1-20 of 25 items « Prev | Next »
Watch: Michael Cera Visits The Criterion Collection Closet And Picks Yasujiro Ozu, Abbas Kiarostami, And More
41 minutes ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
At the moment, Michael Cera is in London kicking of UK tour as part of Alden Penner's band, but before he went abroad to put his exercise his musical chops, the actor stopped by The Criterion Collection and dipped into their closet, and came up with some surprising selections. The actor showed off his arthouse muscle, selecting Yasujiro Ozu's "Good Morning," Abbas Kiarostami's "Close-Up," along with the Eclipse set, "The Actuality Dramas Of Allan King" (the color design which Cera hilariously notes matches his shirt). But for his final pick, Cera opts for Sydney Pollack's classic "Tootsie." The actor has some pretty nice insights on all the titles, and it's worth spending a quick five minutes to check out the movies you might not expect Cera to champion. Watch below. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
The Essentials: The 5 Best Colin Farrell Perfomances
1 hour ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Not that the man himself gives a damn, but it's taken me a while to come round to Colin Farrell. Maybe it's partly because, as a fellow resident of the same affluent Dublin suburb Farrell moved to at age ten, he is the closest thing to a neighborhood movie star that I have, and you tend to judge more critically those you're fairly sure you've queued behind at your local Spar. Maybe it's partly the corollary to that famous Irish sense of humor: the less famous but no less prevalent begrudgery of success (the "God, you think you're great, don't you?" syndrome). But it is definitely also because, over the 20 years of his acting career, the quality of the films Farrell has appeared in has varied wildly, as well as the quality of his performances within those films. And those two phenomena have not always been in sync: Farrell has »
- Jessica Kiang
Watch: Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson & Zach Galifianakis Are Criminal 'Masterminds' In New Trailer For Jared Hess Comedy
2 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Real talk (and apologies in advance): If you count “Napoleon Dynamite” as a good film (and man, that film has not aged well), then how many other good movies has Jared Hess made? For me, there's only one: the underrated “Nacho Libre,” which features a good half score by Beck (the remainder was rejected by Paramount). Hess gets points for oddball originality (“Gentlemen Broncos”), yet I was a bit puzzled when I heard Hess was up for the “Spider-Man” gig, especially after “Don Verdean” largely fell flat earlier this year at Sundance. Read More: 'Nacho Libre' Duo Jack Black And Jared Hess Reteam For 'Micronations' So Hess’ upcoming action comedy “Masterminds” boasts the biggest cast of his career —including Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis and Jason Sudeikis— but it looks about as comedically relevant as any of the recent Farrelly brothers films. Which is to say: not at all. »
- Edward Davis
Interview: Zoe Cassavetes Talks 'Day Out Of Days,' Anti-Heroines, And The State of Hollywood Filmmaking
2 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Zoe Cassavetes’ second feature film “Day Out of Days” debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival last week —it's an appropriate venue for the film, which is about navigating Hollywood as a 40 year old actress. The movie is a tremendous showcase for Cassavetes’ co-writer and star, Alexia Landeau, who plays Mia Roarke as flawed, often unsympathetic, but ultimately human, and worth rooting for. Mia turns to searching for meaning in her work after finding her personal life to be lacking in what she expected at her age (marriage, kids), with her career floundering too. Our review called the film “the perfect depiction of the easy come, easy go nature of stardom and worth in Hollywood,” and opined that “Cassavetes deftly explores these issues with a great deal of nuance and an unflinching eye.” We talked on the phone with Cassavetes from her Paris home last week about the intricacies of the film, »
- Katie Walsh
Tom Holland Is Spider-Man, ‘Cop Car’ Helmer Jon Watts To Direct
2 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Rumors suggested a “Spider-Man” announcement was coming this week and yep, it’s here. Marvel announced today that Tom Holland (“The Impossible”) has landed the coveted gig of “Spider-Man.” In a surprise move, the director was unveiled too. He wasn’t one of the bigger names on the various short lists, he’s relative new comer Jon Watts who directed Kevin Bacon in the intense thriller, “Cop Car” which debuted at Sundance earlier this year (here's our review). Expect Holland to appear first in “Captain America: Civil War” in what is probably a smaller cameo role, but the first "Spider-Man" movie won't arrive until summer 2017. Here’s Marvel’s press release Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios are proud to announce that after a full worldwide casting search, Tom Holland will play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the next Spider-Man film, in theaters in IMAX and 3D on July 28, 2017. The film will be directed by Jon Watts, »
- The Playlist
Watch: 20-Minute Video Essay Explores The Pool Hall Sequence From Brian De Palma's 'Carlito's Way'
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Brian De Palma’s overtly stylistic method of filmmaking may have won him fans such as Quentin Tarantino, but there’s a sinking feeling when you look over his career that he’s never quite received the respect he deserves. De Palma already had several films under his belt by the time the “movie brats” came of age in the 1970s. He worked with Robert De Niro years before Scorsese and Coppola ever got their hands on the actor. He’s amassed a filmography that features classics such as “Carrie,” “Scarface,” “The Untouchables,” and he has three other films in the Criterion Collection. And yet, he’s also the guy who somehow wound up with zero Oscar nods and six Razzie nominations. What’s that all about? No matter how you look at De Palma’s career, there’s no denying he can be a remarkable craftsman. Video essayist Julian Palmer »
- Ken Guidry
Watch: Trailer For Award Winning Indie Drama 'Five Star'
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
It’s been over a year since we caught director Keith Miller’s intimate and authentic “Five Star” at the Tribeca Film Festival where it grabbed our attention (check out our review), and after spending much of last year doing the festival rounds, the picture is now headed to cinemas and it's one you should make a little time for. Starring James 'Primo' Grant and John Diaz, the story follows John, who gets taken under the wing of Bloods member Primo, after his father is killed on the streets. John's father looked out for Primo, and Primo decides to do the same for John, offering him an easy entrance into gang brotherhood if he wants it. But John is uncertain, and even Primo considers a life where he focus on being a husband and father first. Read More: Tribeca Review: Keith Miller's 'Five Star' Is An Affecting »
- Cain Rodriguez
Watch: Trailer For Sundance Horror 'The Hallow' From 'The Crow' Remake Director Corin Hardy
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
While “The Witch,” recently acquired by A24, certainly took festival audiences by storm when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year, it turns out that Robert Eggers’ spooky, disorienting period chiller wasn’t the only standout horror flick that played to a rapturous audience response at Park City. Also earning attention was “The Hallow,” directed by Corin Hardy, a film that, like “The Witch,” appears to be about foreboding woods and the misbegotten souls that are drawn to them. Apart from that admittedly superficial comparison, “The Hallow” looks very much to be its own singular, freaky beast, and a new trailer has landed online to give audiences a taste of what Hardy’s film has in store. Ostensibly a ghoulish fable about a family in peril, “The Hallow” follows a Londoner (Joseph Mawle, otherwise known as Benjen Stark on “Game of Thrones”) and his wife (Bojana Novakovic) as they settle into an idyllic Irish village, »
- Nicholas Laskin
Watch: 'Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp' Trailer Welcomes Us Back to Camp Firewood
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Read More: Netflix's 'Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp' Confirms Crazy Famous Cast With First-Look Photos This dubious promo video for Camp Firewood promises all the inappropriate and hilarious misadventures from David Wain's cult classic "Wet Hot American Summer." The Netflix revamp will be getting its eight-episode release on July 31, and already exudes all the 80s vibes we loved from the original movie. "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp" will star all the usual suspects, and a few new faces. Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, Bradley Cooper, Ken Marino, Janeane Garofalo, Molly Shannon and Paul Rudd will be returning counselors, while newbies like Jason Schwartzman and John Slattery will need to learn the ropes around Camp Firewood. The series will take us back to the very first day of camp, and show us how all the summer hijinks began. Watch and get transported back »
- Sarah Choi
Watch: Alex Karpovsky is a Medical Method Actor for Dylan Baker in Acclaimed Short 'Actor Seeks Role'
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
After premiering to acclaim on the festival circuit in April, Michael Tyburski's short "Actor Seeks Role" has made its online premiere. Read More: Rooftop Films Announces Short Films Lineup for the 2015 Summer Series Alex Karpovsky ("Girls") and Emmy nominee Dylan Baker ("The Good Wife") co-star in the 20-minute film about a method actor (Karpovsky) who catches the attention of a quirky medical instructor (Baker). Struggling to land traditional roles, the actor takes on a part-time gig performing symptoms of various illnesses for student doctors. Well-observed, bitingly funny and riddled with idiosyncracies, "Actor Seeks Role" has much to recommend, including its superb acting duo. Karpovsky ably ranges from melancholic to absurd, while Baker gives a performance of typical flair. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at its premiere at the Independent Film Festival Boston in April, and it has since been selected to screen at the Nantucket »
- David Canfield
20th Century Fox Reveals ‘Independence Day’ Sequel Title, Watch 30 Minute Q&A With The Cast
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
So in case you missed it, 20th Century Fox revealed the titled to their “Independence Day” sequel that arrives summer 2016. Directed by Roland Emmerich again, Will Smith won’t appear in the movie, but a lot of familiar faces are returning and his character's son will be in the movie. The cast stars Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe and Sela Ward. Here’s the official synopsis for “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Read More: The Films Of Roland Emmerich: From Worst To Best We always knew they were coming back. After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. »
- Edward Davis
How Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero Entered 'Another Period' And Found Comedy Gold
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
If comedy can thrive in chaos, then it's no surprise that my memories of talking with "Another Period" star/creators Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero are filled with laughter, as we sat down to chat at a table in the busy halls of the hotel hosting the TCA Winter Press Tour earlier this year. Joined by an unanticipated guest halfway through our interview — "Period" director Jeremy Konner — Lindhome and Leggero laid out the genesis of their ingenious new comedy series, which takes a "Real Housewives"-style spin on high society in Newport, Connecticut, circa 1902. Read More: Summer TV Preview 2015: 15 New Shows You Need to Know About What inspired Lindhome and Leggero to dig into the time period? How does authentic period dress effect one's ability to perform comedy? How do you seduce "Mad Men" star Christina Hendricks? The answers are below. So I just wanted to start off by »
- Liz Shannon Miller
Julie Taymor on Bringing Her Staging of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to the Screen
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Read More: Julie Taymor's Visual Extravaganza 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Hits Theaters (Video) With the epic, lawsuit-riddled catastrophe of the Broadway show "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" behind her, Julie Taymor thought small — sort of. Her version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was staged in a Brooklyn theater with fewer than 300 seats, although it still cost north of $4 million and employed projections, puppetry, and more than a dozen children who act as both fairy hordes and onstage crew. Taymor's film of that production is, by contrast, a relatively modest affair, without the grand cinematic flourishes of her film adaptations of "Titus" or "The Tempest," but the simplicity of her approach is deceptive. Like Robert Altman, she brings the cameras onto the stage rather than shooting from afar. If the theatrical audience already enveloped the production's thrust stage, the movie audience is practically sitting on it, »
- Sam Adams
A Historical Background: An Interview with Corneliu Porumboiu
4 hours ago | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »
Although Romanian New Wave director Corneliu Porumbiou's The Treasure showed late in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, its winning simplicity and droll humor made it stand out as a festival favorite. As slim, funny and diagrammed as a Hong Sang-soo comedy—something the director's last fiction feature, When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, also strongly resembled—this little moral tale begins with that most heartbreaking of quotidian details of parenting: a child upset at his parent. Later, while Costi (Toma Cuzin) is reading his boy Robin Hood, Adrian (Adrian Purcarescu), a neighbor he doesn't really know, stops to ask to borrow money. When the neighbor finds out Costi isn't so well off himself—everyone has debts, unforgiving mortgages—Adrian proposes something quite different: the Costi puts up the money to rent a metal detector so that they can search for treasure Adrian's grandfather hinted »
- Daniel Kasman
Filmmaker Survey: What's the Hardest Thing About Making Movies Today?
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
BAMcinemaFest, New York's preeminent showcase for new independent film, began its seventh year last week with 35 titles, many of which have already screened on the festival circuit. From first-time directors to old pros, short documentary films to full-length features, the range of films represented highlights the ersity of talent in the current independent film scene. Read More: Filmmaker Survey: The Biggest Challenges BAMcinemaFest 2015 Filmmakers Faced The festival, running June 17-28 in Brooklyn, opened with the New York premiere of James Ponsoldt's "The End of the Tour" and will close with the New York premiere of Sean Baker's "Tangerine." Indiewire reached out to the filmmakers with movies screening at this year's BAMcinemaFest and asked, "What's the hardest thing about making movies today?" Below are their unedited responses: "It's not hard to make a movie today. Getting a camera is easy, you can edit on a laptop. It can all be done. »
- Paula Bernstein
Robert Downey Jr. Plays A Con Game With 'Chasing Phil'
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
For all of his Marvel movie success, the projects in between the comic book blockbusters haven't been particularly memorable for Robert Downey Jr. Last year's awards season bait "The Judge" whiffed fairly hard aside from a token Oscar nomination for Robert Duvall. "Due Date" was a retread of "The Hangover" films in its basic structure and the watered down antics of Zach Galifianakis, with 2011's "Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows" marking the last true non-Marvel success for the actor. But like many A-listers around town he's got handful of vehicles brewing and Rdj has added another. Read More: Robert Downey Jr. Is The Highest Paid Actor In Hollywood WB has snapped up the rights to David Howard's non-fiction book “Chasing Phil: The World’s Greatest Con Man, Two Undercover FBI Agents, and Their Amazing Around the World Adventure” along with the life rights of FBI agents Jim Wedick and Jack Brennan, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Cult, Underground and Independent in Flux: The Oak Cliff Film Festival
5 hours ago | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »
I arrived in Dallas for the Oak Cliff Film Festival and got picked up in a car along with Nick Zedd, the storied New York underground filmmaker who relocated to Mexico several years back. The first thing Zedd, whose own work is marked by a tongue-in-cheek fetish for violence, asked our driver about was the Kennedy assassination. Over the next few days, it became clear that Dallas, with its own mythology of Oswald conspiracy theories and Bonnie and Clyde’s, grave sites was the perfect city for a festival that had a thread of cult films and figures running through its […] »
- Whitney Mallett
'Magic Mike Xxl' Soundtrack Features Backstreet Boys, R. Kelly, Ginuwine, Jodeci, And More
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Being a movie about male strippers, music is obviously a very important component of “Magic Mike Xxl,” just as it was in its predecessor. The super-sized sequel opens next week and the details for the movie’s soundtrack have dropped courtesy of Film Music Reporter just in time to get you excited to see the whole crew again. The soundtrack gets released a day ahead of the film’s release through WaterTower Music and boasts fourteen tracks, including three from cast members Donald Glover–note that he’s credited under his own name and not under his rapper name, Childish Gambino-and Matt Bomer. Elsewhere on the disc are songs from R. Kelly, 112, Glass Animals and Backstreet Boys, as well as a reappearance from Ginuwine’s “Pony” which was memorably used for a solo Channing Tatum routine in the first film. Read More: Watch: Channing Tatum & The Boys Get Hot »
- Cain Rodriguez
Oscilloscope Co-President David Laub Leaves the Company (Exclusive)
5 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
David Laub has left his position as co-president of Oscilloscope Laboratories, a post he has jointly held with Dan Berger since 2012. Berger remains sole president of the company, reporting to Oscilloscope owner Dechen Yauch. The parting was amicable, according to those close to the arrangement. His final day at the company was last Wednesday. Laub joined Oscilloscope, which was founded by the late Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch, in 2010. The acquisitions executive started his career at THINKFilm working under David Fenkel, who went on to serve as Oscillocope's first president. When Fenkel left the company in 2012, Yauch promoted Laub and Berger together shortly before Yauch's death. "I've been extremely proud and honored to help lead a company with such an incredible respect and love for films and filmmakers," Laub told Indiewire this week. "Adam Yauch had a truly one-of-a-kind vision when he founded this company, and a respect for artists and artistry that was. »
- Eric Kohn
Marvel Reportedly Wants Kenneth Branagh To Return And Direct 'Thor: Ragnarok'
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
If you told me in the '90s that Shakespeare loving Kenneth Branagh would be directing comic book movies and tentpoles, I would've said you're crazy. He might've said that too. But the 2010s have seen Branagh jump with both feet into the waters of multiplex fare with "Thor," "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," and "Cinderella." And now Marvel is eyeing the director to return to their Cinematic Universe. Chatting on Popcorn Talk, Heroic Hollywood head Umberto Gonazalez revealed that Branagh is someone Marvel is looking at for "Thor: Ragnaork." "I was hearing that Marvel wanted Kenneth Branagh back for ‘Thor 3′. But, he just got an offer to direct ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ at Fox. So, I don’t know if it is going to happen or not. They’re thinking about bringing him back into the fold," he said. Read More: Kenneth Branagh To Solve 'The Murder On The Orient Express' Indeed, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
1-20 of 25 items « Prev | Next »
« Prev | Next »