York's Independent Feature Project, that she can't help but draw parallels between the shifting sands of the movie industry and the "change"-oriented rhetoric that has come to define the current presidential campaign. "This is a time of new models, of new ways of thinking," Ms. Byrd said, adopting... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-spirit-of-robert-flaherty-lives-at-bam/85306/ Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST For more than half a century, documentary films existed only at the margins of cinema, embraced by a small filmmaking community and remaining relatively unnoticed in the mainstream. That's why many moviegoers are unaware of the genre's long and storied history, assuming, as they do, that most docs look and sound like "March of the Penguins." It's probably a surprise, then, that the first breakthrough documentary was filmed in 1922 by Robert Flaherty, the director generally considered the father... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/alan-ball-is-looking-for-trouble/85220/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST For anyone out there who thinks that Alan Ball's only concern these days is the reception of his new HBO series "True Blood," festival audiences and Hollywood executives might let them in on the avalanche of controversy barreling toward the creator of "American Beauty" and HBO's "Six Feet Under." Mr. Ball's directorial debut, "Towelhead," about a 13-year-old Lebanese-American girl who struggles with sexual obsession, an aggressive and bigoted neighbor, and her strict father, is set to arrive on... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/pacino-de-niro-circle-back-to-each-other/85224/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The scene lasts only five minutes and 23 seconds, and it couldn't be more understated: Two guys sit in a California diner and size each other up as they talk about their dreams and their jobs. In most other movies, it would be a throwaway sequence, but in 1995's "Heat," Michael Mann's epic tale of cops and robbers, it was a landmark: the first time Robert De Niro and Al Pacino shared a movie screen. Given their explosive personalities, this quick scene (they appeared briefly together at the end... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/giant-steps-for-alfred-hitchcock/85222/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST To venture into Alfred Hitchcock's mysterious and mischievous "The 39 Steps" is to take a leisurely stroll through the director's favorite storytelling devices. Everything is here, in perhaps the most densely packed of his pre-war accomplishments: the deep focus, the overlapping sound design, the blond heroine, the man-against-the-world adventure story. Even in the title we have the classic Hitchcock MacGuffin: 39 steps to what? Richard (Robert Donat) doesn't know, and it doesn't much matter... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/year-of-the-fish-were-not-in-disneyland-anymore/84859/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Conflicting artistic agendas swamp the would-be fairy tale "Year of the Fish," David Kaplan's confused and ultimately irksome Cinderella concoction that seems promising before becoming weighed down by stilted characterizations and disastrous editing. The film adapts Tuan Ch'eng-Shih's Chinese version of the Cinderella fable from 860 C.E., in which the young heroine befriends a fish that becomes the catalyst for her redemption. The story line shares the basic elements of the degradation-reward... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/aliens-criminals-and-other-carpenter-tools/84855/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST John Carpenter will forever be associated with "Halloween," his brilliantly original (and profitable) 1978 horror film that helped inaugurate the modern slasher era, a movement that now includes more than a half-dozen uninspired "Halloween" sequels. But while horror is what ultimately gave Mr. Carpenter the budgetary and artistic freedom to make the films he wanted to make, his imagination has never been one-dimensional. Beginning Monday, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will launch a brief film... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/down-in-the-delta-hope-is-a-stranger-ballast/86830/ Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST In most movies involving a suicide, the act unites people beneath the umbrella of mourning and reconciliation. This is not the case in the universe envisioned by Lance Hammer in his stark, sensational first feature, "Ballast," which begins a two-week engagement tomorrow at Film Forum. Clearly influenced by the raw, staccato style of the Dardenne brothers, who typically drop their audience into the middle of a story without the signposts of exposition, dialogue, or conventional plot structure... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/surveying-a-week-of-stories/86760/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Like the opening bell at a Triple Crown race, Laurent Cantet's "The Class" launched the New York Film Festival into a sprint on Friday evening, making way for two gala opening-night events and a weekend of packed screenings uptown. Now the festival enters its first full week as a showcase for groundbreaking international fare. From a programming standpoint, much of the attention has fallen on the festival's weekend programs: the opening-night and closing-night programs, as well as this... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/if-you-cant-punch-someone-run-him-over/86643/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST There's no crying in rugby. At least, that seems to be the mantra of stern, proud, and punchy coach Richard Penning (Neal McDonough). When he loses, he doesn't shake his opponents' hands. When his team is floundering, he sends in his son, Rick (Sean Faris), to make a dirty hit. In fact, he has such a distaste for losing that when Rick is arrested for driving drunk after a crash that almost kills his girlfriend, Richard essentially disowns him. As much a story about fatherhood and masculinity as... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-fleeting-passion-of-jean-vigo/86181/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST It is difficult to find even lovers of film who are familiar with the gentle magic of the late French director Jean Vigo. Most have never heard his name, not that they can be blamed: Vigo was born in 1905 and died in 1934 from tuberculosis at 29. His career lasted only four years, his films were not considered anything special, and it would be another decade before his magic was to be seen, felt, and studied, first in France and then elsewhere. For the next two weeks, Vigo's two best works will... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/waiting-for-oscar/85959/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Each September, the fall movie season springs to life with the same one-two punch: the Venice International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. In the span of only three weeks, hundreds of new films are introduced to the critical community. Still, it came as little surprise two weeks ago when the top prize at Venice, the Golden Lion, was awarded to a familiar name: Darren Aronofsky, the art-house sensation behind such epics as "Requiem for a Dream" and "The Fountain." But Mr... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/nyff-introduces-the-year-of-the-actor/85679/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, when the New York Film Festival raised the curtain on its 2007 edition, audiences were enticed by an accomplished lineup of American projects, helmed by major directors all working at the top of their game. Now, with the 44th edition of the festival preparing to launch in two weeks (tickets officially went on sale this week), audiences are poring over a catalog of almost entirely international titles, including a large selection of works that... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/moving-midway-made-in-america/85680/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Genealogy meets mythology in "Moving Midway," a documentary that examines the ugly legacy of slavery and the difficulties of reconciliation through the lens of a Southern antebellum mansion that is literally being uprooted — unmoored, placed on a truck, and transported off the plantation on which it stood for generations. The film critic Godfrey Cheshire, a native of North Carolina, undertook the making of the film when he learned, in 2004, that his cousins had decided to move it off the land... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/museum-of-the-moving-image-offers-a-history/85684/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Turn on the television, flip through the cable news channels, and you're certain to see it: political pundits poring over the complexities and nuances of a politician's communications campaign. In an era when analysis of the news far surpasses the time spent on actually reporting it, no speech, advertisement, or poll goes unnoticed, or unscrutinized. Consider Senator Clinton's "3 a.m." TV ad, or Senator McCain's attempt to compare his election opponent with such starlets as Paris Hilton and... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/toronto-film-fest-launches-fall-oscar-mania/84499/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Few film festivals in the world provide as much bang for one's buck as the Toronto International Film Festival, the annual post-Labor Day gathering that launches the American film industry into Oscar season. Sundance is still the ideal place for the unattached art-house wannabe, and Venice and Cannes have the tabloid appeal of red carpets and paparazzi pits, but it is Toronto — the 33rd edition of which opens September 4 — where critics and distributors turn up with Oscar gold on their minds... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/trouble-the-water-a-firsthand-account/84382/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST One is wary to give much credit to the cable news channels, which have shunned much of the business of reporting in favor of regurgitating political talking points and tawdry tabloid headlines. But during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, cable news came to the rescue as never before. In the hours and days after the storm submerged New Orleans, the networks set about interviewing the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, and began to recognize the glaring... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/mommas-man-who-says-you-can-go-home/84390/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Azazel Jacobs's "Momma's Man" is a family film, but one of the least sentimental variations in history. Despite making its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it is a decidedly non-Sundance narrative that must have stunned Park City audiences, who might have assumed they were walking into the next "Little Miss Sunshine" when they read the title. "Momma's Man" is a sparse, insulated story about an immature man — the popular archetype of so many recent bloated Hollywood comedies... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/five-things-we-learned-at-the-movies/84046/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST It won't be long now before Oscar season picks up momentum and film critics across the country set about surveying the ambitions and aspirations behind the year's most "serious" and "substantial" films. For many writers, the autumn rush is the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel — the promised sunrise after a stretch of silly and frivolous summer blockbusters concerned chiefly with opening-weekend receipts. Yet while some critics shun the summer spectacles (so many of which are critic-proof... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/french-influence-marks-46th-new-york-film-festival/83918/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST With all the titles shipped over from France, one could easily dub this year's New York Film Festival "Cannes: Redux." As the event readies for its 46th annual edition — which will take place at Lincoln Center between September 26 and October 12 — the official schedule, announced earlier this week, awarded 17 of the festival's 28 slots to titles that screened at the Cannes International Film Festival in May. Included in the roster is Laurent Cantet's "The Class," which won the coveted Palme... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/henry-poole-is-here-the-church-of-latter-day/83926/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) doesn't buy his neighbor's religious declarations. Actually, he can't stand her entire system of beliefs or the way she keeps injecting the word of God into his perfectly apathetic, atheistic lifestyle. When she tries to persuade him to come around to her way of thinking, she crosses that line from nag to nut, and he lashes out, offended by her presumed naοvetι. What we have here is a failure to communicate, in a story that considers itself something of a... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-romance-of-astrea-and-celadon-the-hopeful/83643/ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Director Eric Rohmer, now 88 years young, has suggested that his 2007 film "The Romance of Astrea and Celadon" may be his last. If so, it's a fitting send-off. While this soaring tale of flawed eternal love is not exactly the director's most compelling work, it certainly does build to a finale in which the heroes both succeed and fail, allowing the hopeless romantic behind the camera the chance to have his cake and eat it, too. Standing far apart from today's relativistic romantic comedies, in... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/ifc-center-brings-back-bergman/83556/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST When Ingmar Bergman died last year at 89, a universe of cineastes mourned the passing of their favorite auteur. Between 1946 and 1982, the Swedish director made more than 50 films, guiding his followers through some of the darkest journeys in film history. Today he remains a staple on the art-house and repertory circuits, but to those who weren't born when he made his final feature film, 1982's "Fanny and Alexander," Bergman is a curiously shadowed figure. Partially in a bid to make the... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/satisfaction-and-justice-collide-in-red/83417/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Much as in "Reservation Road," "In the Bedroom," and a handful of other recent revenge yarns, there comes a point in "Red" when the line separating righteousness and retribution evaporates in a fog of fear. Here is a tale of arrogance run amok, yes, but also of the way that anguish can be channeled into unhealthy endeavors, where in a fit of greed and grief, three intersecting lives succeed in unleashing a campaign of mutually assured destruction. "Red," which was adapted by directors Trygve... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-shock-that-never-goes-away/83159/ Tue, 5 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST If it were a wine, Randall Miller's "Bottle Shock" would strike most judges as a tad overbearing. In its aim for herbal complexity, the film, which opens in New York tomorrow, mistakes a cluttered bouquet for a rich aroma, and while it has all the flavors one would expect, it assembles them in a rushed, almost random fashion. Piling one drama on top of another, the texture becomes a disaster — lacking subtlety, suffering from over-fermentation. Most unfortunately, "Bottle Shock" fails in its... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-film-series-from-on-high/83129/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST In a city where many public spaces double as traffic lanes, it's difficult for a movie programmer to think too intimately when it comes to organizing a series of outdoor movie screenings. So it's little surprise that most outdoor film events focus on well-known classics or flashy Hollywood blockbusters — titles that can be enjoyed despite the excess noise and interference, that will accommodate the distractions of the city. But things are different at the Elevated Acre. Located near the... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/every-vote-counts-especially-this-one/83013/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Oh, silly Bud Johnson. Will the guy never learn? He's a drunk, but a lovable drunk — the kind of guy who wakes up late for work, hits up the bar at shift's end, and passes out in his pickup truck as his motherless daughter waits at home. Apparently, his alcoholism is tame enough that social services hasn't yet hauled off 12-year-old Molly (Madeline Carroll). But as she sits with Bud (Kevin Costner) while they fish on the banks of a river one sunny afternoon and asks her scruffy father if she... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/stealing-america-when-democracy-loses-the-vote/83000/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST "Stealing America: Vote by Vote," a compelling examination of modern-day voting practices that opens Friday at Quad Cinemas, is a bold, if slightly dry, act of journalism. The documentary begins with a rather straightforward thesis that has not been examined as thoroughly as it should be: The past two presidential elections, in which victory has been determined by razor-thin margins, have been beset by a skyrocketing number of mishaps at the polls. The mainstream press often dubs them "voting... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-adventures-in-big-screen-entertainment/82693/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The Friday night blockbuster: When developed and marketed correctly, it's more than a movie. It's an event. Waiting in line for the best seats, rushing online to buy tickets early: It's all part of the Friday or Saturday night excitement. Increasingly, though, movie theaters are trying to replicate that Friday night atmosphere during the weekdays by showing select films for niche audiences as one-night-only events. In January, the city's running community flooded theaters on a Thursday evening... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/more-than-cartoons-in-the-animation-show-4/82598/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Given the rather profound poetry of a film such as "WALL-E" and the scathing satire of a television series such as "South Park," one could easily argue that we are living in a golden age of animation. Further evidence comes from "The Animation Show," a collection of animated shorts that returns to the big screen for the fourth time in six years, making its premiere today at IFC Center. Now overseen solely by Mike Judge — the man behind such hit animated TV shows as "Beavis and Butt-Head" and... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/america-the-beautiful-a-problem-of-self-image/82590/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The idea of making a documentary had been rumbling around Darryl Roberts's mind for a while before an impromptu sidewalk survey finally moved him to pick up a camera. Traveling around Chicago, Mr. Roberts found 200 women, and put the same question to each of them: Do you feel attractive? Only two said yes. "It's not all that complicated. I started doing the math, and if 198 women are saying 'no,' that means 99% of women feel unattractive. More than that, they blamed those feelings about... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/man-on-wire-between-the-twin-towers/82589/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST 'Man on Wire" is an upside-down documentary, so riveting in its setup and exposition that the climax arrives almost as an afterthought. The man of the title — the famed French tightrope walker Philippe Petit — is ultimately less interesting than the drama surrounding his wire, a tightrope strung between the newly completed World Trade Center towers in August 1974. And rather than tease the audience through to a rousing finale, the director, James Marsh ("Wisconsin Death Trip"), seems to embrace... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/one-town-two-mardi-gras-in-the-order-of-myths/82611/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Margaret Brown's "The Order of Myths" is a haunting and important documentary about modern-day American segregation. The racial divisions she captures have been allowed — and encouraged — to flourish under the guise of tradition. Opening today at IFC Center, it is the kind of illuminating work that sends audiences stumbling home in a wide-eyed state of astonishment. The film is a story about a citywide Mardi Gras celebration, but this is a Mardi Gras unlike any other in the nation. Mardi Gras... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-museum-of-the-moving-image-hits-the-road/82259/ Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Anyone who's visited the Museum of the Moving Image in recent months — particularly during the last two weeks, since the museum reopened some of its temporarily closed galleries — is already well-aware that the institution is in the middle of an immense, $65 million renovation and expansion. By the time the new-and-improved museum opens in late 2009 (or early 2010), visitors will be greeted by a fully renovated first floor and a three-story addition — three new floors composed in part of a... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/teenage-years-never-change/82249/ Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST "American Teen" was a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival, and when it makes its debut Friday in movie theaters, a great many people will be monitoring its reception. Fans of the documentary emerged from the first Park City screenings last January in a state of such excitement that studios engaged in a bidding war: Paramount Vantage ultimately won the battle, promising a comprehensive marketing campaign. This weekend will be the first opportunity for the studio and producers to see if the... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-human-condition-in-10-hours/82130/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The human condition, as captured in Masaki Kobayashi's 10-hour meditation on war and pain, is one of profound and unshakable inequity. In this summer's most inspired bit of repertory programming, Film Forum has resurrected Kobayashi's opus — a film that is spectacularly difficult for American audiences to find on VHS or DVD. The venue has programmed two marathon screenings of "The Human Condition" in its entirety on July 27 and August 3; the individual films will be presented between Friday and... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/films-in-short-order/81775/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST For almost a full minute, a rubber tire remains static and stationary, dangling in midair. But as the runway rushes up from underneath, the wheel explodes into life amid a hail of screeching and smoke. The title of the video says it all: "60 Seconds in the Life of Landing Gear." And on YouTube — which is only a secondary home for the footage — more than 55,000 viewers have watched the full video, which offers footage of a landing gear wheel as the airplane crosses over highways, bridges, grass... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/la-france-the-saddest-music-in-the-world/81646/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The first time the music starts, it's chiefly a logistical surprise: Where are these soldiers hiding their instruments? And won't this late-night outdoor concert betray their location to the enemy? The second time the music starts, our interest shifts to director Serge Bozon's static camerawork: Might this be the least glamorous movie musical ever filmed? Mr. Bozon's trippy genre experiment, "La France," which makes its debut Friday at Anthology Film Archives, is a rousing act of derring-do, an... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/harold-nothing-to-lose-except-his-hair/81647/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST T. Sean Shannon won an Emmy as a writer for "Saturday Night Live," and with "Harold," his first feature as a writer and director, one can see why: Mr. Shannon is the rare comedy writer who doesn't just envision the punch line, but the nuanced path a joke can take to get there. But though he may be inventive and gifted as a writer, what's clear from this erratic film, which opens in the city on Friday, is that he's not quite ready to don the director's hat. The layout is shaky, the editing... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-socratic-method/81289/ Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST In Manhattan, most outdoor summer movie events are about getting away from the congested streets and the crowded subways, if only for a few hours. But in Queens, the organizers of one outdoor movie series approach the endeavor not as a fleeting escape, but as a recurring event not to be missed. On Wednesday, Long Island City's Socrates Sculpture Park will kick off the 10th year of its Outdoor Cinema summer series, a two-month multimedia event presented in conjunction with the Museum of the... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-wackness-high-times-summer-in-the-city/81191/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Characters strut their stuff, shake their fists, and dance down the streets of a sweltering New York City in "The Wackness," a moody, pot-filled celebration of a city in which the frustration of missed connections gives way to the inspiration of casual encounters. From street to street, under the searing summer sun that unites all New Yorkers in a mutual malaise, Jonathan Levine mixes teenage sweat with sexual angst and shows how living in the moment — tomorrow be damned — can turn out to be... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/hancock-coming-in-for-a-bumpy-landing/80984/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST There's something ugly and profoundly self-absorbed about the go-nowhere loser comedy "Hancock," a superhero action blockbuster that arrives in theaters tomorrow almost as a big-screen equivalent of an US Weekly magazine. When not poking fun at its central celebrity when he's down on his luck, the film cashes in on the drama as he's shuttled off to rehab, then slaps together a redemptive coda without doing any of the heavy lifting. All things considered, reactions to the film will likely mimic... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/standing-in-line-at-the-digital-box-office/80902/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST When was the last time anyone bought a movie ticket from a human being? Okay, that may be taking things to the extreme, but in recent years it's become a fact of life for New York moviegoers: If we're catching a blockbuster on opening night, then we should probably buy our tickets before even hopping on the subway. Today, in the lobbies of most Manhattan multiplexes, the longest lines are not those of people waiting to purchase tickets, but those of people waiting to pick up prepurchased... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/finding-amanda-searching-for-his-niece-losing/80795/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST It seems pretty clear, for anyone who has watched Matthew Broderick in such movies as "The Cable Guy" or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," that what he does best is happy-go-lucky with a mix of giddy-unstable. In his best roles, Mr. Broderick has succeeded in suggesting a conflict playing out in the hidden depths — a man trying to appeal to his better instincts despite the turmoil unfolding beneath the surface. So one wonders why writer-director Peter Tolan thought Mr. Broderick would be a good fit... S. JAMES SNYDER http://www.nysun.com/arts/going-gonzo-with-ralph-steadman/80792/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST This January at the Sundance Film Festival, about a month before the documentarian Alex Gibney won his first Academy Award, he sat down to discuss his most recent work, a film about the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Here was a man, Mr. Gibney said, who mocked the entrenched voices of authority and challenged people to see beyond the status quo through his freewheeling indictments of a complacent society. While many of those closest to the maverick were not entirely surprised by...