All Movies, music & the arts Articles

In January, a movie called Defiance opens. The director is Edward Zwick, who did Glory, Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai; back in the day, he was one of the creators of thirtysomething. Zwick likes big heroic themes, and he has one here, with two heroic actors -- Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber -- in the leading roles. I've read the book that best tells the story behind the film. I've Read more...

We were watching the preview of a movie -- an emotional drama, with romance harshly tested by reality -- when the music began. Nina Simone, of course. She's the go-to singer when a filmmaker wants to go heavy and deep; you can hear her in "Any Given Sunday" and "Before Sunset." Pedro Almodovar listened to her as he wrote "Talk To Her". Filmmakers like Nina Simone Read more...

Someday Bob Dylan's going to die -- probably in a hotel room in a two-bit city, after playing his 300th concert of the year on his endless "I don't wanna go home" tour -- and then everybody will suddenly realize he was America's Picasso. (Or is it Shakespeare?) For days afterward, we'll be subjected to the Great Man for Dummies lecture. Dylan, the protest singer. Dylan goes electric. Read more...

After a certain age and a certain number of -- oh, let's not call them failed, let's say successfully completed -- relationships, it's inspiring to hear a man and woman singing together. When the couple is married, even more inspiring. For what is a happy marriage if not harmony under pressure? To spend your days and nights singing as a team -- that, friends, is togetherness you can believe Read more...

Violence? In American movies, it's appropriate for viewers of almost all ages. Sex? If she's not married and she fools around, she'd better be punished. The reality of film ratings is, of course, more complicated than this, but for all purposes, Hollywood loves a man who brandishes a gun and loathes a woman who bares a nipple. And it's been that way from the start of the film Read more...

In our secret hearts, many of us imagine that we belong elsewhere --- say, in England, at a great country estate, in good weather, where we enjoy every luxury because we are rich and titled. And why not, say, in May of 1911? Edward VII had died the previous spring; mourning was over, George V was about to be crowned, there would be a full season of glorious parties. And the parties would Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Her father dies. Her relationships are in turmoil. Her life collapses. In this time of crisis, Australian television producer Rhonda Byrne rummages through a suitcase -- and finds a book with a note on it: "This may help." That's an understatement; no sooner has she opened it than the hidden wisdom of the ages appears. And Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com In 1957, Louis Malle was 24 years old. He was filthy rich. Incredibly handsome. And prodigiously talented -- he had already co-directed and shot Jacques Cousteau's Oscar-winning documentary, "The Silent World." Now he was ready to make his first feature. He chose an overlooked noir novel about a man who kills his lover's Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Robert Altman liked to say that he hated Westerns. He didn't, for that matter, much enjoy working with Warren Beatty. How he felt about directing Julie Christie is not recorded, but given Altman's big mouth, we may safely concluded his silence counted as consent. In the winter of 1970, when Altman made "McCabe & Mrs. Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Noon. A suburb of Washington, D.C. A street dotted with houses just a shade too small to be McMansions. No one is around. Wait -- here comes someone. A boy. White, of course. About 9 years old. Dressed in jeans and high-top sneakers. Walking unsteadily in the middle of the street. Lurching, really. And now we see why: Blood dots his Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com There are people who paint by the rules. We call their work "decorative" and forget their names fast. And there are artists who break the rules and make something new, forcing us to see the world fresh. They're the immortals. Steve Prefontaine said: "Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Consider these lines: Thunder on the mountain, and there's fires on the moon A ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon Today's the day, gonna grab my trombone and blow Well, there's hot stuff here and it's everywhere I go Now, imagine you are Bob Dylan -- hey, it's not hard; the guy's made 44 albums over the last 40 years, Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com The thought that you're watching the best film you may see all year surfaces early in "Little Miss Sunshine" -- like, as soon as you meet the characters. And this is surprising, because anything you may have read about this movie and anything I tell you here will make it sound like the kind of forced, unfunny comedy that gives Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Someone who has seen "The Big Lebowski" a lot -- and there are quite a few people who have seen the movie more than a hundred times -- says that it's a retelling of the Buddha's story. You see, Jeff Bridges -- as Jeff Lebowski (aka "The Dude") -- has a gut in this movie, and so did the Buddha ... Bridges bowls, which is Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Once there were reporters; now there is "the press." The difference? Reporters talked tough but were secretly idealists; "the press" makes sure its hair is correctly blown-dry and its makeup hasn't smeared, but forgets to ask pointed questions. To be a member of "the press" is cringe-worthy. But a reporter -- yes, you Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com The latest version of "All the King's Men" stars Sean Penn as Willie Stark, the crude backcountry politician who starts off a hero and ends up a demagogue; Jude Law as the idealistic reporter who becomes Willie's apologist; and Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins. That's a lot of star Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Founder, HeadButler.com Talk about an entrance! You hear 2,000 prisoners stomping and clapping for Johnny Cash. You see the guards of Folsom Prison rushing toward the commotion. You watch the band play the same introductory riff over and over. And then, in a prison wood shop that serves as a dressing room, you see Johnny Cash. He's bent over a buzz saw, a finger on Read more...

By Jesse Kornbluth Head Butler.com I was 16 when I discovered Pico della Mirandola. It wasn't so much what this Renaissance thinker (1463-1494) wrote --- I never read a word of his --- as what he proposed to write: 900 essays that would cover all human knowledge. Seemed like a worthy goal. I set out to equal it. Two years later, I staggered out of my high school library and into Read more...

By Amy Buttell Crane Bankrate.com Demand for bigger televisions with sharper images and top-quality audio is exploding. Manufacturers are rushing to meet the demand, which dovetails nicely with congressionally- mandated deadline for a switch from traditional analog TV signals to digital TV signals to occur February 17, 2009. As is the norm with technology, prices have dropped on Read more...