Sarah Silverman is in mourning following the loss of her incredibly dedicated father, Donald Silverman.
The 52-year-old actress and comedian took to Instagram on Thursday to share the sad news with a carousel of photos. In her caption, Silverman noted that her “best pal” was surrounded by family when he died Wednesday night.
“My best pal, Schleppy – my dad, died last night. All the sisters, and grandkids surrounded him with love and singing and very dark f***ed up jokes this final week,” she wrote in her caption. “But ultimately, he wanted to be with his love, Janice, who we lost last Monday. No shiva- [if] you wanna do something please donate to @2ndnurture He always said he was the richest man in the world because of his family, and he was.”
Janice was Silverman’s stepmother, and she was married to Donald for more than four decades. Second Nature is...
The 52-year-old actress and comedian took to Instagram on Thursday to share the sad news with a carousel of photos. In her caption, Silverman noted that her “best pal” was surrounded by family when he died Wednesday night.
“My best pal, Schleppy – my dad, died last night. All the sisters, and grandkids surrounded him with love and singing and very dark f***ed up jokes this final week,” she wrote in her caption. “But ultimately, he wanted to be with his love, Janice, who we lost last Monday. No shiva- [if] you wanna do something please donate to @2ndnurture He always said he was the richest man in the world because of his family, and he was.”
Janice was Silverman’s stepmother, and she was married to Donald for more than four decades. Second Nature is...
- 5/14/2023
- by Brent Furdyk
- ET Canada
Judy Blume is responding hours after comments from a new interview about her standing behind fellow author J.K. Rowling “100 percent” were published, and making her support for the trans community clear.
Her response comes after an interview with The Sunday Times, posted online Sunday, in which she talked about Rowling, drew criticism from people across social media. The Harry Potter author has been at the center of controversy for her opinions on the trans community, which many believe to be offensive.
“I love her,” the Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret writer told the newspaper referring to Rowling. “I am behind her 100 percent as I watch from afar.” While interviewer Hadley Freeman wrote in The Sunday Times story that Blume’s comments were “referring to the abuse Rowling has received for speaking up in defense of women’s sex-based rights,” Blume disagreed and took to Twitter later Sunday...
Her response comes after an interview with The Sunday Times, posted online Sunday, in which she talked about Rowling, drew criticism from people across social media. The Harry Potter author has been at the center of controversy for her opinions on the trans community, which many believe to be offensive.
“I love her,” the Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret writer told the newspaper referring to Rowling. “I am behind her 100 percent as I watch from afar.” While interviewer Hadley Freeman wrote in The Sunday Times story that Blume’s comments were “referring to the abuse Rowling has received for speaking up in defense of women’s sex-based rights,” Blume disagreed and took to Twitter later Sunday...
- 4/17/2023
- by Carly Thomas
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The director and producer, who has died aged 75, brought his golden touch to family mega-hits from Ghostbusters to Kindergarten Cop
Hadley Freeman: my Hollywood heroIvan Reitman: a life in pictures
Ivan Reitman was a director and producer with a golden touch for Hollywood comedy and feelgood entertainment – the heir, perhaps, of Ernst Lubitsch or Gregory La Cava from the golden age, but with a multiplex talent for the 80s and 90s – able to detonate serious box-office explosions. His great heyday, importantly, coincided with the great heyday of video rental and home entertainment – an era of couples and families browsing the VHS racks at video rental stores on a Friday and Saturday night and deciding that comedies were the best bet: Reitman’s comedies.
And this, most famously, was for the glorious high-concept fantasy comedy Ghostbusters in 1984, which brilliantly absorbed SNL-type comedy into the movie mainstream and made stars...
Hadley Freeman: my Hollywood heroIvan Reitman: a life in pictures
Ivan Reitman was a director and producer with a golden touch for Hollywood comedy and feelgood entertainment – the heir, perhaps, of Ernst Lubitsch or Gregory La Cava from the golden age, but with a multiplex talent for the 80s and 90s – able to detonate serious box-office explosions. His great heyday, importantly, coincided with the great heyday of video rental and home entertainment – an era of couples and families browsing the VHS racks at video rental stores on a Friday and Saturday night and deciding that comedies were the best bet: Reitman’s comedies.
And this, most famously, was for the glorious high-concept fantasy comedy Ghostbusters in 1984, which brilliantly absorbed SNL-type comedy into the movie mainstream and made stars...
- 2/14/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Tears were inevitable when Hadley Freeman finally met the man behind her favourite film, and his son, who has made a belated second sequel. But few expected them to flow quite so freely
It’s not always easy for a famous parent to pass the baton to the next generation. Kirk Douglas bristled when he realised the young women approaching him no longer wanted to flirt with him, but to ask for his son Michael’s phone number. When her daughter Christina was cast in a soap opera but then hospitalised for an ovarian cyst, Joan Crawford snatched the role for herself. The narcissism that underlies the need for fame is not usually conducive to happy parenting.
Ivan Reitman – director and producer of many of the most beloved mainstream comedies of the 70s, 80s and 90s, including Animal House, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins and Dave – is a different kind of famous parent.
It’s not always easy for a famous parent to pass the baton to the next generation. Kirk Douglas bristled when he realised the young women approaching him no longer wanted to flirt with him, but to ask for his son Michael’s phone number. When her daughter Christina was cast in a soap opera but then hospitalised for an ovarian cyst, Joan Crawford snatched the role for herself. The narcissism that underlies the need for fame is not usually conducive to happy parenting.
Ivan Reitman – director and producer of many of the most beloved mainstream comedies of the 70s, 80s and 90s, including Animal House, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins and Dave – is a different kind of famous parent.
- 11/19/2021
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
The princess is now a constant presence on our screens, from a camp musical to The Crown. Such a blank canvas is a dream for directors and a nightmare for actors, writes Hadley Freeman
The first imitation I ever saw of Diana, Princess of Wales was in my bedroom when I was five. It was a Diana Bride doll, ordered by my mother from a catalogue, although with her rictus smile and huge helmet of hair she looked more like Nancy Reagan. The details didn’t matter: she had the vague outlines of princess – big glittery jewels, big glittery eyes – so I could project whatever I wanted on to her, and I did; I played with her so much I snapped off her right foot.
This is a true story, but if the metaphor within it feels too heavy-handed, then I would advise you to keep clear of the many...
The first imitation I ever saw of Diana, Princess of Wales was in my bedroom when I was five. It was a Diana Bride doll, ordered by my mother from a catalogue, although with her rictus smile and huge helmet of hair she looked more like Nancy Reagan. The details didn’t matter: she had the vague outlines of princess – big glittery jewels, big glittery eyes – so I could project whatever I wanted on to her, and I did; I played with her so much I snapped off her right foot.
This is a true story, but if the metaphor within it feels too heavy-handed, then I would advise you to keep clear of the many...
- 10/16/2021
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
The final episode of HBO’s “Allen v. Farrow” airs this Sunday, but some critics of the documentary series say the filmmakers have only put forward one side of the case, failing to include Woody Allen’s side of the story and omitting key facts that detract from a pro-Farrow conclusion.
Critics like The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman have argued that the docuseries feels more like activism and public relations than it does journalism.
“The series is kind of extraordinary in that it’s this major, four-part, four-hour-plus series, and yet it only puts forward one side of the case,” Freeman said during an interview for an upcoming episode of TheWrap’s podcast, “TheWrap-Up.” “It’s like hearing just the first half of a case. You’re just hearing the prosecution and there is nothing from the defense.”
Freeman pointed to Monica Thompson, the family’s nanny, who had said...
Critics like The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman have argued that the docuseries feels more like activism and public relations than it does journalism.
“The series is kind of extraordinary in that it’s this major, four-part, four-hour-plus series, and yet it only puts forward one side of the case,” Freeman said during an interview for an upcoming episode of TheWrap’s podcast, “TheWrap-Up.” “It’s like hearing just the first half of a case. You’re just hearing the prosecution and there is nothing from the defense.”
Freeman pointed to Monica Thompson, the family’s nanny, who had said...
- 3/10/2021
- by J. Clara Chan
- The Wrap
Buzz around HBO’s four-part documentary series “Allen v. Farrow” exploded after episode two due to the public airing of a long-discussed, never-before-seen home video featuring seven-year-old Dylan Farrow disclosing Woody Allen’s alleged abuse. While the series has been largely acclaimed (IndieWire’s Ben Travers called it “the final nail” in Allen’s “long-unclosed coffin”), a new essay published in The Guardian condemns the documentary for omitting facts that support Allen’s innocence. As on example, Guardian writer Hadley Freeman questions why filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick left out the Valentine’s Day card Farrow sent Allen after their breakup that featured a photo of their children stabbed with pins and scissors. Freeman also notes the doc does not reference Allen’s 1992 interview where he claimed Farrow told him, “You took away my daughter, and I’m gonna take away yours.”
The Guardian essay includes a statement from...
The Guardian essay includes a statement from...
- 3/3/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Much-loved writer, producer, director, actor, quiz host … and creator of a style of comedy stamped indelibly on Us television and film
• Carl Reiner dies aged 98• Hadley Freeman meets Reiner and Brooks, February 2020• A life in pictures
As the 21st-century dawned, it had looked as if comedy legend Carl Reiner’s final moment in the spotlight might be his small bittersweet role in Steven Soderbergh’s heist caper remake Ocean’s Eleven in 2001. He played Saul Bloom, the elderly conman and droll mentor to the two dudes in charge: Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), a role he reprised in two sequels. When Rusty initially tries to engineer a surprise meeting with Saul at the racetrack for recruitment purposes, it is Saul who catches Rusty unawares, tolerant but unimpressed. “I saw you at the paddock before the second race, outside the men’s room when I placed my bet.
• Carl Reiner dies aged 98• Hadley Freeman meets Reiner and Brooks, February 2020• A life in pictures
As the 21st-century dawned, it had looked as if comedy legend Carl Reiner’s final moment in the spotlight might be his small bittersweet role in Steven Soderbergh’s heist caper remake Ocean’s Eleven in 2001. He played Saul Bloom, the elderly conman and droll mentor to the two dudes in charge: Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), a role he reprised in two sequels. When Rusty initially tries to engineer a surprise meeting with Saul at the racetrack for recruitment purposes, it is Saul who catches Rusty unawares, tolerant but unimpressed. “I saw you at the paddock before the second race, outside the men’s room when I placed my bet.
- 6/30/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Director of Steve Martin comedies The Jerk and The Man With Two Brains was also famed for his collaboration with Mel Brooks
Hadley Freeman meets Reiner and Brooks, February 2020Peter Bradshaw on Carl ReinerA life in pictures
Carl Reiner, the veteran comic and film-maker renowned for his double act with Mel Brooks as well as directing a string of hit comedies including The Jerk and The Man With Two Brains, has died 98.
Variety confirmed the news, reporting that his publicist said he died of natural causes on Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills.
Hadley Freeman meets Reiner and Brooks, February 2020Peter Bradshaw on Carl ReinerA life in pictures
Carl Reiner, the veteran comic and film-maker renowned for his double act with Mel Brooks as well as directing a string of hit comedies including The Jerk and The Man With Two Brains, has died 98.
Variety confirmed the news, reporting that his publicist said he died of natural causes on Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills.
- 6/30/2020
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Continuing our series in which writers rectify gaps in their film education, Hadley Freeman finally pops her 007 cherry with the ‘Bondiest Bond’ – The Spy Who Loved Me
Read all of our series about classic missed films
I first became aware of James Bond in 1989, which was not, I have since learned from Bondologists, a vintage Bond era. Two film posters were ubiquitous that summer: the first was for Batman, starring Michael Keaton, and the second was for Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton. In the months leading up to the release of these films, I watched their trailers seemingly hundreds of times: they were both franchises about a superhero; both featured a good guy with a gun killing a lot of bad guys with guns; both lightened the bloodshed with a sprinkling of winking jokes. Yet while I queued up to see Batman the day it was released and...
Read all of our series about classic missed films
I first became aware of James Bond in 1989, which was not, I have since learned from Bondologists, a vintage Bond era. Two film posters were ubiquitous that summer: the first was for Batman, starring Michael Keaton, and the second was for Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton. In the months leading up to the release of these films, I watched their trailers seemingly hundreds of times: they were both franchises about a superhero; both featured a good guy with a gun killing a lot of bad guys with guns; both lightened the bloodshed with a sprinkling of winking jokes. Yet while I queued up to see Batman the day it was released and...
- 4/2/2020
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
The giants of American comedy tell Hadley Freeman about the hits they have had, the wives they miss – and why they still spend every evening together
Every evening, Mel Brooks leaves his home in Santa Monica, gets in his car and stares down Los Angeles’ notorious rush-hour traffic to go to Carl Reiner’s house in Beverly Hills. There, the two comedy icons do what they like to do most these days: chat, eat dinner together and watch the long-running quiz show Jeopardy!
“This is a great place because I got friendship, love and free food. Free eats are very important, you know,” says Brooks, as we wait for Reiner in his den. His voice is a little raspier than it once was, but that signature puckishness is fully intact.
Every evening, Mel Brooks leaves his home in Santa Monica, gets in his car and stares down Los Angeles’ notorious rush-hour traffic to go to Carl Reiner’s house in Beverly Hills. There, the two comedy icons do what they like to do most these days: chat, eat dinner together and watch the long-running quiz show Jeopardy!
“This is a great place because I got friendship, love and free food. Free eats are very important, you know,” says Brooks, as we wait for Reiner in his den. His voice is a little raspier than it once was, but that signature puckishness is fully intact.
- 2/20/2020
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
As an adolescent misfit, Hadley Freeman fell in love with the warped movie worlds of Tim Burton. What happened when she met Danny DeVito, Colin Farrell and her idol himself?
When I was an oversensitive, confusedly furious and faintly morbid teenager in the 90s, there was one film director who seemed to know my soul better than anyone. And that director was, of course, Tim Burton. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was the first of his films I saw, after being taken by a friend’s mother, who mistakenly thought it would be a typical kids’ movie as opposed to one of the more slyly subversive takes on modern Us life. I was far too young to appreciate all the jokes, but there was something about the colours, the hyperrealism and the Danny Elfman music that intrigued me. It was like being kissed for the first time: you don’t really get what’s happening,...
When I was an oversensitive, confusedly furious and faintly morbid teenager in the 90s, there was one film director who seemed to know my soul better than anyone. And that director was, of course, Tim Burton. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was the first of his films I saw, after being taken by a friend’s mother, who mistakenly thought it would be a typical kids’ movie as opposed to one of the more slyly subversive takes on modern Us life. I was far too young to appreciate all the jokes, but there was something about the colours, the hyperrealism and the Danny Elfman music that intrigued me. It was like being kissed for the first time: you don’t really get what’s happening,...
- 3/21/2019
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
For 33 years, a man in a cardigan brought a gentle thoughtfulness to Us TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Now a film about it is breaking records. Hadley Freeman talks to the director – and shows the original TV series to her children
All children’s TV shows sound bizarre when described. There is a street on which humans live alongside Muppets, including a biscuit-obsessed blue monster and a grump in a trash can. There are four brightly coloured aliens who live in a psychedelic magic land, communicate in baby talk and play with a vacuum cleaner. But none ever sounded as unlikely as the American classic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Related: Won't You Be My Neighbor? review – shining a light on a kindly kids' TV idol...
All children’s TV shows sound bizarre when described. There is a street on which humans live alongside Muppets, including a biscuit-obsessed blue monster and a grump in a trash can. There are four brightly coloured aliens who live in a psychedelic magic land, communicate in baby talk and play with a vacuum cleaner. But none ever sounded as unlikely as the American classic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Related: Won't You Be My Neighbor? review – shining a light on a kindly kids' TV idol...
- 11/8/2018
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
As she prepares to give an annual lecture in his name, Hadley Freeman remembers writing to the late Observer writer for career advice, and being met with support, screenings and spaghetti
Philip French was not the first journalist to whom I sent a letter. That accolade goes to John Simpson, who I wrote to when I was 14 and stuck in hospital for the foreseeable future, so nothing seemed more appealing than being a foreign correspondent: all that freedom, flying and distance from the white walls I was then trapped inside. Simpson, to his eternal credit, sent me back a long, handwritten letter, which I still have somewhere, in which he encouraged me to keep writing, find what interests me and never to be afraid to ask those I admire for guidance.
Four years later, I was out of hospital and I was free but now I wanted to spend my...
Philip French was not the first journalist to whom I sent a letter. That accolade goes to John Simpson, who I wrote to when I was 14 and stuck in hospital for the foreseeable future, so nothing seemed more appealing than being a foreign correspondent: all that freedom, flying and distance from the white walls I was then trapped inside. Simpson, to his eternal credit, sent me back a long, handwritten letter, which I still have somewhere, in which he encouraged me to keep writing, find what interests me and never to be afraid to ask those I admire for guidance.
Four years later, I was out of hospital and I was free but now I wanted to spend my...
- 10/6/2018
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
In a 2015 interview, Burt Reynolds, who has died at the age of 82, speaks to the Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman about his autobiography, But Enough About Me. The candid conversation spans his varied career in film, the important relationships in his life and a clash with Marlon Brando
Interviewing Burt Reynolds was a revelation which still shocks me today...
Interviewing Burt Reynolds was a revelation which still shocks me today...
- 9/7/2018
- The Guardian - Film News
The #MeToo movement notwithstanding, I’ve been worried about women lately, perhaps because I’ve been seeing too many movies. At a time when women are achieving more muscle in managing their lives and careers, the female characters they portray in movies lack both muscle and self-esteem. Women need a movement – any sort of movement. They also need help at the box office.
Let’s start with Melissa McCarthy, Charlize Theron and Amy Schumer. In Spy, McCarthy three years ago displayed hilariously lethal skills, but in her new Life of the Party she’s a mopey mom whose daughter is embarrassed by her and whose husband dumps her. Meanwhile, Theron, the delectably homicidal heroine of Atomic Blonde, becomes a downbeat, defeated housewife in Tully. Schumer, who devours men in Trainwreck, is dopey and delusional in I Feel Pretty, cast as a woman whose self-esteem is tied to her (imagined) svelte figure.
Let’s start with Melissa McCarthy, Charlize Theron and Amy Schumer. In Spy, McCarthy three years ago displayed hilariously lethal skills, but in her new Life of the Party she’s a mopey mom whose daughter is embarrassed by her and whose husband dumps her. Meanwhile, Theron, the delectably homicidal heroine of Atomic Blonde, becomes a downbeat, defeated housewife in Tully. Schumer, who devours men in Trainwreck, is dopey and delusional in I Feel Pretty, cast as a woman whose self-esteem is tied to her (imagined) svelte figure.
- 5/17/2018
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
From Pretty in Pink to Dirty Dancing and Say Anything - Hadley Freeman describes the emotions that got her hooked on films about growing up
•Sign up for Film Today and get our film team’s highlights of the day
Like Liam and Chris Hemsworth, the teen movie and the coming-of-age movie are easily confused but extremely different propositions. The teen movie is a celebration of teen-ness: the tribes, the slang, the annoying parents. The coming-of-ager is a more soulful phenomenon: yes, it looks at teen life, but something deeper about the human spirit is revealed, and just because it might happen on a prom dancefloor doesn’t in any way diminish the epiphanical uplift. Put it this way: with a teen film what you remember is the funny teen stuff, with a coming-of-age film you remember the emotions.
Both the teen movie and the coming-of-age movie came of age in the 1980s,...
•Sign up for Film Today and get our film team’s highlights of the day
Like Liam and Chris Hemsworth, the teen movie and the coming-of-age movie are easily confused but extremely different propositions. The teen movie is a celebration of teen-ness: the tribes, the slang, the annoying parents. The coming-of-ager is a more soulful phenomenon: yes, it looks at teen life, but something deeper about the human spirit is revealed, and just because it might happen on a prom dancefloor doesn’t in any way diminish the epiphanical uplift. Put it this way: with a teen film what you remember is the funny teen stuff, with a coming-of-age film you remember the emotions.
Both the teen movie and the coming-of-age movie came of age in the 1980s,...
- 4/28/2018
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
Ahead of the 2018 Oscars, Hadley Freeman champions Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age drama about the inner lives of women
It is still slightly mind-blowing that Lady Bird is nominated at all at this year’s Academy Awards, because there is nothing about this movie that screams “Oscar fodder!” But the fact that it is nominated is a testament to just how bloody good this movie is, and why it really should win best picture.
Its most obviously un-Oscar quality is that it was written and directed by a woman, Greta Gerwig, who is still only 34. Gerwig is, shamefully, only the fifth woman to be nominated for best director in the Oscars’ 90-year history. The relevance of her gender is all too apparent in the second factor that makes it seemingly so anti-Oscars: it is about the inner lives of girls and women. The last time a movie about female lives was...
It is still slightly mind-blowing that Lady Bird is nominated at all at this year’s Academy Awards, because there is nothing about this movie that screams “Oscar fodder!” But the fact that it is nominated is a testament to just how bloody good this movie is, and why it really should win best picture.
Its most obviously un-Oscar quality is that it was written and directed by a woman, Greta Gerwig, who is still only 34. Gerwig is, shamefully, only the fifth woman to be nominated for best director in the Oscars’ 90-year history. The relevance of her gender is all too apparent in the second factor that makes it seemingly so anti-Oscars: it is about the inner lives of girls and women. The last time a movie about female lives was...
- 2/22/2018
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
W Stephen Gilbert writes that what unites most of the men currently accused of sexually ‘inappropriate behaviour’ is their work in progressive and socio-politically challenging films; while Jan Potworowski says that historical context may help us understand, but not excuse, Polanski’s behaviour
Hadley Freeman writes powerfully about Roman Polanski and the fluctuating attitudes to his admitted abuse of an underage girl 40 years ago (G2, 30 January). She alludes also to Harvey Weinstein and Woody Allen who, along with directors such as Bryan Singer, Oliver Stone and Lars Von Trier and actors including Kevin Spacey, Jeffrey Tambor and Dustin Hoffman, have been accused of, in the current phrase, “inappropriate behaviour”.
It concerns me that what seems to unite all these men is that they have done significant work in progressive and socio-politically challenging films. Were Will Hays of Hollywood’s repressive Hays Code alive today, he would have been delighted that...
Hadley Freeman writes powerfully about Roman Polanski and the fluctuating attitudes to his admitted abuse of an underage girl 40 years ago (G2, 30 January). She alludes also to Harvey Weinstein and Woody Allen who, along with directors such as Bryan Singer, Oliver Stone and Lars Von Trier and actors including Kevin Spacey, Jeffrey Tambor and Dustin Hoffman, have been accused of, in the current phrase, “inappropriate behaviour”.
It concerns me that what seems to unite all these men is that they have done significant work in progressive and socio-politically challenging films. Were Will Hays of Hollywood’s repressive Hays Code alive today, he would have been delighted that...
- 1/31/2018
- by Letters
- The Guardian - Film News
Thirty years on, Rob Reiner’s salute to Hollywood swashbucklers remains a poignant pastiche, gloriously unencumbered by CGI visuals and gender cliches
After 30 years, the wit, fun, charm and idealism are fresher than ever. The Princess Bride, adapted by William Goldman from his novel and directed by Rob Reiner, now makes a brief reappearance in UK cinemas. Catch it while you can. My colleague Hadley Freeman has a magisterial chapter on it in her memoir of 1980s Hollywood, Life Moves Pretty Fast, showing how it made possible fairytale homages and Shrek and Frozen and also affected the language of irony and comedy in the television pop culture that came afterwards. It’s a movie that manages to be both a pastiche and a fervently real love story. The Princess Bride is an organically grown comedy romance from an analogue age: different from the genetically modified, digital creations that came along later.
After 30 years, the wit, fun, charm and idealism are fresher than ever. The Princess Bride, adapted by William Goldman from his novel and directed by Rob Reiner, now makes a brief reappearance in UK cinemas. Catch it while you can. My colleague Hadley Freeman has a magisterial chapter on it in her memoir of 1980s Hollywood, Life Moves Pretty Fast, showing how it made possible fairytale homages and Shrek and Frozen and also affected the language of irony and comedy in the television pop culture that came afterwards. It’s a movie that manages to be both a pastiche and a fervently real love story. The Princess Bride is an organically grown comedy romance from an analogue age: different from the genetically modified, digital creations that came along later.
- 10/23/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Jared Kushner‘s Jewish faith is back in the spotlight as his father-in-law, Donald Trump, faces widespread backlash over his refusal to unequivocally condemn white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Kkk for the deadly violence that engulfed Charlottesville, Virginia, during a white nationalist rally over the weekend.
The president’s daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump — who converted to Judaism before marrying Kusher, an Orthodox Jew, in 2009 — tweeted after the events in Charlottesville, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”
But Kushner, 36, a former real-estate developer and newspaper publisher who is also a senior advisor to the president,...
The president’s daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump — who converted to Judaism before marrying Kusher, an Orthodox Jew, in 2009 — tweeted after the events in Charlottesville, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”
But Kushner, 36, a former real-estate developer and newspaper publisher who is also a senior advisor to the president,...
- 8/16/2017
- by Tierney McAfee
- PEOPLE.com
Oscars regular Hadley Freeman on why the hottest ticket in Hollywood is even more ridiculous – and wonderful – than TV makes it seem
The cliche about glitzy televised events is that they, like the celebrities, always seem diminished in real life. Movie premieres, fashion shows, the Baftas, the World Cup opening ceremony, Miss UK: I have covered them all for this paper and they look a lot better on TV than in person (yes, Miss UK really was that bad). I guess they benefit from the extra half stone that the camera puts on.
But none of this is true about the Oscars. Up close, the experience is, if anything, even more overwhelmingly ridiculous than what you see on TV.
Continue reading...
The cliche about glitzy televised events is that they, like the celebrities, always seem diminished in real life. Movie premieres, fashion shows, the Baftas, the World Cup opening ceremony, Miss UK: I have covered them all for this paper and they look a lot better on TV than in person (yes, Miss UK really was that bad). I guess they benefit from the extra half stone that the camera puts on.
But none of this is true about the Oscars. Up close, the experience is, if anything, even more overwhelmingly ridiculous than what you see on TV.
Continue reading...
- 2/25/2017
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
Ryan Lambie Feb 26, 2017
First came the five-star reviews, then came the criticisms. Using La La Land as a case study, we look at the anatomy of a backlash...
Reader, you should have seen the queue: it stretched all the way out of the cinema, down the street, round the corner and on for another half a kilometre or so. This was the line for La La Land at the London Film Festival late last year, and there was a definite hum of enthusiasm in the air.
See related Supergirl season 2 episode 13 review: Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk Supergirl season 2 episode 12 review: Luthors Supergirl season 2 episode 11 review: The Martian Chronicles Supergirl season 2 episode 10 review: We Can Be Heroes
Hype had already built around the musical since its first screening at the Venice Film Festival a couple of months earlier, and as a result, there were so many people desperate to see the movie...
First came the five-star reviews, then came the criticisms. Using La La Land as a case study, we look at the anatomy of a backlash...
Reader, you should have seen the queue: it stretched all the way out of the cinema, down the street, round the corner and on for another half a kilometre or so. This was the line for La La Land at the London Film Festival late last year, and there was a definite hum of enthusiasm in the air.
See related Supergirl season 2 episode 13 review: Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk Supergirl season 2 episode 12 review: Luthors Supergirl season 2 episode 11 review: The Martian Chronicles Supergirl season 2 episode 10 review: We Can Be Heroes
Hype had already built around the musical since its first screening at the Venice Film Festival a couple of months earlier, and as a result, there were so many people desperate to see the movie...
- 2/9/2017
- Den of Geek
It was the decade that brought us a giant marshmallow man, a diversely cast Saturday detention, a watermelon-carrying Baby, a kiss between a mother and son of the same age and three men juggling a baby and heroin. Ahead of tomorrow's extract in Weekend from Hadley Freeman's book about 80s movies, here's a really rather tough quiz on the era.
Which of these Isn't a business in Hill Valley circa 1955?
Armstrong Realty
Roy's Records
Broadway Florist
Gaynor's Hideaway
What is the name of the shop on the bag in which Andrew (Emilio Estevez) keeps his lunch?
Happy Foods
Hungry Town
Food Shopper
Valley Eats
What is Dana's surname in Ghostbusters?
Stenmore
Watkins
Andrews
Barrett
When Elliot's brother is trying to discount what Elliot saw, what does he Not list?
Alligator
Iguana
Stray dog
Deformed kid
What is the first question in the sex quiz in Sixteen Candles?
Have you ever touched it?...
Which of these Isn't a business in Hill Valley circa 1955?
Armstrong Realty
Roy's Records
Broadway Florist
Gaynor's Hideaway
What is the name of the shop on the bag in which Andrew (Emilio Estevez) keeps his lunch?
Happy Foods
Hungry Town
Food Shopper
Valley Eats
What is Dana's surname in Ghostbusters?
Stenmore
Watkins
Andrews
Barrett
When Elliot's brother is trying to discount what Elliot saw, what does he Not list?
Alligator
Iguana
Stray dog
Deformed kid
What is the first question in the sex quiz in Sixteen Candles?
Have you ever touched it?...
- 5/8/2015
- by Benjamin Lee
- The Guardian - Film News
Who would have predicted that a goofy movie about two time-travelling California metalheads would still be celebrated 25 years after its release? Hadley Freeman was 12 when Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure came out – and she's loved it ever since
Of all the delightfully improbable scenarios depicted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure – from Napoleon Bonaparte causing havoc on a waterslide to Billy the Kid and Socrates picking up chicks in a California mall to George Carlin acting in a film alongside Keanu Reeves and a member of the Go-Go's – none would have seemed more unlikely on its release than the idea that one day, with much media fanfare, the public would be celebrating the film's 25th anniversary.
By the time Bill & Ted was released in 1989, the 80s teen film explosion was starting to taper out. Heathers, which came out in 1987, had so deftly satirised the conventions of the genre (and particularly of John...
Of all the delightfully improbable scenarios depicted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure – from Napoleon Bonaparte causing havoc on a waterslide to Billy the Kid and Socrates picking up chicks in a California mall to George Carlin acting in a film alongside Keanu Reeves and a member of the Go-Go's – none would have seemed more unlikely on its release than the idea that one day, with much media fanfare, the public would be celebrating the film's 25th anniversary.
By the time Bill & Ted was released in 1989, the 80s teen film explosion was starting to taper out. Heathers, which came out in 1987, had so deftly satirised the conventions of the genre (and particularly of John...
- 4/17/2014
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
Kuki Gallmann’s tale of her turbulent years in Africa was an international bestseller. As the film of her life is released, she tells Hadley Freeman how Hollywood - and Kim Basinger - got it wrong
Film Unlimited
"I myself would have been curious to meet the person I was to interpret," says the heavily accented, slightly indignant voice at the end of the telephone line. "Kim Basinger has given her own interpretation of me, and it's definitely not me. I was never afraid when Paolo went off hunting. I've certainly never been afraid of the elephants in my garden."
Kuki Gallmann, widow, mother, internationally acclaimed author and conservationist, is not very happy. I Dreamed of Africa, the film adaptation of her autobiography, opens today in the Us and she is quickly discovering the pitfalls of handing over your life to Hollywood.
Continue reading...
Film Unlimited
"I myself would have been curious to meet the person I was to interpret," says the heavily accented, slightly indignant voice at the end of the telephone line. "Kim Basinger has given her own interpretation of me, and it's definitely not me. I was never afraid when Paolo went off hunting. I've certainly never been afraid of the elephants in my garden."
Kuki Gallmann, widow, mother, internationally acclaimed author and conservationist, is not very happy. I Dreamed of Africa, the film adaptation of her autobiography, opens today in the Us and she is quickly discovering the pitfalls of handing over your life to Hollywood.
Continue reading...
- 5/5/2000
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
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