Music
Soundtrack for Philip Seymour Hoffman's "Jack Goes Boating"
Posted 09/03/2010 145 PM by Brandon Kim
Mel Torme aside, the soundtrack for "Jack Goes Boating" is heavy with highly revered indie rock acts like Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes and Cat Power. Some incredible 70's soul and 60's Reggae round out Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut and it looks like this might be the soundtrack to beat this Fall. And who doesn't like a little Mel Torme anyway? The film follows a limo driver named Jack, played by Hoffman, whose love for reggae inspired him to sort of grow dreadlocks. He dreams of working for the MTA while hanging out with fellow driver Clyde and his READ MORE »
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Music
Pop Star Rihanna Makes Her Acting Debut in "Battleship"
Posted 09/03/2010 1212 PM by Brandon Kim
What's most baffling about this movie, "Battleship," is not that someone decided to turn a Milton Bradley board game into a movie, or that the movie seems to have nothing to do with the board game (hello super lame brand recognition marketing scheme). Nor is it that they are taking until 2012 and $200 million to do it. It's that this is the movie that Rihanna decides to enter into acting with. The cast is boggling at best with many relative unknowns in this budget heavy naval action movie that's about an alien invasion getting fought off at sea. Some READ MORE »
Movies
"Prince of Broadway," Reviewed
Posted 09/03/2010 1130 AM by Alison Willmore
"Wholesale, wholesale, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Prada, got everything," croons Lucky (Prince Adu), his patter and easy charm his livelihood, coaxing customers in from the street to a shop owned by his boss Levon (Karren Karagulian), one whose back room is stacked with counterfeit purses, sneakers and clothing. A Ghanian immigrant in New York without a green card or a visa, Lucky plays at gangster swagger -- "I'm hustlin' like fuck," he boasts -- but he's a teddy bear at heart, proud of and pleased with the life he's carving out for himself, with his rented room, his girl, his roll READ MORE »
Movies
The Dark Backward: The Secret of George Clooney's Success
Posted 09/03/2010 830 AM by Michael Atkinson
You gotta wonder, in our pimply-faced, iCarly-ed, CGI-stoned, giant-fucking-robots-&-superheroes teenage CandyLand, where the millions of dollars "young adults" somehow obtain to spend on everything overrule the rest of us and Hollywood movies rarely get made if they do not beg for a pubertal audience, what the deal is with George Clooney. Just skill, intelligence, good looks and the lust factor of middle-aged filmgoing women can't fully explain his power and prominence. His movies, good or bad (mostly pretty damned good), coming usually two per year, are always aimed at educated, discriminating adults, a chunk of society normally as valuable to READ MORE »
TV
Revived and Derived: "Freaks and Geeks" Ep. 10, "The Diary"
Posted 09/03/2010 800 AM by Alison Willmore
"Freaks and Geeks" is now airing on IFC, and we thought we'd take this opportunity to revisit the show that launched a thousand bromance movies. Every week, Matt Singer and Alison Willmore will be offering their thoughts on that night's episode. Episode 10 "The Diary" Directed by Ken Olin Written by Judd Apatow (story) & Rebecca Kirshner (story and teleplay) "Who wants their kid to have sex and do drugs? Nobody." --Daniel Alison: The search for identity and one's place is in the crowd is a central theme of "Freaks and Geeks," and in this episode, everyone's fighting to change READ MORE »
Movies
"White Wedding," Reviewed
Posted 09/03/2010 730 AM by Matt Singer
I learned several things about South Africa in "White Wedding," an entertaining but forgettable comedy about two men and one woman roadtripping from Johannesburg to Cape Town, but the most interesting fact I discovered was that their films are just as susceptible to cliches as their American counterparts. The accents may change, but the stereotypes of roadtrip and wedding movies remain exactly the same: the traditional parents who clash with their forward-thinking children, the crotchety old relative with weird superstitions, the effeminate wedding planner, the bride who has to choose between love and security, the woman who misinterprets a man's READ MORE »
Movies
Werner Herzog on Death, Los Angeles and Avoiding Introspection
Posted 09/02/2010 255 PM by Bilge Ebiri
Presumably, Werner Herzog needs no introduction. Like an atmospheric phenomenon or a law of physics, the German filmmaker has been some kind of constant for over more than four decades of world cinema. That he continues to be a major presence in the world of film -- churning out both documentaries and narrative features with supernatural regularity - certainly speaks to his uncompromising nature. But it also speaks to his adaptability - the same guy who made deranged German jungle adventures with Klaus Kinski is now making deranged American cop flicks with Nicolas Cage. With the upcoming DVD release of READ MORE »
Movies
Y'Know What Impresses Me About the New Due Date Trailer?
Posted 09/02/2010 230 PM by Matt Singer
The fact that they managed to squeeze not one but two car door getting ripped off their hinges jokes. In one trailer! How often does that happen? The film, directed by "The Hangover"'s Todd Phillips, is, according to IMDb, about a "high-strung father-to-be" (Robert Downey Jr.)" who goes on a road trip with an "aspiring actor (Zach Galifianakis) in order to make it to his child's birth on time." I just hope they didn't give away all their best car door ripping off the hinges jokes. I hate when trailers do that. READ MORE »
Music
Radiohead Gives Amateur Filmmakers Audio Masters For Concert Film
Posted 09/02/2010 130 PM by Brandon Kim
Last year in Prague a group of Radiohead fans set out to make a concert film just using flip cameras in the audience, from about 50 different perspectives. It's not a new idea, nor does it sound like a particularly good one (even with vast improvements in the quality of flipcam video), but the final result of all that footage edited together was surprisingly engrossing. Radiohead thought so too, and in what seems to be one of the greatest rock story wet dreams of all time, they gave the Czech fans-turned-filmmakers the actual sound board recordings to turn the endearing READ MORE »
Movies
Harmony Korine's High Fashion Short Film
Posted 09/02/2010 1000 AM by Alison Willmore
Never one to go with the crowd (which in this case would mean making a perfume ad), Harmony Korine has created "Act Da Fool," a short film for high-end clothing brand Proenza Schouler. You're have to watch it here, there's no embed function. It's very reminiscent of "Trash Humpers," disconnected, low-res late afternoon imagery of abandoned cars in lots, discarded mattresses and shopping carts, and footage of a group of girls wearing Proenza Schouler outfits, spray painting graffiti, drinking 40s and hitting old tires with sticks as an echoey voiceover intones "I believe that the earth is a big ball READ MORE »
INTERVIEWS
Werner Herzog on Death, Los Angeles and Avoiding Introspection
The "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" director on his late friend Bruno S., his Toronto-bound 3D cave painting film and film critics.
VIDEOS
"Rambo 101" at Fantastic Fest 2009
At last year's Fantastic Fest, not only could you watch movies about gun violence, a lucky few got to participate in some themselves.
PHOTOS
Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning rock SXSW with "The Runaways"
Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning crank up the volume in Austin with the premiere of their new film "The Runaways."
Patrick Wilson and Chloë Sevigny expose "Barry Munday" to SXSW
Chloë Sevigny and Patrick Wilson walk the red carpet in Austin at the the SXSW premiere of "Barry Munday."
