An avid student of the depiction of youth in movies, I’ve taken to calling the twenties, as we live them nowadays, the benties, after the British word “bent,” for messed up. And, while I realize not everyone will have found this decade of late adolescence / imposed maturity as disconcerting as all that, I know …
“Have I ever told you the story about the time I tried to find a dead body?” Sounds like an ear catching anecdote, but in reality that’s the line that started Jake Johnson (New Girl, Jurassic World) and Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas) down the road which eventually led to Digging for Fire, a …
Joe Swanberg, known and loved for his “micro-budget” indie dramas, has been making further steps into the mainstream and is set to direct Work Wife. The script, written by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins of ABC’s Trophy Wife (2013), promises to be full of the “delightfully un-sitcomy-y performances” that defined Trophy Wife . The ABC …
It is an inherent belief that the holiday season and family gatherings go hand-in-hand like puffy earmuffs on an exposed frozen ear. Well, writer-director (and co-star) Joe Swanberg backs up this assertion with his dysfunctional familial gem Happy Christmas. The gift-giving in Happy Christmas is predicated upon breezy disillusionment, personal and professional malaise, and the underscoring of being unfulfilled. Once again Swanberg puts his unique stamp on the microscopic root of relationships and the fragile consequences of coping with the pressures of such interaction.
If Terrence Malick had a twisted little sister, it would be Josephine Decker; the resemblance is clearly discernible in her sophomore feature, Thou Wast Mild & Lovely, utilizing Malick’s uninhibited and experimental handheld style but with her own dash of psychosexual drama. Decker’s story is framed against the backdrop of a quiet country farm, and shells out the kind of chills that not even Malick could muster.
Just when I thought there weren’t any great filmmakers working in horror anymore, Ti West just scared the shit out of me. West bust out on the scene with the moody throwback The House of the Devil showing that he could replicate period aesthetic with ease. His first several films were shot standardly, but for The Sacrament, West dips his toes in the waters of the found footage genre.
The rustic, lyrical sophomore feature of writer-director Josephine Decker, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely proves as slippery and elusive a film as its characters do to one another. A work of atmospheric dread enhanced through loose editing and heightened colours and sound design, it opens with a sensual female voice discussing an unknown lover – “But the way my lover opened and closed my legs, the way my lover folded and unfolded me into my lover’s breast, my lover knows how to love me” – over the image of a perturbed, barking dog, this coming right after footage of a father and adult daughter playing in a field with a headless chicken, each with the exuberance of running puppies. What follows rarely deviates from that enigmatic prologue’s register.
Looking’s sixth episode, “Looking in the Mirror”, is a very pleasant surprise. There’s an energy and vitality in this half hour that had been missing from the show up until now. Maybe it’s because almost all the characters finally interact with one another, or maybe it’s because the editing and dialogue are paced less leisurely than usual. But a theme Looking has been exploring – going after what you want rather than what you should want – comes into focus and propels the stories forward in an exciting way.
The term “mumblecore” is usually evoked as a derisive umbrella-term for the films of Joe Swanberg, the Duplass brothers, Andrew Bujalski, and several other twentysomething directors of the 2000s working with little to no budget and a lot of talking. Critics such as Vadim Rizov reject the labeling entirely, noting their disparate qualities, yet the term …
I spoke with Joe Swanberg about performance and beer at a Philadelphia sneak peek of his new film Drinking Buddies, starring Jake Johnson, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, and Ron Livingston. Neal Dhand: I really love the performances in this film. They’re so real and believable. Joe Swanberg: I’ve always been into performance. With everything I’ve …
Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies is a prime example of how a cast can save a movie from drifting into obscurity once the end credits roll. Good chemistry between actors is essential to making a film enjoyable; luckily for Drinking Buddies, the cast is exactly what turns the film into a minor success. The four principal stars are supremely likable and are given the chance to show off their improvisation skills throughout.
Filmmaking functions heavily in accordance with associations. When things go well on projects certain cliques form. For example, in comedy there is the Apatow gang, featuring writer-director Judd Apatow and such actors as Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd just to name a few. In the American independent horror film genre, there is the group comprised of writer-director Adam Wingard, writer-director-actor Joe Swanberg, actors A.J. Bowen, Amy Seimetz as well as arguably the most notable name of the bunch, writer-director-actor Ti West. Fans are in luck because the entire gang is back with the home invasion film You’re Next, the wait for which has been mind-numbingly long since it’s premier at TIFF…in 2011.
Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival is back again with one kick-ass line-up. As always, Fantasia brings the best of genre cinema from all over the globe to some of the best audiences in the world. The Fantasia Film Festival is an experience like none other and the films are only part of the fun. It …
Luke is in a serious, committed relationship with the mild mannered Jane (Anna Kendrick), while Kate is in a relationship with straight laced music producer Chris (Ron Livingston).
V/H/S Directed by David Bruckner, Ty West, Radio Silence, Glenn McQuaid Radio Silence Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard Screenplay by Simon Barrett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, David Bruckner, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez , Glenn McQuai, Radio Silence, Nicholas Tecosky, Chad Villella and Ti West 2012, USA The faux-documentary, “cinema verité” camera style is increasingly prevalent in horror flicks …
V/H/S Directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and Radio Silence Written by Simon Barrett, David Bruckner, Nicholas Tecosky, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, and Chad Villella USA, 2011 Imagine you went trick-or-treating. Knowing the area, you take a big empty bag. You go to …
V/H/S Written by David Bruckner, Ti West, Radio Silence, Simon Barrett, Nicholas Tecosky and Glenn McQuaid Directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg and Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, Chad Villella) USA, 2012 A collaborative anthology feature, V/H/S is essentially five short films in the “found footage” …
For fans of all films macabre, The Toronto After Dark Film Festival is the venue for you. But for those that can’t wait until October for nine nights of horror, sci-fi, action and cult movies running from the 18th to the 26th, the good people behind TADFF have answered your counter intuitive prayers. For two …
Black Pond Directed by Tom Kingsley & Will Sharpe Black Pond heralds an incredibly original, startlingly mature, and completely inscrutable new film-making duo. It’s unclear what exactly they have made with Black Pond; suffice it to say it is equal parts profound and hilarious while refusing classification… (read the full review) Cabin In The Woods …
V/H/S Written by Simon Barrett, David Bruckner, Nicholas Tecosky, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, Chad Villella Directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence USA, 2011 One of the most anticipated additions to the growing pantheon of “found footage” films this year comes in …
Picking 10 titles from a selection of 132 feature films is a bit of an exercise in absurdity, but for those of you looking to add a few more flicks to your ever-expanding list of “must sees” before you head down to the convention center, here are ten titles I personally am excited to see. …