Film
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The Schmooze Jonah Hill and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
Jonah Hill has reached a new high. The 30-year-old comic actor is co-starring with Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which opened December 25. On December 19, Hill spoke at “Reel Pieces,” the Annette Insdorf series at the 92Y. Hill comes across as a man with integrity, intensity, intelligence, and someone…
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Film & TV How To Get De Niro and Stallone in the Ring
Thirty years ago, boxers Billy “the Kid” McDonnen and Henry “Razor” Sharp split two hard-fought light heavyweight contests. But for reasons soon revealed, there was never a rubber match, despite the personal animosity between the two. Now, three decades years later, a young promoter has convinced them to participate in a “Grudge Match,” which will…
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The Schmooze Abigail Breslin on ‘August: Osage County’
Most families have their share of rage, but the Westons in “August: Osage County,” opening December 25, make other dysfunctional families seem normal. The film, adapted by Tracy Letts from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, offers a close look at sibling relationships, and Meryl Streep, who plays the cruel matriarch Violet Weston,…
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The Schmooze Can You Guess Michael Bloomberg’s Favorite Movie?
Genesis prize aside, it seems the most Jewish thing about outgoing NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is his taste in movies. Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” and “The Producers” and Woody Allen’s “Bananas” and “Sleeper,” all feature in Hizzoner’s top ten list, according to Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith. For a complete list of “the classics,” as told…
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The Schmooze ‘American Hustle’ Inspired by Real-Life Jewish Conman
“American Hustle,” David O. Russell’s inventive and energetic take on the Abscam scandal, starts with a tone-setting (and laugh-inducing) placard on the screen: “Some of this actually happened.” But, of course, a lot of it didn’t, and in that terrain between fact and fiction, Russell and co-screenwriter Eric Warren Singer have re-imagined the story as…
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The Schmooze Eric Roberts on What It’s Like to Play a Nazi
Actor Eric Roberts is pretty busy but he likes it that way. Roberts just wrapped “Escaping the Holocaust,” Josh A. Weber’s film about his own family. Weber’s grandfather, Max Fronenberg, spent a year digging a tunnel to escape a prison camp and saved 15 people but couldn’t convince the woman he loved to come with…
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The Schmooze Claude Lanzmann and the Boss of Theresienstadt
“The Last of the Unjust” is at once a documentary on the Holocaust, a character portrait, an inquiry into the nature of evil, a rumination on drawing moral distinctions, and a lesson on the pedagogical limits of film. This well over three-hour documentary, directed — or should we say “constructed”? — by Claude Lanzmann, whose…
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The Schmooze ‘S#x Acts’ Explores Dark Side of Sexuality
Israeli-born director Jonathan Gurfinkel’s first film is officially called “S#x Acts.” You can substitute an “I” for the asterisk, because the movie has six acts. Or you can put in an “E,” because there are numerous erotic scenes. But mostly it is an emotionally charged film about bullying that is both fascinating and depressing. In…
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