Tomm Moore on THE SECRET OF KELLS
I’m not sure when I first heard of THE SECRET OF KELLS. Probably last year, likely through AICN, definitely way before it wound up on the Oscar nominee list for animated feature (and everybody started going, “The what of who?”). At that time, the buzz was growing around this small, exquisitely designed film out of [...]
THE CINEFANTASTIQUE HORROR FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION PODCAST V1:E5 – Overlooked & Underrated: INK, GHOST WRITER, DR. PARNASSUS
It’s a genre light week, with no new horror, fantasy, or science fiction titles released in cinemas, so Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski take this opportunity to shine a little much-deserved light on some overlooked and/or under-rated genre titles. The main topic of discussion is INK, the surprisingly good [...]
THE EXPLODING GIRL and TALES FROM THE SCRIPT
Postponing the Blast: Zoe Kazan in THE EXPLODING GIRL
So actress Zoe Kazan slips into the room, gives director Bradley Rust Gray a hug, and lingers a minute to answer a couple of questions. Quite unanticipated, obviously. Very welcome, actually. And pretty much fitting for the film being discussed, THE EXPLODING GIRL, which itself has a [...]
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MMP at the 2010 Spirit Awards
ell, “next to” the Spirit Awards might be more accurate. We weren’t actually at the ceremonies, but over the past year we’ve been fortunate enough to cover a fair number of the 2010 winners.
So if the acceptance speeches didn’t get anywhere close enough to satisfying your curiosity about how these films came about, [...]
THE ART OF THE STEAL Interview
At one point in the new film THE ART OF THE STEAL, one of the people protesting the moving of Dr. Albert Barnes’ art collection (Picasso, Modigliani, Renoir, Cézanne, amongst others) from its home outside Philadelphia into the city proper stands outside the gates of the museum’s eventual home, screaming, “Philistines!” The art world occasionally [...]
Jessica Hausner on LOURDES
Sometimes it feels as if 2010 so far can be summed up as an ongoing quest to avoid discussing AVATAR. (Okay, you want my one-word review? Meh.) Fortunately, a number of filmmakers have stepped up to offer heartening proof that the whole of cinema isn’t henceforth going to be consigned to the twin plagues of [...]
Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher on OCTOBER COUNTRY
A tangent here, but stick with me: At the beginning of the animated film, MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMATAS, director Isao Takahata envisions the world of his titular family as an ocean voyage, complete with pounding waves and raging storms, but arriving eventually at a safe port. If the analogy was transferred to OCTOBER COUNTRY, the [...]
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Kate Davis and David Heilbroner on WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON
I’ll admit I have little patience for people who confuse religious mythology for real-world politics. You want to believe that, when the earthly going gets tough, you’re going to be zapped up to heaven and have a front row seat for the conflagration and the return of your deity? Cool, swell, no skin off my [...]
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Scott Cooper on CRAZY HEART
And so here we are at the last MMP episode of 2009, unless, of course, a there’s an emergency, late-breaking filmmaker interview (Mr. Scorsese, my calendar’s open). Barring that, we’re going out with a good ‘un: Scott Cooper’s finely crafted, astutely observed CRAZY HEART.
This is Cooper’s directorial debut — not even a short film to [...]
Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell on UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not all that obsessive over metal, heavy or otherwise. Don’t hate it — in fact, I like the beat and the aggression and the flights into epic, audio assault — it just doesn’t take priority when I’m programming my Pandora stations. Nevertheless, I’m happy when one year brings us two [...]
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