Screening Gotham: Stiles Styles Elle Commercial?

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Among the many actors making writing/directing debuts at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, only Julia Stiles appears to have broken through with a commercial. Following along the machete-cleared path on which Gwyneth Paltrow preceded her, Stiles' short film Raving features Zooey Deschanel in an Armani-sponsored adaptation of October 2006 Elle feature, "The Dress (Shirt, Boots, Jacket, Jewels...) That Changed My Life." Let's see Jem Cohen or Bill Plympton outdo that.

--Over at The Forward, Reeler critic Eric Kohn talks to "reasonably hale" Budd Schulberg about the insurmountable hurdles keeping his classic novel What Makes Sammy Run? from the screen. Among them: Steven Spielberg?

--I still don't understand why I had to die at the end of the Jamie Stuart's last short film. But that makes all the sense in the world compared to the filmmaker's latest work, a partially-animated, laff-trak aided skewering of talk-show culture starring ... Paul Verhoeven. Prime quote: "The sexual drive is necessary, basically, to make people idiotic enough to lay on top of each other, isn't it? Otherwise you wouldn't do that so easily." Disorienting, maddening, laugh-out-loud funny -- as usual, one of Stuart's must-sees.

--BREAKING: The Times reports that there are lots of places to watch movies in New York. In fairness, it is in the travel section. Thanks for overlooking The Reeler, by the way.

Posted at March 26, 2007 12:05 PM