Steven Rea | Young actor gets into the 'Tuck' spirit
'You can't really do Method acting," 20-year-old Jonathan Jackson says about his role as a 104-year-old in the new A-list Disney fable, Tuck Everlasting. "It's not really possible to draw from your experience, is it?"
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 10/06/2002 03:16 PM EDT)

Steven Rea | 8 fabulous femmes in fun French film
8 Women, which was a hit at the recent Toronto Film Festival and opens here at the Ritz Theaters on Friday, stars several generations of French cinema's leading ladies. But despite its stellar cast - in alphabetical order, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart, Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Ledoyen, Firmine Richard and Ludivine Sagnier (down, boy!) - when word got out that François Ozon had assembled this luscious lineup of luminaries, the Paris media...
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 09/22/2002 02:37 PM EDT)

Eminem: For hip-hop fans, and perhaps everyone else
It's the dividing line between Detroit and the suburbs: the road called 8 Mile. But for Curtis Hanson, the director who steered Marshall "Eminem" Mathers III through his inaugural movie role, 8 Mile is also a metaphor.
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Movie Critic, 09/15/2002 10:42 AM EDT)

Steven Rea | His 1st feature has a No. 1 star - Nelly
Whoa, Nelly. Or actually, as far as Rich Murray is concerned, don't whoa - just keep on keeping on. "The timing couldn't be better, could it?" says the Philadelphia filmmaker, who has the good fortune to have the red-hot hip-hop artist - the guy with this summer's chart-topper Nellyville album and current No. 1 and 4 singles - costarring in his first feature, Snipes. "It's very encouraging for us. And Nelly is proud of his work in the film, and he's helping us... . I can't lie and say that hasn't...
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 09/08/2002 02:42 PM EDT)

Steven Rea | Into the darkrooms of human nature
It's a little bit of "there but for the grace of God go I," says Robin Williams, talking about his character in One Hour Photo, a milquetoast loner who develops pictures at a discount department store and starts stalking one of the families among his customers.
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 09/01/2002 08:20 AM EDT)

Steven Rea | For real: The synthetic actors are here
Cyber-actors. Synthespians. Whatever you call them, they are among us. From George Lucas' cloying Nabooian creature Jar Jar Binks to the buff intergalactic crew of last summer's Final Fantasy to the titular Great Dane in this summer's Scooby-Doo, computer-rendered screen images that realistically simulate human beings (and giant ghost-hunting dogs) have arrived.
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 08/25/2002 08:57 AM EDT)

Steven Rea | Aniston's dark role was director's hunch
Rachel Green, the flibbertigibbety Friends gal, as a Texas discount-store clerk stuck in a lifeless marriage and carrying on a cheap affair with a dark, brainy college kid?
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 08/18/2002 08:54 AM EDT)

Steven Rea | A life story too far-fetched for fiction
You couldn't make this stuff up. That's what Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein kept thinking, anyway - and, boy, they were right. A couple of NYU film-school grads, they got it in their heads to do a documentary about Robert Evans, the Hollywood producer and onetime studio chief. Morgen and Burstein would go over to Evans' Beverly Hills villa - a place called Woodland, with its fountains, its screening room, its butler - and listen to him talk. And talk. And talk.
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 08/11/2002 09:18 AM EDT)

Steven Rea | Soderbergh gets inside actors' heads
"If you are an actor considering a role in this film, please note the following," began the memo attached to copies of the script that Steven Soderbergh sent to potential cast members last year. What followed were 10 rather startling - for Hollywood - edicts.
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 08/04/2002 08:52 AM EDT)

Steven Rea | Privy to plenty of potty in 'Powers'
It should be no surprise to anyone familiar with either of the previous Austin Powers flicks: Potty jokes, crude sex gags, and references to bodily functions abound in Austin Powers in Goldmember. From Dr. Evil's flatulent, Jules Verne-y submarine to the prosthetically endowed titular villain (a Dutch maniac with a golden organ) to the giant Scotsman Fat Bastard's fecal fascination, Goldmember is more rife with ca-ca comedy than a grade school (preschool?) boys' room.
( By Steven Rea, Inquirer Columnist, 07/28/2002 01:22 PM EDT)