Michael Moore | The New York Observer

Box Office Breakdown: Welcome to Zombieland

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:07:48 -0400

Who knew killing zombies was such a lucrative business? Zombieland squished the competition at the box office this weekend, placing first with an estimated $25 million. That gives the horror-zombie-comedy hybrid the second highest opening for a zombie-related film, behind only Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. Elsewhere on the charts, it was mostly disappointment: Ricky Gervais proved he still isn’t an American movie star, as

Box Office Breakdown: Cloudy Continues to Shine, Bruce Willis Does Not

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:58:53 -0400

The sun is still shining on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! For a second straight week the animated film dominated what was a sluggish session at the multiplex, grossing an estimated $24.6 million and setting itself up as one of the sleeper hits of the fall (not to mention giving us the opportunity to make more weather related puns). Storm clouds did, however, circle around the latest batch of new...

Opening This Weekend: Thank Goodness September is Over!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:06:05 -0400

The final weekend of September is upon and dare we say: not a moment too soon. Once October hits, real movies will start opening, but in the meantime we’re left with the rest of these September dregs. As we do every Friday, here’s a handy guide to the new releases.

Fame

What’s the story: Maybe the denizens of Fame actually will live forever. Based...

But Will it Play in Peoria? Esky Nervously Fetes Moore's Anti-Capitalism Doc at Ultimate Bachelor Pad

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:12:20 -0400

“They promised me I would mellow as I got older, and it didn’t happen,” a graying Michael Moore bellowed before the New York premiere of his new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, at Alice Tully Hall on Monday, Sept. 21. The screening, a pre–New York Film Festival event put on by Esquire and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, drew noted capitalists like chef Mario Batali and editor Tina Brown despite its radical premise:...

Michael Moore Releasing Slacker Movie Online

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:30:24 -0400

Michael Moore is pulling a Radiohead. He's releasing his next new film online at Blip.tv. Slacker Uprising takes us on a 62-city tour during the 2004 election with Mr. Moore, who is rallying young people into the voting booths. It will be available for three weeks as a free download to North American residents, beginning Sept. 23.

This is the first major movie to be released in such a way, according to the Associated Press....

Kristof Does Kafka: Times Columnist's Very Own Trial in Beijing

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:38:47 -0400

Is Nicholas Kristof the new Michael Moore? This week, The New York Times columnist wrote about his attempt to obtain a permit to protest at the Olympics in Beijing and, at times, his stunt feels like a remake of Roger & Me, minus Mr. Moore's trucker hat and blue collar crusading.

Here's how Mr. Kristoff sets the scene:

Following government instructions, I showed up at an office of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, found...

Michael Moore Is Back With 9/11 Follow-Up

Wed, 14 May 2008 11:13:30 -0400

Four years after Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore gets back on the soapbox (film-wise anyway) with a "searing and provocative follow-up," according to press notes. Paramount Vantage will be peddling the film this week in Cannes but it won't be in theaters until 2009. Full release after the jump.

OVERTURE FILMS AND PARAMOUNT VANTAGE TEAM TO CO-FINANCE AND DISTRIBUTE MICHAEL MOORE’S NEXT FILM

(Los Angeles, CA) May 13, 2008—Paramount Vantage and Overture Films will...

Can Michael Moore Save Documentaries?

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:00:08 -0500

Doc filmmakers hope so! Last month at the International Documentary Association's annual Oscar celebration, Michael Moore called for "Doc Night in America," which would ask major theater chains to dedicate one screen, one night a week, to nonfiction film. While the proposal remains in its nascent stages, it has already spurred talk, both positive and negative, within the documentary community, according to Indie Wire. Of course, distributors are giving the plan a thumbs down....

Rolling Stone's Planned Cover Story by Michael Moore Is Latest Victim of Hillary's Press Control

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:21:52 -0500

A long letter written by Michael Moore to friends and supporters has been posted on the Drudge Report (and now on Gawker, whose link will likely last longer). Mr. Moore writes that he's not endorsing any of the Democratic candidates for president "at this point." But the most interesting tidbit comes a bit further down.

Mr. Moore reveals that he was asked by Rolling Stone to do a cover story in the form...

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! CNN Slugs Michael Moore

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:04:59 -0400

The sparring between Michael Moore and CNN is starting to sound like a playground fight.

On Saturday, Mr. Moore published an "open letter" to CNN on his web site, introducing complaints about his treatment at the hands of interviewer Wolf Blitzer with some crazy-talk:

"I bet you thought I was just going to go quietly away. Think again. I'm about to become your worst nightmare. 'Cause I ain't ever going away."

Well, now, CNN has used its...

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! CNN Slugs Michael Moore

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:04:58 -0400

The sparring between Michael Moore and CNN is starting to sound like a playground fight.

On Saturday, Mr. Moore published an "open letter" to CNN on his web site, introducing complaints about his treatment at the hands of interviewer Wolf Blitzer with some crazy-talk:

"I bet you thought I was just going to go quietly away. Think again. I'm about to become your worst nightmare. 'Cause I ain't ever going away."

Well, now, CNN has used its...

Moore at Friday Night Sicko Showing: ‘We Live in Dark Times’

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:00:34 -0400

The movie theater darkened and one man clapped. Then another couple of men stood up, and, quickly, the entire capacity theater at Loews Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side turned and stood to see Michael Moore ambling up the aisle shortly after 11 on Friday night.

Mr. Moore’s new health-care documentary Sicko was about to start, and its writer, director and producer wanted to say a few words. He wore black jeans, a...

Is Moore ... Less? Dieting Documentarian Roots for Fruit, But Drools for Fast Food

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:30:50 -0400

At the New York premiere of his health-care documentary Sicko on Monday, June 18—sponsored in part by this salmon-colored scandal sheet!—filmmaker Michael Moore spoke for only five minutes about how Americans should question the notion that they live in a free society. “I’m going to go get some popcorn and water,” he said, telling the crowd he was off soda. “’Cause I’m trying to take care of myself now.”

The next...

"Sicko" Preview at City Hall

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:28:20 -0400

Reggie Cervantes and William Maher were among the handful of Sept. 11 first responders who gathered on the City Hall steps today as a gesture to remind other people suffering from 9/11-related injuries to apply for disability benefits.

Unlike the others, Cervantes and Maher also participated in Michael Moore’s upcoming documentary, "Sicko," which is about health care in America and Cuba. The movie has been criticized preemptively for violating the US...

A Star Is Borat

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Late last Thursday night, the clock ticking toward midnight under a full Canadian moon, a line made up mostly of young men snaked along Toronto’s Gerrard Street. The hipsters in their hoodies, the awkward computer nerds, the beefy frat-boys were there for the Toronto Film Festival’s “midnight madness” North American premiere of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Even those who recognized by the length of the line...

Toronto Film Festival: Michael Moore Can't Save 'Borat' Breakdown; Crowd Flips

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 03:51:12 -0400

Sara Vilkomerson reports from a madhouse up in Toronto:
Such an entrance. Photo: Getty Images.
Paulo Costanzo--of Road Trip, Joey and Canadian birth--was freaking out. "This is the best fucking night of my life," he screamed from his seat at last night's midnight screening of Borat. Agent and limousine liberal Ari Emmanuel lurked up in the teeming balcony. Sasha Baron Cohen had arrived for the Borat premiere on a cart pulled by six women...

Elsewhere: Manifesting Lieberman, Suozzi, Moore

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:00:00 -0400

John Edwards calls on Joe Lieberman to drop out of the race. [via Lamontblog] The Hotline wonders if hiring of a Democrat and Republican consultant means Lieberman's bi-partisanship is beginning to manifest itself. Undoubtedly manifesting itself is the debate debate, which Liz Benjamin has here. Not manifesting itself is the reappointment of Judge George Bundy Smith, which Liz Benjamin has here. (We told you. Freakishly prolific!) And manifesting itself in strange ways is the phrase "Michael...

Democrats Buying Electoral Snake Oil

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 20:00:00 -0400

At some point during last year's Presidential campaign, several donkey watchers wondered aloud how the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy became the party of Michael Moore.

This, of course, was at the height of the hype over Mr. Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11, and not long after he praised the Iraqi insurgency by comparing it favorably with the Minutemen of some local renown. While some were outraged, I found...

More Minarik

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:58:00 -0500

Sometimes we suspect that Howard Wolfson actually invented Steve Minarik. The Republican Party chairman, with his outsized rhetoric and inattention to detail, is the best thing that's happened to the State Democratic Party in a while. Here at the Politicker, we keep resisting the temptation to give our Minarik Award to Minarik himself. In case you missed it, he tried to Willie Horton-ize Clinton's opposition to laws that disenfranchise felons. Here's how he put it...

New York's Red-State Senators

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:58:00 -0500

That's the title of a recent post by Marshall Wittmann, the conservative Democrat and former McCain advisor, who writes the Bull Moose Blog. Chuck and Hillary, he writes, "have figured out the Democratic future." Wittman praises Chuck for recruiting a pro-life candidate against Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania next year, and Hillary for joining Santorum to push for research into the impact of media on children: "Combined with her increasingly strong national security credentials and her comments on...

Hollywood Holidays: Box-Office Blues, Paunchy Celebs

Sun, 26 Dec 2004 19:00:00 -0500

And so it's Christmas in Los Angeles, 2004.

The gifts have been sent, the tips have been disbursed, and, as the rest of the country contemplates filing all those computer-rebate forms, the focus here has shifted to the Oscars. Among the chatterati, the current conventional wisdom is that the best picture nominations will go to Sideways, Finding Neverland, Ray and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. But the thinking is that statue itself will be given...

Five Reality Checks For Democrats: Dump Kofi, Moore, Dopes

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 19:00:00 -0500

Democrats of Manhattan, rise and shine! It's been over a week now. The American people have spoken, and what they said was: They don't want you. The vote is in, the map is more red than blue, that smirking jerk you love to hate is back for four more years. So now what?

Clearly, your most frequently stated option is not a realistic possibility. If you were really going to kill yourself in the event...

The Last Picture Show

Sun, 26 Sep 2004 20:00:00 -0400

For a time there, between the invasion of the Republicans and vapid Fashion Week, one couldn’t be blamed for thinking that the cultural elite in New York might never return.

During the dark days of summer, Times Square became our cultural fiefdom and The Lion King its jewel in the crown. Elitism and intellectualism were suddenly four-letter words. Alien vs. Predator reigned over the box office. Miramax was flinging staff members to the streets. We...

West Houston, We Have a Problem! Film Mecca's Self-Love

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 20:00:00 -0400

The other evening I saw the anti-corporation documentary The Corporation at Film Forum. As usual, I showed up 20 minutes early, but in that Film Forum way, a long line had already formed outside. I felt like I was waiting for entry to a dance club, fearful I might not make the cut even though, in this case, I had a ticket in hand. How early did these people get here? I wondered. Surely...

Mobs Storm Moore As Tempers Boil To High Fahrenheit

Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:00:00 -0400

On the afternoon of July 27, Michael Moore arrived at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on a leafy street in Brookline to address members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union who attended a screening of his anti-Bush agit-mentary Fahrenheit 9/11 . It was his second public appearance in Boston, during a convention where many Democratic watchers wondered what the filmmaker's role-if any-would be for a party hoping to reach mainstream...

Mobs Storm Moore As Tempers Boil To High Fahrenheit

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Michael Moore's 9/11 Offers No Solutions

Sun, 18 Jul 2004 20:00:00 -0400

There are artists-often, though not always, in periods of decadence-whose strategy it is to leave us, until the last possible moment, in suspense as to their meaning. Subtle differences of almost monochromatic shades; assertions made, then so qualified as to be virtually withdrawn, then made anew; a plenitude of detail that suggests rather than says, and obscures even as it dazzles-these are among their techniques. Henry James, in the halting voice of his late...

Amanpour Says Saddam TV Was Distorted ... Drudge Says Moore's 9/11 Is Pure–Drudge!

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 20:00:00 -0400

When Saddam Hussein turned to the TV cameras on Thursday, July 1, and proclaimed his court appearance "a theatrical comedy by Bush, the criminal, in an attempt to win the election," the old state-media-controlling dictator may have become the latest deposed tyrant turned critic.

"You see him jabbing, you see him gesticulating, and the snapshots-they freeze his face in a frown," said CNN foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour, one of three American journalists present in the...

Nader Returns, With G.O.P. Help

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 20:00:00 -0400

You don't have to be a Marxist to remember what may be the most widely quoted (and misquoted) passage from the works of Karl Marx: "Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in world history reappear in one way or another. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."

During his long, legendary career on the left, Ralph Nader must have read or heard versions of that quotation...

Among Moorean Cheap Shots, Many Legitimate Revelations in 9/11

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 should be carefully studied by John Kerry's political advisers-not for its good taste, profundity or even originality, but for its sheer bulldog tenacity in laying waste to the patriotic mythology spun out of lies and half-truths in Karl Rove's White House.

As it happens, I attended the local anti-Bush revival meeting masquerading as an all-media screening of Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Ziegfeld Theatre on a recent warm late-spring night in New...

Moore's Magic: 9/11 Electrifies

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Michael Moore leaves no turn unstoned. There are multitudes of shattering, seminal moments in his brilliant Bush-whacking documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 , that reveal more about the cynicism, greed and ineptitude in the U.S. government than you will ever learn from any sound bite on the right-wing late-night cable-channel blabfests, but one will stay with me forever. Forget about the "official" reports from the White House about the activities of George W. Bush on the...

Liberals Rally As Moore Film Chomps Bush

Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:00:00 -0400

"How the hell do we get out of this mess?" asked a frazzled Lauren Bacall, who had once sat coolly on Harry S. Truman's piano and campaigned majestically with Adlai E. Stevenson in the days before New York Democrats had to hide in secret meeting places like the Ziegfeld Theater on 54th Street. Ms. Bacall was emerging from the mega-screening of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Ziegfeld Theater on Monday, June 14,...

Preemptive Engagement: Worked in Iraq-How About Manhattan?

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Between the 9/11 hearings and the Bob Woodward book, your diarist has been thinking about the Bush doctrine of preemptive engagement.

Some might call it "gunship diplomacy" sans the "diplomacy" part. But what I've been wondering about, more specifically, is how this policy works in real life. Particularly in New York, where one's status is almost always subject to challenges and assaults, both real and imagined. So consider the following scenarios: -It's long been...

Bush's War Stories Simply Don't Fly

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 -0500

George W. Bush lied about his military service record. The lie can be found in his own 1999 campaign autobiography (as written by Karen Hughes), where he dramatically describes his experience as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

On page 34 of A Charge to Keep, Mr. Bush claims that, after learning to fly the F-102 fighter jet, he was turned down for Vietnam duty because "had not...

McLuhan's Media Maelstrom Sucks in Mad Dog Moore

Sun, 06 Apr 2003 20:00:00 -0400

Kevin McMahon's McLuhan's Wake , written and co-produced by David Sobelman, and produced by Kristina McLaughlin and Michael McMahon, is one of three recent nonfiction films devoted to the life and prophetic vision of Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). Admittedly, McLuhan's Wake (the title is a nod to McLuhan's admiration for James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake ) is a little off my regular beat of theatrically released fiction films, but wasn't it McLuhan who suggested that old...

Latest 'Message' Movies: Anti-American, but Entertaining

Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:00:00 -0500

Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American , from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Robert Schenkkan, based on the novel by Graham Greene, and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine belong to that category of the cinema much beloved by the once-dominant practitioners of O Brother, Where Art Thou? film criticism, which enthroned movies with a "message." As you may recall from Preston Sturges' hilarious Hollywood satire Sullivan's Travels (1942), O Brother, Where Art Thou? was...

Evicted From L.A., Mike Ovitz Brings His Ragtime to Lavent Inc.

Sun, 19 Apr 1998 20:00:00 -0400

The New York media's front-page coverage of Michael Ovitz's $20 million takeover of Garth Drabinsky's Livent Inc. had to be heartening to the former head of the Creative Artists Agency. Since being pushed from the No. 2 spot at the Walt Disney Company with the help of his ex-best friend, Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, Mr. Ovitz's cachet and profile in Hollywood power circles had withered with frightening speed.

On April 14, a front-page...