Authors — Nick Dawson
-
Sundance Adds Richard Linklater’s Boyhood to 2014 Slate
Sundance has snuck in a few late additions to its slate (Clerks, Wish I Was Here, Lambert & Stamp) and now comes the final of these, which is also arguably the most exciting: Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. The film, also known as “The Twelve Year Project,” was shot over a dozen years (2002 to 2013) with a small cast and covers the progression from youth to adulthood of a family and, principally, the children Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and Samantha (Lorelei Linklater). The parents are played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette. Linklater has for some time insisted that Boyhood would not remain the […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 13, 2014 -
The Long and the Short of the Cinema Eye Honors 2014
The Cinema Eye Honors is always one of the most enjoyable and lively awards shows of the year, and arguably the most intimate; at no other awards show is there such a sense of an entire community coming together. This year, the short film that prefaced the awards — which was compromised of pictures of all the nominees — ended with the words, “We are Cinema Eye. We are on each other’s team.” And that sense of unity and people pulling together was underlined in the opening words of AJ Schnack, who called on the filmmakers present to stand together […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 9, 2014 -
Win a Blu-Ray of I’m So Excited and a Poster Signed by Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar was in fine and very funny form last year with I’m So Excited, which comes out today on DVD and Blu-ray. Writing about I’m So Excited on the Filmmaker website, R. Kurt Osenlund wrote, “A dizzyingly sexual lark of a comedy, and Almodóvar’s fizziest film to date, the movie goes down with the mood-lightening and belt-loosening ease of the mescaline-spiked Valencia cocktails its lead characters guzzle. As has been widely reported, I’m So Excited is a throwback to the sort of telenovela-tinged comedies the director hasn’t made in years (think Airline Passengers on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 7, 2014 -
Sundance Institute Announces 12 Projects for Screenwriters Lab
This afternoon the Sundance Institute unveiled the 12 projects that will be participating next month in its Screenwriters Lab. Among the filmmakers whose scripts were chosen are documentarian Jeremiah Zagar (In a Dream), whose first narrative script We the Animals (based on a book by Justin Torres) was also in IFP’s Emerging Storytellers, while another alum of that program (from 2011) selected here is Ryan Koo, with his project Manchild. Other notable participants this year imclude Jordana Spiro, the former TV actress whose short Skin played at Sundance 2012; uber inventive and wacky pop promo directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 17, 2013 -
First Look: “25 New Faces” Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands’ Uncertain
This year we put Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands on our “25 New Faces” list on the strength of their excellent doc short The Roper but also because of how excited we were at the sneak peek we’d had of Uncertain, their debut feature about a remote “town of outlaws” in Texas. The pair has now started releasing clips from the film, which will be making its world premiere at a winter festival in 2014. The first of these is above, and you can check out more via the Vimeo page of McNicol and Sandilands’ production company, Lucid Inc.
by Nick Dawson on Dec 12, 2013 -
Sundance Trailer Watch: John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary
Yesterday, it was announced that Calvary, the new film from The Guard writer/director John Michael McDonagh, will make its world premiere at Sundance next month. Sooner than expected, the trailer for the movie has emerged, and it’s immediately apparent that this is a more somber and understated affair than The Guard, which was irreverent and caustic, much in the manner of the work of McDonagh’s older brother, Martin. Brendan Gleeson, also the star of The Guard, here plays a priest facing his last days in a small Irish town after being told by someone whose confession he is taking that […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 10, 2013 -
Sundance Unveils Shorts Lineup
The final piece of the Sundance puzzle emerges today in the shape of the shorts lineup, with that broken down into U.S. narrative, international narrative, doc and animation. With U.S. narrative, as ever there are a handful of directors already with features under their belts who are returning to the festival, such as Musa Syeed (The Big House), Todd Rohal (Rat Pack Rat) and Dustin Guy Defa (Person to Person ). There are also few directors with new work who have distinguished themselves already in shorts, such as The Strange Ones‘ co-director Christopher Radcliff (Jonathan’s Chest) and Boneshaker‘s Frances Bodomo (Afronauts), plus a handful […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 10, 2013 -
Sundance Announces Premieres and Doc Premieres Strands
Traditionally, the Premieres section at Sundance is a bit of a mixed bag, with some films by good directors but with a premium put on star power over actual quality. The 2014 Premieres lineup announced today is, however, packed with movies that, at least on paper, are genuinely exciting. There’s Calvary, the latest from The Guard‘s writer/director John Michael McDonagh, Ira Sachs’ Love is Strange, starring Alfred Molina and John Lithgow as longtime lovers who finally tie the knot, and Mike Cahill’s followup to Another Earth, the sci-fi I Origins. “25 New Face” Sara Colangelo’s debut feature Little Accidents (starring […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 9, 2013 -
“That’s the Movie, That’s the Kind of Overlapping Mess That Bob Loves:” Joan Tewkesbury on Writing Nashville
Robert Altman’s Nashville is one of the towering achievements of 1970s New Hollywood Cinema, a portrait of the hub of the country music scene by juggling a myriad of characters, from self-appointed king of the community Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) to its biggest star, Connie White (Karen Black), from the emotionally fragile Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) to comically intrepid BBC reporter Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) and campaigning politician Hal Phillip Walker (Thomas Hal Phillips), a presence seen but never heard. A huge, highly accomplished cast — which also includes Ned Beatty, Shelly Duvall, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, Barbara Harris and a very young Jeff […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 6, 2013 -
Sundance Announce Spotlight, Midnight, Kids and New Frontier Titles
Yesterday Sundance released its initial slate and today the second burst of titles emerges. In Spotlight, which houses fest favorites (many by alumni of the festival and/or the labs), there’s only one title that’s new to me, namely R100, Hitoshi Matsumoto’s wild erotic comedy about a “mild-mannered family man with a secret taste for S&M” who “finds himself pursued by a gang of ruthless dominatrices—each with a unique talent.” That’s definitely one to check out. In the Midnight section, new films from Adam Wingard and Taika Waititi (who reunites with his Eagle vs Shark star Jemaine Clement in a vampire mockumentary) are definitely […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 5, 2013
