By Gary M. Kramer. The Signal is a mind-bending (and genre-bending) film that lures its characters and its audience into a fantastic — as in strange and, perhaps, wonderful — world. Nick (Brenton Thwaites) is a partially paralyzed young man who is driving his girlfriend Haley (Olivia Cooke) across country […]
The Trouble with the Kochs: An Interview with Filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin
By Michael T. Toole. Surging from their success with the Oscar-nominated The Trouble with Water (2008) – a personal, harrowing look at a couple surviving the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin have moved on to equally compelling subject matter in Citizen Koch: Charles G. Koch, […]
Bright Days Ahead – A Tribeca Interview
By Gary M. Kramer. Like Julien (Laurent Lafitte), the younger computer instructor, who tells Caroline (Fanny Ardant) the older woman he is romantically involved with that he is a diversion, Bright Days Ahead, co-written and directed by Marion Vernoux is a diverting film. Caroline, a retired dentist, takes some classes […]
Writing Freedom: An Interview with Kim Longinotto on Salma
By Paul Risker. We need to celebrate the documentary Salma (2013) as a story of survival. Imprisoned by her family, the famous Tamil poet and activist Salma was forced to marry and denied education. Told largely through the written word, the film depicts her use of poetry writing for […]
The Bachelor Weekend – A Tribeca Interview
By Gary M. Kramer. The Bachelor Weekend is a genial Irish comedy about a groom named Fionnan (Hugh O’Conor), his best man Davin (Andrew Scott), and the quartet of other men taking to the great outdoors for a Stag party. The guests include Fionnan’s gay brother Kevin (Michael Legge) and […]
Life After the Dark: An Interview with George Blagden
By Tom Ue. George Blagden made his film debut in the independent feature After the Dark (2013, directed by John Huddles), formerly The Philosophers, opposite Rhys Wakefield, Sophie Lowe, James D’Arcy, and Darryl Sabara; he started shooting the same month he graduated from the prestigious Guildhall Drama School, which he […]
Diva Directors Around the Globe: Spotlight on Isabel Coixet
By Anna Weinstein. Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet has directed ten features and three documentaries in the past twenty-five years. Perhaps best known for her award-winning films My Life Without Me (2003) and The Secret Life of Words (2005) starring Sarah Polley, Coixet also directed Elegy (2008) with Ben Kingsley, Penélope […]
Diva Directors Around the Globe: Spotlight on Susanne Bier
By Anna Weinstein. Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier has directed fifteen films since 1991. Her film Brothers (2004) inspired the 2009 U.S. remake starring Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tobey Maguire, and her film After the Wedding (2006) was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Picture. Things We Lost […]
An Interview with Sharon Badal – Short Film Curator for the Tribeca Film Festival
By Gary M. Kramer. Sharon Badal is the shorts film curator for the Tribeca Film Festival. This year, she received a record-breaking 3,074 submissions. “We broke 3,000 for the first time!” she announced buoyantly in a recent Skype session. The Festival is showcasing 57 shorts from 16 countries in 9 […]
Cinema Journeyman: An Interview with Mark Cousins
By Paul Risker. In 2011 Mark Cousins became film journalism’s Odysseus when he concluded his six-year journey to tell the story of film across sixteen hours. The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) stands as a seminal documentary on the subject of cinema. One might have thought the logical progression […]