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
Watchy
The Vice Guide to Coffin Joe.
By Alison Willmore on 06/11/2009
Filed under: Watchy
VBS.TV sits down for a long chat with Brazil's reigning cult filmmaker José Mojica Marins, aka Coffin Joe, who offers an origin story of sorts about how his first brush with cinema involved a film about STDs: "I screamed and screamed, and that image never left my head. I think this scarred my childhood. So in all my horror films, I try to recreate, through the hell and purgatory that I filmed, but I never managed to portray the biggest horror of my life, a vagina full of gonorrhea." Here's part one of the video and part two.... MORE »
-
- Comment
David Lynch presents Jess.
By Alison Willmore on 06/01/2009
Filed under: Watchy
Interview Project, the latest web experiment from David Lynch, launches today, a "121 part documentary series" made up of three and a half minute interviews with different subjects around the country. Lynch's son Austin and Jason S. led a team of filmmakers who plucked up subjects who, one assumes, just looked like they'd have interesting things to say. The first interviewee, Jess, is a leathery 64-year-old they found in Needles, CA (a town I'll forever associate with Snoopy's brother Spike) who tell us "I ain't proud of anything except just being alive." MORE »
"Penises: species specific."
By Alison Willmore on 04/08/2009
Filed under: Watchy
Isabella Rossellini takes "Green Porno" beneath the waves in its second season -- the six new episodes explore the mating habits of whales, starfish, limpets, anglerfish and barnacles, with an added intro containing Rossellini's musings on phalluses. They're not as splendidly, surprisingly weird as the first set, but are still plenty charming, with Rossellini lustily proclaiming her place as the strongest male in a pod of whales. My favorite is the somewhat existential limpet one. + Green Porno (Sundance Channel) MORE »
"I think my heart's big enough..."
By Alison Willmore on 03/24/2009
Filed under: WatchyFunny or Die gets all inside mumblecore baseball with this trailer for the nonexistent SXSW 2009 selection "The Dirty Garage," about, apparently, how a pair of childhood friends/brothers clean a garage and have lots of incoherent conversation, accompanied by one of their former flames. Swanberg co-conspirators Kent Osborne and Tipper Newton appear, as do fake quotes from Amy Taubin, Scott Foundas and Manohla Dargis. C'mon, though, an hour and 45 minutes? Realistically, this would run 75 minutes, tops, and that's with the help of an extra slow credit crawl.... MORE »
"In a Lonely Place" by way of Atari's "Crystal Castles"...
By Alison Willmore on 03/04/2009
Filed under: Watchy
...with a touch of Chris Ware. That's the easiest way to sum up David O'Reilly's fantastic "Please Say Something," which won the short film Golden Bear at Berlin this year. (In an interview, he compared it to "Breaking the Waves" and "Persona," but pointed out "There's also a nod to Funny Games." A blockily animated cat and mouse live together in a blustery, geometric, largely monochromatic future, communicating in subtitled squeaks. Despite these trappings, the film's actually a half absurd, half genuinely sad story of the couple's troubled domestic life, one that runs through and refreshes every cliche of emotional... MORE »
Coppola and Peralta have something to sell you.
By Alison Willmore on 12/10/2008
Filed under: WatchySofia Coppola's debut ad for Dior is a delightfully pink confection featuring Belarusian model Maryna Linchuk bobbing around a sunny Paris to Brigitte Bardot's "Moi, Je Joue," apparently leading an enviable life of dress fittings, leisurely bicycling and pastry consumption, with pauses for the reapplication of Miss Dior Cherie perfume. You can watch it here: Meanwhile, documentarian Stacy Peralta (of "Dogtown and Z-Boys") has traveled to semi-remote areas of Thailand, Romania and Greenland at the behest of Burger King to perform unbiased Whopper/Big Mac taste tests on people who've never had hamburgers before.... MORE »
"Glory at Sea" and "The Last 15."
By Alison Willmore on 12/02/2008
Filed under: WatchyShort films are often made with a practical purpose in mind: to serve as a calling card on the path to feature funding, to show off the cool camera trick someone picked up, to showcase everything learned at film school, to reach a (hopefully) memorable punchline. It's the reason so many shorts are forgettable -- they seldom stand by themselves, though there's no rule that a film has to be at least 70 minutes long to have a purpose. And the greatest proof of that fact is Benh Zeitlin's epic short "Glory at Sea," which you can now watch online... MORE »
Criterion's great leap forward.
By Alison Willmore on 11/25/2008
Filed under: WatchyThe Criterion Collection has made the jump into streaming video with their new Online Cinematheque, and they've provided an adorably low-tech video to explain their new high-techiness here. Basically, 19 of the films in their library are now up for week-long streaming rentals for $5, the cost of which you can apply toward buying the DVD in their store, should you feel the burning need to then own a physical copy -- and they're working on releasing more. Among the films you can rent on demand at the moment: "Clean, Shaven"; "The Spirit of the Beehive"; "Sweetie"; and "General Idi... MORE »
"What if I went on tour this time?"
By Alison Willmore on 11/17/2008
Filed under: WatchyWhen folks begin wrapping up the year that was 2008, the most exciting (if still way up in the air, from a business perspective) trend has to be the rise of free streaming features online, whether they be "theatrical" premieres, a la Wayne Wang's "The Princess of Nebraska," Hulu's ad-supported library of older titles, or limited runs like "No End in Sight," which streamed in its entirely on YouTube until the presidential election. The latest in the latter category is Michael Tully's 2007 documentary "Silver Jew," which for this week only can be seen in its entirety on Pitchfork. The... MORE »
Starting up "The Stagg Party."
By Alison Willmore on 10/14/2008
Filed under: WatchyEpisodes one and two of the new web series from mumblecore's own Joe Swanberg are now up on the main site of IFC.com: "The Stagg Party" is a documentary series about Ellen Stagg, a Brooklyn-based photographer whose commercial career is sometimes at odds with her passion for shooting high-end erotica. (Stagg also has a small role in Swanberg's "Nights and Weekends," which opened on Friday.) Needless to say, this one is NSFW. Stagg on the series, from The Huffington Post: "The only problem that reared its head when I was shooting is that sometimes Joe would be in my shot... MORE »
Everybody's gone online.
By Alison Willmore on 09/15/2008
Filed under: WatchyFantastic Fest kicks off on Thursday, which is also when I'm headed over to Austin (hot damn!), but with beaming internet generosity the festival has already unveiled five features and five shorts from this year's line-up that can be seen, in their entirety and for free, online here. The features include Sean Donnelly's doc about Tiffany stalkers, "I Think We're Alone Now"; J.L. Vara's surreal noir "South of Heaven," starring filmmaking brothers Adam and Aaron Nee; and Reynald Bertand's comedy about an average man who discovers a face cream that temporarily turns him into a major celebrity, "La Creme." Those... MORE »
Hands on a Hard Body: "It's a contest, they say, of stamina..."
By Alison Willmore on 08/26/2008
Filed under: Watchy"Hands on a Hard Body" director S.R. Bindler has put his riveting 1997 doc about a Texas car dealership competition up in its entirety on Google Video -- you can watch it here. The film's been out of print on DVD for ages -- a narrative remake was slated to be Robert Altman's next production until his passing, a project that's likely since faded away. Bindler, incidentally, directed and co-wrote his friend Matthew McConaughey's new film "Surfer, Dude," set to open in Austin next week. While you're at it, Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter" is up with the... MORE »
The Roger Ebert of our age.
By Alison Willmore on 08/22/2008
Filed under: Critic watch, WatchyOr could he be more the Gene Siskel? Clearly, he's aiming for both... Ben Mankiewicz better watch his back. The new season of "At the Movies" starts September 6, for anyone playing along at home. + Video: My break out in "House Bunny" (BenLyons.com) MORE »
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream.
By Alison Willmore on 08/18/2008
Filed under: WatchyA personal note (though their last video won a prize at this year's SXSW Film Festival, so hey, total film connection) of congratulations to my friends and roommates at Mixtape Club on the premiere of their new music video for My Morning Jacket's "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2," which debuted on MTV2 today. It's your turn to do the dishes, y'all. + My Morning Jacket » Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Part 2 (MixtapeClub.com) MORE »
"Playing strip poker with an exhibitionist somehow takes the challenge away."
By Alison Willmore on 08/14/2008
Filed under: WatchyHulu has Whit Stillman's still-excellent 1990 debut "Metropolitan" up in its entirety -- you can find it below or at this link. Stephen Saito interviews Stillman on the main news site: The widespread use of the Internet began to hit full stride around the time "Last Days of Disco" was released, and yet your legend has grown through sites like WhitStillman.org and the speculative nature of the Web. How do you feel about that occurring? Well, it keeps you a little alive professionally, even if you sometimes feel like you're dead, so it's nice that you have some sort of... MORE »
"Being a vampire is definitely not this homoerotic..."
By Alison Willmore on 07/31/2008
Filed under: WatchyBecause it's a draggy day today, here's Morgan Spurlock sending up his own "30 Days" series and persona ("The whole community appreciates you just exploding the stereotype") at Funny or Die -- "30 Days of Night." Almost related -- New York's Vulture blog has Jean Painlevé's strange and marvelous 1945 documentary short "The Vampire" up for online viewing here. Painlevé is one of the filmmakers whose works is currently being featured at the new Maysles Cinema in Harlem. + Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days of Night" (Funny or Die) + 'The Vampire': Some Animals Were Harmed in the Making of This... MORE »
Huluing "Hoop Dreams."
By Alison Willmore on 07/30/2008
Filed under: Watchy"Hoop Dreams," Steve James' mighty, influential 1994 documentary following two inner-city Chicago teenagers over five years in frantic pursuit of the dream of becoming professional basketball players, is up on Hulu for free (with "limited commercial interruption" from sponsors) here. Hulu CEO Jason Kilar writes on the site's blog: In January 1997, I was walking curbside at Boston's Logan Airport. Waiting patiently in a line in the freezing temperatures was a guy named Steve James, the director of the documentary film Hoop Dreams. Steve was standing there by himself, minding his own business. I recognized him because he had just... MORE »
David Gordon Green, the early days.
By Alison Willmore on 07/10/2008
Filed under: WatchyNew York's Vulture blog has an early short from David Gordon Green in honor of BAM's upcoming retrospective -- you can watch "Physical Pinball" (2001) online here. [Photo: "Physical Pinball," Criterion Collection, 2002] + See David Gordon Green's Early Short Film 'Physical Pinball' Before Getting Baked at 'Pineapple Express' (New York) MORE »
Rooftop shorts on the web.
By Alison Willmore on 06/05/2008
Filed under: From the Editor, WatchyShorts from the Rooftop Films Series are back for the summer at IFC.com — there'll be three new films online each week here, but you can also find them through the Rooftop Films Blog, where the Rooftop crew will be posting information, commentary and interviews along with each film. They'll be posting 100 films over the next few months — here's what's online so far: The Morning Sun (Bryan Wizemann, 5:30) A woman wakes up, takes a shower, gets dressed, and leaves the house. In this fascinating and ephemeral film -- a study in the use of available light and... MORE »
The stages of grief, as chronicled online.
By Alison Willmore on 05/06/2008
Filed under: From the Editor, WatchyA touch more network news (May's a big month for us). IFC.com's been hosting new, never-before-seen episodes from the "Four Eyed Monsters" filmmakers here. The last one, episode 13, will go up tomorrow; here are the rest to date: > Episode 9 (Shock) > Episode 10 (Denial) > Episode 11 (Anger) > Episode 12 (Bargaining) Elsewhere, Austin Bunn at Stream sums up the Susan Buice and Arin Crumley saga. [Photo: Susan Buice and Arin Crumley in "Four Eyed Monsters," Less Life Lived LLC, 2005] + Four Eyed Monsters (IFC) + Four Eyed 101: From Break-Up to Breakout (Stream)... MORE »
Cough to get off.
By Alison Willmore on 05/05/2008
Filed under: From the Editor, WatchyA bit of network news: "Wilfred," IFC.com's new web series, kicks off today, with a new episode going up every weekday — the first episode is here, the second here. A cult TV show from Australia, the series began as a short film that won the best comedy award at Tropfest in 2002, possibly due to its killer thematic combination of pot-smoking pets and guys in animal costumes. The shiny new third season of Joe Swanberg's "Young American Bodies" will also be premiering on IFC.com starting next week — here's a promo. [Photo: "Wilfred," IFC, 2007] + Wilfred (IFC)... MORE »
"But that doesn't scare me... my sexual drive is the strongest!"
By Alison Willmore on 05/05/2008
Filed under: WatchyIsabella Rossellini's "Green Porno" shorts, in which she enacts the mating rituals of various insects, are now all up online here. [Photo: "Green Porno," Sundance Channel, 2008] + Green Porno (Sundance Channel) MORE »
Peter Scarlet talks Tribeca.
By Alison Willmore on 04/23/2008
Filed under: Festivals, WatchyHaving taken advantage of none of the past weeks' advance screenings, I'm going to be heading into many a Tribeca film come tomorrow, and possibly turning around and heading right back out of a few, given my luck in the past with parsing the festival's daunting line-up. All of IFC.com's Tribeca coverage, including interviews and videos, will be gathered here; in the intro piece, below, Matt and I talk to the fest's executive director Peter Scarlet. The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject("/static/bc/ifc_generic_blog.swf", "cinemaeye", "380", "295", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addParam("wmode", "transparent"); //change player width so.addVariable("pwidth", 380);... MORE »
Australia!
By Alison Willmore on 04/22/2008
Filed under: WatchyBaz Luhrmann is vodcasting about the making of "Australia," that Oz fuck explosion starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, thousands of cattle and World War II, as part of Apple's "Set to Screen" series on iTunes. The film, Luhrmann's first to follow the Red Curtain Trilogy, is in post-production now, and is due in theaters in November. There are only two behind-the-scenes installments up so far for download, an intro and a piece focusing on the on-set still photographer, but both offer glimpses of a film that looks devotedly and unabashedly epic, [Photo: "Australia," Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 2008] + Baz... MORE »
To watch: Page, Cage and the Coreys.
By Alison Willmore on 04/01/2008
Filed under: WatchyEllen Page sings "Zub Zub" in a "Juno" deleted scene at Daily Motion. For those who haven't been keeping track, that's the song written by Diablo Cody, a version of which, sung by Page, will be featured on "Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs," which is getting an iTunes release on April 8th. [Via Fimoculous.] A trailer for "Bangkok Dangerous," the Pang brothers film that had such a troubled time shooting due to the 2006 Thailand coup d'état, is here. Some day, I will put together a pictorial essay on the hair of Nicolas Cage from role to role, and this... MORE »
Two-inch shorts.
By Alison Willmore on 03/05/2008
Filed under: WatchyThe Sundance Institute has just put five short films from six established(ish) filmmakers up on the web for your free viewing pleasure here. The catch? They were commissioned as part of Sundance's Global Short Film Project to be designed specifically for mobile phones and, therefore, tiny screens, and, therefore seem to have been created with tiny, YouTube-like expectations in mind. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris of "Little Miss Sunshine" turn in "A Slip in Time," a slo-mo look at a few favorite slapstick moves, while "The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love"'s Maria Maggenti offers "Lo Viajes de... MORE »
Cannes: "Chop Shop"'s Ramin Bahrani.
By Alison Willmore on 05/25/2007
Filed under: Festivals, WatchyIFC News host Matt Singer talks "Chop Shop" with director Ramin Bahrani (of "Man Push Cart") and his young star Alejandro Polanco. Click on the image to play the video: IFC News' Matt Singer chats with director Ramin Bahrani (of "Man Push Cart") and actor Alejandro Polanco about their film "Chop Shop," which just had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. ; Chop Shop; IFC News; cannes film festival; An interview with Ramin Bahrani of "Chop Shop." http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid934052381http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=2621235 // By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C // found at http://www.brightcove.com/publishertermsandconditions.html. var... MORE »
U2, too.
By Alison Willmore on 05/21/2007
Filed under: Festivals, WatchyBy popular request, there's a video of the U2 performance on the Palais stairs in honor of the "U2 3D" premiere here. Don't say we never gave you anything.+ Cannes Cam: U2 Live From Cannes (IFC) MORE »
Categories
Recent Comments
- “I am totally psyched for this movie; I'm currently reading the book, and I have high expectations. I...”
- John Ortega on Cannes 2009: "Taking Woodstock." - 05/15/2009
- “Hello, can you let me know if the Asian film "Three Times" will air again? If yes, when. Thank you! ...”
- Celeste Li on NYFF: "Three Times." - 10/04/2005
- “thanks مركز تحميل”
- مركز تحميل on Gloden Golbes noms. - 12/11/2008
- “could you please explain why, for devil's rejects, the credits were rejected in favor of an ad? or w...”
- clarence williams on David Lynch presents Jess. - 06/01/2009
- “Just wanted to voice my support for this film. I just sent an email to a friend, a Serbian who now l...”
- Randy L. Fox on This Blog Is Not Yet Rated. - 01/21/2006
