Originally published in the Fall 2011 issue. Take Shelter is nominated for Best Feature and Best Ensemble. As I write this introduction the financial press is buzzing about the BBC appearance of a trader, Allesio Rostani, who flatly stated, “I’m dreaming of a global recession.” He says he hopes — and expects — the world economy to crash. If it does, he’ll make a lot of money because he’s short the Euro and various European government bonds. There’s speculation that he’s a member of the political prankster group the Yes Men, not because of the substance of his commentary (there […]
Originally published in the Winter 2011 issue. Meek’s Cutoff is nominated for Best Feature. Before you see the first image of Meek’s Cutoff, you hear the film. Simultaneously swelling is the whoosh of rushing water and Jeff Grace’s unnerving, anxious score, which sounds like strings on guitar played backwards. Imagine a rusty fence gate slowly opening. That’s your invitation to the film. Then a title card — hand-stitched on what looks like the potato-sack material used to cover a wagon — announces that we’re in Oregon, and the year: 1845. This happens quickly, in less than 20 seconds, but by […]
This Monday night the Gotham Independent Film Awards will honor Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, with one of their annual Tribute awards. In a career that’s spanned close to three decades, Rotham has been one of the most successful execs of our era. Along with overseeing at Fox some of the biggest blockbusters ever made, he’s also put his mark on today’s specialty films having founded Fox Searchlight in 1994. Let’s go down memory lane and check out some of his highlights. One of Rothman’s earliest credits was as co-producer for Jim Jarmusch‘s classic, Down By […]
At the Gotham Awards next Monday night, IFP is honoring actor Gary Oldman with a career tribute. Oldman’s thirty-year acting career has included memorable performances in Alex Cox’s Sid & Nancy, Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, Oliver Stone’s JFK, and, more recently, the Batman and Harry Potter franchises. Oldman’s latest is Tailor, Tinker, Soldier Spy, an adaptation of the 1974 British spy novel by John le Carre. In this interview from Lovefilm.com, Oldman discusses working with costars Colin Firth, John Hurt, and Tom Hardy. And check out this clip from the film, in which the head of the British foreign intelligence […]
Originally published in the Fall 2011 issue. David Cronenberg is a Tribute honoree at this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards. A Dangerous Method opens in theaters Nov. 23. David Cronenberg’s new film A Dangerous Method is a period piece dealing with the personal and historical relationship between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly). It’s a work that in some ways feels out of place in the Canadian filmmaker’s filmography, and in other ways, perfectly Cronenbergian. The screenplay by Christopher Hampton (who also penned a stage play from which this was developed) is meticulously […]
Originally published in the Spring 2011 issue. Beginners is nominated for Best Feature and Best Ensemble. “There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.”–Rainer Maria Rilke About the three characters in Mike Mills’s altogether winning second feature — Oliver, a sensitive yet romantically challenged graphic designer in his mid-30s (Ewan McGregor); Anna, a beautiful, single French actress (Melanie Laurent); and the designer’s father, Hal, a retired museum director and widower in his 70s, who has just come out of the closet (Christopher Plummer) — the film’s title, […]
Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue. Only a few months after we selected her for last year’s “25 New Faces” list, writer-director Lena Dunham went into production on her second feature Tiny Furniture. Shot by fellow 2009 “25 New Faces” Jody Lee Lipes and produced by Filmmaker contributing editor Alicia Van Couvering and Kyle Martin, the film wound up winning the Grand Prize at 2010’s SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by IFC for distribution this fall. The film was shot on the Canon 7D, and we asked Lipes, focus puller Joe Anderson and Technicolor colorist Sam Daley […]
Originally published in the Summer 2011 issue. Detroit Unleaded is nominated for Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers “Live the Dream” Grant. When South Lebanon-born writer-director Rola Nashef started thinking about her film, Detroit Unleaded, there wasn’t much of a film scene in her home state of Michigan, independent or studio. Now, after several years of tax incentives and high-profile productions, she laughs, “I go to restaurants and hear people talking about their scripts.” But Nashef was inspired by Detroit long before the state’s recent production boom. The city didn’t just provide her debut feature’s location, but also its subject […]
Originally published in the Summer 2011 issue. Another Earth is nominated for Breakthrough Director. “It has a gentle sensibility,” says director Mike Cahill about his debut feature, the Sundance hit Another Earth. Indeed, this tale of grief, love and “Life Out There” does have a delicate touch, a sensitivity that sets it apart from the summer’s other science fiction. While in other films giant robots destroy entire cities — in 3D, no less — and romance is punctuated every 10 minutes by a train-destroying fireball, Another Earth, starring and co-written by newcomer Brit Marling, harkens back to the speculative parables […]
Originally published in the Director Interviews section on Oct. 6, 2011. Hell and Back Again is nominated for Best Documentary. Perhaps the most viscerally harrowing documentary account of the war in Afghanistan yet, Danfung Dennis‘ Hell and Back Again is an intense visual experience, one that with the dynamism and fluidity of a narrative film takes you into the heart of the conflict in this troubled corner of the globe. Dennis, who left behind a career in economics to become a war photographer in the middle of the aughts, focuses on Sargent Nathan Harris, a Marine infantryman in Echo Company […]