Maurice White, who founded Earth, Wind & Fire, has died. He was 74. Maurice White Dies White died late Wednesday or early Thursday morning at his Los Angeles home, Earth, Wind & Fire’s publicist, Mark Young, told The New York Times. Although Young did not indicate the cause of White’s death, it was known that he had […]
The post Earth, Wind & Fire Founder Maurice White Dies At 73 appeared first on uInterview.
The post Earth, Wind & Fire Founder Maurice White Dies At 73 appeared first on uInterview.
- 2/5/2016
- by Chelsea Regan
- Uinterview
The Living Daylights
Directed by John Glen
Written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson
1987, USA
It wasn’t guaranteed that the Daniel Craig films would successfully reboot James Bond, in part because such a restart had already been tried before. After 1985’s A View To a Kill, in which age had begun to
show on both Roger Moore as Bond and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, the first real reboot was attempted. Timothy Dalton – who had turned down On Her Majesty’s Secret Service because he felt that at 24 he was too young to replace Sean Connery – was brought on and a script was commissioned to return Bond to his Cold War roots. The result was The Living Daylights, which doesn’t quite work as a reboot but makes for deeply enjoyable viewing.
Too many of the old Bond conventions remained for The Living Daylights to be a true...
Directed by John Glen
Written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson
1987, USA
It wasn’t guaranteed that the Daniel Craig films would successfully reboot James Bond, in part because such a restart had already been tried before. After 1985’s A View To a Kill, in which age had begun to
show on both Roger Moore as Bond and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, the first real reboot was attempted. Timothy Dalton – who had turned down On Her Majesty’s Secret Service because he felt that at 24 he was too young to replace Sean Connery – was brought on and a script was commissioned to return Bond to his Cold War roots. The result was The Living Daylights, which doesn’t quite work as a reboot but makes for deeply enjoyable viewing.
Too many of the old Bond conventions remained for The Living Daylights to be a true...
- 11/5/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
All week long, Vulture explores what happens to reality-tv contestants after the show ends — and the future of the genre itself. After the weirdness of appearing on a show like Naked and Afraid or Hell’s Kitchen, how do you return to your normal, boring, decidedly not-televised life? A few psychologists and media-studies scholars are beginning to study exactly that: the lives of minor reality stars after they return to the real world. Depending on the type of show, researchers tell us, some of them have an easier time of it than others. Crazy Challenge Show Examples: Survivor, American Idol According to interviews conducted by S. Mark Young, a professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, most people who appear on reality shows have some majorly narcissistic tendencies. (Shocker!) And while on the surface narcissists seem like the perfect picture of self-confidence, in truth many of them are needy types,...
- 9/24/2015
- by Melissa Dahl
- Vulture
Exclusive: Online service inks first major studio deal; titles include Taxi Driver, Dr. Strangelove, Snatch.
Curated video-on-demand service Mubi has struck a multi-year distribution deal with Sony Pictures Television (Spt).
The partnership marks the first major studio deal for Mubi, and will see Spt films including Taxi Driver, Punch-Drunk Love, Adaptation, Dr.Strangelove and Snatch, available on demand for Mubi members in the UK.
On the deal, Efe Cakarel, founder and CEO of Mubi said: ‘Mubi is already curating the best of cinema for its audience – international film has been at the core of our film selection but this deal will allow us to programme some of the greatest and most popular films ever made.
“As our industry and consumer habits continue to evolve, it is increasingly important to ensure film fans have access to high quality entertainment wherever and whenever they want and this new partnership with Sony Pictures Television will allow us to deliver an even...
Curated video-on-demand service Mubi has struck a multi-year distribution deal with Sony Pictures Television (Spt).
The partnership marks the first major studio deal for Mubi, and will see Spt films including Taxi Driver, Punch-Drunk Love, Adaptation, Dr.Strangelove and Snatch, available on demand for Mubi members in the UK.
On the deal, Efe Cakarel, founder and CEO of Mubi said: ‘Mubi is already curating the best of cinema for its audience – international film has been at the core of our film selection but this deal will allow us to programme some of the greatest and most popular films ever made.
“As our industry and consumer habits continue to evolve, it is increasingly important to ensure film fans have access to high quality entertainment wherever and whenever they want and this new partnership with Sony Pictures Television will allow us to deliver an even...
- 7/10/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Barely Lethal
USA, 2015
Written by John D’Arco
Directed by Kyle Newman
The problems with the new action-comedy Barely Lethal start with its title. There’s something creepy afoot when a movie leads with a metaphorical elbow in the ribs, informing you that its protagonist is just old enough to kill you by using a pun which implies that she’s also just old enough to have sex with you. Every joke in the film has that same elbow-in-the-ribs quality, desperately trying to let you know how funny it is. Most of its claims to hilarity come up short.
Hailee Steinfeld (an Oscar nominee for the Coen Brothers’ True Grit) plays a nameless teenager raised from a young age to be a super-spy by the flinty Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson). But when a mission to apprehend a rogue arms dealer (Jessica Alba) goes wrong, she is able to fake her...
USA, 2015
Written by John D’Arco
Directed by Kyle Newman
The problems with the new action-comedy Barely Lethal start with its title. There’s something creepy afoot when a movie leads with a metaphorical elbow in the ribs, informing you that its protagonist is just old enough to kill you by using a pun which implies that she’s also just old enough to have sex with you. Every joke in the film has that same elbow-in-the-ribs quality, desperately trying to let you know how funny it is. Most of its claims to hilarity come up short.
Hailee Steinfeld (an Oscar nominee for the Coen Brothers’ True Grit) plays a nameless teenager raised from a young age to be a super-spy by the flinty Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson). But when a mission to apprehend a rogue arms dealer (Jessica Alba) goes wrong, she is able to fake her...
- 5/31/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Lindsay Lohan has completed her 125 hours of community service, and is officially off probation for the first time in almost eight years. Lindsay Lohan Probation Ends After 8 Years Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Young officially ended Lohan’s probation on Thursday, May 28, after the actress logged in 125 hours of community service. […]
The post Lindsay Lohan Completes Community Service, Is Officially Off Probation appeared first on uInterview.
The post Lindsay Lohan Completes Community Service, Is Officially Off Probation appeared first on uInterview.
- 5/29/2015
- by Olivia Truffaut-Wong
- Uinterview
Where there's a will, there's a way. Despite the looming deadline, Lindsay Lohan has officially completed her community service obligations to the court, Santa Monica City Attorney Terry White confirms to E! News. Back in February, amid discrepancies over the amount of community service hours Lohan claimed to have completed, Judge Mark Young ordered the 28-year-old to complete 125 additional hours of service. Months after the fact, it had appeared the Lohan finished less than 10 of those hours. Then, in early May, the judge demanded that she complete her remaining 116 hours of service within three weeks. Young agreed to let Lohan complete her community service in New York during the...
- 5/27/2015
- E! Online
So, apparently almost all of us have been doing community service without even realizing it? Lindsay Lohan's attorney Shawn Holley appeared in an L.A. court yesterday to face Judge Mark Young, who is not happy that Lohan has only completed about nine hours of her 125 hours of court-mandated community service. And now, E! News has obtained the minutes from Lohan's volunteering log, and her duties are quite interesting. It turns out LiLo's community service include "reorganizing and posting photos on Csv Facebook page" (Csv Positive Futures is the youth-volunteer non-profit that the Mean Girls star has been affiliated with in London), along with mailing out business...
- 5/8/2015
- E! Online
Lindsay Lohan Ordered to Complete 125 Hours of Community Service in 3 Weeks or Face ''Consequences''
It looks like Lindsay Lohan has been lagging on her community service (big time!). Earlier today, the 28-year-old actress' attorney Shawn Holley appeared in an L.A. court to face Judge Mark Young, who is not happy that Lohan has only completed about nine hours of her 125 hours of court-mandated community service. The uncompleted service stems from LiLo's 2012 traffic crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. Holley argued that Lohan has been unable to complete the hours because she's been living in London for months and travel back to the West Coast is too expensive. Holley also tells E! News Csv Positive Futures, the youth-volunteer nonprofit that the Mean Girls star has been affiliated with in...
- 5/7/2015
- E! Online
Amongst Americans such as myself, there is a certain stereotype about our neighbors to the north. There’s a belief that Canadians are, for lack of a better word, nice. That during a visit to Canada, an American would be more likely to ride a moose around like a horse than hear the F-word. That hockey players are the only remotely dangerous people you could possibly meet in Canada, and even then, that they would only pummel you under the watchful eye of a referee whom they will later respectfully follow to the penalty box. This stereotype is perhaps best summed up by this scene in Michael Moore’s lone fiction film, Canadian Bacon, where Dan Aykroyd politely upbraids an invading group of American revolutionaries for not printing their anti-Canada graffiti in both English and French.
As stereotypes go, it’s a fairly positive one. But making stereotypes, even positive ones,...
As stereotypes go, it’s a fairly positive one. But making stereotypes, even positive ones,...
- 4/30/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
The Tribeca Film Festival of 2015 closed the books on Sunday as it always does, with a day full of screenings of the prize-winning films. And, as I noted on Day Three, it bears noting that the festival’s reputation of being for “indies that aren’t really indies” almost never bears out during the awards ceremony. All of the films that played on Sunday will be launching new talent into American arthouses, rather than showing a new dimension for established stars.
The Tribeca jury gives awards to Actor, Actress, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, New Director for each of narrative and documentary, Director for each of narrative and documentary, a special Nora Ephron prize honoring new female filmmakers, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Narrative feature. The Tribeca Audience Awards cover the best narrative film and best documentary as well. I confess to being completely unable to judge good editing, but I will...
The Tribeca jury gives awards to Actor, Actress, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, New Director for each of narrative and documentary, Director for each of narrative and documentary, a special Nora Ephron prize honoring new female filmmakers, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Narrative feature. The Tribeca Audience Awards cover the best narrative film and best documentary as well. I confess to being completely unable to judge good editing, but I will...
- 4/29/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Although your humble correspondent missed three days of TriBeCa films in a row due to a back injury, there was no way he could miss Maggie. Director Henry Hobson was able to attract Arnold Schwarzenegger to his low-key zombie project, despite the fact that Hobson was making his feature debut with a budget so small that you could make Maggie two or three times over for the amount that Arnold was paid to appear in Terminator: Genisys. The uniqueness of Hobson’s vision is evident from the first scene, where he is able to establish clearly the particulars of his zombie semi-apocalypse with only the barest minimum of exposition. As society teeters on the edge, both law and medicine struggling to handle the “Necroambulist” virus, Abigail Breslin plays the infected Maggie and Schwarzenegger plays her father, agonizing over the decision of what to do when she turns.
So many...
So many...
- 4/25/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
The big opening at Tribeca on Sunday was Name’s Maggie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first indie role, as a father in a zombie-style apocalypse who has to deal with the infection of his daughter. However, your humble correspondent won’t be able to see that film until later this week. Fortunately, there were no shortage of films to report on Sunday and Monday, and one of them actually did star a Teutonic titan.
That film is Virgin Mountain, whose title in Swedish is Fusi, after the main character played by Gunnar Jonsson. Fusi is a sexless 43-year-old, but no one should confuse this film with The 40-Year-Old Virgin. There’s no slapstick in play here, and not even that much fun; most shots in the film are what I like to call “Sad Verb” shots, where the lead character morosely performs alone in a scene designed to make the audience say “awwwww…...
That film is Virgin Mountain, whose title in Swedish is Fusi, after the main character played by Gunnar Jonsson. Fusi is a sexless 43-year-old, but no one should confuse this film with The 40-Year-Old Virgin. There’s no slapstick in play here, and not even that much fun; most shots in the film are what I like to call “Sad Verb” shots, where the lead character morosely performs alone in a scene designed to make the audience say “awwwww…...
- 4/21/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
As beautiful spring weather moves into New York City for the first time this year, the lines for TriBeCa movies only get longer. And, for all of the talk that TriBeCa is a festival for “indies that aren’t really indies” because of the A-list stars in their casts, the greatest masters’ films always draw the longest lines.
In this case, the great master is the late, legendary documentarian Albert Maysles, whose final film In Transit made its world premiere. Maysles had been wanting to make a movie about passenger trains for decades, but an actual opportunity to do so only appeared in the last year and a half. Over that period, Maysles and his four collaborators (Nelson Walker, Lynn True, David Usui, and Ben Wu are listed as directors, but an opening title card announces “an Albert Maysles film”) observed the Empire Builder line between Chicago and Seattle, interviewing...
In this case, the great master is the late, legendary documentarian Albert Maysles, whose final film In Transit made its world premiere. Maysles had been wanting to make a movie about passenger trains for decades, but an actual opportunity to do so only appeared in the last year and a half. Over that period, Maysles and his four collaborators (Nelson Walker, Lynn True, David Usui, and Ben Wu are listed as directors, but an opening title card announces “an Albert Maysles film”) observed the Empire Builder line between Chicago and Seattle, interviewing...
- 4/21/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Friday’s films at Tribeca 2015 is a fine example of why this year’s festival lineup is so strong. There are some years where Tribeca features quite a few movies that prove the adage “‘Independent’ does not necessarily mean ‘good,’” but this year is not one of them. Although one of the movies below stands above the others, any of them would a high-quality find for your average arthouse theater.
The film that stands above is Sworn Virgin, nominally an Italian film which received financing from all over Europe in order to get made. It’s the story of Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), an Albanian woman from a picturesque mountain village who is forced to live as a man in accordance with local traditions. The death of her parents causes her to move to Italy, where the big-city life challenges her to look at her identity in a new way. (Apologies...
The film that stands above is Sworn Virgin, nominally an Italian film which received financing from all over Europe in order to get made. It’s the story of Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), an Albanian woman from a picturesque mountain village who is forced to live as a man in accordance with local traditions. The death of her parents causes her to move to Italy, where the big-city life challenges her to look at her identity in a new way. (Apologies...
- 4/18/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
The Tribeca Film Festival began on Wednesday night with the premiere of Live From New York!, Bao Nguyen’s documentary about the history of Saturday Night Live. Although your humble film critic was unable to see that film, the festival will offer more than a hundred movies of various flavors from April 15-26, and in this critic’s opinion, the lineup in 2015 is stronger than any in the last five years. Starting today, this is your place to find a brief run-down of the films that played the festival the day before, either in public screenings or in pre-festival press screenings.
Although it may not sound as entertaining as an oral history of America’s leading sketch-comedy program, Democrats comes surprisingly close. Documentarian Camilla Nielsson was given unprecedented access to two of the framers of a democratic constitution in the country of Zimbabwe: one man representing the government of dictatorial president Robert Mugabe,...
Although it may not sound as entertaining as an oral history of America’s leading sketch-comedy program, Democrats comes surprisingly close. Documentarian Camilla Nielsson was given unprecedented access to two of the framers of a democratic constitution in the country of Zimbabwe: one man representing the government of dictatorial president Robert Mugabe,...
- 4/17/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Into the Wind
Directed by Ezra Holland and Steve Nash
Canada/USA, 2010
At one point in the Espn Films documentary Into the Wind, one of the interviewees says that Canada rallied behind Terry Fox because Canada lacked heroes like him; “We never had a Martin Luther King, a Nelson Mandela,” she says. But it might just as easily be said that America or South Africa never had a Terry Fox, that rare person who became a legend despite fighting a losing battle against long odds. - Fox was a college student hoping for basketball stardom, when he developed cancer in his right leg. Doctors amputated the leg above the knee, but Fox did not abandon his athletic desires, and eventually he conceived of the idea to run across Canada on a specially-designed artificial leg to raise money for cancer-research charities. The film’s title refers to the fact that Fox...
Directed by Ezra Holland and Steve Nash
Canada/USA, 2010
At one point in the Espn Films documentary Into the Wind, one of the interviewees says that Canada rallied behind Terry Fox because Canada lacked heroes like him; “We never had a Martin Luther King, a Nelson Mandela,” she says. But it might just as easily be said that America or South Africa never had a Terry Fox, that rare person who became a legend despite fighting a losing battle against long odds. - Fox was a college student hoping for basketball stardom, when he developed cancer in his right leg. Doctors amputated the leg above the knee, but Fox did not abandon his athletic desires, and eventually he conceived of the idea to run across Canada on a specially-designed artificial leg to raise money for cancer-research charities. The film’s title refers to the fact that Fox...
- 4/16/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
USA, 2015
Written by David and Nathan Zellner
Directed by David Zellner
Once upon a time, there was a Japanese woman who watched the movie Fargo. The movie begins with a title card pronouncing, “This Is A True Story,” and the fact that the Coen Brothers were playing a little prank with that statement was covered in American media only. So it came to pass that the woman believed the film to be true, and carried her belief to such a degree that she travelled to Minnesota alone, in search of the ransom money hidden by the Steve Buscemi character near the end of the film.
That preceding paragraph is an urban legend, birthed as a result of a real Japanese woman’s odd journey to Minnesota for reasons unrelated to Fargo or the Coen Brothers, and was later exaggerated into an Internet fairy tale (this person...
USA, 2015
Written by David and Nathan Zellner
Directed by David Zellner
Once upon a time, there was a Japanese woman who watched the movie Fargo. The movie begins with a title card pronouncing, “This Is A True Story,” and the fact that the Coen Brothers were playing a little prank with that statement was covered in American media only. So it came to pass that the woman believed the film to be true, and carried her belief to such a degree that she travelled to Minnesota alone, in search of the ransom money hidden by the Steve Buscemi character near the end of the film.
That preceding paragraph is an urban legend, birthed as a result of a real Japanese woman’s odd journey to Minnesota for reasons unrelated to Fargo or the Coen Brothers, and was later exaggerated into an Internet fairy tale (this person...
- 3/20/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Lindsay Lohan is still on the hook for 125 out of the 240 total hours of community service she was ordered to complete stemming from a reckless driving charge in 2012, a California judge ordered Wednesday. "I agree with [the court's decision]," Santa Monica Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry White tells People, adding, "There were things she did that didn't qualify as community service." Some of those things included having young people "shadow" her during her time performing in a London play, according to court documents obtained by People. "She got to shake hands with people, and that's community service," White told the Associated Press in January.
- 2/26/2015
- by Michael Miller, @write_miller
- PEOPLE.com
Lindsay Lohan is still on the hook for 125 out of the 240 total hours of community service she was ordered to complete stemming from a reckless driving charge in 2012, a California judge ordered Wednesday. "I agree with [the court's decision]," Santa Monica Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry White tells People, adding, "There were things she did that didn't qualify as community service." Some of those things included having young people "shadow" her during her time performing in a London play, according to court documents obtained by People. "She got to shake hands with people, and that's community service," White told the Associated Press in January.
- 2/26/2015
- by Michael Miller, @write_miller
- PEOPLE.com
Lindsay Lohan is far from done with her community service. At a court hearing earlier today, Judge Mark Young did not agree with the actress' claim that she had completed all of her community service. Santa Monica City Attorney Terry White confirms to E! that some of the hours that Lohan submitted as community service were denied by the judge. "125 is the approximate number of hours that were denied," White told E! News. As a result of Young's decision, the 28-year-old star was ordered to complete 125 additional hours of service. A new hearing was scheduled for March 12 for both sides to decide on which program Lohan will be assigned to. Lohan's ongoing community service stems...
- 2/25/2015
- E! Online
The Last Five Years
USA, 2015
Written by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Richard Lagravenese
If you haven’t seen the film Pitch Perfect, you might not even know that Anna Kendrick can sing. The actresses’ pipes weren’t the key to her Oscar-nominated breakout in Up in the Air or most of the films she has done since. But in fact, singing was Kendrick’s first claim to fame: she started acting in New York at age 10 and received a Tony nomination at 12. Every ounce of that talent is on display in Richard Lagravenese’s new musical The Last Five Years, and the film needs her, because its unusual mix of bitter and sweet wouldn’t connect as well without her.
Kendrick plays Cathy, a struggling New York actress who learns in the opening scene that her husband Jamie (Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway veteran who appeared in the NBC series Smash) has left her.
USA, 2015
Written by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Richard Lagravenese
If you haven’t seen the film Pitch Perfect, you might not even know that Anna Kendrick can sing. The actresses’ pipes weren’t the key to her Oscar-nominated breakout in Up in the Air or most of the films she has done since. But in fact, singing was Kendrick’s first claim to fame: she started acting in New York at age 10 and received a Tony nomination at 12. Every ounce of that talent is on display in Richard Lagravenese’s new musical The Last Five Years, and the film needs her, because its unusual mix of bitter and sweet wouldn’t connect as well without her.
Kendrick plays Cathy, a struggling New York actress who learns in the opening scene that her husband Jamie (Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway veteran who appeared in the NBC series Smash) has left her.
- 2/13/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Inherent Vice
Written for the screen and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
USA, 2014
It’s not just that Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies tend to defy any one genre description; it’s that, often, it seems as if the writer-director is trying to play with many genres simultaneously. The only reason that Boogie Nights isn’t the best drama of the 1990s is that it spends a lot of time trying to be the best comedy of the 1990s instead. So Anderson’s newest, Inherent Vice, is a departure in that it mostly sticks to one style (sun-drenched film noir) and one tone (absurdist comedy). It’s also a fine film, which suffers only when measured against the insanely high standard that Anderson’s past work has set.
With Inherent Vice, Anderson adapts Thomas Pynchon’s novel of 1970 Los Angeles, wherein Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) works as the city’s most doped-up private investigator.
Written for the screen and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
USA, 2014
It’s not just that Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies tend to defy any one genre description; it’s that, often, it seems as if the writer-director is trying to play with many genres simultaneously. The only reason that Boogie Nights isn’t the best drama of the 1990s is that it spends a lot of time trying to be the best comedy of the 1990s instead. So Anderson’s newest, Inherent Vice, is a departure in that it mostly sticks to one style (sun-drenched film noir) and one tone (absurdist comedy). It’s also a fine film, which suffers only when measured against the insanely high standard that Anderson’s past work has set.
With Inherent Vice, Anderson adapts Thomas Pynchon’s novel of 1970 Los Angeles, wherein Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) works as the city’s most doped-up private investigator.
- 1/13/2015
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Sony Pictures Pictures Television has promoted the Australian executive who clinched deals with the Seven and Ten Networks and SVoD service Stan to a European post.
Mark Young, Spt.s senior VP for distribution and sales in Australia and New Zealand, has moved to London to spearhead the studio.s film and TV sales in the UK, Ireland and Africa.
Spt is yet to announce his successor in Australia. Young sold Sony titles including The Blacklist, The Goldbergs and Last Resort to Seven and a local version of Shark Tank to Ten, which wil see innovators and. inventors pitch their. their ideas and products to a bunch of multi-millionaires known as the .sharks."
He sealed a wide-ranging deal with Stan, the Nine Entertainment/Fairfax Media co-venture expected to launch later this month, which includes Breaking Bad and exclusive Australian rights to the prequel, Better Call Saul.
In London he replaced Kylie Munnich,...
Mark Young, Spt.s senior VP for distribution and sales in Australia and New Zealand, has moved to London to spearhead the studio.s film and TV sales in the UK, Ireland and Africa.
Spt is yet to announce his successor in Australia. Young sold Sony titles including The Blacklist, The Goldbergs and Last Resort to Seven and a local version of Shark Tank to Ten, which wil see innovators and. inventors pitch their. their ideas and products to a bunch of multi-millionaires known as the .sharks."
He sealed a wide-ranging deal with Stan, the Nine Entertainment/Fairfax Media co-venture expected to launch later this month, which includes Breaking Bad and exclusive Australian rights to the prequel, Better Call Saul.
In London he replaced Kylie Munnich,...
- 1/13/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Few directors excite cinephiles just by sheer mention of their name than Paul Thomas Anderson. Although his latest film Inherent Vice failed to make our year end list due to the technicality of its unfortunate awards season release date, our reviews from the New York Film Festival, one by Christopher Clemente and the other by Mark Young, speak to how beguiling he remains as a director.
So for PTA to talk intimately on comedian Marc Maron’s Wtf Podcast, which recently had one of its episodes named the best podcast of all time, is bound to get people excited. The two talked about Thomas Pynchon, about his long career of films, and about trying to be a runner while you’re a smoker.
“It’s a rare artist that when you return to his or her work, a true act of genius, is something that you can return to and...
So for PTA to talk intimately on comedian Marc Maron’s Wtf Podcast, which recently had one of its episodes named the best podcast of all time, is bound to get people excited. The two talked about Thomas Pynchon, about his long career of films, and about trying to be a runner while you’re a smoker.
“It’s a rare artist that when you return to his or her work, a true act of genius, is something that you can return to and...
- 1/5/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
The Babadook
Australia, 2014
Written and directed by Jennifer Kent
You might think that Amelia (Essie Davis), the harried single mother at the center of the festival-circuit hit The Babadook, has lost the capacity to be terrified. Being the mother of a young child, she worries as mothers do, but she’s already lost her husband under horrific circumstances before the movie even begins. It would seem impossible for anything to happen that would be worse than what she’s already seen. That’s where all of the great horror movies play, in that vague space implied by the words “seem” and “impossible,” and this film is indeed one of the greats.
Amelia finds a creepy pop-up book on her son’s shelf one night, and the film follows its children’s-book dream logic almost exactly. There is a monster called Mister Babadook. You can’t see him at first, but...
Australia, 2014
Written and directed by Jennifer Kent
You might think that Amelia (Essie Davis), the harried single mother at the center of the festival-circuit hit The Babadook, has lost the capacity to be terrified. Being the mother of a young child, she worries as mothers do, but she’s already lost her husband under horrific circumstances before the movie even begins. It would seem impossible for anything to happen that would be worse than what she’s already seen. That’s where all of the great horror movies play, in that vague space implied by the words “seem” and “impossible,” and this film is indeed one of the greats.
Amelia finds a creepy pop-up book on her son’s shelf one night, and the film follows its children’s-book dream logic almost exactly. There is a monster called Mister Babadook. You can’t see him at first, but...
- 11/28/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Revenge of the Green Dragons
USA/China, 2014
Written by Andrew Loo and Michael Di Jiacomo
Directed by Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo
The problem with the new Revenge of the Green Dragons is that co-director Andrew Lau and executive producer Martin Scorsese are already joined at the hip over a previous story, which Lau made as Infernal Affairs before Scorsese re-made it as The Departed. Although Revenge of the Green Dragons is an entirely different type of story than those two films, it will inevitably be compared to them, as well as every other classic that the two men have made, and it suffers badly from the comparison.
Of all the films in Lau’s and Scorsese’s catalogs, this most closely resembles Goodfellas, right down to the omnipresent voiceover narration by the lead character. Sonny (Justin Chon of the Twilight series) immigrates to America as a small child, and...
USA/China, 2014
Written by Andrew Loo and Michael Di Jiacomo
Directed by Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo
The problem with the new Revenge of the Green Dragons is that co-director Andrew Lau and executive producer Martin Scorsese are already joined at the hip over a previous story, which Lau made as Infernal Affairs before Scorsese re-made it as The Departed. Although Revenge of the Green Dragons is an entirely different type of story than those two films, it will inevitably be compared to them, as well as every other classic that the two men have made, and it suffers badly from the comparison.
Of all the films in Lau’s and Scorsese’s catalogs, this most closely resembles Goodfellas, right down to the omnipresent voiceover narration by the lead character. Sonny (Justin Chon of the Twilight series) immigrates to America as a small child, and...
- 10/24/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Young Ones
USA, 2014
Written and directed by Jake Paltrow
If ever you should find yourself needing to explain the difference between a film being “well-shot” and “well-directed”, Exhibit A should be the new indie release Young Ones. Writer-director Jake Paltrow has created an intriguing world and spared not one cent out of his indie-sized budget to make it beautiful, but he doesn’t direct it well enough to avoid some storytelling problems.
Paltrow (yes, he is Gwyneth’s brother) imagines a near future in which droughts like the one currently ravaging California have become so intense that the rule of law itself has begun to break down in the American Southwest. In this world Michael Shannon plays a father trying to raise two children, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee and Elle Fanning, against the specter of his wells running dry and the intrusive advances of a local man played by Nicholas Hoult.
USA, 2014
Written and directed by Jake Paltrow
If ever you should find yourself needing to explain the difference between a film being “well-shot” and “well-directed”, Exhibit A should be the new indie release Young Ones. Writer-director Jake Paltrow has created an intriguing world and spared not one cent out of his indie-sized budget to make it beautiful, but he doesn’t direct it well enough to avoid some storytelling problems.
Paltrow (yes, he is Gwyneth’s brother) imagines a near future in which droughts like the one currently ravaging California have become so intense that the rule of law itself has begun to break down in the American Southwest. In this world Michael Shannon plays a father trying to raise two children, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee and Elle Fanning, against the specter of his wells running dry and the intrusive advances of a local man played by Nicholas Hoult.
- 10/17/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Inherent Vice
Written for the screen and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
USA, 2014
It’s not just that Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies tend to defy any one genre description; it’s that, often, it seems as if the writer-director is trying to play with many genres simultaneously. The only reason that Boogie Nights isn’t the best drama of the 1990s is that it spends a lot of time trying to be the best comedy of the 1990s instead. So Anderson’s newest, Inherent Vice, is a departure in that it mostly sticks to one style (sun-drenched film noir) and one tone (absurdist comedy). It’s also a fine film, which suffers only when measured against the insanely high standard that Anderson’s past work has set.
With Inherent Vice, Anderson adapts Thomas Pynchon’s novel of 1970 Los Angeles, wherein Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) works as the city’s most doped-up private investigator.
Written for the screen and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
USA, 2014
It’s not just that Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies tend to defy any one genre description; it’s that, often, it seems as if the writer-director is trying to play with many genres simultaneously. The only reason that Boogie Nights isn’t the best drama of the 1990s is that it spends a lot of time trying to be the best comedy of the 1990s instead. So Anderson’s newest, Inherent Vice, is a departure in that it mostly sticks to one style (sun-drenched film noir) and one tone (absurdist comedy). It’s also a fine film, which suffers only when measured against the insanely high standard that Anderson’s past work has set.
With Inherent Vice, Anderson adapts Thomas Pynchon’s novel of 1970 Los Angeles, wherein Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) works as the city’s most doped-up private investigator.
- 10/6/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Gone Girl
Written by Gillian Flynn
Directed by David Fincher
USA, 2014
It is a crime against the film world to label David Fincher’s newest, Gone Girl, with only one word or phrase. There are elements of “thriller” here, an essence of “police procedural.” There’s a teaspoon of “black comedy”, a dash of “recession-related social relevance”, and a heaping helping of “media satire.” What makes this film a fine meal is the way that Fincher, the consummate perfectionist, mixes them together in exactly the right proportions. It’s a piece of art as well-crafted as any dinner in New York, and just as much fun.
Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) are living their upper-middle-class lives in the Missouri town of North Carthage when Nick returns home and finds her disappeared, with signs of violence about the house. Amy was a minor celebrity even before they were married,...
Written by Gillian Flynn
Directed by David Fincher
USA, 2014
It is a crime against the film world to label David Fincher’s newest, Gone Girl, with only one word or phrase. There are elements of “thriller” here, an essence of “police procedural.” There’s a teaspoon of “black comedy”, a dash of “recession-related social relevance”, and a heaping helping of “media satire.” What makes this film a fine meal is the way that Fincher, the consummate perfectionist, mixes them together in exactly the right proportions. It’s a piece of art as well-crafted as any dinner in New York, and just as much fun.
Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) are living their upper-middle-class lives in the Missouri town of North Carthage when Nick returns home and finds her disappeared, with signs of violence about the house. Amy was a minor celebrity even before they were married,...
- 10/3/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
It’s only just October and already the Oscar season has grown ugly. And it’s not even the contenders battling for rank.
The heat is coming from the pundits themselves, who have already grown weary of some of their colleagues’ Bs and perpetual trumpeting. In Mark Harris’s brilliant first post about the Oscar race so far, he goes as far as to say that in “the real world”, there isn’t even a race yet. He tears apart the notions of rules, statistics and trends confirming nominees, and he laughs at the idea that each month or week there’s a new movie that changes everything about the race.
But there is excitement in the real world. This weekend Gone Girl is opening to raves and three of the most anticipated movies of the year in Inherent Vice, Interstellar and Exodus: Gods and Kings, got trailers. All of...
The heat is coming from the pundits themselves, who have already grown weary of some of their colleagues’ Bs and perpetual trumpeting. In Mark Harris’s brilliant first post about the Oscar race so far, he goes as far as to say that in “the real world”, there isn’t even a race yet. He tears apart the notions of rules, statistics and trends confirming nominees, and he laughs at the idea that each month or week there’s a new movie that changes everything about the race.
But there is excitement in the real world. This weekend Gone Girl is opening to raves and three of the most anticipated movies of the year in Inherent Vice, Interstellar and Exodus: Gods and Kings, got trailers. All of...
- 10/2/2014
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
Whiplash
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle
USA, 2014
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, now conquering New York after wowing audiences at film festivals all the way back to Sundance last winter, opens with a title card over black while a few taps on a snare drum build into a furious drum roll. It’s a fine way to symbolize the conflict at the center of the film, which accelerates to ‘furious’ so quickly and easily that it’s barely perceptible. Tension builds slowly in an empathic crescendo, before snapping over and over again like the repeated pounding of a cymbal. Whatever arguments this film may inspire, it’s clear that there is no other film in existence which makes music so thrilling.
The film follows Andrew Nieman (Miles Teller), a student of the drums at the fictional Shaffer Conservatory of Music in New York City. Andrew catches the eye of Terence Fletcher (J.
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle
USA, 2014
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, now conquering New York after wowing audiences at film festivals all the way back to Sundance last winter, opens with a title card over black while a few taps on a snare drum build into a furious drum roll. It’s a fine way to symbolize the conflict at the center of the film, which accelerates to ‘furious’ so quickly and easily that it’s barely perceptible. Tension builds slowly in an empathic crescendo, before snapping over and over again like the repeated pounding of a cymbal. Whatever arguments this film may inspire, it’s clear that there is no other film in existence which makes music so thrilling.
The film follows Andrew Nieman (Miles Teller), a student of the drums at the fictional Shaffer Conservatory of Music in New York City. Andrew catches the eye of Terence Fletcher (J.
- 9/27/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
CeeLo Green has gotten himself in a world of trouble with his tweets about rape. Green’s Twitter problem stems from his earlier plea Friday of no contest to a felony charge of giving ecstacy to a woman in 2012. Prosecutors didn’t charge for rape because there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge Green with such a crime. Superior Court Judge Mark Young sentenced Green to three years of formal probation and 45 days of community service. Green took to Twitter to comment on rape, stating that women can only be raped if they are conscious. “[W]omen who have really been raped Remember!!!” he wrote in response to another Twitter user. People [ Read More ]
The post CeeLo Green’s Twitter Comments Cost Him Reality Show appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post CeeLo Green’s Twitter Comments Cost Him Reality Show appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 9/4/2014
- by monique
- ShockYa
Starred Up
UK, 2014
Written by Jonathan Asser
Directed by David Mackenzie
Most prison stories are stories about men. (That’s what made Orange is the New Black such a breath of fresh air; it was an exception to the rule.) But there are stories about men, and then there are stories about masculinity. The latter is much harder to pull off, because masculinity means different things to different men in different situations. That’s why David Mackenzie’s new film Starred Up is so masterfully tense, and sure to be high on this critic’s year-end top ten list.
The title refers to the practice, in the British prison system, of moving youth offenders into adult jails. Such treatment is usually reserved for the worst of the worst, and Eric Love (Jack O’Connell of the UK version of the teen soap Skins) is clearly one of those: his first...
UK, 2014
Written by Jonathan Asser
Directed by David Mackenzie
Most prison stories are stories about men. (That’s what made Orange is the New Black such a breath of fresh air; it was an exception to the rule.) But there are stories about men, and then there are stories about masculinity. The latter is much harder to pull off, because masculinity means different things to different men in different situations. That’s why David Mackenzie’s new film Starred Up is so masterfully tense, and sure to be high on this critic’s year-end top ten list.
The title refers to the practice, in the British prison system, of moving youth offenders into adult jails. Such treatment is usually reserved for the worst of the worst, and Eric Love (Jack O’Connell of the UK version of the teen soap Skins) is clearly one of those: his first...
- 8/30/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Cee Lo Green pleaded no contest Friday to one felony count of furnishing ecstasy to a woman during a 2012 dinner in Los Angeles and was sentenced to serve probation and community service. The Grammy-winning singer also entered a special plea in which he maintained his innocence in the case and that prevents his no-contest plea from being used against him in civil court. The drug case could be used against Green in criminal court if he faces another drug offense. Superior Court Judge Mark Young sentenced the 39-year-old singer to three years of formal probation and 45 days of community service.
- 8/30/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
CeeLo Green pleaded no contest Friday to one felony count of furnishing ecstasy to a female in 2012, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said in a statement. Per NBC L.A., the former Voice coach (real name: Thomas DeCarlo Callaway) also entered a special plea in which he maintained his innocence in the case. Per the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, the Grammy winner, 39, was immediately sentenced by Superior Court Judge Mark Young to three years of formal probation. He was also ordered to complete 360 hours of community service and must attend 52 AA/Na meetings. "CeeLo Green is pleased that the District Attorney's office would allow him the opportunity to resolve this...
- 8/29/2014
- E! Online
The Trip to Italy
Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom
UK, 2014
There is no one word to describe the relationship between British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Not even the aggravating portmanteus of the last decade will do the trick: there’s not enough conflict between the two men to call them “frenemies,” and not enough camaraderie to call their relationship a “bromance.” Whatever is the essence of their unusual chemistry, they ought to bottle it and sell it in pharmacies, for their new film The Trip to Italy may well be the funniest film of the year.
The film is a sequel of sorts to 2010’s The Trip, and each film was itself edited together from the footage of a BBC television series of the same name. The gimmick is that Coogan and Brydon are (fictionally) recruited to do restaurant reviews for the Observer newspaper, with each restaurant...
Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom
UK, 2014
There is no one word to describe the relationship between British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Not even the aggravating portmanteus of the last decade will do the trick: there’s not enough conflict between the two men to call them “frenemies,” and not enough camaraderie to call their relationship a “bromance.” Whatever is the essence of their unusual chemistry, they ought to bottle it and sell it in pharmacies, for their new film The Trip to Italy may well be the funniest film of the year.
The film is a sequel of sorts to 2010’s The Trip, and each film was itself edited together from the footage of a BBC television series of the same name. The gimmick is that Coogan and Brydon are (fictionally) recruited to do restaurant reviews for the Observer newspaper, with each restaurant...
- 8/16/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Into The Storm
Written by John Swetnam
Directed by Steven Quale
USA, 2014
The tornado-chasing thriller Into The Storm is a film which simultaneously has no reason to exist (because “first-person storm-chaser” is one of the most popular genres on YouTube) and every reason to exist (because the aforementioned YouTube videos are typically amateurish and ugly). Accordingly, the film is plagued with the problems of not knowing sort of movie it wants to be, nor what sort of message it hopes to deliver. It’s every bit the same sort of mess that a real-life tornado leaves in its path.
Nominally, director Steven Quale is producing the same story as the 1996 Jan de Bont film Twister, which came from the same studio as Into the Storm (Warner Brothers). A group of storm chasers led by Matt Walsh and Sarah Wayne Callies head to a small Oklahoma town where an epic outbreak...
Written by John Swetnam
Directed by Steven Quale
USA, 2014
The tornado-chasing thriller Into The Storm is a film which simultaneously has no reason to exist (because “first-person storm-chaser” is one of the most popular genres on YouTube) and every reason to exist (because the aforementioned YouTube videos are typically amateurish and ugly). Accordingly, the film is plagued with the problems of not knowing sort of movie it wants to be, nor what sort of message it hopes to deliver. It’s every bit the same sort of mess that a real-life tornado leaves in its path.
Nominally, director Steven Quale is producing the same story as the 1996 Jan de Bont film Twister, which came from the same studio as Into the Storm (Warner Brothers). A group of storm chasers led by Matt Walsh and Sarah Wayne Callies head to a small Oklahoma town where an epic outbreak...
- 8/9/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Lucy
Written and directed by Luc Besson
France, 2014
Let there be no doubt: the concept which powers Luc Besson’s new film Lucy, that human beings use only 10% of their brain capacity on average, is pseudoscience garbage. However, that fact ought not disqualify the film immediately. In truth, a little pseudoscience can go a long way at the movies. If you can accept Tie fighters making sounds as they fly through airless space in Star Wars, or the mysterious and completely unscientific powers of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, then Lucy should be no problem.
In fact, Lucy might be all the better for leaving “real” science behind. The Bradley Cooper vehicle Limitless also posited a person with the full 100% of his brain unleashed, but its commitment to realism made its hero uninteresting – superintelligent Cooper just wasn’t that different than regular Cooper. Freed from the constraints of the real world,...
Written and directed by Luc Besson
France, 2014
Let there be no doubt: the concept which powers Luc Besson’s new film Lucy, that human beings use only 10% of their brain capacity on average, is pseudoscience garbage. However, that fact ought not disqualify the film immediately. In truth, a little pseudoscience can go a long way at the movies. If you can accept Tie fighters making sounds as they fly through airless space in Star Wars, or the mysterious and completely unscientific powers of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, then Lucy should be no problem.
In fact, Lucy might be all the better for leaving “real” science behind. The Bradley Cooper vehicle Limitless also posited a person with the full 100% of his brain unleashed, but its commitment to realism made its hero uninteresting – superintelligent Cooper just wasn’t that different than regular Cooper. Freed from the constraints of the real world,...
- 7/27/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Washington, July 25: Narcissistic CEO's make more money for the business as per a new study.
According to the research co-authored by faculty at the USC Marshall School of Business, narcissism, considered by some as the 'dark side of the executive personality,' may actually be a good thing when it comes to certain financial measures.
The study by Professor of Accounting Mark Young, Professor of Accounting Kelsey Kay Dworkis from University of Melbourne, and Kari Joseph Olsen, doctoral student of accounting, Marshall, found that companies led by narcissistic CEOs reported higher earnings-per-share and share price than those with.
According to the research co-authored by faculty at the USC Marshall School of Business, narcissism, considered by some as the 'dark side of the executive personality,' may actually be a good thing when it comes to certain financial measures.
The study by Professor of Accounting Mark Young, Professor of Accounting Kelsey Kay Dworkis from University of Melbourne, and Kari Joseph Olsen, doctoral student of accounting, Marshall, found that companies led by narcissistic CEOs reported higher earnings-per-share and share price than those with.
- 7/25/2014
- by Meeta Kabra
- RealBollywood.com
Coherence
Written and directed by James Ward Byrkit
USA, 2014
James Ward Byrkit’s feature debut Coherence has been drawing rave comparisons to Shane Carruth’s Primer since its first appearances on the festival circuit, due to its in-depth exploration of its sci-fi hook. But for fans of the DC Comics animated films, it will instead recall the late, great Dwayne McDuffie’s final script, Crisis on Two Earths. For all of the four-color superheroics in that film, it shares with Coherence a nihilistic take on quantum physics that can call into question the very nature of human existence. And, like Coherence, it’s as immensely entertaining as it is thoughtful.
Somewhere in California, a dinner party is being held. Eight friends gather together, with some quick-hitting exposition at the beginning of the film laying out that there will be some drama afoot. It looks to be soap-opera-level drama, most likely,...
Written and directed by James Ward Byrkit
USA, 2014
James Ward Byrkit’s feature debut Coherence has been drawing rave comparisons to Shane Carruth’s Primer since its first appearances on the festival circuit, due to its in-depth exploration of its sci-fi hook. But for fans of the DC Comics animated films, it will instead recall the late, great Dwayne McDuffie’s final script, Crisis on Two Earths. For all of the four-color superheroics in that film, it shares with Coherence a nihilistic take on quantum physics that can call into question the very nature of human existence. And, like Coherence, it’s as immensely entertaining as it is thoughtful.
Somewhere in California, a dinner party is being held. Eight friends gather together, with some quick-hitting exposition at the beginning of the film laying out that there will be some drama afoot. It looks to be soap-opera-level drama, most likely,...
- 6/21/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
The Amazing Catfish
Written and directed by Claudia Sainte-Luce
Mexico/France, 2013
It seems to this critic that the term “tearjerker” was once a perjorative, applied only to films that eschewed all honest attempts at drawing emotion from an audience. Today it seems that any film which is guaranteed to leave no dry eyes in the theater is labeled a tearjerker. Maybe too many dramas choose the manipulative route, or maybe today’s audiences are so cynical as to always feel that their tears are being jerked. Regardless, an occasional film is required as a reminder that there’s no shame in making a straightforward weeper. One such film, the Mexican drama The Amazing Catfish, has just arrived in American theaters.
Claudia (Ximena Ayala) has her lonely existence punctuated by a bout of appendicitis. During her stay in the hospital, she meets Martha (Lisa Owen), a single mother of four. When...
Written and directed by Claudia Sainte-Luce
Mexico/France, 2013
It seems to this critic that the term “tearjerker” was once a perjorative, applied only to films that eschewed all honest attempts at drawing emotion from an audience. Today it seems that any film which is guaranteed to leave no dry eyes in the theater is labeled a tearjerker. Maybe too many dramas choose the manipulative route, or maybe today’s audiences are so cynical as to always feel that their tears are being jerked. Regardless, an occasional film is required as a reminder that there’s no shame in making a straightforward weeper. One such film, the Mexican drama The Amazing Catfish, has just arrived in American theaters.
Claudia (Ximena Ayala) has her lonely existence punctuated by a bout of appendicitis. During her stay in the hospital, she meets Martha (Lisa Owen), a single mother of four. When...
- 6/15/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Cold in July
Written by Jim Mickle and Nick Damici
Directed by Jim Mickle
USA, 2014
Indie auteur Jim Mickle (We Are What We Are) has said that his newest effort Cold in July is a combination of Bong Joon-Ho’s serial-murder thriller Memories of Murder and the Patrick Swayze action film Road House. That’s an eye-catching pairing, for certain, but it’s unfortunate that Cold in July doesn’t live up to the promise of such a wild mash-up.
Dexter’s Michael C. Hall plays Richard Dane, who encounters an intruder in his house late one night in 1989 and shoots him dead. Almost everyone, from the law to Dane’s neighbors, thinks this a clear case of a good guy successfully drawing down on a bad guy. The only exception is the father of the deceased, an ex-con played by an appropriately terrifying Sam Shepard, who is soon making threats against the Dane family.
Written by Jim Mickle and Nick Damici
Directed by Jim Mickle
USA, 2014
Indie auteur Jim Mickle (We Are What We Are) has said that his newest effort Cold in July is a combination of Bong Joon-Ho’s serial-murder thriller Memories of Murder and the Patrick Swayze action film Road House. That’s an eye-catching pairing, for certain, but it’s unfortunate that Cold in July doesn’t live up to the promise of such a wild mash-up.
Dexter’s Michael C. Hall plays Richard Dane, who encounters an intruder in his house late one night in 1989 and shoots him dead. Almost everyone, from the law to Dane’s neighbors, thinks this a clear case of a good guy successfully drawing down on a bad guy. The only exception is the father of the deceased, an ex-con played by an appropriately terrifying Sam Shepard, who is soon making threats against the Dane family.
- 5/28/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
USA, 2013
Written by Rose Lichter-Marck and Micah Bloomberg
Directed by Sam Fleischner
Barry Levinson’s Rain Man is a decent film, but it did commit at least one serious mistake: it gave audiences almost no reasonable idea of what autism actually is. Being the first-ever movie about autism put it in the spotlight, but it also ensured that Dustin Hoffman’s character would be the most simplistic, audience-friendly, easy-to-grasp person with the condition that anyone is likely to see. The more impressive, artfully done portrayal of autism on film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, in the form of Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.
Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez) is a teenager in Queens afflicted with what doctors today call Asd – an autism spectrum disorder, which can include the many flavors of autism as well as Asperger’s Syndrome and other related conditions.
USA, 2013
Written by Rose Lichter-Marck and Micah Bloomberg
Directed by Sam Fleischner
Barry Levinson’s Rain Man is a decent film, but it did commit at least one serious mistake: it gave audiences almost no reasonable idea of what autism actually is. Being the first-ever movie about autism put it in the spotlight, but it also ensured that Dustin Hoffman’s character would be the most simplistic, audience-friendly, easy-to-grasp person with the condition that anyone is likely to see. The more impressive, artfully done portrayal of autism on film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, in the form of Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.
Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez) is a teenager in Queens afflicted with what doctors today call Asd – an autism spectrum disorder, which can include the many flavors of autism as well as Asperger’s Syndrome and other related conditions.
- 5/22/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
The Protector 2
Written by Eakisit Thairaat
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Thailand, 2013
Thai martial-arts star Tony Jaa started the current renaissance in South Asian action cinema alongside director Prachya Pinkaew with the 2003 film Ong-Bak, but eleven years on, the warts in their style are starting to show. None of Jaa’s subsequent films has had a comprehensible plot, and Pinkaew’s later attempts to employ computer-generated effects have not matched the down-and-dirty practical stunts in Ong-Bak. Jaa’s latest, The Protector 2,has those same problems, but it also understands the elemental appeal of a balletic fight scene.
The first Protector film (also known by the title of its uncut international version, Tom Yum Goong) had Jaa playing a rural Thai elephant tender, assaulting everyone in Sydney to find one of his kidnapped charges. The best plot summary that one can provide for The Protector 2 is, “the same elephant gets taken again.
Written by Eakisit Thairaat
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Thailand, 2013
Thai martial-arts star Tony Jaa started the current renaissance in South Asian action cinema alongside director Prachya Pinkaew with the 2003 film Ong-Bak, but eleven years on, the warts in their style are starting to show. None of Jaa’s subsequent films has had a comprehensible plot, and Pinkaew’s later attempts to employ computer-generated effects have not matched the down-and-dirty practical stunts in Ong-Bak. Jaa’s latest, The Protector 2,has those same problems, but it also understands the elemental appeal of a balletic fight scene.
The first Protector film (also known by the title of its uncut international version, Tom Yum Goong) had Jaa playing a rural Thai elephant tender, assaulting everyone in Sydney to find one of his kidnapped charges. The best plot summary that one can provide for The Protector 2 is, “the same elephant gets taken again.
- 5/3/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
The One I Love
Written by Justin Lader
Directed by Charlie McDowell
USA, 2014
A number of independent filmmakers, sick to death of every mainstream film being easily described as “[movie from 10 years ago] meets [movie from two years ago]”, find themselves making multiple-genre mashups. Case in point: Charlie McDowell’s The One I Love, which opened at the Tribeca Film Festival last week. It’s funny enough and sexy enough to be described as a romantic comedy; the entire concept is based on a big sci-fi/fantasy twist, and eventually the film matures into a sort of thriller. Plus, Mark and Jay Duplass, the godfathers of so-called mumblecore cinema, are involved both in front of and behind the camera. So The One I Love is a sci-fi, mumblecore sort of romantic comedy thriller … thing. That doesn’t sound too impressive, so try this: The One I Love is among the best films of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Written by Justin Lader
Directed by Charlie McDowell
USA, 2014
A number of independent filmmakers, sick to death of every mainstream film being easily described as “[movie from 10 years ago] meets [movie from two years ago]”, find themselves making multiple-genre mashups. Case in point: Charlie McDowell’s The One I Love, which opened at the Tribeca Film Festival last week. It’s funny enough and sexy enough to be described as a romantic comedy; the entire concept is based on a big sci-fi/fantasy twist, and eventually the film matures into a sort of thriller. Plus, Mark and Jay Duplass, the godfathers of so-called mumblecore cinema, are involved both in front of and behind the camera. So The One I Love is a sci-fi, mumblecore sort of romantic comedy thriller … thing. That doesn’t sound too impressive, so try this: The One I Love is among the best films of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
- 4/29/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Palo Alto
Written and directed by Gia Coppola
USA, 2014
Regardless of the actual quality of Palo Alto, there’s likely to be some backlash against it similar to the one described here with respect to the television series Girls. Palo Alto writer/director Gia Coppola is Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter. The leads are played by Emma Roberts (Eric’s daughter/Julia’s niece) and Jack Kilmer (Val’s son). Val Kilmer himself is in a small role. Janet Jones-Gretzky and her daughter also have small roles, as does Talia Shire (Francis Ford Coppola’s sister). A number of Coppolas can be seen amongst the various crew. Palo Alto may not be strong enough to overcome that backlash, but it’s got more than a few moments that indicate a bright future for Gia Coppola.
Roberts’ April is a popular enough girl in her Palo Alto high school, but she...
Written and directed by Gia Coppola
USA, 2014
Regardless of the actual quality of Palo Alto, there’s likely to be some backlash against it similar to the one described here with respect to the television series Girls. Palo Alto writer/director Gia Coppola is Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter. The leads are played by Emma Roberts (Eric’s daughter/Julia’s niece) and Jack Kilmer (Val’s son). Val Kilmer himself is in a small role. Janet Jones-Gretzky and her daughter also have small roles, as does Talia Shire (Francis Ford Coppola’s sister). A number of Coppolas can be seen amongst the various crew. Palo Alto may not be strong enough to overcome that backlash, but it’s got more than a few moments that indicate a bright future for Gia Coppola.
Roberts’ April is a popular enough girl in her Palo Alto high school, but she...
- 4/28/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Night Moves
Written by Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
USA, 2014
If you don’t know the work of American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, get familiar. Her 2008 film Wendy and Lucy was a tear-jerker without being saccharine or manipulative, and her 2010 follow-up Meek’s Cutoff was as grim as Westerns get without being dour or angry. Her newest effort, Night Moves, pulls off a tougher feat than those two combined: it’s a film about violent crime that is mature but neither preachy nor amoral, and manages to be a first-rate thriller in the bargain.
Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning) are a pair of environmentalists who are planning … something. To say much more would involve spoilers, which are better left for the audience to suss out themselves. However, it’s clear that this plan must be hidden even from the fellow travelers at their local activist meetings,...
Written by Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
USA, 2014
If you don’t know the work of American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, get familiar. Her 2008 film Wendy and Lucy was a tear-jerker without being saccharine or manipulative, and her 2010 follow-up Meek’s Cutoff was as grim as Westerns get without being dour or angry. Her newest effort, Night Moves, pulls off a tougher feat than those two combined: it’s a film about violent crime that is mature but neither preachy nor amoral, and manages to be a first-rate thriller in the bargain.
Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning) are a pair of environmentalists who are planning … something. To say much more would involve spoilers, which are better left for the audience to suss out themselves. However, it’s clear that this plan must be hidden even from the fellow travelers at their local activist meetings,...
- 4/28/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Extraterrestrial
Written and Directed by the Vicious Brothers
USA, 2014
One reasonable response to the credits of the horror film Extraterrestrial might be, “‘A film by The Vicious Brothers’? Are these guys for real?” Naturally, the answer is no: writer/director Colin Minihan and writer Stu Ortiz (the Canadian team behind 2011’s Grave Encounter) are not related. They just wanted a unique and memorable name under which to make movies. There’s nothing wrong with choosing a badass nom de plume (as Samuel Clemens might have said), but there’s a lot wrong with Extraterrestrial. It’s a movie stuck in limbo, neither as scary nor as funny as it ought to be.
The plot is as spare and straightforward as possible: April (Daytime Emmy award winner Brittany Allen) is going up to her father’s cabin in the woods, and taking her boyfriend and a group of compadres with her.
Written and Directed by the Vicious Brothers
USA, 2014
One reasonable response to the credits of the horror film Extraterrestrial might be, “‘A film by The Vicious Brothers’? Are these guys for real?” Naturally, the answer is no: writer/director Colin Minihan and writer Stu Ortiz (the Canadian team behind 2011’s Grave Encounter) are not related. They just wanted a unique and memorable name under which to make movies. There’s nothing wrong with choosing a badass nom de plume (as Samuel Clemens might have said), but there’s a lot wrong with Extraterrestrial. It’s a movie stuck in limbo, neither as scary nor as funny as it ought to be.
The plot is as spare and straightforward as possible: April (Daytime Emmy award winner Brittany Allen) is going up to her father’s cabin in the woods, and taking her boyfriend and a group of compadres with her.
- 4/19/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Super Duper Alice Cooper
Directed by Reginald Harkema, Scot McFayden, and Sam Dunn
Canada, 2014
If your knowledge of pop music is of a certain type, then you’ve heard of glam-rocker Alice Cooper but know almost nothing about him. In fact, the Tribeca 2014 documentary Super Duper Alice Cooper reveals the factoid that Vincent Furnier was originally the singer of a band called Alice Cooper, and that he changed his name to Alice Cooper to make the band (and, later, his solo act) easier to promote. That action says a lot about Cooper – his act, his ambitions, the sort of place that he has in music history – but Super Duper Alice Cooper isn’t quite interested in that. It’s not unlike one of Cooper’s many imitators, presenting the traditional information with flashy visuals.
The material is certainly nothing new: open on Vincent Furnier’s childhood and follow his life...
Directed by Reginald Harkema, Scot McFayden, and Sam Dunn
Canada, 2014
If your knowledge of pop music is of a certain type, then you’ve heard of glam-rocker Alice Cooper but know almost nothing about him. In fact, the Tribeca 2014 documentary Super Duper Alice Cooper reveals the factoid that Vincent Furnier was originally the singer of a band called Alice Cooper, and that he changed his name to Alice Cooper to make the band (and, later, his solo act) easier to promote. That action says a lot about Cooper – his act, his ambitions, the sort of place that he has in music history – but Super Duper Alice Cooper isn’t quite interested in that. It’s not unlike one of Cooper’s many imitators, presenting the traditional information with flashy visuals.
The material is certainly nothing new: open on Vincent Furnier’s childhood and follow his life...
- 4/18/2014
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.