It was the year 1989 when veteran actor Robert Downey Jr. portrayed the role of Alex Finch in a forgotten movie titled Chances Are. Chances are, you probably haven’t heard of this film but for Rdj, the role of Finch was the most accessible role that he had ever portrayed, until Iron Man came along.
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in the MCU | Marvel Studios
From being a person in jail to an Oscar-winning actor in 2024, Downey Jr.’s life has been incredible over all these years. Taking a look back at what he has achieved over the years, Downey Jr. revealed that his forgotten film Chances Are stands right near the top!
Robert Downey Jr. And A Forgotten Film From 1989
Well, no offense to Mr. Downey Jr., but back in 1989, he wasn’t as famous compared to the present. Hence, starring alongside Cybill Shephard and Ryan O’Neal, the...
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in the MCU | Marvel Studios
From being a person in jail to an Oscar-winning actor in 2024, Downey Jr.’s life has been incredible over all these years. Taking a look back at what he has achieved over the years, Downey Jr. revealed that his forgotten film Chances Are stands right near the top!
Robert Downey Jr. And A Forgotten Film From 1989
Well, no offense to Mr. Downey Jr., but back in 1989, he wasn’t as famous compared to the present. Hence, starring alongside Cybill Shephard and Ryan O’Neal, the...
- 6/5/2024
- by Visarg Acharya
- FandomWire
Exclusive: Film Independent has named the Fellows and projects selected for the 2024 edition of its Amplifier Fellowship, a program that provides direct support to emerging and mid-career Black or African American filmmakers. They are Zandashé Brown (The Matriarch), Moira Griffin (The Prince of 7th Ave: The Legend of WilliWear/Willi Smith), Crystal Kayiza (The Gardeners), Mobolaji Olambiwonnu (Chosen Fathers), Avril Speaks (Pure), and Monique Walton (Anita).
Over the course of the year-long program, supported by Netflix and its Fund for Creative Equity, Fellows will receive bespoke support to further both their career and current projects as well as customized mentorship pairings with a Netflix executive and board member from Film Independent. Each will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, financial and business advisement in partnership with The Jill James, and a $30,000 unrestricted grant, intended to support the sustainability of their creative endeavors.
“The Amplifier Fellowship provides...
Over the course of the year-long program, supported by Netflix and its Fund for Creative Equity, Fellows will receive bespoke support to further both their career and current projects as well as customized mentorship pairings with a Netflix executive and board member from Film Independent. Each will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, financial and business advisement in partnership with The Jill James, and a $30,000 unrestricted grant, intended to support the sustainability of their creative endeavors.
“The Amplifier Fellowship provides...
- 3/13/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
“You get me?” barks Career Drill Sergeant Zim (Clancy Brown). The young, beautiful, and vapid recruits giving him their full attention answer in kind: “Sir yes sir!” Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) and his fellow roughnecks might get Zim, but most people do not. Since its first theatrical run through today, viewers misread, misunderstand, and, frankly, misattribute Starship Troopers time and again, failing to see the cutting satire at work.
The most recent example comes from author Isaac Young, who took to Twitter to critique the film’s approach to satire. Young argued that director Paul Verhoeven failed to make fun of the Terran Federation because the attractive heroes, clean cities, and technologically advanced schools look nicer than the ugly bugs they fight.
Why the first Starship Troopers movie failed as a parody, a thread:
Watching the movie, it was clear the director was aiming for a campy, over-the-top depiction of the Terran Federation.
The most recent example comes from author Isaac Young, who took to Twitter to critique the film’s approach to satire. Young argued that director Paul Verhoeven failed to make fun of the Terran Federation because the attractive heroes, clean cities, and technologically advanced schools look nicer than the ugly bugs they fight.
Why the first Starship Troopers movie failed as a parody, a thread:
Watching the movie, it was clear the director was aiming for a campy, over-the-top depiction of the Terran Federation.
- 2/28/2024
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
There’s a scene in the 2010 film Eat Pray Love where Julia Roberts’s character Liz basks in the experience of eating a guilt-free pizza. It was an important character moment for her–and for many audience members. And whatever your specific dietary preferences or requirements may be, we hope that you’ll enjoy whatever your guilt-free “pizza moment” is this Thanksgiving, surrounded by friends and family (chosen or otherwise.)
Food, of course, has played as major a role in cinema as any other basic human biological function, from the sprawling bowls of pasta in the works of Martin Scorsese, to the last decade’s trend of thoughtfully investigative health-leaning food docs such as Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives. Today, though, we’re leaving the scare-mongering at the kids’ table and indulging in some seriously calorie-dense, celebratory depictions of food on film.
So cinch up that lobster bib and...
Food, of course, has played as major a role in cinema as any other basic human biological function, from the sprawling bowls of pasta in the works of Martin Scorsese, to the last decade’s trend of thoughtfully investigative health-leaning food docs such as Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives. Today, though, we’re leaving the scare-mongering at the kids’ table and indulging in some seriously calorie-dense, celebratory depictions of food on film.
So cinch up that lobster bib and...
- 11/21/2023
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Under the non de plume John Le Carre, David Cornwall penned a series of best-selling spy novels including “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” ‘The Little Drummer Girl’’ and “The Russia House,” that are cerebral, unadorned, gritty. The antitheist of Ian Fleming’s suave James Bond. In fact, his most popular character George Smiley just blended into the crowd: “Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession,” Cornwall described him in “A Murder of Quality.” “The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colorful adventure of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, had lived and worked for years among his country’s enemies learns only one prayer; that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim.”
Before his death at the age of 89 in in December, 2020, Cornwall sat down for a rare interview with award-winning documentarian Errol Morris...
Before his death at the age of 89 in in December, 2020, Cornwall sat down for a rare interview with award-winning documentarian Errol Morris...
- 10/23/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The bread and butter of film festivals is the unveiling of new movies. And in the case of the major festivals taking place in the late summer and early fall — Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York — the selections offer a preview of potential Oscar nominees and winners. Remember the eight-minute standing ovation Brendan Fraser received last year at Venice for “The Whale”? It kicked off his comeback and journey to a best Oscar win this year.
And with the 50th annual Telluride Film Festival kicking off August 31 at in the picturesque Colorado mountain burg, let’s take the cinematic time machine back 1993 when the fest was a mere 20 years old. John Boorman of “Deliverance” and “Hope and Glory” fame was the guest director of the festival. Jennifer Jason Leigh, then just 31 and whose latest film was Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” was honored with a tribute as was socialist British director Ken Loach,...
And with the 50th annual Telluride Film Festival kicking off August 31 at in the picturesque Colorado mountain burg, let’s take the cinematic time machine back 1993 when the fest was a mere 20 years old. John Boorman of “Deliverance” and “Hope and Glory” fame was the guest director of the festival. Jennifer Jason Leigh, then just 31 and whose latest film was Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” was honored with a tribute as was socialist British director Ken Loach,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Apple TV+’s hit limited series “Hijack” starring Idris Elba is a nail-biting thrill ride set in real-time. Over the years, there have been many types of hijack films. Besides planes, there have been suspenseful takeovers of ships, trains, subways and even trucks.
“The Taking of the Pelham One Two Three,” from 1974 — avoid the two remakes — is a superb thriller about four men who take over a New York subway car and hold the passengers, conductor and an undercover policeman hostage unless they get $1 million (remember that was a lot of money 49 years ago). If their demands aren’t met, they will start killing hostages. Directed by Joseph Sargent and adapted by Peter Stone from the best-selling novel by John Godey, “Taking” boasts a stellar cast at the top of their game including Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo and Martin Balsam. David Shire penned the influential score.
A year...
“The Taking of the Pelham One Two Three,” from 1974 — avoid the two remakes — is a superb thriller about four men who take over a New York subway car and hold the passengers, conductor and an undercover policeman hostage unless they get $1 million (remember that was a lot of money 49 years ago). If their demands aren’t met, they will start killing hostages. Directed by Joseph Sargent and adapted by Peter Stone from the best-selling novel by John Godey, “Taking” boasts a stellar cast at the top of their game including Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo and Martin Balsam. David Shire penned the influential score.
A year...
- 8/8/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
One of the most celebrated movies of 1998 was “Saving Private Ryan,” starring Tom Hanks, Jeremy Davies and Matt Damon. Written by Robert Rodat and directed by Steven Spielberg, the war film tells of a group of U.S. soldiers who are ordered to retrieve a man whose three brothers have all been killed in action. Released 25 years ago on July 24, 1998, “Saving Private Ryan” was a massive commercial success, making $217 million in the United States and $482 million worldwide. The first team-up of Spielberg and Hanks went on to win five Oscars, though infamously not Best Picture. Read on as Gold Derby celebrates the “Saving Private Ryan” 25th anniversary.
Most critics loved the film, including Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times, who called it “a powerful and impressive milestone in the realistic depiction of combat.” Wendy Ides in Times (UK) said that the opening 24-minute war sequence “is one of the...
Most critics loved the film, including Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times, who called it “a powerful and impressive milestone in the realistic depiction of combat.” Wendy Ides in Times (UK) said that the opening 24-minute war sequence “is one of the...
- 7/29/2023
- by Brian Rowe
- Gold Derby
Universal Pictures has finally unveiled Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb epic “Oppenheimer” at a world premiere event in Paris. First reactions to the nearly three-hour drama are pouring in and are strong across the board, with the film being called a “spectacular achievement” and “audacious.”
Writing for The Los Angeles Times, former critic Kenneth Turan hailed “Oppenheimer” as “arguably Nolan’s most impressive work yet in the way it combines his acknowledged visual mastery with one of the deepest character dives in recent American cinema.”
Matt Maytum, deputy editor of Total Film, said Nolan’s latest left him “stunned,” adding, “[It’s] a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow.”
#Oppenheimer left me stunned: a character study on the grandest scale, with a...
Writing for The Los Angeles Times, former critic Kenneth Turan hailed “Oppenheimer” as “arguably Nolan’s most impressive work yet in the way it combines his acknowledged visual mastery with one of the deepest character dives in recent American cinema.”
Matt Maytum, deputy editor of Total Film, said Nolan’s latest left him “stunned,” adding, “[It’s] a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow.”
#Oppenheimer left me stunned: a character study on the grandest scale, with a...
- 7/11/2023
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
The University of Southern California Libraries revealed the winners for the 35th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award on Saturday. The awards, which honor the year’s best film and television adaptations (along with the works on which they are based), returned live to USC’s elegant Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library for the annual black tie awards fete.
This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race, presaging 14 eventual Oscar winners, including in the last decade “Argo” (2013), “12 Years a Slave” (2014), “The Imitation Game” (2015), “The Big Short” (2016), “Moonlight” (2017), and “Call Me By Your Name” (2018).
Screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews won the film award for “Women Talking,” which is nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay Oscars, while the television prize went to English stand-up comedian and screenwriter Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious,” from “Slow Horses,” based...
This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race, presaging 14 eventual Oscar winners, including in the last decade “Argo” (2013), “12 Years a Slave” (2014), “The Imitation Game” (2015), “The Big Short” (2016), “Moonlight” (2017), and “Call Me By Your Name” (2018).
Screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews won the film award for “Women Talking,” which is nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay Oscars, while the television prize went to English stand-up comedian and screenwriter Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious,” from “Slow Horses,” based...
- 3/5/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Movies That Made Me veteran guest and screenwriter Dan Waters discusses his favorite year of cinema (1989) with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Love At First Bite (1979)
Hudson Hawk (1991)
Demolition Man (1993)
Heathers (1989)
Warlock (1989)
The Matrix (1999)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Jaws (1975)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Nashville (1975)
Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Field Of Dreams (1989)
My Left Foot (1989)
Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Sex Lies And Videotape (1989)
Easy Rider (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
All That Jazz (1979)
Hair (1979)
Alien (1979)
Fight Club (1999)
Office Space (1999)
Magnolia (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
American Pie (1999)
The Iron Giant (1999)
All About My Mother (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Pretty In Pink (1986)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Say Anything… (1989)
Miracle Mile (1989)
True Love (1989)
Powwow Highway (1989)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
Southside With You...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Love At First Bite (1979)
Hudson Hawk (1991)
Demolition Man (1993)
Heathers (1989)
Warlock (1989)
The Matrix (1999)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Jaws (1975)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Nashville (1975)
Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Field Of Dreams (1989)
My Left Foot (1989)
Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Sex Lies And Videotape (1989)
Easy Rider (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
All That Jazz (1979)
Hair (1979)
Alien (1979)
Fight Club (1999)
Office Space (1999)
Magnolia (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
American Pie (1999)
The Iron Giant (1999)
All About My Mother (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Pretty In Pink (1986)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Say Anything… (1989)
Miracle Mile (1989)
True Love (1989)
Powwow Highway (1989)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
Southside With You...
- 2/21/2023
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Peter Berg didn’t know how to respond to the 2020 murder of George Floyd. It was not the Minneapolis that the filmmaker, a graduate of Saint Paul’s Macalester College, thought he knew. Eventually, he turned to football, as he had before in his career — following the predominantly Black players at the city’s North Community High School along with their coaches (also members of the Minneapolis Pd) for a football season that proved fraught on and off the field.
Boys in Blue, the resulting four-part Showtime series (out Jan. 6), may signal a softening for the 57-year-old director. Best known for such machismo-fueled features as Friday Night Lights, Hancock and Battleship, Berg is also readying a Netflix limited series about the opioid crisis (Painkiller) and a long-gestating Rihanna doc for Amazon — if she approves the cut. Speaking from the West L.A. offices of his Film Forties production company, Berg...
Boys in Blue, the resulting four-part Showtime series (out Jan. 6), may signal a softening for the 57-year-old director. Best known for such machismo-fueled features as Friday Night Lights, Hancock and Battleship, Berg is also readying a Netflix limited series about the opioid crisis (Painkiller) and a long-gestating Rihanna doc for Amazon — if she approves the cut. Speaking from the West L.A. offices of his Film Forties production company, Berg...
- 1/5/2023
- by Mikey O'Connell
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Frank Darabont knows about comeback stories. His adaptation of Stephen King's novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" was made for 25 million and released to theaters with little fanfare. Though Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film their coveted two-thumbs-up seal of approval, some of their esteemed peers (e.g. The Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan and The Washington Post's Desson Thomson) were mixed to negative.
But the movie's biggest problem had nothing to do with reviews. It was a 141-minute prison movie about the unlikely friendship that develops between two male inmates (Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) over 20 years. There was no romance or action to market. The Stephen King pedigree was downplayed because it wasn't a straight-up horror flick, and the studio's modest awards hopes for the movie might've been diminished due to its association with an author best known for pulp entertainments (even though Kathy Bates...
But the movie's biggest problem had nothing to do with reviews. It was a 141-minute prison movie about the unlikely friendship that develops between two male inmates (Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) over 20 years. There was no romance or action to market. The Stephen King pedigree was downplayed because it wasn't a straight-up horror flick, and the studio's modest awards hopes for the movie might've been diminished due to its association with an author best known for pulp entertainments (even though Kathy Bates...
- 11/22/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" was made under relatively harmonious conditions. Arnon Milchan's Embassy International Pictures gave the filmmaker what was then a generous 15 million budget for what was, on the page, a bleak comedy about bureaucratic tyranny and the looming threat of an unchecked surveillance state. Gilliam's 143-minute cut of the film was released sans incident in Europe during the first quarter of 1985, but, this being the pre-internet days, the overseas critical buzz didn't cross the Atlantic unless you were a plugged-in industry type or the most die-hard of "Monty Python" fans.
This was unfortunate because the domestic distribution rights to "Brazil" belonged to Universal Pictures, which was being run at the time by Sidney Sheinberg. As the company's President and COO, Sheinberg had successfully guided the studio through the New Hollywood revolution by advocating for a young Steven Spielberg and taking the counsel of his junior executives by making "National Lampoon's Animal House.
This was unfortunate because the domestic distribution rights to "Brazil" belonged to Universal Pictures, which was being run at the time by Sidney Sheinberg. As the company's President and COO, Sheinberg had successfully guided the studio through the New Hollywood revolution by advocating for a young Steven Spielberg and taking the counsel of his junior executives by making "National Lampoon's Animal House.
- 11/15/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
A Hollywood studio is rumoured to be remaking the Dutch director’s 1997 space epic. But will it, like so many others, miss the irony behind the film’s pseudo-fascist bombast?
When Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers originally hit cinemas in 1997, the reviews were scathing. The Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan argued that the Dutch director of Robocop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct had delivered a space flick “rigorously one-dimensional and free from even the pretense of intelligence”, even suggesting that the film-maker had preserved the “fascist utopianism” of the 1959 Robert A Heinlein novel that it had been based on. “Troopers takes us to a militaristic future where video bulletins encourage young people to ‘Join the Mobile Infantry and save the world’,” wrote Turan. “Schools teach that ‘violence is the supreme authority’ and nothing solves problems with the efficacy of ‘naked force.’” The Washington Post described Verhoeven’s tone as “so...
When Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers originally hit cinemas in 1997, the reviews were scathing. The Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan argued that the Dutch director of Robocop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct had delivered a space flick “rigorously one-dimensional and free from even the pretense of intelligence”, even suggesting that the film-maker had preserved the “fascist utopianism” of the 1959 Robert A Heinlein novel that it had been based on. “Troopers takes us to a militaristic future where video bulletins encourage young people to ‘Join the Mobile Infantry and save the world’,” wrote Turan. “Schools teach that ‘violence is the supreme authority’ and nothing solves problems with the efficacy of ‘naked force.’” The Washington Post described Verhoeven’s tone as “so...
- 11/12/2022
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers' "I Love Trouble" was supposed to be a throwback rom-com in the mold of a Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn classic. The pairing of Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts as a couple of quarrelsome newspaper reporters seemed relatively promising. Roberts was one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood at the time, while Nolte was two years removed from being named People's Sexiest Man Alive. This duo was nothing if not photogenic. Surely, they could generate enough chemistry to keep movie theaters packed throughout the summer of 1994. The erstwhile movie magazine Premiere was bullish enough on the film to predict it would be the fifth highest grossing movie of the season. It felt like a can't-miss proposition.
But miss is exactly what it did. The 45 million film opened to a paltry 7.9 million in late June, barely finishing fifth ahead of Mike Nichols' "Wolf," which was...
But miss is exactly what it did. The 45 million film opened to a paltry 7.9 million in late June, barely finishing fifth ahead of Mike Nichols' "Wolf," which was...
- 9/22/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Everyone loves a comeback story. Just look at Tiger Woods. And Hollywood especially loves a good comeback such as Judy Garland with 1954’s “A Star is Born.” The latest Tinseltown comeback is none other than Brendan Fraser, who over the past 30 years starred in everything from lowbrow comedies (“Encino Man”) to action blockbusters ( “The Mummy”) to acclaimed dramas and even a Best Picture Oscar winner (“Crash”).
But the 53-year-old actor has gone through a rough patch: a divorce including a well-publicized alimony issue in 2013, health issues, depression, the death of his mother and the 2018 revelation where he alleged, he had been sexually assaulted by the former head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. in 2003. After stepping away for a while, Fraser has been slowly working his way back appearing in such TV series as Showtime’s “The Affair” and DC Universe and HBO Max series “Doom Patrol.”
The Fraser-sance movie...
But the 53-year-old actor has gone through a rough patch: a divorce including a well-publicized alimony issue in 2013, health issues, depression, the death of his mother and the 2018 revelation where he alleged, he had been sexually assaulted by the former head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. in 2003. After stepping away for a while, Fraser has been slowly working his way back appearing in such TV series as Showtime’s “The Affair” and DC Universe and HBO Max series “Doom Patrol.”
The Fraser-sance movie...
- 9/12/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Hollywood legend holds that during the filming of Charles Vidor's film noir classic "Gilda," Rita Hayworth slapped co-star Glenn Ford so hard that she broke two of his teeth. This is obviously not an ideal situation. Stage and screen combat is an important discipline, one that allows actors to feign violence without actually, you know, dislodging dental work. There is another level, however, but this is typically indulged in action films. Think Sylvester Stallone getting hit so hard in the chest by Dolph Lundgren while shooting the climactic boxing match in "Rocky IV" that his heart swelled to a dangerous degree, forcing him to be flown from Vancouver at low altitude to a hospital in Santa Monica, California.
Accidents will happen. Egos, also, will run amok. Get two actors in a charged scene where they're desperate to ramp the stakes up to an Oscar-clip level, and the situation could...
Accidents will happen. Egos, also, will run amok. Get two actors in a charged scene where they're desperate to ramp the stakes up to an Oscar-clip level, and the situation could...
- 9/8/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
One of the more unlikely stage-and-screen box office smashes in musical history, “Fiddler on the Roof” — based on stories of shtetl life in Tsarist Russia by Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, and turned by writer Joseph Stein, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and composer Jerry Bock into a song-filled saga about a poor milkman with five unmarried daughters and an aversion to change — defied conventional wisdom about whose stories could be universal.
It helps, of course, when your score is a treasure trove: “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “To Life,” and “Sunrise, Sunset” are all-timers.
We’ve already gotten one adoring film about the original Broadway show’s legacy, 2019’s “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” and now we have a second: Daniel Raim’s warm, engaging “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen.” As its title makes clear, the documentary is about the beloved movie version directed by Norman Jewison,...
It helps, of course, when your score is a treasure trove: “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “To Life,” and “Sunrise, Sunset” are all-timers.
We’ve already gotten one adoring film about the original Broadway show’s legacy, 2019’s “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” and now we have a second: Daniel Raim’s warm, engaging “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen.” As its title makes clear, the documentary is about the beloved movie version directed by Norman Jewison,...
- 4/29/2022
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen director Daniel Raim on the casting of Tevye for Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof: “Until I talked with Norman I didn’t know that Frank Sinatra’s manager had called Norman. And Danny Kaye, what a great story!”
Daniel Raim’s Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, co-written with Michael Sragow, produced by Sasha Berman, executive produced by Matthew H. Bernstein and narrated by Jeff Goldblum, takes us on the remarkable odyssey of Norman Jewison and how he became the director of the multiple Oscar-winning Fiddler On The Roof.
Daniel Raim with Anne-Katrin Titze on Robert F Boyle: “He was my professor and I knew he loved Edward Hopper, so for Christmas I got him, when I was a student, a book on Hopper paintings.”
On-camera interviews with Topol, Rosalind Harris (Tzeitel), Michele Marsh (Hodel), Neva Small (Chava), composer John Williams,...
Daniel Raim’s Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, co-written with Michael Sragow, produced by Sasha Berman, executive produced by Matthew H. Bernstein and narrated by Jeff Goldblum, takes us on the remarkable odyssey of Norman Jewison and how he became the director of the multiple Oscar-winning Fiddler On The Roof.
Daniel Raim with Anne-Katrin Titze on Robert F Boyle: “He was my professor and I knew he loved Edward Hopper, so for Christmas I got him, when I was a student, a book on Hopper paintings.”
On-camera interviews with Topol, Rosalind Harris (Tzeitel), Michele Marsh (Hodel), Neva Small (Chava), composer John Williams,...
- 4/28/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"It's the closest thing to a human voice that their is.... That's worth the price of a ticket." Zeitgeist Films has unveiled an official trailer for a making of documentary called Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen, about the creation and filming of Fiddler on the Roof (which won three Oscars in 1972). The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the film, and this doc is about director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia while also re-envisioning the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage, original storyboards, and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Norman Jewison, Topol ("Tevye"), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and many others involved. The doc explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul. This...
- 3/13/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The USC Libraries revealed the winners for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award on Saturday as a virtual event, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations (along with the works on which they are based). This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s “The Lost Daughter” (Netflix) won the film award, while the television prize went to author Beth Macy and screenwriter Danny Strong for the Hulu series “Dopesick.”
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
- 2/27/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The USC Libraries revealed the winners for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award on Saturday as a virtual event, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations (along with the works on which they are based). This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s “The Lost Daughter” (Netflix) won the film award, while the television prize went to author Beth Macy and screenwriter Danny Strong for the Hulu series “Dopesick.”
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
- 2/27/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Jerusalem-based sales agent Go2Films has taken both worldwide rights (excluding North America) and Israeli distribution rights to “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen” by Oscar-nominated director Daniel Raim and narrated by Jeff Goldblum. Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films will handle North American distribution on the film, which follows the making of Norman Jewison’s “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The film was meant to have its international premiere in the Official Selection of Palm Springs Film Festival, which was cancelled due to Covid-19. A new international premiere is currently being negotiated. The film will have its market premiere at the European Film Market, running Feb. 10-17.
Go2Films also confirmed it has already closed the first deal for the film ahead of the EFM, with Jiff set to release the film in Australia in November 2022. Israeli documentary channel yes will broadcast the film after its theatrical release in the country,...
The film was meant to have its international premiere in the Official Selection of Palm Springs Film Festival, which was cancelled due to Covid-19. A new international premiere is currently being negotiated. The film will have its market premiere at the European Film Market, running Feb. 10-17.
Go2Films also confirmed it has already closed the first deal for the film ahead of the EFM, with Jiff set to release the film in Australia in November 2022. Israeli documentary channel yes will broadcast the film after its theatrical release in the country,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The USC Libraries has revealed the finalists for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
Last year’s Scripter film winners were “Nomadland” screenwriter Chloé Zhao and author Jessica Bruder (non-Scripter nominee “The Father” took home the Oscar); past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace), based on the novel by Frank Herbert
Maggie Gyllenhaal...
Last year’s Scripter film winners were “Nomadland” screenwriter Chloé Zhao and author Jessica Bruder (non-Scripter nominee “The Father” took home the Oscar); past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace), based on the novel by Frank Herbert
Maggie Gyllenhaal...
- 1/19/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The USC Scripter Awards has announced its nominees for its 34th annual ceremony, recognizing the best film and television adaptations. Netflix dominated the film category with three films making the cut, all from women screenwriters who also directed their movies: “The Lost Daughter” from Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Power of the Dog” from Jane Campion and “Passing” from Rebecca Hall. This is the first nomination for all three acclaimed filmmakers.
Joel Coen, a two-time nominee for “No Country for Old Men” (2007), for which he won with his brother Ethan, and “True Grit” (2010), was recognized for adapting his black-and-white interpretation of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” for Apple Original Films and A24. This is a huge pick-up for the movie, as no film adaptation of the cursed play has been recognized in the screenplay category at the Oscars.
Another significant boost was given to “Dune” and its three scribes, Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve.
Joel Coen, a two-time nominee for “No Country for Old Men” (2007), for which he won with his brother Ethan, and “True Grit” (2010), was recognized for adapting his black-and-white interpretation of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” for Apple Original Films and A24. This is a huge pick-up for the movie, as no film adaptation of the cursed play has been recognized in the screenplay category at the Oscars.
Another significant boost was given to “Dune” and its three scribes, Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve.
- 1/19/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Jeff Goldblum-narrated documentary Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, about Norman Jewison classic Fiddler On The Roof, is getting U.S. distribution via Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber.
The movie charts the story behind director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic.
Daniel Raim (Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story) directs the film, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol, composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small.
The deal was negotiated by producers Daniel Raim and Sasha Berman, and Richard Lorber on behalf of Zeitgeist, which is planning a spring 2022 release.
The acquisition comes exactly 50 years since Jewison’s musical was released in the U.
The movie charts the story behind director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic.
Daniel Raim (Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story) directs the film, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol, composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small.
The deal was negotiated by producers Daniel Raim and Sasha Berman, and Richard Lorber on behalf of Zeitgeist, which is planning a spring 2022 release.
The acquisition comes exactly 50 years since Jewison’s musical was released in the U.
- 11/4/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Neighbours launched him, and since then the star of Memento and Zone 414 has seized his Hollywood roles with a unique intensity. He talks about death, drugs, being a dad and divorce
At the start of this century, Guy Pearce was sitting pretty. He had shaken off the frothy soap bubbles of Neighbours, where he was one of the show’s original batch of pin-ups, along with Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, and was proving himself a versatile film actor – first as a sharp-clawed drag artist in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, then as a clench-jawed cop in LA Confidential.
Awaiting release was the existential thriller Memento, directed by a promising up-and-comer named Christopher Nolan. First, though, he heard whispers that Kenneth Turan, the film critic of the LA Times, had been singing his praises in a review of the military courtroom drama Rules of Engagement.
Continue reading.
At the start of this century, Guy Pearce was sitting pretty. He had shaken off the frothy soap bubbles of Neighbours, where he was one of the show’s original batch of pin-ups, along with Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, and was proving himself a versatile film actor – first as a sharp-clawed drag artist in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, then as a clench-jawed cop in LA Confidential.
Awaiting release was the existential thriller Memento, directed by a promising up-and-comer named Christopher Nolan. First, though, he heard whispers that Kenneth Turan, the film critic of the LA Times, had been singing his praises in a review of the military courtroom drama Rules of Engagement.
Continue reading.
- 9/30/2021
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Traditionally mounted by the USC Libraries as an elegant black-tie, sit-down dinner at the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library at the University of Southern California, this year the Scripter Awards went global. On Saturday, March 13, the USC Libraries opened up their exclusive awards show to honor the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based, as a virtual event.
This diverse group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Last year’s Scripter winners on the film and TV side were Oscar and Emmy nominees Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), respectively. Past winners of both the Scripter and the Oscar include “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game.” In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
This diverse group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Last year’s Scripter winners on the film and TV side were Oscar and Emmy nominees Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), respectively. Past winners of both the Scripter and the Oscar include “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game.” In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
- 3/14/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Traditionally mounted by the USC Libraries as an elegant black-tie, sit-down dinner at the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library at the University of Southern California, this year the Scripter Awards went global. On Saturday, March 13, the USC Libraries opened up their exclusive awards show to honor the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based, as a virtual event.
This diverse group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Last year’s Scripter winners on the film and TV side were Oscar and Emmy nominees Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), respectively. Past winners of both the Scripter and the Oscar include “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game.” In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
This diverse group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Last year’s Scripter winners on the film and TV side were Oscar and Emmy nominees Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), respectively. Past winners of both the Scripter and the Oscar include “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game.” In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
- 3/14/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The USC Libraries has announced this year’s finalists for the 33rd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which recognizes the most accomplished film and episodic series adaptations. The 2021 Scripter selection committee chose the finalists from a wide selection of 87 films and 65 episodic series adaptations.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are:
Mike Makowsky for “Bad Education” based on the New York magazine article “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt for “First Cow” based on the novel “The Half-Life” by Jon Raymond Screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson and playwright August Wilson for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland” based on the nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder Screenwriter and playwright Kemp Powers for “One Night in Miami”
The finalist writers for episodic series are:
Mark Richard and Ethan Hawke, for the episode “Meet the Lord,” from “The Good Lord Bird,...
The finalist writers for film adaptation are:
Mike Makowsky for “Bad Education” based on the New York magazine article “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt for “First Cow” based on the novel “The Half-Life” by Jon Raymond Screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson and playwright August Wilson for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland” based on the nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder Screenwriter and playwright Kemp Powers for “One Night in Miami”
The finalist writers for episodic series are:
Mark Richard and Ethan Hawke, for the episode “Meet the Lord,” from “The Good Lord Bird,...
- 1/26/2021
- by Antonio Ferme
- Variety Film + TV
The USC Libraries has revealed the finalists for the 33rd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
Last year’s Scripter winners were Oscar and Emmy nominees Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”). The year before was atypical, as the Scripter Award went to “Leave No Trace” screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini (and author Peter Rock), who were not nominated for the Oscar.
Past winners of both the Scripter and the Oscar include “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game.” In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars. This year, streaming giant Netflix dominated, with three nominees, including “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,...
Last year’s Scripter winners were Oscar and Emmy nominees Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”). The year before was atypical, as the Scripter Award went to “Leave No Trace” screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini (and author Peter Rock), who were not nominated for the Oscar.
Past winners of both the Scripter and the Oscar include “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game.” In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars. This year, streaming giant Netflix dominated, with three nominees, including “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,...
- 1/26/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The Lady Eve
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
- 7/25/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Pratfalls And A Zoom Supplement”
By Raymond Benson
The brilliance of Preston Sturges’ brilliant screwball comedy aside, what is striking about the new Blu-ray edition of the filmmaker’s 1941 The Lady Eve from The Criterion Collection is the supplement that is a Zoom conversation between Tom Sturges (Preston’s son), filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich, James L. Brooks, and Ron Shelton, and critics Leonard Maltin, Kenneth Turan, and Susan King. While it’s unclear if this is the first acknowledgment of the Covid-19 pandemic in the production of home video supplementary features, this reviewer found the inclusion to be revelatory. How amazing it is to see these personages in the Brady Bunch-style squares all discussing Sturges and the film, and mirroring what many of us are doing while working at home. At one point, Brooks’ internet connection fails and his image freezes. All the others...
“Pratfalls And A Zoom Supplement”
By Raymond Benson
The brilliance of Preston Sturges’ brilliant screwball comedy aside, what is striking about the new Blu-ray edition of the filmmaker’s 1941 The Lady Eve from The Criterion Collection is the supplement that is a Zoom conversation between Tom Sturges (Preston’s son), filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich, James L. Brooks, and Ron Shelton, and critics Leonard Maltin, Kenneth Turan, and Susan King. While it’s unclear if this is the first acknowledgment of the Covid-19 pandemic in the production of home video supplementary features, this reviewer found the inclusion to be revelatory. How amazing it is to see these personages in the Brady Bunch-style squares all discussing Sturges and the film, and mirroring what many of us are doing while working at home. At one point, Brooks’ internet connection fails and his image freezes. All the others...
- 7/16/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSChanges continue to ripple throughout the film industry: Following the cancellation of this year's SXSW, the festival has paired up with Amazon Prime and invited filmmakers of their lineup to take part in a 10-day "online festival," streaming on Prime for users in the U.S. Both Cannes and the Venice Film Festival have announced that neither will be moving forward with a digital festival, committing to plans for physical events for later this year. Recommended Viewingnhk World is offering its four part documentary, 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, on its website for free. The series offers an exclusive look at the animation auteur's production of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.A new short film by Jean-Marie Straub, France Against Robots, has premiered on the Kino Slang blog. The film's title is...
- 4/8/2020
- MUBI
“I have some big news,” the Los Angeles Times lead film critic Kenneth Turan tweeted on Wednesday. “After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
- 3/26/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
“I have some big news,” the Los Angeles Times lead film critic Kenneth Turan tweeted on Wednesday. “After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
The outpouring of praise for Turan, who is 73, was intense and immediate. “The maestro takes a bow,” responded The New York Times lead film critic A.O. Scott on Twitter, who himself stepped down from full-time daily criticism on March 15 for one year, leaving that task to his fellow lead critic Manohla Dargis. In his case, taking the title of Critic at Large as he writes “bigger, cross-topic essays,” per The Nyt,...
- 3/26/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Kenneth Turan is stepping down as the daily film critic at the Los Angeles Times after nearly 30 years, he announced on Twitter Wednesday.
Turan, who is a critic with NPR’s “Morning Edition” and is the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, had been a critic for the Los Angeles Times since 1991. Turan says he will continue writing about film, but “at a different pace.”
“I have some big news. After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times,” Turan said. “I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”
Also Read: FX Feeney, La Weekly Film Critic and Historian, Dies at 66
Turan is the author of,...
Turan, who is a critic with NPR’s “Morning Edition” and is the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, had been a critic for the Los Angeles Times since 1991. Turan says he will continue writing about film, but “at a different pace.”
“I have some big news. After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times,” Turan said. “I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ Looking forward to what’s to come.”
Also Read: FX Feeney, La Weekly Film Critic and Historian, Dies at 66
Turan is the author of,...
- 3/25/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Kenneth Turan, arguably the most widely read film critic in the town most associated with the making of movies, is stepping down. Turan, 73, has served as a Los Angeles Times film critic since 1991.
"I have some big news," Turan tweeted Wednesday. "After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, 'To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under ...
"I have some big news," Turan tweeted Wednesday. "After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, 'To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under ...
- 3/25/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Kenneth Turan, arguably the most widely read film critic in the town most associated with the making of movies, is stepping down. Turan, 73, has served as a Los Angeles Times film critic since 1991.
"I have some big news," Turan tweeted Wednesday. "After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, 'To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under ...
"I have some big news," Turan tweeted Wednesday. "After close to 30 years in the most exciting and rewarding of jobs, I am stepping away from being a daily film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I will keep writing about film but at a different pace. To quote Ecclesiastes, 'To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under ...
- 3/25/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The story of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is getting its time in theaters with the new film Run This Town.
Damian Lewis stars as the eccentric Ford, who died from cancer at the age of 46 in 2016, in the Ricky Tollman-directed film. Ben Platt plays Bram Shriver, a journalist who exposes Ford’s drug use.
The movie follows Platt’s Shriver as he aims to make a name for himself at a Toronto publication when he meets a source who wants to sell him a video of Ford smoking crack cocaine.
The film premiered at South by Southwest in...
Damian Lewis stars as the eccentric Ford, who died from cancer at the age of 46 in 2016, in the Ricky Tollman-directed film. Ben Platt plays Bram Shriver, a journalist who exposes Ford’s drug use.
The movie follows Platt’s Shriver as he aims to make a name for himself at a Toronto publication when he meets a source who wants to sell him a video of Ford smoking crack cocaine.
The film premiered at South by Southwest in...
- 3/5/2020
- by Alexia Fernandez
- PEOPLE.com
The USC Libraries Scripter Awards honor the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
While Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts, for movies “The Irishman” (Steve Zaillian adapted Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses”) and “The Two Popes” (Anthony McCarten adapted his own play), and Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman’s limited series “Unbelievable,” the winners were Amazon’s “Fleabag” (play and series author Phoebe Waller-Bridge was in London), and Sony’s “Little Women,” whose scribe Greta Gerwig gave a heartfelt speech. This could presage another win at the WGA Awards next week and on Oscar night in the Adapted Screenplay category.
“It’s the book of my life,” Gerwig said...
While Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts, for movies “The Irishman” (Steve Zaillian adapted Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses”) and “The Two Popes” (Anthony McCarten adapted his own play), and Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman’s limited series “Unbelievable,” the winners were Amazon’s “Fleabag” (play and series author Phoebe Waller-Bridge was in London), and Sony’s “Little Women,” whose scribe Greta Gerwig gave a heartfelt speech. This could presage another win at the WGA Awards next week and on Oscar night in the Adapted Screenplay category.
“It’s the book of my life,” Gerwig said...
- 1/26/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The USC Libraries Scripter Awards honor the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
While Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts, for movies “The Irishman” (Steve Zaillian adapted Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses”) and “The Two Popes” (Anthony McCarten adapted his own play), and Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman’s limited series “Unbelievable,” the winners were Amazon’s “Fleabag” (play and series author Phoebe Waller-Bridge was in London), and Sony’s “Little Women,” whose scribe Greta Gerwig gave a heartfelt speech. This could presage another win at the WGA Awards next week and on Oscar night in the Adapted Screenplay category.
“It’s the book of my life,” Gerwig said...
While Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts, for movies “The Irishman” (Steve Zaillian adapted Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses”) and “The Two Popes” (Anthony McCarten adapted his own play), and Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman’s limited series “Unbelievable,” the winners were Amazon’s “Fleabag” (play and series author Phoebe Waller-Bridge was in London), and Sony’s “Little Women,” whose scribe Greta Gerwig gave a heartfelt speech. This could presage another win at the WGA Awards next week and on Oscar night in the Adapted Screenplay category.
“It’s the book of my life,” Gerwig said...
- 1/26/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The USC Libraries has revealed the finalists for the 32nd-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
Last year’s Scripter winners were the exception that prove the rule: “Leave No Trace” screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini were not nominated for the Oscar; they adapted Peter Rock, author of “My Abandonment.”
The year before was more typical, as the Scripter Award went to “Call Me by Your Name” screenwriter James Ivory (who won the Oscar), and author André Aciman; past winners include “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019 eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts,...
Last year’s Scripter winners were the exception that prove the rule: “Leave No Trace” screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini were not nominated for the Oscar; they adapted Peter Rock, author of “My Abandonment.”
The year before was more typical, as the Scripter Award went to “Call Me by Your Name” screenwriter James Ivory (who won the Oscar), and author André Aciman; past winners include “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019 eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts,...
- 12/18/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The USC Libraries has revealed the finalists for the 32nd-annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
Last year’s Scripter winners were the exception that prove the rule: “Leave No Trace” screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini were not nominated for the Oscar; they adapted Peter Rock, author of “My Abandonment.”
The year before was more typical, as the Scripter Award went to “Call Me by Your Name” screenwriter James Ivory (who won the Oscar), and author André Aciman; past winners include “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019 eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts,...
Last year’s Scripter winners were the exception that prove the rule: “Leave No Trace” screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini were not nominated for the Oscar; they adapted Peter Rock, author of “My Abandonment.”
The year before was more typical, as the Scripter Award went to “Call Me by Your Name” screenwriter James Ivory (who won the Oscar), and author André Aciman; past winners include “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019 eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
Netflix dominated this year’s nominations with three adapted scripts,...
- 12/18/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Bombshell is now in theaters and the critics have differing opinions on the Fox News drama.
The movie tells the story of the women at Fox News involved with sexual harassment allegations that led to CEO Roger Ailes’ resignation from the company.
Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie all star in the film playing Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and Kayla Pospisil — a fictitious employee at the conglomerate — respectively. John Lithgow plays Ailes, while Allison Janney, Malcolm McDowell, Kate McKinnon and Connie Britton also appear in the film.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times writes, “A ferociously entertaining dramatization...
The movie tells the story of the women at Fox News involved with sexual harassment allegations that led to CEO Roger Ailes’ resignation from the company.
Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie all star in the film playing Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and Kayla Pospisil — a fictitious employee at the conglomerate — respectively. John Lithgow plays Ailes, while Allison Janney, Malcolm McDowell, Kate McKinnon and Connie Britton also appear in the film.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times writes, “A ferociously entertaining dramatization...
- 12/14/2019
- by Alexia Fernandez
- PEOPLE.com
In Netflix’s Oscar hopeful for best animated film, “I Lost My Body,” which premieres on the streaming service November 29, a resourceful and determined severed hand escapes a medical lab and ends up fending off rats, dogs, ants, pigeons and other dangers while in pursuit of its rightful owner. Echoes of Oliver Stone‘s 1981 awful horror story “The Hand” resounded in my head initially as I watched this appendage scoot along Parisian streets and flop down an escalator inside of a discarded can of ravioli. But this is a more surreal and imaginative take on such a pursuit, one that is tied to the story of an awkward young man who is desperately trying to make a life for himself while reflecting upon his boyhood with his loving parents in flashback passages that are shown in black and white.
The French-language film is directed by Jeremy Clapin, who co-adapted the...
The French-language film is directed by Jeremy Clapin, who co-adapted the...
- 11/24/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Spirited Away
Blu ray
Gkids/Shout! Factory
2001/ 1:85 / 125 min.
Starring Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The story of a lonely child lost in a beautiful and bizarre dreamscape, Spirited Away naturally begs comparison to Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. But in contrast to those frenetic classics, Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece is cooly meditative – a serene head trip.
At first sight Miyazaki’s Wonderland is not so wonderful – it’s an abandoned theme park discovered by ten year old Chihiro and her parents at the end of a secluded country road (Miyazaki’s version of a rabbit hole). Though the paint is peeling and the sidewalks cracked, the barren mall maintains a suspiciously well-stocked food court. Chihiro’s folks dig right in and find out the hard way that there’s no such thing as a free lunch – soon enough mom and dad are transformed...
Blu ray
Gkids/Shout! Factory
2001/ 1:85 / 125 min.
Starring Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The story of a lonely child lost in a beautiful and bizarre dreamscape, Spirited Away naturally begs comparison to Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. But in contrast to those frenetic classics, Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece is cooly meditative – a serene head trip.
At first sight Miyazaki’s Wonderland is not so wonderful – it’s an abandoned theme park discovered by ten year old Chihiro and her parents at the end of a secluded country road (Miyazaki’s version of a rabbit hole). Though the paint is peeling and the sidewalks cracked, the barren mall maintains a suspiciously well-stocked food court. Chihiro’s folks dig right in and find out the hard way that there’s no such thing as a free lunch – soon enough mom and dad are transformed...
- 11/9/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Review by Peter BelsitoMartin Scorsese’s Netflix epic ‘The Irishman’ is finally here.Pacino, Scorsese and De Niro, here out of makeup thank god
I sat there for the entire 3.5 hours.
A lot of thoughts which I’ll skim over here.
Must you see all of it?
It is and feels Very long. I kept wondering ‘why is this going on and on?’
To sum up, it is a film of parts and not an integral work. There’s no major arc here, just a bunch of connected sequences. Like a book of separate chapters and not like a novel that flows.
Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman at first sounds like more of the same from a director we know well, someone we’ve been on a cinematic journey with for our entire viewing lives.
Well it is different from his other works. These were all mostly self-contained stories and this is not.
I sat there for the entire 3.5 hours.
A lot of thoughts which I’ll skim over here.
Must you see all of it?
It is and feels Very long. I kept wondering ‘why is this going on and on?’
To sum up, it is a film of parts and not an integral work. There’s no major arc here, just a bunch of connected sequences. Like a book of separate chapters and not like a novel that flows.
Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman at first sounds like more of the same from a director we know well, someone we’ve been on a cinematic journey with for our entire viewing lives.
Well it is different from his other works. These were all mostly self-contained stories and this is not.
- 10/30/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
‘Hotel Mumbai’
Hotel Mumbai‘s prospects in the Us look very promising after Anthony Maras’ thriller played to full houses in its platform release in Los Angeles and New York last weekend.
Bleecker Street launched the film co-written by Maras and John Collee, which stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher and Tilda Cobham-Hervey, at four cinemas, grossing $88,065 for a per-screen average of $22,016.
Hotel Mumbai was the No. 1 film at the Angelika and third at Lincoln Square in New York behind Jordan Peele’s Us (which rang up a superb $71.1 million nationwide in its debut) and Captain Marvel.
The thriller produced by Basil Iwanyk, Gary Hamilton, Mike Gabrawy, Julie Ryan, Andrew Ogilvie and Jomon Thomas ranked second behind Us at the Landmark and the Arclight in La.
Bleecker Street’s Jack Foley told Deadline there were sell-outs and near-sell outs at all four locations, from matinees through to evening sessions.
Hotel Mumbai‘s prospects in the Us look very promising after Anthony Maras’ thriller played to full houses in its platform release in Los Angeles and New York last weekend.
Bleecker Street launched the film co-written by Maras and John Collee, which stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher and Tilda Cobham-Hervey, at four cinemas, grossing $88,065 for a per-screen average of $22,016.
Hotel Mumbai was the No. 1 film at the Angelika and third at Lincoln Square in New York behind Jordan Peele’s Us (which rang up a superb $71.1 million nationwide in its debut) and Captain Marvel.
The thriller produced by Basil Iwanyk, Gary Hamilton, Mike Gabrawy, Julie Ryan, Andrew Ogilvie and Jomon Thomas ranked second behind Us at the Landmark and the Arclight in La.
Bleecker Street’s Jack Foley told Deadline there were sell-outs and near-sell outs at all four locations, from matinees through to evening sessions.
- 3/24/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
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