By Anna Weinstein. Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has directed six features since her award-winning debut Thirteen in 2003. Her most recent film, Miss You Already, is now in theaters, starring Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore and written by British screenwriter and actress Morwenna Banks. It’s unlikely anyone can escape this film without […]
A Long, Strange Trip: Sam Klemke’s Time Machine
November 9, 2015
By Elias Savada. Australian director-writer Matthew Bate (responsible for the fly-on-the-wall 2011 documentary Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure) took an interest in his latest film’s central character after watching a video by him on YouTube that year. More on that later. Sam Klemke’s Time Machine, a work compiled […]
The Visual Desolation of Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario
November 9, 2015
By Kyle Huffman. “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out of the frame.” This seemingly direct estimation of the art form by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese defines movies as utilizing first and foremost one sense: the visual. The portrait design of the silver screen traditionally […]
Editorial issue 72: Diversity in U.S. Cinema
November 8, 2015
By Daniel Lindvall. At the time of writing [20 August 2015] the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism has just published what is described as ‘the most comprehensive analysis of diversity in recent popular films ever conducted’, focusing on ‘data assessing gender, race/ethnicity and LGBT status […]
The Impossibility of Anti-Montage: Sebastian Schipper on Victoria (2015)
November 7, 2015
By Amir Ganjavie. Various contemporary filmmakers like Aleksandr Sokurov and Shahram Mokri have tried to make features through single continuous takes, introducing creative ways to establish the relationship between digital technology, time, and cinema. Sebastian Schipper is among the latest generation of young directors who has entered the field with Victoria […]
Falling Apart Badly: Miss You Already
November 6, 2015
By Elias Savada. I suspect the issues I have with the new Drew Barrymore-Toni Collette BFF “dramedy” Miss You Already (including a 112-minute, too-long running time) is how overwrought and familiar it seems. Despite the earnest approach from its two stars (who also serve, with Christopher Smith, as producers), there isn’t […]
Lensing 20th-Century Britain: An Interview with Sir Sydney Samuelson CBE
November 5, 2015
By David A. Ellis. Sydney Wylie Samuelson CBE was born on 7th December 1925 and is the son of film pioneer, producer and writer George Berthold Samuelson (1889-1947), who created Worton Hall and Southall Studios. Worton Hall in Isleworth housed one of the earliest film production companies in the UK. Sydney […]
Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the Politics of Escapism
By Richard Grigg. Director Guy Ritchie’s 2015 film The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is of course inspired by the U.S. television series of the same name, a program that was extraordinarily popular for a brief period in the mid 1960s in America and abroad. Taking its cue from James Bond in […]
Dread in the Family: Luciferous
October 31, 2015
By Elias Savada. An escalating madness is the center of the disturbing world of Luciferous, a slow boil screamer presented at this year’s Spookyfest. The normalcy of city life for young, intelligent professionals Alex and Mahsa, and their vibrant 7-year-old daughter Mina is stretched to the limits of sanity, as […]
Diva Directors Around the Globe: Spotlight on Anne Fontaine
October 25, 2015
By Anna Weinstein. French filmmaker Anne Fontaine has written and directed fourteen films since her debut in 1993. Her films, Dry Cleaning (1997), How I Killed My Father (2001), and Coco Before Chanel (2009) brought her international attention as a writer-director, and her film Nathalie (2003) was adapted into Atom […]