Movies

The story behind why James O'Barr wrote the comic in the first place is just as tragic as the death of star Brandon Lee.

Sean Durkin’s elegant portrait of the Von Erich wrestling family shows how hard-driven masculine legacy can both enrich and devastate a family.

Hot off the success of his melodrama May December, Portland auteur Todd Haynes is embarking on his next film: a detective movie starring Joaquin Phoenix that will shoot this summer. “It’s a love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content, or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men,” Haynes told Variety. “One is a Native American character and one is a corrupt cop in L.A. They have to flee L.A. ultimately and go to Mexico.”

Haynes wrote the film’s story in collaboration with Phoenix and Jon Raymond, the Portland novelist and screenwriter best known for his collaborations with Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up). Phoenix’s co-star, likely to be an unknown, has yet to be cast.

AI is the buzzword of the moment, and nowhere seems to be safe — even film festivals. This year’s edition of Sundance was a prime example. Multiple documentaries about the past and present of artificial intelligence made an appearance, and at least one film — the dark comedy Little Death — utilized generative AI as an artistic choice. There was even Love Me, a post-apocalyptic romantic comedy about two AIs in love.

Outside of AI, there was the usual crop of inventive horror movies, a coming-of-age story set during the good ol’ days of AIM, and a heartbreaking documentary that was set partially inside of World of Warcraft. In short: Sundance had range this year. And while we couldn’t catch everything, we did watch a lot, and came away with this list of our favorites.

Ethan Coen says he and his brother Joel Coen are working on something that 'Blood Simple fans might love, and it could be a "pure horror."

Via @Djinn

The “Saint Maud” filmmaker’s second feature is an equally alluring and repellant mashup of disparate genres and ideas.

@livus, you probably want to add another hashtag to this mag: #NowWatching

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Everybody’s forgotten a new work from David Cronenberg is likely just months from debut, and I suspect The Shrouds will only land all the harder for it. Early word’s placed it among the strangest, saddest, toughest films David Cronenberg’s ever made––a reckoning with the passing of his wife dressed in characteristically fantastic sci-fi conceits.

The director hit Instagram with new images of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. See them via Empire.

As for “Dune: Messiah,” the trilogy capper, we have an update on that project, and it seems to be picking up some major steam. At this point, its future making is turning into an inevitability.

Via @maegul

Bound to be something for your watchlist in this:

“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Poor Things” topped IndieWire’s annual critics poll of the best movies of the year.

The Iranian thriller drama “Just 6.5” (also known as “Law of Tehran”) written and directed by Saeed Roustayi has been included in the list of 50 best films released in the UK in 2023 by The Guardian. A production of 2019, the movie hit the cinemas in the UK in March, after being released in eight other countries and participating in about 30 international film festivals across the globe.

Upon its premiere in Iran in February 2019, the film won multiple awards, including the Crystal Simorgh for Audience Choice of Best Film, at the 37th Fajr Film Festival. Later in the September that year, it was well received by critics at the 76th Venice Film Festival. It also received several nominations at international film festivals and won awards from festivals in Tokyo, Bordeaux, and Zurich among others.

“The Boy and the Heron,” the latest work from beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, has become his first film to top the North American box office.

Via @throws_lemy

Nickelodeons began as a showman’s next step to making it rich in America. Harry Davis, born in England in 1870, immigrated to the United States at the age of nine and two years later entered the world of showmanship as a carnival hustler. He quickly learned effective business skills and how to appeal to crowds, discovering a passion for the field. By the time inventions such as Edison’s Kinetoscope, the French Cinematograph, and the American Vitascope entered the scene, Davis was a successful owner of several “dime museums,” penny arcades, and playhouses in a variety of locations. The entertainment value of moving pictures became apparent to Davis when he began showing them at these various locations as additional attractions...

Via [email protected]

Directed, Produced, Filmed, Animated, Edited by, Jim McKenziePotato Face merch available here: https://jimmckenzie.bigcartel.com/Potato Face is a theatrical ...

Nominations for the 81st Golden Globes were announced Monday morning...Unlike the Oscars, the Globes honor the best of both film and television and steer clear of recognizing excellence in most below-the-line crafts like editing or cinematography. They also distinguish between film genres, recognizing the best comedies and musicals separately from the best dramas. Thus, “Oppenheimer” will compete for the top drama prize alongside “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Zone of Interest” and “Past Lives.” For its part, “Barbie” will vie for best comedy or musical with “Air,” “American Fiction,” “Poor Things,” “May December” and “The Holdovers.”

Via @skavau

This is from The Film Stage

“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist–moving an audience through a movie […] making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark,” said the late, great Gordon Willis. As our year-end coverage continues, we must pay dues. From talented newcomers to seasoned professionals, we’ve rounded up the examples that have most impressed us this year.

Here's an excerpt >Although it could not have been planned that way, the forty-eighth Polish Film Festival will stand as one of the last cultural monuments of the outgoing far-right government that has ruled over the country since 2015. Along with socially intolerant and ultra-Catholic anti-immigration and anti-abortion policies, the Law and Justice party and its allies have promoted a version of Polish history that highlighted individual nationalist heroism, and downplayed, revised, distorted, or denied more awkward examples of collective complicity, such as the many historical instances of antisemitism in Poland. This promotion took many forms, from legislating against historical facts pointing to Polish participation in the Holocaust to removing dissident directors and curators from museums and other cultural centers. Most significantly in the context of the festival, the government promoted its worldview by controlling the finance of films and television.

Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures join forces with StudioCanal, soccer's English Premier League and the MPA to oppose new legislation that would end geo-blocking of film and TV content across the European Union.

Via @neme

This year’s budget will provide support to launch a new Creative Clusters Programme for 2024, targeting emerging screen talent and communities across the country, with a pilot scheme proposed for County Cork

Terry Gilliam told Variety at the Red Sea Film Festival Sunday that he wants Johnny Depp to play Satan in his new film 'Carnival at the End of Days.'

.... As for the new film, it is being co-written with performer, theater-maker, writer and musician Christopher Brett Bailey, whose relative youth is an asset to Gilliam “because as you get older the world becomes more foreign to you.” The story is as wild as you’d expect from the creator of “12 Monkeys” and “Brazil.”

“This is a simple tale of God wiping out humanity for fucking up his beautiful garden Earth,” Gilliam said. “There’s only one character who’s trying to save humanity and that’s Satan, because without humanity he’s lost his job and he’s an eternal character and so to live without a job is terrible. So he finds some young people and he tries to convince God that these young people are the new Adam and Eve. God still gets to wipe out humanity. It’s a comedy.”

Just rewatched Elf for the umpteenth time and I feel Will Ferrell was robbed of being at least nominated for best actor by the Academy Awards. His child-like mannerisms were so convincing and entertaining. What's interesting was Johnny Depp was nominated for presumably his comedic performance as Jack Sparrow that year. Sean Penn actually won for Mystic River, which was a great performance but I've only watched that movie once, while I've watched Elf annually since it's been out. Which other comedic performance or movie do you wish was honored by the Academy?

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Surprise! Steven Soderbergh's got a secret new film ready for Sundance called 'Presence' starring Lucy Liu, Julia Fox and more.

Last November we had the opportunity to attend an exclusive twenty-minute screening of ‘Dune: Part II’, the highly anticipated second installment of the monumental adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic that Denis Villeneuve is carrying out. Of course, it is early to give an opinion, but we can assure that there are reasons to think that This new installment could be even more stimulating than the first.