Authors — Vadim Rizov
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Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s Very Own 2010
In Interstellar‘s future, a life-ending new Dust Bowl requires astronaut Matthew McConaughey to go into space, shoot through a wormhole, scope out three planets for habitation and make it back home to assure his daughter he loves her. The film is bookended and periodically interrupted by real Dust Bowl veterans’ talking heads, their hard times testimonies taken from a Ken Burns doc on the topic. It speaks to Christopher Nolan’s admirably idiosyncratic instincts that he’d ground visualizations of near-mystical journeys through quantum physics with seemingly incompatible Burns talking heads; it speaks simultaneously to his imaginative limitations that he can think of […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 19, 2014 -
Watch: The Music Documentary Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets
Pulp fans, take note: via Pitchfork, US viewers can stream the entirety of Florian Habicht’s new documentary about them for free. Part concert film from their 2012 reunion, part tribute to and investigation of their Sheffield roots: enough said. Miss the window of opportunity? It enters limited release on Wednesday and is available for digital download starting Friday.
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 17, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: 50 Shades of Grey, Now with More Plot and Money
In the second trailer for 50 Shades of Grey, we get a much clearer overview of the plot trajectory: successful corporate boy meets shy journalist girl for interview, later runs into her and asks her “Are you free?” Meaning, presumably, both schedule-wise and also with reference to her soul/libido. Then out come the S&M tools. The big change from the first trailer is that the emphasis is equally split between the softcore elements and what Tom Wolfe once deemed the “plutographic,” i.e. the graphic depiction of the acts and vices of the rich. Look for lots of private jet plane rides and […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 14, 2014 -
Watch: David Lynch in Conversation at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
David Lynch is notoriously averse to discussing the meaning of his movies, so this recent “in conversation” exercise from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts gets above-average results by getting him to focus on the process of making his artwork instead. There are anecdotes about creating art using mice, discussions of his love of stone lithography, and this unbeatable evaluation of what’s changed about Philadelphia since Lynch’s mid-’60s art school time there: “There was a lot of fear and insanity and violence, and then we’d hear about corruption and police brutality, and there was a lot of sickness in the people, and […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 13, 2014 -
“Women Directors are One More Problem We Don’t Need”: Joan Micklin Silver on Chilly Scenes of Winter
Released in 1975, Joan Micklin Silver’s feature debut Hester Street is the story of immigrant Jews assimilating with various degrees of success to turn-of-the-century New York City. She followed with two contemporary works: 1977’s Boston alt-paper story Between the Lines and 1979’s Chilly Scenes of Winter. The latter is set to screen tomorrow at NYC’s IFC Center as part of the “Celluloid Dreams” series, whose premise would not have made sense in the very recent pre-DCP past: it aims to show repertory cinema on 35mm. Chilly Scenes is based on Ann Beattie’s first novel, which primarily concerns itself with Charles (John Heard) and his deathless, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 11, 2014 -
Watch: Too Many Cooks, An ’80s Apocalypse/Tribute in 11 Minutes
This is making the Internet rounds and will presumably swallow the entire world by midday at this rate, so why resist? Casper Kelly is a regular Adult Swim contributor, and this is his magnum opus. What begins as an extended parody of every single type of mediocre ’80s sitcom personage (the casting, finding the exact right face for every goofy dad, hectoring boss and bemused grandma, is really something) mutates into a series of other staples of the decade — G.I. Joe-esque animation, some kind of old-school Battlestar Galactica thing — before metastasizing into a self-reflexive slasher film, a hospital drama, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 7, 2014 -
“You Might as Well be Selling Drugs”: Robert Greene on Actress
“I consider the industrious Robert Greene a friend, but that makes me no less cautious in deeming his new film Actress a big deal,” I wrote after seeing the film at True/False this year. The quick takeaway: This collaborative psychodrama follows and subjectively sculpts his friend/neighbor Brandy Burre’s attempt to simultaneously separate from her longtime boyfriend and return to the acting world she left for suburban motherhood. Sliding from seemingly straightforward self-presentation to ambiguously unfeigned snapshots of daily life, director and subject collude, not so much valorizing her attempts to jumpstart her career and finances (“I have to make a […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 6, 2014 -
Watch: Five Tips for Shooting Outdoors
This Film Riot video (via No Film School) quickly runs down five basic tools you’ll need to have in order to shoot outside — wind socks or other protection for your mic, ND filters and so on — as well as suggesting cost-effective alternatives for especially cash-strapped productions. No money for a bounce board? No problem: pull a pillowcase over a cardboard box and you’re ready to go. While intended primarily for beginners, this video’s pointers can serve as a quick refresher crash course to bring everyone on your crew up to speed.
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 6, 2014 -
Watch: A Montage of Heaven and Hell at the Movies (Mildly NSFW)
Opening with the decidedly non-canonical duo of Always and All Dogs Go to Heaven, this nifty eight-ish minute montage looks at the afterlife as rendered onscreen. Graphic matches and dialogue segues from one person protesting they don’t belong here to another are smoothly handled, and while it’s more for fun than study, there are some takeaways: i.e., that there’s very little difference in the degree of tackiness of the afterlife as rendered in What Dreams May Come and Little Nicky. Thanks to Press Play for the tip. (There is brief rear male nudity and a dude’s neck being torn apart, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 5, 2014 -
Watch: Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel Q&A
This post-SXSW screening Q&A for The Grand Budapest Hotel is a few cuts above average. For one thing, Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and music supervisor Randall Poster get to have Richard Linklater as their moderator, which makes for a higher class of question and a more relaxed rapport between two sympatico filmmakers. Native Texans who’ve both worked with animation, Linklater and Anderson are equally ready to discuss the films of Max Ophuls and which Stefan Zweig books in particular they have or haven’t read. Other highlights: Poster talks about how they arranged to record with a full balalaika orchestra, Anderson […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 4, 2014
