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
Versus
Wes Anderson, tumor.
By Alison Willmore on 04/15/2009
Filed under: Versus
In his interview with Noel Murray at the AV Club, Will Oldham expresses from pretty strong thoughts on movie music in general and Wes Anderson in particular: AVC: You mentioned talking to Richard Linklater and Caveh Zahedi about your ideas on movie music. Can you summarize those ideas? WO: Well, for a while, it seemed like you were always seeing movies where all the music was determined by the music supervisors and their special relationships with certain record labels. And I just felt like, "Wow, I'll bet they spent months or years writing this screenplay, and I'll bet they spent... MORE »
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Tha Lawsuit III.
By Alison Willmore on 04/07/2009
Filed under: Versus
"The Carter," Adam Bhala Lough's unexpectedly artful documentary about Lil Wayne that premiered at Sundance earlier this year, is now the source of a lawsuit from the wee multi-platinum rapper, who's suing the film's production company for "Breach of Contract, Fraud by Intentional Misrepresentation, Constructive Fraud and Invasion of Privacy," among others, according to AllHipHop.com: Wayne and his company signed an agreement which stipulated that Weezy would make himself available for the 90-minute documentary and make photos and videos from his personal archives available to the producers. In exchange he was to be allowed to review "various scenes of the... MORE »
Copyright infringement, sadistic streaks and Hitchcock.
By Alison Willmore on 09/09/2008
Filed under: VersusSheldon Abend was a literary agent who purchased the rights to "It Had to Be Murder," a 1942 short story by Cornell Woolrich that was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into "Rear Window." He died in 2003, but his estate endures and has finally noticed that the 2007 Shia LaBeouf thriller "Disturbia" is an awful lot like Hitch's film and filed a copyright infringement lawsuit. Abend was litigious in life, too: "It Had to Be Murder" has already been the basis of an influential copyright case, 1990's Stewart v. Abend -- that would be Jimmy Stewart, and there are more details... MORE »
Chris Smith, Todd Solondz and the question of intent.
By Alison Willmore on 09/04/2008
Filed under: VersusChris Smith's feature "The Pool" opened in New York yesterday, and today the Onion AV Club's Scott Tobias takes on his 1999 documentary "American Movie" as part of his "New Cult Canon" series, noting that "the main knock against the movie is that Smith is condescending to his subjects and carting them out exclusively so we can laugh at their ineptitude... At the risk of passing the blame, I'd say that any condescension brought to American Movie comes mostly from the viewer, not the filmmakers." I'd agree that Smith doesn't seem to have made the film with mockery of his... MORE »
Timing is everything.
By Alison Willmore on 08/28/2008
Filed under: VersusMike Scott at New Orleans' Times-Picayune notes the impeccable taste Lionsgate is showing in releasing "Disaster Movie" on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, August 29th: Around these Katrina-scarred parts, Aug. 29 is still -- and will be for some time -- a black-armband kind of day. For Lionsgate studios, however, Aug. 29 isn't quite as sacred. For them, the third anniversary of the day the levees were breached and New Orleans slipped under is something on the order of perfect timing: a ripped-from-the-headlines release date for the big-screen, low-concept spoof "Disaster Movie." Oops. [Hat tip to Nikki Finke] Also... MORE »
We Todd Did.
By Alison Willmore on 08/14/2008
Filed under: VersusWhile the folks behind "Tropic Thunder" had obviously soldiered up in advance for -- and were probably counting on -- controversy surrounding Robert Downey Jr.'s (totally hilarious) turn as a method actor in surgically applied blackface, the vehement protests surrounding the film's frequent, gleeful use of the work "retarded" seem to have blindsided them. Bonnie Goldstein at Slate points to the 11-page kit released by a group that includes the American Association of People With Disabilities and the National Down Syndrome Congress, encouraging boycotting and picketing of theaters throughout this week. Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics and another... MORE »
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Inappropriately Handled.
By Alison Willmore on 06/11/2008
Filed under: VersusHBO was forced to change the ending of Marina Zenovich's acclaimed documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" shortly before its TV premiere on Monday, after Los Angeles Superior Court officials "complained the film's conclusion was a 'complete fabrication.' " Said conclusion, which relates an incident that allegedly occured in 1997, is explained in the LA Times: The documentary originally asserted that a local judge had offered [Polanski] a deal whereby he could return to the United States with no jail time if he allowed the legal proceedings to be televised... Allan Parachini, public information officer for the court, said that... MORE »
Versus: Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood, Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara.
By Alison Willmore on 06/10/2008
Filed under: VersusIn the left corner, you have the highly quotable, controversy-courting filmmaker Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee. In the right, the generally taciturn but sometimes just as headline-quote worthy actor-director Clinton Eastwood, Jr. At stake: the accuracy of the racial makeup of the casts of "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima." Lee threw the first punch at a Cannes press conference on the film he's just finishing up, "Miracle at St Anna," a drama about four "Buffalo Soldiers" in the 92nd Division fighting in Tuscany during World War II that he suggests is a corrective to films like Eastwood's:... MORE »
Creative differences.
By Alison Willmore on 04/23/2008
Filed under: VersusJames Caan has left David O. Russell's political comedy "Nailed." From the Hollywood Reporter: The trouble started Wednesday on the first of Caan's two days of shooting the role of a U.S. speaker of the house who chokes to death on a cookie. Russell asked him to cough as he choked, but Caan argued that the character couldn't cough and choke to death at the same time. Russell suggested that they shoot it both ways, but the actor expressed distrust that his version would be considered and left the South Carolina set. A spokesman for Caan wouldn't confirm or deny... MORE »
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