Funny Business

Jonathan Tisch, 11.10.2009

Chairman & CEO, Loews Hotels and Co-Chairman Loews Corp

New York City can be a funny place. Last week the city was hilarious thanks to the sixth annual New York Comedy Festival, a week-long celebration of stand-up comedy.

Q&A: Actress Jennifer Garner Is Treated to The Invention of Lying

Brad Balfour, 10.10.2009

Veteran Interviewer and Pop Culture Chronicler

British comic Ricky Gervais has one kicky concept behind his directorial debut, The Invention of Lying. On an alternate earth, humanity lacks the capacity for lying so truth-telling is just telling.

Movie Review: The Invention of Lying

Marshall Fine, 10.01.2009

Author and film critic, www.hollywoodandfine.com

Gervais and his co-writer/director create one premise, then seem to shift to something else - and then to something else again. But the conceptual problems are less troubling than the essential shortage of laughs.

TIFF Takeaway: America the Unbeautiful

Erica Abeel, 11.19.2009

Author of the novel Conscience Point

In past film fests, we could usually thank foreigners for savaging the U.S. But this time around, it's mostly American filmmakers whose spot-on critiques of the zeitgeist double as razor-sharp entertainment.

TIFF's Guilty Pleasures

Erica Abeel, 11.15.2009

Author of the novel Conscience Point

The past day's crop of films has ranged from moderately interesting to guilty pleasure.

Live from the Toronto Film Festival: Day 4

Marshall Fine, 11.14.2009

Author and film critic, www.hollywoodandfine.com

Sunday in Toronto saw three films back to back that offered powerful, sometimes disturbing ruminations on the idea of family.

The Top Nine Reasons to Attend the New York Comedy Festival

New York Comedy Festival, 09.12.2009

8. You've always heard that Tracy Morgan is a lunatic on stage, but you've never experienced it for yourself.

Hugh Mistake: Oscars and All That Schmaltz

Jon Chattman, 03.26.2009

Founder of thecheappop.com, pop culture/music writer, and author of "Sweet Stache"

The Oscar telecast was a bloated and overdone spectacle that left us bewildered, unenthusiastic and exhausted. The show wasn't a complete train wreck, but it came pretty close.

And The Oscar Goes To...You!

Alex Pattakos, 12.27.2008

Did you know that, like the actors who receive Academy Awards for their outstanding performances, each of us plays the leading role in our own life's movie?

The Emmys

Ken Levine, 10.23.2008

Emmy-Winning Writer/Director/Producer, MLB Announcer

In sixty years there's never been worse hosts. Suffering through that excruciating opening was like reliving my Uncle Lou's 75th birthday party at Sr. George's Smorgasbord.

Creative Brits Are The Talk Of The Town

Vicky Ward, 09.11.2008

Contributing editor, Vanity Fair

British talent excelling in Hollywood is not a new phenomenon. But as the downturn takes hold there are fewer roles and fewer quality films: that makes British success all the more striking.

DVDs: "The Royle Family" -- A Classic Britcom

Michael Giltz, 03.28.2008

Freelance writer and raconteur

It's the simplest idea imaginable: a blue collar family in England flops down on the couch and watches the telly. Quite literally, that's it for The Royle Family , a hillariously brilliant classic.

My Bitchy Emmy Review

Ken Levine, 03.28.2008

Emmy-Winning Writer/Director/Producer, MLB Announcer

James Spader over James Gandolfini??? Sally Field over Edie Falco? Ricky Gervais over Alec Baldwin?? Thomas Hayden Church over anybody??? What was the Television Academy thinking??