Authors — Nick Dawson
-
Trailer Watch: Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin
The word from Telluride is rather mixed on Jonathan Glazer’s long-waited third feature, Under the Skin, a (by definition) very ambitious adaptation of Michel Faber’s remarkable novel about an alluring female alien (Scarlett Johansson) picking off hapless hitchhikers in the Scottish highlands. This teaser for the film — which plays today in Venice, and in Toronto later in the week — gives us little to go on in terms of plot but strongly indicates that Glazer has created a dark, brooding vision seemingly untroubled by commercial concerns. Johansson, an apt choice in the role of the extraterrestrial temptress, is (fittingly) the […]
by Nick Dawson on Sep 3, 2013 -
First Look at Errol Morris’ The Unknown Known
Errol Morris’ Donald Rumsfeld doc The Unknown Known played at Telluride last night (to somewhat mixed reactions), and today Vice has the first clip from the film. Delving into almost 50 years of Rumsfeld’s memos, which he refers to as “snowflakes,” the film obviously harkens back to Morris’ Oscar-winning The Fog of War — also an intimate examination of a failed U.S. war with the Secretary of Defense who oversaw it — but with a difference. Whereas Robert S. McNamara was looking back 40 years after the fact on his handling of the Vietnam war, Rumsfeld is here talking about a […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 30, 2013 -
Now Online: Devyn Waitt’s Not Waving But Drowning
Just a quick heads up that Devyn Waitt’s 2012 festival title Not Waving But Drowning, an NYC-set 20something drama starring Adam Driver (Girls) and Vanessa Ray (Pretty Little Liars), has debuted for free on YouTube, playing alongside a short also directed by Waitt, The Most Girl Part of You. It’s an interesting approach to take, as opposed to going the VOD route, and presumably is seen as the simplest and most direct way to connect with the film’s young demographic. And, of course, in contrast with VOD, where the numbers are tightly guarded by distributors, here the filmmakers will have […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 28, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club
Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée has had a curiously diverse career so far, going from the flamboyant coming-of-age dramedy C.R.A.Z.Y. to the historical romance of Young Victoria. The connective tissue between those two movies is that they are both period pieces, and so Vallee is presumably bringing a keen sense of the times to Dallas Buyers Club, a mid-198os AIDS drama starring Matthew McConaughey as a dying Texan electrician infected with the virus who helped others in a similarly grave situation gain access to medicines yet to be approved by the FDA. This is yet another film that firmly repositions McConaughey as […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 27, 2013 -
Closed Circuit Giveaway: Win a Focus Features DVD Set
Focus Features’ latest release Closed Circuit, the taut legal thriller starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall, comes out this Friday, and to celebrate we have a package of Focus DVDs to give away to two lucky winners. In order to win copies of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Debt, send the answer to the following question to nick AT filmmakermagazine DOT com: Which previous Focus Features release was also written by Closed Circuit screenwriter Steven Knight? N.B. This contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.
by Nick Dawson on Aug 26, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Tim Sutton’s Memphis
Here’s a look at Memphis, Tim Sutton’s follow-up to Pavilion which has been developed in tandem with the Venice Biennale Film College, as one of the first three projects to emerge from the program’s first year. The film, which shot in the early part of the summer in the city of its title, has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, and via The Dissolve we have a trailer for the film. It looks gorgeous and the story about a Memphis-based musician who is “surrounded by beautiful women, legendary musicians, a stone-cold-hustler, a righteous preacher, and a […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 22, 2013 -
IFP Announces Filmmaker Conference Highlights
Independent Film Week is less than a month away, and today IFP announced some highlights of the event Filmmaker Conference, which will take place at Lincoln Center between September 15 and 19. The keynote speakers this year include Leviathan director Lucien Castaing-Taylor and musician and filmmaker DJ Spooky while there will be case studies of Ryan Coogler’s Sundance-winning Fruitvale Station, Penny Lane’s archival doc Our Nixon, Dave Grohl’s Sound City and Elaine McMillion’s web doc Hollow. From the press release, here’s the info that was unveiled today: Each day of the conference guides filmmakers in the art, technology and business of […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 22, 2013 -
Watch Online: The Safdie Brothers’ Solid Gold
Josh and Benny Safdie’s latest street film, Solid Gold, is currently being featured on Kentucker Audley’s newly revamped No Budge website, where it is among a number of good short films being rolled out. (Surveyor, the awesome anti-Western by 2013 “25 New Face” Scott Blake, is upcoming on the site in September.) In the short, Benny plays a gold-painted street performer who seems rather ill-suited to his particular line of work. Go to the Red Bucket Films page on Vimeo for more of the Safdies’ work.
by Nick Dawson on Aug 21, 2013 -
A Five-Second Guide to This Year’s “25 New Faces”
I’m flying to Tacoma, Wa. tomorrow for the annual 25 New Faces event at the Grand Cinema, but before I depart I’m posting here a quick, video-driven guide to the talented people I’ll be hanging out with over the coming days. (Thanks to Nathan Jones and Dante Pilkington for helping to put this post together.) There’s a lot to dig into below, so enjoy. Anahita Ghazvinizadeh Below is the trailer for Ghazvinizadeh’s most recent Cannes-winning short, Needle, and you can watch her 2011 short When the Kid was a Kid here. Rodrigo Reyes Here’s the trailer for Purgatorio; you can […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 15, 2013 -
Now Online: 25 New Face Ian Harnarine’s Doubles With Slight Pepper
At the DCTV short film panel I hosted a few weeks ago, I was chatting with Ian Harnarine, one of our 25 New Faces of 2012, and 2011 New Face Jason Sondhi, who runs Short of the Week and Staff Picks at Vimeo. So I’m wondering if it’s a coincidence that Harnarine’s excellent Trinidad-set family drama Doubles with Slight Pepper (the feature version of which is in IFP’s Emerging Storytellers program next month) has just debuted on Vimeo (where it’s a Staff Pick, naturally) and is the current pick on Short of the Week. Either way, make sure to check […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 14, 2013
