Emile Hirsch | The New York Observer

The Week in DVR: We Heart The Girl Next Door! Plus, Community, Vertigo, Edward Norton and Wes Anderson

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:07:01 -0500

Monday: Vertigo

Halloween might be over, but that doesn't mean the scares have to stop. We wouldn't go so far as to call Vertigo a "horror movie," but Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock ratchets the tension to such unbearable levels that parts of it are more terrifying than anything you'd see in whatever torture porn is defiling theaters in a given week. Of course you've watched Vertigo before, so we aren't going to tell you...

Love Beads for Ang Lee: Hippie Spirit Celebrated at Taking Woodstock Premiere

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:50:38 -0400

The thunder rolled and the rain poured down, but the stars were out at Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema on the Lower East Side on Wednesday, July 29, for the premiere of director Ang Lee’s latest movie, Taking Woodstock, about the germinal (and very muddy) hippie concert that celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Flowers were offered on arrival, an idea that obviously pleased actor Emile Hirsch as he waved one around while telling the...

Reboot Fever: Keeping Track of the Hollywood Remakes, So You Don't Have To!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:39:34 -0400

Do you hear that sound? It’s a Hollywood executive riffling through an old box of VHS tapes to find the next great reboot! (“Let’s do Big Trouble in Little China… with Sawyer from Lost!”) With Hollywood seemingly completely out of ideas—last month it was announced that a movie based on Bazooka Joe comic strips is in the works—the reboot has become a staple of the industry. This summer we’ve already seen the good (Star...

James Franco Says He Was a Pretty Good Boyfriend

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:37:04 -0500

Last night, at a screening of Milk and Q&A with stars James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin and Alison Pill; director Gus Van Sant; and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, everyone was pretty giggly.

Mr. Franco said that he had watched Gay Sex in the 70s (the documentary) to prepare for his role as Scott, Harvey Milk's boyfriend. Mr. Brolin joked that he'd been thinking he was to play Milk and so "being...

Milk Is Great, but Would Be Even Tastier With More Penn Smooches

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:37:42 -0500

Milk
Running time 128 minutes
Written by Dustin Lance Black
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, Diego Luna, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare

In real life, Harvey Milk was an unexceptional Jewish boy, as plain as a matzo, but with extraordinary courage, as challenging to homophobic society as a pierced nipple. Without much public egotism or personal glory, he was a late bloomer who,...

Morning Memo: Kirsten Dunst's Guys; Tinsley Mortimer's Gigs; Anna Wintour's Advice

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:52:26 -0400

Depending on which day you read the papers, rehabilitated Kirsten Dunst is chasing Into the Wild actor Emile Hirsch, or maybe Drew Barrymore's ex, Justin Long. [P6]

CNBC interviewed Tinsley Mortimer as the "socialite-turned-entrepreneur," who designs handbags, lip gloss and clothes. Apparently she's huge in Japan! [Park Avenue Peerage]

Anna Wintour has offered to "discuss her career, stories of former successful Vogue interns and give advice on how to do well in the...

Cough! Ptooey! Frantic Speed Racer Spews Toxic Fumes

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:59:04 -0400

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...

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

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:51:22 -0400

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...

Tribeca Film Festival Ends With Speed Racer

Mon, 05 May 2008 11:59:38 -0400

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.

The film’s principal cast of Emile...

Tribeca to Close with Matrix Makers' Speed Racer

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:46:02 -0400

Those brothers who brought us The Matrix trilogy made a film version of the 1960s Japanese Speed Racer cartoon and they'll be premiering it on the last day of the Tribeca Film Festival on May 3. Andy and Larry Wachowski are releasing their first directorial project since we followed them down the rabbit hole for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, and this new Wonderland looks like a cross between The...

Into the Wild Leads S.A.G. Awards

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:45:07 -0500

Into the Wild led contenders for the Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nominations, including honors for lead actor Emile Hirsch and supporting players Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener. The nominations were announced this morning.

Directed by Sean Penn, Into the Wild also was nominated for performance by its overall cast, along with the Western 3:10 to Yuma, the crime sagas American Gangster and No Country for Old Men, and the musical Hairspray.

Guild...

Collect 'Em All! Our Guide to Celebrities Pressing Flesh in New York This Week

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:04:59 -0500

Because cases of mistaken celebrity identity can be really annoying, here follows a list of some stars—most of whom are out-of-towners—in New York over the next seven days. So if you happen to find yourself at, say, Da Silvano on Wednesday night and could swear that Tom Hanks is sitting at the next table over, you’ll know that it’s probably him. (Mr. Hanks comes to town today to promote his new...

Critics Circle Goes Wild

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:17:47 -0500

They're wild for Sean Penn, those movie critics. Into the Wild received seven nominations for the 13th Critics Choice Awards, announced today by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The film got nods for picture, director, writer, actor, supporting actor for Hal Holbrook, supporting actress for Catherine Keener and best song for Eddie Vedder's "Guaranteed" (What? No props for Emile?).

The Observer's Rex Reed wrote about Into the Wild:

It’s a sad story that runs...

Brolin, Hirsch, Franco Got Milk

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:13:52 -0500

Three hunky actors have got Milk this morning, landing roles in the biopic based on the life of Harvey Milk. He was America's first openly gay elected official, assassinated in 1978. (His killer launched the infamous "Twinkie defense," arguing that exposure to the Hostess treat rendered him powerless to stop himself from the dramatic shooting spree.) Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild It boy), Josh "Thrashin'" Brolin (when did Barb Streisand's stepson step out of...

Remains of the Day: Emile Hirsch, Birdie Clark, Morrissey

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:17:34 -0500

Our Web site had a hairball for most of the day, so excuse the Culture Czar for coughing up these stories a little late. Here’s what we missed:

Into the Wild was, predictably, the big winner at the Gotham Awards last night in Brooklyn. Go Emile!

The Weinstein Co. has acquired publishing and screen rights to Bridie Clark's upcoming novel I Think She's Got It, which is...

Sound, Into the Wild Top Gotham Award Noms

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:40:50 -0400

The IFP announced the 17th Annual Gotham Awards nominees today, spotlighting the breakthrough indie films of the year.

Great World of Sound, a comedy about a bumbling Southern duo who traverse the country to discover unsigned "talent" for a record label, garnered the most nominations for Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor. In Craig Zobel's documentary-style debut, real performers auditioned without knowing it was actually a film shoot. With hidden cameras, the interaction...

Wild Thing, I Think I Love You ...

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:27:42 -0400

It looks like Resident Evil: Extinction (#1) will not be following its own advice. After a $24 million dollar opening weekend, the Sony franchise based on a video game looks like it is here to stay. And it appears New Yorkers are just fine with that: the movie grossed a very respectable $337,000 at 9 theaters over the weekend.

But the big story for Manhattan box office continues to be the...

Penn’s Good Boy

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:19:14 -0400

Last Wednesday at the restaurant in the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, Emile Hirsch was tucked into the corner seat at a corner table, windbreaker smooshed into a ball in his lap, eating chicken noodle soup. The 22-year-old actor looked worn and pale, his fair skin all the more porcelain-like under a thick swoosh of black hair (dyed for his role in next year’s Speed Racer). He unselfconsciously plucked a cough drop from his...