, it's always a joy to see Bateman on screen, and he does some hilarious work as the obnoxious, wheelchair bound Ex. You want to punch him in his ascot-wearing face nearly every time he's on screen, and that's quite a feat for a guy who most recently played such a winning TV lead. In addition to Bateman nearly every other supporting part is filled by a solid comedic performer like Rudd, Charles Grodin, Donal Logue, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler and Amy Adams. Each of them take totally throw away moments and sell them with such comedic sincerity. Also the plot line about career woman Sofia trying to adjust to being a stay-at-home mom is done with welcome deftness. It'd be great to see Peet in even more roles like this where her sensitivity and likability can shine through. Producers Ted Hope, Anne Carey and Anthony Bergman (ie. former nurturers of directors like Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener and Michel Gondry) obviously understood that even though screenwriters David Guion and Michael Handelman as well as Jesse Peretz are just starting out in the biz, they all have the goods. more ›

Don't you just love that feeling of "discovering" a new artist that no one else knows about yet? The New Directors/New Films festival curated by the Film Society at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art's Film department have been keeping New Yorkers ahead of the cinema curve for 35 years now with their annual series. In the past they've showcased such newbies as Chantal Akerman, Pedro Almodóvar, Héctor Babenco, Terence Davies, Guillermo del Toro, Atom Egoyan, Nicole Holofcener, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Sally Potter, John Sayles, Steven Spielberg, Tom Tykwer and Wim Wenders, so you know picking at random from even just one of the 26 films in the series could yield a new favorite . more ›

This week's new film releases are a lovely New York melting pot: ballroom dancing teens, Arab/Israeli anxieties, motor skills-challenged geeks, neurotic female friends, and a thoughtful Polish director thrown in for good measure. Spring may have sprung outside but it's also a great time to be inside at the movie. more ›

It's been a busy week out in Park City, Utah as the 2006 Sundance Film Festival draws to a close this weekend. Most New Yorkers are uninterested in the daily screenings and sales at Sundance unless you're in the "industry," but Gothamist finds the whole spectacle sort of fascinating because the festival is such a great prognosticator of what will be hot in indie cinema in the coming year. more ›

our Twizzlers!), Gothamist has been Netflixing (when we get around to it) our DVD rentals or buying them on impulse at Best Buy ("Oh, my God, it's the third season of Columbo!"), but video stores like Movie Place on West 105th and Kim's on St. Mark's are great resources for those hard to find foreign films or films that are only available on video. Do you find yourself buying more and/or Netflixing DVDs or are you still visiting your local video place? more ›

I adore Nicole Holofcener, for making Walking and Talking, the best contemporary film about female best friends. Miguel Arteta definitely is extremely talented, considering his excellent direction of Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl. But when I read that Holofcener and Arteta were going remake Lukas Moodysson's "Together", a lovely Swedish Dogme 95 film about hippies during the 1970s, my stomach dropped. Charming and witty and hysterically funny, "Together" is already perfect, why reinvent the wheel? And while I'm sure Holofcener and Arteta will do at good job, they must have a ton of original ideas on their own. Sigh. more ›