The Elvis Show

For all you kiddies going to see Bill Murray's talk at BAM tonight, Gothamist wants to let you know this isn't the first time that Bill Murray has chatted with Times film critic Elvis Mitchell. If anyone watched Mitchell's old IFC program, Independent Focus, where he would interview directors and actors (watch David Lynch smoke like a chimney...see John Sayles make Elvis Mitchell cringe!), you might remember an episode with Jim Jarmusch and Bill Murray, with an more spiffy than usual set. It was actually the pilot episode of a new more talk showy format, The Elvis Show. The Observer wrote about it a while ago, also mentioning an old show that Mitchell did with Tad Low that got an "F" in Entertainment Weekly, though it did not bring up Mitchell's great work for an old PBS show during the early 90s, where he gave the rules of making an Oliver Stone film, using G.I. Joes and Barbies. Anyway, Gothamist is just saying that the talk tonight will probably be great, though it'd probably be a bad idea to ask about "The Elvis Show" or how Bill feels about Sean Penn.

Listen to Elvis Mitchell's show on KCRW, The Treatment, via Real Player. And low culture on Elvis Mitchell's geek factor.

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on April 13, 2004 12:26 PM

Comments [rss]

Jen W

Yeah. Elvis wasn't that good a moderator; he was keener on yukking it up and thinking of "cool" things to say than on keeping the Q & A tight.

Sofia Coppola was there. She came for "Ghostbusters" and bailed before the Q & A. She's tiny. And wasn't wearing anything cool--like a Carhart and sneaks.

lames

did anyone see his q&a with bill murray last night at BAM? any responses?

Ryan

That is one creepy photo. Sorry!

Ajit

i liked ao scott until i read his review of "mystic river" which was nothing more than fawning over sean penn. mind you, the movie was really good, but the review was silly. his attempt to make up for it, some article about "the glory days of hollywood", wasn't that great either. i like mitchell. his refernces are funny, and i love it when he's caustic.

Todd W.

I must have missed the Elvis interviews that made you guys such fans. He's always struck me as a second-tier critic best suited for a public access show. Like ziegfeld, I think he spends too much effort on making himself a "personality." A.O. Scott is the best of the current Times reviewers.

Ron Mwangaguhunga

Oh, I'm so there. I'll be drinking a Sofia mini: http://www.niebaum-coppola.com/wines.cgi?wine_id=19&line_id=6

greg.org

After Jarmusch came up on stage to fawn over Sofia Coppola's imagination during her and Elvis's chat 2 wks ago at MoMA, Bill jumped on and took Jarmusch's place.

Sofia clammed up at that point to let Bill and Elvis run free.

ziegfeld

Of the three Times reviewers, I find Mitchell the most irritating. I feel he'd rather show off how many cultural references he can make, than carefully analyze a film itself.