Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (directed by David Yates) In a funny reversal of the "movie's more important than the book" paradigm, the excitement surrounding the release of the fifth Harry Potter movie on Wednesday was but a preview to the real midnight mania next Friday. While the movies in this children's books franchise have been popular, they could almost be seen as publicity tools for the books, psyching up fans for......

Only a few more days until the end of the year (and the cut off for the 2006 Oscar season), so of course the movie theaters are glutted with choice new releases. If you have your copy of Bridget Jones' Diary always near the DVD player for easy access, might we suggest checking out Renée Zellweger in Miss Potter. Sort of like a Sex in the City but set during the Victorian era, Zellwegs plays......

Los Angeles architect Thom Mayne has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the field of architecture. Gothamist guesses that the awesome design for the Caltrans District 7 building in downtown L.A. tipped it in his favor this year (here's a profile of the building, see some work in progress photos here), but he's had a very storied career. As for Mayne's NYC projects, with his firm Morphosis, Mayne has designed the......

Gothamist has not read every single review of the latest Harry Potter film, but we wanted to point out something in Jami Bernard's Daily News review: Charismatic Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and the appealingly goofy Rupert Grint (Ron) are posterready for the ceilings of adolescent girls everywhere. And the seriously beautiful Emma Watson (Hermione) is developing nicely, not only in her acting abilities.We're guessing if a male movie critic wrote that last line, people would be......

USA Today looks at the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and producer David Heyman says about Alfonso Cuaron's direction, "Alfonso really understands the nuances of being a teenager, and that's vital to this film. It's much more grounded in reality. This is a magical world, but not a fantasy world. This film has the magic of A Little Princess, but the reality of Y Tu Mamá. But I can assure......

Newsweek has an early look at one of next year's most anticipated movies, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, this installment, according to Hermione portrayer Emma Watson, is the one where �all those lovely, lovely hormones start coming out.� Hmm. Newsweek also reports that Daniel Radcliffe is trying "to get a handle on Harry�s 'feelings of hopelessness'" by watching a lot of Francois Truffaut (�The 400 Blows�) and ">Vittorio......

As a hopeless cinephile, I feel that the year I spend watching movies is like having a crush on some unattainable person. It makes me feel alive, with all the planning and dreaming and effort I put into it, and somehow, even when I see a bad movie, it’s okay, because it’s one of the knocks I take in wishing that maybe this in time, after paying $10+ for a movie, it might reward my......