TheFilmChair.com | A Clevelander's musings on Movies, Indie Film, TV and Pop Culture

Posted by Dan on Sep 15, 2011

John Waters should have directed THE HELP

I avoided seeing The Helpfor a few weeks because what looked like a solid picture was dogged by controversy. It’s true that the film has uncomfortable moments, but it’s no more racist than the Coen Brothers film The Ladykillers. It’s certainly less so than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But that’s not the problem here. Over and over again while watching this movie it felt like the perfect...

Posted by Dan on Sep 13, 2011

BIG 6: The SpongeBob effect, Tyler Perry is so money, more

SpongeBob Found to Impair Preschoolers’ Thinking Now, I’m no developmental psychologist, but several things about the conclusion being drawn here leap out at me. First, this was a group of four-year-olds, who are not the target audience for SpongeBob, and with good reason — the humor in SpongeBob is largely based in irony and sarcasm, two concepts that few kids under the age of six are likely to...

Posted by Dan on Sep 12, 2011

Hannibal Lecter TV series coming with Bryan Fuller on board

The thought of a Hannibal Lecter TV series might cause a knee-jerk reaction. Like mine: “Stop effing with a masterpiece.” Of course, that only really takes into account The Silence of the Lambs (and to a lesser extent Manhunter). I always forget that even Anthony Hopkins couldn’t save Hannibal or Red Dragon. And there’s Hannibal Rising, which I didn’t see and never plan...

Posted by Dan on Sep 12, 2011

BIG 6: Emotional superheroes, Creative Emmys, RIP Cliff, more

Superheroes Have Feelings, Too – Why Hollywood Should Show Them After all, Batman can’t walk around Gotham beating up bankers just on principal. So how do our heroes fit into this world of moralistic grey? Easy, they don’t. Maybe that is why the new slew of Hollywood superhero films have left us feeling, well, not so super. It’s as if we have become desensitized to the violence and gore...

Posted by Dan on Sep 10, 2011

Rust Belt Rivals: What Marvel & DC tell us about Cleveland & Pittsburgh

If you live in Cleveland or Pittsburgh, you probably have Dec. 8 and Jan. 1 marked on you calendar. Those are the dates when the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns are scheduled have their two regular season clashes. The Browns, the underdogs with very loyal fans, have only won four of the 24 contests since 1999. In that same time, Pittsburgh has gone to three Superbowls and won two. The...

Posted by Dan on Sep 9, 2011

BIG 6: WALKING DEAD producers talk, Michael Moore’s hate mail, more

Walking Dead producers talk Season 2, Frank Darabont’s departure and more Fans will still be pleased to know that the majority of the season was laid out by devoted fan Darabont before his abrupt exit from the show back in July. Darabont’s name remains in the opening credits as executive producer and Mazzara indicated that the credit would remain. Read the full HitFix post Michael Moore:...

Posted by Dan on Sep 8, 2011

BIG 6: Cronenberg’s METHOD, Big move from J.J. Abrams, more

A Dangerous Method: David Cronenberg’s Mild Manner and Outrageous Movies Indeed, the film — Cronenberg’s most thoughtful, based on a script by Christopher Hampton — might be closest to the ruminative figure he has been for decades, the man producer Jeremy Thomas calls “a professor.” ”I was always an intellectual,” says the director, a science student at...

Posted by Dan on Sep 7, 2011

BIG 6: Post-9/11 SEX AND THE CITY, Hitchcock nostalgia, more

Encyclopedia of 9/11 - Sex and the City: Was it still okay to drink Cosmos? Still, by October, when writing began on season five, the writers were still shaken up, unsure whether it was even possible to refit their stylized sex comedy to the new environment. “Would people want to see their four ladies having fun, or be sad with them?” recalled writer Elisa Zuritsky, who remembers cathartic venting,...