Posted on March 30, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I’m honored to be one of the expert contributors at Cafe Moms’ celebration of Raising Healthy Boys Month. Go over there to take a look and participate in the conversations about snips, snails, and puppy dog tails and the wonderful world of sons.
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:00 am
This time, I’m not reviewing a film; I am appearing in one! And I am very excited. “The Flaw,” a documentary about the financial meltdown, includes me as one of its interview subjects. And it has been accepted at Sundance — and I will be there for a Q&A following one of the screenings! Stay tuned!
Posted on January 4, 2011 at 2:42 pm
I am thrilled that I have been invited to be one of the correspondents for Roger Ebert’s new show, “Ebert Presents At the Movies.” With AP’s Christy Lemire and the 24-year-old Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of MUBI.com as co-hosts and Roger and his wife Chaz producing, it is sure to be informative, provocative, and illuminating viewing for anyone who cares about movies. The show will also feature Kim Morgan of Sunset Gun, who also writes essays for MSN Movies, and authors and runs MSN’s daily film blog, the Hitlist, my friend Omar Moore of Popcorn Reel and more. It is a great honor to be included. Stay tuned for updates about the show!
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I had a lot of fun writing for BNet about why corporations were the go-to villain in the movies of 2010, from “Despicable Me” to “The Other Guys,” “Tron: Legacy,” “Resident Evil 4,” and “Inception.”
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I am honored to be mentioned in Roger Ebert’s outstanding op-ed about the MPAA ratings, and thrilled with his support for what I do. Last week, on appeal, the MPAA lowered the rating of “Blue Valentine,” a searing portrait of a deteriorating marriage, to an R. Its explicit sexual material had given it an NC-17, which meant that many newspapers would not accept ads and many theaters would not show it.
Ebert says:
The MPAA should have changed its standards long ago, taking into account the context and tone of a movie instead of holding fast to rigid checklists….It’s time to get pragmatic about this. The current ratings system is useful primarily for the parents of small children who are concerned that images or situations may be disturbing for young minds. They know a G film is harmless and a PG almost certainly is, and a PG-13 may or may not be. It’s an open secret that some naturally PG movies have an element or two thrown in to earn a PG-13, so teenagers aren’t scared off. That’s not a step forward.
Obviously, what parents really want is an evaluation, exactly what Mr. Valenti said the MPAA could not provide. When they’re informed that a PG-13 contains “language, some intense situations and smoking,” what have they learned? On the Internet, useful guides to content are everywhere. Critics like Nell Minow, the “Movie Mom,” write intelligently for parents about the content and context of films.
