Ang Lee has been making movies for over three decades. That is an impressive career. That the majority of those films are good (and some are amazing) puts him on a whole other level. Born in Taiwan, the Republic of China, and educated in the United States, Lee has made extremely Chinese films and extremely American films, as well as some that mix the two cultures — plus the occasional excursion to the United Kingdom or India for a literary adaptation. But wherever his films take place, and no matter who stars in them, Ang Lee is always interested in what's under the surface of his characters — in people's emotional lives, their feelings for others, and what they keep hidden from the world.
Family has been an omnipresent theme in Lee's work since he kicked off his career with three movies in a row about dads. Sexuality also comes up a...
Family has been an omnipresent theme in Lee's work since he kicked off his career with three movies in a row about dads. Sexuality also comes up a...
- 2/18/2023
- by Elle Collins
- Slash Film
Ang Lee celebrates his 64th birthday on October 23, 2018. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has worked in a variety of genres and styles to explore the lives of people around the globe. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in Taiwan in 1954, Lee’s interest in film brought him to NYU’s graduate program, where he worked as a crew member on classmate Spike Lee‘s thesis project, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.” He directed his first feature, “Pushing Hands” (1991) at the age of 37.
Lee followed up his debut with back-to-back international successes, each one scoring Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Language Film: “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994). In both films, the director explored the kinds of complex familial relationships that would animate many of his stories.
He was then drafted by Hollywood to...
Born in Taiwan in 1954, Lee’s interest in film brought him to NYU’s graduate program, where he worked as a crew member on classmate Spike Lee‘s thesis project, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.” He directed his first feature, “Pushing Hands” (1991) at the age of 37.
Lee followed up his debut with back-to-back international successes, each one scoring Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Language Film: “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994). In both films, the director explored the kinds of complex familial relationships that would animate many of his stories.
He was then drafted by Hollywood to...
- 10/23/2018
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
News out of TCA is that editor Michael Jensen got to hang out with one of my true diva idols, Allison Janney, so I’ll be putting that dead fish in his office for when he comes back next week.
But in slightly more “news” from TCA, we find that ABC has bought a pilot titled Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23. I hope it makes it to series just to have the Parents Television Council explode.
We did a story a while back on why Disney Channel and Nickelodeon won’t have gay teenagers on their shows. We don’t think they were very happy with us about that, which could be why Nickelodeon gave the exclusive about out actor George Takei joining their new show Supah Ninjas to TV Guide.
Since there hasn’t been any decent Matthew Mitcham pictures to drool over for a week, here...
But in slightly more “news” from TCA, we find that ABC has bought a pilot titled Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23. I hope it makes it to series just to have the Parents Television Council explode.
We did a story a while back on why Disney Channel and Nickelodeon won’t have gay teenagers on their shows. We don’t think they were very happy with us about that, which could be why Nickelodeon gave the exclusive about out actor George Takei joining their new show Supah Ninjas to TV Guide.
Since there hasn’t been any decent Matthew Mitcham pictures to drool over for a week, here...
- 1/11/2011
- by Ed Kennedy
- The Backlot
I do love festival season. There is something magical about listening to great music in a muddy field for 3 days before coming home smelling of cow shit. I’ve spent many happy times at Glastonbury and I will never forget listening to Metallica play their seminal album Master Of Puppets in its entirety at Download festival 2006.
Unfortunately, I am too young to have lived through the 60s & 70s. These were the decades when music and cinema actually mattered. Names such as Hendrix, Joplin and Bowie ruled the world. Directors such as Scorsese, Coppola and Friedkin had the world at their feet. Nowadays we have to be contented with the load, brash stylings of Michael Bay and boring Leona Lewis who churns out pop garbage bad enough to commit suicide to.
Enough ranting. Yes, it is true that film and music aren’t what they used to be but all is not lost.
Unfortunately, I am too young to have lived through the 60s & 70s. These were the decades when music and cinema actually mattered. Names such as Hendrix, Joplin and Bowie ruled the world. Directors such as Scorsese, Coppola and Friedkin had the world at their feet. Nowadays we have to be contented with the load, brash stylings of Michael Bay and boring Leona Lewis who churns out pop garbage bad enough to commit suicide to.
Enough ranting. Yes, it is true that film and music aren’t what they used to be but all is not lost.
- 3/8/2010
- by Alex Wagner
- FilmShaft.com
Taking Woodstock tells the story of how a small town took on a giant project hosting one of the biggest music festivals of all time. It’s directed by Ang Lee who has previously brought us Hulk / Brokeback Mountain, and stars Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy.
The movie starts off with struggling motel owners (Martin, Staunton & Goodman) fighting to stay afloat with increasing debts and no hope of escape from the looming bank managers. When Elliot hears on the radio that a festival in neighbouring town has failed to get a permit, he starts thinking maybe this is an event that his town can host. From here, we’re taking on the ‘based on a true story’ journey of Taking Woodstock which are focused around the memoirs of Elliot Tiber.
I liked the look of this movie from the trailer and was hoping for good things.
The movie starts off with struggling motel owners (Martin, Staunton & Goodman) fighting to stay afloat with increasing debts and no hope of escape from the looming bank managers. When Elliot hears on the radio that a festival in neighbouring town has failed to get a permit, he starts thinking maybe this is an event that his town can host. From here, we’re taking on the ‘based on a true story’ journey of Taking Woodstock which are focused around the memoirs of Elliot Tiber.
I liked the look of this movie from the trailer and was hoping for good things.
- 3/1/2010
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Ang Lee’s career trajectory is a varied and thrilling one, taking us from the drawing rooms of Austen to the Gamma Ray infused laboratories of the Hulk and with his latest film, Taking Woodstock, Lee sets his sights on the 1960s.
With an excellent and eclectic cast Lee’s film tells the story of how the legendary concert came to be through the eyes of the Elliot Tiber, played by rising star Demetri Martin, who convinced his parents to let a bunch of hippies play music in their field. The rest is history and now we’re giving 3 readers the chance to win the film on DVD.
All you need to do is tell answer the following question…
Which guitar legend played the Star Spangled Banner at the 1969 Woodstock concert?
To enter simply fill in the form below.
The small print:
This competition is open to the UK only.
With an excellent and eclectic cast Lee’s film tells the story of how the legendary concert came to be through the eyes of the Elliot Tiber, played by rising star Demetri Martin, who convinced his parents to let a bunch of hippies play music in their field. The rest is history and now we’re giving 3 readers the chance to win the film on DVD.
All you need to do is tell answer the following question…
Which guitar legend played the Star Spangled Banner at the 1969 Woodstock concert?
To enter simply fill in the form below.
The small print:
This competition is open to the UK only.
- 3/1/2010
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Taking Woodstock is out on DVD from 8 March and we're giving away 3 copies!
From Academy Award winning Director Ang Lee and featuring an outstanding cast including comedy genius Eugene Levy, Emile Hirsch and Liev Schrieber, comes the entertaining comedy Taking Woodstock – available to own on DVD from March 8.
It is 1969, and Elliot Tiber, a failing interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has moved back home to help his parents run their dilapidated motel.
From Academy Award winning Director Ang Lee and featuring an outstanding cast including comedy genius Eugene Levy, Emile Hirsch and Liev Schrieber, comes the entertaining comedy Taking Woodstock – available to own on DVD from March 8.
It is 1969, and Elliot Tiber, a failing interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has moved back home to help his parents run their dilapidated motel.
- 2/23/2010
- by Dan Higgins
- Pure Movies
Benoit Denizet-Lewis, a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, is a terrific journalist. Last year, in his book America Anonymous, he chronicled eight people and the ways they deal with their addictions (and revealed his own sex addiction in the process).
Now he’s put together American Voyeur: Dispatches From the Far Reaches of Modern Life (Simon & Schuster, $15), a collection of articles, all previously published, on contemporary social topics as varied as a summer camp for pro-life teenagers, dry frat houses, and the founder of Abercrombie & Fitch.
But Denizet-Lewis is gay, and most of the articles involve “gay” topics, including ones about how same-sex marriage is changing gay life, the harried members of the much-maligned National Man/Boy Love Association, a social group for butch gay men, what happens when a street is changed from “Gay Street” to “Green Apple Road,” and the African American subculture of being on...
Now he’s put together American Voyeur: Dispatches From the Far Reaches of Modern Life (Simon & Schuster, $15), a collection of articles, all previously published, on contemporary social topics as varied as a summer camp for pro-life teenagers, dry frat houses, and the founder of Abercrombie & Fitch.
But Denizet-Lewis is gay, and most of the articles involve “gay” topics, including ones about how same-sex marriage is changing gay life, the harried members of the much-maligned National Man/Boy Love Association, a social group for butch gay men, what happens when a street is changed from “Gay Street” to “Green Apple Road,” and the African American subculture of being on...
- 2/19/2010
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
Ang Lee takes a little break from emotionally pounding dramas to belt out the relatively low-key comedy .Taking Woodstock.. The film is about the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the most popular concert of all time. The pic is mildly amusing but will most likely be mildly disappointing as well for Ang Lee fans now used to greatness every time out of the gate. .Taking Woodstock. tells the true story of Elliot Teichberg aka Elliot Tiber who was largely responsible for bringing the concert to the sleepy farmland of White Lake, New York (with the film based on his book of the same name though some elements of his .true story. have been called into question). Returning from Manhattan...
- 12/22/2009
- by Frankie Dees
- Monsters and Critics
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide - your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support Quick Stop by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
It’s goofy, it’s gory, its history is a mess, the acting is hammy, but I’ve got to admit - Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.98 Srp) is a fun ride, and a call back to old-fashioned war movies of bygone years, with a healthy dose of Tarantino’s unique madness. The special edition contains a roundtable discussion, interviews,...
(Please support Quick Stop by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
It’s goofy, it’s gory, its history is a mess, the acting is hammy, but I’ve got to admit - Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.98 Srp) is a fun ride, and a call back to old-fashioned war movies of bygone years, with a healthy dose of Tarantino’s unique madness. The special edition contains a roundtable discussion, interviews,...
- 12/18/2009
- by UncaScroogeMcD
.Those hippies will be high on drugs. Robbing us by day and raping our cattle by night.. Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) has secured a permit from the town of Bethel to hold a small music festival. When he hears that the organizers of the Woodstock Music Festival have been run out of nearby Wallkill he offers his permit and land. He sees a way to make money for his conniving, shrewish mother (Imelda Staunton) and henpecked father.s (Henry Goodman) rundown motel that only houses a dirt-poor theatre group (led by Dan Fogler) in the barn. Laidback Woodstock organizer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) helicopters in to inspect the motel and land and discovers that Elliot.s land is a...
- 12/17/2009
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
Chicago – Ang Lee’s take on the landmark music festival isn’t a film so much as a filmed idea. It aims to capture the atmosphere of the concert without ever showing the actual music. Of course, the real show was the crowd itself.
There’s one lovely shot in “Taking Woodstock” where its protagonist, high on acid, gazes at the countless hordes gathered around the distant main stage. Suddenly, the crowd starts to move like ripples in the water, as they become united by their shared vibes. The image may sound pretentious on paper, but it has a poetry and wonderment that’s largely missing from the rest of the picture.
Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0
There are few writer-director teams in film history that have tackled as many diverse genres as James Schamus and Ang Lee. Their collaborations include “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Lust, Caution,” though “Taking Woodstock...
There’s one lovely shot in “Taking Woodstock” where its protagonist, high on acid, gazes at the countless hordes gathered around the distant main stage. Suddenly, the crowd starts to move like ripples in the water, as they become united by their shared vibes. The image may sound pretentious on paper, but it has a poetry and wonderment that’s largely missing from the rest of the picture.
Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0
There are few writer-director teams in film history that have tackled as many diverse genres as James Schamus and Ang Lee. Their collaborations include “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Lust, Caution,” though “Taking Woodstock...
- 12/16/2009
- by mattmovieman
- HollywoodChicago.com
G-Force - "Imagine experiencing, at warp speed and for 90 minutes, the reality of the infamous Richard Gere gerbil joke. Next, add a bunch of "clever" allusions to authentic films of varying quality: Die Hard, Mission: Impossible, Scarface, Apocalypse Now, Indiana Jones, and Transformers. Then, throw on a superficial layer of cutesy references to such bastions of pop culture as the Pussycat Dolls and "Pimp My Ride" before accessorizing with a throbbing Black Eyed Peas musical accompaniment. It is through this unholy mating of Walt Disney Studios with producer Jerry Bruckheimer that G-Force was spawned. If Bruckheimer's presence ain't enough to convince you that this movie is awash with meaningless action, then consider the fact that the director, Hoyt Yeatman, is not only a veteran Hollywood effects pro but also, quite tellingly, was the visual effects supervisor for Armageddon and The Rock, both of which were directed by Michael "Boom!" Bay.
- 12/16/2009
- by Intern Rusty
If it’s a theatrical review you’re looking for, head over Here to read our review for Taking Woodstock.
Blu-ray Rating: 3/10
From director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Taking Woodstock takes a comedic and dramatic look at the real life story of the events that led up to the 1969 Woodstock Festival in White Lake, New York. Demetri Martin stars as Elliot Teichberg, a young man who, in trying to save his family’s motel and the town it exists in, brings the struggling festival and its organizers to his small town. Not long after, thousands of people descend upon the town for the 3 days of peace and music, as the town’s people descend their judgment on Elliot. The young man soon sees firsthand the power behind the choices he’s made, and in the process gets to make a few of his own…maybe for the first time in his life.
Blu-ray Rating: 3/10
From director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Taking Woodstock takes a comedic and dramatic look at the real life story of the events that led up to the 1969 Woodstock Festival in White Lake, New York. Demetri Martin stars as Elliot Teichberg, a young man who, in trying to save his family’s motel and the town it exists in, brings the struggling festival and its organizers to his small town. Not long after, thousands of people descend upon the town for the 3 days of peace and music, as the town’s people descend their judgment on Elliot. The young man soon sees firsthand the power behind the choices he’s made, and in the process gets to make a few of his own…maybe for the first time in his life.
- 12/15/2009
- by James Wallace
- GordonandtheWhale
Based on Elliot Tiber's (allegedly inaccurate) tale of his role in the organisation of the Woodstock Festival, Taking Woodstock takes one of the defining moments of 20th Century pop culture and domesticates it, removing it from increasingly tiresome accounts of the concert's life-changing nature and refocusing it as a gently uplifting tale of triumph over adversity (and incompetence), and Elliot's relationship with his parents, particularly his diminutive battleaxe of a mother played with madcap intensity by Imelda Staunton. As director Ang Lee is aware that most of the audience are already going to be incredibly familiar with the iconic footage of the concert, he wisely chooses to ignore the music almost entirely, even placing more focus on the more embarrassing side of the sixties counter culture with a truly awful political theatre company living in the Tiber's barn. Surprisingly, given the extraordinary events told in the film and its fairly lengthy running time,...
- 11/18/2009
- by Mark Davison
- t5m.com
In The Ice Storm, Ang Lee turned a sharp, compassionate eye on affluent ex-urban New England at Thanksgiving 1973 where, as the Watergate scandal escalates, the president's bad faith is echoed in the life of an adulterous Wall Street analyst. He now goes back four years earlier to Nixon's first term in the White House and the reaction against the Vietnam War, and the expression of the new liberation that manifested itself at the 1969 Woodstock Festival up the Hudson in New York State.
The perspective here is that of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), a gay Jewish painter and designer taking time out from his Manhattan day job to help out his overbearing parents at their rundown Catskills motel and goes into business with the festival's hippie organisers. The film uses the split-screen devices of Michael Wadleigh's classic 1970 Woodstock documentary, and some of the music is distantly heard, but Elliot is...
The perspective here is that of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), a gay Jewish painter and designer taking time out from his Manhattan day job to help out his overbearing parents at their rundown Catskills motel and goes into business with the festival's hippie organisers. The film uses the split-screen devices of Michael Wadleigh's classic 1970 Woodstock documentary, and some of the music is distantly heard, but Elliot is...
- 11/15/2009
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
It's a bland, faintly pointless slice of sentimentality, suggesting comedy isn't Ang Lee's strong suit, says Peter Bradshaw
To establish career flexibility, or maybe just to serve up a little sorbet after red-meat pictures like Lust, Caution and Brokeback Mountain, director Ang Lee has tried his hand at some undemanding period fun. It's a bland, faintly pointless slice of sentimentality, suggesting comedy isn't Lee's strong suit: the wacky true story of how the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival came to be born.
Earnest Jewish kid Elliot Tiber – played by comedian Demetri Martin – is bullied by his ferocious mom (Imelda Staunton) and gentle dad (Henry Goodman) into helping out at their chaotic holiday-hotel in the Catskill mountains in upstate New York. Noticing how a massive pop festival has just been refused permission to go ahead nearby, Elliot sees how his own licence to hold a local "arts event" could be his moment of destiny.
To establish career flexibility, or maybe just to serve up a little sorbet after red-meat pictures like Lust, Caution and Brokeback Mountain, director Ang Lee has tried his hand at some undemanding period fun. It's a bland, faintly pointless slice of sentimentality, suggesting comedy isn't Lee's strong suit: the wacky true story of how the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival came to be born.
Earnest Jewish kid Elliot Tiber – played by comedian Demetri Martin – is bullied by his ferocious mom (Imelda Staunton) and gentle dad (Henry Goodman) into helping out at their chaotic holiday-hotel in the Catskill mountains in upstate New York. Noticing how a massive pop festival has just been refused permission to go ahead nearby, Elliot sees how his own licence to hold a local "arts event" could be his moment of destiny.
- 11/13/2009
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Taking Woodstock Directed by Ang Lee I've never been able to sit through more than a few minutes of Michael Wadleigh's revered documentary Woodstock. Every time it's on TV, I hope I'm going to catch some footage of Crosby Stills and Nash or Jimi Hendrix. Invariably, what I get is a (split) screenful of hippies partying on down in acres of mud. So, I was intrigued by the idea of Ang Lee making a comedy based on Elliot Tiber's 2007 memoir about his role in this seismic late 60s cultural event. And surely it had to be more fun than the Taiwanese director's downbeat spy yarn, Lust, Caution. Greek-American comedian Demetri Martin plays Elliot, artist interior designer and dutiful son of Russian-Jewish émigrés Sonia and Jake Teichberg (Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman). The family owns the El Monaco, a ramshackle motel in White Lake, New York, where Elliot's mum...
- 11/2/2009
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
We have some cool footage from the UK premiere of Ang Lee’s new movie ‘Taking Woodstock’. The video footage includes a quick interview with director Ang Lee, stars Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton and screenwriter / producer James Schamus. It’s released in November 13th in the UK.
Synopsis: Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip! Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
Synopsis: Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip! Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
- 10/27/2009
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
It seems like an eternity again since we first posted the trailer for Ang Lee's latest movie, Taking Woodstock. The movie stars Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Imelda Staunton and Eugene Levy. Empire have been good to us today and have provided us with another new poster - click to enlarge.
Taking Woodstock is based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish - plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens - Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
Taking Woodstock is release in the UK 6th November.
Taking Woodstock is based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish - plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens - Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
Taking Woodstock is release in the UK 6th November.
- 9/25/2009
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Acclaimed in Cannes and Venice, Ang Lee's '60s odyssey Taking Woodstock has been quietly winning over the critics. It now has a long-awaited UK release date - November 13 - and an eyecatching new one-sheet to deliver a group of shiny, happy, possibly lysergic people to your Friday morning.A comedy-drama with the emphasis on the funny, Taking Woodstock sees Lee add Sixties counterculture to cinema's most culturally diverse CV. Set in the summer of 1969, it follows interior designer Elliot Tiber's (Demetri Martin) efforts to help his parents' failing Catskills motel. When the organisers of the Woodstock Music And Arts Festival pitch up looking for a venue, he and his friends (Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and a cross-dressing Liev Schreiber) find themselves in the middle of a epoch-defining event.We're loving the poster (especially the cows clearly on the run from David Lynch's subsconscious), and, as the pull-quote suggests,...
- 9/25/2009
- EmpireOnline
Woodstock always brings up fond memories for people that were never there. Every time you see anything about it, your mind will instantly conjure images of hippies and flowers and overcrowding, and Jimi Hendrix. But have you ever wondered how all that came to be? If you answered yes, then Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is probably the movie for you. Taking Woodstock tells the story of Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin), a young Jewish man who has spent a fair amount of his life trying to keep the family business alive. His parents (Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman) run a tiny motel in the Catskill...
- 9/4/2009
- MoviesOnline.ca
Demetri Martin traded in his sketch pad for some dramatic clout in Ang Lee.s Taking Woodstock. He plays Elliot Tiber, the man who helped give Woodstock a venue to shape a generation. Martin brushed up on Tiber.s memoir on which the film would be based. Since Woodstock represented a sexual awakening for Tiber, Martin got nervous.
Martin Taking Woodstock
.The memoir that Elliot wrote, it.s pretty graphic about his coming of age sexually and all this stuff,. Martin said. .So knowing that Ang did Brokeback and stuff, I was like, 'You know, I'm not gay or a trained actor and I really haven't been in many things.' I was like, 'I think you guys might have the wrong guy here because I don't know if I really can do that..
Lee trusted Martin, so the comedian just hopes he did well enough.
Martin Taking Woodstock
.The memoir that Elliot wrote, it.s pretty graphic about his coming of age sexually and all this stuff,. Martin said. .So knowing that Ang did Brokeback and stuff, I was like, 'You know, I'm not gay or a trained actor and I really haven't been in many things.' I was like, 'I think you guys might have the wrong guy here because I don't know if I really can do that..
Lee trusted Martin, so the comedian just hopes he did well enough.
- 9/2/2009
- www.canmag.com
By Phillip Nakov
for movieset.com
Movie: ‘Taking Woodstock‘
Synopsis: From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was.
Stars: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Live Schreiber, Imelda Staunton
Written by: James Schmaus
Directed by: Ang Lee
Distributed by: Focus Features
Opening on: August 28, 2009
Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) and Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy) in Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock
Expectations
What I’d Seen – A terrific campaign with 70’s-inspired graphics and logos. This movie was one of the few English language films included at this year’s Cannes film festival (I did not get to see it there) and the buzz was quite big back in May.
for movieset.com
Movie: ‘Taking Woodstock‘
Synopsis: From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was.
Stars: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Live Schreiber, Imelda Staunton
Written by: James Schmaus
Directed by: Ang Lee
Distributed by: Focus Features
Opening on: August 28, 2009
Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) and Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy) in Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock
Expectations
What I’d Seen – A terrific campaign with 70’s-inspired graphics and logos. This movie was one of the few English language films included at this year’s Cannes film festival (I did not get to see it there) and the buzz was quite big back in May.
- 8/31/2009
- by Dave
- MovieSet.com
Ang Lee's new film Taking Woodstock, a retelling of the greatest musical event ever, hits theaters today, and so to celebrate the release JustPressPlay is giving away 5 Taking Woodstock Prize Packs. Each pack includes the official soundtrack and a special Taking Woodstock t-shirt and air freshener. Yes, an air freshener/ It may be scented with mud and beatnik sweat, but it's still an air freshener.
Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
- 8/28/2009
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
Ang Lee's new film Taking Woodstock, a retelling of the greatest musical event ever, hits theaters today, and so to celebrate the release JustPressPlay is giving away 5 Taking Woodstock Prize Packs. Each pack includes the official soundtrack and a special Taking Woodstock t-shirt and air freshener. Yes, an air freshener/ It may be scented with mud and beatnik sweat, but it's still an air freshener.
Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
- 8/28/2009
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
Far out? Far from it. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, this comedy stars The Daily Show's Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently helps organize the landmark hippie concert. Though intermittently amusing and exhilarating, Taking Woodstock can't quite pull together its threads into one totally trippy tapestry. The Bigger Picture: After Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution, director Ang Lee works outside the angsty realm for a change, but he's still expanding his oeuvre of movies about deeply repressed men. Unfortunately, this time out, his protagonist is the least interesting character onscreen. It's the summer of '69, and Elliot (Martin)—a gay interior designer living in Greenwich...
- 8/28/2009
- E! Online
Starting this week, we're introducing a brand new weekly movie feature. Every Thursday, movie critic Alonso Duralde will guide you to what's new at the box office that a gay or bi guy (and our gay-friendly straight readers) might want to check out! Alonso will also have news about coming movies, trailers from coming attractions, pictures from the week's premieres and much more!
And now on with the show, er, column!
Opening This Week:
Taking Woodstock
The obvious place to start is with Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, a comic look behind the scenes at the legendary rock concert. (Am I alone among Gen-Xers in having grown tired of glassy-eyed nostalgia for this event sometime around 1981?)
It’s Lee’s first comedy since The Wedding Banquet in 1993, and Taking Woodstock confirms that the man behind Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon doesn’t have the lightest touch when it comes to wit and whimsy.
And now on with the show, er, column!
Opening This Week:
Taking Woodstock
The obvious place to start is with Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, a comic look behind the scenes at the legendary rock concert. (Am I alone among Gen-Xers in having grown tired of glassy-eyed nostalgia for this event sometime around 1981?)
It’s Lee’s first comedy since The Wedding Banquet in 1993, and Taking Woodstock confirms that the man behind Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon doesn’t have the lightest touch when it comes to wit and whimsy.
- 8/28/2009
- by ADuralde
- The Backlot
Halloween has agaiin come early to the Reject Report, as this weekend is sure to be a gory one at the box office. Two absolutely frightening movies, both loaded with death, do battle in this weekend's box office duel to the death: Halloween II and The Final Destination. Oh, and for you Aquarius-type people there's Taking Woodstock. But that movie is really serving as counter-programming, as this truly is the box office weekend of death. First, I'll talk about Taking Woodstock which actually opened on Wednesday in a couple of theaters and goes into 1,300 this weekend. This movie is based on the true story of how the famous '69 Woodstock concert, well, came to be. It's directed by Oscar-winner Ang Lee. According to the writeup at IMDb, "a man working at his parents' motel in the Catskills inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969." Demetri Martin stars as Elliot Tiber, the...
- 8/28/2009
- by John Cairns
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Woodstock, the epochal event of the peace, love, and rock & roll generation, hardly seems an ideal subject for Ang Lee, chronicler of perpetual misery. It’s about as far a departure from the existential crisis of a big green superhero, the suppressed longings of gay American cowboys or the anguish of an illicit love affair in Japanese occupied China as possible. Yet, admittedly needing a break from all the tragedy, Lee has taken it on in Taking Woodstock, a charming but too slight piffle hitting theaters a little less than two weeks after the festival’s 40th anniversary. He and screenwriter/producer/longtime collaborator James Schamus make it their own by personalizing things. This is not the Woodstock Michael Wadleigh presented in his iconic documentary, though Lee periodically puts together exact recreations of crowd scenes from it. The music remains far off screen, a distant hum at best. Based on the autobiographical novel by Elliot Tiber, the...
- 8/28/2009
- by Robert Levin
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Director Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain," "Lust, Caution") returns with "Taking Woodstock," an adaptation of Elliot Tiber's autobiography "Taking Woodstock: A true story of a riot, a concert and a life."
Adapted by James Schamus for the big screen, I suggest you take a far out trip with "Taking Woodstock." Peace!
(For a full written movie review of "Taking Woodstock," click here. For interviews with the cast including Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Demetri Martin, and Jonathan Groff, click here)
Persons of interest
* Demetri Martin .... Elliot Tiber aka Eliyahu Teichberg
* Liev Schreiber .... Vilma
* Emile Hirsch .... Billy
* Eugene Levy .... Yasgur
* Imelda Staunton .... Mrs Tiber
* Katherine Waterston .... Penny
* Kevin Sussman .... Stan
* Skylar Astin .... John Roberts
* Kevin Chamberlin .... Jackson Spiers
* Gabriel Sunday .... Steve
* Jason Antoon .... Abbie Hoffman
* Henry Goodman .... Mr Tiber
* Jonathan Groff .... Michael Lang
* Boris McGiver .... Doug
* Michael Zegen .... Bernie
* Will Janowitz .... Chip Monck
* Clark Middleton .... Frank
* Adam Pally .... Artie Kornfeld
* Andy Prosky...
Adapted by James Schamus for the big screen, I suggest you take a far out trip with "Taking Woodstock." Peace!
(For a full written movie review of "Taking Woodstock," click here. For interviews with the cast including Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Demetri Martin, and Jonathan Groff, click here)
Persons of interest
* Demetri Martin .... Elliot Tiber aka Eliyahu Teichberg
* Liev Schreiber .... Vilma
* Emile Hirsch .... Billy
* Eugene Levy .... Yasgur
* Imelda Staunton .... Mrs Tiber
* Katherine Waterston .... Penny
* Kevin Sussman .... Stan
* Skylar Astin .... John Roberts
* Kevin Chamberlin .... Jackson Spiers
* Gabriel Sunday .... Steve
* Jason Antoon .... Abbie Hoffman
* Henry Goodman .... Mr Tiber
* Jonathan Groff .... Michael Lang
* Boris McGiver .... Doug
* Michael Zegen .... Bernie
* Will Janowitz .... Chip Monck
* Clark Middleton .... Frank
* Adam Pally .... Artie Kornfeld
* Andy Prosky...
- 8/28/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
I doubt Ang Lee approached Taking Woodstock with the same sense of historical timing that the rest of culture exploited this summer, when the music festival's 40th anniversary catapulted it back into a sort of reissued big-money consciousness. The Oscar-winning fimmaker said he simply wanted a break from his "abyss of tragedy," and that Elliot Tiber's memoir about providing Woodstock's operational nexus was the story that would set him free. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but for viewers, it's all the same. Just swap flimsy nostalgia for nihilism, and there you are.
- 8/27/2009
- Movieline
Release Date: Aug. 28
Director: Ang Lee
Writer: James Schamus
Cinematographer: Eric Gautier
Starring: Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch
Woodstock memoir hijacked by co-star
In the middle of this true story about rundown motel employee Elliot Tiber bringing the vaunted Woodstock festival to his hometown and coming to terms with his own sexuality, Elliot (played by Martin) stares at all the work going on around him, agog and overwhelmed by the forces in motion. This also encapsulates how Martin’s first star turn gets gobbled up like so many hits of blotter acid by the history happening all around him. Martin’s straight-and-closeted performance turns reactive, his epiphany lost in the film’s hallucinatory centerpiece. Throughout, the screen splits and flips to handheld 16mm footage in homage to the original Woodstock documentary, but Lee’s trippy direction is too light to take hold. When Liev Schreiber stomps into the film with his long blonde hair,...
Director: Ang Lee
Writer: James Schamus
Cinematographer: Eric Gautier
Starring: Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch
Woodstock memoir hijacked by co-star
In the middle of this true story about rundown motel employee Elliot Tiber bringing the vaunted Woodstock festival to his hometown and coming to terms with his own sexuality, Elliot (played by Martin) stares at all the work going on around him, agog and overwhelmed by the forces in motion. This also encapsulates how Martin’s first star turn gets gobbled up like so many hits of blotter acid by the history happening all around him. Martin’s straight-and-closeted performance turns reactive, his epiphany lost in the film’s hallucinatory centerpiece. Throughout, the screen splits and flips to handheld 16mm footage in homage to the original Woodstock documentary, but Lee’s trippy direction is too light to take hold. When Liev Schreiber stomps into the film with his long blonde hair,...
- 8/27/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is as much a confluence of chance, mood and timing as it is an actual movie, one of those meant-to-be phenomena not so unlike the historic concert cited in its title. It started with Lee running into Elliot Tiber, the man whose Catskills motel served as ground zero for Woodstock's planners in the weeks leading up to Aug. 15, 1969; nearly 40 years later, TIber was promoting his memoir on the same Bay Area television show where Lee was pushing his 2007 film Lust, Caution. Their introduction resulted in an adaptation by Lee's long-time collaborator James Schamus, who soon suggested comic Demetri Martin as a leading man.
- 8/26/2009
- Movieline
Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is as unlikely and enjoyable a memento of that long-gone moment in the age of Aquarius as we're likely to find in this 40th anniversary year of the epochal rock festival. Based on a memoir by writer Elliot Tiber (whose name was Teichberg when the events in the film occurred), the film celebrates one lone little man with the vision and the nerve to seize a moment and help make Woodstock happen. Without Teichberg, there might not have been a Woodstock -- as simple as that. Yet Lee's film isn't a Woodstock movie per se. Though he recreates great swaths of the sprawling, fantastical festival, he's not looking to recreate the Woodstock experience. Rather, this is a backstage story, a personal tale that happens to be set against three days of peace and music. Teichberg (played with deadpan restraint...
- 8/26/2009
- by Marshall Fine
- Huffington Post
Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" achieves an amazing feat: It turns the fabled music festival, a key cultural moment of the late 20th century, into an exceedingly lame, heavily clichéd, thumb-sucking bore.
Let's just hope the overrated, Oscar-winning director doesn't make the sequel about the Altamont festival he hints at to anyone who's still awake at the end of this two-hour snooze, which provides not even a mild buzz.
Jimi, Janis, Arlo and the rest are far, far, far away as Lee and his studio-chief scenarist, James Schamus, perversely choose to view the proceedings from...
Let's just hope the overrated, Oscar-winning director doesn't make the sequel about the Altamont festival he hints at to anyone who's still awake at the end of this two-hour snooze, which provides not even a mild buzz.
Jimi, Janis, Arlo and the rest are far, far, far away as Lee and his studio-chief scenarist, James Schamus, perversely choose to view the proceedings from...
- 8/26/2009
- by By LOU LUMENICK
- NYPost.com
Plot: Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, Taking Woodstock is a comedy about a young man who becomes one of the key players in bringing to light what is arguably the most important music festival in history. By "taking" Woodstock to his tiny corner of the world, he invites the wrath of the locals, yet he helps tons of people find peace, public nudity and a whole lotta drugs to make everybody feel groovy. As the concert rages on, he learns a few things about his parents and how...
- 8/26/2009
- by JimmyO
- JoBlo.com
Apparently determined to tackle every cinematic genre known to man, Ang Lee has thus far given us his take on the popular-lit adaptation ("Eat Drink Man Woman"), the classic-lit adaptation ("Sense and Sensibility"), the Civil War western ("Ride With the Devil"), the wuxia action flick ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), the Marvel comic-book summer tentpole ("Hulk"), the WWII espionage thriller ("Lust, Caution") and, of course, the gay cowboy weepie ("Brokeback Mountain").
It was inevitable, I suppose, that he would eventually get around to the historical docudrama -- or, as I've recently dubbed that generally useless collection of bullet-point factoids, the Wiki-movie. Technically, "Taking Woodstock" was adapted from key organizer Elliot Tiber's memoir of the same title; with the exception of some laborious anecdotes involving Tiber's Russian immigrant parents, however, you can find pretty much every detail of the movie in Wikipedia's tidy entry on the fabled concert, assuming that you...
It was inevitable, I suppose, that he would eventually get around to the historical docudrama -- or, as I've recently dubbed that generally useless collection of bullet-point factoids, the Wiki-movie. Technically, "Taking Woodstock" was adapted from key organizer Elliot Tiber's memoir of the same title; with the exception of some laborious anecdotes involving Tiber's Russian immigrant parents, however, you can find pretty much every detail of the movie in Wikipedia's tidy entry on the fabled concert, assuming that you...
- 8/26/2009
- by Mike D'Angelo
- ifc.com
Taking Woodstock August 28, 2009 A generation began in his backyard…. From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. [...]...
- 8/26/2009
- by The Critic
- SmartCine.com
If I could have the opportunity to go back in time and visit the 1960s, I will first choose 1969. Two big life-changing events happened that year. First, the Stonewall Riots in June which marked the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement; and second, the .Woodstock Music & Art Fair. in August that changed the face of popular culture forever.
From August 15th to the 18th in 1969, half a million people attended and more tried and failed to get to the Woodstock concert site in White Lake, NY. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most pivotal moments in music history.
Forty years later, director Ang Lee (.Lust, Caution,. .Brokeback Mountain.) captures the event in the new film .Taking Woodstock.. Based on the autobiography by Elliot Tiber called .Taking Woodstock: A True Story on a Riot, a Concert, and a Life,...
From August 15th to the 18th in 1969, half a million people attended and more tried and failed to get to the Woodstock concert site in White Lake, NY. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most pivotal moments in music history.
Forty years later, director Ang Lee (.Lust, Caution,. .Brokeback Mountain.) captures the event in the new film .Taking Woodstock.. Based on the autobiography by Elliot Tiber called .Taking Woodstock: A True Story on a Riot, a Concert, and a Life,...
- 8/26/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
I had a fantastic time meeting the main cast of "Taking Woodstock." And the film is equally thought-provoking (I'll post my review very soon!).
Directed by Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and based on a book by Elliot Tiber called "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of A Riot, A Concert, and A Life," the film is a bittersweet look at the event that changed pop culture forever.
So take a trip with "Taking Woodstock" when it opens this Friday, August 28.
Now, here are my interviews:
Emile Hirsch
The super-fantastic Emile Hirsch and I talked about:
Why He Loves My First Interview With Him For "Milk" (I'm Pretty Proud Of That :happy)
His character Billy
Working with Ang Lee
How he prepared for the role
And His Full-frontal Male Nudity Scene!
Liev Schreiber
We talked about:
His character, Vilma, a drag queen activist who is also Eliott's...
Directed by Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and based on a book by Elliot Tiber called "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of A Riot, A Concert, and A Life," the film is a bittersweet look at the event that changed pop culture forever.
So take a trip with "Taking Woodstock" when it opens this Friday, August 28.
Now, here are my interviews:
Emile Hirsch
The super-fantastic Emile Hirsch and I talked about:
Why He Loves My First Interview With Him For "Milk" (I'm Pretty Proud Of That :happy)
His character Billy
Working with Ang Lee
How he prepared for the role
And His Full-frontal Male Nudity Scene!
Liev Schreiber
We talked about:
His character, Vilma, a drag queen activist who is also Eliott's...
- 8/25/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
As you may have noticed, we've been ramping up our giveaway section of the site a bit lately. Those who have been around a while though, will note that we love to give away a bunch of free stuff -- we just haven't been getting all of the goods lately. Until now (and in the next few weeks). Today we are pleased to share with you an awesome little giveaway in support of the upcoming Focus Features release Taking Woodstock, from director Ang Lee. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is...
- 8/25/2009
- by Neil Miller
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Chicago – In our latest trippy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated Chicago screening of “Taking Woodstock” from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain” and “Sense and Sensibility”). “Taking Woodstock” stars Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Dan Fogler, Demetri Martin, Paul Dano, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy.
To win your free pass to the advance screening of “Taking Woodstock” in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is answer our question below. That’s it! The screening will be held on Aug. 27, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.
The movie poster for “Taking Woodstock” with Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Paul Dano.
Image credit: Focus Features
Here is the “Taking Woodstock” plot description:
“Taking Woodstock” is...
To win your free pass to the advance screening of “Taking Woodstock” in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is answer our question below. That’s it! The screening will be held on Aug. 27, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.
The movie poster for “Taking Woodstock” with Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Paul Dano.
Image credit: Focus Features
Here is the “Taking Woodstock” plot description:
“Taking Woodstock” is...
- 8/25/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible. And now, thanks to GreenCine and Focus Features, you can win our new Woodstock contest.
Five (5) winners will receive the official movie soundtrack CD, which is not surprisingly excellent, a t-shirt, and air freshener!
Click below for details on entering.
Five (5) winners will receive the official movie soundtrack CD, which is not surprisingly excellent, a t-shirt, and air freshener!
Click below for details on entering.
- 8/24/2009
- by underdog
- GreenCine
We are on a roll with giving away free stuff to you, our loyal readers. This time we have a prize bundle, well actually 5 of them to giveaway!
Taking Woodstock is Ang Lee’s latest film that opens August 28th and looks to be a pretty solid return to the big screen for Lee. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
In case you missed it you can check out the trailer right here.
Taking Woodstock is Ang Lee’s latest film that opens August 28th and looks to be a pretty solid return to the big screen for Lee. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
In case you missed it you can check out the trailer right here.
- 8/24/2009
- by Matthew
- Atomic Popcorn
Friday afternoon means we load up the weekend with a batch of trailers and behind the scenes featurettes and miscellaneous clips - a few from films coming shortly, a few coming soon and a few you may not of heard about yet. Have any faves from this edition of the Weekend Trailer Round-up? Let us know!
Defendor Woody Harrelson is a self-made super-hero with a prostitute side-kick
Reality intersects with delusion in the mind of Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), a regular man who adopts a superhero persona known as Defendor, and combs the city streets at night in search of his arch-enemy, Captain Industry. In his attempts to combat crime and bring down Captain Industry, a drug and weapons dealer who he mistakenly blames for the death of his mother, Defendor ends up befriending a young prostitute, Katerina Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings). Armed with unconventional weapons of mass confusion, aided by his new friend,...
Defendor Woody Harrelson is a self-made super-hero with a prostitute side-kick
Reality intersects with delusion in the mind of Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), a regular man who adopts a superhero persona known as Defendor, and combs the city streets at night in search of his arch-enemy, Captain Industry. In his attempts to combat crime and bring down Captain Industry, a drug and weapons dealer who he mistakenly blames for the death of his mother, Defendor ends up befriending a young prostitute, Katerina Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings). Armed with unconventional weapons of mass confusion, aided by his new friend,...
- 8/22/2009
- by Dave
- MovieSet.com
It might seem to some like comedian Demetri Martin came from out of nowhere, especially for those who first become aware of him as the star of Ang Lee's latest movie Taking Woodstock . In fact, Martin has been paying his dues for years as a comedy writer for the likes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and doing the stand-up circuit before scoring his own Comedy Central show "Important Things with Demetri Martin." Lee's movie, written by his long-time collaborator (and head of Focus Features) James Schamus, takes place behind the scenes of the legendary Woodstock Music Festival of 1969, and Martin plays Elliot Tiber, a young Jewish man on the local community zoning board for the small town of Bethel, New York, contacted by concert promoter Michael Lang to help...
- 8/21/2009
- Comingsoon.net
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee is back with a dramedy film about the infamous Woodstock Festival in 1969. "Taking Woodstock" features a notable ensemble cast and an impressive music score.
Based on the memoirs of the same name, the film follows the real life experiences of Elliot Tiber, an aspiring interior designer who inadvertently played a role in making the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening that it was.
Tiber is played by comedian Demetri Martin. Also in the film are Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman, who will play his overbearing parents; Jonathan Groff as producer Michael Lang; Eugene Levy; Emile Hirsch, a Vietnam veteran; and Liev Schreiber, as a cross-dressing ex-Marine. Jeffrey Dean Morgan also stars.
The film will feature songs from a score of '60s musical icons, including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish.
Based on the memoirs of the same name, the film follows the real life experiences of Elliot Tiber, an aspiring interior designer who inadvertently played a role in making the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening that it was.
Tiber is played by comedian Demetri Martin. Also in the film are Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman, who will play his overbearing parents; Jonathan Groff as producer Michael Lang; Eugene Levy; Emile Hirsch, a Vietnam veteran; and Liev Schreiber, as a cross-dressing ex-Marine. Jeffrey Dean Morgan also stars.
The film will feature songs from a score of '60s musical icons, including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish.
- 8/11/2009
- icelebz.com
The Village Voice's Michael Musto had a chance to talk with Elliot Tiber, about getting the gayer aspects of his memoir Taking Woodstock to the screen.
Turns out before Ang Lee took on the film project, Tiber had passed on working with two film studios that wanted to completely de-gay his story.
And even with Ang Lee at the helm, Taking Woodstock is not exactly Brokeback. Tiber points out that his original memoir contains anecdotes about Robert Mapplethorpe, Tennessee Williams, and Rock Hudson, and none of those made it into the final film.
Musto also spoke with Demetri Martin, who plays Tiber in the film. Martin says that a scene involving his character at NY's Eagle leather bar wound up on the cutting room floor. "I wore a leather vest and tight, dark jeans. But the regulars really did it up!"
Probably the gayest thing that remains in the film...
Turns out before Ang Lee took on the film project, Tiber had passed on working with two film studios that wanted to completely de-gay his story.
And even with Ang Lee at the helm, Taking Woodstock is not exactly Brokeback. Tiber points out that his original memoir contains anecdotes about Robert Mapplethorpe, Tennessee Williams, and Rock Hudson, and none of those made it into the final film.
Musto also spoke with Demetri Martin, who plays Tiber in the film. Martin says that a scene involving his character at NY's Eagle leather bar wound up on the cutting room floor. "I wore a leather vest and tight, dark jeans. But the regulars really did it up!"
Probably the gayest thing that remains in the film...
- 8/5/2009
- by dennis
- The Backlot
I feel so blessed to have seen "Taking Woodstock," another knockout film from director Ang Lee. By the way, Lee is one of the greatest living directors around. He can go from action ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") to Brit Lit ("Sense and Sensibility") to comic book genre ("Hulk") to searing drama ("Brokeback Mountain") without missing a beat!
And I haven't even added "Eat Drink Man Woman," "Lust, Caution," and "The Ice Storm." I cannot think of a director who has worked in such a wide canvass.
In "Taking Woodstock," Lee, working from James Schamus' screenplay, creates a film so richly layered and textured centering on the making of a monumental event that changed the landscape of pop culture forever -- Woodstock.
Based on the book by Elliot Tiber called "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life," comedian Demetri Martin is refreshingly complex...
And I haven't even added "Eat Drink Man Woman," "Lust, Caution," and "The Ice Storm." I cannot think of a director who has worked in such a wide canvass.
In "Taking Woodstock," Lee, working from James Schamus' screenplay, creates a film so richly layered and textured centering on the making of a monumental event that changed the landscape of pop culture forever -- Woodstock.
Based on the book by Elliot Tiber called "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life," comedian Demetri Martin is refreshingly complex...
- 8/1/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
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