FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Norman Jewison |||
Norman Jewison

Yes, he directed “Moonstruck” and two unforgettable musicals, but Jewison is also responsible for a trilogy of films focusing on racial-injustice, a whacky Cold War comedy and a signature film of Steve McQueen’s showing that he is one of the most versatile directors since Robert Wise.

This blueprint for good investigation dramas tells the story of a black Philadelphia detective investigating a murder in Mississippi who matches wits with a redneck sheriff. Groundbreaking for it’s time, this Oscar winning film is still relevant today and offers a gripping mystery with terrific dramatic performances by a complete cast of fully realized characters.

This is an amazingly funny and entertaining irreverent "Cold War" comedy about a Russian submarine stranded outside an isolated New England town, which throws the locals into a panic. Jewison does a delightful job of utilizing his all-star cast to their fullest, deftly mixing Capra-esq characters with Mel Brooks’s type situations (and vise-versa).

A bored millionaire (Steve McQueen in his prime) masterminds a flawless bank job as Faye Dunaway (an insurance investigator out to get him) identifies him as the mastermind and falls in love along the way. This is the original and the best, with all the arch stylized movie techniques of the ‘60s (including split-screen and fuzzy shallow focus) and the most erotic chess game ever captured on screen.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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The Casting Couch: Movie Edition

By EdwardHavens

May 13th, 2008

In the triumphant return of the Casting Couch, we spill the beans on David Fincher's latest work, tell you what kind of woman Michael Bay is looking for to complement "Transformers 2," and some of the other things you'll be seeing at your favorite multiplexes... or at least, the ones that don't do direct to video.

The Casting Couch: Movie Edition

While we anxiously await "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, the world will have to get its David Fincher fix later this summer, when his latest commercials, a series of PSAs for Stand Up To Cancer, will begin to air. Shooting started Wedensday in New York City with the likes of Lance Armstrong, George Carlin, Edward Norton, Sarah Sarandon and Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and will move to Los Angeles this week.

James Caan, fresh from leaving the set of David O. Russell's "Nailed," will work with his son Scott, for the first time since 1995's "A Boy Called Hate," in the low budget feature "Mercy." Written by Scott Caan and also starring Jane Fonda's son Troy Garity, "Mercy" tells the story of a cynical writer of love stories (Caan fils) who falls heavily for a stunning critic named Mercy who is dissimilar from any woman he has dealt with before.

Production began this past Monday on "Obsessed," a thriller featuring Idris Elba as an asset manager whose thriving career and marriage to Beyonce Knowles is threatened when he is stalked by a recently hired temp (Ari Larter). Steve Shill makes his feature directorial debut with the film after more than a decade of shooting such television series as "EastEnders," "The Wire" and the recent "Knight Rider" movie.

Edward Furlong will star in Mexican documentarian Olallo Rubio's feature debut "This is Not a Movie," a twisted drama shooting in Mexico in June.

June 2nd will see the beginning of principal photography on Michael Bay's possibly anticipated sequel to last summer's smash hit "Transformers." To compliment the original film's Angelina Jolie 2.0 will be an emo goth chick, just the way most women in Michael Bay movies are portrayed: alluring, extravagant, strapping and without saying a damn word.

Shooting will commence in Michigan on May 19 on Miguel Arteta's "Youth in Revolt," which will star Michael Cera as Nick, one of three virginal high school boys obsessed with getting it on... because, you know, there are any other kinds of virginal high school boys. Nick's got it bad for a hottie from a local prep school, and along with his friends Evan and McLovin... I mean Lefty and Vijay... the trio will get into great trouble trying to get their freak on.