Indie film news, reviews, commentary, interviews, podcasts and more, updated throughout the week.
A Brief History of Bollywood Sex and Romance
By Aaron Hillis on 06/24/2009
You can't beat the Bollywood classics for their overt romantic tension, where intimate touching (yes, even kissing!) was replaced with the poetic, polite innuendo of hot rain and wet clothing. It's funny that they'd be so reserved about what happens between consenting adults, considering India is the second most populous country in the world. (We know they're doing it!) In some ways, however, B'wood has become more relaxed in its attitudes, as younger, Western-influenced generations come of age and make waves in an industry built on tradition. Previously unseen "taboos" like pre-marital sex, onscreen nudity and even wife-swapping have curiously... MORE »
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The Hollywood/Bollywood Connection
By Stephen Saito on 06/24/2009
Filed under: FeaturesLong before "Jai Ho" entered the international lexicon, the gap between Hollywood and Bollywood had already been shrinking. In distinctly Western style, much of the action has occurred behind the scenes: Indian cable TV magnate and Bollywood producer Ronnie Screwvala's UTV Software Communications has co-produced the latest Hollywood films from Indian filmmakers M. Night Shyamalan ("The Happening") and Mira Nair ("The Namesake"), in addition to making financing deals with Sony and Will Smith's production company Overbrook Entertainment; Disney and Warner Brothers have begun to finance their own Bollywood productions; and last year, Reliance, one of India's biggest producer of Bollywood... MORE »
The Sandbox: When Games Become Movie Sequels
By Nick Schager on 06/19/2009
Filed under: FeaturesMost games based on blockbuster movies just don't deliver. Despite that, a new strain of cinema-related titles has been gaining traction over the last few years, and reached a head three days ago, when "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" hit store shelves: games that function as movie sequels. And it makes sense, since there are plenty of franchises still immensely popular with fans but, for whatever reason (lack of studio support; disinterest from the creative team), have never managed another big-screen outing. That's certainly the case with "Ghostbusters," whose 1989 sequel made considerable money but disappointed many (including star Bill Murray),... MORE »
The Sandbox: License to Infuriate
By Nick Schager on 06/05/2009
Filed under: FeaturesSavage mutant Wolverine races up a mountainside path and is confronted by a horde of armed soldiers. He slays them with brutal, bloody efficiency, slashing and stabbing with his adamantium claws before being surprise-attacked by a helicopter. Without hesitation, he jumps off a cliff and onto the gunship's cockpit, narrowly avoiding the spinning rotator blades, to smash the glass window and dispatch the pilot, and then leaps back to land as the airborne vehicle plummets to its destruction. It's the type of breakneck-intense sequence that Wolverine was born to undertake, a thrilling rush of death-defying acrobatics and animalistic physicality that... MORE »
The Sandbox: Interactive Iraq
By Nick Schager on 05/22/2009
Filed under: FeaturesIf war is hell, then should war games really be entertaining? That's the question surrounding "Six Days in Fallujah," a title based on the 2004 battle of Fallujah that was supposed to be published by Konami later this year. On April 28th, the industry titan dropped the project amidst cries from vets that the game would exploit the war for vicarious thrills and, in doing so, disrespect all of those who lost their lives in the battle. But in interviews, development studio Atomic Games made it clear that "Six Days in Fallujah," which was created with the input of Marines... MORE »
The Real Bob Dylan
By Aaron Hillis on 05/13/2009
Filed under: FeaturesWatch the world premiere of the latest Bob Dylan music video, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," exclusively at IFC.com. "Qui êtes-vous, Monsieur Bob Dylan?" --Jean-Pierre Léaud, in "Masculin, féminine" Who are you, Mr. Bob Dylan? Less than two years ago, Dylanologists had a field day with "I'm Not There," Todd Haynes' smarty-pants hallucination evoking the freewheelin' singer-songwriter's iconic persona, unknowable as he perpetually reinvents himself. But rock 'n' roll's poet laureate already had a history with film, both appearing onscreen and being portrayed by other actors. In honor of Dylan's tough-bird, rollicking new record "Together Through Life," I'm bringing it all... MORE »
Looking Back at "Dont Look Back"
By Michelle Orange on 05/12/2009
Filed under: FeaturesWatch the world premiere of the latest Bob Dylan music video, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," exclusively at IFC.com. As if capturing a momentous period in Bob Dylan's career and crafting one of the best and earliest examples of a major cinematic movement -- cinema vérité -- with "Dont Look Back" weren't monumental achievements enough, D.A. Pennebaker began his seminal film with what would be recognized decades later as perhaps the first music video. Ironically, this opening sequence, set to Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," is one of several instances in the film where Pennebaker strays from the tenets of vérité: in... MORE »
The Sandbox: "Braid" Forges a Path for Indie Gaming
By Nick Schager on 05/09/2009
Filed under: FeaturesTwo columns back, I capped off a discussion about the video game industry's worsening case of blockbusteritis with a plea for a viable indie gaming model like that of the movies. There is an independent gaming community out there, one that's historically existed mostly on the PC, and continues to thrive thanks to sites like Indie Games and TIGSource. What's needed is a more accessible platform, if indie games ever hope to make waves with console owners. And it seems to me that that platform exists today in Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network, two sturdily designed online venues... MORE »
Summer Preview: Repertory Calendar for the Coasts
By Stephen Saito on 05/05/2009
Filed under: FeaturesJames Cameron in Los Angeles with 70MM prints of "Aliens" and "The Abyss"?!?! The Dardenne brothers in New York for a career retrospective?!?! The instant cult classic "The Room" with Tommy Wiseau live in Austin?!?! Be still my heart. There's something for all tastes this summer on the West Coast, the East Coast and as you'll notice, the Third Coast on our calendar of the must-see events on the repertory theater circuit in May, June and July. And don't miss our look at the indie films that are hitting theaters or headed to online, VOD or DVD premiere this summer.... MORE »
Summer Preview: Anywhere But a Movie Theater
By Stephen Saito on 05/05/2009
Filed under: FeaturesWhether you're tired of people texting during the movie, want to relax on your couch or have a fear of catching swine flu, there's plenty of entertainment options that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home this summer, whether it's On Demand, Online, or On DVD. A helpful guide is below, and don't forget our look at the indie films that are hitting theaters this summer. On Demand Our sister company IFC Films will have quite the busy summer, providing at least one film a week to watch on demand and nowhere else. The company's Festival Direct... MORE »
Summer Movie Preview
By Stephen Saito on 05/05/2009
Filed under: FeaturesWe're all for getting out in the summertime, but there might not be anything more refreshing than cooling off in a movie theater... or seeing a movie in the comfort of your air-conditioned home on demand, on DVD, or online... or better yet catching a classic on the big screen at a nearby repertory theater. With literally hundreds of films to choose from this summer, we humbly present this guide to the season's most exciting offerings. May 1 "Eldorado" The Cast: Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde, Philippe Nahon, Didier Toupy, Franise Chichy Director: Bouli Lanners Fest Cred: Cannes, Warsaw, Glasgow, Palm... MORE »
In the Realm of Pornography?
By Matt Singer on 05/01/2009
Filed under: FeaturesThe Criterion Collection version of Nagisa Oshima's controversial "In the Realm of the Senses" that came to DVD and Blu-ray this week is listed on Criterion's web site as running 108 minutes long. That number corresponds with the length of the film's "original version" given by IMDb, though the site also lists a 109-minute version from the U.K., a 107-minute version from Australia, and a 98-minute version from Argentina. There seems to be a different cut for every country that's willing to show the film (unlike its native Japan, where it remains banned). The movie is almost an indecency Rorschach... MORE »
The Sandbox: Shake Your Money Maker
By Nick Schager on 04/24/2009
Filed under: FeaturesConsole gaming changed forever in 1996, when Nintendo's N64 was released with a controller featuring an analog thumbstick. It was a design not seen since the days of the Atari 5200, and one that would not only be copied by each successive console, but that would also help usher in an age of 3D gaming that took full advantage of the new apparatus. And the N64's interactive legacy wouldn't end there -- an empty slot on the back of the controller would soon present Nintendo with the means to further revolutionize the medium. At first used only for memory cards,... MORE »
Down From "The Wire": TV's Most Talented Cast Makes Its Way to the Movies
By Matt Singer on 04/24/2009
Filed under: FeaturesOn his DVD commentary for the pilot episode of his television show "The Wire," creator David Simon describes the series' objective. "It seems to be a cop show," he says. "But we were actually trying to mask something different within a cop show...It's about how institutions have an effect on individuals and how... you are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution you have committed to." The milieu of Simon's marvelous serial was the working classes of Baltimore: the cops, drug dealers, lawyers, public school teachers, longshoremen and so on. But since "The Wire" went off the air after... MORE »
The Sandbox: Blockbusteritis
By Nick Schager on 04/10/2009
Filed under: FeaturesAs any summer moviegoer knows all too well, there's nothing Hollywood likes more than a franchise capable of spawning sequels and tie-in merchandise. The glut of superhero, science fiction, horror and action series may please genre fans (in theory, if not always in practice), but their true admirers are the studios, who rely on them to prop up annual profits, as epitomized by the box office declines Sony Pictures experienced in the off years between "Spider-Man" releases. For the studios, sequels afford a lot less financial risk than stand-alone original films, equipped as they are with built-in audiences and recognizable... MORE »
Settling the Score With Linda Cohen
By Brandon Kim on 04/08/2009
Filed under: Features[This article is part of our Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight -- check out our box set giveaway here.] The role of a music supervisor on a film can vary, usually depending on how proactive the director is about the music he or she envisions in the film. Some directors make integral music choices from day one, and others have their music supervisor to make those decisions for them. Either way, putting it all together is a job that's crucial to any film, yet often goes unnoticed. Linda Cohen is a music supervisor whose work has clearly not gone unnoticed. I got... MORE »
Scores That Pop from Composers of Pop
By Brandon Kim on 04/07/2009
Filed under: Features[This article is part of our Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight -- check out our box set giveaway here.] Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead's lovable multi-instrumentalist, turned heads with his score for Paul Thomas Anderson's austere critical favorite, "There Will Be Blood." Immediately upon the film's opening scene, Greenwood's orchestration inflames the parched western landscape, superheating it with a man and his struggle to extract a profit from it. Greenwood uses an array of strings to strike an incredibly enormous, unsettling chord, the effect of which is to fuse the two -- the man and that broken landscape -- as it builds into an... MORE »
The Directors of Radiohead
By Brandon Kim on 04/06/2009
Filed under: Features[This article is part of our Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight -- check out our box set giveaway here.] With great bands often come great videos, and Radiohead is one of those bands that matured quickly and garnered talented directors early on. Some directors set out to create a good marketing tool and simply made the members look cool. Others were as cutting edge as the band whose songs they set to the moving image. Here's a look at some of Radiohead's more memorable videos and the directors who shot them: Director: Jake Scott Video: "Fake Plastic Trees" (1995) MORE »
On Anime: An If/Then Guide to What You Should Be Watching
By John Lichman on 04/03/2009
Filed under: FeaturesNeophytes tend to have the same reaction when they're about to be introduced to anime or manga: "Is this the tentacle stuff?" It's amazing how a niche subgenre you'll likely never run across unless you're actively seeking it out in the deepest bowels of the Internet has become so notorious. The majority of anime out there exists in the form of TV series that -- despite a preponderance of over-endowed ass-kicking ninja women -- are far from a lewd free-for-all. Whether you're settling down with animation of the Japanese persuasion for the first time, or just looking to get a... MORE »
When Hearing "Hallelujah" is No Time to Rejoice
By Brandon Kim on 04/02/2009
Filed under: FeaturesThere's no shortage of songs that get overused on the big and small screen, and whether the result of unimaginative hacks or some ill-conceived notion of what audiences want (uninformed hacks), it's always baffling. Staples like "The Way You Look Tonight," "Let's Get It On" and James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)" should never be heard in a film again. Then there are songs that have been so overused they should never be heard again, period. Bad to begin with, mindless garbage like "Takin' Care Of Business" and "Walking on Sunshine" are musical trans fats -- artificial, monetized... MORE »
The Cinema Eye Honors Salute Documentaries (Especially Waltz with Bashir)
By Alison Willmore on 03/30/2009
Filed under: FeaturesLou Reed was in the audience of last night's Cinema Eye Honors, accompanying wife Laurie Anderson, who introduced the award for music competition. Morgan Spurlock, Albert Maysles, Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker also took the stage as presenters. If reconciling an award ceremony's needs for glitz and celebrity with the unfussy world of documentary film doesn't seem like the simplest of tasks, the Cinema Eyes are doing an able job of it, moving uptown to posher confines of the Times Center for their second year. A self-described commemoration of the "craft and artistry of nonfiction filmmaking," the Honors are, as... MORE »
The Sandbox: "Resident" Racism
By Nick Schager on 03/27/2009
Filed under: FeaturesThis wasn't the type of horror "Resident Evil 5" was trying to elicit. Long-brewing controversy over the latest installment of Capcom's genre-defining survival horror series reached its high point two weeks ago, when the sure-to-be-blockbuster title hit retail shelves and millions were allowed the opportunity to determine for themselves whether, as some pundits had insinuated over the past year, the game was racist. While public opinion on the issue isn't easily measured, those in the mainstream media heartily chimed in with reviews-cum-think-pieces, from the Wall Street Journal's discussion of multiculturalism in gaming to the New York Times' more blunt and... MORE »
"Everyone Betray Me!": A Primer on "The Room"
By Matt Singer on 03/24/2009
Filed under: FeaturesSeated in front of a mantle upon which rests a football, a basketball, a bouquet of roses and a poster of his face, a man with a mysterious accent speaks about a movie. "Everything you see and experience was done meticulously with meticulous planning and with a lot of preparation," he says before adding, "This is the finished product," in case that was not made clear by the film itself. The man is Tommy Wiseau. His film is called "The Room," which Wiseau wrote, directed, starred in, produced and executive produced (he receives on screen credit for both producing titles).... MORE »
The Sandbox: That Old Creeping Feeling
By Nick Schager on 03/13/2009
Filed under: FeaturesNearly a decade after "The Blair Witch Project" brought camcorder shakiness to the masses, first-person horror once again took center screen in 2008 courtesy of three releases, two of them zombified: January's monster mash "Cloverfield," February's George A. Romero's installment "Diary of the Dead" and October's rabies-crazy "Quarantine." Given our Youtubing, cell phone-vid culture, it's an unsurprising cinematic trend, and one that seems particularly suited for horror films, where a fixed perspective can be easily manipulated for scares and is capable of creating a sense of immediate, frightened involvement for viewers. Well, that's what it does in theory -- these... MORE »
"Severed Ways" is Black Metal Incarnate
By Brandon Kim on 03/13/2009
Filed under: FeaturesDirector Tony Stone's first feature "Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America" is, on its surface, a story about two Vikings marauding their way through the forests of the New World 485 years before Columbus did. But more than that, "Severed Ways" bears the spirit of black metal, crafted into an audacious movie between the hammer of an HD camera and the anvil of Stone's wild musings. For the uninitiated, black metal is an angry, dark and tortured subgenre of heavy metal known mainly for the controversy it's inspired. Church burnings, murder, Satanism, Nazism -- these are the shadows it... MORE »
On Anime: Can Live-Action Adaptations Work?
By John Lichman on 03/06/2009
Filed under: FeaturesThere was a time when an introduction to anime meant grainy VHS tapes, glaring yellow subtitles and getting used to gratuitous violence and fan service. Box art plastered with magical sailor girls, bulky robots and shirtless heroes made it look more like you were purchasing fetish porn rather than glorified genre films. But for more than a decade now, anime has been working its way from obscurity to a recognized global art form that only began as a medium for kids. TCM aired Ghibli films, Hulu offers a swath of series both recent and classic, and, yes, IFC has also... MORE »
The Sandbox: New Movies Enter an Old Dimension of Gaming
By Nick Schager on 02/27/2009
Filed under: FeaturesIt's easy to understand why video games continue to be viewed as child's play. Since the Atari 2600's groundbreaking 1977 debut, the gaming industry has targeted kids as its prime demographic, defining itself via cartoon mascots and titles that conceal any gameplay or thematic complexity behind a veneer of juvenelia. Yet despite that situation, over the past decade a quiet gaming revolution has begun to show signs of maturity. As PR flacks will readily tell you, the domestic gaming biz now outpaces Hollywood's annual box office ($21.33 billion to $9.78 billion in 2008 profits alone). Even when factoring in games'... MORE »
Spirit Awards 2009: The Winners
By Alison Willmore on 02/22/2009
Filed under: Features"The Wrestler" took Best Feature at the 2009 Spirit Awards, which unfolded in typically rowdy fashion on a tent near the beach in Santa Monica. The film's star, Mickey Rourke, also won the prize for Best Male Lead, and gave a memorable speech involving Eric Roberts, Rourke's recently deceased dog and the realism of the wrestling lifestyle he enacts. Melissa Leo gave her heartfelt thanks after winning Best Female Lead for her part in "Frozen River," and in the biggest surprise of the night, Tom McCarthy took the Best Director prize for "The Visitor." Here's a complete list of the... MORE »
Spring Preview: A Guide to the Season in Indie Film
By Stephen Saito on 02/18/2009
Filed under: FeaturesSpring is a season of renewal, particularly in the movie business, where the completion of the awards derby allows Amy Adams to segue from playing a solemn nun in "Doubt" to a klutzy crime scene cleaner in "Sunshine Cleaning." Along with "Sunshine," there are plenty of festival favorites about to get their day in the sun, whether that's in theaters, on DVD or on demand online or on TV. This preview recognizes the many ways to get your indie film fix, as well as the special events you might want to head out to if you live in New York... MORE »
Spring Preview: A Repertory Calendar for the Coasts
By Stephen Saito on 02/18/2009
Filed under: FeaturesThere's no need to focus all your attention on new releases, particularly not when spring is studded with enough fantastic repertory scheduling to fill your every evening. Here's a look at what's been planned in New York and L.A. New York: Anthology Film Archives Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra returns to the Anthology Film Archives from Feb. 25-March 3 to present his latest film, "Birdsong," an atmospheric retelling of biblical Three Wise Men story with an eye towards the desert landscape they were traveling [pictured left], in addition to Mark Peranson's experimental making-of "Birdsong" doc, "Waiting for Sancho," which will show... MORE »
