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Feature: A Tale of Two Vampire Movies
4 December 2008 7:59 AM, PST
By Matt Singer
I wouldn't say I liked "Twilight," but I think I get it. The action is clumsy, the acting is clunky, but the core mythos of Stephenie Meyer's source material survives the transition to the big screen intact, and while it doesn't necessarily appeal to me, I can see why it might to others (at least as a novel; the movie, I'm not so sure). The world that Meyer created -- a teen soap opera against a backdrop of supernatural intrigue in which clans of vampires walk the earth, some protecting humanity, others methodically eating them -- is a chick-lit twist on the classic formula of the "X-Men" comic books. "Twilight" was previewed for the press at a multiplex in Times Square to give critics a taste of what the authentic experience is like: the theater was packed with teenage girls. These young women, by and large,
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Matt Singer
Interview: Alan Rickman on "Nobel Son"
4 December 2008 7:35 AM, PST
By Aaron Hillis
Why hasn't an esteemed actor like Alan Rickman ever been nominated for an Academy Award? (He's got an indirect theory on that -- more on that later.) Whether your earliest memory of his screen work was his yippie-ki-yay mother of falls from a skyscraper in 1988's "Die Hard," as the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," or even as Professor Severus Snape in the "Harry Potter" adaptations, Rickman always brings the same British grace, charm and theatrically trained precision as if he were still in "Sense and Sensibility."
His latest is "Nobel Son," the second film this year he's co-starred in with Bill Pullman and Eliza Dushku for director Randall Miller and co-writer/co-producer Jody Savin; the first being "Bottle Shock." Rickman plays Eli Michaelson, a womanizing professor whose egomania reaches planetary proportions after he scores the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which sets
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Aaron Hillis
Opening This Week: This year's '60s music biopic, Ron Howard's Oscar bid and one last superhero movie
2 December 2008 11:23 AM, PST
By Neil Pedley
Providing the requisite stopgap between showy Thanksgiving distractions and award season stragglers, female directors and assorted indie debutantes are making a strong showing this week.
'What's Eating Elissa Down?' is the question to ask as the award-winning director of Aussie shorts makes the jump to features with this semi-autobiographical tale of a frustrated adolescent on the verge of manhood weighed down by his responsibilities to his autistic younger brother. Daytime soap star Rhys Wakefield takes the role of the Gilbert Grape-esque Thomas, a burdened army brat charged with his brother's care while his parents drag the two up and down the country until he meets Jackie, a free spirit who teaches him how to shed his bitterness. The always impressive Toni Collette anchors this teenage ensemble as the boy's mother, Maggie. Luke Ford and Gemma Ward co-star.
Opens in New York and Los Angeles.
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Neil Pedley
2009 Spirit Award Nominations
2 December 2008 9:09 AM, PST
By Stephen Saito
Jason Bateman and Sandra Oh braved the early call time this morning in Los Angeles to announce this year's nominees for the Spirit Awards. The awards will take place on February 21st, and will be broadcast live and uncut on IFC at 5pm Et/2pm PT. Here are the nominees:
Best Feature
"Ballast"
Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh
Producers: Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae
Producers: Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc Platt
Producers: Larry Fessenden, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani
Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin
Best Director
Jonathan Demme, "Rachel Getting Married"
Thomas McCarthy, "The Visitor"
Best First Feature
Director: Antonio Campos
Producers: Sean Durkin, Josh Mond
Director: Barry Jenkins
Producer: Justin Barber
Director: Christopher Zalla
Producers: Per Melita, Benjamin Odell
Director: Alex Rivera
Producer: Anthony Bregman
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Producers: Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Sidney Kimmel
John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
"In Search of a Midnight Kiss"
Writer/Director: Alex Holdridge
Producers: Seth Caplan and Scoot McNairy
Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker, Darren Dean
Producer: Darren Dean
Writer/Directors: David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry
Producers: Jacob Gentry and Alexander Motiagh
"Take Out"
Writer/Directors/Producers: Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou
Writer/Director: Chris Eigeman
Producer: Ami Armstrong
Best First Screenplay
Jonathan Levine, "The Wackness"
Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best Screenplay
Woody Allen, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, "Sugar"
Charlie Kaufman, "Synecdoche, New York"
Howard A. Rodman, "Savage Grace"
Christopher Zalla, "Sangre de Mi Sangre"
Best Female Lead
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Michelle Williams, "Wendy and Lucy"
Best Male Lead
Javier Bardem, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"
Best Supporting Female
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Rosemarie DeWitt, "Rachel Getting Married"
Debra Winger, "Rachel Getting Married"
Best Supporting Male
James Franco, "Milk"
Anthony Mackie, "The Hurt Locker"
Charlie McDermott, "Frozen River"
Best Cinematography
Maryse Alberti, "The Wrestler"
James Laxton, "Medicine for Melancholy"
Best Documentary
Director: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
"Encounters at the End of the World"
Director: Werner Herzog
Director: James Marsh
Director: Margaret Brown
Director: Yung Chang
Best Foreign Film
"The Class" (France)
Director: Laurent Cantet
"Gomorrah" (Italy)
Director: Matteo Garrone
"Hunger" (UK/Ireland)
Director: Steve McQueen
"Secret of the Grain" (France)
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
"Silent Light" (Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany)
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Robert Altman Award (Given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast)
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Williams
Someone to Watch Award
Barry Jenkins, "Medicine for Melancholy"
Nina Paley, "Sita Sings the Blues"
Lynn Shelton, "My Effortless Brilliance"
Truer Than Fiction Award
Margaret Brown, "The Order of Myths"
Sacha Gervasi, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
Producers Award
Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy, "Treeless Mountain" and "I'll Come Running"
Jason Orans, "Goodbye Solo" and "Year of the Fish"
Heather Rae, "Frozen River" and "Ibid"
Stephen Saito
On DVD: "Still Life," Roberto Rossellini
2 December 2008 7:22 AM, PST
By Michael Atkinson
Every now and then, the natural world and the massive self-satisfying erections of man provide filmmakers with ready-made metaphors of massive torque and resonance. Werner Herzog is an expert at locating these visual/thematic El Dorados; Marker, Kiarostami and Ghobadi are current explorers of the paradigm, which necessitates an embrace of documentary reality. (Slavic artists are just beginning to make use out of the ex-Soviet landscape of unfinished and derelict public projects, from decommissioned nuclear power plants to entire cities left abandoned after infrastructure support dried up.) But Jia Zhang-ke is the filmmaker bringing new life and commitment to the idea of finding universalized meanings in real-life monstrosities. Jia's "Platform" used its traveling theater troupe as a stand-in for the average citizen watching Chinese history pass chaotically before them, but it was with "The World" that Jia discovered the surreal significances that emanated organically from the titular,
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Michael Atkinson
IFC News Podcast #105: Making Movie News
1 December 2008 6:47 AM, PST
By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore
The Hollywood Reporter has promised that "no movie flatters the press" like Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon." Well, to be fair, most movies don't try to flatter the press at all. On this week's IFC News podcast, we look at the different ways journalists have been portrayed on screen, from backbiting magazine staffers to fast-talking, amoral reporters and cynical TV talking heads, with the occasional heroic turn throw in.
Download now (MP3: 33:01 minutes, 30.2 Mb) Podcast feeds: [Xml] [iTunes]
[Photo: "Frost/Nixon," Universal Pictures, 2008]
Alison Willmore
6 articles
