Noah Gittell

owardToward the end of 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, a demolition derby set to film that marked Ron Howard’s directorial debut, there’s a small moment that unlocks the meaning of Howard’s entire filmography. Sam Freeman, played by Howard, is an average California kid whose plans to elope with his fiancée Paula (Nancy Morgan) are threatened when her wealthy father offers a $25,000 reward to anyone who stops them from reaching Las Vegas. Sam is on the car phone with a DJ who has been following them in his helicopter and broadcasting their location...

One thing I’ve learned is that it’s unusual for a guy like me –who grew up lonely and uncool – to have never had a fantasy or sci-fi phase. I never played Dungeons & Dragons. I never read a Harry Potter book. And no, I never got into Tolkien. When I was a kid, I always thought that stuff was for nerds, and I was determined not to be one. I still had a rich fantasy life, but it mostly involved girls and guitars. So I never read any of The Lord of the Rings books, and I never regretted it.

When...

Movie stars don’t retire like legendary athletes do. They just fade away, taking parts of less magnitude or working less frequently, or stepping out of the spotlight altogether, leaving us to wonder whether they’ll ever be seen again. And as we get further away from his last film role, it seems less and less likely that Jack Nicholson will ever grace us with his grinning presence again. Nicholson hasn’t appeared in a film since 2010’s clunker How Do You Know, and has made only a handful of pu...

Hllywood reacts to change very slowly. Maybe it's foolish to expect any different from an industry whose unofficial motto, coined by screenwriter William Goldman, is: "Nobody knows anything." Because of this uncertainty...

I’m not Reynolds Woodcock, but if I had his success and power, I’m afraid that I would be
Note: This essay contains some spoilers for the film "Phantom Thread."
I like to do my writing in the morning. I get up around 7, letting my wife and our five dogs sleep in, and tiptoe to the kitchen with my laptop in hand. These are precious moments. My thoughts are clearer in the morning, and the silence is an empty space my creativity can fill. Then my family wakes up. Sometimes, I try to keep writing...

WHEN 56-YEAR-OLD ACTOR S. Z. Sakall escaped his native Hungary in 1939 and arrived in the United States to relaunch his acting career, he had a significant handicap: he spoke not a word of English. At lunch ...

The ability to avoid watching the opening credits of certain titles is a sign that the company lacks reverence for cinema history

The La La Land backlash: why have critics turned on...

The critically loathed Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower is the latest in a string of disappointments for the Oscar-winning actor, whose comeback has crumbled. But what should he do next?

A devastating election result has led film critics to stress the importance of cinema as a political force but is it an overly optimistic notion?

The frathouse comedy is almost as much of an all-American institution as fraternities themselves. In 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House became one...

Let's try that again … the most difficult scenes to...

Why Moviegoers Are Tired of Romance on the Silver S...

Lots and Lots of Magic.