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Review: Stirring And Insightful Documentary 'Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words'
2 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
An act of celebratory remembrance that’s buoyed by a desire to understand the messy contradictions, motivations, and emotions of its subject, “Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words” proves a stirring and insightful biography of assemblage. Stig Björkman’s film recounts the life story of the famed international actress through the usual non-fiction devices — talking-head interviews with relatives, film, and news clips — as well as a wealth of photos, home movies, and diary writings made by Bergman herself, who was committed to documenting her experiences through journal entries, letters to friends, and celluloid. It was a habit passed down from her father, whose fondness for pointing his camera at his daughter (and himself) turned out to be not only the origins of her cinematic career, but also a formative lesson about the way in which the lens allows one to capture, forever, life’s fleeting moments. Given that Bergman »
- Nick Schager
Review: Snappy, Smart, And Undeniably Sweet 'Man Up' Starring Simon Pegg And Lake Bell
2 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
The mainstream movie world hasn’t been too kind to romantic comedies in recent years, mostly eschewing the kind of charming fare that Nora Ephron, Tom Hanks, and Meg Ryan built their careers on (at least, the humorous and heartwarming side of their careers) in favor of chemistry-less offerings that fail to do anything new and films that are stuffed to the gills with multiple intersecting storylines, all the better to divert attention from a lack of sweetness and humor in each individual story. The golden age of the meet-cute rom-com — basically, the nineties — fizzled out long ago, gone the way of scrunchies and AOL chat rooms, and audiences hungry for original love stories with laughs to spare have been forced to look beyond the multiplex. And the snappy, smart, and undeniably sweet “Man Up” fills that gap with ease, a new wave rom-com unafraid of old school trappings. All »
- Kate Erbland
'Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words' Director on What Surprised Him Most About the Oscar-Winning Actress
3 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
When it premiered in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, "Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words," the documentary celebrating the centennial of international star Ingrid Bergman, won a special mention for Best Documentary. The film, directed by Stig Bjorkman, will open theatrically in New York on November 13 and Los Angeles on December 11. In the film, which tells Bergman's story through a series of home movies, photos, diary entries and personal letters to friends and family, viewers see a different side of the multiple Oscar winner as she morphs from orphaned Swedish girl, foreigner to Hollywood, glamorous world citizen and loving, but absent mother. Read More: Watch: Ingrid Bergman Leaves Hollywood in Exclusive Clip From Cannes Documentary 'In Her Own Words' Narrated by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, the film features frank interviews with Bergman's children, including Isabella Rossellini, as well as colleagues such as. »
- Paula Bernstein
AFI Fest: 'James White,' 'Mustang,' 'Ma' Lead Audience Award Winners
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
The last big festival of 2015 has wrapped up with organizers at AFI Fest putting away the red carpet for another year. While the fest boasted starry premieres for Angelina Jolie Pitt's "By The Sea" (our review) and Will Smith's "Concussion" (our review), it wasn't those films that walked with away with big prizes. Read More: Check Out Our Coverage Of AFI Fest 2015 This year, the Audience Award favored foreign films and challenging work. Among those honored is the already hotly buzzed Sundance breakout "James White" starring Cynthia Nixon and Christopher Abbott, Cannes sensation "Mustang," and the experimental "Ma" (read our review). Check out the press with the full list of winners below, and mark 'em down as ones to keep an eye on. ---------- Los Angeles, CA, November 12, 2015 — AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi announces today the feature and short films receiving this year’s Jury and Audience Awards. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Brit Takes: Everything You Need to Know about the Cristiano Ronaldo Documentary
3 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Read More: This Screenwriter Has a Solution to the Problem With British TV [Editor's Note: This article is presented in partnership with Shinola in support of Brit Takes, our monthly dispatch on the UK film scene. As makers of modern watches, bicycles, leather goods, and journals, Shinola stands for skill at scale, the preservation of craft and the beauty of industry. Learn more about Shinola handcrafted goods.] This week provided a rare opportunity to peek into the life and career of soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo, thanks to three-time BAFTA-winning British director Anthony Wonke. "Ronaldo" is available now on DVD and various digital platforms. The winner of awards ranging from Peabody to Emmy, Wonke's documentary series have ranged from war-torn Middle-East in "Children of the Front," to the Piper Alpha disaster in "Fire of the Night," and "Crack-House USA." His investigation into Ronaldo's athletic career and global impact is accompanied »
- Elle Leonsis
Reality Checks: Doc NYC Lifts Oscar Contenders, But Why So Many Films?
3 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Read More: 10 Must-See Documentaries at Doc NYC 2015 Six years ago, there was a hole in New York's film festival calendar. Now Doc NYC, America's largest documentary film festival, has firmly taken root, and grown in size and importance with a fertile 104 new feature-length documentaries (27 of which are world premieres). That's an over-abundance of new nonfiction to consider that wasn't previously showcased in a single fall event. While the festival's increasingly expansive bounty may be a natural outgrowth of documentary's rising prominence in the media landscape, the program is also a bit unwieldy. One can easily draw comparisons to Doc NYC artistic director Thom Powers' other gig, the Toronto International Film Festival, where he also programs documentaries. Like Tiff, Doc NYC provides an effective launchpad within a media-rich environment, to boost Academy Award contenders and hot-button docs. But also like Tiff, smaller films could potentially get lost in the »
- Anthony Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman Explains Why Star-Studded 'Frank Or Francis' Fell Apart, Says It Could Still Happen
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
One of the reasons Charlie Kaufman hasn't made a feature film since 2008's "Synecdoche, New York" is his unfortunately failed attempt to mount the meta movie musical, "Frank Or Francis." Slated to star an impressive ensemble including Jack Black, Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, Elizabeth Banks, Kevin Kline, Catherine Keener, Paul Reubens, and Jacki Weaver, the movie would've been a Hollywood set tale about a pretentious filmmaker and his online his nemesis, with characters including a fat-suit-wearing comedian who is also known as The Emcee, and Richard’s Head, a superwiz computer-brain programmed to write hit screenplays. It's pretty bonkers on paper, but with that cast, you'd think it would get made. And it nearly did. A few years back, Black revealed that money was holding things up. "We are just about 10 million dollars shy of the cost to make it, so if anyone out there reading this can scrape together a cool 10 mil, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Reel Red Films and Breaking Glass Acquire Ellen Burstyn-Starring 'About Scout'
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Reel Red Films and Breaking Glass Pictures have announced their partnership for the U.S. release of the star-studded coming-of-age film "About Scout." Read More: Ellen Burstyn Looks Back on Her Career and Ahead to the Future of Indie Film Starring India Ennenga as the titular star, "About Scout" also stars Danny Glover, Nikki Reed, Jane Seymour and Ellen Burstyn. The film premiered earlier this year at the Newport Beach Film Festival under the original title "Scout," and it tells the story of a rebellious young girl who convinces a suicidal young man to accompany her on a road trip across Texas in search of her kidnapped younger sister. Reel Red and Breaking Glass have slated the film for a theatrical and VOD release in March 2016. Read More: Danny Glover on 'The House I Live In' and Documentary as a Tool for Social Impact »
- Aubrey Page
Watch: Outrageous 'Dangerous Men' Clip is the Lamest (and Greatest) Fight in Movie History
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Drafthouse Films' "Dangerous Men" is preparing to hit theaters tomorrow, and to get you in the mood for some hilariously bad hair, questionable sound design and bizarrely choreographed fight scenes is a new clip that teases the truly terrible (and by that we mean insanely great) forthcoming film. Read More: Watch: 'Dangerous Men' is the Most Perfect Film You've Never Seen in Bonkers Nsfw Trailer Beginning its 26-year-long production in 1979 under John Rad's singular vision, "Dangerous Men" combines a plethora of aesthetics into a strangely violent and predictably bonkers film that follows Mina, a woman who sets out on a killing spree to rid Los Angeles of its "human trash" after her husband is brutally killed. The new clip above pits "subhuman criminal overlord" Black Pepper against a renegade cop in a truly perplexing epic punch-fest. See the rest of the "rampaging gutter epic" when it opens in theaters November »
- Aubrey Page
'James White,' 'Mustang' and 'Ma' Win Big at AFI Fest 2015
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
AFI Fest 2015 has just announced the Jury and Audience Award winners for this year's festival. This year's edition featured 130 films, including "By the Sea," "Concussion" and "The Big Short." The following features and shorts were chosen by AFI's various jury teams and audience members. Read More: 'James White' Breakout Christopher Abbott is the Oscar Dark Horse You Need to Know Jury Awards New Auteurs Grand Jury Award: "Land and Shade," dir. César Augusto Acevedo Special Jury Mention for Direction: "Disorder," dir. Alice Winocour Special Jury Mention for Screenplay: "Desde Alla," Lorenzo Vigas Grand Jury Award for Animated Short: "Boys," Isabella Carbonell Grand Jury Award for Animated Short: "World of Tomorrow," Don Hertzfeldt Live Action Short Special Mention for Innovative Storytelling: "Rate Me," dir. Fyazl Boulifa Live Action Short Special Mention for »
- Aubrey Page
Love and Death: James White
4 hours ago | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »
Bereavement brackets James White. At the beginning of producer Josh Mond’s impressive directorial debut, we encounter the nearly catatonic eponymous character to the accompaniment of a drug-enhanced, inside-the-mind sound mix: Bursts of blasting synthesized music vie for dominance with smoother, softer fragments from Ray Charles and Billie Holiday. Sweaty, stinky, loaded, and dressed down in his signature raggedy sweatshirt and hoodie after a full night of clubbing, drinking, and pill popping, twentysomething James (Christopher Abbott, no longer the pretty, slender androgyne hooked on Allison Williams in Girls, but hefty and hirsute, hopefully for role construction) barrels past dressed-up adults in the hallway […] »
- Howard Feinstein
New Details About Princess Leia, Supreme Leader Snoke, And Maz Kanata In 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Emerge
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
With Disney keeping a firm grip on who can see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" early (basically, nobody outside the studio), nothing is going be spoiled about the movie before opening day, barring Harrison Ford getting raging drunk and doing a Periscope session. So, we'll just have to decipher what we can from the clues that are emerging, most recently, in EW. First up, among the old school returning faces will be Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia, but Luke Skywalker's sister will have a new name. “She’s referred to as General,” J.J. Abrams said. “But … there’s a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her ‘Princess.’” Read More: Disney Will Not Screen 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Early For Awards Consideration To Keep Spoilers Under Wraps “The stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there’s not much goofing around where Leia’s concerned, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
This British Documentary Filmmaker is Having a Moment
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
After a 30-year career of making observational documentaries about women in difficult situations around the world, British director Kim Longinotto is having a moment. "Dreamcatcher," her latest film and her fifth feature documentary to screen at the Sundance Film Festival, won the Director Award (Documentary World Cinema) at the festival. "Astonishing in its intimacy and wrenching in its emotional rawness, 'Dreamcatcher' captures moments of such startling pain and anguish so well it's a miracle that a camera-person was sitting close by to record it," wrote Anthony Kaufman for Indiewire. The multi-award winning Longinotto will receive the 2015 Robert and Anne Drew Award at Doc NYC Film Festival tonight, just a day after she was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Direction by Cinema Eye Honors. Jill Drew, the general manager of Drew Associates, who helped select the recipient, said, "Kim has trained her lens with a graceful touch on some of the. »
- Paula Bernstein
Watch: Go Behind the Scenes of 'The Big Short' With Steve Carell, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Read More: Watch: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt Join Forces in 'The Big Short' Trailer Director Adam McKay's much anticipated feature film "The Big Short" is one of the last remaining question marks this awards season, and Paramount Pictures is offering up a new look at the star-studded film with a behind-the-scenes featurette. The clip includes interviews with McKay, who is making an ambitious jump to dramatic filmmaking after a career in comedy, and cast members Steve Carell, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling. According to the featurette, the cast loved making this film with McKay and have much respect for his directing methods. The official synopsis for "The Big Short" reads: "When four outsiders saw what the big banks, media and government refused to, the global collapse of the economy, they had an idea: The Big Short. Their bold investment leads them into »
- Sonya Saepoff
“Do You Mind If I Finance the Rest of the Film?” Tom Dicillo on Living in Oblivion
4 hours ago | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »
In Living in Oblivion, Tom Dicillo’s 1995 triptych of the agony and ecstasy of indie film production, Murphy’s cinematic law is in full effect. Prima donna actors. Uncooperative smoke machines. Blown lines. Soft focus. Booms in the frame. However, the film’s most soul-crushing moment comes when the camera isn’t even rolling. It arrives when the faux film’s director, played by Steve Buscemi, takes a moment to run lines with his two lead actresses. And of course — with the camera sitting idle and the cinematographer off set vomiting out-of-date milk from the meager craft services table — the scene comes […] »
- Matt Mulcahey
'Dangerous Men' and 6 Other Wild and Crazy Examples of Action Dads Cinema
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Read More: Watch: 'Dangerous Men' is the Most Perfect Film You've Never Seen in Bonkers Nsfw Trailer This coming weekend will see the long-awaited release of "Dangerous Men," an action film oddity/achievement that took 22 years to complete and another decade to hit screens. It's a combustible aesthetic assault of machismo, vengeance, non-arousing sexuality and unspeakable anti-logic, framed in a sweat-choked L.A. otherworld that's filtered through the unique mind of Iranian-American outsider filmmaker John S. Rad. Brimming with ideas and dialogue grown from a primordial alien id, "Dangerous Men" is like no other experience you will ever have with a movie. But!... against all odds, it's representative of a secret genre that is only now creeping its way into the limelight; a decidedly '80s cinematic sub-sub-sub-category that we lovingly refer to as "Action Dads!!!" If you're like me, you thrill to heroic, no-rules masculinity defined »
- Zack Carlson
'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Sequels 'Fifty Shades Darker' And 'Fifty Shades Freed' Will Shoot Back-to-Back
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
After lots of behind-the-scenes turmoil, some wrangling with author E.L. James, who exercises greater than usual influence for a major studio book adaptation, the sex toys are back on the table as Universal gears up for the sequels to "Fifty Shades Of Grey." And they are going to keep the hotness cooking on set longer than last time. Read More: Watch The First Teaser For 'Fifty Shades Darker,' Universal Exec Says It Will Be "More Of A Thriller" Variety reports that that the studio is going to lens the follow-ups, "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed," back-to-back. Insert your own pun-based sex joke here. There's no exact reason why this approach will be taken, but generally speaking, it helps keep costs down, they don't have to deal with any long gaps between pictures, and they only have to wrangle the cast to come back one more time. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Watch: 7-Minute Video Essay Explores The Influence Of Mario Bava On Guillermo Del Toro's 'Crimson Peak'
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
The “golden age” of Italian horror films passed decades ago, but that doesn’t mean the “master of the macabre” Mario Bava is long forgotten. Bava’s films, like “Black Sunday” and “Kill, Baby, Kill,” have inspired generations of horror buffs (and musicians, notably Ozzy Osbourne) to immerse themselves in gore and fanaticism. Not unlike Guillermo Del Toro, Bava was notably meticulous with respect to every aspect of filmmaking. Read More: The 25 Best Horror Films of the Century So Far Frame by Frame has concocted a new short video essay on the parallels between Del Toro and Bava; the video explores the paradigms Bava executed on each of his productions and how Del Toro makes homages as such, specifically in his newest film “Crimson Peak.” Bava’s use of contrast in color, building his own sets, and scrupulously faithful period pieces are three undeniable hallmarks of his filmmaking, all of »
- Samantha Vacca
Exec Says Jared Leto Wanted To Be Called 'Mr. J' On Set Of 'Suicide Squad,' Movie Will Be Rated PG-13
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
The tales of Jared Leto's commitment to playing the Joker in "Suicide Squad" have already made excellent anecdotes. He's reportedly sent odd presents to members of the cast, and more or less did what he could to stay in character and keep himself away from the rest of the ensemble, which includes Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje when not shooting. However, his Daniel Day-Lewis-esque demands appear to have extended to the crew of the movie as well, as Atlas Entertainment and DC Comics brain trust member/producer Charles Roven revealed in a recent chat with Collider. "...it was different, it was fun," Roven said of Leto's on set behavior. "The group first wasn’t sure because the ADs had to call him ‘Mr. J’ to get him to come to the set [laughs]. And he did in many ways isolate himself from the rest of the group, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
7 Films That Get Serious About Stand-Up Comedy
5 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
In Rick Alverson's film "Entertainment," stand-up comedian and actor Gregg Turkington plays The Comedian, an aging comic on a dark existential journey through the Mojave desert to meet his estranged daughter. The actor lends his own stand-up persona, "Neil Hamburger," to the role in an unsettling portrayal of a broken performer trying to revive a dwindling career. Films about comedians often have an autobiographical dimension, as stand-up comedy provides a perfect embodiment of the constant rejection and struggle for approval that defines show business. These films are often explorations of the dark psychological interior that so often paradoxically haunts performers who make an occupation of making people laugh. Here are seven films about stand-up comedians that hit hard. Read More: In Honor of 'Master of None,' 8 TV Shows By Stand-up Comedians That Stay Seated "Ape" (2012)Director Joel Potrykus drew on his own experience as a struggling »
- Wil Barlow
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