Don’t let the suave mustache, natty suits and Tony Awards for “Hairspray” fool you. John Waters is a degenerate. And for the next four days, you have several opportunites to witness the Waters effect for yourself.

Tonight (Friday) and Saturday at midnight, the Tivoli’s…

Almost nobody understands how the Oscar folks choose the finalists for best documentary feature. And a new attempt to streamline the process, which requires contending films to screen for at least one week in New York and LA before the end of August, seems like it…

Director David Zucker told me in an interview last week that it would be “a cultural election”: his anti-Michael Moore comedy “An American Carol” versus Bill Maher’s anti-religion documentary “Religulous.” Both movies opened last Friday. And both earned about the same…

Friday I lunched, separately, with two of my favorite cult figures: Joel Hodgson, the creator and original host of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” and James Gunn, the former St. Louisan who wrote the “Scooby-Doo” movies and directed “Slither.” Both fellas have…

One of the reasons I kinda liked the new comedy “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” is because it all happens in one night, as two smart teens realize they’re made for each other while driving around New York in a…

“Best. Fest. Ever.”

That was the assessment by Cliff Froehlich, the executive director of Cinema St. Louis, as he unveiled the line-up for the 17th annual St. Louis International Film Festival on Wednesday.

The festival, which runs Nov. 13-23 at venues including the…

Proto-punk singer and poet Patti Smith has been lionized for so long that the legend has eclipsed her work. The documentary “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” which screens Thursday through Saturday nights at Webster University, restores the vital presence of…

An advocacy group for the vision impaired plans to protest the movie “Blindness” when it opens nationwide Friday. Marc Maurer, the president of the National Federation for the Blind, says that “the movie portrays blind people as monsters.”

I don’t see it…

Anniversary journalism is often a waste of time–there’s little to learn from the 40th birthday of the Big Mac–but occasionally it’s a tool for re-education. Recently I watched the new PBS series on the history of the Warner Bros. Studios,…

What can you say about Paul Newman? Only good things, apparently. When he died this weekend at age 83, he may have been the most respected man in Hollywood–partly because he lived in Connecticut and never grew a Hollywood ego.

Despite…