SORKIN’S THE NEWSROOM A HIT IN DEBUT

Aaron Sorkin’s first TV series for pay TV, The Newsroom, starring Jeff Daniels, debuted to solid numbers on HBO Sunday night. In its first airing of the night, it averaged 2.1 million viewers, then added 600,000 more in a repeat. Yet to be counted are those who viewed the series on their DVRs or via […]

NY FILM CRITICS CIRCLE NAMES THE ARTIST BEST PICTURE

The New York Film Critics Circle, the first major film group to announce its selections for best picture and performances each year, has given its top honor to The Artist, a black-and-white silent film. Its director, Michel Hazanavicius, was named best director. Meryl Streep received the best actress award for The Iron Lady, in which […]

SORKIN CANCELS HIS FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

The writer of The Social Network, the movie about Facebook, has closed his Facebook account. Appearing at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Aaron Sorkin acknowledged that his views about social media in general may make him sound like a Luddite or “like a grumpy old man sitting on the porch yelling at kids.” […]

CRITICS ON 83RD OSCARS: SAME OLD, SAME OLD

One would be hard-pressed to blame Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke’s early release of the full run-down of Sunday night’s Oscar telecast for the fact that not a single surprise materialized during the entire show. “Predictable” was the description used by many TV columnists in their assessment of the affair. Virtually all of the favorites won: best […]

THE KING’S SPEECH BIG WINNER AT U.K.’S BAFTAS

The King’s Speech dominated Sunday night’s BAFTA awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars. The film, which also is touted as a probable big winner at the Oscars in two weeks, received seven awards, including best film and best British film. Colin Firth was presented the leading actor award for his performance as the stammering King […]

SORKIN, NOLAN WIN WGA MOVIE AWARDS

Aaron Sorkin won the best adapted screenplay award for Sony’s The Social Network at the WGA Awards ceremony Saturday night. Sorkin’s screenplay was based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Christopher Nolan won the WGA original screenplay award for Warner Bros.’ Inception. In accepting his award, Nolan called for an end to […]

SOCIAL NETWORK, KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT TOP WINNERS AT GLOBES AWARDS

The Social Network won the Golden Globe for best dramatic film Sunday night, while The Kids Are All Right won for best comedy or musical. Social Network’s David Fincher also collected the Golden Globe for best director. In the acting categories, Natalie Portman and Annette Bening won for best actress in a drama and best […]

THE SOCIAL NETWORK NAMED BEST FILM BY NAT’L BOARD OF REVIEW

The Social Network, regarded as a strong contender in the Oscar race, received a suitable lift-off Thursday when it was voted best picture of the year by the National Board of Review, the group that historically launches the motion picture awards season. The group also gave top honors to the film’s star, Jesse Eisenberg, its […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Reviews don’t come much friendlier than those for David Fincher’s The Social Network, written by The West Wing‘s Aaron Sorkin and starring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times awards it four stars, writing, “David Fincher’s film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its […]