Indie film news, reviews, commentary, interviews, podcasts and more, updated throughout the week.
Hal Holbrook's Sunny Disposition
By Aaron Hillis on 11/05/2009
At 84 years young, actor Hal Holbrook has had drama coursing through his veins for over a half-century, going back to when Ed Sullivan had him on TV to perform a piece from his beloved one-man play, "Mark Twain Tonight." But Holbrook remains prolific in his twilight years, especially after receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for "Into the Wild." He can most recently be seen headlining director Scott Teems' gorgeously atmospheric "That Evening Sun," in which he steals the show as an irritable Tennessee coot named Abner Meecham. After escaping a nursing home to find his land has... MORE »
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Pushing Richard Kelly's Buttons
By Aaron Hillis on 11/05/2009
Filed under: InterviewsWhen "Donnie Darko," writer-director Richard Kelly's ominous sci-fi tale of teen angst, premiered at Sundance in 2001, its oddball ambitiousness was generally dismissed. When it was eventually picked up for distribution, it had a weak theatrical run, but grew into a massive cult hit on DVD, paving the way for a double-disc director's cut and Kelly's even bolder follow-up, "Southland Tales." Similarly panned at its 2006 Cannes premiere, that pitch-black sociopolitical (and yes, sci-fi) satire about the end of the world was edited down, but still polarized critics and audiences, which proves that you can't set out to make a... MORE »
The Many Meanings of Chris Smith's "Collapse"
By Stephen Saito on 11/04/2009
Filed under: Interviews"Collapse," the title of Chris Smith's new documentary, is a loaded word that applies to the film in a variety of ways. Its obvious implication concerns its main subject Michael Ruppert, a former police officer who turned in his gun and badge for a library card and a newsletter-turned-web site called From The Wilderness, which prizes itself on intensely researched investigative work about government corruption, corporate malfeasance and suspicious activity in every corner of the globe. When presented with the idea that he's a conspiracy theorist, he quickly replies, "I deal in conspiracy fact." And the facts he presents in... MORE »
Troy Duffy Still Packs a Punch
By Aaron Hillis on 10/29/2009
Filed under: InterviewsThere are really two reasons why you'd recognize the name of writer/director Troy Duffy. One, you're a member of the energized fan base who can recite every line of his 1999 debut, "The Boondock Saints." A John Woo-styled crime thriller that first trickled out in a perfunctory release, Duffy's blood-soaked tale of Irish Catholic twins who go vigilante on some Boston mobsters slowly grew into a monstrous cult hit on home video. But if you haven't seen it, the only other way you'd know Duffy is from the 2003 doc "Overnight," a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the "Boondock" production, in which... MORE »
Ti West Gives Horror a Good Name
By Nick Schager on 10/27/2009
Filed under: InterviewsWith mainstream horror now defined by cruddy PG-13 originals and even cruddier remakes, Ti West's "The House of the Devil" couldn't have arrived at a better time. An unpredictable saga of teenage boredom and Satanic cults in which a college student makes the mistake of taking a babysitting gig at Tom Noonan's titular residence, West's third film (after "The Roost" and "Trigger Man") assumes the guise of an '80s genre flick -- from its title credits to its hair styles -- without ever treating those trappings as jokes. More faux-relic than cheeky homage, the film confirms West's status as a... MORE »
Sexual Perversity in Denmark: An Interview with Lars von Trier
By Aaron Hillis on 10/21/2009
Filed under: InterviewsWhat does it take to be hailed the bad boy of Danish cinema? Among other feats, Lars von Trier co-signed the Dogme 95 manifesto, forcing regimented rules upon filmmakers in a cry for anti-blockbuster honesty. His own entry, "The Idiots," pissed people off for featuring able-bodied adults pretending to find their "inner spazz." He began two trilogies he has no intention of finishing (though one of the main actors from "The Kingdom" died after Part II), and forced aging mentor Jørgen Leth to remake his own short film with multiple sets of no-win restrictions in the experimental doc "The Five... MORE »
What Drives Nathan Fillion
By Aaron Hillis on 10/14/2009
Filed under: InterviewsEven if Nathan Fillion weren't currently playing the eponymous mystery writer on the hit TV series "Castle," the genre fans out there would surely know the charming Canadian actor from his work with cult-beloved producer Joss Whedon. Fillion had a pivotal role as a serial-killing priest in the final episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," captained both the ship and ensemble cast of space western "Firefly" (and its spin-off feature "Serenity"), and goofily played Neil Patrick Harris' superhero nemesis in Whedon's web musical "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." Fillion currently co-stars in writer-director James Mottern's terrific desert drama "Trucker," starring Michelle... MORE »
(Almost) Everybody Loves Chris Rock
By Aaron Hillis on 10/08/2009
Filed under: InterviewsWhen Chris Rock's young daughter asked him one day why she didn't have "good hair," the comedian extraordinaire began thinking about the issues surrounding African-American women and their tresses -- or rather, their painstakingly and expensively straightened or even artificial hair. Directed by Rock's Emmy-winning collaborator Jeff Stilson ("The Chris Rock Show"), the hilarious and occasionally horrifying new doc "Good Hair" investigates beauty salon culture and the lengths black women go to for the sake of self-esteem and societal pressures. Rock himself acts as our guide, interviewing scientists about the toxicity of sodium hydroxide relaxers, schoolteachers and other working-class people... MORE »
A Damned Good Acting Lesson From Michael Sheen
By Stephen Saito on 10/08/2009
Filed under: InterviewsMichael Sheen is an excellent interview, not that he hasn't had the practice. Coming off an acclaimed turn as journalist David Frost in last year's "Frost/Nixon," Sheen once again plays a man who sits in judgment as Brian Clough, the brash soccer manager given to tossing out bon mots like "Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job" before he's humbled by a disastrous 44-day stint in charge of the revered Leeds United squad in 1974. Although Clough spends much of "The Damned United" in the hot seat, Sheen clearly relishes playing the alternately cocky... MORE »
The Education of Nick Hornby
By Erica Abeel on 10/07/2009
Filed under: InterviewsYou'd think that the coming-of-age tale about a girl in her teens had run out of juice. But then, along comes "An Education" to revitalize the genre. The darling of this year's Sundance, which instantly put its radiant young star Carey Mulligan on the Oscar radar, "An Education" is based on journalist Lynn Barber's tell-all piece about a youthful affair circa 1961, before "the '60s" took hold. Directed by Lone Scherfig, the film, as promised by the title, recounts the sentimental education of 16-year-old Jenny, an excellent student enamored of all things French and impatient to tango with adult life.... MORE »
The Coen Brothers Man Up
By Stephen Saito on 10/01/2009
Filed under: Interviews"A Serious Man" marks Ethan and Joel Coen's return not only to the Midwest for the first time since "Fargo," but to an era they know well from growing up in Minnesota's St. Louis Park during the 1960s. As a New Yorker profile of local son Senator Al Franken recently noted, the heavily Jewish suburb has given birth to a generation of such acute thinkers as the Coens and Thomas Friedman. Yet when we meet Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a harried physics professor at the local college, he is a man utterly bereft of answers. As he faces a decision... MORE »
Michael Moore Administers "Capitalism" Punishment
By Aaron Hillis on 09/25/2009
Filed under: InterviewsIt's been 20 years since Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore -- then just a regular working-class Joe from Flint, MI -- effectively and literally changed the face of documentaries today with his masterful debut, "Roger and Me." Armed with a camera, a microphone and a liberal agenda to confront the greedy capitalist swine responsible for devastating the auto industry workforce in his hometown, Moore went from being the little guy to the most well-known personality in nonfiction cinema today. He entertainingly set his aims on the firearms debate in "Bowling for Columbine," won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for taking George... MORE »
In the Company of "Men" with John Krasinski
By Aaron Hillis on 09/24/2009
Filed under: InterviewsJohn Krasinski never got a chance to meet David Foster Wallace, the brilliant writer who's best known for his epic novel "Infinite Jest," and who took his own life a year ago this month. But when the "Office" star decided to adapt Wallace's 1999 short story collection "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" into his directorial debut, the two spoke by phone, which is how the actor was given the author's blessing. Reverential to its insightful and caustically funny source material, the film version of "Brief Interviews" stars Julianne Nicholson as an anthropological doctoral candidate working on an ambitious research project:... MORE »
Paul Schneider's Bright Ideas
By Stephen Saito on 09/23/2009
Filed under: Interviews"So...Andrei Tarkovsky!" Paul Schneider said when I sat down to talk with him. I wasn't really prepared to discuss the merits of the Russian auteur, but then neither was he -- it was the just the kind of disarming introduction you'd expect from Schneider, who's made a career of playing guys you'd want to have a beer with in films like "All the Real Girls" and "Elizabethtown." Schneider can currently be seen working his low-key charms on the Amy Poehler sitcom "Parks and Recreation," and serving as a much-needed leavening agent in Jane Campion's period romance "Bright Star." In the... MORE »
Diablo Cody's "Body" Language
By Aaron Hillis on 09/17/2009
Filed under: InterviewsNobody, not even Diablo Cody (née Brook Busey) herself, could have predicted that this former blogger with a short-lived stripping hobby (the basis for her 2006 memoir "Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper") would end up winning an Academy Award for her very first screenplay, 2007's "Juno." Known for her snappy dialogue and pop-cultural quips (i.e. "That ain't no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, Homeskillet."), Cody has become one of the most recognizable screenwriters working today, in part because of her colorful past and spunky personality. Expanding into television, she's already... MORE »
Few Spare Moments for Juliette Binoche
By Michelle Orange on 09/16/2009
Filed under: InterviewsJuliette Binoche doesn't have a lot of time. This is impressed on me over successive days leading up to an interview scheduled with much difficulty. Were there an American equivalent to Ms. Binoche, who turned 45 this summer, I'd imagine her with hours and perhaps even months to spare, as she waits out the Hollywood actress' awkward stage, after the ingénue years and before settling into the wise/bitter matriarch roles. And yet Binoche, born and raised in Paris, has entered the most fruitful (if perhaps hectic) stretch of an already remarkable career, adding explorations of dance and art to her... MORE »
End Times with Shane Acker
By Aaron Hillis on 09/09/2009
Filed under: InterviewsGet your numbers straight, folks: There's the upcoming adaptation of the Broadway musical "Nine," and this past summer's sci-fi sensation "District 9" -- which had CGI-based characters, but not as many as those in Shane Acker's fully animated post-apocalyptic epic "9" (which comes out today, on 9/9/09, of course). Based on his Student Academy Award-winning short film of the same name, Acker's feature debut was co-produced by Tim Burton and "Night Watch" director Timur Bekmambetov, a pedigree that already hints we're in for a dark, mystical and visually imaginative adventure. After mankind's extinction, eight-inch tall mechanical sack puppets live in... MORE »
The Architect of All Tomorrow's Parties
By Brandon Kim on 09/08/2009
Filed under: InterviewsBarry Hogan is the founder of All Tomorrow's Parties, the now-infamous festival that began in 1999 as the U.K.'s answer to other commercialized, corporate-sponsored festivals. Another key difference from those other festivals is the location -- ATP takes place at unique locations like the holiday camp at Camber Sands in Sussex where it first started and, as of last year, Kutsher's Country Club in the Catskills, which has become the festival's home in New York. Recently, Hogan told me all about how corporate douchebags have ruined music, the film he executive produced about ATP, why he and his wife have... MORE »
Joe Berlinger's "Crude" New Film
By Aaron Hillis on 09/03/2009
Filed under: InterviewsSpirit Award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger thinks of himself as a storyteller first and a journalist second, which explains why his documentaries are more cinematic than the norm. With his best friend and frequent collaborator Bruce Sinofsky, Berlinger has co-directed some of the more complex and gripping American docs in recent years, including the bizarre murder-trial exposés "Brother's Keeper" and "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" (along with the latter's sequel), and the metalhead therapy session "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster." But now Berlinger steps out on his own with "Crude," a heartbreaking and compellingly multifaceted epic about... MORE »
Patton Oswalt: A "Fan" for All Seasons
By Aaron Hillis on 08/26/2009
Filed under: InterviewsOne of the most irreverent, quick-witted and prolific stand-up comedians working today, Patton Oswalt is instantly recognizable from his TV appearances ("The King of Queens," "The United States of Tara"), voiceover work ("Ratatouille") and cameo roles in movies ("Observe and Report," "Starsky and Hutch"). So the most surprising fact about Oswalt's first film leading role is that it's far too unsettling to be called a comedy. "Big Fan" marks the directorial debut of Robert Siegel, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of last year's "The Wrestler." A convincingly sincere Oswalt stars as Paul Aufiero, a sad-sack Staten Island parking lot attendant who obsessively... MORE »
The Spike and Stew Show
By Aaron Hillis on 08/20/2009
Filed under: InterviewsAs a singer-songwriter with rock, prog and punk roots, Stew (née Mark Stewart) has been on a fast track to widespread success. In any other situation, having recorded Entertainment Weekly's Album of the Year in both 2000 and 2002, or writing and performing a beloved song for "SpongeBob SquarePants" would be career highs. But Stew has since become a Tony Award-winning playwright, thanks to his cabaret-influenced musical "Passing Strange." Originally developed (with his longtime collaborator Heidi Rodewald) through the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab and the Public Theater, the show is an autobiographical journey about a young black musician from a... MORE »
An Earful From Michael Fassbender
By Stephen Saito on 08/19/2009
Filed under: InterviewsLast seen playing the famished Bobby Sands in "Hunger," Michael Fassbender is well due for a feast. In the next 12 months, audiences will be able to see the versatile Irish actor in at least four films, including the acclaimed Andrea Arnold drama "Fish Tank" and as a Snidely Whiplash-type villain in the western "Jonah Hex." But for now, he's one of Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," the prim and proper Lt. Archie Hicox, an OSS officer who's traded in his film critic career for a chance to help the Americans bring down the Nazi brain trust. It was a part... MORE »
"Zed is Dead": A Chat with Bobcat Goldthwait
By Aaron Hillis on 08/13/2009
Filed under: InterviewsComedian-turned-filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait is getting closer to shaking off his early career history, when his stand-up comic persona had a high-pitched, jittery growl (for the last time: no, that wasn't his real voice), which also fueled his role as Zed, the loose-cannon cop from the "Police Academy" series. In 1991, he directed the now cult-legendary "Shakes the Clown," but his real rebirth as an indie auteur begins with 2006's "Sleeping Dogs Lie," an unexpected tender rom-com about a guy trying to deal with the knowledge that his fiancée once performed oral sex on a dog. Goldthwait's latest feature is the... MORE »
And Starring Paul Giamatti As Himself
By Alison Willmore on 08/11/2009
Filed under: InterviewsLike the titular actor in "Being John Malkovich," Paul Giamatti plays a version of himself in "Cold Souls" -- "Paul Giamatti," an ever-so-serious thespian with a thriving stage and screen career who's so weighed down by the lead role in a theater production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" that he follows up on an ad offering the lightening of one's metaphorical load by the removal and storage of the soul. And like "Malkovich," "Cold Souls" gets a lot of mileage out of its playfulness with an actor's public persona -- in fact, writer/director Sophie Barthes had never met Giamatti when she... MORE »
Exclusive Video Premiere: The Dandy Warhols' "And Then I Dreamt of Yes"
By Brandon Kim on 08/10/2009
Filed under: InterviewsIFC.com presents the world premiere of the music video for the Dandy Warhols' "And Then I Dreamt of Yes," from the album "Earth To The Dandy Warhols," directed by Mark Helfrich (check out an interview with him below). Director Mark Helfrich is a romantic. He's nostalgic about his beginnings as an editor, back when editors actually had to cut reels of 35mm film by hand. He used to be a DJ too, and for him, movies and music go hand in hand like vinyl and a good pair of headphones. A longtime Dandy Warhols fan, he shot this video for... MORE »
Michael Penn Knows the Score
By Brandon Kim on 08/07/2009
Filed under: InterviewsSinger/songwriter Michael Penn has been making albums for two decades and is sad to see them go. Not only the physical media, but the album as an art form, a concept, a story with two acts. He's not the kind of musician who's excited that you can listen to your favorite mix on your phone. The son of actress Eileen Ryan and once-blacklisted actor/director Leo Penn, brother of Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn, Michael's no stranger to the movie business, but that seems to be the reason he chose to try and avoid it -- at least until... MORE »
Charlyne Yi Uncrumples "Paper Heart"
By Aaron Hillis on 08/04/2009
Filed under: InterviewsLos Angeles-born comedienne Charlyne Yi seemed so adorably unassuming as one of Seth Rogen's stoner buds in "Knocked Up," in which she memorably comments to the pregnant Katherine Heigl: "You must be angry at the baby whenever it steals your food, huh?" But the 23-year-old funny girl couldn't spend her life as a couch potato if she tried, since she's also busy as a performance artist, musician, writer and painter -- sometimes all at the same time, depending on which of her live comedy shows you've experienced. In director Nicholas Jasenovec's feature debut "Paper Heart," (which Yi co-wrote, executive produced,... MORE »
The Delightfully Prickly Julian Sands
By Michelle Orange on 08/03/2009
Filed under: InterviewsOn the screen, Julian Sands is known for a wide spectrum of roles that make the most of his seemingly contradictory mixture of glowering, antihero intensity and ethereal leading man looks. On the telephone, he presents an equally formidable hybrid: Sands has got delightfully prickly down to an art. The British-born actor, who began his film career in "The Killing Fields" in 1984 and broke through the next year as George Emerson in "A Room With A View," has worked steadily in film and television for the last 25 years, starring in cult classics like "Warlock" and working with directors... MORE »
The Wizard of Ozploitation
By Aaron Hillis on 07/29/2009
Filed under: InterviewsWhen "Kill Bill: Volume 1" premiered in Australia, Quentin Tarantino dedicated the film to one of his favorite directors, Brian Trenchard-Smith, whose name may not register if you're not already a fan of schlock classics like 1975's "The Man From Hong Kong" (the first Australian martial-arts film!) and 1983's "BMX Bandits" (starring a young Nicole Kidman!). Featured prominently in Mark Hartley's irreverently entertaining new documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!", the English-born B-moviemaker was a key figure during the '70s and '80s Australian boom of exploitation films ("Mad Max," anyone?) that rose after the Aussie censorship... MORE »
Armando Iannucci on Why Politics Are Still Funny
By Alison Willmore on 07/23/2009
Filed under: InterviewsDespite being a major recipient of that notorious Sundance buzz when premiering at the festival in January, "In the Loop" seemed out of place in Park City. Sundance is a festival that tends to take its comedy quirky, with a dollop of teary reconciliation, and "In the Loop" is stealthily, wonderfully heartless, a political satire in which individual self-interest constantly gums up the governing systems of two nations and eventually leads to war. Glasgow-born comedian Armando Iannucci, making his directorial debut with the film, knows his way around the savage send-up. In his storied career as a TV writer and... MORE »
