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Entertainment

Entertainment, Europe, North America
Sherrybaby
07.09.06 | Permalink | Comment?

U.S. film director Laurie Collyer has won the main prize at the prestigious Karlovy Vary film festival in the Czech Republic for her film “Sherrybaby”, which is about a drug-addicted mother who returns from prison to build a relationship with her young daughter who she hasn’t seen since receiving her three-year sentence. It stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sam Bottoms, Giancarlo Esposito and Danny Trejo. Here is a review in Variety. A clip from the movie is above.
Entertainment, North America
“Cocaine Cowboys”
07.06.06 | Permalink | Comment?

A buzz is growing over “Cocaine Cowboys“, a new documentary due to be released later this year that explores how cocaine and 1980s Miami became inextricably linked in the public’s mind. In contrast to the little seen but universally panned 1979 Andy Warhol starrer of the same name, this film made by the Miami-based team of director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman has been variously described as “often hilarious, exuberant“, “riveting” and “pulse-pounding“.

In an interview with the Miami New Times [pdf], the 27-year-old Spellman explains that they “started with the proposition that modern Miami was built on the cocaine industry” and then went on to explore and conclude that this was indeed the case. Two years in the making, their film details - using archival footage and interviews with some of the drug criminals, cops and prosecutors involved - how the cocaine business worked, the huge amounts of money that flowed as a result and the attending violence that caused the city to go through a “monumental change”. It premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival in April. A distribution deal has apparently been struck with Magnolia Pictures.
Entertainment, North America
Factotum
07.03.06 | Permalink | 4 Comments

Based on the 1975 novel by Charles Bukowski, it stars Matt Dillon as the legendary writer’s alter ego, Henry Chinaski, who goes from job to job and woman to woman, all the time boozing and brawling. While it came out in Europe last year it will only be released in the U.S. next month. Check out a review by Variety.
Entertainment, Middle East, North America
Music Producer pleads guilty to cocaine possession in Dubai
07.02.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Dallas Austin, the highly acclaimed songwriter and producer who has had success with the likes of Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Madonna and TLC, pleaded guilty Sunday to possessing cocaine, after being bust at Dubai’s international airport in May.

News only came out recently that he was being held in prison in the Kingdom. He was intercepted on his way to attend a three-day birthday party being held for supermodel Naomi Campbell by her Dubai prince boyfriend. He faces a prison sentence of between four and twelve years and will find out his fate on Tuesday.
Entertainment, North America, People, Smuggling, The Media
“The Return of Superfly”
06.30.06 | Permalink | Comment?

With production set to begin this month on the Ridley Scott-directed “American Gangster” starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, about drug-lord Frank Lucas who made his name in the 70s selling heroin on the streets of Harlem, I thought I’d put up a profile of Lucas written for New York Magazine in 2000 - “The Return of Superfly” - by the always readable Mark Jacobson.

Lucas, who was said to be worth millions in his heyday, before being bust and sent to prison, now cries poor. Unrepentant about his drug-dealing past which included, notoriously, smuggling heroin from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle in the coffins of dead American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, he takes Jacobson through his old New York haunts and reminisces about the criminals and celebrities he hung out with as well as the enemies who dared to cross him.
Entertainment, North America, War on Drugs
The Wire: Season Two
06.30.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Please note: If you haven’t seen the first season of the HBO series “The Wire”, about a drug investigation in Baltimore from the perspective of the police, dealers and users… hurry up! And not to worry, this review, which necessarily contains plot spoilers for season one, will still be here when you’re ready.

The second season of “The Wire” begins as the dust from the events of the first series has started to settle. Renegade Detective Jimmy McNulty is working in the lowly Baltimore Police Harbour unit after having fallen out of favour with Major Rawls. (You may recall it was McNulty who had set in motion the events that led to the setting up of the wiretap on mysterious drug dealer Avon Barksdale, much to the displeasure of the brass.)

Lieutenant Daniels, who was in charge of the task force, has been demoted to the evidence room after standing up to Deputy Commissioner Burrell - who is definitely on his way up. Avon Barksdale and his nephew D’Angelo are in prison on drugs charges, with Stringer Bell having gained more control over Avon’s drug operation. And other members of the task force have gone their separate ways, until…

The body of a pretty young girl is found in the Baltimore Harbour by McNulty, followed some time later by the discovery of a shipping container at the docks, with 13 young and very dead women inside. This will mean trouble for the local stevedore union and those of its members who are, on the side, helping a mobster smuggle contraband. Throw into the mix a major battle between a police major and the secretary-treasurer of the union over a seemingly minor dispute at their local Catholic church, and the seeds of another splendid season of this complex but not convoluted series have been sown.
Entertainment, Oceania
Little Fish
06.28.06 | Permalink | Comment?

To be released in the the UK on the 17th of July. Here is the official website and a review in Variety. It is well worth seeing.
Entertainment, North America
A Scanner Darkly
06.24.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, an undercover cop, Fred, is one of many agents hooked on the popular drug Substance D, which causes its users to develop split personalities. Fred, for instance, is also Bob, a notorious drug dealer. Along with his superior officers, Fred sets up an elaborate scheme to catch Bob and tear down his operation.

-from the Rolling Stone review of Scanner Darkly, a film by Richard Linklater, starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder. It is based on the 1977 book by Philip K. Dick. Check out the official website as well as the Variety review. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and has its U.S. release on the 7th of July.
Entertainment, Oceania
Candy
06.21.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Check out the official website for the film starring Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush.
Entertainment, Europe, The Media
Popular English soap star suspended for alleged crack cocaine use
06.20.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Craig Charles, the actor who played Dave Lister on the cult sci-fi show Red Dwarf, and who now appears on the English soap opera Coronation Street, has been suspended from the popular show after allegations he smoked crack cocaine on a trip from London to Greater Manchester, where the show is set. Charles, who also hosts “The Craig Charles Funk Show” on BBC radio, supposedly took 60 hits of the drug.