Title: Shame Director: Steve McQueen Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Hannah Ware, Nicole Beharie, Elizabeth Masucci Years ago, when the NC-17 rating was first created, it was serious-minded, almost grim explorations of adult sexuality like “Shame” that its champions no doubt had in mind. Of course, along came the campy “Showgirls,” which didn’t help matters. Mostly, though, the NC-17 rating was a non-starter for Hollywood studios not only because they tend to instinctively shy away from art and controversy like a cat avoids rain, but also because many newspapers — bowing to the tom-toms of local morality police — refused to carry advertising for NC-17 films, which made…

A discussion and review of the newest movie releases from your favorite entertainment and celebrity website! Hello everyone, this is episode 24 of the Movie Night Podcast and this week Rudie Obias is joined by Elisabeth Rappe of Film.com to discuss the latest film from filmmaker Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Download and listen to it. “Shame” features Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie. Read Rudie’s review of “Shame” from the 49th New York Film Festival. On the next episode of Movie Night, we’ll be discussing “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” “The Sitter,” “Young Adult” and “Tinker, Tailor,…

Title: Margaret Director: Kenneth Lonergan Starring: Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, Jean Reno, Jeannie Berlin, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Broderick,  Kenneth Lonergan, Rosemarie Dewitt, Allison Janney “Margaret,” the first film behind the camera from writer-director Kenneth Lonergan in more than a decade, is a hot mess. Considering its behind-the-scenes wrangling and long road to release, however, that’s not really that surprising. In 2000, Longergan helped bolster the mainstream careers of Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo with “You Can Count On Me,” the engaging, Oscar-nominated story of a fractured adult sibling relationship. In 2005 he shot his follow-up, “Margaret,” about a troubled high school teenager who witnesses a terrible bus accident…

You know what’s great about this week’s Movie News Cheat Sheet? Instead of using the information for office or school conversation-starters, you can take it to your Labor Day celebrations. Let’s just hope your holiday weekend is better than Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D‘s. While The Help continues its box office domination, those two prove that the majority of moviegoers know the difference between campy horror fun and sheer garbage. In other troublesome news, both Napoleon Dynamite and The Hangover Part II are in the midst of courtroom battles, the Napoleon Dynamite production company duking it out with Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros. facing a lawsuit from an injured…

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Napoleon Pictures, the production company behind “Napoleon Dynamite,” is suing Fox Searchlight for $10 million for allegedly under-reporting royalties as well as taking incorrect revenue deductions. According to the article, the production company filed the lawsuit Aug. 30 in Los Angeles Superior Court; the claim is that Fox Searchlight initially promised huge royalties for the film’s home video sales, but failed to do so. According to the claim, Napoleon Pictures had its share of offers from distributors, but the company decided to go with Fox Searchlight because of their $4.75 million up-front fee and the aforementioned high royalties. However, Fox Searchlight, who agreed to pay…

Title: The Art of Getting By Directed by: Gavin Wiesen Starring: Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Anagarano, Rita Wilson and Blair Underwood Existentialism in movies is a hard thing to nail down. How do you illustrate nothingness in being in a movie which has a plot, narrative and characters? It is even harder to pull this off and be completely entertaining. I wanted to like this movie so much but I feel it got in the way of itself. For all the themes and relationships presented in the movie, it ultimately falls flat but is, somewhat, kept alive through its very charming leads, Freddie Highmore and, the alluring, Emma Roberts….

A pinch of wry fatalism, and the ability to step back and view the trials and tribulations of adolescence as moments in time, fixed suffering on a much broader horizon, is an attractive quality in teenagers (and especially so once they age out a bit more, into their twenties, and begin to reflect back on younger years). It’s that sort of emotionally jumbled ironic detachment that drives writer-director Gavin Wiesen’s feature film debut, ’The Art of Getting By’, a coming-of-age tale in which bright but undermotivated slacker George (Freddie Highmore) is befriended by and finds a kindred spirit in Sally (Emma Roberts). We had a chance to speak one-on-one with Wiesen recently, about his previous…

Fox Searchlight is getting ready to adapt writer-cartoonist Daniel Clowes’ latest graphic novel ‘Wilson’ for the big screen. The book follows the title character, who is a self-loathing unemployed man who makes himself and everyone around him miserable all the time. Director Alexander Payne is at the top of the list to helm the project. Paul Giamatti has been suggested for the title role, though neither the director nor the cast has been decided yet. Clowes is expected to write the film’s script. If ‘Wilson’ is brought to the big screen, it would be the third movie based on one of Clowes’ works. His comic book ‘Ghost World’ was adapted…

According to The Hollywood Reporter, John C. Reilly is joining the Ed Helms-led cast of “Cedar Rapids” from Fox Searchlight. Miguel Arteta is helming the ensemble road-trip comedy. Phil Johnston wrote the script. Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor and Jim Burke are producing via their Ad Hominem Enterprises banner. The story follows a wholesome and naive small-town Wisconsin man played by Helms who must represent his insurance company at the big-time and big-city regional conferance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after his role model dies. Reilly’s character, a family man, is also is attending the conference, but sees it as a vacation away from home who is taking the opportunity to cut…

Fox Searchlight has announced that due to their wins at the Golden Globes and preparation for Oscar season, it will extend the theatrical releases of Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. Slumdog won four awards: Best Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. It will be playing in roughly 1,300 theaters starting January 23rd. Searchlight won’t begin its national TV campaign for Slumdog until next week. The company also mentioned that it will also up The Wrestler‘s runs from about 60 to 160 on Friday, eventually playing in roughly 400 theaters by Jan. 23. The film’s star, Mickey Rourke, took home the award for Best Actor…