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A look at what's new on the IFC News site: Aaron Hillis rounds up the latest in grown-up animation: "Finding life along the major festival circuit and even some noteworthy theatrical releases across the country, a fresh crop of animated features are demonstrating darker, more mature, and downright arthouse sensibilities." Matt Singer reviews "The Science of Sleep" and "Renaissance": "Stefane's character, too consumed by his dreams to consummate his relationship with neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is a frustrating hero, too childishly whiny to command our sympathy. At times, 'The Science of Sleep' is downright maddening. At others, it is heart-breakingly beautiful." Matt also interviews director Michel Gondry. Dan Persons interviews "Old Joy"'s Kelly Reichardt:Well, I am a huge Monte Hellman fan, so, if anything, a lot of what I was doing with sound design, perhaps, comes from him. But when I was shooting, I was watching a lot of......
A look at what’s new on the IFC News site:
Aaron Hillis rounds up the latest in grown-up animation: "Finding life along the major festival circuit and even some noteworthy theatrical releases across the country, a fresh crop of animated features are demonstrating darker, more mature, and downright arthouse sensibilities."
Matt Singer reviews "The Science of Sleep" and "Renaissance": "Stefane’s character, too consumed by his dreams to consummate his relationship with neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is a frustrating hero, too childishly whiny to command our sympathy. At times, ‘The Science of Sleep’ is downright maddening. At others, it is heart-breakingly beautiful."
Matt also interviews director Michel Gondry.
Dan Persons interviews "Old Joy"‘s Kelly Reichardt:
Well, I am a huge Monte Hellman fan, so, if anything, a lot of what I was doing with sound design, perhaps, comes from him. But when I was shooting, I was watching a lot of… just going back to Satyajit Ray‘s films, and also I was watching a lot of Taiwanese filmmaking that year, and a lot of Ozu and Renoir, who has a beautiful way of dealing with nature, and the Apu trilogy, which I hadn’t looked at since college. But Monte Hellman’s great because he worked with smaller crews that went on the road, much like me. He worked with actors and non-actors and, in "Two-Lane Blacktop," you probably can’t discover a new place to put a camera on a car that he didn’t think of.
And R. Emmet Sweeney writes an appreciation of one Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson:
He internalized the sarcastic conscience of [Seann William] Scott/[Johnny] Knoxville in the "Get Shorty" sequel "Be Cool" (2005), explicitly parodying the self-image that he had already so thoroughly deconstructed in straighter films. But his performance is brilliant — as gay bodyguard Elliot Wilhelm, he outs his love of performance, no longer masked under blood and guts. No, here he just emotes — spectacularly so in his one-man rendition of a scene from "Bring It On," playing both sides of a cheerleader bitch session. It dwarfs the rest of the film by its utter fearlessness — what comparable box-office draw would have the confidence to pull off such a feminizing stunt? It’s remarkable, and his version of Loretta Lynn‘s "You Ain’t Woman Enough" might even top it.
+ Leave the Kids at Home: The Rebirth of Arthouse Animation (IFC News)
+ The Film Geek’s "Science of Sleep" Guide to New in Theaters (IFC News)
+ Michel Gondry’s Latest (Greatest) Idea (IFC News)
+ Backwoods of Bush’s America: Kelly Reichardt’s "Old Joy" (IFC News)
+ An Appreciation of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (IFC News)
