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2 articles from 2008

29 September 2008 6:11 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Neil Pedley

At the multiplex this week, we have some pre-Halloween gothic fancy, films about the two things guaranteed to start a fight in any elevator . religion and politics . and a little music from Nick and Norah and Jonathan Demme's infinite playlists.

"Allah Made Me Funny"

When Albert Brooks went looking for comedy in the Muslim world, he perhaps didn't consider that it was alive and well inside our shores. Filmmaker Andrea Kalin picked up her camera and hit the road with Muslim American stand-up comics Azhar Usman, Mo Amer and Preacher Moss, who started the tour in 2004 to combat the negative stereotypes associated with their faith by sharing their unique brand of humor. The film intersperses their routines with personal vignettes that show how the comedians employ laughter as a tool of information to entertain, to educate and to show that a good mother-in-law gag simply knows no boundaries.

Neil Pedley

28 July 2008 7:59 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Stephen Saito

Usually when an actor or filmmaker reveals who inspired them in their creation of a character, it's the type of politically correct answer sure to offend no one. Johnny Depp had no problem explaining how he channeled Keith Richards for his role as Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean"; Dustin Hoffman sent up his pal, producer Robert Evans, in "Wag the Dog." But in a business where backbiting is common and screenwriters are urged to "write what you know," it's been a longstanding tradition to say the cruelest things about others under the guise of art. In a summer that will have Tom Cruise applying his considerable cackle to a Sumner Redstone surrogate in "Tropic Thunder" and a manscaping-derelict Bruce Willis doing his meanest Alec Baldwin impression in the adaptation of producer Art Linson's Hollywood tell-all, "What Just Happened?", we thought it was high time

Stephen Saito

2 articles from 2008