Roland Emmerich Unveils Independence Day Sequels
There’s just something about the idea of the world being ripped to pieces that gets the box-office bees buzzing, no matter how exhausted the story arcs may be. Roland Emmerich doesn’t give cinema anything new with his latest disaster flick, 2012, and he plans to keep that trend alive as he looks to make a couple more sequels to his 1996 blockbuster, Independence Day.... read more
Precious' Lee Daniels and Slumdog's Christian Colson Go to Selma
Lee Daniels’ new movie, Precious, has garnered riotous praise and deafening Oscar buzz. Now, it’s time for Daniels to try his hand at another buzz-worthy, socially conscious project.... read more
Salute Your Shorts: The Golden Age of Television
Salute Your Shorts is a weekly column that looks at short films, music videos, commercials or any other short form visual media that generally gets ignored.The title of the Criterion Collection’s The Golden Age of Television can seem like quite a misnomer. For my money, the greatest age for television is right now, and to anyone who’d dispute this, I’d just send a link to Paste's list of the top 20 shows of the decade. We could’ve easily continued the list to 50 without breaking a sweat. Hell, if you include some more idiosyncratic favorites, there are more than 100 shows... read more
Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)
Release Date: Nov. 20 (New York) Director/Writer: Pedro Almodóvar Starring: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo Run Time: 128 mins. Celebrated director explores life through movies Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film is an anthology of his previous obsessions—its haunting score (courtesy of long-time collaborator Alberto Iglesias) and deep hues evoke the melodramatic aesthetic that has defined his work since 1997’s Live Flesh. This is a movie about seeing and being seen, a fact that is evident from the dazzling opening sequence that begins with a close-up of a woman’s eye, in which you can see the reflection of a newspaper. The... read more
Watch the Trailer for Jeff Bridges Flick, Crazy Heart
Fox Searchlight has released the trailer for Crazy Heart, the film that critics says will help Jeff Bridges win his overdue Oscar.... read more
Will Desperados be the Female Hangover?
With the roaring box-office success of this summer’s The Hangover, not to mention its planned sequel, you can all but rest assured that studios are being flooded with pitches that begin something like, “It’s just like The Hangover, except…,” even as we type this.... read more
Noah Baumbach's New Movie Coming in March
Focus Features has set a March 12 debut for Noah Baumbach’s latest, Greenberg, an earlier-than-expected release for a filmmaker whose work is typically rolled out in the fall as awards bait.... read more
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Release Date: November 25, 2009 Director: Wes Anderson Writer: Roald Dahl (novel), Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach (screenplay) Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Cox, Michael Gambon, Anjelica Huston Studio/Run Time: Twentieth Century Fox, 87 min. Wes Anderson’s whimsical animated film features his familiar themes and undeniable fingerprints, but has broader-than-usual appeal.... read more
Fans Push for Superman Returns Director's Cut
The Man of Steel’s lackluster reboot in 2006 apparently hasn’t turned everyone off of the franchise. Some people can’t get enough of it, such as those behind SupermanReturnsTheBryanSingerCut.com, a website urging Warner Bros. to release what is spelled out in the URL, a lengthier director’s cut of the film, supposedly the product Bryan Singer would liked to have seen hit theaters.... read more
Fight Club (10th Anniversary Edition)
Release Date: Nov. 17 Director: David Fincher Writers: Jim Uhls, Chuck Palahniuk Cinematographer: Jeff Cronenweth Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter Studio/Run Time: Twentieth Century Fox, 139 mins. A beautiful and unique snowflake David Fincher’s film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club doesn’t tell us anything about consumerism that we don’t already know. That’s exactly why it’s a stunning piece of cinema, and a searing indictment of a society wandering a labyrinth of material comfort and spiritual discontent.... read more
Watch Zach Galifianakis, Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter and Andy Dick on Between Two Ferns
In its illustrious seven-episode run, Zach Galifianakis web series Between Two Ferns has played host to everyone from Michael Cera to Jon Hamm, Charlize Theron to Natalie Portman. The latest episode finds Galifianakis getting awkward with new Tonight Show host, Conan O’Brien. As usual, things get pretty uncomfortable pretty fast. But hey, nothing says “good morning” like jokes about Smurfs and sweating, right?... read more
Badly Drawn Boy Readies TV-Movie Soundtrack
Damon Gough, AKA: Badly Drawn Boy, is confirmed to compose the music for an upcoming U.K. made-for-TV film.... read more
De Père en Flic, Highest Grossing French-Canadian Film Ever, Comes to U.S.
Sony Pictures has quickly snapped up the rights to De Père en Flic, the highest-grossing French-language film ever released in Canada. The film was released this past July in Quebec and was #1 at the box office.... read more
Red Cliff
Release Date: Oct. 16 Director: John Woo Writers: John Woo, Khan Chan, Cheng Kuo, Heyu Sheng Cinematographers: Yue Lü, Li Zhang Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang Studio/Run Time: Magnolia Pictures, 148 minutes Woo returns to China for an epic war movie... read more
Oscars Considering 20 Animated Films
A record 20 titles will be considered for Best Animated Feature Film in next year’s Academy Awards, a stark reflection of this year’s colorful craze.... read more
Pirate Radio
Release Date: Nov. 13 Director/Writer: Richard Curtis Cinematographer: Danny Cohen Starring: Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Sturridge, Kenneth Branagh Studio/Run Time: Focus Features, 135 mins. Raucous ’60s retrospective adrift in simplistic plot Nobody can accuse Richard Curtis’ sophomore directorial effort of being less than a fun time. The writer/director of Love, Actually immerses his work in a sea of floral-lensed escapism, filled with lusty skirt-chasing and fraternal merry-making—and in Pirate Radio, a loose timepiece about a radio ship that broadcasts primitive rock ’n’ roll in international waters to avoid government regulation, the good vibes keep rolling. It’s worth seeing... read more
The Messenger
Release Date: Nov. 13 Director: Oren Moverman Writers: Moverman and Alessandro Camon Cinematographer: Bobby Bukowski Starring: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone, Samantha Morton Studio/Run Time: Oscilloscope Laboratories, 105 mins. War film well acted and fittingly bleak It’s unfortunate for this film that we’re experiencing a collective case of war-movie fatigue; when we’re still dealing with these wars on television and in our own communities, it’s hard to drag ourselves to the movies to be reminded of how awful it all is. The Messenger starts with an interesting premise: A war hero (Ben Foster) sent home to recuperate from injuries... read more
Film Friday: Werner Herzog Goes Nuts Twice (and Other Observations About Crazed Filmmakers)
A new movie called Bronson by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn is traveling around the country, three screens per week. It’s about a man (true story) who’s so incorrigible that British authorities had to lock him up in a jail (or rather, a gaol) for 30-odd years. He’s the kind of chap who hauls off and belts people just for being within arms’ reach: school teachers, police officers, you name it. Bald, mustachioed, and hard-knuckled like a carnival strongman, he has no place in a civil society, even though his crimes don’t seem to warrant three decades in solitary confinement, either.... read more
Salute Your Shorts: Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket"
Salute Your Shorts is a weekly column that looks at short films, music videos, commercials or any other short form visual media that generally gets ignored.Whatever else he may be, Wes Anderson has been a large figure in American filmmaking for the past decade. When the AV Club put out its list of 10 Films that Couldn’t Have Happened Without Wes Anderson two years ago, the publication could've kept the list going for ages, and since then the number of films and filmmakers he’s influenced has only grown longer. Especially of late, Anderson tends to have apologetic fans who love... read more
MGM on its Way to Auction
MGM’s iconic roaring lion has been stifled to whimpers of late due to ticket-sale woes, and the box office blows have the once ample studio heading to the auction house again.... read more
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