The News: All-Positive Friday!

It's his Life, don't you forget.

By S.T. VanAirsdale

As per tradition, some of today's more upbeat movie news of note from around New York:

--Opening today at Cinema Village, The Life of Reilly is an abridged version of native New Yorker and Hollywood Squares mainstay Charles Nelson Reilly's one-man show (taped in LA, natch, but I digress). It's undeniably poignant, funny and, as noted by Lou Lumenick, the best-reviewed movie in the city, trumping its first-weekend competitors Margot at the Wedding, Southland Tales and (ahem) Redacted. And by "trumping," I mean literally everyone loves it. I'll take center square for the win, Peter.

--I spaced on this earlier in the week, but many thanks to Jason Guerrasio for the reminder that the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, fresh off its inaugural fundraising gala, is hosting a sizable auction at eBay. Ambitious bidders have a shot at lunch with Edie Falco, Paul Rudd, Keri Russell and others, a walk-on part in Cheryl Hines' upcoming directorial bow Serious Moonlight (from Shelly's script) or Daily Show tickets and a meet-and-greet with Jon Stewart. There's something about Maroon 5 in there as well, but let's keep it positive.

--Reeler fave Carter Smith, whose dynamite debut Bugcrush shared the short film Jury Prize at Sundance in '06, now has indie muscleman Anthony Bregman in his corner for his feature directing debut Come Closer. Gregg Goldstein reports that the project, adapted from a 2003 novel by Sara Gran, is a "psychological horror" riff that has languished in the Miramax/Dimension stable since the late Weinstein era; a rewrite is in the works and Bregman will produce for the studio.

--This is the weekend that MoMA hosts the five nominees for the Gotham Awards' Best Film Not Coming to a Theater Near You prize, including Off The Grid: Life on the Mesa and August the First (both tonight and Sunday), Mississippi Chicken (Saturday and Sunday), Loren Cass (Saturday and Monday) and Frownland, which screens Saturday and closes the series Monday night with director Ronald Bronstein in person. Or you can wait for the winner to find distribution and arrive on screen some time in, say, early 2009.

Posted at November 16, 2007 10:04 AM