You can feel the TV creator playing tug-of-war with the original author in a way that buries themes, makes characters shallow, and loses the potential of both projects.
[Still from Olga’s Eyes] Having been a shorts filmmaker for most of my filmmaking life, I know exactly how difficult it is to get coverage at festivals for short films. When I’m able, I like to return the favor. While at the 44th annual Hawaii International Film Festival, I took in the Out for Blood shorts program. I’m happy to report that it was a very well-programmed block with a number of standouts, so let’s get to it. The first short in the program was Binge, co-directed by Sam David Zhang and Rohit Relan. A microshort at three minutes, it’s basically a harrowing moment within a larger scene, and is perhaps a short proof of concept. The short stars Clayton Farris (MaXXXine) as a man…
John Crowley’s film never builds to a cohesive, or emotionally satisfying, whole.
The post ‘We Live in Time’ Review: Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh Anchor Time Jump-Happy Weepie appeared first on Slant Magazine.
Many films have dared to ask if a man and a woman can ever just be friends, but very few have managed to answer in the affirmative. For most of its first half, All of You appeared destined to wind up another addition to this romantic canon, as journalist Simon (Brett Goldstein) slowly realizes his […]
The post BFI London Review: All of You Offers a Grown-Up Sci-Fi Romance first appeared on The Film Stage.
The Devil and Donald Trump: Abbasi Reconstructs the Rise of a Crony Capitalist
Among the many wise observations written by nineteenth century Englishman Lord Acton, he noted “Great men are almost always bad men…” But what if they were just plain bad to begin with? And what exactly constitutes greatness? With his fourth film, The Apprentice, filmmaker Ali Abbasi reconstructs the economic rise of Donald Trump through the 1970s and 1980s thanks to his relationship with infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, two men who fall considerably short of anything resembling greatness (at least, if humanity, integrity, and honesty are factors used to determine such a distinction), putting a surprisingly thoughtful spin on both men as logical products of environments and systems which fostered ruthlessness and abject greed.… Read the rest
One of the most acclaimed films of the year, Payal Kapadia’s dazzling Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize winner All We Imagine as Light is now finally rolling out stateside. After stops at Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF, Sideshow and Janus Films will release it in U.S. theaters starting November 15 and now have debuted the new […]
The post U.S. Trailer for Payal Kapadia’s Dazzling Cannes Winner All We Imagine as Light first appeared on The Film Stage.
One movie that has captured the hearts of critics and audiences on the festival circuit this year is writer-director Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light. The drama, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, follows a close community of […]
The post ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT U.S. Trailer: Payal Kapadia’s Cannes-Winning Drama Celebrates Friendship & Sisterhood appeared first on Hammer to Nail.
Steve McQueen has long been upfront about his desire to make a musical; before Widows underwhelmed at the box office, it appeared likely that a passion project within that genre would be his next film. With each subsequent effort, it seems McQueen is slowly pushing himself into that wheelhouse, getting audiences to imagine what such […]
The post BFI London Review: Blitz Is an Unabashedly Hopeful, Mainstream Work from Steve McQueen first appeared on The Film Stage.
Jem Cohen makes a gentle inquiry to human connections while presenting it within the bigger picture; in this case, the universe.
Musician turned filmmaker Boots Riley is set to begin production on that always critical sophomore feature with a quartet of players that include muse LaKeith Stanfield (toplined Riley’s debut Sorry to Bother You), Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, and the Demi Moore who is riding a nice career boost with the release of The Substance. The trades a reporting that the NEON project will shoot shortly which either means we can expect I Love Boosters to drop sometime in late 2025 or wait for a Sundance drop in 2026. This is being produced by Ryder Picture Company’s Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett, and Savage Rose Films’ Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read.… Read the rest