Indie film news, reviews, commentary, interviews, podcasts and more, updated throughout the week.
Fantastic Fest: Uwe Boll, Auteur
By Matt Singer on 10/05/2009
Two things spread quickly at film festivals: upper respiratory tract infections and buzz. And the buzz spreading around Fantastic Fest last week was that the impossible had happened: that Uwe Boll, the infamous director of notoriously (and, at times, enjoyably) terrible films like "Alone in the Dark" and "BloodRayne," had made a good movie. Film School Rejects declared Boll's new film "Rampage" "sick, violent, and fun"; /Film called it "not just good in comparison to the rest of his filmography, but a good movie in its own right." Usually Boll's movies aren't just bad, they're splendidly bad. They're lazily plotted,... MORE »
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Fantastic Fest: And the Hits Keep Coming...
By Stephen Saito on 10/02/2009
Filed under: Festivals"'Ninja Assassin 2' will be in 3D with Sprayarama," director James McTeigue joked before the premiere of the first and so far only "Ninja Assassin" at the Alamo Drafthouse on Tuesday. And there were copious amounts of blood sputtered in the film that followed, a gory but too often creatively bloodless affair that stars Korean pop star Rain as Raizo, a warrior trained from birth in the ninja way before turning against his clan after the death of a female colleague. How you'll feel about "Ninja Assassin" will depend on your inherent interest in the masked men (and in this... MORE »
NYFF: Lost Control
By Matt Singer on 09/29/2009
Filed under: FestivalsCinema have produced some memorably bad mothers -- Faye Dunaway's wire-hanger-wielding Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest" springs to mind -- but I'm hard-pressed to think of a meaner mom in movie history than Mary, from director Lee Daniels' "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," a hateful, bitter woman who manages to be the most abusive parent in a family where the father has sired two children with his own daughter. This mortal-lock-for-an-Oscar-nomination of a performance comes from Mo'Nique, the comedienne who I previously knew best as the host of a reality television show that placed her name in... MORE »
NYFF: Drunk on Cinema
By Alison Willmore on 09/28/2009
Filed under: FestivalsBeing unfamiliar with "The Incident," the novel by Christian Gailly on which "Wild Grass" is based, I like to imagine it this fine-boned, New Yorkeresque tale of lonely Parisians brought together by coincidence. If that's the case, Alain Resnais' high-strung film is something like happens when you get that story drunk and it lurches around the house, knocking things over and hitting on your host's wife. In the New York Film Festival's opening night selection, mad flourishes are daubed all over moments that don't seem like they demand any particular emphasis, peculiarities abound and characters ramp up to and back... MORE »
Toronto 2009: The Feminine Mystique
By Stephen Saito on 09/22/2009
Filed under: FestivalsIt seemed appropriate that "The Young Victoria" closed out Toronto this year, considering that the festival turned out to be a coronation for women in film, in addition to being a celebration its host metropolis (a series of pre-screening clips from Toronto-based films honored the city's 175th anniversary). Besides showcasing upcoming femme-centric fall releases as "Bright Star," "An Education," "Whip It!" and "Fish Tank," the festival ended up bestowing audience awards upon the coming-of-age drama "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" and the doc "The Topp Twins," which focuses on a pair of lesbian sisters and musicians who... MORE »
Toronto 2009: "Bad Lieutenant" On Duty
By Stephen Saito on 09/21/2009
Filed under: FestivalsThe last shot of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" has Nicolas Cage with his back against the wall of an aquarium tank, letting out a slight guffaw before the screen turns black. Werner Herzog's explanation? Clearly, it's a reference to the final self-portraits of Rembrandt and Goya, who immortalized themselves laughing at their own reflections. "It has such a mysterious chuckle at the end," Herzog told the crowd at the Elgin Theatre. "You don't know where it comes from." There's little use in explaining most of what transpires in "Bad Lieutenant." It has little to do with Abel... MORE »
Toronto 2009: Neil Jordan Dives Into "Ondine"
By Stephen Saito on 09/18/2009
Filed under: FestivalsWhen Neil Jordan was wondering what to do during the writers' strike last year, all he had to do was look out his window. Although the director of "The Crying Game" and "Breakfast on Pluto" has filmed in his native Ireland before, he had never shot the rolling hills or seascape, which provide the backdrop for his new film, "Ondine." The film tells the lovely tale of a fisherman named Syracuse (Colin Farrell) who discovers in his net a young woman (Alicja Bachleda) that his daughter strongly believes is a selkie. Strange things begin to happen in the presence of... MORE »
Toronto 2009: "Micmacs"' Charming Arms Race
By Stephen Saito on 09/17/2009
Filed under: FestivalsWhy there were a few scattered empty seats left at the world premiere of "Micmacs," I don't know. This is Jean-Pierre Jeunet, dammit, and after putting the excess of "A Very Long Engagement" behind him, he arrived in Toronto with a leaner and meaner comedy that seems to have been designed as a playground for his visual ingenuity and boundless imagination. His partner in crime, the French star Dany Boon ("My Best Friend"), stars as Bazil, a video store clerk who's introduced to us playfully mouthing along to the dialogue in "The Big Sleep" before a freak gun accident leaves... MORE »
Toronto 2009: Edward Norton Talks to Himself
By Stephen Saito on 09/16/2009
Filed under: Festivals"I walk around talking to myself anyway," Edward Norton told the packed Ryerson Theater after Monday's premiere of "Leaves of Grass" at the Toronto Film Festival. "Maybe this was just the way to get paid for it." Although the "Fight Club" star's played a few characters with dual personalities, this new comedy from Tim Blake Nelson marks the first time Norton has played two distinct characters. The Kincaid twins have gone their separate ways in life -- Bill is a well-liked philosophy professor at Brown, while Brady is a deceptively smart hydroponic weed dealer. The brothers reunite when the straitlaced... MORE »
Toronto 2009: "Soul Kitchen"'s Chaotic Warmth
By Stephen Saito on 09/15/2009
Filed under: FestivalsGerman helmer Fatih Akin's latest, "Soul Kitchen," is a lark, but an enjoyable one. The film sees the director of "Head On" and "The Edge of Heaven" doing schtick for the first time -- not as odd a transition as one might think from his previous dramas, which have in common a deeply felt human touch and sense of interconnection. In fact, Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) wishes he were a little less connected at the start of "Soul Kitchen" -- his brother Illyas (Moritz Bleibtreu) is out on conditional probation and needs a job at his restaurant, a high school acquaintance... MORE »
Toronto 2009: "Chloe" is Heated, "Whip It" Whips It Good
By Stephen Saito on 09/14/2009
Filed under: FestivalsSome may disagree, but I think there's something pretty cool about Toronto's mayor David Miller coming out to declare how proud he is of Atom Egoyan's new erotic thriller "Chloe." Of course, Miller was more likely taking pride in the depiction of his fair city than the film itself, which opens with Amanda Seyfried putting on a lacy black brassiere and never looks back. Egoyan has never shied away from the erotic -- it's the thrills part that has eluded his work for mainstream audiences, and when we meet Catherine (Julianne Moore) at the start of "Chloe," she, too, is... MORE »
Toronto 2009: "Up in the Air" Flies High
By Stephen Saito on 09/12/2009
Filed under: FestivalsFour years ago, a friend of mine came home from Toronto disappointed by the premiere of "Elizabethtown," Cameron Crowe's ill-fated, deeply personal story of a man coming home to bury his father. The director of "Almost Famous" and "Jerry Maguire," Crowe was a true heir to Hal Ashby when it came to making melancholy and emotionally moving mainstream entertainments, yet when his cut of "Elizabethtown" (that was ultimately trimmed down in running time) failed to win over audiences here, it was hard to imagine when someone would attempt tp do so again. "Up in the Air" will be easy to... MORE »
Toronto 2009: "Jennifer's Body" Could Use Some Work
By Stephen Saito on 09/11/2009
Filed under: FestivalsEven though Telluride stole a little of Toronto's thunder with a sneak premiere of Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air," the foremost film festival in North America is not about to let anyone forget that it was the place where "Juno" debuted two years ago. All three "Juno" principles -- Reitman, screenwriter Diablo Cody (with "Jennifer's Body"), and star Ellen Page (the lead in "Whip It!") -- are back up north with new films, and the most direct descendent, the Reitman-produced and Cody-penned "Jennifer's Body," was the first of the three to premiere in the midnight madness section on Thursday.... MORE »
Comic-Con: "Iron Man 2" and Other Funny Business
By Stephen Saito on 07/27/2009
Filed under: FestivalsUsually, it's the crowds at Comic-Con who are calling "bullshit" during the panels, but it was Robert Downey Jr. who pulled the BS card on Jon Favreau when the director introduced footage for "Iron Man 2" and presented what looked like a cheesy commercial for a used car lot blowout with glimpses of the new film. "What was that unadulterated garbage I just saw?" Downey complained as he walked onto the stage to huge cheers. "You showed me better stuff in the editing room." Though Favreau protested that "Iron Man 2" only wrapped a week prior and nudged Downey into... MORE »
Comic-Con: Wild Things, "Hex" and Miyazaki
By Stephen Saito on 07/25/2009
Filed under: Festivals"This is getting weird...I like it," Josh Brolin said midway through the audience Q&A of Warner Bros.' presentation of "Jonah Hex." Sitting alongside director Jimmy Hayward and co-stars Michael Fassbender and Megan Fox a mere 48 hours after the film wrapped production, Brolin was clearly enjoying the moment, teasing the audience that the only comic book he read as a kid was "Richie Rich" when asked if he was a fan of "Hex"'s source material and smirking after five minutes of footage showed his scarred cowboy twirling six-shooters and tossing pickaxes at anyone who mocks his appearance. As Brolin emphasized,... MORE »
Comic-Con: Musings from the Back of the Twiline
By Stephen Saito on 07/24/2009
Filed under: FestivalsEveryone likes to pick out trends each Comic-Con, but at this year's four-day geek bacchanal, where the film panels once again have equal (if not greater) priority to comic books, there seems to be a genuine one developing as the faceless franchises that usually reign over the convention have given way to the some of the world's best directors pushing the limits of their craft. Sure, "Twilight" fans camped outside the San Diego Convention Center (forming what our own Matt Singer dubbed the "Twiline") for a glimpse of Robert Pattinson yesterday, and Saturday's "Iron Man 2" panel, said to include... MORE »
Subject Versus Approach at Cinevegas
By Matt Singer on 06/18/2009
Filed under: FestivalsThe "Pioneer Documentaries" program of the CineVegas Film Festival claims to highlight films that capture "subjects who defy odds and expectations." And that's an appropriate enough description for the seven docs featured this year, whose focuses range from poker to the anti-aging industry, but it's also one that could be applied to over half the nonfiction films on the festival circuit today. A good subject can make a documentary, but it's how a film presents and treats that subject that sets it apart, as two films in the line-up with thematically similar subject matter and extremely different approaches demonstrate so... MORE »
A Heart-Stopping (Literally) Premiere
By Stephen Saito on 04/30/2009
Filed under: Festivals, InterviewsIn a horror film, it's usually the audience that's freaking out, but that wasn't the case Saturday night at the Tribeca Film Festival, when Michael Cuesta's "Tell Tale" made its world premiere. Right as the stylish retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" reached its climax, one audience member's heart literally stopped, at least momentarily, as the film was suspended and an ambulance was called. (Though Cuesta initially suspected it might be a stunt on the part of Ridley Scott's production company, Scott Free, the director was later told it was likely a fainting spell or a transient ischemic... MORE »
SXSW 2009: "How Did We Get Away With That?"
By Stephen Saito on 03/19/2009
Filed under: Festivals"This movie's a comedy, I guess," director Jody Hill said in his introduction to "Observe and Report," the Seth Rogen-starring entry into the burgeoning mall cop genre. If Hill wasn't quite certain about what he had on his hands before the film played to a packed Paramount Theater, he could rest easy after the "weird-ass" character study pretty much killed it (both figuratively and all too literally at times, as Alison Willmore noted in her review on Indie Eye). By Tuesday morning, Hill and cast members Rogen, Faris, Michael Pena and Danny McBride were at the Austin Convention Center for... MORE »
SXSW 2009: The Winners
By Alison Willmore on 03/18/2009
Filed under: Festivals"Made in China," a comedy about a Texan boy who heads to Shanghai to capitalize on his novelty invention idea, and "45365," a documentary about everyday life in a small town in Ohio, took the top prizes at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival this year. Tennessee drama "That Evening Sun" and Katrina pet rescue doc "Mine" took the audiences awards. The full list of winners is below: Feature Jury Awards Documentary Feature: "45365," director: Bill Ross An inquiring look at everyday life in Middle America, the film explores the congruities of daily life in an American town Sidney, Ohio. Honorable... MORE »
SXSW 2009: "Bruno" and Kubrick
By Stephen Saito on 03/17/2009
Filed under: FestivalsA silence fell over the bus full of journalists that were being ferried from a preview of 20 minutes of Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comedy, "Bruno," over to see Sam Raimi's new horror film "Drag Me to Hell." The mood was so unexpectedly solemn that one prominent online journalist asked loudly, "Why is it so quiet in here?" to which another replied, "Because we're all traumatized." Indeed, what we had witnessed was true to the introduction given by a SXSW/Fantastic Fest staffer who said, "what you're about to see is rough footage...it's nasty," referring to the image quality before adding... MORE »
SXSW 2009: The "It" Factor
By Stephen Saito on 03/15/2009
Filed under: FestivalsThough he left out the explanation from his film for fear that it might sound too New Agey, Alex Karpovsky spent part of the Q&A that followed his documentary/concert film "Trust Us, This is All Made Up," talking about how his subjects, the Chicago-based improv duo of TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi, believe in a universal superconsciousness that they simply call the "It." Jagodowski and Pasquesi weren't on hand to explain the shared wavelength themselves, but the gist is that if they can simply get their collective egos out of the way, their one-hour set comes naturally, as if it... MORE »
Graphic: The 2009 SXSW Film Family Tree
By Aaron Hillis on 03/05/2009
Filed under: FestivalsFrom its accidental 2005 birth to its 2007 peak and beyond, "mumblecore" (that DIY pigeonholing non-movement we hate to call by name, yet keep doing so anyway) always had two defining characteristics: a social-cum-artistic relationship between its filmmakers, and a direct link to the SXSW Film Festival. Two years ago this month, I half-jokingly decided to illustrate a chart depicting how incestuous the "m-word" scene had become, connecting the collaborators to each film and one another. Now, as SXSW 2009 approaches, IFC has asked me to update the chart with this year's players, and if the lineup reveals anything, it's... MORE »
Rotterdam 2009: The Wrap-Up
By R. Emmet Sweeney on 02/04/2009
Filed under: FestivalsThe Rotterdam Film Festival has had a history of promoting the weird, the obsessive and the cultish in cinema, and there's been little change as this year's edition reaches its close. They've programmed a survey of recent Asian horror films, complete with a "haunted house" installation, and they've maintained their loyalty to unfashionable provocateurs like Aleksei Balabanov, whose acerbic takes on Russian history have always made their way onto screens here. That's without even mentioning the festival's support of debut filmmakers, three of which just received a 15,000 euro ($22,500 U.S.) prize from the VPRO Tiger jury (Ramtin Lavafipour's "Be... MORE »
Rotterdam 2009: Carlos Reygadas and Guy Maddin
By R. Emmet Sweeney on 01/27/2009
Filed under: FestivalsThe 38th International Film Festival in Rotterdam has streamlined its program into three sections, but it hasn't lost its focus. The fest still throws its weight behind young filmmakers, and a previous beneficiary, Carlos Reygadas, has emerged as a central figure early on this year. He's credited as producer on two films, Carlos Serrano Azcona's "El Árbol" (2009) and Amat Escalante's "Los Bastardos" (2008), and he's presenting two of his own works as well. The first is "Serenghetti," a new feature-length video projected on an office building in the center of town, which joins outdoor loops by Guy Maddin and... MORE »
Sundance 2009: "Push" and "We Live in Public" Take the Top Prizes
By Alison Willmore on 01/25/2009
Filed under: Festivals"Push," Lee Daniels' adaptation of performance poet Sapphire's novel about an abused, illiterate teenager struggling to break free from her hellish homelife in Harlem, was the big winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, picking up both the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, with star Mo'Nique earning a Special Jury Prize for Acting. Ondi Timoner's film about dot-com golden boy Josh Harris "We Live in Public" snagged the Documentary Grand Jury Prize, while in the World category, Kim Longinotto's "Rough Aunties" and Sebastián Silva's "The Maid" were given awards. The complete list of awards follows: The Grand... MORE »
Giant History with Patton Oswalt
By IFC on 01/23/2009
Filed under: FestivalsPatton Oswalt, at the Sundance Film Festival with the dark comedy "Big Fan," demonstrates his knowledge of exotic sports trivia by offering up the stories behind NFL greats like Ray "Wooden Socks" Flaherty and Arnie "Hamhocks" Herber. The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject("http://media.ifc.com/swf/ifc_generic_blog.swf", "gianthistory", "500", "375", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addParam("wmode", "transparent"); //change player width so.addVariable("pwidth", 500); //change player height so.addVariable("pheight", 375); //distinguish between different videos so.addVariable("s_movieID", "gianthistory"); //insert brightcove title id here so.addVariable("bctid", 8728079001); so.write("gianthistory"); MORE »
Video: "A Christmas Tale" at the New York Film Festival
By IFC on 10/13/2008
Filed under: Festivals, Videos"It could be sort of a slogan for this family: 'Let's get rid of melancholy'... They don't have time for melancholy. All of them are good fighters," said French director Arnaud Desplechin of his new film, an at turns lighthearted and deeply dramatic portrait of a family during the holidays that he compared in structure to an advent calendar. At the New York Film Festival press conference for "A Christmas Tale," Desplechin was joined by the legendary Catherine Deneuve, who plays the matriarch in the family and who affectionately compared the filmmaker to a "child in a playroom." The flash... MORE »
Interview: Darren Aronofsky on "The Wrestler"
By Aaron Hillis on 10/09/2008
Filed under: Festivals, InterviewsBy Aaron Hillis Brooklyn-born auteur Darren Aronofsky turned mathematical patterns and theories into a brooding thriller (1998's "Pi"), injected us with a bravura adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.'s reckless-addiction novel (2000's Oscar-nominated "Requiem for a Dream"), and raced against the clock of mortality in an ambitious love story spanning ten centuries (2006's unfairly maligned "The Fountain"). So what's a filmmaker's next move, having already zoomed a 26th century Hugh Jackman around the galaxy in an oversized soap bubble containing the Tree of Life? Curiously, you resurrect Mickey Rourke's career. One of the most wildly anticipated films of 2008, Aronofsky's humanist... MORE »
Video: "Waltz With Bashir" at the New York Film Festival
By IFC on 10/06/2008
Filed under: Festivals, Videos"This film was always meant to be an animated film. I never thought there was a chance to do it any other way -- not as a fiction film, and definitely not as a classic documentary film." Ari Folman, the writer/director of "Waltz with Bashir," described his unconventional and powerful doc about the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre and his personal involvement and memories of the incident to the press at the New York Film Festival. The flash 8 plugin was not detected. var so = new SWFObject("http://media.ifc.com/swf/ifc_generic_blog.swf", "waltzwithbashirnyff", "500", "375", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addParam("wmode", "transparent"); //change player width so.addVariable("pwidth", 500);... MORE »
