Screening Gotham: All-Positive Friday!

The Reeler's weekly apprisal of positive movie news of note from around New York:

--Golly, it's a slow week for positive news. But we can always count on the Father of The Reeler, David Carr, who fires this mortar in the direction of the Oscar blogosphere's anti-Eddie Murphy contingent: "In terms of moral imperatives, doing the Eddie Murphy takedown seems to lack anything resembling gravity. ... Would the world take a turn to the good if the Academy gave its love to Jackie Earl Haley?" On the other hand, this is about the most upbeat thing Carr has to say today; as evidenced by this post referencing "red carpet rash" and this one noting "mouthbreathing illiterates," the next three weeks may be the longest of his life.

--According to Variety, Ryan Gosling plans to follow up his Oscar-nominated performance in Half Nelson with an entirely different kind of role: writing and directing a film about child soldiers in Africa. And yes, yes -- he has the money in place. You skeptic!

--Not really a New York story, but great news that will eventually trickle down our way nevertheless: The brilliant musical/video album Once, which claimed the World Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance, was acquired Thursday for stateside distribution by Fox Searchlight. Very positive.

Posted at February 2, 2007 9:48 AM