http://www.nypress.com/blogs-1-1-1-2.html Scruffy and blubbery documentary superstar Michael Moore just announced the name for his latest documentary about the bank failures: Capitalism: A Love Story. The film will be released by Paramount Picture Corporation, which doesn't sound quite so socialist, so we're just going to go ahead and pretend that Moore's title is not sarcastic. --- He has already released a trailer for his movie, though it shows no footage from the film. ]]> Hey everyone, look Sid and Nancy are back! Well, kind of... --- Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel have recreated a moment from the iconic movie before their own romantic comedy, 500 Days of Summer, opens on July 17. Zooey drops her sweet melodic voice and puts on a punk-rock wig to play a mean Sid, but man Gordon-Levitt steals the show with his Nancy—beautiful and powerful.  ]]> Lunch time poll: Will the rumored sequel to Heathers ever get made? After Winona Ryder told Empire a month ago that a sequel to the '80s cult-classic was in the works, fans braced for a return of first-rate high school bitchiness to the silver screen, but they might have braced themselves for Big Fun a bit too soon as director Michael Lehmann recently dispelled the rumor in a Movieline interview. --- Lehmann said, "A couple weeks ago everyo]]> We live in the golden age of the documentary. More nonfiction films are being made and seen than ever before: 31 of the 40 all-time top grossing documentaries were released this decade. The burgeoning documentary field is what has created space for issue films like A Walk to Beautiful. The film is essentially an extended PBS special on obstetric fistula, a childbirth injury, in Ethiopia. The subject is moving, but, like most documentaries that co]]> The documentary Food, Inc., a jeremiad against the corporate food complex, has gotten a strange bedfellow: a food corporation. Stonyfield Farm, an organic foods maker, has been advertising for the film on its yogurt lids and on the front page of its website. Oh, by the way, the CEO of Stonyfield is interviewed in the film, and it makes him look pretty damn good. --- Great idea: They should advertise the new Lyme disease documentary, Under Our S]]> Don’t cry! Unless you’re an actor playing Joan Jett, because apparently understanding that role requires bullying from the distinguished singer. Kristen Stewart broke into tears last week after the rocker gave her a hard time on set for the upcoming biopic The Runaways. --- No biggie, though: “Joan just wants Kristen to play an authentic version of herself,” says an insider, “so she needled her a little bit too mu]]> For any budding Latino auteurs out there, the Loisaida Cortos Latino Film Festival is hungry for submissions for its 8th annual run. --- Films need to be 20 minutes or less "featuring and/or about Latino themes and/or Latino Filmmakers." There are plenty more rules and deadlines, so go to their website to find out more or, if social networking sends a tingle down your spine, join the Facebook group.The New York Press strategy? Kick it ]]> The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has come under fire for expanding the number of best picture nominees from five to 10. Though naysaying the move is now in vogue, the switch to 10 may make a lot of sense—if the Academy is willing to make a few more changes. --- The most obvious reason for the change, and one that has rarely been mentioned, is that there are simply more movies. According to the MPAA, from 1999 to 2008, the ]]> The director who had alternative high school kids cry and identify with Donnie Darko, though we—sorry, they—probably don't understand the plot, is back. The trailer is out for the new Richard Kelly movie The Box. When the movie was in early stages of production, it seemed  like The Box was going to be Kelly's mainstream atonement for his wildly (and most would say disastrously) abstruse Southland Tales. From the trippy trailer with Fr]]> The Hurt Locker from Katheryn Bigelow hits theaters this weekend. The film has gotten some of the best reviews ever for an Iraq War film. --- Lemon Tree, an Israeli film that has had some international success, has two screenings at Symphony Space this Sunday. It's a tad overwrought, but still an example of the impressive films that have been coming out of Israel and Palestine as of late. Dead Snow OK, maybe I'm just recommending this beca]]> EW decided Ryan Reynolds was this summer's It boy, plastering his trimmed torso on the cover (with a few alternate covers and a fun, splashy interior shot that shows plenty of ab action). Reasons: The Proposal and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Hmm. We remember when it took a little more to turn an actor into a summer box-office star. We're sure that Reynolds is nice and all (we've heard rumors that while he was in NY, he was always pleasant to his tr]]> “There’s a lot of the music in the world, you don’t have to listen to mine,” Philip Glass says at the beginning of Scott Hicks’ documentary, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. The comment accompanies footage of Glass riding the Cyclone at Coney Island, and it’s clear that the moment of candor is meant to set the stage for a frank reassessment of the renowned composer. Though the film may change the wa]]> Documentaries are rarely short on impactive power. Love him or hate him, Michael Moore revved up the healthcare debate after unleashing Sicko, and crackdowns on fast food proliferated after Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me. Though stirring, documentaries in the Moore/Spurlock tradition often lack nuance, which is the glaring flaw of The Town That Was, a bland documentary that squanders an interesting subject with unrefined populist outrage.&]]> If you felt like you missed the old Woody Allen after all his Euro-centric films, then Whatever Works may work for you. But mostly, Armond White thinks it's not really an improvement for Mr. Allen.  Despite his usual positive appraisal of Ryan Reynolds' shirtless oeuvre, Armond also sticks it to Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal. But that doesn't mean you should just go see The Hangover instead. You may want to get your]]> A guy known as "Michael Cera" has two entries in his brand new blog. Typically one would assume that this "Michael Cera" is in fact the male actor of the same name, but the unfunniness of the blog posts invites skepticism.--- Legions of commenters seem to believe that this unfunny fellow is their beloved Michael Cera. And who knows: maybe I'm giving Cera too much credit. Maybe he's a normal, boring guy. Maybe George-Mi]]> Black and white cinematography? Tightly wound urban storytelling? References to 1940s American film noir? It seems the French New Wave is hitting New York City again for the next few weeks. The Museum of the Moving Image and the Museum of Arts and Design are teaming up to screen the "French New Wave Essentials" from July 11 to August 30, with showings on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the sexy MAD basement theater at Columbus Circle]]> I originally wasn't going to write a review of The Last International Playboy since it was so noxious that the clunker did not deserve the ink (or pixels, as the case may be), but some critics have inexplicably warmed up to the flick. Thus, as a matter of public service, the announcement must be made --- : The Last International Playboy is cataclysmically bad. Sure, the opening sex romp with a gaggle of naked models (including Lyida Hearst!) is ]]> WARNING: FLicKeR, Nik Sheehan's documentary screening at Anthology Film Archives, could kill. This along with the other classic Flicker films to be shown, are so chock full of flashing strobe lights (the same action that sent 700 Japanese children into violent seizures) that it could very well cause an epileptic to kick the bucket. Those that die before having to watch the entire film should consider themselves lucky. The most disappointing el]]> The story of two seminal but eccentric art collectors, Herb & Dorothy, opens today at Cinema Village and the Beekman Theatre. This documentary by Megumi Sasaki shows their small apartment brimming with priceless works of art. Away We Go, a blurred indie-mainstream attempt on contemporary culture commentary, opens nationwide. Television stars and director Sam Mendes cannot rise above superficiality. Director Martin Pr]]> Nikki Finke has obtained some details about the Wall Street sequel, slated for a 2010 release, and the story is, to put it mildly, a little underwhelming. --- Shia LaBeouf—already enough to explain why the movie will suck. What is it with LaBeouf and ruining old movies we love? But, to continue—plays a young Wall Street trader set to marry Gordon Gekko's daughter, who hasn't spoken with her greed-loving daddy for quite some time, t]]>