Ao Scott

Samuel L. Jackson Blasts Film Critic Over 'Avengers' Review

The Huffington Post | Christopher Rosen | Posted 05.03.2012

Read More: Samuel L. Jackson, Video, Samuel L Jackson Avengers Times, Samuel L Jackson Avengers Review, Ao Scott, Samuel L Jackson Twitter, Slideexpand, Samuel L Jackson New York Times, Hollywood Buzz, New York Times Avengers Review, Samuel L Jackson Avengers, Entertainment News

Samuel L. Jackson was the subject of a pretty extensive New York Times Magazine cover story last weekend, but that didn't stop him from expressing dis...

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On The Artist, The Lure of Nostalgia, and Ten Silent Movies Worth Talking Up

John Farr | Posted 01.29.2012

Read More: Metropolis, The Academy Awards, King Kong, The Artist, Margin Call, Battleship Potemkin, Martin Scorsese, The New York Times, G.W. Pabst, Best Movies on DVD, Buster Keaton, D.W. Griffith, Silent Film, Best Movies by Farr, Best Movies, Silent Movie, Hugo, Thirteen/WNET, Louise Brooks, F.W. Murnau, Charlie Chaplin, Sergei Eisenstein, Ernst Lubitsch, A.O. Scott, City Lights, Fritz Lang, Hollywood, Entertainment News
John Farr

Just when you start believing there's no hope for anything daring and original coming out of Movieland, something gets released that surprises you. The Artist is one such movie -- and what's new about it is that it's old.

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Is Today's Film Comedy in the Toilet?

John Farr | Posted 09.16.2011

Read More: Bridesmaids Movie, Carole Lombard, Screwball Comedy, Horrible Bosses, Claudette Colbert, Billy Wilder, Best Movies on DVD, Best Movies by Farr, Best Movies, Rosalind Russell, Bridesmaids, Barbara Stanwyck, Kristen Wiig, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Jennifer Aniston, Bad Teacher, Transformers, Justin Timberlake, Manohla Dargis, A.O. Scott, Cameron Diaz, Jean Arthur, Comedy, Great Movies, Entertainment News
John Farr

I continue to be nostalgic for comedy that doesn't require constant profanity or a surfeit of fart gags to succeed, that relies instead on subtle, clever scripts and witty dialogue; movies that in the end give their audiences some credit for brains and taste.

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What's With the New York Times Movie Reviewers?!?

Abe Gurko | Posted 09.07.2011

Read More: Carole Lombard, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, The New York Times, Page One: Inside the New York Time, Angelina Jolie, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Horrible Bosses, David Carr, Howard Hawks, Kathleen Turner, Pitt, Brad and Angelina, Brad Pitt, Ms. Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, Prizzi's Honor, Bad Teacher, Jolie, Bill Keller, Friends, Jack, Kool-Aid, Super 8, Manohla Dargis, Cameron Diaz, A.O. Scott, Michael Kingsley, Jack Nicholson, Nicholson, Entertainment News
Abe Gurko

Couple of weeks ago, with an itch to see a summer film, though the offering so far seems lackluster, we were this close to seeing Super 8 when a revie...

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Steamed About 'Cultural Vegetables'

Marshall Fine | Posted 09.04.2011

Read More: Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff, Marshall Fine, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Cultural Vegetables, The Hangover 2, Dan Kois, Goodbye Solo, Andrei Tarkovsky, New York Times, Kelly Reichardt, Marshall Fine Commentary, Manohla Dargis, A.O. Scott, Solaris, Tree of Life, Entertainment News
Marshall Fine

I was bemused when Dan Kois wrote his "aw shucks" piece in the New York Times in April about how, sometimes, he just can't get with the program when i...

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Life's Just a Comic Book: Thor, and Hollywood's Monetization of Mediocrity

John Farr | Posted 07.09.2011

Read More: Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, The New York Times, 3-D Movies, Best Movies on DVD, Best Movies by Farr, Best Movies, Spiderman, Thirteen/WNET, Robert Downey Jr, Iron Man, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Comics, USA Today, The Avengers, Kenneth Branagh, The Boston Globe, A.O. Scott, Movie Critic, Thor, Hollywood, Entertainment News
John Farr

This weekend's release reflects the industry's increasing reliance on that forbidden joy of my childhood -- the comic book -- to justify its existence. But many of the nation's critics readily drank the Thor Kool-Aid.

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Are the Best Movies for Grown-Ups Being Made Outside the U.S.?

John Farr | Posted 06.25.2011

Read More: Abbas Kiarostami, Mid-August Lunch, Juliette Binoche, Academy Awards, Gianni Digregorio, The New York Times, Jiri Menzel, Best Movies, Best Movies by Farr, The Oscars, Soul Kitchen, Thirteen/WNET, "Mademoiselle Chambon, Fatih Akin, Foreign Films, Slidepollajax, Shirin, The Secret in Their Eyes, A.O. Scott, The Band's Visit, Hollywood, Best-Movies-on-Dvd, Subtitles, Entertainment News
John Farr

2011-04-25-farr.jpgWhen it comes to what I call "human-scale" films, the rest of the world is eating our lunch.

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What Would Jonathan Swift Think of Jack Black's Gulliver?

Danny Groner | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Jack Black, Holidays, Film Criticism, Rob Letterman, National Post, Chris Knight, Movies, The Globe and Mail, Little Fockers, Movie Reviews, Gulliver's Travels, St. Petersburg Times, Rick Groen, Satire, Christmas, Guitar Hero, Transformers, New York Times, Jonathan Swift, Critics, A.O. Scott, Steve Persall, Humor and Satire, Entertainment News
Danny Groner

When director Rob Letterman took certain liberties in updating the tale to click with a younger, modern audience, did he stray too far from the original Swift story?

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Middle Men (A Mayor Koch Review)

Ed Koch | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: The Other Guys, George Gallo, Giovanni Ribisi, Kelsey Grammer, A.O. Scott, Boogie Nights, Kevin Pollak, Luke Wilson, Gabriel Macht, Soft-Core Porn, Ed Koch, Jacinda Barrett, Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Mayor Koch, Andy Weiss, Mayor at the Movies, New York Times, New York Insider Productions, Middle Men, Entertainment News
Ed Koch

A.O. Scott, in his review of this film, leaves the reader with the impression that Middle Men is a soft-porno flick, akin to Boogie Nights. It's not.

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An Open Letter to Variety

Nick Kreiss | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Variety, Nikki Finke, Hollywood, Film Criticism, Films, Media, Celebrity, A.O. Scott, Hollywood Reporter, Tom Mccarthy, Movies, Celebrities, Los Angeles News
Nick Kreiss

We used to rely on you, Variety. At festivals, your film reviews gave insecure acquisition execs the push they needed to buy the tiny little movie they liked.

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In the tank for Scorsese?

Marshall Fine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Jeffrey Wells, Pret a Porter, Martin Scorsese, O Brother Where Art Thou, No Country for Old Men, Kundun, Gosford Park, Coen Brothers, Hollywood Elsewhere, Marshall Fine Blog, Intolerable Cruelty, The Players, Fargo, Shutter Island, Nashville, Cookie?S Fortune, Blood Simple, New York Times, Robert Altman, Goodfellas, Burn After Reading, A.O. Scott, A Serious Man, Casino, Bringing Out the Dead, Popeye, Entertainment News
Marshall Fine

My friend Jeffrey Wells recently ran a link to my review of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which I really liked, on his always interesting website,...

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Is Theater More Relevant Than Ever?

Julia Moulden | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Issues, Giving Life, Films, Avatar, New Radicals, Theatre, Ao Scott, Careers, Middle East, Studio 180, Living, Media, Julia Moulden, Activism, Healthy Living News
Julia Moulden

We want to learn and share our thoughts and feelings with others. When I discovered a theatre company that wants plays to be more than mere diversions for a docile audience, I whooped with joy.

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The Alarming Decline Of Expressive Language, In Life and On Film

John Farr | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: George C. Scott, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, William Holden, Instant Messaging, Sterling Hayden, All About Eve, Faye Dunaway, Ernest Lehman, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sellers, Best Movies by Farr, Burt Lancaster, Walter Huston, Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Jenkins, George Sanders, Janus Films, Stanley Kubrick, Clifford Odets, Technology, A.O. Scott, Sidney Lumet, Humphrey Bogart, Criterion Collection, Preston Sturges, The Academy Awards, Writing, Al Pacino, Billy Wilder, Best Movies on DVD, Double Indemnity, Tony Curtis, John Ford, Screenwriting, John Huston, Anne Baxter, Essential Art Films, Marcel Carne, Peter Finch, Paddy Chayefsky, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Walter Winchell, Bette Davis, Entertainment News
John Farr

Even as today's high school and college students are pushed harder in school, they cannot write an essay or use descriptive language nearly as fluently as their parents and grandparents could.

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That's The Way It Wasn't

Sam Leff | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: 1968 Democratic National Convention, Tom Brokaw, 1968, Yippies, Walter Cronkite, 1968 Election, A.O. Scott, Abbie Hoffman, Politics News
Sam Leff

Some forty years after Walter Cronkite told it like it was and called the Chicago of 1968 "a police state," Tom Brokaw, A.O. Scott, and Andie Tucher told their own versions -- like it wasn't.

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"At The Movies" Hosts A.O. Scott, Michael Phillips A Return To Siskel & Ebert: Critic

Los Angeles Times | ROBERT LLOYD | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: New at the Movies Hosts, AO Scott Michael Phillips, Michael Phillips, At the Movies, A.O. Scott, At the Movies Hosts, Media News

New hosts A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips bring a balance of fun and smarts, just as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert provided....

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Ben Lyons, Ben Mankiewicz Dropped As "At The Movies" Hosts

AP | FRAZIER MOORE | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: AO Scott Michael Phillips, Michael Phillips, At the Movies Lyons Mankiewicz, Ben Mankiewicz, Ben Lyons, A.O. Scott, At the Movies, At the Movies Scott Phillips, Media News

NEW YORK — Cue the closing credits for "At the Movies" co-hosts Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz, who've endured a year of caustic reviews for their...

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