Newsweek Entertainment

A New Kind of Bollywood Film

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:07:59 GMT

Midway through Vishal Bhardwaj's 2009 movie (), the hero is captured by thugs looking to recover $2 million in stolen cocaine. As the goons torture him to find out where he's hidden the drugs, they run into a problem: he stammers so badly that they can't get a word out of him. So sing, they say. Out come his answers, to the tune of a popular song. Problem solved. Except the hero the thugs have captured isn't the thief. His twin brother, who lisps, stole the dope. And the twins haven't spoken to each other for years.

Orson Welles: Back From the Dead

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:05:17 GMT

Welles's death in 1985 didn't rescue his reputation. "For the television generation," wrote frequent lunch companion Gore Vidal in 1989, "he is remembered as an enormously fat and garrulous man with a booming voice, seen most often on talk shows and in commercials where he somberly assured us that a certain wine would not be sold 'before its time,' whatever that meant." In 1993 the critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, one of Welles's most perceptive chroniclers and staunchest defenders, lamented that he is "mainly regarded in the U.S. today as a failed artist." Even now, YouTube serves as a repository of Welles's bad late-life behavior, like the gruesome clips that keep "Orson Welles drunk" and "Orson Welles frozen peas" among his most popular Google searches. (Look them up for yourself if you're cruel.)

Movie Review: 'Crazy Heart'

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:56:04 GMT

First-time director Scott Cooper, who wrote the screenplay from a Thomas Cobb novel, gives his cast (which includes Duvall, in a small but tasty role) lots of breathing room. What he prizes in this character study is not originality, but authenticity. From the songs Blake sings (written by Stephen Bruton and T. Bone Burnett) to the light in the eyes of his aging groupies, the details feel right. gets to you like a good country song—not because it tells you something new, but because it tells it well. It's the singer, not the song.

Movie Review: Clint Eastwood's 'Invictus'

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:53:45 GMT

During his incarceration, Mandela studied his Afrikaner enemies and was wise to the role sports played in the national psyche. South Africa's less-than-sterling rugby team, the Springbok, was as beloved by whites as it was despised by the black population, to whom it had become a symbol of oppression. Yet Mandela, taking a huge political risk, refuses to give in to his supporters' demand that the team be dismantled and renamed. To do so, he sees, would only stoke fear and racial paranoia in the Afrikaner population. Enlisting the team's captain (Matt Damon) to his side, Mandela challenges him to turn its losing ways around. His goal is to use rugby to bridge the racial divide in his country.

Jason Reitman: The Grown-Up's Director

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:46:01 GMT

There hasn't been a studio movie as unapologetically adult, sophisticated, and nuanced as in some time. Reitman wrote the lead with George Clooney in mind, and there are echoes of the unmarried Clooney's life here. He's playing another urbane charmer, but there's a panic, a vulnerability, under the slick surface that Clooney has rarely shown. The rootless, no-strings life Bingham has constructed is imperiled when a young efficiency expert (Anna Kendrick) hired by Bingham's boss (Jason Bateman) concludes that the company can save time, money, and manpower by firing people remotely—via teleconferencing. Threatened with permanent grounding, Bingham takes the brash woman on the road to show her why the delicate but brutal job must be done in person. There's a second challenge to his beloved autonomy: Alex (Vera Farmiga), another corporate frequent flier with whom he begins a hot affair. Alex is his perfect counterpart ("Think of me as you, with a vagina," she quips), as wary of emotional baggage as he is, content with occasional romps in airport hotels when they can coordinate their flight patterns. Farmiga is a great partner for Clooney, her wry sophistication setting off silky sexual sparks against his jaunty seductiveness. But Alex gets further under Bingham's skin than he expects. Suddenly, he experiences need, and it's profoundly uncomfortable.

Does Television's Gay Influx Promote Stereotypes?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:12:50 GMT

Gays on TV once helped promote tolerance. Now they may be hurting it.

Joe Papp: The Man Behind Shakespeare in the Park

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:29:18 GMT

Papp made theater free, and proved it was priceless.

Bluegrass and Old-time Music Legend Ralph Stanley: The Last Hillbilly

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:17:04 GMT

The world that Stanley evokes is fast fading. It's neither an insult nor a joke to call him the Last Hillbilly. He doesn't mind the word, he says, although now he's proud to be called Dr. Stanley, in acknowledgement of the honorary degree he received from Lincoln Memorial University in 1976. In his singing, songwriting, and playing, you hear the sounds of a world gone by, and you hear it plainly in the wistful tone of this account. "We were the last generation from these mountains to live from the earth," he says. "It was a hard life and there was a lot of suffering. But the music we made couldn't have come from any other place or time. The suffering was part of what made the music strong, and I reckon that's why it's lasted … What's real doesn't die."

Wes Anderson's 'Mr. Fox' Is Fantastic

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:09:34 GMT

Which brings us to , directed by the patron saint of moody hipster comedies, Wes Anderson. You wouldn't think that Dahl and Anderson would be a happy cinematic coupling. "Dahl was so skilled at inventing plots," Anderson says. "I don't know if my movies have been distinguished by the strength of their plots. I think some of them are questionable if the plots exist at all." There's a moodiness about Anderson's animated —with Bill Murray the voice of an uptight badger, how could there not be?—but it melts into Dahl's story like butter on toast. Dahl's fable is about a mischievous fox (George Clooney in the movie) trapped in his hole by three gun-toting farmers who are fed up with his swiping their chickens and food. Anderson takes this existential setup and fills it out with an obsessively protective Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), his obsessively competitive son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman), and a collection of oddballs who feel like they're plucked from an all-animal version of

Hollywood Discovers Korea's Talented Actors

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:52:13 GMT

Next up: Jeong Ji Hoon, a.k.a. Rain, a pop superstar in much of Asia but still little-known on the global stage. On Nov. 25, Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers will release their latest big-budget martial-arts thriller, , starring Jeong as the title character, who seeks revenge on the secret society that raised and trained him and killed his best friend.

Wanda Sykes and Late Night TV's New Color Barrier

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:02:44 GMT

African-Americans have done well breaking into late night. What they've failed in is being funny.

Calista Flockhart on Ally McBeal and Harrison Ford

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:38:39 GMT

It's been 12 years since Calista Flockhart started dancing with an imaginary baby, and now, Ally McBeal is finally back—on DVD. Flockhart spoke to Ramin Setoodeh.

Review: The New 'Twilight' Album

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:20:30 GMT

Thanks to the 'Twilight' sequel, the sun has set on a hip band.

Is MTV's Alexa Chung the New Carson Daly?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:55:03 GMT

The music video channel is experiencing some serious growing pains, and it hopes Alexa Chung will be its new Carson Daly. That might be part of the problem.

A Q&A With Carey Mulligan

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:49:43 GMT

Mulligan plays Jenny, a '60s British teenager who grows up fast, in . She spoke with Ramin Setoodeh.

Exclusive: A Talk With the 'Wild Things' Creators

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:52:41 GMT

Let the wild rumpus start!

Supreme Court May Rule on Redskins' Name

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:49:45 GMT

A lawsuit challenges the Washington Redskins' trademark on their name, saying its offensive nature means it should be revoked.

Israeli Filmmakers Tackle the Mideast Conflict

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:53:12 GMT

A young Arab gasps for breath as he tears down the street, his feet pounding rhythmically on the asphalt. Omar, who comes from the downtrodden Jaffa neighborhood of Ajami, has just witnessed a killing and he is running for his life. It's early morning, and the streets around Tel Aviv's Court of Justice are deserted. It's an apt metaphor; there is no justice here, only a panicked teenager fleeing his own destiny. In his head, Omar hears the soothing voice of his younger brother, telling him to close his eyes and relax. His breath catches as he turns the corner and trips, falling hard on the pavement. "On the count of three you'll open your eyes," his brother's voice promises, "and find yourself in another place." But in the Middle East, there is no escape from the realities of hatred, violence, and oppression. Omar, who has been involved in a drug deal gone wrong, arrives at the getaway van, only to find it's locked and he's trapped. "One…two…three. Open your eyes!" his brother's voice says. On this somber note, , a hard-hitting new Israeli movie, draws to an end.

Madeleine Albright on the Pins She Wore

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:14:20 GMT

Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright tells NEWSWEEK about the pins she wore for diplomacy, and the stories behind them.

How Obama Made Earth, Wind & Fire Cool Again

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:12:06 GMT

Some 40 years later, the funk band is still selling out stadiums. Thank you, Mr. President.