It wasn’t so long ago that gay men were vilified by American society at large. Back in the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic surfaced, priests railed against them, claiming the disease was God’s revenge for sinful lifestyle choices. That, of course, has changed — mostly. While there are still regular examples of anti-gay sentiments (and…
If, unlike me, you didn’t spend your entire weekend binge-watching the new season of “Orange is The New Black,” you may not be aware of the major Jewish narrative arc that has developed at Litchfield Penitentiary. My first reaction was jubilation. And then I started watching. And disappointment hit. Because despite the laughs and the…
The British Jewish actor Ron Moody, who died on June 11 at age 91, will be remembered for making Charles Dickens’ harshly anti-Semitic character Fagin into someone loveable. In stage productions and the 1968 film of the musical Oliver!, Moody, who was born Ronald Moodnick, became the definitive interpreter of the role, despite the reservations…
Trisha Arlin says she isn’t willing to “turn the other cheek” after being wronged by two of Hollywood’s most powerful Christian producers, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett. They have not apologized or given the rabbinical student credit or compensation after they allegedly used a prayer Arlin wrote, without permission, in the current NBC miniseries “A.D.:…
The story, as it goes, is that tonight’s Tony awards will be all about the Brits, and this past season’s so-called British Invasion. And not a very Jewish one. The favorite for best play is the London National Theatre import, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” And then there are the likes…
Leah Meyerhoff is tired of the straight, white, male perspective. The 35-year old director sat in a small back room at the IFC Center on Tuesday morning and emphatically expressed her desire for new voices to populate the big screen. “I think female filmmakers who have been shut out of the process and whose voices…
It’s official. After 67 years of presenting the best of testosterone-driven cinema from the world over, the Cannes Film Festival made the discovery that women too can direct. At least, that’s what I take it the New York Times’ Manohla Dargis meant when she irritatingly dubbed this the “Year of la Femme,” in reference to…
At the beginning of “Annie Hall,” Woody Allen tells a joke about two old ladies vacationing at a Catskills resort: “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible,” says one. “Yeah, I know,” says the other, “and such small portions.” “Well that’s how I feel about life,” Allen continues. “Full of loneliness and misery…
My name is Max Stein. My world is reduced to a single instinct: Survive. Well, that and find a decent mechanic. Who knew that maintaining a killer muscle car would be such a pain in the tuchus? If you know anyone reliable, please tell me. My current guy is a big overcharger. Also, he is…
After the earnest entreaties of Emmanuelle Bercot’s “Standing Tall,” the French social drama about at-risk youth that opened the festival, and the dystopian provocations of Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Lobster,” the mood at Cannes changed palpably when Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man” unspooled out-of-competition, injecting some adrenalin and existential angst (not to mention star power) into a…
It’s the 68th installment of the world’s most glamorous film festival, and thousands of filmmakers, actors, movie execs, journalists, tourists and adoring fans have descended on this small, surprisingly unremarkable town along the French Riviera, a town whose name is synonymous with cinema. Last Wednesday, the International Jury headed by the American directing duo The…
מישעל ווײַס, אַ רעפּובליקאַנערין, האָט געוווּנען די וואַלן אין יוניווערסיטי הײַטס — אַ טיף דעמאָקראַטישער פֿאָרשטאָט פֿון קליוולאַנד, אָהײַאָ
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