Montclair Film Festival Opens: "The Latest Extravaganza In This Overachieving Town!"

Actor Oliver Platt asks ... "Tribeca what?"

Film festivals conjure up images of glitz, celebrities, red carpets, and amazing organization. The Venice and Tribeca film festivals come to mind. Although Montclair is not Cannes, the Montclair Film Festival got off to a glamorous and extremely successful start on Tuesday night at Montclair State University's Alexander Kasser Theater. Robert Feinberg, the film festival's founder and chairman, said he hesitated to make The Oranges the opening film of the festival as it's mostly about, well, adultery. But, in the end, he said he couldn't resist. "It's hard to find such a great film set in suburban New Jersey with such an incredible ensemble cast," he said. And he couldn't have picked a better film to launch a festival that's been two years …

• Photos (3)

Salon.com: Brick City Review

The Newark doc is praised by the online publication.

The Sundance Channel documentary about the city of Newark "Brick City" was singled out for praise this week by long-running online publication Salon.com. The documentary, which airs in five parts each night this week, was directed by Maplewood native Marc Levin and produced by "Ghost Dog" actor Forest Whitaker. The two men were recently interviewed about the film for NPR. Read the full Salon review here.

Hilton Screens 'Night of the Living Dead'

Budget woes have brought zombies to the Library.

Library budget cuts have led to some scares. But not the kind you might think. Today at 5:30, the Hilton Library is showing Night of the Living Dead as part of their weekly film series. The 1968 low-budget horror classic is a historically important film that still retains the ability to scare without using the over-the-top gore of today’s horror films. That makes it an attractive prospect for library viewing. But so does the fact that it can be shown for free. “It’s basically in the public domain,” Maplewood young adult librarian Timur Davis said. The film is actually in the public domain, interestingly enough, because its original film distributor failed to put a copyright indication on prints of the film. Earlier this year, the library’s…

• Photos (3)