Clip: Bill Maher Takes a Skeptic's Look at World Religions |
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by Carla Sosenko, May 6, 2008 |
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Our next president shouldn’t be a person of faith but a person of doubt. So says Bill Maher, one of the country's most outspoken doubters. His new film, Religulous, directed by Borat’s Larry Charles, follows the irreverent humorist as he travels the globe talking to people about God and religion. Maher and the crew employed self-described guerrilla filming to get their shots (at the Vatican, at the Wailing Wall), and the prospect of watching them in action seems too good (and controversial and potentially offensive) to resist.
While the film didn’t hit its anticipated Easter release, it's currently slated for a June 20 opening. Here’s Maher talking to Larry King about the film.
Clip: Ari Libsker Discusses Stalags, His Documentary on Holocaust Porn |
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by Carla Sosenko, April 15, 2008 |
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Joshua Suzanne, proprietor of the East Village’s Rags-a-Go-Go, likes to talk to people who wander into her shop. And she likes to videotape herself talking to them, and to post said videos on YouTube. Luckily, she had her camcorder poised and ready when Israeli filmmaker Ari Libsker came a’calling. What emerged was a strange but compelling, accent-inflected (hers: Massachusetts, his: Israeli) conversation about Libsker’s new documentary, Stalags, which opened at the Film Forum last Wednesday.
Libsker’s much-buzzed-about film explores the popular literary genre of Holocaust porn that emerged in the 60s. The booklets (stalags) were a huge hit among Israelis, particularly the children of survivors, who were led to believe the tales of buxom Nazi prison guards raping and torturing captured American soldiers were for real. (Indiewire has a pretty in-depth assessment of the phenomenon in its review of Libsker’s film.)
Libsker tells Suzanne he was motivated by a desire to know what could have possibly made this sexy but sadistic (or masochistic, depending on how you look at it) genre so popular in Israel. Time Out New York’s David Fear posits a more specific corollary question: “The insane popularity of this pulp-porn among Israelis makes you wonder: Was this the result of a society searching for catharsis in smut, or the largest case of Stockholm syndrome ever diagnosed?”
Libsker’s topic is inarguably fascinating, and the New York Times review of the film criticizes only its brevity. (It’s just too short — 63 minutes — to do the topic justice).
Nestled among racks of second-hand shirts, the filmmaker and the shopgirl manage to have an important little chat about a topic that is as disturbing as it is titillating. And in an interesting twist, Libsker tells Suzanne that those wishing to view a YouTube clip of his film can do so on his Web site, www.stalags.com. Go ahead and try. YouTube removed the video for use of the words “sex” and “Holocaust.”
Stalags plays at Film Forum through April 22.
Sacha Baron Cohen Gays Up Wichita |
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| Bruno shakes what his mama gave him | |
by Carla Sosenko, April 14, 2008 |
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If you're unfortunate enough to join the growing ranks of stranded air travelers, cross your fingers for the mother of all diversions: Sacha Baron Cohen was recently spotted in the Wichita airport filming his latest faux doc, Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt. (So far the only other credited cast member is Real World alum Trishelle, as herself. Watching a flaming Austrian reporter get into trouble with a trashy fame whore sounds like it has the comic potential to outdo even Borat's kidnapping of Pamela Anderson.)
Check out the prankster king doing what he does best -- unleashing his squirmalicious hijinks on the public without breaking a sweat. (And keep your eye on the guy behind the guy, Bruno's apparent Azamat. You go, boy.)
Clip of the Week: Jewish Mothers Behaving Badly |
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| Ronna and Beverly take New York | |
by Carla Sosenko, April 8, 2008 |
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If Ab Fab's Patsy and Edina had been born as kvetchy Jewesses with Boston accents, they might have been Ronna and Beverly. The comedy duo (a.k.a. Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo) are taking their Jewish-mothers-behaving-badly act on the road, stopping off at NYC's UCB Theatre this Thursday. Check out this clip (featuring Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz as Beverly's "girl") and watch as Ro and Bev prep for Passover in all their Atavan-fueled, self-involved glory. Paint the Jews in the best light it doesn't, but would it kill you to laugh a little?
Related: Yentas United Against Intermarriage
Clip of the Week: Night of the Living Jews |
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| "Not just another Hasidic zombie movie" | |
by Carla Sosenko, April 1, 2008 |
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As Passover approaches, let us take a moment to remember those Jews we’ve lost—you know, the ones who consumed “matzoh with a dark history” and were transformed into the living dead only to be hunted down by the goyim they preyed upon. Wait. What?
Add Hasidic Jews to any situation and it instantly becomes funnier—that’s the theory behind Sam Falconi and Oliver Noble’s Night of the Living Jews, a Heeb Magazine–produced film about Jewish zombies who use their lethal peyos to attack gentiles. The film premiered in October, though if you happen to live in Australia or Canada you can catch it this spring. It features Melissa Leo, Homicide vet and star of the Sundance darling Frozen River, as Jewish Mother Zombie. (It could have been worse—she could have been cast as Bagel Zombie.)
Will the zombies be taken down by the power of a bacon double cheeseburger? You’re going to have to watch to find out.