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Exclusive download: Corporal, featuring Michael Shannon, presents “Glory”
What happened to Cameron Crowe? This is the guy that made two of the greatest movies of my lifetime — “Almost Famous” and “Say Anything…” — and wrote maybe the greatest high school movie of anyone’s lifetime, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Now he returns to fiction filmmaking six years after the underwhelming “Elizabethtown” with…
If you’re anything like us and start your day reading comments on stories linked to by the Drudge Report just to get your bile flowing good and hard, you know that the most vocal parts of the right wing are positive that Hollywood is out to get them through malice, incompetence or a potent blend…
First, an apology. In writing up the trailer for “Margaret” on IFC.com, I invoked Gene Siskel’s old litmus test for movies: is a film more interesting than a documentary of its actors having lunch? “I have to imagine,” I said, “that no matter how interesting ‘Margaret’ is, a lunchtable documentary of its actors (Anna Paquin,…
Here’s the first trailer for “We Bought a Zoo” from Cameron Crowe. We spoke to the writer and director of “Say Anything…” and “Almost Famous” at length about the film, his first fiction feature in six years, during our Fall Movie Preview; you can read those interviews here, here, and here. And here (as in…
Tomorrow, if your germaphobia can handle it, you can go check out the latest movie from director Steven Soderbergh, the disease/disaster thriller “Contagion.” It’s definitely his latest; it may also be one of his last, since rumors about his potential retirement have been swirling since last December (this week, he started calling it “a sabbatical”).…
Film critic Gene Siskel had a great baseline test for a film’s quality. “Is this movie,” he would ask, “more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?” I have to imagine that no matter how interesting “Margaret” is, a lunchtable documentary of its actors (Anna Paquin, Matt Damon,
Like an infectious virus in a house full of nose pickers, here is a news story that just refuses to die. Way back in December, news reports began to surface that Steven Soderbergh was planning to retire after his last batch of movies, including the upcoming disease disaster flick — or diseaster flick, if you…
Cameron Crowe is an intimidating interview. After all, he’s the guy who was such a brilliant journalist as a kid that he was a Rolling Stone contributor before the age of 20. In other words: it’s never easy to speak to someone who’s better at your job than you are. Plus, there’s the whole part…
The Playlist spotted an item from Exhibitor Relations that brings some surprising news: Fox Searchlight will finally open Kenneth Lonergan’s “Margaret” on September 30. The long lost film has been sitting on a shelf for a very long time. How long? So long that when casting announcements were made, Anna Paquin was still working on…
On behalf of germophobes everywhere, I’d like to give a big Bronx cheer to Steven Soderbergh for his upcoming film “Contagion,” an all-too-convincing disease thriller about a highly contagious flu that threatens to destroy all of human civilization. Looks like I won’t be sleeping ever again, thanks Steven. Before you lather up with Purel and…
Tom Shone has a few “Good Will Hunting”-centric excerpts from a recent interview he did with Matt Damon on his blog. One particularly tasty anecdote involves Damon and cowriter Ben Affleck getting notes from Terrence Malick, who, Shone notes, “happened to be best friends with Affleck’s godfather”: “We just asked if we could have a…
It’s remarkable how different Joel and Ethan Coen’s “True Grit” is from the 1969 version starring John Wayne even though the two have all the same characters, nearly identical narratives, a lot of the same dialogue from Charles Portis’ original novel. The biggest difference is the Coens themselves and the attitude they bring to the…
Matt Damon, one of the stars of director Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming thriller “Contagion” told The Los Angeles Times that Soderbergh, who has threatened retirement throughout his career, is serious about doing it in the next two years: “‘He wants to paint and he says he’s still young enough to have another career,’ Damon said. ‘He’s…
At 12 a.m. ET tonight on IFC we are showing Shattered. Tom Berenger stars as an amnesiac who begins to suspect that the car crash that caused his memory loss was not an accident and his doting wife (Greta Scaachi) may not be all that doting. Have you ever met someone with amnesia? I haven’t.…
“Go and tell that long tongue liar, go and tell that midnight rider… tell em that God’s gonna cut em down.” So says Johnny Cash in his bad ass song playing in the new feature trailer for the Coen’s “True Grit” remake. This second trailer is a vast improvement on the first teaser released —…
Back in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen waltzed onto the American cinematic scene and stunned audiences with their quietly cold-blooded thriller Blood Simple. The simple double-cross noir theme is beautifully executed and spun on its head showing that in film making, simple is usually best. Again and again the Coen Brothers have proven this. Fargo…
Late last year, there was a kerfuffle over the “degaying” of the “Humpday” DVD cover. The theatrical poster featured a shirtless Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard looking at each other in front of pink floral wallpaper. The DVD went instead for a blue backdrop and inserted Alycia Delmore between the two guys, apparently to convey…
No one could say that Paul Greengrass lacks good intentions. As a reporter for the British current affairs show “World In Action,” Greengrass worked on two contentious stories. The first was an interview with IRA hunger striker Raymond McCartney (preparation for which was done via smuggled messages written on cigarette papers), the second a collaboration…
If you’re expecting Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus,” about how new South African president Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) used the country’s rugby team as a way to bring the nation together, to be preachy and obvious, the film’s first and last scenes will fulfill your worst fears. Everything in between, however, comes smarter and more…
Steven Soderbergh has proven to be a uniquely unpredictable director since his debut in 1989 with “Sex, Lies, and Videotape.” He’s lost me a few times over the years especially with his, Tarkovsky “Solaris” remake, but it’s sad news to hear one of the most interesting American directors announce that he’s throwing in the towel.…
With everyone so busy doing year-end and decade-end round-ups of The Way We Live Now, it’s inevitable that someone would come along and try to define what Acting Looks Like Now. And that someone is film critic David Thomson, a specialist in the parlor game of presenting his own readings and interpretations as general truth.…
Quietly and unexpectedly, Matt Damon has become the premier Hollywood actor of the past decade. He’s lent his minutely constructed, surprisingly athletic performances to the films of directors Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, Paul Greengrass, Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood, a roster that’s not coincidentally produced some of the most vital and successful films of…
As the stars walked the red carpet for the Toronto premiere of “Jennifer’s Body,” there were fans screaming “Megan!” and “Adam!” and one, just off to the side, holding up a picture of screenwriter Diablo Cody affixed to a piece of cardboard and illuminated like a medieval manuscript. Even during this conclave of international cineastes,…
As someone who spends plenty of time trolling the coming soon calendar for our seasonal previews, I’ll see many films that look intriguing, but are pulled at the last minute by their distributor. Or worse — they end up like “The Marc Pease Experience,” a Ben Stiller-Jason Schwartzman comedy that has seen release dates come…
When Stanislavsky decreed, “there are no small parts, only small actors,” Matt Damon was listening. In a career that started with one line in “Mystic Pizza,” Damon has risen to the ranks of the A-list. Yet as Damon’s star has gotten bigger, the roles have gotten smaller — most recently, the “Bourne” star reaffirmed his…
