Rich Monetti
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I am, I write.
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What Just Happened Amuses Without the Typical Hollywood Movie Excess
The front cover of the DVD case for What Just Happened declares, “laugh out loud funny.” Sorry, the 2009 Barry Levinson film starring Robert De Niro as a big wheel Hollywood movie producer does not live up and appears to have no inclination to even try. But don’t move on, that’s because the Art Linson penned comedy refuses to settle and lets the punchlines play out as if the double-take doesn’t just apply to the titular character’s downfall.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Geeks
Long Island Lawyer Recreates Williamsburg Neighborhood in the Brooklyn Banker
Five years ago, Michael Ricigliano had an idea for a mob movie script, and decided he never wanted to lament what might have been. Taking care of his part from his basement as a Long Island lawyer, the old adage of who you know got him to the next step. “I think he read my script more as a courtesy to our mutual friend,” said Ricigliano of Federico Castelluccio, who played Furio on the Sopranos cast. Of course, being able to write what he knew proved the most important factor in forever keeping any regrets at bay.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Geeks
Dani Felt Consultants Keeps Their Clients Connected
As a musician, enlisting a music consultant to amplify your career can feel like beginning a relationship that proceeds from parallel universes and distances the artist’s passion from the pragmatics of achieving success. But Dani Felt believes her unique place as both a consultant and a musician helps bridge the gap.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Beat
My Favorite Year Celebrates Real Breaking Bad Behavior but How Can We Resist?
The classic 80s movie is based on Mel Brooks’ recollection of Errol Flynn’s appearance on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows in the early 1950s. As a young writer, Brooks was tasked with reigning in the fallen star so he’d be kept sober long enough to learn his lines and deliver the live rendition. Of course, it can be asked, how much did O’Toole really have to act to bring drunken debonair to life? Either way, the problematics both legends exhibited were often no laughing matter, and can’t help but weigh on our consciences as we enjoy.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Geeks
George Clooney Brings Us and Science Fiction Down to Earth in 'Gravity'
The relatively factual science fiction movie Gravity opens by setting us at ease in the care of Hollywood’s most reassuring leading man. Light on his feet as ever in the 2013 film written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, George Clooney nonchalantly traverses the perils of space like everything else he does in the movies and life. A drama set precariously above Earth in our always suspect space shuttle progam, is there anything new in knowing that Clooney will have it covered in the end? Disappearing 36 minutes into the film, the common place clearly doesn’t apply – that is unless it does.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Futurism
The Science Fiction of Rollerball Is Nothing Compared to the Facts of Real Life Control
If you’ve never seen Rollerball, stop what you’re doing and dial up the DVD for this 1975 Science Fiction Movie classic. Set in the year 2024, this dystopia puts Bread and Circuses on a violent whirlwind that’s engineered to keep the world’s corporate overlords out of the crosshairs. As such, revolving door heroes are amply provided and give the population cause to question the saccharin surroundings they live in. That is until each warrior meets their predetermined end and complacency has no other choice but to comply. Great Science Fiction but real control is so much easier.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Futurism
Brian Carney Has Made a Name for Himself and Remembers His Classic TV Show Father Art Carney
Like other kids’ fathers, Brian Carney’s dad left for work everyday from their Yonkers’ home in the 50s. On the other hand, the then elementary schooler soon noticed that his father’s Classic TV show profession had the attention of almost everyone. “It seemed everybody talked about what he did,” says Carney of his father Art of the Honeymooners fame. But if the picture above looks familiar, it should – the son attaining a measure of celebrity of his own.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Geeks
NYC Fashion Designer Turns Her Passion Into ZharaMichelle Clothing Line
Clothing lines typically have a high profile name attached to them, and aim to give the sense that the celebrity’s heart and soul goes into the design. That said, Zhara Fernandez isn’t exactly skipping a beat in wait of Ivanka Trump trotting out one of her get ups in the rose garden. But if you really want to see a fashion designer actually wearing her heart on her sleeve, ZharaMichelle delivers where others most likely fail.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Journal
Trio Triangulates Deep Space 9 Episodes with the Rules of Acquisition Podcast
The Greatest Generation seems to have the decided drop on all the Star Trek podcasts out there. Wade Bowen concedes that and freely accepts operating among the many on the internet undercard with his Deep Space 9 Episodes, Rules of Acquisition Podcast. “I feel like we’re the poor kids at the camp, and they are the rich ones on the other side of the lake,” says Bowen. But that probably better suits his trio’s delving into the franchise’s underbelly on the outskirts of Federation Space.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Futurism
Eye in the Sky Brings Drone Warfare Home
According to a 2015 report from The Intercept, nearly 90% of people killed by drone warfare were not the intended target. But Barack Obama’s cool made the cognitive dissonance so easy that his supporters suspended disbelief as a means to overlooking America’s deadly Eye in the Sky. The film of the same name with Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman and Aaron Paul does at least give us pause and presents a potential scenario of how a course of action plays out on legal, moral and political terms.
By Rich Monetti9 years ago in Geeks
