Grace Smith wanted to do something radically different for her 30th birthday: She decided to write, direct and star in her own feature film. She will screen the result–Hope’s Happy Birthday–at this year’s Route 66 Film Festival, where her do-it-yourself movie has been selected as the festival’s Best Comedy Feature. The protagonist, Hope, strikes out […]
Marc Sigoloff
Posted inArts & Culture
If the mafia doesn’t exist. . .
The gangster film has made a resounding comeback this year with Road to Perdition and Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited Gangs of New York. The genre began in the silent era, but it made its first big splash in the early 1930s with the releases of Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Scarface. All three are still highly […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Summer preview 2003
The summer movie season is upon us, bringing the latest batch of sequels, remakes of TV shows, and star-driven action and comedy vehicles, all with hefty budgets. Money buys spectacle, but it represses creativity–originality is too risky when so much is at stake. Hollywood, much more than Washington, is in serious need of finance reform. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Never screened in Springfield
Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival, which took place last month in Champaign-Urbana, always reminds local film buffs how limited our movie choices are here. Kerasotes has improved in recent years, but there are still numerous films that completely bypass Springfield. The local alternatives–the Route 66 Film Festival and the Springfield Arts Council’s foreign film series–offer […]
