Indie film news, reviews, commentary, interviews, podcasts and more, updated throughout the week.
The 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time
By IFC on 06/25/2009
They should be called leaders. We know them as trailers, but they don't trail anything; they play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary "Coming Attractions" dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled "What Happened to Mary?" After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences "The next incident in the series of 'What Happened to Mary' will be shown a week from now." Not exactly "In a world..." but it did the trick back in... MORE »
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When Films Fall Victim To Bad Timing
By Matt Singer on 06/04/2009
Filed under: ListsMotion pictures are years or even decades in the making. As much as we like to ascribe credit to directors who manage to capture the zeitgeist -- like when Sam Raimi uses a put-upon mortgage broker as the heroine of his new movie right in the middle of an economic crisis fueled by the collapse of the housing market -- the truth is, more often than not, a movie's cultural relevancy is a matter of luck and timing. In the case of "Drag Me To Hell," Raimi's film was eerily prescient, but just as often the opposite turns out to... MORE »
Meeting Mr. or Ms. Wrong
By Marin Gazzaniga on 05/26/2009
Filed under: ListsIFC.com's newest web series "Like So Many Things..." premieres today, and co-creators Marin Gazzaniga and Anslem Richardson offer up their thoughts on the best films about romances that are anything but easy. "Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but, well, there haven't been any quiet moments." -- "Bringing Up Baby" Meeting Mr./Ms. Wrong movies come in many varieties. There are the star-crossed lovers who are kept apart by outside forces ("Romeo and Juliet"). Or the couple whose hate for each other is only masking the... MORE »
The Five Rules For Making a Modern Spoof Film
By Matt Singer on 05/22/2009
Filed under: Lists"Dance Flick," from a group perhaps best described as the Wayans Brothers: The Next Generation (Keenen Ivory's nephew Damien Dante produced and directed the film, which stars his cousin Damon Jr.) opens today, the fifth parody movie (or spoof) since the start of last year. This astonishing burst of productivity has coalesced around a new set of rules for making spoof films that places them in stark contrast to watershed predecessors like "Young Frankenstein" or "Airplane!" Here are five reliable new school spoofing guidelines. There's a 50/50 chance these will work for "Dance Flick" too, though there's only a ten... MORE »
A Shout-Out to the Silent Sidekicks
By Matt Singer on 05/07/2009
Filed under: ListsThey say in every successful relationship, there's a flower and a gardener -- a star and an extra -- and that people gravitate toward those who'll let them inhabit their instinctive roles. A similarly symbiotic dynamic is often set up, in film and comedy, between a main character and his or her silent sidekick. The silent sidekick is a somewhat exotic species, but there are enough of them and enough similarities in the function they have played in some famous films and infamous comic pairings, that we decided to take a closer look on the eve of "The Brothers Bloom,"... MORE »
"Wanna hear a story... city boy?": The Ten Best Horror Westerns
By Sean Axmaker on 04/22/2009
Filed under: ListsWesterns. Horror films. Two great genres that go great together? You would think so. Westerns and horror films are, more than any American film genres I can think of, viscerally grounded in mortality, the vulnerability of human flesh and the primal drive of survival instinct. Whether facing wild animals or bloodthirsty monsters, cold-blooded gunfighters or psychotic madmen, roving bands of raiders or packs of zombies, the heroes of these films fight to live. "It feels like a natural connection. They're two of the most cinematic experiences that you have watching a movie," notes director J.T. Petty. He should know --... MORE »
Five Actor-Musicians Who Don't Suck
By Brandon Kim on 04/17/2009
Filed under: Lists"There's something about the guy that makes me uneasy. He's not going to say fuck stick in front of the children, is he?" --John Ritter as mall manager Bob Chipeska, referring to Billy Bob Thornton's Santa Willie, in "Bad Santa" When Billy Bob Thornton recently tripped out in Joaquin Phoenix-rivaling fashion on a Canadian radio interviewer, he inadvertently gave one the worst performances of his acting career -- unless we set aside his inability to adapt and play along and judge that bitter character by how incredibly unsettling he was. In that case, it may well rank among his best.... MORE »
Dead Alive: Bringing Popular Characters Back to Life in Sequels
By Matt Singer on 04/16/2009
Filed under: ListsFans of the gleefully excessive Jason Statham action film "Crank" know that it concluded with an impressively ballsy ending: Statham's Chev Chelios gets his revenge but -- SPOILER ALERT! -- falls out of a helicopter in the process. In "Crank"'s final shot, he falls into a car, bounces on to the pavement, twitches and... dies. It was certainly a surprise -- a pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless -- when the IFC.com staff first got word of a sequel, this week's "Crank: High Voltage." Statham was pretty clearly not alive at the end of that first movie, but, as the... MORE »
10 Brief Blasts of Radiohead in Pop Culture
By Michelle Orange on 04/10/2009
Filed under: Lists[This article is part of our Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight -- check out our box set giveaway here.] As this week's earlier list illustrates, Radiohead's music has inspired a number of videos shot with the artistry of a short film. Something about the band's dramatic, intensely emotional sound calls out to the screen, and a number of both film and commercial directors have responded. Below are some of the best and most notable uses of Radiohead's music in films and ads. (The band, big fans of Naomi Klein's "No Logo," don't license their music to big corporations, but they have donated... MORE »
Six Studio Journeymen We Wish Would Return to Their Indie Roots
By Stephen Saito on 04/09/2009
Filed under: ListsThere was a reason to feel queasy after watching the trailer for "The Hannah Montana Movie," and it wasn't just the sight of Miley Cyrus fighting off Tyra Banks for a pair of garish high heels. No, it was seeing the end credits that read "Directed by Peter Chelsom." That name may not mean much to most, but for those who discovered Chelsom during the mid-'90s by way of his trilogy of Blackpool-set showbiz dramedies -- the short "Treacle," 1992's "Hear My Song" and his best, the 1995 Jerry Lewis-Oliver Platt father-son vaudeville comedy "Funny Bones" -- an adaptation of... MORE »
When Missing Actors Return to the Franchise Fold
By Matt Singer on 04/03/2009
Filed under: ListsThis week's "Fast & the Furious" is the fourth film in an eight-year-long franchise, but only the first to reunite all four stars from the original cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. (Walker alone starred in 2003's "2 Fast 2 Furious," while Diesel made an uncredited cameo in 2006's otherwise unrelated "Tokyo Drift.") Speaking about the film this week with the New York Times, Diesel said "It's kind of tricky to revisit a character so long after the fact. But it's very cool on a lot of levels to be able to go back to high... MORE »
Getting Versed in Versus Movies
By R. Emmet Sweeney on 03/31/2009
Filed under: ListsThere has to be no easier movie pitch than unveiling a "versus" in the title. Everyone, even studio heads, has at one time or another dwelt on the existential question of "who would win in a fight?" The conflict is clear, the characters are established, the action implied -- all they have to do is sign on the bottom line. Sci-fi has especially benefited from the built-in allure of this most savage of titling decisions -- from the endless "Godzilla" fight cards to the recent "Alien vs. Predator" franchise, mano y mano monster throwdowns have made a mint at the... MORE »
The Sneak Song-and-Dance: Musical Scenes in Non-Musicals
By Michelle Orange on 03/26/2009
Filed under: ListsAs anyone who sat through this year's Oscars knows, according to Hugh Jackman, Beyoncé, and, well, that chick from "Mamma Mia!", musicals are back. It's a somewhat desperate refrain we've been hearing for almost a decade now, one that began with the success of "Moulin Rouge" in 2000. Since then, we've had "Chicago," "Dancer in the Dark," the "High School Musical" trilogy (going on tetralogy? -- is anyone keeping count?), and "Nine," the "8 1/2"-inspired musical due out this year starring Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard and directed by "Chicago"'s Rob Marshall. Still, Wolverine's claim is... MORE »
Four Inevitable Disney Live-Action Remakes
By Matt Singer on 03/12/2009
Filed under: ListsThis week's "Race to Witch Mountain," starring Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino, is the latest remake-- ahem, modern reimagining from Walt Disney Studios. Though the Mouse House's animated classics remain sacrosanct (if the jumping-off point of direct-to-DVD sequels), the live-action library has been pillaged for endless redos intended for theaters or the Disney Channel, which is where a previous remake of "Escape to Witch Mountain" starring Robert Vaughn and Brad Dourif premiered in 1995. Nothing is safe from the remake button over at Disney, so here are four more properties we fully expect to receive the same treatment in the... MORE »
On the Late Show: Talk Show Hosts in Movies
By Matt Singer on 03/03/2009
Filed under: ListsThis week, the world of late night television experiences its biggest shakeup in years, as Jimmy Fallon takes the reigns of NBC's "Late Night" from Conan O'Brien, who, at the start of June, will take over "The Tonight Show" from Jay Leno, who moves on to start his own talk show at 10pm. With talk show hosts on our minds these days, it seemed like a good time to look back and see how they've fared on the silver screen. Qualifications for inclusion were simple: the talk show host in question has to be best known -- and most successful... MORE »
Getting in the Act: 11 Novelists Who Found Their Way Into the Script
By Michelle Orange on 02/26/2009
Filed under: ListsRock stars want to be movie stars and movie stars want to be rock stars; models want to be designers and designers want to tooth-tug Keira Knightley's ear on the cover of Vanity Fair. These are known facts, demonstrable often to a shudder-inducing degree. What to make, though, of the latent career ambitions suggested by the humble novelist's propensity for cameos? Do they all want to be comedians? Professional winkers? Or just slightly richer? From Saul Bellow playing the "Man in Hallway" in an adaptation of his novel "Seize the Day" 30 years after it had been first published to... MORE »
Mike Doughty's Top 12 Cheap Videos
By Mike Doughty on 02/25/2009
Filed under: ListsCheck out the world premiere of Mike's new video "Put It Down." What the world needs now is videos, cheap videos. MTV doesn't play them, and VH1 only plays them before noon on weekdays, but we're still watching them, on YouTube and everywhere else. Before the record business started tanking, they were laying out big bucks for mega-productions; now budgets are more modest. Rightfully so, I think; one of the worst things to happen to videos was when, as the art of video-making started to come into its own, MTV began putting the names of the directors on the video,... MORE »
Ten Performances We Can't Wait to Watch This Spring
By Matt Singer on 02/24/2009
Filed under: ListsZiyi Zhang in "Horsemen" Directed by Jonas Akerlund Opens March 6 The trailer and the premise -- a detective on the trail of a killer (or killers) murdering people in homage to each of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse -- make this look like one JASK-y movie (that's "Just Another 'Se7en' Knockoff"). But then there is the against-type casting of Ziyi Zhang (or Zhang Ziyi; there's so much continued confusion over how this poor woman prefers to be credited that even the "Horsemen" trailer and poster disagree about it) as a suspect in the case. Western audiences are mostly... MORE »
Ten Oscar-winning Songs That Actually Hold Up
By Brandon Kim on 02/20/2009
Filed under: ListsMusic has accompanied film almost since film's invention, whether performed live, cued off rudimentary wax cylinders or digitally recorded. When thoughtfully employed, a song can lift a scene from the boundaries of entertainment into the realm of art. "The Jazz Singer" featured synched songs back in 1927, but it wasn't until 1934 and the 7th Academy Awards that Oscars were given out for them. The greatest of these songs take on a life of their own, and, though they may always recall the film for which they were conceived, stand on their own merit. But plenty of other prizewinners don't,... MORE »
"There's No Story In The Book!": Six Films Adapted From Non-Narrative Nonfiction
By Matt Singer on 02/05/2009
Filed under: Lists"He's Just Not That Into You" is a great title. Born from a "Sex in the City" episode, it's adorned a bestseller (by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo) and as a phrase has quickly wormed its way into the lexicon. Now it's got its own movie, too, opening this Friday and starring a slew of stars including Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Justin Long. What it does not have, at least in book form, is a story. "HJNTIY" is a dating advice book, a guide for women who can't get it through... MORE »
The 25 Biggest Sundance One-Hit Wonders
By IFC on 01/15/2009
Filed under: ListsThe indie cinema Cinderella story goes like this: Your film gets into Sundance, and not just in -- it gets noticed. Before it's even had its premiere, it's being talked about. And then it does play, and everyone loves it: endless applause, great reviews, and standing in line for coffee you overhear the people saying "That movie? Oh, I've heard it's really good." This, my friend, is the famous Sundance buzz, and before you know it, distributors are jostling for your attention. You're the toast of the town, you win a prize, and you leave with a deal, a sizable... MORE »
"NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE!": Seven Hilarious Exploitation Taglines
By Matt Singer on 01/14/2009
Filed under: ListsThe tagline for the new film "My Bloody Valentine 3-D" is "NOTHING SAYS 'DATE MOVIE' LIKE A 3-D RIDE TO HELL!" and while I'm fairly certain that's not actually true, I admire the gumption it takes to put something that intentionally silly on a poster. "MBV3-D"'s marketing -- which includes a movie trailer that explains how 3-D works, in much the way an airplane safety video shows how to operate a seatbelt -- recalls the great bombastic advertisements of exploitation cinema's yesteryear, when outlandish hucksterisms like "NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE!" (from 1953's "It Came From Outer Space)... MORE »
List: The Five Greatest Pratfalls of 2008
By R. Emmet Sweeney on 12/30/2008
Filed under: ListsBy R. Emmet Sweeney A pratfall can be a work of art, a study in disruptive motion, a klutz's ballet. This choreography of humiliation is perhaps the least garlanded act in contemporary film, as no Oscars will ever be won for kicks to the groin or tumbles down the stairs, regardless of their originality. Only in retrospect have the golden slapstick silents gained credibility and the brilliant purveyors of today's guffaws are suffering the same critical fate (although the hurt, it must be said, is not felt in their checkbooks). So here is my list of the top five pratfalls... MORE »
List: The Recession Jam
By Michelle Orange on 12/29/2008
Filed under: ListsBy Michelle Orange A right-minded woman from England once said, "I write about love and money. What else is there?" And if Jane Austen were alive and running a movie studio today, she'd find her two-pronged sensibility more sensible than ever -- particularly that second bit. Long a plot lynchpin for any number of genres -- heist, noir and western in particular -- money and how to get it has been the focus of a fistful of this year's films, suggesting a niche of their own for these tough times: The Recession Jam. Whether it be by dint of timing... MORE »
List: The Best Films of 2008
By Matt Singer on 12/19/2008
Filed under: ListsIt feels completely appropriate in a year of incredible financial turmoil, particularly in the independent film sector, that so many good movies were made about people teetering on the edge of economic extinction. My own list features two such films, without even getting around to "Slumdog Millionaire," "Frozen River" or the small but immensely powerful "Shotgun Stories." Movie stars were feeling the pinch, too: in the semiautobiographical "JCVD," audiences saw faded action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme resorting to begging his agent for money to pay for his divorce. Stars, and studios too. Even before the bottom fell out of the... MORE »
List: 2008's Most Covetable DVD Box Sets
By Alison Willmore on 12/18/2008
Filed under: ListsBy Matt Singer and Alison Willmore DVD box sets remain the go-to gift for any film fan in your life -- they come in a range of sizes and prices, so that you can scale up or down depending on how much you like the recipient, and this time of year they're often discounted for last-minute holiday shoppers (and those treating themselves to a present). Here are the new or revamped box sets from 2008 that we've been eyeing: Mystery Science Theater 3000 20th Anniversary Edition Shout Factory, $59.99 "Mystery Science Theater 3000"'s inaugural release from Shout Factory (after many... MORE »
The Best Straight-to-DVD Films of 2008
By Michael Atkinson on 12/17/2008
Filed under: ListsOur official "B-movie" distribution stream -- straight-to-DVD releases -- grows in number and variety every year, as fewer films can be, or at least are, affordably shown theatrically than ever before. And these titles still can't qualify for awards or polls of any kind, or often even reviews, as the number of theatrical screens continues to drop. Does this make any sense? Here're my favorites from this year, the movies that first saw American screens (big or small) on digital video in 2008, be they brand new or decades old. 1. "Sophie's Place" Lawrence Jordan, U.S., 1986 The renowned yet... MORE »
List: Fan Faction - Five Documentaries About Nerd Culture
By Matt Singer on 11/13/2008
Filed under: ListsBy Matt Singer In honor of the new documentary "We Are Wizards," about people who take Harry Potter way beyond simply reading the books or watching the movies, we take a look this week at obsessive fan culture and the documentaries that chronicle their fandom. Fanaticism in these films takes on many different forms. Some fans only want to take what their idols give them; others want to give back by creating derivative works of their own, like fan fiction or fan songs. Some become unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Some -- like a dentist who turned his... MORE »
Pass the Kool-Aid: Five Flicks That Aspired To Cult Status
By Matt Singer on 11/06/2008
Filed under: Features, ListsThe trailer for this week's "Repo! The Genetic Opera" announces itself, via a quote from Fearnet editor Joseph McCabe, as "an instant cult classic!" With that idea in mind, distributor Lionsgate is forgoing the industry standard 3,000-screen release and taking "Repo!" on tour as a roadshow ("It's not just a film," the official website boasts, "it's an event!"). Some cultists have already bought in; at "Repo!"'s U.S. premiere at September's Fantastic Fest, at least a dozen people showed up dressed as characters to the movie, even though they hadn't even seen it yet. Terrance Zdunich, one of the stars and... MORE »
Putty In Their Hands: Ten Old Movie Makeup Jobs That Hold Up, Part II
By Matt Singer on 10/29/2008
Filed under: ListsWe're getting into the Halloween spirit at IFC.com this week by taking a look back at some famous movie makeup jobs (that are, at minimum, 25 years old) that have maintained their power to scare the bejeezus out of viewers. These kids today with their computer generated imagery and their Blu-rays and their "Saw V"s! Back in our day, we didn't have computers to do our imagination's dirty work for us. Visionary artists had only prosthetics, wire, plaster, rubber and a whole lot of Karo syrup to bring their creations to life! Back in our day, these were the movies... MORE »
