By Thom Bennett IFC News The term “independent film” has been forced onto far too many titles over the years, sometimes to lend a film credibility or as a defense of filmmaking incompetence. Another term overused by film critics the world ’round is “seminal.” So there are any number of “seminal independent films” and filmmakers…
By Thom Bennett IFC News Labelled “lesser Peckinpah” by film snobs, Bloody Sam’s 1978 film “Convoy” became a staple of early 80s afternoon TV, a dismissed one-off from one of the greats. But “Convoy” is, at its core, a Western with eighteen-wheelers instead of horses, and is not as far removed from the more revered…
By Thom Bennett IFC News “This is based on a true story… sort of.” Tony Scott’s much-maligned “Domino,” ostensibly based on the life and times of British prep-school girl-turned-model-turned-LA bounty hunter Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley), is a frenetic and sometimes visually overwhelming piece of filmmaking…and that’s before we even get to the story. Since an…
By Thom Bennett IFC News Debutantes and their dates: Whit Stillman’s “Metropolitan” was a tough sell amongst its indie peers when it came to be in 1990. Sixteen years on and only three films later, Stillman still has little, if anything, in common with his contemporaries. But “Metropolitan” remains one of a handful of post-Sundance…
By Thom Bennett IFC News It’s been a long time since I’ve been any sort of a Nicholas Cage fan. I’ve always had a problem with him as a leading man and have generally felt that he was meant for darker or quirkier things, like “Wild at Heart” or even “Moonstruck.” “Lord of War” was…
