The reviews are in for the $180 million production of The Golden Compass, and they’re lackluster at best, which is a pity not just for fans of the novel from which it’s adapted but for New Line Cinema, which was banking on another Lord of the Rings cash cow. Times critic Manohla Dargis calls it flawed and cluttered, although her description of Nicole Kidman ought to sway any dudes reluctant to see a movie starring......

The holiday-time movie releases are starting to pile up with their usual feverish frequency. Some have Christmas themes, like the widely reviled Vince Vaughn vehicle Fred Claus that’s already roadkill on the lost highway of cinema history; others, like Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, are timed to make an impression as close to Academy Award-voting season as possible. Here are some of the biggest gorillas set to dominate New York’s screens in the next six......

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......

The Post has another article about Patrick Moberg and his flower-girl Camille Hayton today. What's new to report on the two-some since they are apparently, really, for real, turning off their spotlight now? Well, not much. The two shared the B train to Brooklyn after appearing on GMA yesterday and got some underground recognition (one straphanger hollered, "You are my favorite story this year."). Beating out an awww-struck ABC anchor Chris Cuomo as their most......

As outrageous as this may seem, this sort of makes sense: James Lipton, he of Inside the Actors' Studio, used to be a pimp in Paris! ABC reports:The revered TV presenter, who has sat down with Hollywood's biggest names for in-depth chats about their life and work over the last 13 years, has revealed he once procured clients for French hookers.We'll have to go back and see how he discussed Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman......

EVENT: The NY Horror Film Festival kicks off with a party at Don Hill's tonight. Terrifying short films and some creepy classics are promised throughout the fest, as bands M-16, Kaos From Order and more set the sonic tone tonight. Free Wychwood Brewery beer from 8 to 9pm. More details here. 7pm // Don Hill's [511 Greenwich St] // $10 FILM: Karl Lagerfeld's personal style sort of freaks us out (see photo), so this may......

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. Local boy Noah Baumbach presented the follow up to his Oscar-nominated and former NYFF favorite The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding at......

Who says the Wii is only for the young - or those dressed as Luigi? The Carter Burden Center for the Aging on the Upper East Side had a Senior Fitness Day this past Friday Friday that gave seniors a chance to play Wii baseball, as well as Brain Age 2 (photograph below), the Nintendo DS game that has various ways to challenge people's memory and keep people sharp. The Carter Burden Center for......

The Invasion (directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel) Stylish, political, visually arresting and darn right freaky, The Invasion is a horror movie that taps into what really horrifies us today—namely that the people in our lives could turn into personality-less automatons influenced by some evil alien virus. It may sound like a totally fantastical premise, but in the context of the movie it really works. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig star in this remake of Invasion of......

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (directed by Steven Shainberg): Certain movies while not deserving the monetary investment in a theater viewing are worth catching on DVD, and Steven Shainberg's fictional portrait of artist Diane Arbus is one of them. Arbus's life story--upper middle class '60s housewife takes up photography and an interest in subcultures--is such a fascinating one, it practically demands a biopic. Add to that the importance of Arbus's work on the......

It's that time of the year again: When Hollywood honors its moviemaking the way it knows (and not always in equitable ways, given that Alfred Hitchcock nor Robert Altman, to name a few, have never won Directing Oscars) and America gets to watch hours of pre-show hosted by idiots. Giving commentary for Gothamist this year, Karen Wilson, Margaret Harper, and Jen Chung. 7:06PM First thoughts: Gael Garcia Bernal is so cute. Ryan Seacrest is an......

Just in time for Valentine's Day, The Daily News has created, what they call, a list of NYC's 100 Most Romantic Movies. Movies that capture what it is like to "live and love here". One problem: the list needs to be edited. It appears they have just listed every movie they could think of that took place in New York and somehow involved love (or lust). For example: Coyote Ugly should not be on a......

It's finally cold outside (sort of), so warm up this weekend at the movies. The new "in danger in the jungle" horror film Primeval has a vaguely ominous trailer, but only because it never tells the audience what exactly is hiding out there in the grass. Okay, it's not human but then what? Anaconda already did the giant snake and The Ghost and the Darkness dispatched a massive lion, what else could be out there......

It's so embarrassing, but when we saw how adorable little Suri Cruise was as she was toted by her parents Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in Rome, we were goners. (She does not look particularly Asian, either.) We suddenly believe in media circus weddings abroad with a motley group of celebrities (Leah Remini and Jenna Elfman we get - they're Scientologists - but J. Lo and Jim Carrey?) and unions bound by carefully vetted......

This week at the movies, two actors known for their intensity on (and off) screen have new flicks coming out. The Oscar-winning over-reactor Russell Crowe goes the romantic comedy route with A Good Year about an English businessman softened by life in Provence. With a script by Peter Mayle, a novelist well versed in the French countryside, and direction by Ridley Scott, Crowe as Max Skinner actually comes across as incredibly charming. He's sure to......

It's Oscar Night and Gothamist is here. Tonight, it'll be a joint effort, from our resident film guru Karen Wilson and our resident Oscar freak Jen Chung. We hope you weigh in with what you think! KW: I have my popcorn, my diet coke -- I am ready for the spectacle and the excess. JC: ALL RIGHT! I just took extra Vitamin C - I'm waiting for some food delivery. 6:36PM Isaac Mizrahi has NOT......

A special panel of magazine editors have decided the top 40 magazine covers of the past four years, and the selections are a mix of shock and artistry. Here's the top ten:1. Rolling Stone – Jan. 22, 1981 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono laying in bed 2. Vanity Fair – Aug. 1991 – Nude pregnant Demi Moore 3. Esquire – April 1968 – “The Passion of Muhammad Ali”: Ali with arrows in his body......

In the urban jungle that is New York many different plants make their home. One of Gothamist's favorite plants is the striking and fragrant Chinese Wisteria (wisteria sinensis). If you've ever walked around the Village you've seen its thick vines and drooping leaves, not to mention its splendid purple, white and pink flowers in the spring. And in case you weren't sure what you were looking at this weeks Villager gives a good rundown......

• The Village Voice’s Best of 2004 series at BAM Rose Cinemas offers you one last chance to catch the best films of 2004 on the big screen. Tonight at 7:00 PM is Lars von Trier’s Dogville, the controversial film shot on a single set with chalk outlines, starring Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, and Nicole Kidman as a woman on the run from the mob. Also worth checking out is Guy Maddin’s Cowards Bend......

Sidney Pollack's The Interpreter definitely makes a point of depicting the city in grand panoramic style, with plenty of overheads and shots on bridges. There are street scenes, as Nicole Kidman goes in and out of her apartment on Stuvesant and 10th, rides her Vespa up Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue, and walks in and out of the U.N. building. There is even a few scenes in the outer boroughs, with nods to Crown Heights......

You know it's the Oscars when P. Diddy busts out the velvet suit! Gothamist loves the Oscars, and we're going to attempt to do a little liveblogging. We might need to order a vat of caffeine and an EMT team at the ready; not because Chris Rock will be boring, but because we think that Gil Cates might kill us with his newfangled ideas and because we're meh about this year's nominees in the big......

Downtown resident and rocker Lenny Kravitz is being sued for causing over $300,000 of damage to his neighbor's apartment - after Kravitz's toilet was backed up! One of the toilets in Kravitz's 30 Crosby Street duplex became "blocked, clogged, and congested with various materials." Now, the New York Region > Singer Sued After Toilet Overflow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/nyregion/23toilet.html">NY Times and the Daily News do not divulge what was in the toilet, probably because the lawsuit doesn't detail......

New York City has announced a new incentive program for producers to shoot their films and TV shows in NYC with panache: Announcing that the second film version of The Producers, based on the Broadway musical (which was based on the film), would be shot at the new Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Some of the big features of the Empire State Film Production Credit Program:- A Tax Credit (5% refundable tax......

David Hinckley in the NY Daily News complains that the American Film Institute list of the 100 Top Movie Songs is no fun because it's actually not a bad list. Gothamist would almost agree, except for the lack of songs from South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut. We feel that Come What May from Moulin Rouge (who sings that? who cares?) is just an addition to please the public (that way you can get Nicole Kidman......

The Tony Awards are tonight, and if you're like Gothamist, you're going to watch the shows because you secretly know more than you should, given how few musicals and plays you actually saw last year, about all the nominees because you just have too much time your hands (we love Audra McDonald, but if she gets her fourth Tony tonight, we're officially calling the Tonys the "Emmys"). That and Wolverine shimmying around in sequins. Yes,......

Gothamist has been debating whether or not to see Lars von Trier's Dogville (Three hours of von Trier? Blech. Three hours of Lars von Trier torturing Nicole Kidman? Say!) but seeing Dogville won't be as fun as looking at low culture's hilarious look at the blueprint of the town (excerpted above). The film eschews actual sets for chalk outlines (to better focus the audience to the actors), and greg.org has a good post about the......

Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Lopez are going to be starring in a film together, about a "white female swing band that joins forces with a group of black and Hispanic musicians at a time when women were ostracized from playing male-dominated clubs. Those sex barriers shattered soon after President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the women suddenly played the hottest clubs and even squared off against the Count Basie orchestra at the Apollo Theater."......

Tabloids and gossip columnists were excited about seeing Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on the red carpet together at the Golden Globes. But the claim is that they were fighting, at least according to the British tabloids: One snitch told London's Daily Mirror that Nic "marched up" to Tom and demanded: "Can you please stop sending me those stupid text messages?" Cruise was said to "hiss" in reply: "Not here, Nicole!" Kidman's spokeswoman denies the......

With about 40% of MTV's airtime devoted to commercials, Gothamist has no choice but to flip around when we're not watching, oh, Newlyweds or Rich Girls. So we only found out that Catherine Zeta Jones was doing a public service announcement for bulimia when we read the Times: "Sound familiar?" asks a voice with muted Welsh vowels. "If so, you may have bulimia. You cannot flush away your problems. It won't go away until you......

In a truly inspired turn, producers are looking at Will Ferrell to play Darrin to Nicole Kidman's Samantha in the film version of beloved television show, Bewitched. At first, Jim Carrey was mentioned to play the hapless, mere mortal husband, but how many times do we really need to him play a bumbling everyman? Will Ferrell, on the other hand, we could watch 24-7 and not get tired. It's 'cause we got a fever and......