At just 24, Noah Baumbach made his mark on the indie film world with Kicking and Screaming, his hilarious and finely observed study of post-collegiate ennui. His Mr. Jealousy followed but the picture’s lukewarm response meant a long five years before he obtained funding for The Squid and the Whale. Happily for Baumbach, the superb film was a major critical and commercial success. Two years later, he’s back with Margot at the Wedding, another character-driven... more ›

We've made it through 10 days of this year's New York Film Festival, and it's been a great run so far. As usual, the selection committee has picked stellar films and we've sat in on some star-studded Q&A sessions at Lincoln Center. Here are a few thoughts at the midpoint. more ›

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Since we haven’t been following the New York theatre scene for years and years, we’d rather not pontificate about how 2005 was overall for the art. Thinking about it now, it seems like it was pretty great, but that might just be our affectionate, soft-focus hindsight, plus we’re just crazy about theatre in general. And even though we see way more of it than most people we know, nytheatre.com’s season archives quickly reminded us that we made it to a mere fraction of what was on offer, so there’s no pretending we saw “the” best performance. But of what we did go to, here’s what stands out as the year finishes (in no real order except for saving the best for last). more ›

On Sundays, Gothamist runs opinion pieces on issues relevant to life in New York. The views expressed below belong entirely to the author. more ›

Another week, another slew of choices for New York film lovers. We reach the half-way point of the 43rd New York Film Festival this weekend. We've already presented some coverage from the fest, and there will be more to come tomorrow, and through the very busy weekend and next week at Alice Tully Hall, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual celebration of the best of world cinema will continue to dominate the attention of local cinephiles, but there's actually plenty of other stuff going on around the city that's worth your time. more ›

Todd Solondz, Filmmaker more ›

For a different era of Washington Square, read Washington Square by Henry James, made into the William Wyler film, The Heiress, with Olivia de Havilland, and later, Washington Square, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, directed by Agnieszka Holland (Gothamist prefers The Heiress). But our favorite New York drug movie is New Jack City. more ›

News comes that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah will perform at the Oscars, but not Renee Zellweger. Apparently she declined, and, Ms. Zellweger, we thank you for that. She even admitted not wanting to sing - in a Guardian article, she said, "I was not going to sing for anybody besides my dogs when I'm in the shower, and then Rob Marshall comes along and that was it." Damn you, Rob Marshall! I like Renee a lot, but the "can't sing" thing is bugging me out. CZ-J and QL will be performing the only original song from Chicago, "I Move On," which the original Chicago musical creators, Fred Ebb and John Kander, wrote specifically for the film. Elvis Mitchell described Zellweger: "[her] float-like-a-butterfly voice doesn't triumph over her my-left-foot dance skills" more ›