25 most recent entries:
DVDs, 11/25. (Nov 25 2008 21:31 GMT)
"The coincidental releases this week of a pair of cult staples - Freaks and Geeks (in a deluxe 'yearbook' set) and Bottle Rocket (in a Criterion edition) - make for an intriguing compare-and-contrast exercise," writes Dennis Lim in the...
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. (Nov 25 2008 20:43 GMT)
"By coincidence, two Martin Ritt films are being released on Tuesday by two different companies," notes Dave Kehr in the New York Times: "the 1965 anti-thriller The Spy Who Came In From the Cold arrives from the Criterion Collection...
John Michael Hayes, 1919 - 2008. (Nov 25 2008 19:25 GMT)
The screenwriter, who died on November 19 at age 89, had a remarkable career. The highlight was easily the four consecutive films he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock in the mid-1950s: Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, To Catch A...
The New Criterion. (Nov 25 2008 08:38 GMT)
With what might be taken as a nod to Chris Marker (whose pseudonym is believed to have been nabbed from a Magic Marker), a nifty orientation video featuring Jason Polan is the best guide imaginable to the new Criterion...
Shorts, 11/24. (Nov 24 2008 22:59 GMT)
"This week, immersed in the world's leading documentary film festival, I am reminded how important docs are to me and pondering how that passion emerged." Along with a big IDFA , Eugene Hernandez sends a list of "A Dozen...
Fests and events, 11/24. (Nov 24 2008 21:52 GMT)
"Robert De Niro has launched a Middle East version of the New York Tribeca Film Festival, to be held in the oil-rich state of Qatar next year," reports the BBC. More from Al Jazeera. "The Discovering Latin America Film...
Australia, round 2. (Nov 24 2008 21:35 GMT)
"An unwieldy stab at an old-fashioned movie epic, Baz Luhrmann's Australia is corny, implausible, well intentioned and even somewhat enjoyable in its own way, at least for a while," writes Dan Callahan in Slant. "Australia is a deliberate throwback...
Amsterdam Dispatch. 1. (Nov 24 2008 16:51 GMT)
The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) rolls on through Sunday. Here, David D'Arcy offers first impressions of three films. This year, IDFA looks like an alumni gathering, as it welcomes back an army of veterans, from Peter Wintonick (whose latest...
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, round 1. (Nov 24 2008 09:50 GMT)
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button represents a richly satisfying serving of deep-dish Hollywood storytelling," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy. "This odd, epic tale of a man who ages backwards is presented in an impeccable classical manner, every detail tended...
Milk, round 2. (Nov 24 2008 09:42 GMT)
"While not up there in the annals of transformation with Robert De Niro's poundage or Daniel Day-Lewis's palsy, Sean Penn's smile lines in Milk are a wonder," writes David Edelstein in New York. "They're not crinkles, they're furrows; they...
Cargo. And film criticism in Germany. (Nov 23 2008 19:34 GMT)
Before I tell you anything else about Cargo, here's an online viewing tip: Lav Diaz. Because the interview's in English, and of course, because Diaz is a lively and intriguing talker. Now, admittedly, just about everything else at this...
Shorts, 11/22. (Nov 22 2008 21:06 GMT)
Jonathan Yardley reviews Sinatra in Hollywood for the Washington Post and notes that author Tom Santopietro's "enthusiasm is admirable, but no one who knows Sinatra's films is likely to find it infectious or persuasive. Yes, Sinatra did appear in...
Fests and events, 11/22. (Nov 22 2008 17:14 GMT)
The Third Annual Heeb Film Festival runs today and tomorrow in New York and Lawrence Levi has a few recommendations in Nextbook. Also in New York, the Macedonian Film Festival runs for two more days; FilmCatcher's Damon Smith has...
NYT Magazine. "Screens." (Nov 21 2008 22:59 GMT)
"What will happen, in the age of iPod, DVR, VOD, YouTube and BitTorrent, to the experience of moviegoing, to say nothing of the art of cinema?" asks AO Scott in the "Screens" issue of the New York Times Magazine....
Shorts, fests, etc, 11/21. (Nov 21 2008 20:59 GMT)
"The Good, The Bad, The Weird won a total of four prizes at the 29th Blue Dragon Film Awards ceremony which was held Thursday evening in Seoul, Korea." Han Sunhee reports for Variety Asia. "Watching [The Curious Case of...
AFI Fest, week 1. (Oct 30 2008 10:00 GMT)
Tonight, "AFI Fest, now in its 22nd year, will open with the world premiere of Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman," writes Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times, but as Scott Foundas explains in...
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 08, 10/29. (Oct 30 2008 00:13 GMT)
"Maybe you didn't realize it - I didn't until too late - but October 12, 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of [Michael J] Weldon's magnum opus The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film," writes Rob Gonsalves at Hollywood...
Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback. (Oct 29 2008 19:06 GMT)
"A true tall tale that unfolds like the Great Unwritten Cold War Rock Novel, Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback traces how a beat-crazy combo formed by five bored US soldiers stationed in West Germany in 1964 evolved into an ambitious,...
Teuvo Tulio, coast to coast. (Oct 29 2008 17:32 GMT)
"The Finns called him their Valentino, the 'Wild Bird' of the national cinema." J Hoberman in the Voice: "BAMcinématek is using the more prosaic Master of Melodrama. But to judge from the four-feature sampling that begins Monday, director-writer-producer-actor Teuvo...
Milk premiere. (Oct 29 2008 15:49 GMT)
"The guests came to the Castro Theatre on Tuesday dressed in Levi's and designer dresses, '70s-chic velvet jackets and drag-queen heels and glitter," reports Steven Winn for the San Francisco Chronicle. "It looked like a glamorous early start on...
British Independent Film Awards. Nominations. (Oct 29 2008 10:59 GMT)
"Hunger, the debut film by artist Steve McQueen about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, has been nominated for seven British Independent Film Awards. Turner Prize-winner McQueen's film has more nominations than The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley, and Happy-Go-Lucky, the...
Shorts, 10/28. (Oct 28 2008 22:54 GMT)
Gus Van Sant's Milk premieres tonight at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik thinks Focus Features is "hiding it" and lays out a few possible reasons. Meanwhile, Shawn Levy points to Borys Kit's story...
DVDs, 10/28. (Oct 28 2008 22:15 GMT)
Terrence Malick "has been trying to forge a new way to express concepts other films don't dare approach," writes Bilge Ebiri. "Sometimes these attempts come off as clichéd, but that may also be because he is, in effect, portraying...
Fests and events, 10/28. (Oct 28 2008 21:34 GMT)
The L Magazine's Mark Asch: "Far from Vietnam is a movie from 1967 that's screened, watched, discussed, far less than you'd think it would be given that it's directed by Jean-Luc Godard (at the height of his formalist Marxist...
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 08, 10/28. (Oct 28 2008 17:32 GMT)
Let's start with the online viewing tips. Bryant Frazer presents "a short montage of clips culled from my collection of horror movies from 1960 and later, cued up and intertwined in a sequence dictated by my memories of watching...
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