Author Archives: ingloriousbaguettes

Tribeca Film Festival Screener #4: “Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres” (2021) is director Suzanne Joe Kai’s intimate chronicle of the life that was considered the beating heart of one of the most formidable music and culture magazines of all time. Recently, I read a biography in the same veinContinue reading “Like A Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres (2021)”

Tribeca Film Festival Screener #3: “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” (2021), created by Morgan Neville, fills in the blanks on the enigmatic life and death of the beloved food loving world traveler. He lived the type of life that everyone wanted, to be able to rub elbows with the greatest artists, chefs, and starsContinue reading “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)”

Tribeca Film Festival Screener #2: “Italian Studies” (2021) developed by writer-director Adam Leon is a dreamlike meandering odyssey which follows a young woman who seems to be suffering from amnesia. The score is shimmering and heightens the moments of confusion, dissociation and also excitement throughout the film, helping to give it some structure and instructContinue reading “Italian Studies (2021)”

Tribeca Film Festival Screener #1: “In the Heights” (2021) is the on-screen adaptation of the popular stage musical of the same name by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda, which was directed by Jon M. Chu (who previously worked on “Crazy Rich Asians”), with a screenplay by Hudes, with Miranda as a producer and theContinue reading “In The Heights (2021)”

Shakespeare Series #8: “Hamlet” (2000) directed by Michael Almereyda is so ambitious and bizarre that one can’t help but to be impressed at the undertaking, no matter the actual result. It is an existential rabbit hole that is a year 2000 capsule in time in every imaginable way. There were likely aspects of this filmContinue reading “Hamlet (2000)”

Shakespeare Series #7: “Get Over It” (2001) directed by Tommy O’Haver is a modern take on one of the most fun Shakespeare plays: “A Midsummer Nights Dream” and in a clever nod to the original, the actual story is woven within the school play of the same production as there are obvious parallels between theContinue reading “Get Over It (2001)”

Shakespeare Series #6: Most people are familiar with Disney’s “The Lion King” in either it’s 1996 animated version or it’s live-action re-vamp from 2019, but less people are aware that this classic tale is actually an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Following a young cub Simba, his father Mufasa and his uncle Scar when Scar plotsContinue reading “The Lion King (1994); (2019)”

Shakespeare Series #5: “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) is Baz Lurhmann’s theatrical, glitzy and gritty modern take on Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy of the same name. He boldly keeps the script in the classic Shakespearean tongue while its delivered through heartthrobs of the 1990’s, set in a non-descript Californian almost dystopian city, named Verona Beach. TheContinue reading “Romeo + Juliet (1996)”

Shakespeare Series #5: “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999) directed by Gil Junger (his directorial debut at the time), is one of the most beloved teen-comedies of its time and one of the most memorial adaptations to take on one of Shakespeare’s classic plays in the high school setting. Much of this is dueContinue reading “10 Things I Hate About You (1999)”

Shakespeare Series #3: “O!” (2001), which is nicknamed “O (Othello)” for clarity, is an adaptation of the aforementioned Shakespeare tragedy, directed by Tim Blake Nelson (who you may recognize as Dr. Pendanski in “Holes” (2003) or, more recently, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” from 2018). Written by Brad Kaaya, the dramatic play has been transformedContinue reading “O! (Othello) (2001)”

Shakespeare Series #2: “Scotland, PA” (2001), directed by Billy Morrissette (who also made a film called “Catch Me If You Can” from 1989, not be confused with the extraordinarily popular Steven Spielberg film of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hanks which came out in 2002), is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedyContinue reading “Scotland, PA (2001)”

Shakespeare Series #1: “She’s The Man” (2006) directed by Andy Fickman is a modern classic that became an instant audience favorite upon its release, topping charts for its first three weeks, and becoming a moderate commercial success, grossing $57.2 million against a budget of $20 million. If you were a teenager in 2006, you probablyContinue reading “She’s The Man (2006)”