Alex Gibney has proven himself an able and engaging documentarian, bringing to light with films such as TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, and most recently THE ARMSTRONG LIE, the hubris, self-deception, and other foibles of human nature that allow people to commit crimes without ever quite admitting to… Read More »
Brian Sloan has A WTC VIEW
WTC VIEW was the first play from The New York International Fringe Festival to make the leap to the big screen in 2005, but playwright Brian Sloan resisted the temptation to fundamentally change the nature of his play by opening it up beyond the one apartment in which it takes place. The metaphor of a… Read More »
FOCUS Needs Some Adjustment
Glenn Ficarra and John Renqua have made some films that are close to my heart. BAD SANTA, I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, CRAZY STUPID LOVE are movies that are funny and smart without resorting to schmaltz. Instead, they are subversive satires about human nature, and what happens when wide-eyed innocence meets conniving manipulator. The same… Read More »
David Cross Takes the HITS
David Cross was off coffee because of a stomach ailment when I talked to him on February 5, 2015 just before his film, HITS, kicked of SFIndieFest. Opting for tea, and overcoming his distaste for the bergamot in his Earl Gray, he was a lively conversationalist as we discussed his maiden effort writing and directing a feature film.… Read More »
Perry Blackshear, MacLeod Andrews & Evan Dumouchel Insist that THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE
THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE is a first-rate existential horror film, as well as a psychological thriller. I got the same vibe watching it that I had gotten watching PI and BRICK, the maiden efforts of Darren Aronofsky and Rian Johnson respectively. Writer/director Perry Blackshear understands more than just how to create evocative, even sumptuous, visuals, he knows… Read More »
35th Annual Razzie Awards — John Wilson is Still Fighting the Good Fight
I learned a long time ago that it’s pretty much impossible not to get facetious with the founder and Head Berry of the Golden Raspberry Awards Foundation. John Wilson, author, raconteur, and bringer down of bloated egos, began his valuable public service 35 years ago, and through the years his righteous drubbing of all that… Read More »
Shlomi Elkabetz Records GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM
GETT, the Hebrew word for a bill of divorce, is the third film in a trilogy made by brother-and-sister filmmakers Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz. The theme, as Shlomi explained to me on October 6, 2014, is freedom, specifically women’s freedom in the modern world. Inspired by their mother’s life, it’s a contemplation on the nature… Read More »
SONG OF THE SEA is Beautiful Harmony
SONG OF THE SEA reminds us of the power of simplicity in storytelling and in animation. Hand-drawn and steeped in Irish folklore, it is a profoundly moving experience rife with charm, wisdom, and beauty. Told from a child’s perspective, the magical and the mundane coalesce in perfect harmony, revealing the one in the other in… Read More »
Going Beyond BLACK OR WHITE
Mike Binder has a particular genius for showing people brimming with good intentions, but flawed, stumbling through life without the operating instructions that would help them negotiate the bumps along the way. He has the gift of showing humor and pathos as elements that are not so much disparate, as entwined, manifesting at oddest moments… Read More »
Tiffany Ward & Rob Minkoff Bring MR PEABODY & SHERMAN to Glorious Life
You better be careful when you take on a classic. For more than one generation, Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman were must-see television, as were the other denizens of the Jay Ward animation world, which includes Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Dudley Do-Right. Other adaptations for the big screen of Ward’s work have not been successful,… Read More »
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