Susan Sarandon

Cough! Ptooey! Frantic Speed Racer Spews Toxic Fumes

Shiny cars and helmet heads: Hirsch.
Think Film; Warner Bros. Pictures
Shiny cars and helmet heads: Hirsch.

SPEED RACER
Running Time 129 minutes
Written and
directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski
Starring Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, John Goodman

Even for summer trash, this abomination by the creatively challenged Wachowski brothers is a train wreck so bad that words literally fail me, but I will say it looks like somebody ate 25 cafeteria Jello-O congealed salads and then threw up all over the sets. Happily, I was out of town for Iron Man and have no intention of catching up, but slashing whatever I.Q. points I saved was Speed Racer, an obnoxious two-hour-and-15-minute tribute to noise and Fiestaware from the muttonheads who polluted the planet with the Matrix trilogy; it’s pretty much in a garbage pile of its own. Summer isn’t even officially here yet, but for me Speed Racer fires the opening shot for what threatens to be a three-month school-vacation Marvel-comics festival of violence, stupidity, junk and unsaturated fat, aimed at morons with I.Q.’s of 40 and under, and starring assorted hulks, Spider-Men, Batmen, ninjas, robots, superheroes that are anything but super, and Adam Sandler. Few summer movies promise to be more nauseating than Speed Racer, unless you count the one with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as siblings (you need a barf bag just for the trailers).  read more »

Sara Vilkomerson's Guide To This Week's Movies: Whatcha thinkin', Wachowskis?

Warner Bros. Pictures

O.K., temperatures may only sporadically hitting the 70s, but summer blockbuster season is officially here. Iron Man opened last weekend with a whopping $104.2 million stateside and another 96.8 million overseas ($201 million all together in its first five days). That beats even what the studio was hoping for (a mere $90 million domestically) and out there in Hollywoodland, executive types are thrilled that all the bemoaning and hand-wringing over the death of the box office was premature.  read more »

Susan Sarandon is Disappointed in Hillary, the Press

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When we ran into Susan Sarandon over the weekend at the TFF premiere of Speed Racer, we wondered if the actress still stood by her endorsement of Barack Obama given all the talk of the senator's dropping numbers.

And she does! Here's what the actress had to say about the current state of the democratic candidacy:  read more »

Tribeca Film Festival Ends With Speed Racer

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The Tribeca Film Festival went as it had come: with another glitzy premiere.

Merely two weeks after the festival encroached on our city with the much-hyped premiere of Baby Mama, the Wachowski brothers’ Speed Racer closed the festivities to an equally if not more star-treaded red carpet and winding line of rubbernecking ticket holders.  read more »

Source at Fund-Raiser: Edwards Calls McCain 'Crazy' and Says Hillary Thinks There's More on Rezko

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Before John Edwards let David Letterman mess up his hair on the Late Show last night, the former Senator was at a private fund-raiser in midtown Manhattan, also attended by Kevin Bacon, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Alex Forger—one of the co-executors of the Jackie Onassis estate.

A reader who attended the event—held in the Fifth Avenue home of Edwards contributor Joseph Bondi—emailed me last night with this report of Edwards' remarks:  read more »

At Big Benefit, Tina Brown Eschews 'The Cave'


After spending the better part of last year penning The Diana Chronicles in relative isolation at her beach house, erstwhile New Yorker editor Tina Brown is, at least for the time being, happy to soak up the odd wingding.  read more »

The Anti-Bonnie Raitt Vote

Freshman Representative John Hall got a boost during his campaign from his days as a bare-chested rock and roller with the group Orleans. But now, a few months into his first term, a Republican has stepped up to challenge him, criticizing not only his position on Iraq, but his ties to the music industry.

Kieran Michael Lalor, a former marine who served in Iraq, has launched an exploratory committee to run the 19th congressional district in the Hudson Valley, which Hall represents. Among his complaints:

Hall's campaign was supported by the likes of Susan Sarandon, who is so radical she was uninvited to a 2003 event at the baseball Hall of Fame because she was actively undermining the morale of American troops in Iraq. Musician Bonnie Raitt, who in 1999 traveled to Cuba to play for Castro and bash the United States in the Karl Marx Theatre, played a concert to raise money for the Hall Campaign.

-- Azi Paybarah

Dems Must Resist Voices of Outrage

Courage. Conviction. Constancy.These are among the most prized of political virtues.  read more »

Dems Must Resist Voices of Outrage

Hillary Clinton.
Hai Knafo
Hillary Clinton.

Courage. Conviction. Constancy.  read more »

Kate Dismembered

For New Yorkers who summered in the city, the heat came in two types.  read more »

The Time-Warp, Again

Actress and activist Susan Sarandon was onstage at Avery Fisher Hall on Monday, May 5, after a two-a  read more »

New Yorkers, Unite! Stand Up for Our Boldface Bloviators

Dear Concerned Citizen: As I write this, we face a grave and growing crisis in America.  read more »

Toronto Ends With a Bang

The Toronto International Film Festival, which just ended, rounded the midway point with a collage o  read more »

Sarandon and Hawn, Juicer Than Ever

The dog days of an insufferable summer are barking hoarsely to an end, the cartoons and aliens are o  read more »

Screw the $1,000 Peasant Blouse! Cognoscenti Get $20 Caftans in L.A.

Finding fabulously enriching things to do in Los Angeles has always been a trifle taxing.When I live  read more »

Runaway Wife, Reluctant Daughter … You Might Lose Your Lunch

Runaway Wife, Reluctant DaughterSusan Sarandon, I am happy to report, did not die of cancer, join a  read more »

Watching Books Become Movies

Cannes has beaches, Venice has gondolas, New York has bagels.  read more »

Hi-yo, Silver! At 26, Gray Matters

Recently in midtown, I ran into someone I despise, and because it was warm and sunny, we stopped to  read more »