“The Dark Knight Rises” debuts more new character posters
Has the Sacha Baron Cohen shtick jumped the shark?
Tim Grierson on Will Smith, the Last Movie Star
Exclusive download: Corporal, featuring Michael Shannon, presents “Glory”
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: Shannyn Sossamon in "Wristcutters: A Love Story," After Dark Films, 2007] In Goran Dukic’s “Wristcutters: A Love Story,” opening this week, suicides find themselves in an afterlife much like the world they sought to escape, “only worse” — all the jobs are menial and the landscape…
In “Lars and the Real Girl,” Ryan Gosling plays the reclusive young man of the title who suddenly finds a fulfilling romance… with a sex doll he ordered online. But anyone on the hunt for something salacious might as well stay home — Lars doesn’t use “Bianca” for the anatomically correct purpose for which she…
By R. Emmet Sweeney IFC News [Photo: Brad Pitt as Jesse James in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Warner Bros, 2007] When Bob Ford shot infamous outlaw Jesse James through the back on April 2, 1882, James the man turned into James the myth, a martyr to Unionist repression, corporate…
By Andrea Meyer, Matt Singer and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: "Last Days," Fine Line Features, 2005] When we first ran this piece over two years ago, we debated whether or not it was in poor taste to dwell on such a topic. Now, following the media frenzy provoked by Owen Wilson’s reported attempt at…
What do Robert De Niro and Coolio have in common? First, they’ve both worked with Michelle Pfeiffer — De Niro in last week’s “Stardust,” Coolio in the classic “Gangsta’s Paradise” music video from 1995′s “Dangerous Minds.” Second, they’ve both starred in a foreign production. Further similarities, however, end there: while De Niro’s trip overseas was…
By Aaron Hillis, Matt Singer, R. Emmet Sweeney and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey," Orion Pictures, 1991] The world lost two of its greatest filmmakers on July 30th, when Ingmar Bergman and then Michelangelo Antonioni passed away. The directors defined a type of serious arthouse film, and both have had…
Go to: [Home] [#50-46] [#45-41] [#40-36] [#35-31] [#30-26] [#25-21] [#20-16] [#15-11] [#10-6] [#5-1] 5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) Dir: Philip Kaufman Though it’s less overtly sexual than the famous scene involving mirrors and a bowler hat between free lovin’ Sabina (Lena Olin) and physician Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), there’s a strong argument to be…
Go to: [Home] [#50-46] [#45-41] [#40-36] [#35-31] [#30-26] [#25-21] [#20-16] [#15-11] [#10-6] [#5-1] 15. Get Carter (1971) Dir: Mike Hodges Phone sex is rarely played for anything more than laughs on film — it’s hard to make something so based on solitude and the thrill of the moment look less silly when presented for all…
Go to: [Home] [#50-46] [#45-41] [#40-36] [#35-31] [#30-26] [#25-21] [#20-16] [#15-11] [#10-6] [#5-1] 25. Female Trouble (1974) Dir: John Waters In “Pink Flamingos,” drag queen extraordinaire Divine had sex with her son, so when John Waters prepped his follow-up, 1974′s “Female Trouble,” he knew he’d have to come up with something really disturbing to top…
Go to: [Home] [#50-46] [#45-41] [#40-36] [#35-31] [#30-26] [#25-21] [#20-16] [#15-11] [#10-6] [#5-1] 35. Network (1976) Dir: Sidney Lumet Work-obsessed TV exec Diana Christensen (Best Actress Oscar winner Faye Dunaway) begins an affair with aging news-division prez Max Schumacher (William Holden), who learns that all she wants out of life “is a 30 share and…
Go to: [Home] [#50-46] [#45-41] [#40-36] [#35-31] [#30-26] [#25-21] [#20-16] [#15-11] [#10-6] [#5-1] 45. Breaking The Waves (1996) Dir: Lars von Trier “Have me now.” Child-like, sweet-faced and perhaps a bit touched in the head, Scottish highlander Bess MacNeill (Emily Watson, in her Oscar-nominated screen debut) has just married oil-rig worker Jan Nyman (Stellan Skarsgård),…
There’s a reason that any talk of sex in film comes back around to certain titles again and again. Getting two (or more) attractive actors to mash their faces together and huff and puff for the camera is relatively easy. Shooting a memorable sex scene is hard. We here at IFC News and Nerve.com sat…
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: “The Color of Money,” Buena Vista Pictures, 1986) We here at IFC News recognize the great contributions companies like The Criterion Collection have made to the fields of film preservation and restoration, and we treasure the DVDs of theirs in our respective collections. But let’s be…
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: Michael Bay's "Transformers," Paramount Pictures, 2007] When working on what would be his last movie, an ailing Orson Welles told his biographer that he had spent the day “playing a toy” in a movie about toys who “do horrible things to each other.” He couldn’t remember…
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore Vampires have become sexy, mummies CG, monsters sympathetic, but no horror baddie remains as au courant as the lowly, lurching zombie. The reanimated undead continue to be the indie subject of choice for highbrow horror and lowbrow schlock, in part because they’re the cheapest to whip up — slather…
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: "Belle Toujours," New Yorker Films, 2007] We here at IFC News doubt we’ll live long enough to see 99 years old in a way that doesn’t involve adult diapers and drool. Yet, the great Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira will turn 99 this December and he’s…
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: "Fargo," Gramercy Pictures, 1996] Kansas City might not be an obvious place to set a heist film, but Scott Frank’s “The Lookout” makes atmospheric use of the wide spaces at its outskirts and surrounding farms to tell a compellingly neo-noir tale of an unusual recruit in…
By Michelle Orange, Matt Singer, R. Emmet Sweeney and Alison Willmore [Photo: "Killing Me Softly," Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2002] On-screen chemistry’s a funny thing. Some actors come together and click; others might as well be staring out at each other from separate screens across the multiplex. When it comes to romance, good chemistry can mark the difference…
By Matt Singer IFC News [Photo: "Hannibal Rising," Weinstein Company, 2007] This week’s release of the film “Hannibal Rising” marks the crest of a new wave of Hollywood filmmaking: the rise of the prequel as a major box office force. First with 2005′s “Batman Begins” ($370 million worldwide) and then with last year’s “Casino Royale”…
By Aaron Hillis, Michelle Orange, Matt Singer, R. Emmet Sweeney and Alison Willmore IFC News [Photo: Rutger Hauer in the original "The Hitcher," a slasher cult favorite that inspired a remake opening this week. ®TriStar Pictures, 1986] Cult movies and independent films are rarely grouped together, but let’s drop the pretensions and face it —…
By Matt Singer Movies have always borrowed ideas and stories from other mediums, from literature to theater to television. But in the last decade one medium has surpassed all the others in influence and importance: comic books. It’s certainly not the first time comics have found a second home in Hollywood. During the first comic…
By Michael Atkinson IFC News [Photo: Eric Rohmer's "Triple Agent," Koch Lorber] There’s no shortage of speculation and analysis among maddened cinephiles about what is wrong with the American film distribution industry and why it is that way, but what’s certain is that every year scores of films that might have, and should have, gotten…
By R. Emmet Sweeney IFC News [Photo: "Dreamgirls," DreamWorks, 2006] The advent of sound in cinema made the movie musical possible, but also created a vexing question: how to have characters burst into song without causing the audience to burst into laughter? What was fine on stage became an unexpected problem on screen — some…
By Michelle Orange IFC News [Photo: "Volver," Sony Pictures Classics] 1. Volver 2. Shortbus 3. Fateless 4. Notes on a Scandal 5. Deliver Us From Evil 6. The Departed 7. Half Nelson 8. The Science of Sleep 9. The Queen 10. The Painted Veil I don’t have any themes to point out or grand sweeping…
By Michael Atkinson IFC News [Photo: "Battle in Heaven," Tartan Films] 1. Battle in Heaven 2. 4 3. United 93 4. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu 5. Woman Is the Future of Man 6. The Departed 7. Cavite 8. La Moustache 9. My Country, My Country 10. The Wild Blue Yonder A dire year, all…
