News

Days after the publication of his latest book on President Donald Trump, author Michael Wolff is revisiting his perennial subject once more — this time in documentary form.

Sky has announced that Wolff is participating in its upcoming documentary Rewriting Trump, which will chart the return of the embattled businessman to the White House through the commentary of the Fire and Fury, Siege, Landslide and All or Nothing author. The Comcast-owned European entertainment company says the documentary, filmed in 2024, “follows the US president’s seemingly impossible rebound from disgraced Mar-a-Lago exile, back to the desk in the Oval Office.”

Co-directed by Yasmine Permaul and Arthur Cary, the documentary will feature insiders like Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., two advisors to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Chris Lacivita and Jason Miller, and Stormy Daniels, among others. The project is said to cover major turning points in the 2024 presidential race, including the...

Minerva Pictures has boarded Agostino, the next film from Venice competition regular Andrea Pallaoro, as well as Stefano Sardo’s erotic thriller Close To Me and Taavi Vartia’s Finnish survival thriller I

Minerva is pre-selling Agostino,about a13 year-old boy who idolises his widowed mother, until a young local man becomes her lover.

Pallaoro’s2022 film Monica and 2017 feature Hannah both played in competition at Venice.

The Italy-us co-production between Minerva and Melograno Films, it is based on the novel by Alberto Moravia.

Close To Me is the second film by Stefano Sardo and centres on acouple living together during the Covid lockdown,...

Master of horror Wes Craven gave our favorite genre one of its greatest icons when he introduced Freddy Krueger in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, but he had very little to do with what happened to Freddy after that. As his character’s story continued, Craven had zero creative control over the Nightmares – aside from when he co-wrote the third film and wrote and directed the seventh film – and didn’t see much money from them. As he told Fangoria, creating Freddy gave him great credibility, but not a great payday. So when Alive Films asked him to create a new horror franchise that he would have control over and a financial stake in, he jumped at the chance. Alive gave him complete creative freedom, and he gave them Shocker (Watch It Here), mixing ideas from some of his previous films, like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Last House on the Left,...

Sure, HBO series “The Deuce” may have piqued some interest in the history of classic porn cinema, but now the outrageous true story of Times Square staple Chelly Wilson is getting the spotlight.

Documentary “Queen of the Deuce” centers on Wilson’s personal history before building a porn theater in the notorious Times Square vicinity known as the Deuce. Wilson’s reign ranged from the late ’60s to the mid-’80s as she earned a reputation as one of the savviest and most enigmatic figures on the scene.

Greek-born Wilson escaped the Holocaust in WWII, emigrated to the U.S., and married a slew of men while being openly gay. Her legacy in the world of adult cinema is examined by filmmaker Valerie Kontakos (“Mana”), who has written, directed, and produced the documentary.

“Queen of the Deuce” is further produced by Ed Barreveld and Despina Pavlaki, who also co-wrote the...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Carol Doda Topless at the Condor,” a documentary about a different time and morality in America, written and directed by Mario McKenzie and Jonathan Parker. In select theaters on March 29th. See local listings.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Carol Doda was an exotic dancer in San Francisco in the 1960s, who hijinks eventually led the way to a loosening of standards and breast coverings at the strip (hyy-oh) of clubs in North Beach. Doda was a waitress at the Condor, who began to dance on top of the piano as a gag, and her outgoing nature began to get popular, especially after she donned the infamous “monokini” topless bathing suit for the act in 1964. This led to a busting out of similar clubs in San Fran, but it was Carol who owned the street in the early days, honored by the Condor with...

There’s an immense amount of ground covered in “Carol Doda Topless at the Condor,” ironic for a documentary revolving largely around a pioneer who established a reputation in the 1960s as a frequently uncovered, immensely popular topless dancer at San Francisco’s legendary Condor Night Club. Directors Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker unquestionably make efforts to ensure that the late Carol Doda receives a fair amount of the film’s spotlight, but aren’t shy about weaving in an assortment of additional subjects, both related and seemingly otherwise, mixed with a pile of vintage clips and footage of the era so as to create a portrait of a time as much as the woman after which the film carries its name. In doing so, does it succeed?

Continue reading ‘Carol Doda Topless At The Condor’ Review: A Trailblazing Dancer Gets Her Due at The Playlist.

Q&a’s are a staple of indie opening weekends since they tend to sell tickets but Bob and Jeanne Berney’s Picturehouse has raised that bar, offering audiences seven-minute live burlesque revues before selected screenings of documentary Carol Doda Topless At The Condor. The ode to the woman, and to 1960s San Francisco where she broke out topless, opens in limited release in New York, LA, San Francisco and San Rafael. Dancers in what Bob Berney called a “Doda-esqe burlesque” will not be topless,” he said — “but pretty close.”

Dancers start in the audience then move to the front of the theater against a specially designed backdrop of image and sound on screen. “It brings you into that world immediately. You are there before the film starts,” he said.

“Eventizing” a film is great if you can do it. The box office is much better but still a bit weird since Covid.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to identify moments that precipitated significant social or cultural changes. But that doesn’t mean that the people involved in those moments knew, or were actively working to achieve them, as they were happening.

“Carol Doda Topless at The Condor,” which charts the explosion of topless (and eventually all-nude) clubs across the U.S. after the documentary’s namesake decided to go-go dance in a breast-exposing monokini in June 1964, occasionally makes the mistake of conflating intent with her decision’s revolutionary impact. Even so, co-directors Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker offer an absolute treasure trove of vintage film footage shot in, around and about San Francisco’s North Beach as they chronicle the parallel lines of her career and the cultural sea change that it precipitated.

Against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s, Doda became a lightning rod for controversy when her...

It’s funny to think that the birth of our country’s strip clubs traces back to a total drip like Barry Goldwater, but that conservative also-ran was in San Francisco to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president when — on the night of June 19, 1964 — a lounge singer by the name of Carol Doda decided to show the city what she thought about his “traditional American values.”

Okay, technically it was PR maven Davey Rosenberg who had the idea for Doda to descend from the ceiling of the Condor Club in a monokini with her nipples on full display, and the fact that Goldwater was in town for the RNC was more of a coincidence than anything else, but those pesky facts didn’t stop Doda from stealing the Republicans’ thunder and becoming a political icon all her own. Goldwater’s sons even came to see Doda’s show...

Exclusive: Picturehouse is spicing up the opening weekend of their documentary Carol Doda Topless at the Condor on March 22-24 with a live revue of top burlesque dancers before the movie screens.

Carol Doda Topless at the Condor documents the life, history and impact of the legendary topless dancer who ignited the 1960s sexual revolution.

The “Doda-esque Burlesque” will launch on Friday, March 22, at the NuArt in Los Angeles with performers Ashleeta Beauchamp, Vita DeVoid and Lux Lacroix, and at The Roxie in San Francisco with Frankie Fictitious, Sweetpea and Sgt. Die Wies. The tributes to Doda’s legacy will continue as the film rolls out on March 29 in additional markets, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, New Orleans, Detroit and more. The revue will be available at select showtimes.

In addition, the pic’s Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker will be participating in several Q&a’s across the country,...

Carol Doda’s XXX-rated legacy is captured in the documentary “Topless at the Condor.”

Doda made history in 1964 as the first topless dancer in America. Doda’s residency at the Condor in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco propelled her to international sex symbol status. As Doda coos in the IndieWire-exclusive Red Band trailer, “I want to be in show business, and I don’t know any other way than by showing my business.”

“Carol Doda Topless at the Condor” is co-directed and produced by Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker, with Metallica co-founder and drummer Lars Ulrich and Vincent Palomino additionally producing. The film premiered at Telluride before screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Picturehouse is distributing.

The official synopsis reads: “Against the backdrop of the 1964 Republican Convention, a San Francisco cocktail waitress became one of the city’s most popular entertainers after making her debut as America’s first topless dancer.

Exclusive: Picturehouse will release the documentary, Carol Doda Topless at the Condor, exclusively in theaters on March 22 in New York and San Francisco, followed by a March 29 debut in LA, with a further breakout to 40-plus markets.

The doc, from San Francisco filmmakers Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker, premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival. The nonfiction feature follows a daring young woman who fired one of the first shots in the sexual revolution of the 1960s and became an international sex symbol and a San Francisco tourist attraction second only to the Golden Gate Bridge. Doda went from cocktail waitress to international icon and defender of sexual freedom. Pic was produced by Metallica co-founder and drummer Lars Ulrich.

The docu is based in part on Three Nights at the Condor, a memoir by Benita Mattioli, the wife of Condor co-owner Pete Mattioli. Carol Doda...

With the festival kicking off tomorrow, Telluride Film Festival has now unveiled its lineup, featuring new films from Jeff Nichols (the first image from which can be seen above), Emerald Fennell, Annie Baker, Andrew Haigh, Yorgos Lanthimos, Justine Triet, Wim Wenders, Kitty Green, Ethan Hawke, and many more.

“Fifty years is a long time to do anything. And while we might be a little biased, we feel the work that Tff does is pretty important,” comments Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger. “We take the charge of preserving the theatrical experience and promoting film seriously, but with necessary winks here and there. We’re ecstatic to share a program we feel reflects so much of the past fifty years, naturally and organically, films old and new, which stand as a testament to our beloved co-founders Tom Luddy and Bill Pence who are no longer with us.”

• All Of US Strangers...

Welcome back to Let’s Scare Bryan to Death, where this month I’m chatting with Ashlee Blackwell, founder of Graveyard Shift Sisters, a website dedicated to dispelling the myth that black women can’t be found in the horror genre. She also co-wrote and produced the amazing documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, and has bylines in Fangoria, Rue Morgue, and a bunch of other horror outlets.

Anyone who follows Blackwell knows she’s a huge Wes Craven fan, so it’s no surprise that her pick this month would be something from his filmography. But I had no idea the bonkers antics I was in for when she chose his 1988 return to the slasher genre, Shocker.

In Shocker, Craven leaves Freddy Krueger behind and introduces us to Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), a brutal killer caught by local college student Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg) after Pinker murdered his foster family and girlfriend,...

[We're celebrating some of the most memorable horror and sci-fi movies of 1989 this month in Daily Dead's Class of 89 retrospective series! Check back on Daily Dead throughout the rest of August for more special features celebrating the 30th anniversaries of a wide range of horror and sci-fi films!]

By the late 1980s, Master of Horror Wes Craven had found himself fully distanced from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, so he set his sights on bringing a new genre icon to life with Shocker, and created the brutally sadistic villain Horace Pinker (played by Mitch Pileggi), who can not only shift through bodies, but also utilizes the TV airwaves as a means for transport. There’s no denying that during his decades-spanning career, Craven has provided genre fans with countless hours of entertainment, but many have declared Shocker as one of Craven’s “lesser” films, which to me, could not be further from the truth.

In fact, Shocker is far more thoughtful, ambitious, and audacious than it ever gets credit for, and it’s still one of my top five Craven films that doesn’t involve a certain dream-stalking boogeyman that haunts the kids of Elm Street. A...

11th Gasparilla International Film Festival to Screen 35 Features Including J.K. Simmons’ ‘All Nighter’“All Nighter”

The 11th edition of Tampa’s most prominent film event, Suncoast Credit Union’s Gasparilla International Film Festival (Giff), will take place March 2-March 9, 2017 at the Tampa Theater and AMC Centro Ybor. Gavin Wiesen’s “All Nighter,” starring Academy Award-winner J. K. Simmons will have its World Premiere as part of the festival.

A total of 35 films and over 70 shorts will screen over eight days and will include international and regional premieres of narrative features, documentaries and short films from around the world. In addition to the film program, Giff will also feature master classes and panel discussions.

The title sponsor, Suncoast Credit Union, has been committed to the festival for three consecutive years with the goal of bringing quality entertainment and enrichment to the community. The Suncoast Credit Union also sponsors the Family Fun...

Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival (Giff) announced its official selection for the annual event held at the Tampa Theater and AMC Centro Ybor in Tampa, Florida, from March 2-March 9.

The festival will host the world premiere for All Nighter starring Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons and directed by Gavin Wiesen.

There will be 35 films and over 70 shorts, in which it will host international and regional premieres of narrative features, documentaries and short films around the world.

Here are the highlighted line up of the films:

Opening Night Film:

Burn Your Maps: A nine-year-old boy, grieving with his parents over the recent loss of his baby sister, becomes obsessed with the idea that he’s a Mongolian goat herder who belongs back home in his small village in Mongolia. Cast: Vera Farmiga, Jacob Tremblay, Virginia Madsen, Suraj Sharma. Directed by Jordan Roberts

Closing Night Film:

Unleashed: When...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Full Lineup Announcements

– “3-D Auteurs,” a 19-day, 34-film festival spotlighting stereoscopic movies by some of history’s most distinguished directors, will run at Film Forum November 11 – 29. The festival spans 3-D’s earliest days (including some turn-of-the-century films by pioneer Georges Méliès) to the present, and represents virtually every genre, including Westerns, Film Noir, and Science Fiction. Hollywood’s first big 3-D craze (sometimes called 3-D’s “golden era”), intended to offset the threat of television, came in the early 1950s, with such movies as Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder,” André De Toth’s “House of Wax” and Jack Arnold’s “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (all included in the series).

Hollywood produced roughly 50 movies in the process from 1952 to 1954, before fizzling out and being overtaken by...

September 8th is shaping up to be another great week for horror and sci-fi fans as we’ve got a lot of great home entertainment releases to look forward to. The good folks over at Scream Factory have two great releases coming out on Tuesday, the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of Wes Craven’s Shocker and Astron-6’s comedic homage to Giallo films, The Editor. For all you Jason Voorhees die-hards out there, not only do you have a special 2-Disc Collector’s edition of Crystal Lake Memories to look forward to, the original Friday the 13th films are also getting re-released in several double feature packages on Tuesday.

Other notable releases for September 8th include Supernatural: Season 10, Dressed to Kill from Criterion, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, and for those of you kids at heart out there, Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman is arriving on DVD as well.

Like a frenzied fever dream that’s fueled by the power of righteous heavy metal, Wes Craven’s Shocker is certainly one of the Master of Horror’s more oddball cult classics, an amalgam of Craven’s most ambitious ideas and a viciously wild visual style that’s far more innovative than most have given it credit for over the last 26 years since it was first released. While the name Horace Pinker may not necessarily be as marketable as, say, Freddy Krueger, what this cinematic killer does bring to the table in terms of savagery and a darkly comedic cruelty is legendary in his own right.

Shocker opens similarly to Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street where we see the film’s killer, Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), working away in his grungy hideout, no doubt making nefarious plans for his future victims. We soon learn that Horace isn’t...

Tomorrow, Scream Factory looks to electrify horror fans with their Collector's Edition Blu-ray of the late, legendary Wes Craven's Shocker, and we've been provided with three copies to give away to Daily Dead readers.

Shocker Blu-ray: "On October 2nd, at 6:45 a.m., mass murderer Horace Pinker was put to death... Now he's really mad.

Master of horror Wes Craven (Scream, The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street) directs this exciting visual treat which introduces a diabolical mass murderer who harnesses electricity for unimaginable killing powers.

About to be electrocuted for a catalog of heinous crimes, the unrepentant Horace Pinker transforms into a terrifying energy source. Only young athlete Jonathan Parker, with an uncanny connection to Pinker through bizarre dreams, can fight the powerful demon. The two dive in and out of television programs, chasing each other from channel to channel through stunning scenes of disaster,...

On September 8th, Scream Factory looks to electrify horror fans with their Collector's Edition Blu-ray of the late, legendary Wes Craven's Shocker. Ahead of the film's revamped home media release, we have clips and a trailer from the Blu-ray.

Shocker Blu-ray: "On October 2nd, at 6:45 a.m., mass murderer Horace Pinker was put to death... Now he's really mad.

Master of horror Wes Craven (Scream, The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street) directs this exciting visual treat which introduces a diabolical mass murderer who harnesses electricity for unimaginable killing powers.

About to be electrocuted for a catalog of heinous crimes, the unrepentant Horace Pinker transforms into a terrifying energy source. Only young athlete Jonathan Parker, with an uncanny connection to Pinker through bizarre dreams, can fight the powerful demon. The two dive in and out of television programs, chasing each other from channel to channel through stunning scenes of disaster,...

On September 8th, Scream Factory looks to electrify horror fans with their Collector's Edition Blu-ray of Wes Craven's Shocker. Ahead of the film's revamped home media release, we have the full list of special features and another look at the cover art.

Press Release: "Fans of legendary director Wes Craven (Scream, The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street) know well the terror mayhem inflicted by Horace Pinker, a diabolical mass murderer who harnesses electricity for unimaginable killing powers, from the 1989 horror cult classic Shocker. On September 8, 2015, Scream Factory™ is proud to present Wes Craven’s Shocker Collector’s Edition Blu-ray, packed with insightful bonus content including, special audio commentary with Wes Craven, all-new interviews with Mitch Pileggi, Cami Cooper, executive producer Shep Gordon, music supervisor Desmond Child and soundtrack artists, new audio commentary with director of photography Jacques Haitkin, co-producer Robert Engelman and composer William Goldstein,...

The electrical killer Horace Pinker is featured on the new cover art for Scream Factory's upcoming Blu-ray of Wes Craven's 1989 rock-heavy horror film, Shocker. The Blu-ray is confirmed to be a Collector's Edition and is due out this September.

From Scream Factory: "Hot on the heels of last week's news that we are releasing Wes Craven's Shocker this Fall, we now can unveil our electric newly-designed key art design and a pre-order link!

Extras and specs for this "Collector's Edition" are in the works and will be announced at a later date.

Official street date is 9/8. But if you buy from us directly @ https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-horror/shocker-collector-s-edition we'll ship it out two weeks early Plus include a limited edition 18" x 24" poster of the new design (while supplies last)."

Fans of Shocker no doubt remember its metal-heavy soundtrack highlighted by Megadeth's cover of Alice Cooper's "No More Mr.

With the folks at Scream Factory set to celebrate the company's three-year anniversary this Sunday, they're kicking off the festivities early by announcing the Blu-ray debut of Wes Craven's Shocker, slated for a September 8th high-definition home media release.

From Scream Factory: "Since our 3-year brand anniversary falls on Sunday, we wanted to get the party started early by announcing an upcoming film that we’ve received many requests for: Wes Craven’s Shocker is coming to Blu-ray for the first time!!

This 1989 cult favorite about a criminal seeking revenge after being electrocuted (played by Mitch Pileggi of “The X-Files” fame) is planned for a Sept 8th release date. Pre-order links are will go up early next month.

It is planned to be included in our “Collector’s Edition” series but we have no other specific details to reveal yet about the extras. We’ll be sure to keep...

In 1989 Peter Berg played a kid named Jonathan Parker who had a lot of blood on his hands in Wes Craven's Shocker. Now that there's faint rumblings of a remake slightly shaking, guess who wants back in on the action?

Arrow in the Head caught up with Berg (pictured) recently, and he dropped the following on fans...

"I'd love to remake it," says Berg before clarifying, "Wes would direct it; I'd star in it."

"I’d like to redo Shocker just to get the special effects right because we had a real special effects disaster on the film," said director Wes Craven in an earlier interview. "The guy who was doing all the visual effects kind of flamed out, had a nervous breakdown because he was attempting more than he could actually do. When he told us towards the end of the movie that not a single one of...

The Architect

Eric McCormack ("Perception," "Will and Grace") is set to star in Jonathan Parker's indie drama "The Architect" for Parker Film Company. Metallica's Lars Ulrich will produce.

He and Parker Posey play a couple who enlists a visionary modern architect (James Frain) to build their new home. As the wife is swept away by the artist’s sweeping creative vision, the couple don't notice he’s building his dream house, not theirs. [Source: Deadline]

Left Behind

Lea Thompson ("Back to the Future") will join Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray and Jordin Sparks on Vic Armstrong's currently in production reboot of the "Left Behind" franchise.

The story chronicles the events following the biblical rapture. Those left behind have to learn to survive in a world that is quickly plunging into chaos. Thompson will play the wife of Cage's character. [Source: THR]

Left Behind

Jaimie Alexander ("Thor") has joined the cast of the...

Eric McCormack has signed up to star in the upcoming indie drama The Architect.

The former Will & Grace star will play one of the lead roles in the project, which is produced by Metallica's Lars Ulrich.

McCormack will play Colin, who along with wife Drew (Parker Posey) collaborates with a modern architect Miles Moss (James Frain) to build their new home.

However, the couple do not realise that Moss is actually building his dream house rather than theirs.

Catherine di Napoli and Jonathan Parker have written the film, with Parker directing.

Filming for the project will begin next month in Washington.

McCormack currently stars in TNT's Perception, which will return for a third season in 2014.

• With a title like The Prince, die-hard Bruce Willis fans might worry that he’s decided to go from blue collar to blue blood. Thankfully, it’s a little misleading. Armenian director Sarik Andreasyan (American Heist) will tell the story of a retired Las Vegas mobster who must return to the city when he discovers that his teenage daughter is missing. Willis will play the man who has been cautiously awaiting the return of the mob enforcer. Filming will begin in New Orleans in October. Willis’s next scheduled release is Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which hits theaters Aug.

"(Untitled)" (Dir. Jonathan Parker, 2009) Watching one of my favorite movies recently - Richard Linklater's "Dazed And Confused" (1993) - I remembered thinking back in the day that amongst its cast of attractive newcomers (which included Matthew McConaughey and Parker Posey) that the acerbic Adam Goldberg was going to break big. I was way wrong about that, but Goldberg has honed his sardonic persona nicely over the course of a respectable career in indie films as well as many roles on television. As the pretentious pianist Adrian Jacobs in Jonathan Parker's film ...

Chicago – One of the great overlooked films of 2009 was the slyly titled “(Untitled).” Jonathan Parker, the writer/director of the film, fashions a sharp yet human tale about the world of art galleries and the next-big-thing. The (Untitled) DVD and Blu-Ray is being released on September 21st, 2010.

(Untitled) is a take-off on the ubiquitous name that artists give their works when mere descriptive words are not enough. The film features Adam Goldberg, Eton Bailey and Marley Shelton as an unusual triangle of artists and art representatives. Shelton plays gallery owner Madeleine, whose life’s purpose is to find the next cutting-edge artist. Goldberg and Bailey play brothers, one a successful hotel lobby artist, the other a struggling composer of atonal symphonies. Their interplay is the basis for commentary about the eternal question of ‘What is Art?’

Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton Get Direction from Jonathan Parker in ‘(Untitled)’

Photo credit:...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Calvin Marshall" (2010)

Directed by Gary Lundgren

Released by Passion River

Steve Zahn exemplifies the adage those who can't do teach as a college baseball coach who never was quite good enough to make the majors who sees something of himself in an enthusiastic but unskilled player (Alex Frost) that he keeps on the team in writer/director Gary Lundgren's feature debut.

"Chelsea on the Rocks" (2009)

Directed by Abel Ferrara

Released by Hannover House

"Bad Lieutenant" director Ferrara compiles a biography of the famed Chelsea Hotel in New York through archival footage, reenactments and interviews with the many artists who have stayed there throughout the years from Milos Forman and R. Crumb to Ethan Hawke and Gaby Hoffman.

"Claang the Game" (2009)

Directed by Stefano Milla

Released by Triumphant Entertainment

A game of "Claang," a strategy-heavy match of wits, leads to a discussion...

Reviewer: Craig Phillips

Rating (out of 5): ***½

 (Untitled) sends up the pretensions of the art world, which seems an easy target, but while there are quite a few comical moments, director/writer Jonathan Parker (Bartleby) doesn't take the low road. [I like what Roger Ebert wrote: "It's easy to take cheap shots at conceptual art. '(Untitled)' doesn't do that. It takes expensive shots."] Character-driven, Parker's script (with Catherine Dinapoli) seems a slightly snarkier cousin to Jonathan Ames' HBO series Bored to Death, both New York-set and full of identifiable, flawed characters who are gently ribbed but not deeply mocked. In fact (Untitled) seems to take more delight in criticizing critics - portrayed here as rude and unfeeling - than in skewering artists.

Buenos Aires – Latin American sales agent FilmSharks has opened a U.S. branch in West Hollywood with the purpose of including high-profile American films in their business. The company, in a worldwide expansion move where it also acquired European art-house productions and Latin American box-office hits, is also opening new Korean and Japanese branches to get better pick ups and sales in top Asian territories.

According to company CEO Guido Rud, FilmSharks plans to release "10 to 12 films per year, out of which 4 or 5 will be American productions." The company is already involved with Us films like Jonathan Parker's "(Untitled)," starring Adam Goldberg and recently released by Samuel Goldwyn Films; Brighlight Pictures' "American Venus," released in the U.S. by IFC Films; and Venice Jury Prize Winner "The Speed of Life."

FilmSharks made news recently when it acquired the back catalogs of two big names in Latin American film production: Disney-backed Patagonik in Argentina,...

Chicago – They came, we saw and in the end, who conquered? HollywoodChicago.com Senior Writer Patrick McDonald weighs in on the Top Ten of 2009. From the rich palette of choices, the challenge is always to winnow it down to ten.

This was a strong year, with many films in the “eleven spot” that would qualify easily for Top Ten consideration in any other year, including “An Education,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Red Cliff,” “Precious” and “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

But as the old saying goes, opinions are like a certain hole, everybody has one. Here is Patrick McDonald’s journey into that deep void…

10. ‘Star Trek’

Logical Pair: Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in ‘Star Trek’

Photo credit: © 2009 Paramount Pictures

Yep, a true popcorn film makes the cut. One that beat the odds and expectations of Trekker geeks everywhere. What impressed most about this origin re-imagining...

I go to a lot of shows, and art markets and auctions, and it's just interesting noticing the people who are buying art and collecting art, and their mixed motivations. It just seemed like a nice comic setup to have these two brothers, bringing together these two contemporary artists. - Director Jonathan Parker (Bartleby, The Californians) returns with a film focused on the contemporary art and music scenes of New York City, and how artists maintain passion for a creation that may be more miss than hit. Inspired by his own experiences as a musician and art collector, (Untitled) stars Adam Goldberg as frustrated contemporary classical composer Adrian, whose shows are sparsely attended while his artist brother Josh (Eion Bailey) draws rave reviews for his gallery work. The bridge between them is Chelsea art gallerist Madeleine (Marley Shelton), who both supports Josh’s work and begins a love affair...

"What is art?" is one of those eternal questions that you have to be at a certain kind of party to discuss without feeling totally pretentious. Lots of people use the question to denigrate certain types of art -- the "my kid can paint that" school of snark. (Untitled), which opened Friday at Arbor, asks the question in a playful way, and the ensuing "discussion" of the film is more enjoyable than you might think.

See, now you're all turning away because I've made it sound like this is some upscale-y film that drones on about Art. No. Stay with me, here. (Untitled) is from the same filmmakers who brought us the curious adaptation of Bartleby starring Crispin Glover, back in 2001 -- co-writer/director Jonathan Parker and writer Catherine Dinapoli -- and their latest movie is slightly less strange and has more sly humor.

Adrian Jacobs (Adam Goldberg) is a...

Chicago – One of the best and most exciting surprises of the 2009 film year is a smaller, claustrophobic film starring Adam Goldberg and set in the art gallery world of New York City. “(Untitled)” is an honest, uncompromising character study.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Taking its name from the practice of inscribing artwork with no label at all, (Untitled) involves three people, two who are practicing artists and one who owns a small Soho art gallery. Adrian (Adam Goldberg) is a composer of atonal symphonies – think using buckets and chains for sounds instead of harmonics – and although recognized as a significant craftsman he still needs to supplement his living by providing piano atmosphere in a haughty bistro.

His brother Josh (Eion Bailey) is a “successful” artist, having found a niche market selling his works to decorate hotel lobbies and corporate hallways. He is the biggest income generator for Madeleine (a revelatory Marley Shelton), who...

Chicago – The Adam Goldberg character is well known to fans of TV’s “Friends” and the movie’s “Saving Private Ryan.” With his heart-on-his-sleeve persona, he takes that character to rarified heights in the new film “(Untitled).”

Set in the galleries and small symphony halls of New York City, (Untitled) is a deeply philosophical look at the nature of art, through three characters who each believe they understand the essence of what art is within themselves.

Adam Goldberg plays Adrian, a composer of atonal symphonies, whose work continues to go unrecognized. His brother Josh (Eion Bailey), is a successful painter of hotel decor-style art, who longs to be recognized for more. Rounding out the triad is Madelaine (Marley Shelton), the arty and pretentious gallery owner who strives for the next atmospheric happening.

Adam Goldberg as Adrian and Marley Shelton as Madeleine in ‘(Untitled)’

Photo credit: Parker Film Company/Samuel Goldwyn...

Adam Goldberg: Shooting To The Music

By

Alex Simon

Adam Goldberg first brought his unique brand of manic intensity to Richard Linklater’s ensemble classic Dazed and Confused in 1993 and has since been featured in such varied films as 2 Days in Paris, A Beautiful Mind, Saving Private Ryan, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Hebrew Hammer and I Love Your Work, which he also directed. An actor with a talent for mining the neuroses of his character for both comedic and dramatic effect, Goldberg also played recurring roles in “Friends” and “Entourage.” Goldberg's music CD, "LANDy, Eros And Omissions," hit shelves June 23 of this year from Nine Yards Records.

Goldberg’s latest film, (Untitled), is a satirical comedy that has him playing Adrian Jacobs, a brooding avant-garde composer who falls for the gorgeous owner (Marley Shelton) of a trendy New York art gallery. The quirky worlds...

(Untitled) is a satire with its finger squarely on the pulse of the 21st century art world. It’s a film for anyone who’s stood in a modern art exhibit, stared at one of its installations and pondered the age old conundrum, the source of many a freshman lit essay: What makes this art? Director Jonathan Parker, who co-wrote the screenplay with Catherine Dinapoli, expands from that fundamental starting point to consider the types of people that might me driven to make such things and whether, in the end, to dismiss them is to be robbed of a defining component of the age. It’s a sharp movie, pitched at a tone located squarely between archness and sincerity. The combination of its twin settings of blindingly white galleries and garishly designed New York apartments, when blended with an all-around cacophonic feel, lends the picture a surrealistic edge. Starring Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton, two...

Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton in a bracing indie art-world satire.

Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton in "(Untitled)"

Photo: Parker Film Company

Adrian Jacobs (Adam Goldberg) is a prickly composer on the New York experimental-music scene. His compositions, which he performs with a trio in sparsely populated theaters, are a clamor of kicked buckets, crackling bubble wrap and sudden ensemble shrieks. "I just hate all his work," a critic says, behind his back. But Adrian is intransigent. "Harmony," he says, "was a capitalist plot to sell pianos."

Unlike Adrian, who's forced to take demeaning supper-club gigs to pay the rent, his brother Josh (Eion Bailey) is a roaring success — a painter whose canvasses fetch $10,000 each. True, they're insipidly sunny abstracts that are bought by the yard for indifferent display in hospital lobbies and corporate boardrooms. Still, their endless salability has made Josh one happy artist — or has it?

Josh's paintings...

Fans of HBO’s Entourage know Adam Goldberg as Nick Rubenstein, the spoiled coke-addicted son of a famous movie producer who agrees to fund Medellin, Vince's ill-fated dream project. To others, he is Julie Delpy’s lover in the romantic drama 2 Days in Paris, or the "stereotypically Jewish" guy in films like Dazed and Confused and The Hebrew Hammer. Over the last decade or so, Goldberg has worked with a slew of top-drawer directors including Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan) Tony Scott (Déjà vu), David Fincher (Zodiac), Richard Linklater (Waking Life) and Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), predominantly in supporting roles. He is also an accomplished musician and filmmaker.

Now, in the satirical spoof on New York’s Chelsea art scene (Untitled), Goldberg steps into the lead role as Adrian Jacobs, a brooding and sullen composer of esoteric discordant musical works that feature — among other sounds produced by ready-made everyday...

Adam Goldberg is often cast in roles that play on his own neurotic character, and in Jonathan Parker's sharp art world satire (Untitled), he initially appears to have a part that's made for him. His character Adrian is a musician (in real life, Goldberg has recorded two albums with his band LANDy) who's caught between two worlds: the mainstream, which has rewarded his painter brother (Eion Bailey) with irritating success, and the independent art scene, as represented by a self-consciously stylish gallery owner played by Marley Shelton.

Goldberg has a resume that plays like a manifestation of that artistic push-pull: independent films (two of which he's directed) jostle for space with big Hollywood productions and TV shows. Still, as he told Movieline, he's not quite as tortured about it as you might think.

"Is art the thing itself? Or is it the idea of the thing?" That question, voiced by one of the characters, would seem to be the heart and soul of Jonathan Parker's (Untitled), which opens in limited release Friday (10.23.09). A laugh-out-loud satire with a dry-martini wit, (Untitled) manages the neat trick of poking wicked fun at the worlds of experimental music and art -- from all angles -- even as it gives a humorously sympathetic look at the plight of the serious artist working far outside the commercial mainstream. His name is Adrian Jacobs (Adam Goldberg) and he's an experimental composer in New York, whose brother, Josh (Eion Bailey) is a successful painter. But both men have artistic frustrations. Adrian works in the realm of atonal music, using sounds like shrieks, squeaks, tearing paper and a chain being dropped into a metal...

On October 2nd, Brian Collins of Horror Movie A Day and the New Beverly Cinema hosted a rare Midnight screening of Wes Craven's 1989 cult classic Shocker . The film tells the story of convicted serial killer Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), whom after being captured and sent to the electric chair returns to torment Jonathan Parker (Peter Burg), the teen responsible for his apprehension. Able to jump from body to body and even through electric currents, Pinker was poised to be the logical successor to Freddy Krueger, but alas... the character and movie didn't quite catch on. Regardless, 20 years later, Shocker unspooled for a nearly sold out midnight audience at the New Bev. In attendance for the event were actors Ted Raimi (Pac Man), Vincent Guastaferro (Pastori),...

Wow does Marley Shelton just look gorgeous in this or what?! Moviefone has debuted the trailer for the indie comedy Untitled written and directed by Jonathan Parker. The film stars Adam Goldberg, Marley Shelton, Vinnie Jones, and Eion Bailey. We actually featured a few photos from this back in March, since it already premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival last year. Due to my love for quirky indie films (that should be seen at festivals), I'm naturally interested in this, although I have a feeling not many others will be. It's so weird I kind of hope everyone watches the trailer. And did I say Marley Shelton is damn cute? Watch the official trailer for Jonathan Parker's Untitled: [flv:http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/untitled_trlr_01_480p_dl.flv http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/untitled_trlr_01_480p_dl.jpg 598 336] You can also watch the Untitled trailer in High Definition on Moviefone A fashionable contemporary art gallerist in Chelsea, New York falls for a brooding new music composer in...

There are a bunch of movies opening this Friday, which explains the abundance of new movie trailers hitting the interwebs today: Gentleman Broncos, Law Abiding Citizen, The Fourth Kind and now the trailer for (Untitled). Yes, that's the name of the movie -- Untitled. And I'm not talking about the brilliant but flawed director's cut of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, which yes, too, was released under the non-title Untitled (but without the brackets). Adam Goldberg stars as a musical modern art creator who, well, creates nonsense. (Untitled) is notable for a couple reasons. First off, (Untitled) was directed by Jonathan Parker, who was the writer, director, producer and composer of Bartleby, the absurd 2001 indie adaptation of Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener And no, that film isn't anything to write home about, but its just so strange that I often find myself recommending it to those who love fringe films.

While ostensibly this has low production values, it features one of my personal favorites, Adam Goldberg, who plays an artist who makes nonsense, and is directed by Jonathan Parker who did the excellent film Bartelby. So if you follow that line, we clearly end up with comedy. We've been keeping an eye on it for awhile and even posted a clip back in April.

Synopsis:

Set in the artsy Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, (Untitled) tells the story of Adrian Jacobs (Goldberg), a difficult composer of equally difficult music whose sparsely attended performances involve musicians breaking glass and kicking metal buckets. In contrast, Adam’s brother, Josh (Bailey), is a commercially successful painter of vapid canvasses that corporate clients snap up by the dozen. But, Adrian’s luck appears set to change when Josh brings the stunning Madeleine (Shelton) to one of his concerts. Not only does she embrace his work...

We have new images in from Samuel Goldwyn Films' "(Untitled)" starring Adam Goldberg, Marley Shelton, Eion Bailey, Lucy Punch, Vinnie Jones and Zak Orth. Parker Film Company presents in association with Luber Roklin Entertainment and Bossa Nova Productions Jonathan Parker directs from the screenplay he wrote alongside Catherine di Napoli. Dinapoli produces the film alongside Matt Luber and Andreas Olavarria. Shot in New York, this smart, satirical comedy, a brooding avant-garde composer falls for the gorgeous owner of a trendy New York art gallery and the quirky...