It’s conventional wisdom among movie buffs that the best era for American films was the 1970s. If you agree, you may find yourself tempted back into theaters for the first time in awhile this season. Washington Post writer Ann Hornaday sees a revival of the styles and sentiments of classic 70s films in the crop of movies new to theaters or about to be released.

Did you love The Deer Hunter and Coming Home? Then check out In the Valley of Elah. Are you a big Charles Bronson fan? You might like Jodie Foster in the vigilante thriller The Brave One. Michael Clayton is the kind of role Robert Redford would have played in his 70s heyday. And you’ll be reminded of The French Connection’s unforgettable car chase in the new cop drama We Own the Night.

And if you’re really a fan of the 70s, you’re certainly looking forward to Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, the new film by Sidney Lumet, whose resume reads like a list of the best of the 1970s, a decade in which he directed Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Wiz. (OK, they couldn’t all be classics.)

Hornaday talks to Lumet and to Michael Clayton writer-director Tony Gilroy about which of these films are intentional homages and which arise out of a similar zeitgeist. It’s worth reading if you’ve ever given up hope of Hollywood making movies for grown-ups again.

It's entirely possible that the last time you saw New York City in a movie, it was played by Toronto. This city is expensive and complicated, tempting filmmakers to throw in the towel and shoot in a stand-in metropolis. Sometimes the result passes muster, sometimes it doesn't (unless you really can see Mt. Fuji from an uptown golf course, as Rumble in the Bronx suggested).

On October 21st, Academy Award-nominated production designer Kristi Zea (Martin Scorcese's New York Stories and Goodfellas) will discuss her craft and its challenges at Tribeca Cinemas as part of New York City Design Week. Her topic: how to make New York look like a New York you've never seen.

It's a fascinating subject. Because the New York of The French Connection looks very different from the New York of Rich Kids, or Manhattan, or The Taking of Pelham 123, even though all four films were shot within an eight year period. Once we expand the genre to the New York of decades past (The Sweet Smell of Success) and future (The Day After Tomorrow), it becomes difficult to express what the city ought to look like on screen.

You'll soon have more to choose from, since Sex and the City and Burn After Reading and The Incredible Hulk are in production right this very minute. And you can check out at least four films that showcase classic New York City exteriors on AMC this month: Married to the Mob, Sea of Love, Working Girl and Scent of a Woman.

What is the quintessential New York City film?   Tell us in a comment.

There are no truly bad Dustin Hoffman movies. Even the infamous Ishtar isn’t quite as bad as its legend. Sure it drags on, but at least for awhile you gotta laugh at the woefully untalented song and dance team played by Hoffman and Warren Beatty.

Hoffman is in good form in 1992's Hero, airing at 8 am Friday Oct. 12 on AMC, as a low life with at least a touch of Midnight Cowboy’s Ratso Rizzo in him. It’s one of the 47 films (not counting voice work and cameos) he’s appeared in since his debut in 1967, including the new Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium which opens on Nov. 16.

That’s a pretty good pace, but there could have been more. These are some of the other films that almost starred Dustin Hoffman, but didn't (you’ll be surprised by some):

Continue reading "Some movies Dustin Hoffman DIDN'T Star In" »