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The Green Veil is coming back to The Network… with a twist. Variety reports that the new free streamer has renewed its inaugural drama for a second season, and already a ton of details about what’s ahead for the series have been unveiled. Here’s a look at everything we know about The Green Veil Season 2 so far. Who will star in The Green Veil Season 2? Lead star John Leguizamo on board to return to his role as Gordon Rogers, and he’s not the only one. Variety reports that the entire cast from Season 1 will return. Alongside Leguizamo, Season 1’s cast included Hani Furstenberg as Mabel Rogers, John Ortiz as Gilberto Sutton, Irene Bedard as Glennie Sutton, and Steven Boyer as Edward Boon. In a statement, Leguizamo (who also serves as executive producer on the series) said of the renewal, “Every step in the developmental process we were...

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It's a very sexy piece, said John Leguizamo of his gripping new series The Green Veil, which streams exclusively for free on The Network app and website. It's very dark. It's an important piece.

That it is. The eight-episode TV anthology series, which Leguizamo executive produces with Aram Rappaport, follows a secret government mission to abduct Indigenous children in the 1950s. Based on real-life events, Leguizamo steps into The Green Veil, morphing into one of the more disturbing characters to hit the screen in some time: Agent Gordon Rogers. An immigrant who came into the U.S. kidnapped as a child, in fact Gordons dedication to achieving the American Dream takes a dire turn and his insidious obsession mounts while he keeps his own self-loathing and heritage repressed.

Hes a despicable, disgusting, reptilian human being, Leguizamo says of the character, whom, we first believe,...

John Leguizamo has portrayed a wide range of characters in his career, from comic book villains to Shakespearean legends to drag queens. Despite his versatility, fans have never seen him as dark and unsettling as he is in the new TV series “The Green Veil.”

His portrayal of the 1950s FBI agent Gordon Rogers was already rattling audiences after the premiere of the first four episodes of the new drama at Variety‘s TV FYC Screening Series on April 26 in West Hollywood. Following the screening, one fan revealed that it was difficult to witness Leguizamo’s character inflict trauma after trauma and asked how he managed to act out the scripted atrocities.

“I don’t need people to like me in this role,” Leguizamo responded. “That’s not what I want. I want it to be understood, understood how a person becomes this vile and twisted.” This powerful performance set...

Ahead of the official launch of the new free streaming service, The Network, Collider's Steve Weintraub sat down with the cast and creator of the streamer's first original series, The Green Veil. The historical thriller stars John Leguizamo (Romeo + Juliet) in his first-ever starring role for a television series, written specifically with him in mind by producing partner and series showrunner and creator, Aram Rappaport (The Crash). In addition to Leguizamo, The Green Veil also stars John Ortiz (Silver Linings Playbook), Hani Furstenberg (American Gods), Irene Bedard (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Isabelle Poloner in her debut role.

To celebrate the launch of the exciting new premium streamer, The Network, Collider is teaming up to host an exclusive screening for one of their first original series, The Green Veil. The drama is executive produced by John Leguizamo (Bob Trevino Likes It) and creator Aram Rappaport (Latin History for Morons), with eight episodes. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to offer our readers a chance to watch the first four episodes, edited to 90 minutes, ahead of its official premiere. The screening will be followed by an extended Q&a with Leguizamo, Rappaport and producer/star Irene Bedard (Pocahontas), Hani Furstenberg (American Gods), and Isabelle Poloner (Law & Order: Svu). Check out the full details below for your chance to win free tickets.

Exclusive: The Network is the latest free streaming service to launch in the U.S. The ad-supported service, which was set up by Aram Rappaport, founder of the creative ad-agency The Boathouse, is launching April 30.

However, the service, which has backing from Bh Media Holdings, is not launching with a slew of library titles and movies. Instead, it will focus on two originals at a time.

It is launching with Chivalry, a comedy originally commissioned by the UK’s Channel 4 and starring Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani, and The Green Veil starring John Leguizamo.

Chivalry was written by Coogan and Solemani and is set in Hollywood, exploring the nuances, advances, and limitations of the entertainment industry in a post #MeToo era. It follows a critically acclaimed female director, played by Solemani, who is brought on to right the ship of a wayward production run by a seasoned male producer,...

Julia Loktev's Day Night Day Night (2006) and The Loneliest Planet (2011) are showing in July and August, 2019 on Mubi in the United States.Julia LoktevMidway through our conversation, Julia Loktev asked to go off the record. The plots of her two narrative features, Day Night Day Night (2006) and The Loneliest Planet (2011), turn on sudden, unexpected, transformative events, and while she’s happy to talk about the twists—“We're so attached to this notion of spoiling, which I find a bit strange”—she’s cagier about her own points of entry into the stories, mostly for fear of ruining anyone’s fun. We agreed to keep the published interview spoiler-free.Loktev was born in St. Petersburg (then still Leningrad) and immigrated to the United States as a child. Her family settled in Colorado, where she lived until college, when she moved to Montreal to study English and film at McGill University.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez)

Alita lives and dies by its eponymous creation, and to the credit of director Robert Rodriguez, producers James Cameron and Jon Landau, and the visual effects house Weta Digital, the character represents an impressive technical feat. More so than the Na’vi in Avatar, which always had extraterrestrial origins as an out for any inhuman qualities, Alita’s humanoid nature requires a certain 1:1 realism, a sustained suspension of any and all disbelief. Alita’s eyes might be affectedly large in a manga sort of way, but they persuasively project a young person’s earnestness and vulnerability, which is no easy feat.

American Gods leans into weirdness and political statement in equal measure, in an episode that travels from Illinois to Louisiana and back.

This American Gods review contains spoilers.

American Gods Season 2 Episode 5

“The Ways of the Dead” is a tale of two dead girls, all centered around a man who gets them into trouble. One of these dead girls is an anonymous white woman found dead at the turn of the 20thCentury, who gets a man into trouble and then gets a man killed. The other woman cheated on her husband, was killed, and came back driven by a mission to save and protect a man from danger.

One of these women is, of course, Laura Moon, who features prominently in the episode as her trip to New Orleans with Mad Sweeney starts getting out of hand. The other isn't named, and her story doesn't particularly matter in the grand scheme of things,...

Directors: Doron Paz, Yoav Paz. Writer: Ariel Cohen. Cast: Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golan, Brynie Furstenberg and Adi Kvetner. The Golem is the latest original film from Dread Central Presents. Distributed by Epic Pictures earlier this month, this film was developed by Israeli filmmakers: Doron Paz and Yoav Paz. These are the same filmmakers behind the earlier horror film Jeruzalem (2015). Both film have been influenced by Jewish mythology and even the Frankenstein myth. Though, this creature is created through supernatural forces and not science. And, this Golem has a purpose, to save a small Jewish village from Christian raiders. Very much a creepy kid film, in the vein of The Omen (1976) or Children of the Corn (1984), this child terror shows a penchant for murder. The finale brings out his specialty in one of the better climaxes in indie horror. The Golem should be put on most indie horror fans to-buy list.

It's a small village, a quiet village, so when foreign invaders threaten their future, one woman calls forth a powerful entity seeking to protect everyone. Things do not go according to plan, however. Directed by the Paz Brothers (Doron & Yoav Paz), The Golem is a "cinematic retelling of the 16th-century Jewish folktale from the Kabbalah," according to official verbiage. It's also "the first film from Dread, in collaboration with Epic Pictures." Hani Furstenberg and Ishai Golen star. In our exclusive clip, a woman suggests a course of action that shocks the village elders. Her husband is not pleased. Here's the more complete official description: "Set in 17th century Lithuania, Hanna (Hani Furstenberg) the wistful, conflicted wife of the local rabbi¹s son Benjamin (Ishai Golen),...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

With February set to kick off tomorrow, we have a brand new batch of horror and sci-fi-related VOD and digital releases coming our way over the next four weeks, and considering most folks are looking for something to keep them busy as they try and avoid the frigid temperatures outside, there are a ton of great titles that should more than do the trick.

The month kicks off with Piercing (which premiered at Sundance 2018) and Velvet Buzzsaw (which just played this year’s Sundance), the latter arriving exclusively on Netflix Instant. Then, we have five different titles arriving on various platforms on February 5th (Overlord, Mermaid: Lake of the Dead, The Golem, Fighting the Sky, and Crossbreed), with another four films arriving on digital just a few days later on the 8th (The Man Who Killed Hitler Then The Bigfoot, St. Agatha, The Amityville Murders, and Darkness Visible).

For those...

When you’ve seen as many horror movies as many of us obsessive fans have, it can be difficult to be shown anything new. We know the monsters. We know the archetypes. We know the clichés and we know the form. By branching out to the horror movies of other countries, though, it is possible to make discoveries that feel fresh and original, because even if the stories being told aren’t anything new, the films have their own unique cultural identity that helps change the lens through which we view even those horror archetypes which might otherwise seem familiar. After absorbing decades of American folklore on screen, it’s nice to see what’s scary around the world.

Doran and Yoav Paz’s latest effort, The Golem, is such a film. The first original production from Dread Central Presents (now rebranded as simply “Dread”), The Golem is a movie...

Exclusive: When the Paz Brothers’ new horror film The Golem hits theaters next week, it will do so via Dread, the official new name for Dread Central Presents. The genre label is continuing to ramp up its slate after the brand was acquired in 2017 by Epic Pictures.

The next in-house production in the Dread pipeline is Lucky, a feminist horror film that begins preproduction soon in Los Angeles, Natasha Kermani (Imitation Girl) directs from a script by

Brea Grant.

Grant also stars as May, a suburban mother stalked night after night by a threatening but elusive figure. With few clues as evidence and no witnesses, she finds her story and her sanity questioned by authorities. As each attack intensifies, and with no one to turn to for help, May finds herself alone and locked in an increasingly vicious battle with someone or something that may be unstoppable.

The Golem Epic Pictures Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net by: Harvey Karten Director: Doran Paz, Yoav Paz Screenwriter: Ariel Cohen Cast: Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golen, Brynie Furstenbwerg, Daniel Cohen, Adi Kvetner, Lenny Ravich, Alex Tritenko, Olga Safronova Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 1/8/19 Opens: February 1, 2019 “The Golem” is a folklore story that over […]

The post The Golem Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Directing brothers Doron Paz and Yoav Paz won a lot of acclaim for their Israeli horror Jeruzalem (review) which won over many a horror fan when it premiered in 2015 and now the pair are back with yet another horror movie though this one is distinctly different.

The Golem takes on the famous Jewish narrative of the golem and turns back the clock to an outbreak of the plague. The movie centers on a young woman named Hanna (Hani Furstenberg), a mystic who uses her powers to summon an entity which she believes will save her tight knit community from both illness and the foreign invaders at their doorstep.

I'm always on board for a good period hor...

For those of you not familiar with Jewish folklore, a Golem is a being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter like clay or mud and has human-like features. There’s a great silent film that was released in 1915 called The Golem. The most popular version of the legend involves Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel in the 16th century. He created the Golem to protect his people from anti-Semites.

There’s a new film coming out called The Golem that actually looks like a pretty solid and creepy movie. We have a trailer for that film today, and it follows “a woman in a devout Jewish community that is besieged by foreign invaders who believe that the Jews have cursed them with a plague. In order to protect her village, the woman conjures a creature in the visage of her deceased child which turns out to be more dangerous than she ever imagined.

The Golem Trailer Doron Paz and Yoav Paz‘s The Golem (2018) movie trailer stars Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golen, Brynie Furstenberg, Adi Kvetner, and Lenny Ravich. The Golem‘s plot synopsis: “The Golem is a supernatural, cinematic retelling of a 16th-century Jewish folktale from the Kabbalah. During an outbreak of a deadly plague, a mystical woman must save [...]

Continue reading: The Golem (2018) Movie Trailer: Hani Furstenberg Summons a Deadly Entity to Save Her Community...

"Golem is connected to its creator. A Golem can evolve." Epic Pictures Group has released an official trailer for a supernatural period horror titled The Golem, a new horror thriller take on the Jewish folklore legend of the "Golem". Set in 17th century Lithuania, during an outbreak of a deadly plague, a mystical woman tries to save her tight-knit Jewish community from foreign invaders, but the entity she conjures to protect them is a far greater evil. From the directors known as The Paz Brothers, the cast of The Golem includes Hani Furstenberg and Ishai Golen, along with Brynie Furstenberg, Adi Kvetner, Lenny Ravich, and Alex Tritenko. While this does have some surprisingly impressive imagery, the rest of the film doesn't look that great. The story of The Golem is a well-known myth in Judaism, but this doesn't seem to add anything. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Doron Paz & Yoav Paz's The Golem,...

Selection includes TV series from UK, Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Israel and Denmark.

The Berlin International Film Festival (February 7 – 17) has unveiled the seven TV titles set to be screened in this year’s Berlinale Series programme.

Among the line-up is Amazon’s Hanna written by David Farr, who co-wrote the 2011 film of the same name. It is directed by Sarah Adina Smith, whose film credits include Buster Mal’s Heart, which starred Rami Malek. Hanna stars Esmé Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos. NBCUniversal International Studios is producing alongside Working Title Television.

Also in the selection is Netflix’s first Swedish original series Quicksand,...

Tagline: "An Ancient Legend Reborn." The Golem is a horror film based on an ancient Jewish legend. In the legend, a demonic child figure can be summoned, in the face of invasion. The Golem was developed by the Paz Brothers: Doron and Yoav Paz. They were the central filmmakers behind the undead feature Jeruzalem (2015). Their latest goes back into a medieval past. As well, The Golem stars: Hani Furstenberg (Mississippi Murder), Ishai Golan, Lenny Ravish, Brynie Furstenberg and Alexey Tritenko. A trailer has been launched recently for this exciting thriller and the clip, plus release details, can be found here. The trailer develops the story more. However, Hanna (Furstenberg) is part of a remote Jewish community. Practicing mysticism, she turns against her husband and conjures a dangerous entity, tasked with protecting her and her community. Yet, a demon this strong has a will all of its own. This title has...

Starring Barbara Crampton (read Jonathan James' recent interview with the horror icon here), Dead Night is coming to DVD this September from Dark Sky Films. Also in today's Horror Highlights: Rlje Films acquires the sci-fi film Beyond the Sky for North American distribution, and we have a look at a new trailer and key art for The Golem, the latest horror movie from Jeruzalem directors Doron and Yoav Paz.

Dead Night Coming to DVD: Press Release: "James and his wife Casey load up their teenage kids and head to a remote cabin in Oregon for a weekend trip. When James ventures into the dark, snowy forest in search of firewood, he encounters a woman hidden in the frozen terrain and barely alive. James brings her back to the cabin for help, but the family has no way of knowing that the woman's presence will be the catalyst for a series...

Chicago – Another new voice has emerged on the film scene, and she is ready for her close-up. The director and co-writer (with Tyson Stock) of “Saints Rest” is Noga Ashkenazi, a filmmaker who grew up in Tel Aviv (Israel), but studied at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her new film is set in Grinnell, and will make its Midwest Premiere at the Midwest Independent Film Festival in Chicago on Tuesday, June 5th, 2018. For more information, including ticket purchasing, click here.

Hani Furstenberg and Allie Trimm in ‘Saints Rest’

Photo credit: Lama Films/Various and Sundry Films

“Saints Rest” is a gentle and heartfelt musical drama about two sisters, Joni and Allie (Hani Furstenberg and Allie Trimm), who are in contrast with their ambitions and perspective. Joni owns a coffee shop called Saint’s Rest in their hometown of Grinnell, Iowa. Allie is leaving after a short hiatus for her first role...

Grief can take hold of even the strongest people and refuse to let go. It’s why they describe it as a “process.” Maris Curran’s “Five Nights In Maine” takes this idea to heart as it follows Sherwin (David Oyelowo), a recent widower who lost his wife Fiona (Hani Furstenberg) in a car accident. Stricken by grief and depression, he travels to a remote corner of Maine to see Fiona’s cancer-stricken mother Lucinda (Dianne Wiest) who’s being taken care of by caring nurse Ann (Rosie Perez). Tensions run high as both Sherwin and Lucinda deal with the tragedy, and struggle to come to terms with their feelings towards each other and Fiona. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below featuring Sherwin and Ann discussing the loss.

Read More: David Oyelowo and Dianne Wiest Grieve Together In Emotional ‘Five Nights In Maine’ Trailer — Watch

David Oyelowo is...

As “Five Nights in Maine” begins, the death of his wife Fiona (Hani Furstenberg) has stunned Sherwin (David Oyelowo) into near-immobility. Balled up on the couch, he drinks, sleeps, and drinks again, avoiding all but the most insistent responsibilities. The widower’s withdrawal into loss doesn’t just pull him away from support; it nearly strips him of kindness. He’s a jerk to those offering support; his sister (an effective Teyonah Parris, in a brief appearance) shoulders the burden of funeral prep. An invite from Fiona’s cancer-stricken mother Lucinda (Dianne Wiest) leads to an impulsive Atlanta-to-Maine pilgrimage. In northern New England,...

Not every movie that traffics in close-ups of its characters is telegraphing tragedies about to befall them, but indie dramas about grief sure make it feel that way. Even audiences who enter Five Nights In Maine unaware of its premise may come to suspect that either Sherwin (David Oyelowo) or Fiona (Hani Furstenberg) is about to meet a terrible end from the way the married couple canoodles in close-up in the first scene—and Oyelowo, being the bigger name, isn’t a strong contender for an early death.

Close-ups continue as Fiona exits the story, capturing the collapse of Sherwin’s face as he learns that his wife has died in a car crash. In general, writer-director Maris Curran stays too close to this tragedy, both visually and narratively, for Maine to become one of those movies about a grieving spouse shutting themselves off from the world before learning to...

“Five Nights In Maine” follows Sherwin (David Oyelowo), a recent widower after his loving wife Fiona (Hani Furstenberg) was killed in a traffic accident. Amidst his depression, he travels to a remote corner of Maine to see Fiona’s hostile, cancer-stricken mother Lucinda (Dianne Wiest) who’s being taken care of by caring nurse Ann (Rosie Perez). Tensions run high as both Sherwin and Lucinda deal with their shared tragedy and express their grief in various difficult ways. Both struggle to come to terms with their rage and fear as well as their love for Fiona. Watch the trailer below and check out some exclusive photos from the film as well.

Read More: Tiff First Look: David Oyelowo and Dianne Wiest Lead ‘Five Nights in Maine’

The film is directed by Maris Curran. She previously directed the film “Edge of the Road,” about a family road trip out of the Midwest,...

July: a time for backyard cookouts, fireworks displays, and tipsy, tearful declarations of how you — sniff — just love America so much. And streaming addicts will have plenty to salute in the month to come, whether that's Netflix trotting out a new Goonies-style mystery series and reviving a certified cult animation sensation, or tempting new film options from the folks at Amazon Prime and Hulu. No better way to beat the heat than a retreat into the safety of an air-conditioned living room, and no better way to turn that space...

Despite the lottery-esque sounding odds, the U.S Dramatic Competition section which produces the finest American indie specimens such as Frozen River, Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station and Whiplash is fairly consistent in terms of quality. Last year’s crop of sixteen have almost all had their theatrical releases with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter being the last one out of the gates (pegged with an early 2015 release). Last week we individually looked at our top 80 Sundance Film Fest Predictions (you’ll find 30 other titles worth considering in our intro) and below, we’ve split the list into narrative and non-fiction film items and have both identified and color-coded our picks in an AtoZ cheat sheet. You’ll find 2015′s answer to Whiplash located somewhere in the stack below. Click on the individual titles below, for the film’s profile.

Maris Curran’s directorial debut might be a longshot for Sundance….at least for the 2015 edition. The drama which has its character set wrestle with isolation, grief and loss went into production late summer in the titular north-eastern state with a cast comprised of Dianne Wiest, Rosie Perez and career-year actor David Oyelowo toplining with a supporting players in the shape of Teyonah Parris, Stephen Henderson and Hani Furstenberg (seek her out in Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet). Five Nights in Maine has found early supporters from the likes of San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant, Cinereach and found some tender loving care from Kickstarter back in 2011. If the project is sprinter speed force in the post-production phase then we might not have to wait until 2016.

Gist: This follows Sherwin (Oyelowo), a man reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to...

Dianne Wiest and Rosie Perez have joined David Oyelowo in the upcoming Five Nights In Maine. CAA represents Us sales.

Maris Curran will direct from her screenplay about a widower who travels to Maine to seek answers about his wife’s death from his mother-in-law, herself struggling with guilt.

Teyonah Parris, Stephen Henderson and Hani Furstenberg round out the key cast.

Carly Hugo and Matt Parker of New York-based Loveless will produce alongside Curran and Oyelowo’s La-based production company Yoruba Saxon Productions.

Five Nights In Maine was recently awarded the San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant and received a Cinereach grant.

Curran is represented by Mosaic, Oyelowo by CAA, Inphenate, Hamilton-Hodell and Schreck, Rose, Dapello.

Wiest is represented by ICM Partners, while Perez is handled by Silver Lining Entertainment and Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson and Binder.

Parris is represented by Apa, Vanguard Management and Fox Rothschild. Henderson is represented...

Two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest (“Bullets Over Broadway”) and Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez (“Fearless”) will join David Oyelowo (“Selma”) in the upcoming indie “Five Nights in Maine,” which will co-star Teyonah Parris (“Mad Men”), Tony Award nominee Stephen Henderson (“The Newsroom”) and Hani Furstenberg (“The Loneliest Planet”). Maris Curran is writing and directing the movie, which follows Sherwin (Oyelowo), a man reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law (Wiest), who is herself confronting guilt over her daughter's death. Also read: Rosie Perez Joins ABC Pilot ‘An American Education...

April Showers Returns! (Most nights @ 11)

When I reviewed The Loneliest Planet last year, I puposely avoided the one true spoiler that the whole movie pivots on -- "the incident" as the director calls it. But my aversion to spoilers was so pronounced that I got a little carried away. I didn't even reveal what the first scene of the film entailed. But by now, since this returning series is all about film showers, you've surely guessed it.

I began my review this way:

The first of the senses that writer/director Julia Loktev hits us with over the opening black screen is hearing. The sound is a rhythmic pounding / creaking / breathing that's hard to place (sex scene? construction work?). When the fade-up happens, you'd never guess what image is waiting for you! It's something both utterly mundane and alien and strange. This is only the first of the surprises that...

Chicago – “The Loneliest Planet,” recently released on DVD, will try even the most patient and adoring of art movie lovers as its deliberate, plodding pace pushes out all possibilities of character involvement. To be blunt, by the time I felt like I was asked to care, it was too late. There’s some stunning cinematography and Gael Garcia Bernal is simply one of the most interesting actors of his generation but this effort is dull to the nth degree.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

The first hour of “The Loneliest Planet” is clearly designed to create realism that will allow us to emotionally invest in the characters and the inner turmoil they face in a barren landscape in the second hour. While the cinematography is stunning and the natural, unforced interplay between the stars feels genuine, the film drags in unacceptable ways (especially at home…on the big screen, the striking imagery might have...

‘Life is good, but good life is better.”

The Loneliest Planet (2012) is bookended by one of the strangest openings and unsatisfying endings I’ve ever seen. Based on the short story “Expensive Trips Nowhere” by Tom Bissell, never was a story more aptly named in the source material. Writer/director Julia Loktev has created a very odd feeling movie. Alex (Gael García Bernal) and his fiancé Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are backpacking around Georgia and the Caucus Mountains with their guide Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze). Everything is going by beautifully and boringly until three natives cross their path and things turn sharply. Cowardice. Contemplate that.

Read more...

DVD Release Date: Feb. 26, 2013

Price: DVD $24.98

Studio: IFC

Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg are the picture of happiness--at first--in The Loneliest Planet.

The 2011 thriller The Loneliest Planet starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Letters to Juliet) is inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s 1936 short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.

A happily engaged couple (Bernal and Israel-based actress Hani Furstenberg) arrive in the Caucasus Mountains in the former Soviet republic of Georgia for a backpacking trip. They engage a villager (Bidzina Gujabidze) to act as guide and the three venture into the stunning wilderness. The trio’s peaceful adventure takes a dark turn when they encounter an armed man and his two sons, prompting a momentary misstep by Alex which creates a subtle rift between himself and Nica. The rift quickly widens until it threatens to destroy everything the couple believed about each other and themselves.

Written and directed by Russian-American filmmaker Julia Loktev,...

Gael Garcia Bernal's Alex character snaps a photo of himself and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) in this new poster for Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet thriller. Loktev helms and writes the script based on the short story by Tom Bissell. IFC Films distributes The Loneliest Planet, which opened in theaters on October 26th last year. In The Loneliest Planet, Alex and Nica are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they are backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. The couple hire a local guide to lead them on a camping trek, and the three set off into a stunning wilderness, a landscape that is both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed...

Gael Garcia Bernal's Alex character snaps a photo of himself and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) in this new poster for Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet thriller. Loktev helms and writes the script based on the short story by Tom Bissell. IFC Films distributes The Loneliest Planet, which opened in theaters on October 26th last year. In The Loneliest Planet, Alex and Nica are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they are backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. The couple hire a local guide to lead them on a camping trek, and the three set off into a stunning wilderness, a landscape that is both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed...

Is it a bad idea to test your love? It could be argued that a life spent together is one long test, and obviously arranged tests like hiring someone to try and seduce your partner is a recipe for disaster, but what about the unplanned tests? The kind that just happen unexpectedly. The kind that make you rethink the entirety of your relationship. The kind that threaten love’s very survival. Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are a few months away from their wedding date and many miles away from home. Hiking through Eastern Europe’s Caucasus region the couple stop to spend time in small villages and interact with locals over food, dance and the occasional game of catch. Their adventure takes them in to hills and mountains where they spend several days and nights hiking and camping while accompanied by a guide named Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze). The trio eventually cross paths with...

Title: The Loneliest Planet Director: Julia Loktev Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, Bidzina Gujabidze On one of the deeper album cuts from their 2004 release “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” U2′s Bono sang, on “A Man and a Woman,” of the “mysterious distance” between the sexes, and how one can often find themselves — for better and worse — lost in that chasm of the ineffable and perhaps unknowable. A cinematic travelogue and unusual three-hander about a pair of young, engaged lovers who undertake a guided backpack tour through the Caucasus Mountains in formerly Soviet Georgia, the artfully restrained “The Loneliest Planet” provides a hazy yet engaging expedition through [ Read More ]

The post The Loneliest Planet Movie Review 3 appeared first on Shockya.com.

Julia Loktev's Gotham Award nominated "The Loneliest Planet" led a generally uneventful weekend at the indie box office, topping fellow newcomers "The Other Son" and "District of Corruption." Also of note this weekend was decent second weekends for "The Sessions" and "Holy Motors," while "Middle of Nowhere," "Smashed" and "The Paperboy" all continued to struggle. Full rundown below. The Debuts: "The Loneliest Planet" (Sundance Selects) Recent Gotham Award nominee "The Loneliest Planet" found the best per-theater-average of any debut film this weekend, and the second best of any film in release save "The Sessions." Directed by Julia Loktev, the film stars Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg. It managed a $20,400 gross from 2 screens, averaging $10,200. "'The Loneliest Planet' got off to a great start for the opening...

If you like your films fast-paced a la Michael Bay, then steer clear of "The Loneliest Planet," Julia Loktev's entrancing sophomore feature.

Glacially slow by mainstream standards, "The Loneliest Planet" is more concerned with making you think than hoodwinking you with zany plot developments. For cinemagoers seeking a challenging experience sure to rattle in your brain long after you leave the theater, you'd be advised to visit "The Loneliest Planet."

The drama pits Gael Garcia Bernal opposite fresh face Hani Furstenberg as Alex and Nica, a young, spirited couple backpacking across the Caucasus Mountain in Georgia a mere few months before their wedding date. And who can blame them? As captured gorgeously by cinematographer Inti Briones, the lush mountains make for an idyllic getaway for the vacationer with an adventurous spirit.

For the majority of the first half of Loktev's picture, Alex and Nica walk (a lot), and engage...

Displacing Tom Bissell's short story "Expensive Trips Nowhere" to the verdant hills of Georgia, Julia Loktev re-imagines the somber, transient tale of love, fissured by a momentary, yet infinitely projecting incident. Set against the lush, ex-Soviet highland, The Loneliest Planet follows two itinerant lovers as they backpack across Georgia's uncanny prominence, accompanied by a hired trails-man. The couple, played with comforting intimacy by Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg, radiate the easy to approach nature of well-honed travelers, seeking knowledge and experience, happy to quietly dance the night away beneath an unknown moon. Travelling, the group playfully shares space, turning the crags and vistas, toted ropes and industrial jetsam into games; manipulating the landscape into a far-off playground. Their guide, always watchful and accommodating, joins...

In Theaters The Loneliest Planet Where: Limited release; available on VOD on Tuesday, October 30. What: A young couple hires a guide for a camping trip in the wilderness, with unexpected results. Why Go: Director Julia Loktev previously made the quietly intense, terrorist-themed drama Day Night Day Night, and her newest film has received similar critical praise. From the sound of it, it’s best to know as little as possible going into the movie, but it certainly sounds like it will be an unsettling trip. Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg star as the engaged couple, with Bidzine Gujabidze as the local guide. Pusher Where: In select theaters nationwide. What: A drug dealer has a very bad week. Why Go: This is an English-language remake of the critically...

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Why She's On Our Radar: Hani Furstenberg has already made great strides as an actress in the Israeli theater with occasional, and equally successful, forays into film. She has already worked with two giants of contemporary Israeli cinema: Eytan Fox, who cast her in the gay soldier drama "Yossi and Jagger," as well as Joseph Cedar, whose "Campfire" brought the actress an Israeli Oscar. Only now, however, has Furtenberg made her way into an English language movie, and it's a fairly humble start: In "The Loneliest Planet," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and opens this Friday in limited release, she holds her own opposite Gael Garcia Bernal as one half of a couple journeying through the mountains of the Georgian peninsula and unsure about the future of their relationship. Directed by Julia Loktev ("Day Night Day Night"), the movie relies on pregnant pauses and other quiet details that provides a real showcase for.

It’s true that “The Loneliest Planet,” directed by Julia Loktev (“Day Night Day Night”), is the kind of film that works best if you know little to absolutely nothing about it going in. But then again, couldn’t that be said for just about every film? So before we write this review, let’s get the basics out there: a young couple (played wonderfully by Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg), engaged to be married, is backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. They hire a guide to lead them on a hike filled with stunning vistas, and…something happens that changes things, irrevocably. Sure, it’s a simple enough plot, but where this assured sophomore fiction effort from Loktev becomes quite interesting is in its complex character moments and subtle nuances. This is the kind of film that many will decry for being boring; they will almost undoubtedly...

Two lovers hiking — Oh damn did that just happen? — We’ll call it ‘Event’

In 1960, Psycho invented the phenomenon of ‘hyped secrecy,’ which drove the masses to cinematheques worldwide so they could know what all those coy bastards were alluding to in their cryptic post-screening cinegasms. Few films have been able to achieve such a level of intrigue after its release (although The Sixth Sense comes close). Usually, it’s the result of a clever twist that changes our perception of a character’s motives, or sometimes it’s a (rare) satisfactory resolution to a nagging question (what the hell does “Rosebud” mean!), and they’ll almost always be found in either the horror, thriller, or crime genres. Julia Loktev’s third film The Loneliest Planet – a mellow drama cum melodrama – is structured solely and entirely around an ‘event’ at its halfway point that entirely reconfigures how we read the film.

IFC Films has provided us with an exclusive clip from The Loneliest Planet, director Julia Loktev's upcoming thriller that explores the depths of a young couple's relationship. Gael Garc&#237a Bernal and Hani Furstenberg star as Alex and Nica, whose love is threatened by a split-second decision while backpacking in the wilderness. Take a look at this scene where the couple's guide hears a bizarre sound.

The Loneliest Planet - Exclusive Listen

Alex (Gael Garc&#237a Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they are backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. The couple hire a local guide to lead them on a camping trek, and the three set off into a stunning wilderness, a landscape that is both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed. Walking for hours, they trade anecdotes, play games to pass the time of moving through space.

Following up on her tense, distressingly visceral narrative feature Day Night Day Night, which anatomized the final hours of a female suicide bomber preparing for an operation in Times Square, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Julia Loktev leaves the cramped urban space of contemporary Manhattan for the majestic wilds of the Caucasus Mountains in The Loneliest Planet, where a Western couple, Nica (Hani Furstenberg) and her fiancée Alex (Gael García Bernal), have embarked on a hiking holiday in post-Soviet Georgia. Navigating their way through the emerald landscape with the help of a guide, Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze), whose war-scarred personal history seems to hang around his fatigued eyes like soot, Nica and Alex are game participants in their less-than-luxurious travel adventure, delighting in their ability to “rough it.” (The film opens with a jolting shot of Nica bouncing in a tub naked, in a kind of ecstatic discomfort, while Alex ferries over buckets of...

Julia Loktev's 2006 movie Day Night Day Night followed a young woman on her journey to become a suicide bomber, a riveting film released at just the right time to really shake up anyone who saw it. Her follow-up The Loneliest Planet may seem mundane by comparison, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a young engaged couple who are traveling through the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia with a local guide, played by one of the country's premiere mountaineers, Bidzina Gujabidze. Things are going well and they're enjoying the idyllic holiday until a sudden incident drives a wedge between the couple and they have to finish the journey while what happened hangs over their head. It's a simple and fairly subdued, often dialogue-less story, that uses the grand landscape...