February 2008
Critic wrangle: "Chop Shop."
By Alison Willmore on 02/29/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangleIn the follow-up to his acclaimed 2005 film "Man Push Cart," Ramin Bahrani returns to the unseen (well, at least on screen) underbelly of New York City with "Chop Shop," which follows the lives of Alejandro, an orphaned boy who, along with his teenage sister, struggles for survival amidst the junkyards and questionable auto body shops in Willets Point, Queens. The film opened in New York on Wednesday (check out an interview with Bahrani here) — once again, the critics applaud. David Edelstein at New York deems the film "a low-budget vérité triumph": "Chop Shop isn't so beautiful or artfully... MORE »
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Critic wrangle: "Chicago 10"
By Alison Willmore on 02/29/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangle"Chicago 10," Brett Morgen's doc about the eight anti-war protesters put on trial after the explosive 1968 Democratic National Convention, was the opening night film at Sundance last year, and finally makes it to theaters today. The doc is noteworthy for its mixing of archival footage with reenacted courtroom segments depicted in motion capture animation (Ã la Robert Zemeckis' "The Polar Express") with actors like Hank Azaria and Liev Schreiber reading the words of Abbie Hoffman and William Kunstler. It works for Andrew O'Hehir, who, in a Sundance-dated review at Salon, lauds the way Morgen goes about "ignoring or... MORE »
Lists: Misogyny, Critics, Sports.
By Alison Willmore on 02/28/2008
Filed under: OddsOver at Radar, Amy Monaghan, "using Knocked Up as a mildly chauvinistic baseline, and employing the highly scientific method of surveying our girlfriends, set out to uncover the most misogynistic movies of the 21st century. (Excluded were intentionally offensive movies and any grindhouse film where coeds ended up in a woodchipper, etc.)" Sanjoy Roy at the Guardian's Film Blog looks at five films featuring critics. And the Onion AV Club takes a turn around 15 "proudly profane sports movies," including the expected "Bad News Bears" and the less expected "Cockfighter." ["Knocked Up," Universal Pictures, 2007] + No Country for Fat... MORE »
Trailering: No last name necessary...?
By Alison Willmore on 02/28/2008
Filed under: TraileringIf you cast your mind back to the dusty days of fall 2006, you may remember hearing about Tarsem (né Tarsem Dhandwar Singh) and his second feature film "The Fall," the established music video and commercial director's apparent passion. Tarsem directed things like the video for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" before going on to helm his first feature, "The Cell," but, despite the similarity in career path, never seems to get grouped in with the cool kids of the Directors Series DVDs, possibly because he he lacks any sense of irony and restraint and also insists on going by just... MORE »
Julian Schnabel and the "day job"
By Alison Willmore on 02/28/2008
At the New York Review of Books, Sanford Schwartz considers the connection between Julian Schnabel's work as an artist and as a filmmaker, delving into his days as an '80s art star who published his own autobiography, "C.V.J.: Nicknames of Maitre D's & Other Excerpts from Life," in 1987, when he was the ripe age of 36, and suggesting that most people think he's been doing better with the new gig: For many members of the art world, where Schnabel's work has been met with mixed feelings for three decades now, the movies have been received with a combination of... MORE »
In the works: New projects from Bong Joon-ho and Lars von Trier
By Alison Willmore on 02/27/2008
Filed under: In the worksDirector Bong Joon-ho, who last title was the awesome genre-quaking monster movie "The Host," has a new film in development (after international multi-director triptych "Tokyo!"). It will apparently be called "Mother" and will focus on a woman who tries to prove her son's innocence after he's accused of a terrible crime. [KFCC] Lars von Trier claims that his next film won't be "Wasington," the follow-up to "Dogville" and "Manderlay": Instead, his next feature is Antichrist, a "psychological thriller that evolves into a horror film". It features one man and one woman, yet to be cast, will be shot in Germany... MORE »
The past is not dead for Diablo Cody...
By Alison Willmore on 02/27/2008
...but it's probably getting a bit tiresome. When your well-publicized backstory goes "blogger/stripper/memoirist/screenwriter," you'd think the world would have figured out long before your Oscar win that there were nude photos of you out there somewhere on the inexhaustible internet. Erik Davis at Cinematical has the link, while on her own blog, Cody points out that she did originally post those photos herself: "Seriously, I thought nudity was only a scandal if it the photos were leaked by some crumb-bum rat or vengeful ex." More amusing is this item at Page Six, in which "a pal of the ex-stripper-turned-screenwriter" (who... MORE »
"I'm Fucking Seth Rogen" : A Cautionary Tale
By Alison Willmore on 02/26/2008
Filed under: In the worksI'd never want to encourage the "I'm Fucking _________" video trend, which looks to be making its way along the sharp downhill grade to Overkillsville right... about... now, but Kevin Smith, whose current film in production, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," is, well, about the act in question, has turned in his own version featuring leads Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen. The two are charming enough to make an already old joke work, particularly in when Banks casts the song as a tale of trying to get ahead in Hollywood, and when Rogen extols his skill at improvising scenes... MORE »
Trailering: Mamet does martial arts
By Alison Willmore on 02/26/2008
Filed under: TraileringA glance through some of the the worthy trailers du jour: Here's one for "Redbelt," David Mamet's martial art film. Sure, there's more to it than that, but what else could you need? Chiwetel Ejiofor is an L.A. jujitsu teacher; Emily Mortimer, Tim Allen (!), Ricky Jay, Randy Couture and the inevitable Rebecca Pidgeon all co-star. The film's due out May 2nd. Here's one for "Love Songs," Christophe Honoré's loony, lovely omnisexual Parisian musical. The film was one of the few I caught at Cannes last year — I loved it, most everyone else I saw it with was just... MORE »
The empire in decline.
By Alison Willmore on 02/25/2008
Jon Stewart may have designated this year's Oscar ceremony the post-strike "make-up sex," but it was more like a wistful catch-up drink with your ex in which you're both so busy bringing up the old times that neither of you actually manages to get around to finding out how the other is doing in the present. From the opening montage of action movie moments and superstars to the never-ending bombardment of montages of past presenters, past acceptance speeches, past musical numbers (including an apparently nostalgic wink at the infamous 1989 Rob Lowe/Snow White debacle), past winning films and everything short... MORE »
Oscar picks, class of '08.
By Alison Willmore on 02/22/2008
Because they don't count unless you're willing to throw down on record, my Oscar picks, after the jump. [A disclaimer: Last year I was on fire, anointed by some god of Oscar prognostication. This year, all the angels have gone and I feel no such certainty.] MORE »
In Which Alison Drops The Royal "We"
By Alison Willmore on 02/20/2008
Filed under: From the EditorThis is now the third incarnation and (at least) the third year in the webbish life of this film blog, so it seems as good a moment as any to stop and say hello again. Hello! This blog was originally started to accompany the IFC News site, and both have since grown up while staying unhealthily close in the manner of any Todd Solondz film. It's how I've preferred it, though now that it's in fancy new digs, News seems ready to stand on its own and allow this blog to roam a little freer and looser, or at least... MORE »
Critic wrangle: "Diary of the Dead."
By Alison Willmore on 02/15/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangleGeorge A. Romero's "Diary of the Dead" has been drawing mixed reactions since its premiere at Toronto -- some critics find the zombie update nothing short of brilliant, others heavy-handed and ponderous. Of the first school is Premiere's Glenn Kenny, who proclaims that "besides an examination of us-against-them and us-against-us politics and a trenchant commentary on the it's-okay-to-torture-under-the-'right'- circumstances mentality that's been foisted on the American public, Diary is one of the most revealing and fascinating critiques of image-making since Michael Powell's Peeping Tom." Scott Foundas at LA Weekly, in a hefty review that offers more depth than the... MORE »
Critic wrangle: "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation."
By Alison Willmore on 02/15/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangleThe title of Cao Hamburger's "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" is euphemistic. The main character, a 12-year-old boy named Mauro, is the child of activists in 70s Brazil who are forced to stow him with his grandfather and go underground in order to avoid arrest -- only his grandfather has died, and Mauro is instead cared for by the residents of his multi-ethnic São Paulo neighborhood. What has the potential to be (under darker auspices) a little sentimental is, according to the critics, in fact a little sentimental -- not necessarily a terrible thing. The New York... MORE »
Odds: Thursday - China regrets (it's unable to lunch today).
By Alison Willmore on 02/14/2008
Mia Farrow releases a victory statement in her battleground of choice, the New York Post's Page Six, after shaming Steven Spielberg into leaving his role artistic director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At BBC News, China expresses regret, passive aggression:"It is understandable if some people do not understand the Chinese government policy on Darfur, but I am afraid that some people may have ulterior motives, and this we cannot accept," [Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao] told a news conference. "China is also concerned about the humanitarian situation in Darfur. [But] empty rhetoric will not help. We hope that... MORE »
That tricky directorial debut.
By Alison Willmore on 02/14/2008
Filed under: ReviewsThere are two conflicting critical impulses one has to fight off before ever seeing (and presumably honestly reviewing) a film like Madonna's directorial debut "Filth and Wisdom," whose Berlin Film Festival premiere yesterday was described by many as the hottest ticket in town, even if that warmth was generated by a desire to see La Madge commit acts of cinematic hubris. On one side is the urge to wield the long knife one's probably been sharpening since the film's presence at the festival was announced, and on the other is, perhaps, that wild contrarian compulsion to hold up the... MORE »
Kon Ichikawa, 1915-2008.
By Alison Willmore on 02/14/2008
Filed under: MemoriamKon Ichikawa, the Japanese director responsible for, among other things, the great anti-war films "The Burmese Harp" and "Fires on the Plain," passed away yesterday in Tokyo. From Douglas Martin in the New York Times:Mr. Ichikawa's career reached what many consider its high point when Americans were streaming to art-cinema houses in the 1950s and '60s to see movies by emerging masters like Ingmar Bergman. In those years some critics rated Mr. Ichikawa on a level with Akira Kurosawa. He was "once hailed as one of the world's greatest directors," Olaf Möller wrote in 2001 in Film Comment. From... MORE »
"Diary of the Dead."
By Alison Willmore on 02/14/2008
Filed under: ReviewsWith "Diary of the Dead," George A. Romero has retconned his zombie apocalypse series back to its beginnings, before the burdens of upping the scale in each installment backed things into tough-to-swallow scenarios like "Land of the Dead"'s fortress for the wealthy. In "Diary," it's present day, the dead have just commenced with the rising and the munching and everyone else is willfully resistant to accept how bad things are becoming. There's a guy, a girl, a few of their more edible friends and the end of the world -- and, oh yes, a camera with which to record... MORE »
Strike is over (if you want it).
By Alison Willmore on 02/13/2008
The WGA strike is officially over — Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood has the official statements from both sides. In the wake of the three-month battle, everyone's struggling to determine who, exactly, won. New York's Vulture blog points out a few of the judgments — Variety criticizes the writers, David Carr at the New York Times calls it more of a win on principalle than in practicalities — while Patrick Goldstein at the LA Times divides up the winners and losers, among the latter the Golden Globes and its neglected prizewinners. Meanwhile, John Doyle at the Globe and Mail... MORE »
In the works: The Coens adapt Chabon, Tomei plays a stripper.
By Alison Willmore on 02/12/2008
Trailer du jour: For "The Forbidden Kingdom," here. Director Rob Minkoff, of "The Lion King" and "Stuart Little," seems to have made an outrageous, unblushing asiaphile mash-up, with Jet Li playing a taciturn white-clad fightin' monk, Jackie Chan as a drunken kung-fu master, Li Bing Bing playing a variation on The Bride with White Hair, Liu Yifei as the Zhang Ziyi stand-in and "Snow Angels"' Michael Angarano as the inevitable white kid who learns martial arts, saves all of ancient China and makes the film palatable to a wider demographic.In the works: The Coen brothers have their next project,... MORE »
IFC News: "Two guys walking around talking for two hours."
By Alison Willmore on 02/11/2008
This week at IFC News: Matt Singer starts on the first of three parts of his 40th anniversary guide to the "Planet of the Apes" films, pointing out metaphors, continuity errors and the best examples of Charlton Heston badassery. Michael Atkinson does "The Films of Sergei Paradjanov" and "El Cid." On the Kino set:The films — "Shadows [of Forgotten Ancestors]," "The Color of Pomegranates" (1969), "The Legend of Suram Fortress" (1984) and "Ashik Kerib" (1988) — are all based on folk tales and ancient history (Ukranian, Armenian and Georgian), but only "Shadows" is centered on narrative. It's also the... MORE »
Great moments in film criticism.
By Alison Willmore on 02/08/2008
Some highlights from reviews of "The Hottie and the Nottie," the film that seems primed to give Paris Hilton what's surely a record four titles in the IMDb bottom 100: "Bonus point for Hilton's straight-faced delivery of the sentence: 'Do you think I'm a pod person?' Unfortunately, I'll have to take it right back for the inclusion of Randy, a retarded albino stalker." -- Nathan Lee, Village Voice "The film is said to star Paris Hilton. This is not entirely accurate. Paris Hilton is present in it." -- Kurt Loder, MTV News "It would be easy to blame Heidi Ferrer's... MORE »
Critic wrangle: "The Band's Visit."
By Alison Willmore on 02/08/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangle"The Band's Visit," the first feature from Israeli director Eran Kolirin, was Israel's Foreign Language Film Oscar submission until the Academy rejected it for having too much English dialogue. The film is about how an Egyptian police force brass band headed for a performance at the opening of an Arab cultural center ends up in the wrong town in Israel, and there's a lot of English because it's the only language the townspeople and the band members have in common. That a film that's actually about cross-cultural confusion and communication gets disqualified from the category makes the idea of a... MORE »
Critic wrangle: "In Bruges."
By Alison Willmore on 02/08/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangleAfter a glowing critic reception as the opening night film at Sundance, playwright Martin McDonagh's feature debut "In Bruges" opens in theaters to somewhat more mixed reviews from our favorite critics. Liking it the most: Roger Ebert, who describes the film as "an endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy," and raves that McDonagh "has made a remarkable first film, as impressive in its own way as 'House of Games,' the first film by David Mamet, who McDonagh is sometimes compared with." Also a fan is Glenn Kenny at Premiere, who notes that despite the film's marketing representing it as... MORE »
Odds: Thursday - "Parnassus" lives on, at least on the internet.
By Alison Willmore on 02/07/2008
What's to become of Terry Gilliam's unfinished "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"? Christopher Plummer's earlier interview comments on the possible CGI resurrection of star Heath Ledger have been countered with more rumors that the production has been shut down; meanwhile, a holder page website has gone up, the marketing campaign apparently chugging onward like a ghost ship into the night. Defamer turns up a leaked teaser still from the film. James Christopher at the London Times reviews "There Will Be Blood": "The year is 1898. Women have yet to be invented." The 79-year-old Tokyo house that caught the eye of... MORE »
In the works: Remaking Lang, "Cellular" and your own movie.
By Alison Willmore on 02/07/2008
Trailer: One for "Married Life," here. Ira Sachs' film played at the New York Film Festival last year — our review — and was a nice surprise, starting off as a needless 40s/50s-era pastiche, but gradually revealing itself to have blood in its veins. Sony Picture Classics is releasing the film on March 7th.In the works: Peter Hyams, of "2010," "Timecop," and, alas, "A Sound of Thunder" (such is a portrait in sci-fi decline) will direct Michael Douglas, Amber Tamblyn and Jesse Metcalfe in a remake of Fritz Lang's "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt," with Metcalfe in the Dana Andrews role... MORE »
Hiding the salami.
By Alison Willmore on 02/06/2008
But only in the 2005 Howard Dean usage — Steve Rose at the Guardian complains about how the UK trailer for "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" tortuously obscures the fact that the film's a musical: "Stung at paying to see a collection of tortuously constructed Stephen Sondheim tunes when they were expecting a gory Gothic thriller, a fair proportion of cinema audiences has been walking out of Sweeney Todd. A complaint has even been made to the Advertising Standards Authority." Apparently the marketing powers in England blame the bursts into song for the film's lukewarm box... MORE »
Monster movie.
By Alison Willmore on 02/06/2008
We've never believed in the idea of a good taste waiting period for pop culture's consumption of tragedy, but had to wince at "Cloverfield"'s (undeniable, c'mon now) 9/11 references — that imagery might be fair game, but it hurts to see it so callously used for little purpose beyond the shock value of that shiver of recognition. Glenn Kenny at the LA Times is more eloquent on the subject, writing that "it's worth asking whether this movie actually has any social consciousness to divest. Depending on how you want to look at it, the makers of the film are... MORE »
SXSW 2008 lines up.
By Alison Willmore on 02/05/2008
Filed under: FestivalsindieWIRE has the line-up for the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. There's some Sundance stuff there, including Nanette Burnstein's "American Teen" and Morgan Spurlock's "Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?" But it's the slew of premieres this year that are really impressive -- among them "Bulletproof Salesman," the new doc from "Gunner Palace" co-directors Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein; "Explicit Ills," the directorial debut of actor Mark Webber; "Nights and Weekends," from festival darling Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig; "Yeast," from "Frownland" star Mary Bronstein; and Michael Almereyda's "New Orleans, Mon Amour." And making their way from Berlin... MORE »
IFC News: Ads, teen movies, British film.
By Alison Willmore on 02/04/2008
This week at IFC News: On the podcast, we look at some of the talent behind the better Superbowl ads. (At $2.7 million for a 30-second spot, you're probably going to spring for a decent director.) Michael Atkinson does "Rocket Science" and "Right At Your Door":Blitz's film (which features absolutely no slumming guest stars) always sidesteps and dodges the clichés; rarely, if ever, do the characters — from Hal's problematic mom to a voyeur neighborhood kid to a deposed debate king — behave in a predictable fashion or speak as if they only have one thing on their minds.... MORE »
Critic wrangle: "The Witnesses."
By Alison Willmore on 02/01/2008
Filed under: Critic wrangleArmond White at the New York Press describes André Téchiné as "the best French director most Americans don’t know." "The Witnesses," Téchiné's latest film, focuses on a group of Parisian friends (among them Emmanuelle Béart and Michel Blanc) confronted with the onset of AIDS in 1984. Though it's a relatively quiet week for theatrical releases, the film, which opens in New York and California, is unlikely to be that inconceivable breakthrough that makes Téchiné a household name, but that's not for lack of love from the critics. White, who can't love one director without bashing another, takes a hachet... MORE »
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