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Released during the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1970s, Mike Nichols’s Carnal Knowledge is a fascinating cultural artifact. While the masculine fear of female dominance was prevalent in the noirs of the 1940s and ’50s, few, if any, American films before Nichols’s dramedy turned their focus so intensely toward the inner workings of men’s minds in relation to women and sex.

Taking as its subject the wounded male ego, Carnal Knowledge traces the friendship between and sexual exploits of Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel) from their college years in the late ’40s through to their middle-age years in the early ’70s. Written by cartoonist and author Jules Fieffer, the film is fiercely attuned to the feelings of men reckoning with the knowledge that they’re not as dominant in the culture as they once were.

From deflowering Sandy’s girlfriend and future wife, Susan...

Carnal Knowledge, Spine #1270, releases in the Criterion Collection on July 22, 2025.

Mike Nichols (The Graduate) reenters the Criterion Collection with Carnal Knowledge, a cold examination of love, lust, and relationships told primarily from the male point of view. Featuring a young(ish) Jack Nicholson, channeling all of the smarmy charm, confidence, and nonchalant energy that he’d become famous for, the story feels unique in its honest and almost callous approach to relationships.

Carnal Knowledge plot

Sandy and Jonathan are best friends with vastly different approaches to love and sex. Sandy is timid and inexperienced, while Jonathan is a ladies’ man, seeking sexual encounters rather than deeper connections. Years later, after falling in love with the same woman, the two men seemingly trade their outlooks, with Sandy trying his hand as a womanizer, and Jonathan entering a committed, monogamous relationship.

The review Ann-Margret (left) and Jack Nicholson (right) Art Garfunkel (left...

For one night anyway, Matt Groening could ignore talk about his long-running show’s decline and simply celebrate The Simpsons. Who can blame the guy for taking a victory lap after accepting the Honorary Cristal Award this week at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival?

Speaking to his fellow animators, Groening celebrated a life that allowed him to “fill the universe with crazy characters who do what you tell them to do,” according to Deadline. “You can have them be brave, but isn’t it more fun to have Homer fall off a cliff? We torment our characters and have fun with them.”

After more than 36 seasons and 800 episodes, Groening revealed what he believes to be the secret to the show’s enduring popularity: a refusal to give in to laziness and a commitment to comedy. “As it goes on, we become known for different kinds of jokes,” he said.

Matt Groening, arguably the greatest TV animator of all time, grew visibly emotional receiving the Honorary Cristal Award at today’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which he labeled the “best festival in the world, animation or otherwise.”

Receiving the gong in front of a packed house, he paid tribute to the “gods and goddesses” in the audience, who “fill the universe with crazy characters who do what you tell them to do.”

“You can have them be brave but isn’t it more fun to have Homer fall off a cliff?,” he said. “We torment our characters and have fun with them.”

Groening was emotional as he thanked his family and reminded the audience that the main characters in The Simpsons are famously named after his father and mother, Homer and Marge, his sisters, Lisa and Maggie, and his grandfather, Abe.

Is Bart named after Groening? “I’ll let you into a little secret…...

Whenever a memoir is set to be released, it can usually lead to some very interesting stories from the past. Former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller is currently on a book tour promoting his recently released memoir, Who Knew, and with it came a very interesting Q&a reveal about the 1980 live-action adaptation of Popeye, starring Robin Williams, and how, based on his assertion, the antics on set could maybe rival a night at Studio 54.

During a Q&a moderated by Anderson Cooper (via Variety), Diller was asked what was "the most coked-up film set" he ever visited during his tenure as Paramount Pictures CEO. It didn't take Diller long to reveal that it was Popeye, released in 1980. The former CEO said:

"Coked-up film set? Oh, 'Popeye.' By the way, you can watch it. If you watch Popeye, you're watching a movie that, you think of it in...

After beginning the season with a fake-out series finale and adding Disney+ exclusive episodes along the way, The Simpsons concludes its 36th season this Sunday on Fox with plenty of gas still left in the tank. After all, it was just weeks ago that a four-season renewal for the show was announced, which would bring the series to a nice, round 40 seasons. Could that landmark number be the point at which Springfield shuts its doors for good? Or are the Simpsons now legacy characters destined to run forever like their owner Mickey Mouse?

And, if The Simpsons does continue on, what of its cast? This past season, Pamela Hayden, the voice of Milhouse and other beloved characters, retired, making her the first original cast member to do so. Others wonder if, by the time Season 40 rolls around and there are 800 plus episodes in existence, there will be anything left for the show to say?...

The Criterion Collection has announced their July 2025 slate of titles, delivering Stanley Kubrick, a film noir classic, an underrated New Hollywood gem, and more. Let’s check out what Criterion has in store:

First up is Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (spine #1269), a scorcher of a noir that offers Glenn Ford and femme fatale Gloria Grahame in some of their finest performances (and don’t forget Lee Marvin!). With stellar black and white cinematography by Charles Lang (no relation), The Big Heat stands out in a decade crowded with some of the greatest film noirs ever. Special features include two new commentaries, an archival audio interview with director Lang (co-conducted by Peter Boganovich) and interviews with filmmakers Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese.

A pleasant addition is 1971’s Carnal Knowledge (spine #1270), one of just three Mike Nichols films featured in the collection. I always considered Carnal Knowledge one of the...

Jules Feiffer, a screenwriter, playwright and cartoonist perhaps most famous for contributing the screenplay to Mike Nichols’ “Carnal Knowledge,” has died at the age of 95. His wife confirmed the news to The Washington Post on Tuesday.

When Feiffer was 17, he became the assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner, often helping with writing and drawing on strips. This included working on Eisner’s groundbreaking comic, “The Spirit.” In 1956, he started drawing a comic strip for the Village Voice, which he would do for the next four decades. In 1986, Feiffer won the Pulitzer Prize for his cartoon work and, in 2004, was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame.

In the 1960s, Feiffer started writing plays and movies, including “Little Murders” (which he later adapted into a movie directed by Alan Arkin) and “Carnal Knowledge,” a project that was meant to be a play until Nichols decided to make it a movie in...

Jules Feiffer, a Pultizer Prize-winning cartoonist and author who also wrote the screenplay for films, including Carnal Knowledge and Popeye, died Jan. 17 of congestive heart failure at his home in upstate New York. He was 95. His wife, Jz Holden, confirmed his death to the Washington Post.

Feiffer’s long career began at the age of 17 when he became assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner, working with Eisner on his comic strips, including The Spirit. In 1956, he joined The Village Voice as a staff cartoonist where he produced the weekly comic strip “Feiffer” for more than 40 years, until 1997. The comic strip ran in The Village Voice from 1956 until 2000, and was syndicated to more than 100 newspapers.

His entree into the film business came in 1961, with the Oscar-winning animated short Munro, based on his story about a child who is drafted.

He went on to write what became his best-known screenplay for the Mike Nichols...

Jules Feiffer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who also wrote occasionally for the stage and screen, including Mike Nichols’ film “Carnal Knowledge” and Robert Altman’s “Popeye,” died on Jan. 17 at his home in upstate New York. He was 95. Feiffer’s wife confirmed to the Washington Post that he died of congestive heart failure.

Feiffer was a cartoonist with the Village Voice for more than 40 years until 1997.

His first connection with the film business came with the Oscar-winning 1961 animated short “Munro,” based on Feiffer’s story — a parable about the mindless military mentality in which the title character, a 4-year-old, is drafted.

Feiffer adapted his own play “Little Murders,” a dark satire about life in New York that had been briefly staged on Broadway in 1967, for the 1971 film of that name directed by Alan Arkin and starring Elliott Gould. Roger Ebert gave the movie four out of four stars and said,...

Jules Feiffer, the provocative satirist, cartoonist, playwright and 1960s counterculturist who wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ classic Carnal Knowledge and Robert Altman’s Popeye, has died. He was 95.

A Pulitzer Prize winner, Feiffer died Jan. 17 at his home in Upstate New York of congestive heart failure, his wife, Jz Holden, told The Washington Post.

The Bronx native joined such luminaries as Samuel Beckett, Sam Shepard, John Lennon and Robert Benton in contributing material to the bawdy 1969 Broadway musical revue Oh! Calcutta!, and he earned a Tony nomination for best play in 1976 for Knock, Knock. Starring Judd Hirsch, it was “a wild spree of jokes, pratfalls, word games, collapsing scenery, falling bodies and burlesque sight gags,” according to The New York Times.

In 1967, his original comedy Little Murders made its Broadway bow with a cast that included Barbara Cook, Elliott Gould and David Steinberg, and Feiffer wrote the screenplay for...

The live-action movies based on comic book storylines or animated characters are either hugely successful or a massive disappointment as we have witnessed in the recent adaptations. It seems like we’re all set to witness another adaptation of a very popular cartoon character, as it was recently announced that Michael Caleo is allegedly working on a live-action adaptation of Popeye the Sailor Man.

Popeye the Sailor Man Popeye the Sailor Man is getting another live-action after 40 years

Popeye is one of the most popular cartoon characters the world has ever seen and many generations grew up watching the animated series based on the popular sailor man who gained superhuman strength by eating Spinach. The character even celebrated its 95th anniversary earlier this year as it was first released in the 1929 comic Thimble Theater.

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As reported by Variety,...

Alan Arkin’s Little Murders, Arkin’s stunning 1971 feature directorial debut, based on the stage play of the same name by Jules Feiffer, is a dark and merciless examination of paranoia and urban horror that inspires stunned, uncomfortable laughter from viewers. Indeed, how can someone laugh after watching someone indiscriminately shoot people to death with a rifle from an apartment window, and what does it say about a person who would laugh at such a scene?

A forerunner of such New York-based urban terror films as After Hours, Cruising, Death Wish, and Taxi Driver, Little Murders stands apart from these later films by presenting a portrait of a New York that is as much gripped by a reign of apathy as terror.

As the director, Arkin, who also appears in the film as an emotionally-damaged police lieutenant, portrays New York as a hopeless and masochistic state of badly-timed power outages,...

The first time I saw Alan Arkin onscreen, he scared the hell out of me.

The veteran Academy Award-winning actor, who died Thursday at the age of 89, is best known these days for his wittily avuncular presence in films like Little Miss Sunshine and such television shows as The Kominsky Method, his last great acting role. But my first exposure to him came in middle school, where for some inexplicable reason the powers that be decided that treating the entire student body to a screening of the film Wait Until Dark was a good idea.

In that classic 1967 thriller, Arkin played Harry Roat, the most sadistic member of a trio of villains terrorizing a blind Audrey Hepburn because they think she possesses a doll filled with heroin. In a climactic scene set in almost near-darkness, a seemingly dead Roat suddenly jumps into the frame and grabs Hepburn by the leg.

“Good Night Oppy” lived up to its name. The space doc about rovers on Mars took the top honors at the 7th Annual Critics Choice Awards in midtown Manhattan. The move from Brooklyn (where the show had been produced for the last six years) was an upgrade. “Take a look around the Edison Ballroom,” ‘Oppy’ filmmaker Ryan White said. “It was a theater for over 60 years and did ‘Oh Calcutta’ for 13 years. Totally nude with sex-related sketches written by Sam Shepard, Samuel Beckett, Jules Feiffer and John Lennon.” Okay, yes, this place in the Edison Hotel is cooler.

Comic Wyatt Cenac hosted. “Keep making good stuff,” he told the audience. “So next year we don’t have to turn this thing into an awards show for TikTok explainer videos.” The star power was amped up for the new digs. Paul Shaeffer gave “The Beatles: Get Back” its Best Musical Doc award.

42 years ago, Robin Williams was not at the top of anyone's list to bring E.C. Segar's one-eyed comic strip sailor to life. Though "Mork and Mindy" had turned the stand-up comic into a major television star, he had yet to prove himself as a big-screen draw. Producer Robert Evans initially wanted Dustin Hoffman to top-line his live-action adaptation, but when the temperamental actor dropped out after clashing with screenwriter Jules Feiffer, he took a risk on the up-and-coming funnyman.

Williams' whirling-dervish energy wasn't entirely compatible with director Robert Altman's penchant for long, laid-back takes sprinkled with overlapping dialogue. Whereas characters tend to drift in...

The post Robin Williams Had Some Regrets About His Popeye Performance appeared first on /Film.

Norton Juster, author of the acclaimed modern classic children’s books The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line, died last night. He was 91.

His death was confirmed by Penguin Random House. Additional details were not immediately available.

Both of Juster’s most well-known works of the early 1960s were adapted for film, in collaboration with animator Chuck Jones: The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, first published by Random House in 1963, was adapted by Jones and MGM Animation into an Oscar-winning 1965 10-minute short film. The Phantom Tollbooth, published by Random House in 1961 with illustrations by Juster’s friend Jules Feiffer, was adapted in 1970 as a live-action/animated fantasy film, directed by Jones and Abe Levitow, with Dave Monahan directed the live-action segments.

In 2017, Deadline reported that TriStar had set Matt Shakman to direct a new film version of The Phantom Tollbooth, with a script by...

Norton Juster, the children’s book author best known for his 1961 classic The Phantom Tollbooth, has died. He was 91.

A representative from Random House confirmed Juster’s death to Rolling Stone. Per The New York Times, Juster’s daughter, Emily Juster, issued a statement saying the cause of death was complications from a recent stroke.

Author, animator, and friend of Juster’s, Mo Willems, posted about his death on Twitter, writing, “My lunch partner, Norton Juster, ran out of stories and passed peacefully last night. Best known for The Phantom Tollbooth...

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“A Mixed Can Of Spinach”

By Raymond Benson

When I first saw Popeye on the big screen on its initial release in December of 1980, I was disappointed and a little appalled. I was (and still am) a huge Robert Altman fan, and I had been expecting great things. The film touted the first motion picture appearance by Robin Williams as well (although he’d had in a small role in a 1977 picture). Anticipation was high.

Popeye received very mixed reviews, but it made a decent amount of money at the box office, and became an object of derision in Hollywood for years. Altman was unable to get big studio backing for over a decade, so he moved to Europe and made small pictures there.

Then—home video turned the movie around. Popeye became a best-selling VHS tape for children, and its reputation improved.

Popeye, which turns 40 this month, owes a debt to another beloved character: Little Orphan Annie. Producer Robert Evans desperately wanted to make Annie for Paramount. But when it went to Columbia, he was determined to make his own comic strip musical, and learned that Paramount owned Popeye.

Evans asked cartoonist and screenwriter Jules Feiffer (Carnal Knowledge) to pen the screenplay. Feiffer agreed, as long as it could be based on E.C. Segar’s original Popeye strip — “a work of genius,” he said — instead of Max Fleischer’s Popeye the Sailor cartoons, which he felt were not. (“I want ...

Popeye, which turns 40 this month, owes a debt to another beloved character: Little Orphan Annie. Producer Robert Evans desperately wanted to make Annie for Paramount. But when it went to Columbia, he was determined to make his own comic strip musical, and learned that Paramount owned Popeye.

Evans asked cartoonist and screenwriter Jules Feiffer (Carnal Knowledge) to pen the screenplay. Feiffer agreed, as long as it could be based on E.C. Segar’s original Popeye strip — “a work of genius,” he said — instead of Max Fleischer’s Popeye the Sailor cartoons, which he felt were not. (“I want ...

The beloved anvil-armed sailor of the seven seas comes magically to life in Popeye, arriving on Blu-ray for the first time ever this week from Paramount Home Entertainment. Starring the incomparable Robin Williams in his first big-screen role and Shelley Duvall as his devoted sweetie, Olive Oyl, the delightful musical celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, having debuted in theaters on December 12, 1980. To celebrate, we've got an exclusive look at one of the special features which goes behind the scenes of the iconic Popeye the Sailor movie.

The new Blu-ray includes access to a Digital copy of the film, along with nearly 30 minutes of all-new bonus content featuring excerpts from one of Robin Williams' final interviews, a vintage interview with director Robert Altman, as well as a newly conducted interview with Stephen Altman.

Popeye 40th Anniversary Blu-ray special features:• Return to Sweethaven: A Look Back with Robin Williams and the...

The writer/director of Spontaneous discusses some of his favorite off the beaten path films. Plus grooming tips!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Underwater (2020)

The Babysitter (2017)

Jane Got A Gun (2015)

Spontaneous (2020)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Mandy (2018)

Bad Hair (2020)

Little Murders (1971)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)

Parents (1989)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Kuroneko (1968)

Onibaba (1964)

Birth (2004)

Heathers (1988)

Sexy Beast (2000)

Under The Skin (2013)

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Paddington 2 (2017)

The Brood (1979)

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The Fly (1986)

A History of Violence (2005)

Brick (2005)

Knives Out (2019)

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)

Gremlins (1984)

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Dead Alive (1993)

Meet The Feebles (1989)

The Addams Family (1991)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Other Notable Items

Bruce Springsteen

Justin Simien

Hulu

Tales From The Crypt TV series (1989-1996)

Alan Arkin

Temple University

Warren Beatty

Jules Feiffer

Paul Sylbert...

Bruce Campbell will be the voice of President Richard M. Nixon in an indie thriller and dark comedy set in the Watergate era called “18 1/2” as directed by Slamdance Film Festival co-founder Dan Mirvish, Bugeater Films announced Friday.

The film’s live-action cast was also unveiled and stars Willa Fitzgerald, John Magaro, Vondie Curtis Hall, Catherine Curtin and Sullivan Jones. And alongside Campbell in the voice cast are Ted Raimi as Gen. Al Haig and Jon Cryer as H. R. Haldeman.

“18 1/2” is a historical fiction film about the 18 1/2 minutes of audio erased from President Nixon’s Oval Office voice recording system that led to the unraveling of the Watergate scandal. It made the audio’s erasure one of the worst incidents of evidence destruction by a presidential administration and something that’s been ripe for conspiracy theories. Campbell has previously played another President, playing Ronald Reagan on “Fargo,” and his voice...

There are bits of “Repo Man,” “Napoleon Dynamite” and other literally or just philosophically “punk rock” cult comedies in the DNA of Adam Carter Rehmeier’s rude yet ingratiating “Dinner in America” — and mercifully none whatsoever here of his 2011 first feature “The Bunny Game,” a shrilly monotonous “extreme” horror for which all is now forgiven. This rambunctious mix of anarchic humor and misfit romance is not always inspired in the writing department, but its uneven qualities are mostly steamrolled over by the infectiously high-energy execution.

Best of all, it’s got a knockout lead performance by Kyle Gallner (soon to headline CBS All Access series “Interrogation”), who turns an admittedly showy role into something quite likely to become the favorite movie character ever for a small but fervent minority. As the saying goes, a star is born. Though unlikely to risk a major commercial breakout, there are enough other assets...

Last year, a piece in the Washington Post raised the question, “Is Jules Feiffer Our Greatest Living Cartoonist?” To which Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” creator Art Spiegelman replied, “He’s certainly near the very pinnacle, wherever that is.” All of which sounds rather complimentary if it weren’t a somewhat inadequate description of the 89-year-old social satirist extraordinaire’s myriad cultural accomplishments.

As well as creating decades of celebrated work as cartoonist for the Village Voice and Playboy, Feiffer also penned novels and works for stage and film, including screenplays for noted auteurs such as Robert Altman, Mike Nichols and Alain Resnais. More recently, Feiffer penned the screenplay for director Dan Mirvish’s acclaimed 2017 film, “Bernard and Huey.”

Plays derived from his work or written by Feiffer have garnered multiple Tony nominations, including one over a half-century ago for a young actor who’s getting the SAG Life Achievement Award this month: Alan Alda.

Carlos Saldanha, the director of animated films “Rio” and most recently “Ferdinand,” has signed on to direct a live-action feature adaptation of the classic children’s novel “The Phantom Tollbooth” at TriStar, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Ted Melfi (“Hidden Figures”) wrote the current draft of the screenplay, based on Norton Juster’s 1961 book, along with previous writers Michael Vukadinovich and Phil Johnston.

“The Phantom Tollbooth,” which is being produced by Donald De Line and Ed McDonnell, would be Saldanha’s live-action feature debut.

Also Read: 'Ferdinand' Movie Review: Charming Kids' Cartoon Is Bullish on Non-Conformity

“The Phantom Tollbooth,” which featured illustrations by Jules Feiffer, is a fantasy novel about a bored young boy named Milo. He receives a magic tollbooth as a gift and finds himself transported to the Kingdom of Wisdom. He meets two companions and goes on a quest to rescue...

Carlos Saldanha, the director behind the colorful Rio and Ice Age animated movies, has signed on to direct The Phantom Tollbooth, Tri-Star’s adaptation of the Norton Juster children’s classic.

Donald De Line and Ed McDonnell are producing the project, which would end up being the live-action feature debut for Saldanha, who last helmed Ferdinand, the adaptation of another children’s classic.

First published in 1961 with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, Phantom Tollbooth centers on Milo, an apathetic child who is bored by everything. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through it and discovers the magical Lands Beyond —...

Carlos Saldanha, the director behind the colorful Rio and Ice Age animated movies, has signed on to direct The Phantom Tollbooth, Tri-Star’s adaptation of the Norton Juster children’s classic.

Donald De Line and Ed McDonnell are producing the project, which would end up being the live-action feature debut for Saldanha, who last helmed Ferdinand, the adaptation of another children’s classic.

First published in 1961 with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, Phantom Tollbooth centers on Milo, an apathetic child who is bored by everything. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through it and discovers the magical Lands Beyond —...

The Village Voice, which was founded in 1955 and left an indelible mark on New York’s cultural and political landscape for decades, has finally faced up to its daunting business reality and opted to cease editorial operations.

The news bubbled up in reports early this afternoon by Gothamist, the Associated Press and Columbia Journalism Review. Those outlets obtained a recording of a conference call with staffers conducted this morning by Peter Barbey, who bought the weekly from Voice Media Group in 2015.

“Today is kind of a sucky day,” Barbey said on the call. “Due to the business realities, we are going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.”

About half of the remaining 20 staffers were laid off as of today, with the other half winding down operations and focusing on digitizing the paper’s extensive archives. In 2017, the Voice had stopped publishing its print edition but remained online.

In a later statement,...

“I can’t decide which one of you is more narcissistic” is a line from Dan Mirvish’s adaptation of Jules Feiffer’s comic strip “Bernard and Huey,” and it’s one of two pieces bits of dialogue — amidst a roaring avalanche of verbiage, mind you — that neatly encapsulates the experience of watching this movie.

The other line is “Do you really believe this s–t, or are you just talking?”

“Bernard and Huey” is the story of Bernard, a 49-year-old editor of historical non-fiction, with an active sex life and not much else. He’s been living in his apartment for a whole five years, and he hasn’t even bothered to get a table yet. One night there’s a knock on Bernard’s door, and he’s surprised to discover his estranged college friend Huey on the other side, waving around fistfuls of cash and looking for a place to stay.

Written by Various | Art by Various | Published by DC Comics

To paraphrase John Lennon, before Action Comics there was nothing. Action Comics was the comic book industry equivalent of the Big Bang. Prior to Action Comics you had comic books, but these were usually collections of previously published newspaper strips, repackaged to encourage people to double dip, or newspaper style strips with Flash Gordon type characters. In fact Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, Superman’s creators and effectively the fathers of the superhero comic book industry (Stan Lee can be a honorary uncle) originally conceived of Superman as a newspaper strip, and had tried to shop it around but no newspaper syndicate would touch it. Their loss was most certainly our gain.

Action Comics issue 1, dated April 1938, was rushed out by National Periodicals (DC) to capitalise on the growing fad for comic books. Their Detective Comics book, still a year...

The blackest of black comedies confronts us with an urban worst case scenario — Jules Feiffer’s ‘social horror’ movie is like a sitcom in Hell, with citizens numbed and trembling over the unending meaningless violence. What was nasty satire in 1971 now plays like the 6 o’clock news. Too radical for its time, Feiffer and director Alan Arkin’s picture is more painfully funny, and frightening, than ever.

Little Murders

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator (UK)

1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date April 30, 2017 / Available from Amazon UK £22.99

Starring: Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson, Jon Korkes, John Randolph, Doris Roberts, Lou Jacobi, Donald Sutherland, Alan Arkin, Martin Kove.

Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Film Editor: Howard Kuperman

Production Design: Gene Rudolf

Original Music: Fred Kaz

Written by Jules Feiffer from his play

Produced by Jack Brodsky (and Elliott Gould)

Directed by Alan Arkin

Little Murders was one of the first new...

For those seeking an escape from our current political climate, “The Good Fight” is without a doubt not for you. The “Good Wife” spinoff, returning for a second season on CBS All Access Sunday, March 4, has managed to do something many people of a liberal inclination have not: stay shocked. Stay astounded. Stay angry. Even the episode titles aim to keep the Trump presidency at the front of our minds; the Season 2 premiere, “Day 408,” just so happens to match with the number of days Trump will have been in office as of Sunday, March 4, when the episode premieres.

That rage is not directed singularly at Trump, but at the rest of the world, as Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) flips through the TV channels, finding herself unable to escape the news cycle even while she and fellow lawyers Luca (Cush Jumbo) and Maya (Rose Leslie) struggle to maintain their sanity on a day-to-day level.

The backstory of Dan Mirvish's indie dramedy is nearly more interesting than the film itself. Years ago, the co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival read about an unproduced screenplay written by Jules Feiffer decades earlier. Mirvish contacted the legendary cartoonist/writer, but Feiffer was unable to locate the script. After much sleuthing, a copy was eventually located, followed by the original handwritten draft that was found in Feiffer's archives at the Library of Congress. The resulting film, Bernard and Huey, serves as this year's closing night film at Slamdance. It is based on characters created by Feiffer way back in 1957...

Exclusive: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios, has acquired the North American rights to the Dan Mirvish-directed Jules Feiffer-penned comedy Bernard & Huey, which premiered at Slamdance. They’ve scheduled the film to debut in May in ten North American theatrical markets and multiple platforms at the same time. The film stars Jim Rash (the co-writer of The Descendants and co-director of The Way Way Back)…...

Even though many enduring elements that we now associate with Superman were products of the Silver Age or the 1940’s radio drama, it’s important that we never forget the contributions that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster made to comic books – and pop culture as a whole – when they created the Man of Steel for Action Comics #1 back in 1938. After all, that served as the very blueprint for the superhero genre as we know it today.

With that, one could say that the character’s 80th anniversary being celebrated by the release of the one-thousandth issue of Action is a bit too poetic. And appropriately enough, DC is complementing the periodical release of said issue with a commemorative hardcover titled Action Comics #1000: 80 Years of Superman. Suffice it to say, this is shaping up to be a must-own for any fan of Big Blue.

Understandably, many of you reading this...

That sound you’re hearing is coming from Park City, where movies big and small continue to unspool at the Slamdance Film Festival. And one of the most intriguing entries in the festival this year is the closing night film, “Bernard And Huey,” and today we’re excited to debut an exclusive clip from the movie.

Penned by Jules Feiffer (“Carnal Knowledge,” “Popeye“), directed by Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish, and starring Jim Rash, David Koechner, Sasha Alexander, Eka Darville, Richard Kind, Lauren Miller Rogen, Nancy Travis, Bellamy Young, and Mae Whitman, the film follows two friends who are reunited after twenty-five years, with their lives as complicated as ever.

Continue reading ‘Bernard And Huey’ Clip: Mae Whitman Tells The Truth In Her Art [Slamdance Exclusive] at The Playlist.

Bernard And Huey screens as part of the 26th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival on Sunday, November 5 at 6 Pm at landmark’s Tivoli Theatre. For ticket information click Here

Here’s a rarity. It’s a live-action feature film based on a comic that doesn’t involve brawny men in armored tights wailing on each other (and taking out entire city blocks). That’s because it’s based on a newspaper/magazine comic panel (like “The Far Side”) rather than those brightly colored page-turners from Marvel and DC. This is the brainchild of celebrated cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and uses recurring characters from the pages of the Village Voice and Playboy, spanning thirty years. When we first meet Bernard And Huey, they’re in their early twenties, always on the make (or in their language “looking to make out”). Bespectacled, nebbishy Bernard is bemoaning his last lady, while brunt,...

Love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that every superhero you admire today owes their existence to the Man of Steel – and it all started back in 1938 with the release of Action Comics #1. In those pages, we saw the debut of Superman, who soon went on to completely take over that title and headline an ongoing series of his own.

Originally created by Jerry Siegel and the Joe Shuster, Big Blue has since inspired fans in radio productions, animation, live action cinema and especially the realm of television, which is seemingly never bereft of Kal-El or his supporting characters for too long.

Not surprisingly, DC Comics intend on honoring his enduring legacy next year with the historic release of Action Comics #1000, the first comic book to organically reach that milestone. (Face it, Deadpool‘s tongue-in-cheek thousandth issue doesn’t count.) And as such, it obviously won’t be your average twenty-odd page release.

Cinema St. Louis has unveiled the narrative and documentary features that comprise the 26th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival, to be held Nov. 2-12, Among the highlights are such St. Louis-related works as “Atomic Homefront,” opening-night film “Bad Grandmas,” and “For Ahkeem” and such festival buzz films as “Call Me by Your Name,” “Dahmer,” “Darkest Hour,” “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” “Last Flag Flying,” “The Leisure Seeker,” “Thoroughbreds,” and “Walking Out.”

For a complete list of the films, go Here

http://www.cinemastlouis.org/films-preview

The fest will honor Pam Grier (“Bad Grandmas” and “Jackie Brown”) with a Women in Film Award; Sam Pollard (“Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me” and “Acorn and the Firestorm”) with a Lifetime Achievement Award; Marco Williams (“Tell Them We Are Rising”) with a Contemporary Cinema Award; and Washington U. grad Dan Mirvish (the Jules Feiffer-written “Bernard...

Broadway salutes Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard on August 2, 2017 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2010, I attended a dress rehearsal for Sam Shepard's A Lie Of The Mind, directed by Ethan Hawke. Alessandro Nivola, who took on the role Harvey Keitel played in the Eighties, told me that Sam "started offering up new dialogue."

Sam Shepard shared bird rescue and Gregory Corso stories. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Shepard in 1969 provided a text for Kenneth Tynan's Broadway musical/revue Oh! Calcutta!, which also had contributions from Samuel Beckett, John Lennon and Jules Feiffer. True West came to Broadway with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly in 2000. Gary Sinise and John Malkovich played the brothers in the 1982 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production which was filmed for television.

Buried Child won a Pulitzer in 1979 and the play with Lois Smith was directed by Sinise in 1996.

Fool For Love starred Sam Rockwell and Nina Arianda...

The cast and creative team are now in rehearsal in New York City, prior to technical rehearsals at Bay Street Theater, for The Man In The Ceiling, Book by Jules Feiffer, Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa, and Directed by Jeffrey Seller, producer of Hamilton The Man In The Ceiling will run May 30 - June 25. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the company in rehearsal below...

Keep up with the glitzy awards world with our weekly Awards Roundup column.

– The American Cinematheque has announced that the 31st American Cinematheque Award Sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg, will be presented to Academy Award-nominee Amy Adams at the Cinematheque’s annual benefit gala. The presentation will take place Friday, November 10, 2017 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. The award presentation will be held in the International Ballroom and will include in-person tributes from some of Adams’ colleagues and friends. Other show participants will be announced as they are confirmed in the coming months.

“The American Cinematheque is extremely pleased to honor Amy Adams as the 31st recipient of the American Cinematheque award at our celebration this year,” said Rick Nicita, American Cinematheque Chairman. “Amy Adams is one of the most beloved, admired and respected actresses in movies today. Her credits range from critical favorites like ‘American Hustle’ and ‘Arrival...

I have wonderful Yuletide memories. Like every young boy, I quickly learned that the true meaning of the Holiday Season was… getting more stuff. And being the greedy little monster I was, (and, I guess, I remain) I also learned that I could extend that wonderful feeling of “Christmas Acquisition” through books. More than a toy, or apparel or certainly candy, the enjoyment of a book would linger well past the twelve days of Christmas.

As a comics fan back in the day, actual books about comics were few and far between. One that did make it onto the traditional bookstore shelves was Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes. Soon after Superman: From the 30’s to the 70’s was a one of those “big wow” books about comics that was gifted to me. It was so massively thick that I couldn’t imagine anyone would be able...

Jim Rash will star as Bernard in the Jules Feiffer-scripted/Dan Mirvish-helmed film Bernard And Huey. He is joined in the film by Sasha Alexander, Bellamy Young, Richard Kind, Eka Darville, Keelin Woodell, Lauren Miller Rogen, Shelby Fero, Jake O’Connor, Jay Renshaw, and Mae Whitman. Previously announced cast include David Koechner (Huey), and Nancy Travis. The comedy is about two old friends and the women who complicate their lives. It is based on characters that Feiffer…...

Nancy Travis has been tapped as the lead in Bernard and Huey, written by Pulitzer-winning satirist and screenwriter Jules Feiffer. Based on Feiffer’s comic strip characters, the Dan Mirvish-directed pic follows two old friends and a woman who complicates their lives. Travis will play Mona, a stylish, decisive, opinionated and brutally honest editor at a New York publishing house. She stars as the matriarch opposite Tim Allen on ABC’s Last Man Standing, whose sixth season p…...

Readers who grew up with the beloved Norton Juster children’s book, “The Phantom Tollbooth,” are in for a treat. The Tracking Board reports that Tristar Pictures is developing a film adaptation of the 1961 novel and has tapped Michael Vukadinovich to pen the script.

The film has been in the works for quite some time and recently moved from Warner Bros. to Tristar. The project previously had Gary Ross directing the feature from a script written by Alex Tse.

Now, Donald De Line is producing through his De Line Pictures with Ed McDonnell of Maple Shade Films. Nicole Brown is the studio executive for Tristar.

Read More: ‘Little Women’: Greta Gerwig Will Rewrite Sony’s Remake of Louisa May Alcott Novel

For those unfamiliar with the classic tale, “The Phantom Tollbooth,” illustrated by Jules Feiffer, follows a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and,...

Chicago – After he reigned as the father in the classic 1979 film “Breaking Away,” actor Paul Dooley suddenly became everyone’s Dad – and by everyone that meant Molly Ringwald (“Sixteen Candles”), Julia Roberts (“Runaway Bride”) and Helen Hunt (“Mad About You”). He tells all in Part Two of a comprehensive interview.

The former “Paul Brown’ was born in West Virginia, and studied acting at West Virginia University, before heading to New York City and a new career as Paul Dooley. He did stage work, stand-up comedy and the New York City version of The Second City. He got his big break in the original stage version of “The Odd Couple” in 1965, directed by the legendary Mike Nichols. While working the stage, he appeared in a number of commercials, eventually moving to Los Angeles to “be where the action is.”

Paul Dooley (right) Being Dad with Justin Henry and Carlin Glynn in...

Bay Street Theater amp Sag Harbor Center for the Arts announces the success of the25thAnnual Summer Gala, celebrating Bay Street's Silver Anniversary,which took place in Sag Harbor on the Long Wharf onJuly 9, 2016to benefit Bay Street's theatrical, educational and community programs. The evening included a special performance of scenes from productions from the past 25 years directed by Will Pomerantz, as well as a silent auction, cocktail party, Live 'Fantasy Auction,' dinner and dancing. Artistic Director, Scott Schwartz also announced a new partnership with Jeffrey Seller, producer ofHamilton. Bay Street Theater will produce the new musical,The Man in the Ceilingby Jules Feiffer and Andrew Lippa, directed by Jeffrey Seller as part of the 2017 Mainstage Season.