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South Africa in the Hollywood eye

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

The nation has become a rising beacon post-apartheid and the film industry is taking note, with home-grown filmmakers and their foreign counterparts sharing the spotlight.

The nation has become a rising beacon post-apartheid and the film industry is taking note, with home-grown filmmakers and their foreign counterparts sharing the spotlight.

FunnyorDie.com: 'SNL' for the online crowd

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

The sketch comedy website started as a lark for Will Ferrell and his friends. Now it's become a brand-name powerhouse

Second in a series of occasional articles about how alternative comedy is fueling Hollywood.

Opening: 'Christmas Carol' debut not looking too jolly

07 Nov 09, 02:11:59

Pre-release surveys had indicated the movie would open to at least $40 million domestically over its first three days.

Pakistan's film industry is in collapse

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

Lollywood, a once-robust movie-making machine, has fallen victim to religious-based government policies, cable TV and DVD piracy.

The Odeon Cinema's creaky, ripped red vinyl seats are mostly empty except for a couple of back rows where a dozen Pakistani men sit slouched, their eyes half-open, legs slung over the seats in front of them. Along the hall's bubble-gum pink walls, rows of fans barely move the hot, dank air. The Odeon's loudspeakers crackle like a ham radio.

Beatles catalog is temporarily banned from music website BlueBeat

07 Nov 09, 03:11:00

Capitol Records this week filed a suit against BlueBeat, which says that songs produced by digital regeneration are akin to songs performed by cover bands and do not run afoul of copyright law.

A federal court in Los Angeles this week issued a temporary restraining order against a music website that recently had been offering the entire Beatles catalog for downloading at 25 cents per song. The Santa Cruz-based BlueBeat earlier in the week was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit by EMI's Capitol Records, the group's U.S. label.

New on DVD: 'Up' won't let you down

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

Also: 'Sesame Street,' 'The Ugly Truth' and more

Also: "Sesame Street," "The Ugly Truth" and more.

'Lake Tahoe' is a journey of grief

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

In Fernando Eimbcke's film, a young man goes on a quest to fix his car, finding a human connection when he desperately needs it.

At first glance "Lake Tahoe," the second feature by the 39-year-old Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, looks very much like your standard minimalist import. Laconic characters, a fixed camera and unhurried rhythms amount these days to a lingua franca for international art film. It's a style that descends from such titans as Yasujir{omacronl} Ozu and Michelangelo Antonioni and that can now be seen in movies from every part of the world, not least those striving to capture the modern condition of estrangement and dislocation.

Indie Focus: 'Women in Trouble'

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

Sebastian Gutierrez writes and directs the series of vignettes, which opens Friday.

Over one eventful day in Los Angeles, a series of women -- including a newly pregnant porn star, an uptight businesswoman, a masseuse, an escort, a therapist and a teenager -- all find themselves in surprising situations with unexpected people. Structured as a series of vignettes involving only a few characters at a time, "Women in Trouble," in theaters Friday, creates a world of campy happenstance and sexy confessionals reminiscent of the screwball melodramas of Pedro Almodóvar.

BBC America's 'James May on the Moon' doesn't go deep

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

The host of 'Top Gear' aims higher. He recounts his childhood fascination with space travel, endures astronaut training and travels in a U-2 spy plane. Any big questions, though, go unexplored.

James May begins his new documentary, " James May on the Moon " (BBC America, 8 p.m. Tuesday), where he belongs: in a car, on the ground. He's a host of " Top Gear ," the cheeky British automobile variety show, and on that show, he passes for unambitious, the lumbering turtle up against Jeremy Clarkson's fox and Richard Hammond's rabbit.

With Dana Delany of 'Desperate Housewives'

08 Nov 09, 03:11:00

It's all about the timing for the former 'China Beach' star.

It feels like it's finally Dana Delany's time. The actress had several near brushes with TV superstardom after her Emmy-winning run as Nurse Colleen McMurphy on "China Beach" ended.