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2009 | 2008

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Review: Taking Woodstock - An entertaining trip

18 November 2009 2:38 AM, PST | t5m.com | See recent t5m.com news »

Based on Elliot Tiber's (allegedly inaccurate) tale of his role in the organisation of the Woodstock Festival, Taking Woodstock takes one of the defining moments of 20th Century pop culture and domesticates it, removing it from increasingly tiresome accounts of the concert's life-changing nature and refocusing it as a gently uplifting tale of triumph over adversity (and incompetence), and Elliot's relationship with his parents, particularly his diminutive battleaxe of a mother played with madcap intensity by Imelda Staunton. As director Ang Lee is aware that most of the audience are already going to be incredibly familiar with the iconic footage of the concert, he wisely chooses to ignore the music almost entirely, even placing more focus on the more embarrassing side of the sixties counter culture with a truly awful political theatre company living in the Tiber's barn. Surprisingly, given the extraordinary events told in the film and its fairly lengthy running time, »

- Mark Davison

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Taking Woodstock | Film review

14 November 2009 4:05 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

In The Ice Storm, Ang Lee turned a sharp, compassionate eye on affluent ex-urban New England at Thanksgiving 1973 where, as the Watergate scandal escalates, the president's bad faith is echoed in the life of an adulterous Wall Street analyst. He now goes back four years earlier to Nixon's first term in the White House and the reaction against the Vietnam War, and the expression of the new liberation that manifested itself at the 1969 Woodstock Festival up the Hudson in New York State.

The perspective here is that of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), a gay Jewish painter and designer taking time out from his Manhattan day job to help out his overbearing parents at their rundown Catskills motel and goes into business with the festival's hippie organisers. The film uses the split-screen devices of Michael Wadleigh's classic 1970 Woodstock documentary, and some of the music is distantly heard, but Elliot is »

- Philip French

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Roger Corman: Scorsese, Stallone, Sayles, and other A-listers talk about the B-movie king

13 November 2009 12:48 PM, PST | EW.com - PopWatch | See recent EW.com - PopWatch news »

He gave life to teenage cavemen and candy-stripe nurses. Crab monsters and humanoids from the deep. T-bird gangs and towns that dreaded sundown. His name is Roger Corman. And on Nov. 14, he will receive an honor that no one would have predicted: an honorary Academy Award. The 83-year-old B-movie titan has made nearly 400 films as a director and producer. From the start, Corman was a magnet for hungry young actors, writers, and directors who would work for slave wages for the chance to make their first film. They called it the "University of Corman," and the alumni include Francis Ford Coppola, »

- Chris Nashawaty

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Martin Scorsese To Be Honored at 2010 Golden Globes with Cecil B. DeMille Award

12 November 2009 12:59 PM, PST | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »

In January, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will bestow the Honorary Cecile B. DeMille Award to Martin Scorsese for “his outstanding contribution to the entertainment field,” to which we say “Congratulations, Mr. Scorsese.”  Of course, any award honoring Scorsese’s career is well-earned by the prolific and influential director.  His lengthy and diverse filmography naturally contains movies which flopped and received no support from film critics, but when you look at his hits, he has left an unforgettable stamp on not only American cinema, but on audiences the world over.  That his work continues to improve and defy simple definition is an inspiration to aspiring filmmakers and a challenge to his peers.  There’s only one complaint people have about the awards Scorsese receives: they’re overdue.

Hit the jump to read the full press release.  The 67th Annual Golden Globes will air on January 17, 2010.  Martin Scorsese’s next film, »

- Matt Goldberg

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Martin Scorcese Honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award

12 November 2009 5:35 AM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

Martin Scorsese will be honored at The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 17 with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field." The award, voted by the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, was announced by Vera Farmiga at a morning press conference. The show, hosted by Ricky Gervais, will be broadcast live coast to coast Sunday, January 17 on NBC (5 to 8 pm Pt, 8 to 11 pm Et) from The Beverly Hilton.

Scorsese received two Golden Globe Awards for "Best Director of a Motion Picture"; for The Departed and Gangs of New York. He received five additional Golden Globe nominations, including four as Best Director (Casino, Age of Innocence, Goodfellas and Raging Bull) and one for Best Screenplay for Raging Bull (with Nicolas Pileggi).

Recent Cecil B. DeMille winners include Steven Spielberg (2009), Warren Beatty (2007), Anthony Hopkins (2006), Robin Williams (2005) and Michael Douglas (2004).

Martin Scorsese »

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The Beat of DJ Ickarus: Hannes Stohr's Berlin Calling

10 November 2009 7:26 PM, PST | The Hollywood Interview | See recent The Hollywood Interview news »

(Paul Kalkbrenner, above, in Hannes Stohr's Berlin Calling.)

By Terry Keefe

Martin, aka DJ Ickarus, is a star created from the very DNA of the Diy - that’s Do-It-Yourself - ethos. The character, as played by real-life electronic music composer Paul Kalkbrenner in the feature film Berlin Calling, travels the world with his laptop computer as his only musical instrument and an entourage consisting of himself and his girlfriend Mathilde (played by Rita Lengyel) . He has a record company who are about to put out what is expected to be his biggest recording yet, but he is also able to maintain a real degree of independence from them as he makes a lot of his income as a star DJ at clubs and large-scale raves. But he flies too close to the sun during one gig, via some chemically-induced wings, and finds himself locked into a psychiatric ward…where »

- The Hollywood Interview.com

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Buy It, Steal It, Skip It: Music Releases for the Week of November 10

10 November 2009 2:30 PM, PST | Vanity Fair | See recent Vanity Fair news »

Nirvana Live at Reading (Geffen) For almost two decades, Nirvana’s 1992 headlining performance at the Reading Festival in England was the stuff of grunge lore. Scuzzy videos of Cobain cloaked in a hospital gown onstage at Reading made their way from camcorder to YouTube years ago, but now diehards and new fans alike have the chance to watch the performance with color retouching and without some audibly drunk dude to the left of the camcorder. There aren’t 17 different angles to watch from (the footage is from 1992), and there’s no behind-the-scenes interviews. But that’s fine. The beauty in Live at Reading—beyond the music, which rocks—is how it captures Nirvana’s meteoric rise to fame before Cobain’s untimely suicide. Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love, must have been glad to be away from home, where a media hurricane had just erupted thanks to a Vanity Fair »

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London Film Festival 2009: Taking Woodstock

1 November 2009 7:08 PM, PST | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Taking Woodstock Directed by Ang Lee I've never been able to sit through more than a few minutes of Michael Wadleigh's revered documentary Woodstock. Every time it's on TV, I hope I'm going to catch some footage of Crosby Stills and Nash or Jimi Hendrix. Invariably, what I get is a (split) screenful of hippies partying on down in acres of mud. So, I was intrigued by the idea of Ang Lee making a comedy based on Elliot Tiber's 2007 memoir about his role in this seismic late 60s cultural event. And surely it had to be more fun than the Taiwanese director's downbeat spy yarn, Lust, Caution. Greek-American comedian Demetri Martin plays Elliot, artist interior designer and dutiful son of Russian-Jewish émigrés Sonia and Jake Teichberg (Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman). The family owns the El Monaco, a ramshackle motel in White Lake, New York, where Elliot's mum »

- Ricky

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Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder Steal Rock Hall Of Fame Show

30 October 2009 6:27 AM, PDT | MTV Music News | See recent MTV Music News news »

Tom Morello, John Legend, Sting brought out as special guests at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert.

By Kyle Anderson

Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello perform onstage at the 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert on Thursday

Photo: Stephen Lovekin/ Getty Images

New York — During his introduction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night (October 29), Tom Hanks brought up a good question: "Does rock and roll need a hall of fame?" He immediately arrived at his answer. "Yes. After 50 years of rock and roll, yes." The next five hours were spent backing up Hanks' statement, with performances by Crosby, Stills and Nash, Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel and Bruce Springsteen (plus a bevy of special guests), all saluting the now-storied history of rock and roll.

Ostensibly, the theme of the night was to bring »

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Taking Woodstock UK Premiere Interviews

27 October 2009 10:55 AM, PDT | HeyUGuys.co.uk | See recent HeyUGuys news »

We have some cool footage from the UK premiere of Ang Lee’s new movie ‘Taking Woodstock’. The video footage includes a quick interview with director Ang Lee, stars Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton and screenwriter / producer James Schamus. It’s released in November 13th in the UK.

Synopsis: Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip! Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible. »

- David Sztypuljak

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The Complete Monterey Pop Criterion Blu-ray Review

28 September 2009 5:57 PM, PDT | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »

Concert films often work best when they’re about one band. The Last Waltz and Stop Making Sense are great, because you can either like the artist or not, but it’s about their moment, that moment, when they record the show they’re doing. The problem with gig shows, like Monterey Pop, is that not all musicians are created equal. So they have to be about the moment, and the experience. My review after the jump.

Monterey Pop brings together a number of performers, but only a couple will make you lose your minds. But four such performances are enough to make a film like this, and it’s worth celebrating the film for those, and though the film shows where pop music was at that moment, some artists are better than others. The show starts with some Mamas and the Papas, and the song “California Dreaming.” A dreamy, »

- Andre Dellamorte

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The Complete Monterey Pop Blu Ray Review

28 September 2009 10:55 AM, PDT | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

I’ll just come clean right off the top here and admit that this was my first time watching D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop and although it’s definitely a great film, it’s probably my least favourite of the three big music festival documentaries to come out of the late sixties/early seventies. There’s something about the grandiose cluster-fuck nature of Woodstock that appealed to me — along with the split screens of course — and Gimme Shelter’s cynicism was the perfect end to the short lived era of ‘Peace and Love’. I think the thing that drops Monterey Pop down a notch or two is the fact that it’s too devoted to the performances; an accusation that is obviously a personal one, as I would imagine most people watching this film are hoping for exactly that. Perosnally, I’m more interested in the logistics of the festival »

- Jay C.

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New Poster for Taking Woodstock

25 September 2009 7:05 AM, PDT | HeyUGuys.co.uk | See recent HeyUGuys news »

It seems like an eternity again since we first posted the trailer for Ang Lee's latest movie, Taking Woodstock. The movie stars Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Imelda Staunton and Eugene Levy. Empire have been good to us today and have provided us with another new poster - click to enlarge.

Taking Woodstock is based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish - plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens - Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.

Taking Woodstock is release in the UK 6th November. »

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From the Files of Fangoria: Never Call A Wolfen a Werewolf

20 September 2009 10:45 PM, PDT | Fangoria | See recent Fangoria news »

From the Files of Fangoria is a regular feature with observations on content discovered during the process of digitally archiving 30 years of press releases and photos received by Fangoria and previously kept in storage.

It’s time to go back into the files, kids, back to old New York.  Today’s file is one that is so “old-school” New York it mugged me as soon as I opened the filing cabinet.   Director Michael Wadleigh’s, Wolfen reminds us all that Manhattan was purchased from the Native Americans for a few lousy beads, and in 1981 a three bedroom in the East Village would run you 10 bucks a month.  Staring Albert Finney, honestly my favorite actor of late 70’s and early 80’s, Wolfen is a horror film as prime as river view real estate.

When a prominent land developer turns up brutally murdered in Battery Park, the full investigative power of Finney »

- no-reply@fangoria.com (David McKendry)

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Must List: We like these Beatle fellows. What about you?

9 September 2009 9:20 AM, PDT | EW.com - PopWatch | See recent EW.com - PopWatch news »

The day has arrived, Beatlemaniacs! Forty-five years after sending teenage girls into hysterical fits on The Ed Sullivan Show, the boys from Liverpool have adopted (with a little help from their friends at Apple and Harmonix) their timeless tunes for a new generation: Today sees the release of the videogame The Beatles: Rock Band and remasters of all their studio albums, which EW critics Jeff Jensen and Simon Vozick-Levinson call "irresistible" and "revelatory," respectively. Double fab! Forget Woodstock nostalgia -- if you choose one Baby Boomer watershed to reconnect with this year, make it the Beatles. Your own excitement for this revolutionary 09/09/09 celebration is a given (right?), so we ask now:  What Else is on your Must List this week? List up to three items from current TV/movies/music/books/games/online. And be sure to explain Why you’ve made your selection, too — we love to hear your thoughts! »

- Henning Fog

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Taking Woodstock Movie Review

3 September 2009 8:00 PM, PDT | MoviesOnline.ca | See recent MoviesOnline news »

Woodstock always brings up fond memories for people that were never there. Every time you see anything about it, your mind will instantly conjure images of hippies and flowers and overcrowding, and Jimi Hendrix. But have you ever wondered how all that came to be? If you answered yes, then Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is probably the movie for you. Taking Woodstock tells the story of Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin), a young Jewish man who has spent a fair amount of his life trying to keep the family business alive. His parents (Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman) run a tiny motel in the Catskill... »

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Jonathan Groff on Taking Woodstock

1 September 2009 11:30 AM, PDT | www.canmag.com | See recent CanMag news »

Viewers of Taking Woodstock are getting captivated by film newcomer Jonathan Groff as Michael Lang, the orchestrator of the landmark concert. They are also admiring his hair, a big curly .60s fro.

Review: Taking Woodstock

.It was a wig,. Groff revealed. .It was a total wig. I grew my own hair. I grew it out, I grew out my hair because originally they were going to use my real hair and they were going to perm it. But then they decided with the humidity it was going to be too unpredictable and the hair, the Michael Lang hair is so iconic and so specific and they were like, .We have to get this just right, we can't chance it.. So they put my head in plaster and gave me a wig..

Lang possed that sort of free love mentality, totally confident that Woodstock »

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What a Long, Strange, Thoroughly Obnoxious Trip It's Been

1 September 2009 8:56 AM, PDT | Huffington Post | See recent Huffington Post news »

I'll never forget it: On July 13th, 1985, folk legend Joan Baez walked onto the stage at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium -- site of the U.S. half of that day's massive Live Aid concert -- looked out over the crowd of rowdy kids, lifted up her voice as if she were a pastor at a revival and said triumphantly, "Children of the 80s, this is your Woodstock and it's long overdue." I'll also never forget my reaction as I sat on a couch with my teenage friends, all of us watching the show live on MTV: "Piss off, hippie." At first glance, my swift and admittedly crude dismissal of an icon of 1960s counter-culture might seem the product of my youth, immaturity and overall lack of ability at the time to appreciate the positive impact that Joan Baez and those like her had on... »

- Chez Pazienza

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The MovieSet Review of ‘Taking Woodstock’

31 August 2009 12:56 PM, PDT | MovieSet.com | See recent MovieSet.com news »

By Phillip Nakov

for movieset.com

Movie: ‘Taking Woodstock‘

Synopsis: From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was.

Stars: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Live Schreiber, Imelda Staunton

Written by: James Schmaus

Directed by: Ang Lee

Distributed by: Focus Features

Opening on: August 28, 2009

Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) and Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy) in Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock

Expectations

What I’d Seen – A terrific campaign with 70’s-inspired graphics and logos. This movie was one of the few English language films included at this year’s Cannes film festival (I did not get to see it there) and the buzz was quite big back in May. »

- Dave

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[Movie Review] Taking Woodstock

28 August 2009 3:59 PM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

Neither director Ang Lee nor his writer and frequent collaborator James Schamus were at Woodstock when it occurred. This bodes well for their Woodstock movie. No, really.

For most of us, history’s most well-remembered music festival is a cultural myth, a distant event that we know about but can’t touch. With Taking Woodstock, the story about the formation of the whole thing, Ang Lee is less concerned with the facts as he is with the myth: how the three-day romp supposedly changed the lives of those who attended.

Taking Woodstock begins with a standard plot but ends with a more abstract idea of what the movie is about. It begins, as you would expect, with a behind-the-scenes look at how the sleepy town of Bethel, New York came to host the hippie gathering of the century when Elliot Teichberg, the young New Yorker tending after his parents’ run-down motel for the summer, »

- Arya Ponto

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2009 | 2008

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