sundance

A Very Stanley Kubrick New Year’s Eve

Just admit it. You don’t really want to go out on New Year’s Eve. It’s amateur hour! Someone will probably puke on you and you won’t be able to get a cab. And if you don’t live someplace with cabs there is a good chance 90% of people on the road will be drunk. Do yourself a favor and stay in. We’ve got you covered with a Stanley Kubrick double feature.

Scary hot boys and just plain scary – what’s playing this week on Sundance

We’ve got another great week of films on Sundance Channel, but before I let you in on the highlights I have to put in a word about tonight’s episode of “My So Called Life.” Let me preface this by saying I came to the show late in life, as in, I was already an adult by the time I met Angela, Rayanne, Rickie and Jordan Catalano, and so I was able to judge Jordan’s brain dead gaze as just that – brain dead  – and wasn’t swayed by how my teenage hormones might have reacted to the oh-so-pretty face and soft brown waves concealing a mind completely devoid of thought – and, apparently, the ability to read. Which bring us to tonight’s episode, “Why Jordan Can’t Read.” It’s maybe one the strangest high school issues to tackle (more popular topics being the ongoing teenage battle against acne and dating). Is illiteracy really an issue that late in the game? Moreover, it’s not clear at the end of the show whether or not anyone is going to help the kid out and teach him his ABC’s. I mean, what’s Angela going to do when Jordan takes her on a date to a fancy restaurant – read him all the items on the menu? Oh wait, that’s right. They don’t go on dates; They just make out all over school. Sigh, remember when…

Bad boys and even badder girls: what’s playing this week on Sundance Channel

Nicole Kidman as photographer Diane Arbus in FUR

Last week we gave you a little taste of what’s in store for Kubrick fans this month on Sundance Channel with EYES WIDE SHUT and BARRY LYNDON. We keep your appetite whet this week with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and another dose of Ryan O’Neal as bad boy BARRY LYNDON. Stay satisfied with Gretchen Mol, who bears is all in THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE. Then LOVE COMES LATELY (based on the short stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer) proves that you don’t have to be young to be young at heart – or have a bed-shaking sex life. And Robert Downey Jr. and Nicole Kidman take sex to a whole new – and hairy – level…

Tang and adult diapers – 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

When I was significantly younger, I dreamt of being an astronaut. Like most stupid kids, it was probably because I thought the space suit looked awesome or that the only training for becoming an astronaut was playing with monkeys, eating green pixie sticks and being quick with a measured “out of this world” joke at cocktail parties. Regardless, my dream was baseless and without merit. Until one day, probably right around the time hair was showing up in new places, I learned that astronauts got all the free Tang they wanted. Was it really possible? As much Tang as I wanted? My stupid childhood yearnings now seemed erudite, the dream was alive. Then, I learned that Tang was a drink, and once again, astronauts were just boring adults who wore diapers…

10 things you didn’t know about Stanley Kubrick

1. You’ve been saying his last name wrong: It’s pronounced Cue-brick, not Koo-brick.

2. He wanted to be a drummer: Specifically a jazz drummer, until his dad bought him a Graflex camera for his 13th birthday and there was no looking back…