A Book Review by Wheeler Winston Dixon. Literally hundreds of film books cross my desk every year; I review books on every imaginable genre, director, movement or filmic era on an almost daily basis for a variety of publications, but every so often, a book appears that instantly commands my […]
A Quick Take with Greg McLean on Wolf Creek 2
April 24, 2014
By Michael T. Toole. Greg McLean is a busy transplant. The Australian director, who struck gold with the unsettlingly graphic outback thriller Wolf Creek back in 2005, is enjoying some LA sun before shooting his latest chill fest, 6 Miranda Drive with Kevin Bacon. If you’re not patient enough for McLean’s current project to come to […]
SXSW 2014 Festival Report
April 23, 2014
By Jacob Mertens. I keep trying to think of a breezy anecdote to encapsulate my experience at SXSW this year, but I’m realizing it would be something of a lie. The festival, as great as it was (with perhaps the strongest overall line-up I’ve seen in my several years attending […]
Riot in Cell Block 11: Less Than Convincing
April 23, 2014
By Christopher Sharrett. Don Siegel has long been known as one of the “Hollywood professionals,” a group of second-string directors whose work was consistently reliable. Siegel’s films are tough and taut; some even applied the meaningless term “master of violence” before it was bestowed on Sam Peckinpah, one of Siegel’s […]
The Fictional Christopher Nolan (2013)
April 22, 2014
A Book Review by Brandon Konecny. Todd McGowan may well be the finest film theorist currently working in the States. His work is consistently original, and he writes with a concision and lucidity that renders even the most daunting of thinkers accessible. His The Real Gaze: Film Theory After Lacan (2008) […]
“A Lioness on the Prowl”: Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin
April 22, 2014
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Under The Skin (2013) is being sold on the basis of a simple premise, which is true on the face of it, but also offers just the merest suggestion of what the film is in its totality. Scarlett Johansson plays an alien inhabiting a woman’s body, […]
Diva Directors Around the Globe: Spotlight on Isabel Coixet
April 17, 2014
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
April 17, 2014
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 […]
Africa at Sundance 2014: The Quest for Global Humanity
April 17, 2014
By Boukary Sawadogo. Sundance Film Festival is to independent cinema what Hollywood is to mainstream commercial cinema around the world. The best of independent filmmakers’ works compete for awards but also for visibility that could translate into distribution contracts. It is a festival that screens non-U.S. films in different competing […]
An Interview with Sharon Badal – Short Film Curator for the Tribeca Film Festival
April 15, 2014
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 […]