Authors — Sarah Salovaara
-
Is Netflix’s Move Towards Traditional Distribution In Favor of Filmmakers, But Against the Theaters?
The notion of boycotting day-and-date releases seems a bit extreme since it’s a widely practiced distribution strategy for several years running, but that’s just what AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Carmike are planning with Cary Fukunaga’s Netflix-acquired Beasts of No Nation. The exhibitors informed Variety that they will not screen the film for the sole reason that “they do not want to provide screens to films that do not honor what is typically a 90-day delay between a theatrical debut and a home entertainment release,” thus conflating the latter, last step in the release process, with the more preliminary day-and-date. Their reasoning, however, speaks to the […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 4, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Anja Marquardt’s She’s Lost Control
Opening March 20th at the Media Center in Dumbo is Anja Marquardt’s atmospheric debut, She’s Lost Control. Recently nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay, the film stars Brooke Bloom as a graduate student/sex surrogate who emotionally abandons herself to one of her more violent patients. At SXSW last year, where the drama had its North American premiere, I wrote that “Marquardt uses the untraditional avenue of sex surrogacy to explore the contradiction at the crux of her character study,” in portraying a woman who has trouble practicing the very intimacy she preaches.
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 3, 2015 -
Watch: Whiplash, The Short
Initially unable to raise the $3 million budget for Whiplash, Damien Chazelle made a proof of concept, 18-minute short film that premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Now available online, the short looks to be more or less an exact excerpt of the feature script, distilling Fletcher’s emotional manipulation, rage, and abuse into three consecutive scenes. The precise editing, gliding camerawork, and J.K. Simmons’ high octane performance are all on display, though the short — presumably for budgetary reasons — lacks the isolated, brooding mood and dark yellow color pallet of the feature version. Also notable is that Johnny Simmons was […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 2, 2015 -
Watch: Long Shots and Adrift Characters in the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson
Not to go overboard with the Paul Thomas Anderson supercuts (but to go a little overboard with the Paul Thomas Anderson supercuts), here is a nice essay from Jacob T. Swinney that strings together a selection of long shots from the director’s first six films — a nice contrast to his application of close-ups in Boogie Nights. Emphasizing the unmoored nature of Anderson’s characters both psychologically and contextually, Swinney notes that “We are often presented with characters lost within the frame, and therefore have trouble connecting with said characters–we become isolated ourselves.”
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 27, 2015 -
Doron Max Hagay on His No-Budget Monica Lewinsky Web Series, Monica
You would think that the filmmaker behind such razor-sharp, atmospheric satires as Erica Wexler is Online and Perfect Thoughts would go for broke with an unsuspecting subject like Monica Lewinsky, but Doron Max Hagay had other plans when it came to designing his amusing new web series, Monica. “From the outset, I was dogged about not representing Monica’s story merely as satire,” says Hagay, who joined forces with actor Lily Marotta to loosely adapt “Monica Takes Manhattan,” the 2001 New York Magazine profile that detailed Lewinsky’s post-Clinton life in the big city. The first two episodes of the six part series are now available online, with subsequent episodes […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 26, 2015 -
Shaka King on Releasing His Sundance Short Mulignans Online
Newlyweeds filmmaker Shaka King made the slightly unorthodox decision to release his short film Mulignans online almost immediately following its Sundance premiere last month. Turns out, King never thought of Mulignans as a festival hopper, but a piece of work meant to be seen by “as wide an audience as possible as soon as possible.” Currently at 61,000 views and counting on Vimeo, I asked King to elaborate on his decision: We initially made Mulignans for the web, but a couple friends suggested I enter it into Sundance…and I’m glad I did. But the ultimate goal was always to get it out there […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 25, 2015 -
New Directors/New Films Announce 2015 Program
The first of the “new” modifiers in FSLC and MoMA’s always solid showcase New Directors/New Films has taken on a somewhat amorphous application as of late. A handful of this year’s standouts, for instance, are the fourth (Rick Alverson’s Entertainment) or third (Stephane Lafleur’s Tu Dors Nicole; Bill and Turner Ross’ Western) films from their respective directors, while Nadav Lapid, whose Policeman bowed at NYFF in 2011, seems to be making a reverse trip down the FSLC ladder with his third film, The Kindergarten Teacher, which premiered last May in Cannes. Nevertheless, there’s much to look forward to here, especially the inclusion of Britni West’s Tired Moonlight — a micro-budget, Montana-set film that […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 23, 2015 -
Watch: Why Gordon Willis’ Lighting in Interiors is Another Character Element
In conjunction with the Museum of Moving Image’s first ever cinematographer-centric retrospective, Reverse Shot has produced a small tribute to Gordon Willis’ work on Woody Allen’s Interiors. Staging their own recreations of the film’s many portraits, editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert examine how Willis’ lighting contributes to the emotional interiority of Diane Keaton’s character, Renata. By casting her in shadows for the majority of the film, Willis reinforces her isolation. It’s an important consideration of how cinematography can not only set the external tone of a film, but also play a necessary role in the characterization of its inhabitants.
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 20, 2015 -
Watch: Buster Keaton’s Symmetrical Sense of Humor
kogonada first caught our eye two years back with his exploration of symmetry in the works of Stanley Kubrick, followed by Wes Anderson a year later. But before both auteurs were associated with a centered, exacting aesthetic, Buster Keaton applied a looser construct of symmetry to his brand of physical comedy. The above video from Vince di Meglio looks at how the central framing of nearly 30 of Keaton’s films allows for head-to-toe humor in relation to both objects and space.
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 19, 2015 -
Watch: Melancholy and Loss in The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson’s detractors often delight in taking umbrage with the filmmaker’s “twee” aesthetic, claiming that his formal specificity undermines the emotion his films ought to inspire. This video essay by Matt Zoller Seitz, one in a series adapted from his book The Wes Anderson Collection, dismantles that claim through the lens of The Grand Budapest Hotel, and its myriad melancholic layers of loss and thwarted re-invention. With respect to Zero, Seitz notes that “The most important parts of a story are the parts people omit, the abysses they sidestep,” and how Agatha becomes a vague, distant cypher — both narratively and through Yeoman’s […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 17, 2015
