Several years ago, San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker Tiffany Shlain was eating lunch with a friend when she felt the sudden urge to text-message and check her e-mail. So, like any tech addict, she faked needing to go the bathroom as an excuse to get up from the table.
Before the 33-year-old Hochner made \”Antarctica,\” he shot his award-winning \”Good Boys,\” for $500; and founded Tel Aviv\’s first gay and lesbian film festival.
If John McCain wins this election, it will be because of Hollywood.
Calendar Girl Danielle Berrin finds herself in Paris for Pesach
Nicholas Stoller remembers the day he joined the \”Jew-Tang Clan,\” the creative posse led by comedy wunderkind Judd Apatow (\”The 40-year-old Virgin,\” \”Knocked Up\”).\n\nApatow was interviewing the then-24-year-old writer for a job on his 2000 college sitcom, \”Undeclared.\”
When writer/director Morgan Spurlock (\”Super Size Me\”) discovered he was going to become a father two years ago, he was concerned about the tumultuous state of the world into which his child was being born. Spurlock\’s wish was to give his child a safer and more harmonious place to live. So, after a crash course in combat survival, the filmmaker set off on a journey through the Middle East to find the one man who has shaped the world\’s perception of that region in recent years: Osama bin Laden. The results of that quest are documented in his new film, \”Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?\”
Lior Liebling davens everywhere: in the backyard, in school and on the swing set. Some congregants at his synagogue, Mishkan Shalom of Mount Arie, Pa., call him the \”little rebbe.\”
\”The Zohar tells stories of miracle children who were spiritual geniuses,\” one synagogue member said. \”Well, that\’s what Lior is.\”
Lior is the 13-year-old featured in the new documentary, \”Praying With Lior,\” which highlights the bar mitzvah of a Jewish child living with Down syndrome. The character study of this boy tells of how Lior\’s community successfully integrates him into communal life — a challenge many Jewish communities face with mentally and physically disabled members.
Jewish-Arab relations, sometimes in war, occasionally in love, are frequent themes of Israeli movies, but rarely are they examined with the subtle humor and sensitivity of \”The Band\’s Visit.\”\n\nAt the center of the leisurely action is the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, eight Egyptian men in immaculate light-blue uniforms, who have come to Israel to perform at the opening of an Arab Cultural Center in Petach Tikvah.
A few weeks ago, I finally saw \”Juno,\” a movie I\’d been told was \”uber-cute,\” \”amazing\” and just \”soooo good.\” And I\’ve become one of many Juno-obsessed. But unlike others who are doting mostly on the movie\’s dialogue, soundtrack and sweatbands, the movie got me pondering about who really makes a good parent. And when.
The oddly idyllic portrait of teenage pregnancy — which began with a cartoon sketch, a hamburger phone and a big orange jug of Sunny D — introduced a smart-ass 16-year-old Juno (Ellen Page), who makes a very grown up decision. The perpetually tomboyish, ironic, T-shirt-clad kid realizes that she is not ready to be a mom. Instead, she\’ll find the perfect parents to raise it.
\”I never sold weed after high school — I swear,\” said 31-year-old filmmaker Jonathan Levine.\n\nInstead, he said, \”The Wackness,\” which revolves around a dealer who trades pot for therapy sessions (and premieres in competition at the Sundance Film Festival this week), was inspired by his teen angst back in 1994, as he bemoaned his social status, bickered with his Jewish parents and obsessed about what he calls life\’s \”wackness, the awful stuff, rather than living in the moment.\”
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