Written by Alison Willmore, the all-seeing Indie Eye blog reads the news so you don't have to. (Well, maybe just the A & E section).
Alison Willmore
is the editor of IFC.com's film coverage and one of the site's video hosts. Follow her at twitter.com/indie_eye
Email: ifcblog (at) ifc dot com
Odds
Odds: It's the shoes.
By Alison Willmore on 09/04/2008
Filed under: OddsWonkette's Liz Glover caught up with Spike Lee at the DNC and posed to him the Mars Blackmon question. He reacts pretty well, considering. The New York Post's Lou Lumenick claims that Magnolia Pictures has signed to distribute Steven Soderbergh's "Che," with a December 12th release date. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere has heard that the fatally bad Danny Glover voiceover narration has been dropped from Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness." There are deep flaws in the film beyond that, but wow, was it awful. Michael Moore will release his new film "Slacker Uprising," which follows his 62-city, 2004 tour to... MORE »
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August is finally over, and other bits and pieces.
By Alison Willmore on 09/02/2008
Filed under: OddsAugust, it's been real. Jim Ridley on "Disaster Movie" at the Village Voice: "Best text message sent from my screening (it wasn't me, but I certainly sympathized): 'I want to die.' " But he's outdone by Nick Pinkerton, reviewing "College" at the same publication: "Nearly justifies traveling back in time to pre-emptively kill Edison, Muybridge, and the Lumière brothers." Steven Zeitchik at the Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz blog suggests that if you want to see Adria Petty's Paris Hilton documentary "Paris, Not France," its Toronto premiere may be the only place to do it before the film is swallowed by... MORE »
Odds: "Slumdog Millionaire" finds a distributor, Todd Solondz makes a sequel.
By Alison Willmore on 08/28/2008
Filed under: OddsDanny Boyle's new film "Slumdog Millionaire," a comedy about a Mumbai orphan who gets on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?", was set to premiere at Toronto in distribution limbo after Warner Independent Pictures went away. No longer -- Fox Searchlight is partnering with Warner Bros. to give the film a theatrical release on November 28th. Meanwhile, at her blog at Variety, Anne Thompson writes that "One film that is negotiating a final distribution deal is Steven Soderbergh's four-hour-plus, two-part Che," and adds that "I'm betting that the film will wind up in the hands of... MORE »
Odds: "Film is a lying media."
By Alison Willmore on 08/15/2008
Filed under: OddsWerner Herzog could have a solid side career doing Q&As -- we certainly tried our hardest to get him to sit down with Guy Maddin back in June, but their schedules couldn't quite work. At Esquire, Stephen Garrett moderates a conversation between the director and his longtime friend, the subject of "Man on Wire," tightrope artist Philippe Petit: PP: Do you remember the first films you saw? WH: Yes--both of them bad and disappointing. One was about Eskimos building an igloo, and they did a lousy job. And I could tell right away because I had grown up in the... MORE »
Odds: "Porno" gets the R, ThinkFilm doesn't need your damn bills.
By Alison Willmore on 08/05/2008
Filed under: OddsKevin Smith gets "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," first rated NC-17, down to a more marketable R. As if there was ever any doubt. [Via the AP] ThinkFilm is so indie it doesn't even need to pay its bills! Bills just roll right off it! Alex Ben Block gets some fabulous quotes from company head David Bergstein at the Hollywood Reporter: "Some of what is out there is true. The vast majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is, 'So what? So what if X, Y or Z might be owed money?' "... MORE »
Odds: Untouchable Paris, leaves, Woody Allen's "blackish comedy."
By Alison Willmore on 07/30/2008
Filed under: OddsTaking photos with Paris Hilton, who was at Comic-Con promoting "Repo: The Genetic Opera," two MTV News staffers found they displayed an identical and apparently instinctive reluctance to actually have to touch the heiress. [MTV] Maybe they'd just watched too much footage from the film, which is directed by "Saw II"-"IV"'s Darren Lynn Bousman, and which, like many a movie monster, looked infinitely better when it was half-imagined -- Defamer has a clip, The New York Times gets around to tackling the topic of self-distribution, with John Anderson starting with the upcoming "Bottle Shock" and moving on to smaller fare... MORE »
Odds: Von Trier's "Antichrist," the Coens' collaborator.
By Alison Willmore on 07/29/2008
Filed under: OddsLars von Trier's English-language horror flick "Antichrist" is a go, reports Variety -- funding's in place and casting will be announced soon. The film's apparently "about a couple who move to an isolated cabin after the death of their son, only to find sinister forces at play." Those cabins, always trouble. Von Trier claimed depression was preventing him from working on new projects last year, but has, one would guess, since bounced back to his usual ebullient self. Stu VanAirsdale at the Village Voice writes on the occasion of MoMA's "Collaborations in the Collection": Barry Sonnenfeld is known to tell... MORE »
Odds: "I broke the code Tarantino invented."
By Alison Willmore on 07/28/2008
Filed under: OddsTo watch -- "Tarantino's Mind," a short from Brazilian directing duo 300ml in which a man (Selton Mello) explains his unified field theory of Quentin Tarantino to a skeptical friend (Seu Jorge, of "The Life Aquatic" and "City of God"). It all takes place, naturally, in a diner. (Hat tip -- Fimoculous.) Wong Kar-wai goes unsunglassed to Tony Leung and Carina Lau's wedding -- Movie City Indie has the picture, which is curiously deflating -- I'd always imagined the shades were permanently fused to his face, Ã la William Gibson How can the London Film Festival step up and compete... MORE »
Odds: Harvey and the nuns, Dakota Fanning and the swearing.
By Alison Willmore on 07/24/2008
Filed under: OddsHarvey Weinstein at Portfolio (h/t to Movie City News): I remember my first Broadway show. It was The Sound of Music with Mary Martin. The minute the nuns came onstage, I ran out of the theater and started running through the streets, with my father running closely behind. By the time he caught up with me, I was outside of the cinema, and then we both went in to see Goldfinger instead. Borys Kit at Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog on the "Push" preview at Comic-Con: They just showed an action sequence featuring [Chris] Evans and [Dakota] Fanning and what... MORE »
Odds: Download "Dementia 13," the fantastic Mr. Cocker, the Germs.
By Alison Willmore on 07/21/2008
Filed under: OddsMark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing points out that the 1963 Francis Ford Coppola/Roger Corman slasher film "Dementia 13" is in the public domain and available for download for free from Archive.org. Jarvis Cocker is writing songs for Wes Anderon's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," according to an interview with Time Out Chicago: Yet you wrote songs for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, appearing in the film as the frontman of the Weird Sisters. Do kids recognize you? I had a very specific look going on in that film--giant fur jacket, snakeskin trousers--that I wouldn't normally wear down the street.... MORE »
Odds: Alex Gibney on torture, Stephen King on - hey! - horror.
By Alison Willmore on 07/10/2008
Filed under: OddsAlex Gibney, whose Hunter S. Thompson doc "Gonzo" opened last week, writes about his last film, "Taxi to the Dark Side," at the Guardian Film Blog: "If you torture people they will tell you anything, and that way you get what you want to know, regardless of whether it's true or not. At first I rejected that idea. Now I believe it. We've entered Orwellian territory." Stephen King reasons why "most really good horror films are low-budget affairs with special effects cooked up in someone's basement or garage" at Entertainment Weekly. Kevin Maher interviews director Nicolas Roeg, writer Fay Weldon... MORE »
Odds: "Red Tails," over-restoration, the greatest Western of all time.
By Alison Willmore on 06/17/2008
Filed under: OddsGeorge Lucas "plans for [new movie 'Red Tails'] to be based on the historic record that brought the Tuskegee Airmen fame, drawn from their own accounts." Let's see that Spike Lee try to pick a fight with me, he thinks. [AP] David Bordwell on film restoration: "[I]t's possible to 'over-restore' a film. That is, by adding footage culled from many versions, the restorer may be creating an expanded version that nobody actually saw." [DavidBordwell.com] Joe Leydon points out that the Western Writers of America have named "Shane" the greatest Western ever made. [Moving Picture Blog] Thomas Doherty tackles serial killers... MORE »
Odds: "Donnie Darko" Sequel Star Threatens to Retroactively Ruin the First Film
By Alison Willmore on 06/05/2008
Filed under: OddsLarry Carroll at MTV talks with Briana Evigan, one of the stars of the non Richard Kelly-approved "Donnie Darko" sequel "S. Darko": "Calling the script 'very twisted,' the 21-year-old actress also said that 'S. Darko' will interact with the events of the original film, Ã la the 'Back to the Future' sequels. 'We just come back [in time] and change what happened in the first one.' " Anne Thompson at Variety gets "the real dope" on the Paramount Vantage fold-in: TRUE: So far, only three Paramount Vantage films have made any money: An Inconvenient Truth, which cost nothing to acquire,... MORE »
Odds: Doc to power, sexist Lane, nuking the fridge.
By Alison Willmore on 06/04/2008
Filed under: OddsThe most interesting article amongst the ones from the new issue of Cineaste now up online is actually from the editors. The editorial, which I appreciate for its don't-stop-believin' sentiments but don't entirely buy, is entitled "Speaking Documentary Truth to Power," and argues that despite audiences' Iraqdoc fatigue, "political documentaries do get the attention of the powers that be": We should therefore take hope from the fact that, as much as politicians in office try to hide it, distort it, or avoid dealing with it altogether, they cannot fail to recognize the truth, especially when documentary filmmakers so powerfully and... MORE »
Odds: In the roles of young George Lucas and Cock Puncher...
By Alison Willmore on 06/03/2008
Filed under: Odds"The Go-Getter," which opens this week and which will likely only register as the movie which lead to Zooey Deschanel's musical career, was directed by Martin Hynes, who played George Lucas in "George Lucas in Love." [LA Times] French horror flick "Martyrs," which I heard memorably described at Cannes as the film that features a woman getting hit in the face for 40 minutes, has been given the Gallic equivalent of an NC-17 for violence. [Twitch] "A monumental amount of Universal's archival prints" were destroyed in the fire, writers Sony Pictures' Jared Sapolin. "Even though the negatives are allegedly safe... MORE »
Odds: "Expelled" trumps Ono and Godard drops out.
By Alison Willmore on 06/02/2008
Filed under: OddsYoko Ono has lost her bid to have use of John Lennon's "Imagine" removed from the problematic Ben Stein anti-Darwinist doc "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," reports the AP: U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein ruled that if the case went to court, the filmmakers would probably win under the fair use doctrine. "That doctrine provides that the fair use of a copyrighted work for the purposes of criticism and commentary is not an infringement of copyright," Stein wrote in his decision in Manhattan federal court. On Stein's side, the claims were that Ono and co. were trying to censor the film;... MORE »
Odds: "Oh yes, Lucas would really dare to put something like that in!"
By Alison Willmore on 05/08/2008
Filed under: OddsKevin Maher at the London Times tries to interview John Hurt, who's been forbidden by the studios to discuss his role in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Maher attempts to come up with a workaround: I suggest a game. I'll run plot points (gleaned from the internet and beyond) by him, and will judge their validity, or not, by his reactions. There's more than one Crystal Skull? "Hmmm, interesting," he says. Your character comes back from the dead? "He'd be called Lazarus, wouldn't he?!" There's a cameo from the Elephant Man? "Depends on how you look... MORE »
Odds: "London Fields," shock art, cookiegate.
By Alison Willmore on 05/07/2008
Filed under: OddsMartin Amis' novel "London Fields" looks to be back on track to become a film after all, according to the Guardian: "Amis himself is collaborating on the adaptation of his controversial 1989 novel, and may even take a small part in the resulting film, which will be directed by David Mackenzie, best known for the films Hallam Foe and 2003's Young Adam." The novel, about a woman who, having foreseen her own death, manipulates the circumstances leading up to it, was for a while one of several projects attached to director David Cronenberg. "Next month, Ira Isaacs, a 57-year-old Los... MORE »
Odds: Page is Eyre, an appreciation of Pepper Potts, and promoting "Poultrygeist."
By Alison Willmore on 05/06/2008
Filed under: OddsEllen Page, everyone's favorite sassypants MySpace generation heroine, will be playing Jane Eyre in an upcoming BBC Films adaptation, reports Variety, honest to Brontë. Elsewhere, the Guardian claims "MacGyver" creator Lee David Zlotoff has threatened to be in the planning stages of adapting the series for the big screen. Jon Favreau salutes his "Iron Man" lead while not forgetting his own roots when talking to Entertainment Weekly: "It's inspiring when somebody who sort of has his work cut out for him actually accomplishes that and comes back bigger and better than he was before. I mean, that's the American dream... MORE »
Odds: Salman Rushdie as a doctor, Paul Verhoeven on Jesus.
By Alison Willmore on 04/23/2008
Filed under: OddsSalman Rushdie turns up in a somewhat jarring cameo as an obstetrician in Helen Hunt's directorial debut "Then She Found Me" — he's not bad, but his presence does throw you, as would, I suppose, Tom Stoppard playing a firefighter, or Joan Didion delivering a few lines of advice as a sage aunt. New York investigates the curious casting. At indieWIRE, publicist Jeremy Walker, on the eve of a move to California, reflects on the indie publicity game: Publicity is an optimist's game, but only to a point. You can't really be a publicist for "risky" movies without liberally trafficking... MORE »
Odds: Cashing out, Clooney, torture!
By Alison Willmore on 03/19/2008
Filed under: OddsMike White (not that Mike White) is, after 14 years of running definitive film zine Cashiers du Cinemart, calling it quits for financial reasons. He adds that all is not necessarily lost: The idea may continue in some form or another in the future. I'm still not fully committed to web publishing for longer articles, holding on to the idea that print remains the best medium for reading. I'm looking into options of various "print on demand" services that will eliminate some of the heartache and headaches of publishing and distribution while passing on the cost to my faithful readers.... 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 »
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