Benicio Del Toro

There wasn't a single free seat at the Friday night screening of Che at the Ziegfeld Theatre. A sign at the box office window informed attendees that the historic 1,131-seat theater was completely sold out.

Reviews for Steven Soderbergh's two-part biopic of Latin American revolutionary and T-shirt model Ernesto "Che" Guevara (played by co-producer Benicio Del Toro) had been split—The Los Angeles Times' Sheri Linden called it "extraordinary and challenging"; The New York Times' A.O. Scott called it "epic hagiography" and dinged Mr. Soderbergh's politics as "naïve and fuzzy"—but the crowd seemed fully ready to sit through the complete movie—4 hours and 23 minutes, with a half-hour intermission in between.  read more »

Spencer Morgan did a little digging and found out that when Marquee shut down over the summer because of a water main break, there were also some shady dealings going on there. Is Marquee owner Noah Tepperberg in a whole lot of legal hot water?

Irina Aleksander sweet-talked her way into Liam McMullan's 21st birthday party and discovered that the sons of society photographers like a good pair of Brooks Brothers pants just as much as the next guy.

Ms. Aleksander also got on the horn with socialite-slash-actress (aren't we all!) Annie Churchill to gab about her new online venture: a fashion retail website and online fashion-lifestyle TV show (ooh!) hosted by (you guessed it!) Ms. Churchill herself.

And wide-eyed Caroline Bankoff fell under the spell of Benicio Del Toro at a screening of his new movie, Che. Mmmm, more, por favor!

The Daily Transom is not easily starstruck. But when Benicio Del Toro offered to "wine and dine" us in atonement for allowing someone to interrupt our conversation after the Monday evening screening of his new film, Che, directed by Steven Soderbergh, we must admit we had a ... moment. After all, the food and drinks at Plaza Athenee were free--it would be simple!

Fortunately, by the time he turned his attention back to us, we had regained our composure. What had the person who had approached him wanted to know? "He wanted to know how I lost weight for the movie."

How had he?

"That's a secret, it's a mystery!"

Well, then how had he gained it back?

"That's a secret.  read more »

It seems almost criminally insane that a new Steven Soderbergh movie(s), starring Bencio Del Toro in an awards baiting performance as Che Guevara, wouldn't get picked up by a major studio, but that's just what happened. After a tepid showing at Cannes, and a brief flirtation with Magnolia Films, both parts of Che, the The Argentine and Guerilla, have been scooped up by IFC Films. The studio hasn't stated whether it will release the two films together (with an intermission) or as separate entities, but they have confirmed that Che, in some form, will be appear on screen in NY and LA for an awards qualifying run in December. After that, the film will be hitting select screens around the country and also, your television set, via "IFC in Theaters" video on demand service in January.

Maybe the major studios (and by extension, their boutique wings) were sacred off by the prospect of having to market a potentially four-hour long film with subtitles? Or maybe Mr. Soderbergh's epic is actually pretty lousy? If you believe the reports from Cannes, the movie was met with only slightly less bile than Medellin.  read more »

Benicio Del Torro is over the top as a heroine addict in Things We Lost in the Fire.  read more »

Fall is the season for 'quality' movies, the kinds of movies that make good showbiz at the Oscars. But that doesn't mean that fluffier stuff can't break out the box office: witness Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, the No. 1 film last weekend over Elizabeth: The Golden Age.  read more »

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
Running Time 118 minutes
Written by Allan Loeb
Directed by Susanne Blier  read more »