Lionsgate released their new horror/thriller sequel flick, Saw 8 aka "Jigsaw" into theaters today, October 27,2017, and all the top movie critics have wrote up their official opinion/reviews for it. We found seven of them on the Metacritic.com site. Over there, the overall score turned out to be pretty mixed with a total average score of 44 out of a possible 100. The rest of the critic reviews we got are from Rottentomatoes.com ,. They also gave it an overall score of 44 percent. Jigsaw stars: Matt Passmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Clé Bennett, Hannah Emily Anderson, Laura Vandervoort, Mandela Van Peebles, Paul Braunstein, Brittany Allen and Josiah Black. It was directed by Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig. It was written by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger. We've provided a brief excerpt from all the top critics (below) which summarizes how they pretty much felt about the movie. Kyle Turner over at The...
- 10/27/2017
- by Andre Braddox
- OnTheFlix
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: In honor of “The Florida Project,” which has just started its platform release across the country, what is the greatest child performance in a film?
Jordan Hoffman (@JHoffman), The Guardian, Vanity Fair
I can agonize over this question or I can go at this Malcolm Gladwell “Blink”-style. My answer is Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon.” She’s just so funny and tough, which of course makes the performance all the more heartbreaking. She won the freaking Oscar at age 10 for this and I’d really love to give a more deep cut response, but why screw around? Paper Moon is a perfect film and she is the lynchpin.
This week’s question: In honor of “The Florida Project,” which has just started its platform release across the country, what is the greatest child performance in a film?
Jordan Hoffman (@JHoffman), The Guardian, Vanity Fair
I can agonize over this question or I can go at this Malcolm Gladwell “Blink”-style. My answer is Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon.” She’s just so funny and tough, which of course makes the performance all the more heartbreaking. She won the freaking Oscar at age 10 for this and I’d really love to give a more deep cut response, but why screw around? Paper Moon is a perfect film and she is the lynchpin.
- 10/9/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: Inspired by Baby Groot’s “Mr. Blue Sky” dance sequence at the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” what movie has the best opening credits sequence?
April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly
Hands down, it’s R.W. Fassbinder’s “The Marriage of Maria Braun.” I watch the opening sequence at least three times a year and show it to every filmmaker I can. I love any film that begins with a bang, and this one does quite literally: We open up on an explosion that rips out a hunk of brick wall, exposing a German couple in the middle of a rushed marriage ceremony.
This week’s question: Inspired by Baby Groot’s “Mr. Blue Sky” dance sequence at the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” what movie has the best opening credits sequence?
April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly
Hands down, it’s R.W. Fassbinder’s “The Marriage of Maria Braun.” I watch the opening sequence at least three times a year and show it to every filmmaker I can. I love any film that begins with a bang, and this one does quite literally: We open up on an explosion that rips out a hunk of brick wall, exposing a German couple in the middle of a rushed marriage ceremony.
- 5/8/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: What is the best film (or film-related) podcast?
Neil Miller (@rejects), Film School Rejects
There are a great many podcasts in my life — from the ones I host to the ones hosted by close friends — so it’s hard to approach this subject without wanting to selfishly yell “One Perfect Pod!” Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s a real favorite: “The Mothership,” from the folks at USA Today. More importantly, it involves two of my favorite Twitter pals Brian Truitt and Kelly Lawler. Its mandate is broad, which means there’s video game and comics talk...
This week’s question: What is the best film (or film-related) podcast?
Neil Miller (@rejects), Film School Rejects
There are a great many podcasts in my life — from the ones I host to the ones hosted by close friends — so it’s hard to approach this subject without wanting to selfishly yell “One Perfect Pod!” Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s a real favorite: “The Mothership,” from the folks at USA Today. More importantly, it involves two of my favorite Twitter pals Brian Truitt and Kelly Lawler. Its mandate is broad, which means there’s video game and comics talk...
- 4/24/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
The lineup for Cannes 2017 has finally been announced, and it’s a doozy. From the inevitable return of Michael Haneke to the shocking inclusion of television (albeit television from celebrated Cannes alumni David Lynch and Jane Campion), the 70th edition of the world’s most prestigious film festival promises to have something for everyone.
We asked our panel of critics to name the Cannes premiere they’re most excited to see, and their answers were unsurprisingly all over the map.
April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly
Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here.”
My stomach knots are finally unraveling knowing that Ramsay’s about to unleash another...
The lineup for Cannes 2017 has finally been announced, and it’s a doozy. From the inevitable return of Michael Haneke to the shocking inclusion of television (albeit television from celebrated Cannes alumni David Lynch and Jane Campion), the 70th edition of the world’s most prestigious film festival promises to have something for everyone.
We asked our panel of critics to name the Cannes premiere they’re most excited to see, and their answers were unsurprisingly all over the map.
April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly
Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here.”
My stomach knots are finally unraveling knowing that Ramsay’s about to unleash another...
- 4/17/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
Last week, in the lead-up to the release of the new Zach Braff film “Going in Style,” a number of film critics were surprised to discover that the director had blocked them on Twitter. Some had exchanged tweets with him in the past, while others had never directly interacted with him before. Braff’s aggressively pro-active social media practices stand in stark contrast with how some other filmmakers choose to comport themselves on social media — from budding directors who are desperate for people to see their work, to the guy who’s directing the new “Star Wars” movie, many of Braff’s contemporaries are as accessible to...
Last week, in the lead-up to the release of the new Zach Braff film “Going in Style,” a number of film critics were surprised to discover that the director had blocked them on Twitter. Some had exchanged tweets with him in the past, while others had never directly interacted with him before. Braff’s aggressively pro-active social media practices stand in stark contrast with how some other filmmakers choose to comport themselves on social media — from budding directors who are desperate for people to see their work, to the guy who’s directing the new “Star Wars” movie, many of Braff’s contemporaries are as accessible to...
- 4/10/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Comics Alliance The Flash movie, starring Ezra Miller, loses its Dope director
Mnpp Matthias Schoenaerts and Jane Fonda on set together!
The New York on The Handmaiden and lesbian historical fiction
EW will give us an extensive first look at Beauty and the Beast in the new issue
The Film Doctor on Woody Allen's Cafe Society - have you caught up with this on dvd?
i09 because once you are all about being on-brand, like Johnny Depp, you can't ever leave franchise-verse, he'll be joining the Potterverse for a Fantastic Beasts sequel
/Film speaking of Ezra Miller is giving a history of the Potterverse to promote Fantastic Beasts
Time Out Two time Tony winner Tammy Grimes (mother of Amanda Plummer) dies at 92
D List after a brief internet freakout Idris Elba denies that he's dating Madonna
Superhero Hype set photos from The Defenders (Netflix's answer to The Avengers) though...
Mnpp Matthias Schoenaerts and Jane Fonda on set together!
The New York on The Handmaiden and lesbian historical fiction
EW will give us an extensive first look at Beauty and the Beast in the new issue
The Film Doctor on Woody Allen's Cafe Society - have you caught up with this on dvd?
i09 because once you are all about being on-brand, like Johnny Depp, you can't ever leave franchise-verse, he'll be joining the Potterverse for a Fantastic Beasts sequel
/Film speaking of Ezra Miller is giving a history of the Potterverse to promote Fantastic Beasts
Time Out Two time Tony winner Tammy Grimes (mother of Amanda Plummer) dies at 92
D List after a brief internet freakout Idris Elba denies that he's dating Madonna
Superhero Hype set photos from The Defenders (Netflix's answer to The Avengers) though...
- 11/2/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Playlist on the complicated issues of "separate the art from the artist" in today's social media court of public opinion and 24/7 news cycles and Birth of a Nation's release
Gold Derby titles their article "Official" and then claims to have inside intel on "hints" that Silence is actually opening this year despite no poster, trailer, release date, etcetera. This is not what the word "official" means. It will only be official when Paramount makes a statement. I'm hopeful, as the film has been in post forever, but it's definitely not official yet.
Mnpp Jason offers to teach a course on "The Nudity of Jake Gyllenhaal 101" and we would like to audit the course -- Jake is always having nude breakdowns in showers.
The New Yorker has an interesting take on Bridget Jones's Baby's refusal to engage with some of the elements of the genre it helped define
Variety Carey Mulligan...
Gold Derby titles their article "Official" and then claims to have inside intel on "hints" that Silence is actually opening this year despite no poster, trailer, release date, etcetera. This is not what the word "official" means. It will only be official when Paramount makes a statement. I'm hopeful, as the film has been in post forever, but it's definitely not official yet.
Mnpp Jason offers to teach a course on "The Nudity of Jake Gyllenhaal 101" and we would like to audit the course -- Jake is always having nude breakdowns in showers.
The New Yorker has an interesting take on Bridget Jones's Baby's refusal to engage with some of the elements of the genre it helped define
Variety Carey Mulligan...
- 9/24/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
It would be insufficient, writes Carrie Battan, to call Beyoncé’s Lemonade an album: “The project is also a piece of spoken word, a narrative film, a map of cultural reference points, and a window into the soul of an icon whose inner life has always seemed just out of reach.” Battan’s description hints at what has so excited the Internet in the week and a half since Lemonade’s release: it’s not only a new Beyoncé album—it’s also her most personal work yet, and one that, as Ash Sarkar notes at the London Review of Books, is uniquely political:“How has this happened? How has Beyoncé engendered such a deep sense of solidarity among women and the marginalised? Most reviewers have pointed out that Lemonade is Beyoncé’s most personal and political work to date, but few have interrogated how the album moves between the two.
- 5/4/2016
- MUBI
Team Experience is looking back on past Sundance winners since we aren't attending this year. Here's Kyle Turner on an Lgbt indie that took the Audience Award and proved so popular in release that it even snagged a Best Supporting Actor nomination (Bruce Davison) at the Oscars a year later.
an early scene in Longtime Companion
In the first fifteen minutes of Longtime Companion, the words “Did you see the article?” fall from around a dozen different characters’ mouths. It’s July 1981, when the New York Times published its piece titled “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals”, and the way news gets around is by press and by word of mouth. These characters, all gay men in their 20s and 30s, shrug it off, try to carry on with their lives.
To them, this cancer is nebulous, unworthy of their time, and yet something that occupies their thoughts all the same.
an early scene in Longtime Companion
In the first fifteen minutes of Longtime Companion, the words “Did you see the article?” fall from around a dozen different characters’ mouths. It’s July 1981, when the New York Times published its piece titled “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals”, and the way news gets around is by press and by word of mouth. These characters, all gay men in their 20s and 30s, shrug it off, try to carry on with their lives.
To them, this cancer is nebulous, unworthy of their time, and yet something that occupies their thoughts all the same.
- 1/25/2016
- by Kyle Turner
- FilmExperience
New York Post has wise words for Netflix on their strange feet dragging for Season 2 of Jessica Jones
Slate Movie Club 2015 closes I'm assuming you read all 18 entries. They were A-ma-zing. My favorite Movie Club by Slate ever I think. Mark Harris, Dana Stevens, Amy Nicholson, David Ehrlich, and Dan Kois outdid themselves.
Decider great piece by Joe on the rise of the bad seen as villain in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and other blockbusters
Decider Joe also counts down the 10 times Globes were more fun than Oscars (10? This list could go to 1000) but there's a massive typo in his post because it says "7." [sic] by the part about Elizabeth Taylor slurring "Gladiaaaaator"
THR excerpt of a new interesting book "Starflacker" from a longtime PR pro Dick Guttman
The Guardian Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ian McKellen remade the Oscar nominated film The Dresser (1983) for the BBC in 2015- how did I miss this news?...
Slate Movie Club 2015 closes I'm assuming you read all 18 entries. They were A-ma-zing. My favorite Movie Club by Slate ever I think. Mark Harris, Dana Stevens, Amy Nicholson, David Ehrlich, and Dan Kois outdid themselves.
Decider great piece by Joe on the rise of the bad seen as villain in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and other blockbusters
Decider Joe also counts down the 10 times Globes were more fun than Oscars (10? This list could go to 1000) but there's a massive typo in his post because it says "7." [sic] by the part about Elizabeth Taylor slurring "Gladiaaaaator"
THR excerpt of a new interesting book "Starflacker" from a longtime PR pro Dick Guttman
The Guardian Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ian McKellen remade the Oscar nominated film The Dresser (1983) for the BBC in 2015- how did I miss this news?...
- 1/9/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Guardian has a piece on the 7 best financial films for the release of The Big Short. Confession: I'm always surprised when internet lists remember that films existed before 1990. And this list has 4 of them [gasp]
Chud Have you heard Radiohead's Spectre theme. The studio went with Sam Smith instead for the latest Bond
Variety Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me is coming your way (and filming already). Given the massive success of Straight Outta Compton expect more hiphop/rap biopics
Gothamist Oooh. AMC Village 7 has reopened in Manhattan with spiffy new seats and bathrooms. I haven't been there in years but will have to return now. Now if only Film Forum and Village East would get renovations and they'd burn down the Angelika, Cinema Village, and Lincoln Plaza and build new non-tiny, non-crappy, subwayrumble-free arthouse theaters somewhere else... wouldn't that be swell?!
Mnpp the only recap of the recent...
Chud Have you heard Radiohead's Spectre theme. The studio went with Sam Smith instead for the latest Bond
Variety Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me is coming your way (and filming already). Given the massive success of Straight Outta Compton expect more hiphop/rap biopics
Gothamist Oooh. AMC Village 7 has reopened in Manhattan with spiffy new seats and bathrooms. I haven't been there in years but will have to return now. Now if only Film Forum and Village East would get renovations and they'd burn down the Angelika, Cinema Village, and Lincoln Plaza and build new non-tiny, non-crappy, subwayrumble-free arthouse theaters somewhere else... wouldn't that be swell?!
Mnpp the only recap of the recent...
- 12/26/2015
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Almost every horror movie stops for a moment of exposition that sets up or explains the horrors that await or that have been endured. These are the scenes where directors can either conjure their inner cheeseball and pump up the spooky music or prepare the audience for more than what they bargained for. The legend of the monster, the backstory of the slasher, the warning to the meddling teenagers, these are all elements of atmosphere designed for one thing: to make you squirm before the real scares begin.
****
American Werewolf in London (1981) – Beware the moon
The horror genre is at its most impactful when leaving exposition to a minimum. Prioritizing narrative clarity over effective scare-mongering may ensure a tight narrative that can’t be held up to scrutiny, but it also ensures that the audience knows what to expect, all but draining the movie of tension. In An American Werewolf in London,...
****
American Werewolf in London (1981) – Beware the moon
The horror genre is at its most impactful when leaving exposition to a minimum. Prioritizing narrative clarity over effective scare-mongering may ensure a tight narrative that can’t be held up to scrutiny, but it also ensures that the audience knows what to expect, all but draining the movie of tension. In An American Werewolf in London,...
- 10/31/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
The jump scare is a uniquely horror movie convention. Where some movies use it as an excuse to play peekaboo and assault you with noise, others use it as a way to shatter your complacency as a viewer. It’s the purest form of scare: something bursts out of a dark corner, a loud noise cuts the tension, or a jolt to the plot comes on so unexpected, you don’t know what hit you. It may just be a momentary fright, but a good horror movie will put you on edge and keep you there.
****
Alien (1979)- No blood, no Dallas
Horror purists are of the mind that jumps are cheap, and, for the most part, they are. Yet, in those nerve-wracking scenes, when a director knows exactly what they are doing, it’s riveting. I’ve always prided myself on not being one of those people who gets jumpy during a horror movie,...
****
Alien (1979)- No blood, no Dallas
Horror purists are of the mind that jumps are cheap, and, for the most part, they are. Yet, in those nerve-wracking scenes, when a director knows exactly what they are doing, it’s riveting. I’ve always prided myself on not being one of those people who gets jumpy during a horror movie,...
- 10/28/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
It’s the moment you wait for the entire horror film. It’s not just a plot twist or a payoff but a trigger to your deepest emotions. You want to be shocked and sickened and saddened when the killer is revealed, the hero suddenly dies, or the mystery is solved. Most of all, you want your jaw to be on the floor. **Spoilers obviously ahead**
****
The Brood (1979)- Mommy knows best
David Cronenberg’s third horror film is his first truly great movie and also his first superbly acted film. The Brood’s ensemble is solid but Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar stand out as maverick doctor Hal Raglan and his disturbed patient Nola Carveth. Nola’s estranged husband Frank (played by Art Hindle) teams up with Dr. Raglan in the film’s suspenseful climax. He confronts Nola while Raglan attempts to rescue Frank’s young daughter from a group of murderous deformed children.
****
The Brood (1979)- Mommy knows best
David Cronenberg’s third horror film is his first truly great movie and also his first superbly acted film. The Brood’s ensemble is solid but Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar stand out as maverick doctor Hal Raglan and his disturbed patient Nola Carveth. Nola’s estranged husband Frank (played by Art Hindle) teams up with Dr. Raglan in the film’s suspenseful climax. He confronts Nola while Raglan attempts to rescue Frank’s young daughter from a group of murderous deformed children.
- 10/26/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
If the transformation is a character’s external change then the meltdown is the internal equivalent. Sometimes the most terrifying part of a horror film isn’t when the monster pops out, but when a character loses his or her grip on reality. The psychosis can begin gradually, exacerbated by stress, sickness, or an outside tormentor. Often the character begins a film in complete control of his or her mental faculties. But control is a relative term, and in a horror film, the illusion of control can be just as powerful as actual agency. The options: denial or embracement. The psychological break will come soon enough. The only question is, how broken will the person be once it does?
****
Alien (1979) – Ash malfunctions
The crew of the cargo ship Nostromo has just about had it. Awakened from a cozy hypersleep to answer the worst wrong number in interstellar history, they then...
****
Alien (1979) – Ash malfunctions
The crew of the cargo ship Nostromo has just about had it. Awakened from a cozy hypersleep to answer the worst wrong number in interstellar history, they then...
- 10/25/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Horror films are built on our voyeuristic impulses. Our desire to witness or experience the obscene, the taboo, and the grotesque draws us into films about crazed killers or unseen forces. We don’t just want to be shocked, we want to be vulnerable. The stalking scene is a staple of the genre because it involves us in the filmmaking process by providing us a point of view: usually third person from a victim or first person from a killer. Unlike a chase scene, where both parties are aware of the game, the stalking often involves an oblivious participant. These are the slowest and most methodical scenes. There’s no rush to where we’re going because there is no destination to get to. Once the participant becomes aware, there’s only four options: run, hide, fight, or die.
****
The Birds (1963) – Bird’s eye view
Although not as shocking as Psycho,...
****
The Birds (1963) – Bird’s eye view
Although not as shocking as Psycho,...
- 10/18/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Dreams and hallucinations can be the broadest of horror staples. Throw in some weird imagery, maybe a few jarring cuts, and you have an instant scare. But an effective dream sequence is more than technique, it’s a filmmaker capturing a specific type of fear: losing control, having your life shattered, or meeting a manifestation of your guilt. The dream or the hallucination is the character’s psyche putting the pieces together or falling apart completely. Of course, dreams don’t always require messages. Sometimes, they’re just damn scary.
****
Aliens (1986)- Ripley’s nightmare
Aliens is the perfect sequel for many reasons. It follows in the footsteps of the original 1979 classic while existing as its own entity and delivering new characters that are just as memorable as the first’s. What’s more, it favors high-tension action scenes over more traditional horror-centric scenes, demonstrating the malleability of the series.
****
Aliens (1986)- Ripley’s nightmare
Aliens is the perfect sequel for many reasons. It follows in the footsteps of the original 1979 classic while existing as its own entity and delivering new characters that are just as memorable as the first’s. What’s more, it favors high-tension action scenes over more traditional horror-centric scenes, demonstrating the malleability of the series.
- 10/14/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Sometimes it’s psychological. Sometimes it’s visceral. It can be a masked killer’s twisted pastime. A labyrinth our poor heroes must find their way out of. Perhaps a nasty round of torture by the Big Bad. Whatever it is, the sick feeling of impending doom overcomes us as we realize the characters might not make it out alive. Sometimes they can think their way through. Sometimes they can fight. But when the exits are closed and the madman decides to get creative, all bets are off.
****
Alucarda, La Hija De Las Tinieblas / Innocents From Hell (1977) – A Dracula takes revenge
Director Juan López Moctezuma came along during the new wave of 70′s Mexican genre pics that expressed radical and subversive views. An important intellectual figure in Mexico in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, Moctezuma produced Jodorowsky’s El Topo and Fando Y Lis. Of his three horror films (which also includes Mansion of Madness,...
****
Alucarda, La Hija De Las Tinieblas / Innocents From Hell (1977) – A Dracula takes revenge
Director Juan López Moctezuma came along during the new wave of 70′s Mexican genre pics that expressed radical and subversive views. An important intellectual figure in Mexico in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, Moctezuma produced Jodorowsky’s El Topo and Fando Y Lis. Of his three horror films (which also includes Mansion of Madness,...
- 10/10/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
It’s what most horror films are known for: the gore that splatters on the screen. But when done right, the flying viscera becomes more than just gallons of red stuff, it becomes a chilling reminder of the fragility of the human body and of the ingenuity of filmmakers in making our most twisted fears and fantasies into a stomach churning reality. Grab your barf bag!
*****
Antichrist (2009)- His and her pain
As far as horror sub-genres go, torture porn is up there with found footage as the most understandably reviled by audiences. With Antichrist, Lars Von Trier attempted to write a film that dealt with his personal demons. Confessing that he had been suffering from depression while writing the screenplay, Trier ended up bringing torture porn to its logical conclusion by taking the title of the sub-genre all too literally and creating a macabre near-masterpiece out of trashy genre origins.
*****
Antichrist (2009)- His and her pain
As far as horror sub-genres go, torture porn is up there with found footage as the most understandably reviled by audiences. With Antichrist, Lars Von Trier attempted to write a film that dealt with his personal demons. Confessing that he had been suffering from depression while writing the screenplay, Trier ended up bringing torture porn to its logical conclusion by taking the title of the sub-genre all too literally and creating a macabre near-masterpiece out of trashy genre origins.
- 10/7/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Oh high school. It was a rough time for a lot of us. Maybe more memorable for some. While we’re passed those adolescent days now, we’re deep in Back to School days and getting more than a little nostalgic. That’s due in part to all the high school teen movies that still rattle around in our pop culture consciousness. Many of the characters in the movies shared the same embarrassments we did, the same first crushes, the same droning teachers, and we all wish we had a friend like Ferris Bueller.
So we asked the PopOptiq staff, which high school character from the movies were you? Share your own pop culture doppelgänger below!
Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) from Scream
Randy Meeks and I have much in common. We are both massive horror movie fans who worked in a video store, studied film and had a hopeless crush on our best friend.
So we asked the PopOptiq staff, which high school character from the movies were you? Share your own pop culture doppelgänger below!
Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) from Scream
Randy Meeks and I have much in common. We are both massive horror movie fans who worked in a video store, studied film and had a hopeless crush on our best friend.
- 10/5/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
It starts with a cry of pain. Then a look of terror or ecstasy. And then the body starts to change. Hair grows from the knuckles. Maybe the eyes turn black. Sometimes fangs sprout. Before you know it, the person in front of you isn’t a person anymore. The Transformation can be the most horrific moment in a horror film because it’s where the internal becomes the external. No more false faces. No more hiding. And depending how fearsome the new being is, no more running as well.
***
An American Werewolf in London (1981)– London wolf calling
It starts out so innocently. Knowing that a full moon is approaching, David Kessler (David Naughton) locks himself in the home of nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) in order to be able to transform into a werewolf peacefully, not killing any innocent people and proving that he doesn’t have to commit...
***
An American Werewolf in London (1981)– London wolf calling
It starts out so innocently. Knowing that a full moon is approaching, David Kessler (David Naughton) locks himself in the home of nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) in order to be able to transform into a werewolf peacefully, not killing any innocent people and proving that he doesn’t have to commit...
- 10/1/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Videology is a bi-weekly column by Kyle Turner where we look at music videos, music in film, and the relationship between the two.
Like other smart pop stars before her, Lana Del Rey is obsessed with identity, particularly its paradoxical nature as something both incredibly malleable as well as the rigidity of the norms that society around us/her set. She’s interested in iconography: it’s not just a fancy word for fame, but iconography as a form of recognition that transcends genre, time, and space. Her latest video, “High on the Beach”, which was released two weeks ago, takes the same general subject as Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”. And though she shoots this video, and in a broader sense her entire persona, through the lens of the disparate relationship between time and fame (1960s Americana juxtaposed 2010 realities), there’s always the nagging feeling that the artifice she’s constructed is just that.
Like other smart pop stars before her, Lana Del Rey is obsessed with identity, particularly its paradoxical nature as something both incredibly malleable as well as the rigidity of the norms that society around us/her set. She’s interested in iconography: it’s not just a fancy word for fame, but iconography as a form of recognition that transcends genre, time, and space. Her latest video, “High on the Beach”, which was released two weeks ago, takes the same general subject as Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”. And though she shoots this video, and in a broader sense her entire persona, through the lens of the disparate relationship between time and fame (1960s Americana juxtaposed 2010 realities), there’s always the nagging feeling that the artifice she’s constructed is just that.
- 9/1/2015
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Videology is a bi-weekly column by Kyle Turner where we look at music videos, music in film, and the relationship between the two.
We’re a couple weeks away from the MTV Video Music Awards. In the last four months, two revenge epics in music video form have premiered, and one noticeably wasn’t nominated. (If this is a question of eligibility – Swift’s video was released on May 17, and Rihanna’s on July 2 – I’m not sure.) Admittedly, yes, Taylor Swift looks pretty rad rearing her head with the fan blowing her hair back, her cat eye, the look a mix of sly revenge and knowing playfulness etched across her face. The red streaks certainly amplify how cool this is. And yet, judging by the sheer scale and nonsensical nature of her video for “Bad Blood”, she doesn’t actually get it. Whereas, Rihanna, holding a bloodied knife and...
We’re a couple weeks away from the MTV Video Music Awards. In the last four months, two revenge epics in music video form have premiered, and one noticeably wasn’t nominated. (If this is a question of eligibility – Swift’s video was released on May 17, and Rihanna’s on July 2 – I’m not sure.) Admittedly, yes, Taylor Swift looks pretty rad rearing her head with the fan blowing her hair back, her cat eye, the look a mix of sly revenge and knowing playfulness etched across her face. The red streaks certainly amplify how cool this is. And yet, judging by the sheer scale and nonsensical nature of her video for “Bad Blood”, she doesn’t actually get it. Whereas, Rihanna, holding a bloodied knife and...
- 8/11/2015
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Fandor is kicking off their Trans Spotlight with a video montage of Xavier Dolan’s stunning 2012 film, Laurence Anyways. Titled Love Bursts, this excellent video tribute by Kevin B. Lee highlights the gorgeous cinematography and set design found in what is without a doubt, the young filmmaker’s best looking film. Watch the video below, and be sure to check out Kyle Turner’s article, The Music Video Stylings of Xavier Dolan.
The post Watch a beautiful tribute to Xavier Dolan’s ‘Laurence Anyways’ appeared first on Sound On Sight.
The post Watch a beautiful tribute to Xavier Dolan’s ‘Laurence Anyways’ appeared first on Sound On Sight.
- 6/20/2015
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
I’m not proud of this, but it took me 4 days to watch Laurence Anyways, and I should clarify that I didn’t watch the film in varying stretches over these 4 days, I watched it in one sitting. It’s just that that sitting wasn’t until the 4th day after I was originally supposed to watch it. Thursday night I had planned to watch the film by Xavier Dolan, which would be my first film of his, I hadn’t seen anything by him previously. I knew I wouldn’t have time to watch a near 3 hour film Friday or Saturday due to my work schedule, so it was either Thursday night or wait until Sunday night. It’s play instantly on Netflix, so I go to my account to watch it, and it’s at the top of my list, right there in front of my eyes. I...
- 4/29/2015
- by Dylan Griffin
- SoundOnSight
Last week the legendary documentarian Albert Maysles passed away at the age of 88, just days after one of his pinnacle films, Grey Gardens, received a Criterion Collection re-release and remastering.
But one of the films he left behind him was Iris, about the life of fashion icon Iris Apfel. Herself 93-years-old, Apfel is an interior designer, fashion mogul and businesswoman living in New York. Maysles film profiles Apfel’s creativity and her struggles up through the Great Depression and more. Here’s the full synopsis:
Iris pairs the 87-year-old Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even at Iris’ advanced age, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. Iris portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art...
But one of the films he left behind him was Iris, about the life of fashion icon Iris Apfel. Herself 93-years-old, Apfel is an interior designer, fashion mogul and businesswoman living in New York. Maysles film profiles Apfel’s creativity and her struggles up through the Great Depression and more. Here’s the full synopsis:
Iris pairs the 87-year-old Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even at Iris’ advanced age, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. Iris portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art...
- 3/12/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
All this week, we’re celebrating the losers — those talented filmmakers whom Oscar has foolishly overlooked. Kyle Turner, Chief Editor of Movie Mezzanine’s Balcony Blog gets us started with a look at the many looks of a great Dp. Roger Deakins has spent most of his illustrious career as the Leonardo DiCaprio of cinematographers; the guy whose work we all love, whose work is acknowledged by the big folks at the Academy Awards, and then promptly brushed off in favor of honoring someone else’s work instead. He’s been nominated for an Academy Award eleven times without a win, making this year’s nomination for Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken his twelfth. Regardless of his lack of Oscar hardware, we’re lucky to have such a master in our midst, a man who can craft some of the most gorgeous screen images of the modern era. Each frame speaks for itself, and...
- 2/16/2015
- by Kyle Turner
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Thanks to Kyle Turner (who guest-starred on one our Smackdown podcasts last year) who alerted me to this little blurb on the DVD of Force Majeure (I have not seen the DVD. Just this tweeted snapshot)
I was completely unaware of this and was not contacted by Magnolia Pictures. The quote looks a little weird out of context (the humor is very cerebral but it was, to me and the theater I was in at Tiff, indeed "hilarious") and fused together like that. Here was my original capsule review if you're curious. The film eventually came in at #12 in my Best of the Year list.
I guess this means I have to buy a physical copy.
It'll be fun to see this in real life. Especially since it's a Scandinavian film and an Oscar submission and I'm always seeking both kinds of movies out at film festivals. It's just too bad it wasn't nominated.
I was completely unaware of this and was not contacted by Magnolia Pictures. The quote looks a little weird out of context (the humor is very cerebral but it was, to me and the theater I was in at Tiff, indeed "hilarious") and fused together like that. Here was my original capsule review if you're curious. The film eventually came in at #12 in my Best of the Year list.
I guess this means I have to buy a physical copy.
It'll be fun to see this in real life. Especially since it's a Scandinavian film and an Oscar submission and I'm always seeking both kinds of movies out at film festivals. It's just too bad it wasn't nominated.
- 2/7/2015
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
First Look, which New York's Museum of the Moving Image calls "not just a festival of new films" but "a festival about new approaches to filmmaking," opens tonight with Jessica Hausner's Amour fou and runs through January 18. We're gathering overviews ranging from Tony Pipolo's for Artforum, wherein he writes about Jon Jost’s Coming to Terms with James Benning, Kyle Turner in the Notebook on two new shorts by Gina Telaroli, Sam Weisberg in the Voice on Omer Fast's Everything That Rises Must Converge, Max Nelson in Reverse Shot on two 3D films by Ken Jacobs—plus interviews and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
First Look, which New York's Museum of the Moving Image calls "not just a festival of new films" but "a festival about new approaches to filmmaking," opens tonight with Jessica Hausner's Amour fou and runs through January 18. We're gathering overviews ranging from Tony Pipolo's for Artforum, wherein he writes about Jon Jost’s Coming to Terms with James Benning, Kyle Turner in the Notebook on two new shorts by Gina Telaroli, Sam Weisberg in the Voice on Omer Fast's Everything That Rises Must Converge, Max Nelson in Reverse Shot on two 3D films by Ken Jacobs—plus interviews and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/9/2015
- Keyframe
Forbes a curious realization. Nearly half of the 20+ sequels coming in 2015 are sequels to 2012 films from Magic Mike Xxl to Pitch Perfect 2 and beyond
Erik Lundegaard great movie quotes of the year
Film Stage unused concept art for an Alien film from Neill Blomkamp (of District 9 fame)
Deadline talks to rising Dp star Bradford Young (Selma, A Most Violent Year) about lensing black films
Variety Selma will be screened for free in its titular city
/Film Yes, Emily Blunt is aware that the internet would like her to play Captain Marvel in the upcoming Marvel film
La Times on Robert Elswit, another fine cinematographer with two films this year (Nightcrawler, Inherent Vice)
Boy Culture Mark Wahlberg pic (the headline for pic is A+)
The Feminist Spectator is justifiably miffed that Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game can't be bothered to pay more attention to women or pass...
Erik Lundegaard great movie quotes of the year
Film Stage unused concept art for an Alien film from Neill Blomkamp (of District 9 fame)
Deadline talks to rising Dp star Bradford Young (Selma, A Most Violent Year) about lensing black films
Variety Selma will be screened for free in its titular city
/Film Yes, Emily Blunt is aware that the internet would like her to play Captain Marvel in the upcoming Marvel film
La Times on Robert Elswit, another fine cinematographer with two films this year (Nightcrawler, Inherent Vice)
Boy Culture Mark Wahlberg pic (the headline for pic is A+)
The Feminist Spectator is justifiably miffed that Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game can't be bothered to pay more attention to women or pass...
- 1/2/2015
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
15. The Immigrant -
If one were to rank the films of 2014 based solely on innovation, The Immigrant would probably end up near the bottom. Writer-director James Gray’s languid melodrama tells the tumultuous story of a resilient Polish woman looking to find a slice of the American Dream, without much in the way of narrative bravado or anything approaching experimentalism. The moralistic script feels like a relic from a bygone studio era.
But to assess the film’s merit based on its stubborn refusal to buck conventions is to deny one’s self the virtues of one of the year’s great films. Marion Cotillard gives an unforgettable performance as Ewa, the titular heroine whose desire to save her sister enables her to overcome the harsh realities of life in New York’s Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. Joaquin Phoenix portrays the snarling antagonist who helps her survive,...
If one were to rank the films of 2014 based solely on innovation, The Immigrant would probably end up near the bottom. Writer-director James Gray’s languid melodrama tells the tumultuous story of a resilient Polish woman looking to find a slice of the American Dream, without much in the way of narrative bravado or anything approaching experimentalism. The moralistic script feels like a relic from a bygone studio era.
But to assess the film’s merit based on its stubborn refusal to buck conventions is to deny one’s self the virtues of one of the year’s great films. Marion Cotillard gives an unforgettable performance as Ewa, the titular heroine whose desire to save her sister enables her to overcome the harsh realities of life in New York’s Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. Joaquin Phoenix portrays the snarling antagonist who helps her survive,...
- 1/1/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
15. The Immigrant -
If one were to rank the films of 2014 based solely on innovation, The Immigrant would probably end up near the bottom. Writer-director James Gray’s languid melodrama tells the tumultuous story of a resilient Polish woman looking to find a slice of the American Dream, without much in the way of narrative bravado or anything approaching experimentalism. The moralistic script feels like a relic from a bygone studio era.
But to assess the film’s merit based on its stubborn refusal to buck conventions is to deny one’s self the virtues of one of the year’s great films. Marion Cotillard gives an unforgettable performance as Ewa, the titular heroine whose desire to save her sister enables her to overcome the harsh realities of life in New York’s Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. Joaquin Phoenix portrays the snarling antagonist who helps her survive,...
If one were to rank the films of 2014 based solely on innovation, The Immigrant would probably end up near the bottom. Writer-director James Gray’s languid melodrama tells the tumultuous story of a resilient Polish woman looking to find a slice of the American Dream, without much in the way of narrative bravado or anything approaching experimentalism. The moralistic script feels like a relic from a bygone studio era.
But to assess the film’s merit based on its stubborn refusal to buck conventions is to deny one’s self the virtues of one of the year’s great films. Marion Cotillard gives an unforgettable performance as Ewa, the titular heroine whose desire to save her sister enables her to overcome the harsh realities of life in New York’s Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. Joaquin Phoenix portrays the snarling antagonist who helps her survive,...
- 12/28/2014
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
40. Night Moves
Since 2006, Kelly Reichardt has found a way to reach inside of the hearts of her audiences, plucking out strings one by one with desolate re-imaginations of the American Pacific Northwest, seen through the eyes of people not so different than ourselves. With Meek’s Cutoff, she departed from her typical genre and moved in to the Old West, but you could still see her stark realism, perfectly imagined on-screen. Now, Reichardt has shifted gears again, this time to present day (still in the Pacific Northwest), following three environmental activists as they plan to blow up a dam. But this time Reichardt has eschewed all sense of dry, dirty characterization for a much more flowing story where the characters emerge from their settings more fully. It’s still methodical, but somewhere in between the planning and heist itself, Reichardt’s star Jesse Eisenberg finds notes we haven’t seen...
Since 2006, Kelly Reichardt has found a way to reach inside of the hearts of her audiences, plucking out strings one by one with desolate re-imaginations of the American Pacific Northwest, seen through the eyes of people not so different than ourselves. With Meek’s Cutoff, she departed from her typical genre and moved in to the Old West, but you could still see her stark realism, perfectly imagined on-screen. Now, Reichardt has shifted gears again, this time to present day (still in the Pacific Northwest), following three environmental activists as they plan to blow up a dam. But this time Reichardt has eschewed all sense of dry, dirty characterization for a much more flowing story where the characters emerge from their settings more fully. It’s still methodical, but somewhere in between the planning and heist itself, Reichardt’s star Jesse Eisenberg finds notes we haven’t seen...
- 12/28/2014
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Jean-Luc Godard, and more specifically his 1965 film Pierrot le Fou, literally changed my life, and set me on a path toward intense and everlasting cinephilia. Since the first time I saw that film, it has remained my favorite movie of all time and Godard my favorite director. So when I finally had the chance to see Film socialisme in 2010, his first feature film in six years, I had high hopes that the old master was going to yet again bring something new to the table. Those hopes were assuredly met. I considered the film the best of that year and still believe it is an astonishing movie, rife with so much of what defines Godard in this is fourth(?), fifth(?), in any case, current, phase of his career.
The first words of Film socialisme, at least according to the “Navajo English” subtitles, are “money – public – water.” Literally, this refers to...
The first words of Film socialisme, at least according to the “Navajo English” subtitles, are “money – public – water.” Literally, this refers to...
- 10/25/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
1. Eden | Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Underneath the bass drops and the electronic harmony of the garage music scene of 1990s Paris is melancholy and loneliness. The parties are bursting with verve and energy, but when the music stops, so does that joy. Hansen-Løve’s examination of a young DJ over the course of twenty years is warm and tender, an incredible look at the pros and cons of following your passion, allowing art to be your escape, and the joy of music.
Read Kyle’s full review here.
2. Goodbye to Language 3D | Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
While the audience is trapped by the kamera, the iconoclastic Godard is doing all he can to… not get us out exactly, but perhaps to stage a prison break. The goal in his game changing 3D film is to change the paradigm of what film is and can be, to make those prison bars into something entirely new.
Underneath the bass drops and the electronic harmony of the garage music scene of 1990s Paris is melancholy and loneliness. The parties are bursting with verve and energy, but when the music stops, so does that joy. Hansen-Løve’s examination of a young DJ over the course of twenty years is warm and tender, an incredible look at the pros and cons of following your passion, allowing art to be your escape, and the joy of music.
Read Kyle’s full review here.
2. Goodbye to Language 3D | Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
While the audience is trapped by the kamera, the iconoclastic Godard is doing all he can to… not get us out exactly, but perhaps to stage a prison break. The goal in his game changing 3D film is to change the paradigm of what film is and can be, to make those prison bars into something entirely new.
- 10/16/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Birdman
Written by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
USA, 2014
His use of natural lighting, the gorgeous compositions he creates often on the fly, those long takes. This is what we talk about when we talk about Emmanuel Lubezki, the Mexican cinematographer responsible for such arresting imagery in the films of Terrence Malick (The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y tu mamá también, Gravity), the Brothers Coen (Burn After Reading), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Anna”, a short in the anthology To Each His Own Cinema). He is the only cinematographer in recent memory, possibly next to Roger Deakins, that pushes the form to its limits and has name recognition for such. The naturalistic beauty of The Tree of Life was nothing compared to the – wait for it – physics-defying work in Gravity. And here he is again,...
Written by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
USA, 2014
His use of natural lighting, the gorgeous compositions he creates often on the fly, those long takes. This is what we talk about when we talk about Emmanuel Lubezki, the Mexican cinematographer responsible for such arresting imagery in the films of Terrence Malick (The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y tu mamá también, Gravity), the Brothers Coen (Burn After Reading), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Anna”, a short in the anthology To Each His Own Cinema). He is the only cinematographer in recent memory, possibly next to Roger Deakins, that pushes the form to its limits and has name recognition for such. The naturalistic beauty of The Tree of Life was nothing compared to the – wait for it – physics-defying work in Gravity. And here he is again,...
- 10/12/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Mr. Turner
Written and directed by Mike Leigh
UK, 2014
The oft-down on his luck Benjamin Hayden (Martin Savage) argues against his fellow artists at the Royal Academy when his portrait of a donkey is placed in the “Anti-Room”, a nevertheless prestigious place to view some great work that just missed the cuff of masterpiece. For him, it’s the room where the bastard children of artists go, unworthy of being presented with the rest of the masters in the main room, which, when not plastered wall to wall with frames tightly packed in side by side, is painted red with the passion that Hayden and his colleague Turner have. But he shouts at them, his peers seeing the portrait of a donkey, of all things, as unworthy of their time. He bellows, “What does it do to elevate the art?”
He is referring to portraits of people, which it is...
Written and directed by Mike Leigh
UK, 2014
The oft-down on his luck Benjamin Hayden (Martin Savage) argues against his fellow artists at the Royal Academy when his portrait of a donkey is placed in the “Anti-Room”, a nevertheless prestigious place to view some great work that just missed the cuff of masterpiece. For him, it’s the room where the bastard children of artists go, unworthy of being presented with the rest of the masters in the main room, which, when not plastered wall to wall with frames tightly packed in side by side, is painted red with the passion that Hayden and his colleague Turner have. But he shouts at them, his peers seeing the portrait of a donkey, of all things, as unworthy of their time. He bellows, “What does it do to elevate the art?”
He is referring to portraits of people, which it is...
- 10/6/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Iris
Directed by Albert Maysles
USA, 2014
Wearing a dark scarf over her head to shield herself against the bright, Long Island sunlight, Little Edie Beale famously introduced her iconoclastic sense of fashion by calling her outfit “the best costume for today”. In the Maysles brothers’ documentary Grey Gardens, this single clip seems to encapsulate the greatness of that film: performance, style, agelessness. And nearly 40 years later, Albert Maysles returns to a similar, if not the same, kind of subject: Iris Apfel. In Iris, those ideas are explored with a little less than half the vitality that Grey Gardens, but on the plus side it’s a pleasure to watch.
Iris has had her face plastered upon many a magazine cover, she’s had her own jewelry and cosmetics line, and she’s been on Home Shopping Network. Her sense of fashion is, to the uninformed, gaudy and bursting with color,...
Directed by Albert Maysles
USA, 2014
Wearing a dark scarf over her head to shield herself against the bright, Long Island sunlight, Little Edie Beale famously introduced her iconoclastic sense of fashion by calling her outfit “the best costume for today”. In the Maysles brothers’ documentary Grey Gardens, this single clip seems to encapsulate the greatness of that film: performance, style, agelessness. And nearly 40 years later, Albert Maysles returns to a similar, if not the same, kind of subject: Iris Apfel. In Iris, those ideas are explored with a little less than half the vitality that Grey Gardens, but on the plus side it’s a pleasure to watch.
Iris has had her face plastered upon many a magazine cover, she’s had her own jewelry and cosmetics line, and she’s been on Home Shopping Network. Her sense of fashion is, to the uninformed, gaudy and bursting with color,...
- 10/3/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Adieu au langage (Goodbye to Language)
Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard
France, 2014
When I finally got around to seeing Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, the thing I kept saying to people was, “Isn’t it funny that this film needs to be seen in 3D and yet itself does not justify 3D’s place within cinema?” I still hold my “it’s fine” opinion on that film, denying its status as an Avatar-esque game changer, and I thought I’d have to keep searching for that. Luckily, I found it right off the bat at the New York Film Festival: Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language redefines not only 3D in film, but quite possibly film itself.
Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of Godard (despite his masterwork Vivre sa Vie being in my top ten favorites of all time). His rhetorical style, abrasive and uncompromising, has always alienated me.
Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard
France, 2014
When I finally got around to seeing Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, the thing I kept saying to people was, “Isn’t it funny that this film needs to be seen in 3D and yet itself does not justify 3D’s place within cinema?” I still hold my “it’s fine” opinion on that film, denying its status as an Avatar-esque game changer, and I thought I’d have to keep searching for that. Luckily, I found it right off the bat at the New York Film Festival: Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language redefines not only 3D in film, but quite possibly film itself.
Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of Godard (despite his masterwork Vivre sa Vie being in my top ten favorites of all time). His rhetorical style, abrasive and uncompromising, has always alienated me.
- 10/3/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
While We’re Young
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach
USA, 2014
At age 45, it feels like writer-director Noah Baumbach is getting soft. Best known for his caustic tragicomedies like Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, and Margot at the Wedding, he took a turn in tone for his 2012 feature Frances Ha, which starred and was co-written by Greta Gerwig. So, though the warmth of that film might surprise someone familiar with his work, that it’s a collaboration with Gerwig explains at least part of that tone. While We’re Young, though, Baumbach’s newest film which premiered at Tiff this year and made a surprise appearance at the New York Film Festival, manages to carry that affection. It’s hard to top Frances Ha, but his newest is pleasant and impressive all the same.
Middle-aged couple Josh (Ben Stiller, Baumbach alum from Greenberg) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts...
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach
USA, 2014
At age 45, it feels like writer-director Noah Baumbach is getting soft. Best known for his caustic tragicomedies like Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, and Margot at the Wedding, he took a turn in tone for his 2012 feature Frances Ha, which starred and was co-written by Greta Gerwig. So, though the warmth of that film might surprise someone familiar with his work, that it’s a collaboration with Gerwig explains at least part of that tone. While We’re Young, though, Baumbach’s newest film which premiered at Tiff this year and made a surprise appearance at the New York Film Festival, manages to carry that affection. It’s hard to top Frances Ha, but his newest is pleasant and impressive all the same.
Middle-aged couple Josh (Ben Stiller, Baumbach alum from Greenberg) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts...
- 9/30/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Gone Girl
Written by Gillian Flynn
Directed by David Fincher
USA, 2014
There’s something rotten in the state of Missouri, as one man’s wife has gone missing and he takes on the role of primary suspect, looking guiltier with every grimace. David Fincher’s latest film is Gone Girl, based on the best-selling novel from Gillian Flynn. It’s a film that festers and feels dead inside, but imbued with a lively pessimism, a stinging bitterness. It’s one of Fincher’s best films in years.
Fincher is an expert chemist when it comes to concocting the nastiest tales of cynicism and darkness. Gone Girl may not be the culmination of his efforts to date, but it’s undoubtedly a sinister piece of work. There’s an oppressive air within the film, from its meticulously created soundscape and score (from Fincher alums Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) to its plasticized aesthetic.
Written by Gillian Flynn
Directed by David Fincher
USA, 2014
There’s something rotten in the state of Missouri, as one man’s wife has gone missing and he takes on the role of primary suspect, looking guiltier with every grimace. David Fincher’s latest film is Gone Girl, based on the best-selling novel from Gillian Flynn. It’s a film that festers and feels dead inside, but imbued with a lively pessimism, a stinging bitterness. It’s one of Fincher’s best films in years.
Fincher is an expert chemist when it comes to concocting the nastiest tales of cynicism and darkness. Gone Girl may not be the culmination of his efforts to date, but it’s undoubtedly a sinister piece of work. There’s an oppressive air within the film, from its meticulously created soundscape and score (from Fincher alums Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) to its plasticized aesthetic.
- 9/27/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Two Days, One Night
Written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Belgium/France/Italy, 2014
The end of Sandra’s (Marion Cotillard) journey does not matter, it is the journey that does. And though that sounds entirely conventional, even cliché, it might be the brilliance of Belgian auteurs Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; their ability to get away with plot points that would seem at home in the most Hollywood, middlebrow fare comes off as resonant, enthralling, and emotionally realistic. Thus, in Two Days, One Night, the Dardennes prove their relevancy and potency as directors once again.
But let’s not give all the credit to them: Cotillard is frankly mesmerizing as Sandra, a woman who must go from co-worker to co-worker to convince them to vote in her favor so that she can keep the job that she needs in order for her family to make ends meet. As an actor,...
Written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Belgium/France/Italy, 2014
The end of Sandra’s (Marion Cotillard) journey does not matter, it is the journey that does. And though that sounds entirely conventional, even cliché, it might be the brilliance of Belgian auteurs Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; their ability to get away with plot points that would seem at home in the most Hollywood, middlebrow fare comes off as resonant, enthralling, and emotionally realistic. Thus, in Two Days, One Night, the Dardennes prove their relevancy and potency as directors once again.
But let’s not give all the credit to them: Cotillard is frankly mesmerizing as Sandra, a woman who must go from co-worker to co-worker to convince them to vote in her favor so that she can keep the job that she needs in order for her family to make ends meet. As an actor,...
- 9/26/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Life of Riley
Written for the screen by Laurent Herbiet and Alain Resnais
Directed by Alain Resnais
France, 2014
Alain Resnais is inarguably one of the most prolific directors to come out of the French New Wave, with nearly 50 films under his belt, including his masterworks Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad, and Night and Fog. Undeterred by age, he seemed to have been working up until the day he died, with his swan song Life of Riley being presented posthumously at this year’s New York Film Festival. Those only familiar with his Nouvelle Vague work will be in for a pleasant surprise: Life of Riley is perhaps more fun that it deserves to be.
Based on the play by Alan Ayckbourn, the film follows two (or three, depending on how you count) couples in the midst of rehearsals for a play, as the news of their friend’s...
Written for the screen by Laurent Herbiet and Alain Resnais
Directed by Alain Resnais
France, 2014
Alain Resnais is inarguably one of the most prolific directors to come out of the French New Wave, with nearly 50 films under his belt, including his masterworks Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad, and Night and Fog. Undeterred by age, he seemed to have been working up until the day he died, with his swan song Life of Riley being presented posthumously at this year’s New York Film Festival. Those only familiar with his Nouvelle Vague work will be in for a pleasant surprise: Life of Riley is perhaps more fun that it deserves to be.
Based on the play by Alan Ayckbourn, the film follows two (or three, depending on how you count) couples in the midst of rehearsals for a play, as the news of their friend’s...
- 9/25/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Eden
Written by Mia Hansen-Løve and Sven Hansen-Løve
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
France, 2014
The lights flesh hypnotically, the room is sweaty, everyone is rolling, and the song plays on and on, pounding so hard you think you’ll collapse from the vibrations from the sound waves. And yet, you feel completely alive. At least Paul (Félix de Givry) does, in Mia Hansen-Løve’s film Eden, which the rise and fall of a young up-and-coming DJ in Paris.
Few films sprawl like Hansen-Løve’s latest, which spans twenty years, surveying the landscape of garage, techno, and house music, bumping into the likes of Daft Punk. It’s a film that is packed with an incredibly energy, specifically through music, but what is critical about this idea is that the energy is attached to that music. It would be far more frivolous and forgetful were the energy to simply exist as the...
Written by Mia Hansen-Løve and Sven Hansen-Løve
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
France, 2014
The lights flesh hypnotically, the room is sweaty, everyone is rolling, and the song plays on and on, pounding so hard you think you’ll collapse from the vibrations from the sound waves. And yet, you feel completely alive. At least Paul (Félix de Givry) does, in Mia Hansen-Løve’s film Eden, which the rise and fall of a young up-and-coming DJ in Paris.
Few films sprawl like Hansen-Løve’s latest, which spans twenty years, surveying the landscape of garage, techno, and house music, bumping into the likes of Daft Punk. It’s a film that is packed with an incredibly energy, specifically through music, but what is critical about this idea is that the energy is attached to that music. It would be far more frivolous and forgetful were the energy to simply exist as the...
- 9/24/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Pasolini
Written and by Maurizio Braucci
Directed by Abel Ferrara
France/Belgium/Italy, 2014
The art and the artist are undoubtedly strange bedfellows, and while there is a vast ocean to explore in terms of this relationship, the tempestuousness rarely ever seems to get its time on screen. This is no different for Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini – a biopic about the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini – where several times the idea is talked about, even spoken about with the same kind of verve that one would use to discuss the lurid sexual details that are illustrated on-screen, but that push and pull is not actually articulated on-screen. Pasolini was certainly a complex man, a Jack-of-all-trades in the art world, and Ferrara does an excellent job talking about this – his role in politics, his poetry, his novels, and, of course, his films – but the director spends little time showing us that influence.
Written and by Maurizio Braucci
Directed by Abel Ferrara
France/Belgium/Italy, 2014
The art and the artist are undoubtedly strange bedfellows, and while there is a vast ocean to explore in terms of this relationship, the tempestuousness rarely ever seems to get its time on screen. This is no different for Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini – a biopic about the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini – where several times the idea is talked about, even spoken about with the same kind of verve that one would use to discuss the lurid sexual details that are illustrated on-screen, but that push and pull is not actually articulated on-screen. Pasolini was certainly a complex man, a Jack-of-all-trades in the art world, and Ferrara does an excellent job talking about this – his role in politics, his poetry, his novels, and, of course, his films – but the director spends little time showing us that influence.
- 9/23/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
Dana Delany loves talking movies! You can see her next in "Hand of God" on Amazon PrimeYou've read the Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1973. Now hear its companion Podcast
On this special episode of the podcast -- meant to enhance and extend the current Supporting Actress Smackdown conversation to include the films themselves -- Nathaniel welcomes two time Emmy winner Dana Delany (China Beach, Desperate Housewives, Body of Proof), as well as EW editor at large and "Five Came Back" author Mark Harris, "You Must Remember This" podcast goddess Karina Longworth, Bill Chambers from Film Freak Central, and Kyle Turner from The Movie Scene.
You'll want to listen to this one. Trust me on this: your week will not be complete until you hear Dana's Sylvia Sidney impression and Mark's childhood Exorcist story.
Smackdown 1973
00:01 Introductions
02:45 American Graffiti: nostalgia, sexism, George Lucas, actors vs screenplay
13:15 Summer Wishes...
On this special episode of the podcast -- meant to enhance and extend the current Supporting Actress Smackdown conversation to include the films themselves -- Nathaniel welcomes two time Emmy winner Dana Delany (China Beach, Desperate Housewives, Body of Proof), as well as EW editor at large and "Five Came Back" author Mark Harris, "You Must Remember This" podcast goddess Karina Longworth, Bill Chambers from Film Freak Central, and Kyle Turner from The Movie Scene.
You'll want to listen to this one. Trust me on this: your week will not be complete until you hear Dana's Sylvia Sidney impression and Mark's childhood Exorcist story.
Smackdown 1973
00:01 Introductions
02:45 American Graffiti: nostalgia, sexism, George Lucas, actors vs screenplay
13:15 Summer Wishes...
- 8/1/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Behold the five Oscar-nominated Supporting Actresses of 1973: a "bitchin' babe" (Candy Clark), a pint-sized con-artist (Tatum O'Neal), a possessed teenager (Linda Blair), a selfish carnival dancer (Madeline Kahn), and a vinegary New York institution (Sylvia Sidney).
The Nominees
Last month's featured year, 1964, gave us an extremely senior acting shortlist of Oscar regulars but the corresponding shortlist of 1973, apart from Sylvia Sidney who had been a respected working actress for nearly a half-century, skewed very new and very young and not just because it gave us the youngest Oscar winner of all time in Tatum O'Neal; she was 10 years and 148 days old. The four actresses nominated with Sidney were in their first flush of stardom and only acting in their first (O'Neal) second (Kahn & Clark) or third films (Blair). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences obviously approved of their career choice.
This Month's Panelists
from left to right: Chambers,...
The Nominees
Last month's featured year, 1964, gave us an extremely senior acting shortlist of Oscar regulars but the corresponding shortlist of 1973, apart from Sylvia Sidney who had been a respected working actress for nearly a half-century, skewed very new and very young and not just because it gave us the youngest Oscar winner of all time in Tatum O'Neal; she was 10 years and 148 days old. The four actresses nominated with Sidney were in their first flush of stardom and only acting in their first (O'Neal) second (Kahn & Clark) or third films (Blair). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences obviously approved of their career choice.
This Month's Panelists
from left to right: Chambers,...
- 8/1/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
You've met our awesome panelists (Dana Delany, Karina Longworth, Mark Harris, Bill Chambers, Kyle Turner, and myself, Nathaniel) and on July 31st when the Smackdown arrives you'll hear from us again. Let's meet the characters we'll be discussing.
As is our new Smackdown tradition we begin by showing you how the performances themselves begin. There's usually some point in every nominated performance when it clicks in... here's the scene that did it. That can come as early as the introduction for some characters. At the very least the intro is the springboard for every thing you'll see about the character from then on. Do these introductions scream "shower me with gold statues!"? Do the filmmakers prepare us for what's ahead? Here's how 3 of the 5 nominees are introduced in the order of how quickly they arrive in their movies.
[No Dialogue]
Immediately. Meet "Addie Loggins" (Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon)
This is the...
As is our new Smackdown tradition we begin by showing you how the performances themselves begin. There's usually some point in every nominated performance when it clicks in... here's the scene that did it. That can come as early as the introduction for some characters. At the very least the intro is the springboard for every thing you'll see about the character from then on. Do these introductions scream "shower me with gold statues!"? Do the filmmakers prepare us for what's ahead? Here's how 3 of the 5 nominees are introduced in the order of how quickly they arrive in their movies.
[No Dialogue]
Immediately. Meet "Addie Loggins" (Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon)
This is the...
- 7/17/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.