Word: toback
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...James Toback, he found the ideal listener for what it essentially a 90-minute monologue punctuated by film clips, with Tyson narrating his entire life, including the blow-by-blow commentary of his fight footage. Since his first film as screenwriter, The Gambler in 1974, and Fingers, his 1978 debut as writer-director, Toback has put churning, charismatic self-destructive characters on the screen. (He got an Oscar nomination for the life story of another scoundrel, Bugsy Siegel, in the 1991 Bugsy.) Toback has always been fascinated by the machismo of professional athletes; he wrote a tell-all memoir...
...most troubled and attempt to connect. But for most people, the only way to interact with such a terrifying person is superficial at best.Documentary filmmaking provides the opportunity to truly deliver someone else’s reality, even if that person is as seemingly insane as Mike Tyson. James Toback ’66 is particularly attuned to this power. After Harvard, he went on to become a highly controversial Hollywood screenwriter and director, meeting Mike Tyson on the set of his 1985 film “The Pick Up Artist.” There they began the friendship that...
...Waltz from Bashir, an animated documentary about middle-aged Israeli men haunted by their wartime Army service. In a few days we'll see a bio-pic on soccer legend Diego Maradonna, from two-time Palme d'Or winner Emir Kusturica. Today brought three docs from three continents: James Toback's Tyson, an extended interview (plus copious fight clips) with the former heavyweight champ; Daniel Leconte's It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks, about a French magazine brought to court for defaming Islam; and Jia Zhangke's 24 City, on the lives of three generations of factory workers...
...Toback, who for 30 years has directed movies about extreme characters seeking Nirvana through self-destruction, has always been fascinated by athlete-studs; his memoir of football icon Jim Brown still curdles the memory. So Tyson can't help but hit Toback's sweet spot: the fighter is smart, reflective and scary, even as he reminisces about his time in the ring. There he was a terror, an implacable mix of speed and strength. "Once in the ring," he says, "I'm God." Or a more satanic force, giving the evil eye to his adversary as he enters the ring...
...games. 5. Kaavya Viswanathan, for her contributions to literature. 6.Cine-ass Andrew Bujalski, for really, you know, capturing the zeitgeist or whatever. 7. Pretzel-in-Chief Will Marra, for being a good sport. 8. God, for being cool with everyone thinking they’re Him. 9. Filmmaker James Toback, for somehow not being dead yet. 10. Sex blogger Lena Chen, for last night. — J. Chris Beam and Nick Summers are 2006 graduates from Columbia University and the founders and operators of www.ivygateblog.com...