New York Times Discovers The Wrestler

Apparently the New York Times discovered The Wrestler this weekend and decided to publish not one, but two articles on the movie this Sunday. The first was a short, but interesting piece on the film’s writer Robert Siegel. We’re even willing to forgive the questionable choice of accompanying photography by Tony Cenicola here given how much we enjoyed the profile of the former Onion editor tapped for the project by director Darren Aronofsky.

If you’ve only got time for one article, however, we highly recommend the Times Sunday Magazine piece on Mickey Rourke. We generally like the Times, but we’re still glad to see this profile get the Magazine treatment, which means using excellent non-staff photography and words by Pat Jordan. Rourke tears up throughout the interview, something he apparently does at the same point in all of his canned stories, and we learn that virtually everything Rourke has told us about his life is a lie. Does this change our opinion of Rourke? Not really; we knew he was unstable and generally not agreeable. Does it make us any less exited for The Wrestler? Not a chance.

[Image via 24gotham]