Antichrist Directed by Lars von Trier Plunging headfirst into a realm of depraved evil, leaving behind him any and all polite norms of filmmaking (mainstream, independent or otherwise), Lars von Trier has unleashed his most audacious creation to date, which has been branded everything from “misogynistic” (according the Cannes` Ecumenical Jury, who awarded it a …
Director Spike Jonze may have spent the past seven years in hiding, but this week movie audiences will find out whether Where the Wild Things Are – Jonze’s labor of love and the product of years of work – is worth the wait. Appropriately, considering Jonze’s hip reputation, the soundtrack is handled by Karen O …
House of Satisfaction 2009, USA Director: Jesse Hartman Writer: Jesse Hartman (story), Greg Takoudes (screenplay) “New York fairy tale” House of Satisfaction takes director Jesse Hartman’s real-life club and music as inspiration, setting up camp inside Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction, and turning Hartman’s band Laptop into an underground legend. Content-wise, it’s unclear where fact …
Fish Tank Directed by Andrea Arnold The UK has a proud tradition of social realist cinema, pioneered by the so-called British New Wave in the mid-1960’s and the grimly dour, class conscious debuts of Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson. Although the contemporary British film industry primarily serves as an adjunct to the Hollywood blockbuster machine, keeping their …
Montreal orchestral rockers, Arcade Fire have officially completed the score to Richard Kelly’s latest directorial project, The Box. The band initially backed away from the project when front man Win Butler stated he was only interested in composing one or two instrumental pieces. However, according to Pitchfork, Butler has confirmed writing the entire score with …
Ramata 2008, Dakar, Gorée Directed by Léandre-Alain Baker Written by Miguel Machalski, Léandre-Alain Baker, Abasse Ndione A rare African co-production that forgoes European assistance, Ramata is a sombre tale of love, loss, and despair. Directed by Léandre-Alain Baker, and based on the novel by Abasse Ndione , the film follows a tragic aging beauty on …
According to the L.A. Times, Canadian metal band Anvil, the subject of the excellent Sacha Gervasi-directed documentary, Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, have recently shot a cameo in Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet. Michel Gondry, who is a long time Anvil fan, included a concert scene in the film in which the metal band literally …
Dogtooth (Kynodontas) Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos Currently touring the festival circuit is a bizarre Greek film called Dogtooth, the third feature by writer, director, and producer Giorgos Lanthimos. Its plot could be likened to that of American Gothic, focusing on a family living in a large, secluded house. The parents have never allowed their two …
Romantic Comedies promise love through impossible and inspiring circumstances; the first person you kiss always seems to be your soul mate, and the person you are supposed to marry is always left at the alter when you realize who you really wanted was the casual friend who has been there all along. Modern romances seemed …
Leave the Scream Mask at home, this Halloween Sound on Sight has you covered. Before asking “Why so serious?” with a grin only Heath Ledger can really pull off and unlike the thousands of others who will try this Halloween (like last, and like the ones to come) why not browse through other films for …
The mad mind of Warren Ellis is once again to be unleashed on the big screen. According to Variety, Legendary Pictures is picking up the film rights to Gravel, the comic book series created by Warren Ellis (The Authority and Planetary) and published by Avatar Press. Gravel is sort of a hybrid between the spy/espionage …
Twisted Pictures, the production company behind the never-ending Saw series, is in talks with LIONSGATE to buy the movie rights to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with plans to relaunch the series in 3D. Stephen Susco, a horror specialist who is most famous for penning the remake of The Grudge will write the script and Carl …
9 Directed by Shane Acker Shane Acker’s short film 9, upon which his new feature is based, is a lyrical, twisted, gorgeously conceived and shot dialogue-free 10 minute exercise. The feature length film, still directed by Acker (now with a screenplay by Pamela Pettler to accompany his story) still embodies most of these qualities. The …
Lars von Trier may be a self-confessed depressive, but ‘schizophrenic’ is the epithet which first springs to mind when trying to describe his films. So luckily for me – not a big Lars von Trier fan per se – there seems to be no such thing as a typical Lars von Trier film: from the …
The October 1st deadline for all countries wanting into the Academy Award’s foreign-language film category has come and gone. According to IndieWIRE, The United Kingdom, which has predominantly submitted Welsh films over the years (if submitting at all), has surprisingly chosen the documentary Afghan Star as its 2009 submission for the Academy Awards. The last …
Children of The Corn Directed by Donald P. Borchers In what’s being marketed as a “rebirth,” Children of the Corn revisits the 80’s classic that spawned 6 sequels and countless amounts of children to fear those long weekends in the country. There’s a trend happening again in the Horror genre. A trend that makes a …
Baz Luhrmann’s sophomore effort, 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, is today perhaps best remembered for spotlighting Leonardo DiCaprio’s pre-Titanic charisma. For a movie that took the world’s best known love story and transferred it to a new era, its soundtrack remains firmly etched in its own time. The movie very much resembles a music video with …
The Warner Bros. division is developing a sequel of sorts to the 1983 comedy classic, with David Dobkin attached to produce and possibly direct. New Line is meeting with writers to develop the script focusing on Rusty Griswold, the son of Clark Griswold, now a father in his own right who decides to follow the family …
Since her role as Mystique in the X-Men film series, Rebecca Romijn has been seen mostly on TV (Ugly Betty and the upcoming Eastwick) and in one slightly off the radar movie, Lake City. With 20th Century Fox opening the doors to a whole host of possibilities by trademarking X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men Origins: …
As part of the viral campaign, Fight Smack in the Orphanage, public service announcement has Bullhorn (Byron Minns) show how one can prevent the use of smack on the streets.
This kind of assertion gets thrown around too much, but The Revenant has a real shot of becoming a cult classic. It has enough gore and violence to satisfy the horror set, but it also has a sharp wit, a surprising heart, and a unique story. The Revenant Directed by Kerry Prior Undead horror has …
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star in the upcoming thriller Splice, set for release some time in September. Director Vincenzo Natali is best known for his movies Cube and Nothing. Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) are two young rebellious scientists who defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA …
One of the angriest, most unconventional, and relentlessly intriguing voices in independent cinema, filmmaker Gregg Araki has begun filming on his latest project, a small indie film centered on teenage sexual awakening, gay or otherwise. Joining the cast as the group of college students is Thomas Dekker (The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Kelly Lynch (Drugstore Cowboy), …