Results tagged “noahbaumbach”

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...

New York native Josh Hamilton has long been one of the most fun-to-watch actors working in independent film and downtown theater. Fans of Noah Baumbach’s 1995 film Kicking and Screaming remember him for his iconic performance as the anxiously intelligent Grover; he also created the role of Dennis in Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth and excelled as the coolly detached Mickey in the 2005 stage production of Hurlyburly. Hamilton can currently be seen starring in the film Outsourced and, starting October 22nd, the highly anticipated new play Things We Want, written by the preternaturally brilliant Jonathan Marc Sherman. (Read Sherman's recent Times profile here.)

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.

Jesse Eisenberg was still in high school when he struck indie-film gold with his performance alongside Campbell Scott in Roger Dodger, one of 2003’s funniest and most affecting films. He’s since gone on to pull his weight in Noah Baumbach’s Park Slope rhapsody The Squid and the Whale, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and, currently in theaters, The Hunting Party – to name a few. (He’ll soon enjoy an even higher profile thanks to his starring role in Adventureland, the next movie by Superbad director Greg Mottola.) You can currently catch Eisenberg onstage at The Atlantic Theater Company’s production of Scarcity, a gritty black comedy about low-class domestic strife in moneyed Western Massachusetts. After repeated attempts to interview Eisenberg were stymied by his malfunctioning cell phone, we said the hell with it and e-mailed him our questions. (Happy ending: after telling Verizon they were jeopardizing his Gothamist interview, Eisenberg got a new phone for free.)

would also be director and writer Nick Guthe's first—at the helm of a full length feature film that is. Gothamist sat down for a first chat with the LA-based director whose film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year and is out in theaters now.

You've already heard us wax poetic in our NYFF coverage about Noah Baumbach's latest cinematic foray, The Squid and the Whale, but how can we not? Based on events in Baumbach's life, the film looks at a family going through a messy, joint-custody divorce in Brooklyn in 1986. Each family member internalizes the bitter reality in their own way and Baumbach artfully brings the psychological unravelling to life in his bleeding dramedy. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney give outstanding performances as the parents, Jesse Eisenberg (Roger Dodger) and Owen Kline play the kids. And if you're impressed by young Owen's performance and were wondering what rock he came out from under, well, he's the spawn of Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline, so it seems he got that acting gene.

Noah Baumbach,
The Squid and the Whale

may be less than an hour long, but from what we hear, that's more than enough time to freak you out for the at least the rest of the weekend.

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.

, written by Greene and directed by William Carlos Menzies. Last week the Film Society of Lincoln Center web site indicated the program was sold out, but now it looks like tickets might be available. Worst case, there will be a stand-by line, and chances are some people will get in. (We've managed to do so via that line on more than one occasion.) This promises to be a great evening for film and book lovers everywhere.

Sundance definitely hit its stride in the last day or so and now the exodus has begun. The scene is getting quiet. More film goers and less partyers are trolling around and those that have been here from the beginning are slowing down.

Sundance is definitely in full swing - you can tell by all the blurry-eyed revelers wandering up and down Main Street. We're trying to make all the rounds, but it's difficult because we actually have paying work to do at the festival.

— we did find out a few fun factoids about the stars and their movie.