A hybrid collaboration between writer/director Alex Harvey (Walden Life in the Woods, The Last Ecstatic Days, I Am A Seagull) and the theater collective, Banana Bag & Bodice (aka Jason Craig and Jessica Jelliffe), Space//Space screens this weekend in New York City at Anthology Film Archives. Harvey has sent the teaser trailer, posted above, as well as the following notes about the film. It’s been ten years since Banana Bag & Bodice’s beloved experimental production, Space//Space made waves in the New York theater scene (“Waiting for Godot in space” raved the New York Times). Now the married performance artist duo who […]

The abstract yet oppressive sensation of an anxiety attack is captured through intense corporeal movement in Waves, the latest from Brooklyn-based filmmaker Nat Gee. The film stars Lily Baldwin as a woman in the throes of an anxious episode, her oft-idyllic surroundings transformed into hostile environments. A well-manicured flower garden becomes a frightening, frenzied feast (and viny prison); gentle waves crashing upon a sandy shore morph into a violent assailant; a stroll in a verdant, tranquil park turns into an uneasy exercise in losing bodily autonomy. Yet as fascinated as Gee is in conveying the unsettling feeling of being consumed […]

Ahead of its opening weekend at NYC’s Quad Cinema, Filmmaker shares an exclusive clip of Mark Pellington‘s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit. This re-edit and 4K restoration of Pellington’s feature debut includes a new title sequence created by Sergio Pinheiro as well as 50 additional minutes of previously unseen footage accompanied by new music from composer Pete Adams. Based on the 1970 novel by Dan Wakefield (who also penned the script), the film stars Jeremy Davies and an early-career Ben Affleck as Sonny and Gunner, two young men who return home to Indianapolis after serving in the Korean […]

Watch the first trailer for Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year before screening at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Michelle Williams as a ceramic artist named Lizzy who’s preparing for an upcoming show, but is constantly thwarted from working by mundane inconveniences. Hong Chau also stars as Jo, Lizzy’s landlord/colleague/artistic rival, who is currently thriving in her career. The film also features Maryann Plunkett, John Magaro, André Benjamin, James Le Gros and Judd Hirsch in supporting roles. During his Cannes coverage, our Vadim Rizov wrote: “Showing Up is a comedy of frustration […]

Watch the trailer for Spanish director Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale (the first Catalan-language film in the festival’s 72-year history to do so) and is now Spain’s official Oscar selection for Best International Feature. The film is a follow-up to Simón’s 2017 semi-autobiographical feature debut Summer 1993. Alcarràs follows a rural family living in present-day Catalonia that must grapple with the changing landscape of their collective livelihood. The cast predominantly features non-actors from the Lleida region, which includes the titular village of Alcarràs. Per the official synopsis: “As far as they can remember, the Solé family […]

The trailer has dropped for director Pete Ohs’s microbudget horror film Jethica, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year. Ohs is also credited as the film’s cinematographer, editor and producer. Additionally, he co-wrote Jethica with cast members Callie Hernandez, Ashley Denise Robinson, Andy Faulkner and Will Madden. Acquired by Cinedigm today, the film will begin its theatrical run on January 13 at LA’s Lumiere Music Hall. Editor Scott Macaulay wrote of Jethica‘s premise in an interview we published with Ohs and the cast/co-writers out of SXSW: “Jethica is framed as a kind of post-coital campfire tale — Callie Hernandez’s Elena […]

Immediately buzzed about after its inclusion in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival feature lineup announcement, the trailer has already arrived for Brandon Cronenberg‘s Infinity Pool. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as a wealthy novelist who commits manslaughter on foreign soil and is presented the opportunity to have a doppelgänger face the death penalty in his place—for a substantial fee, of course. Also starring are Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman. Per the official synopsis: While staying at an isolated island resort, James (Skarsgård) and Em (Coleman) are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. […]

In making my Watergate historical fiction film 18½, I always knew that coming up with a consistent musical soundtrack was going to be essential for balancing the tone of a film that swings from comedy to thriller to drama at breakneck speed. One genre of music, and indeed one song, “Brasília Bella,” is the key to unlocking not only how our team navigated the tones and themes of the film, but also reflects the scale and scope of making an indie film at the high point of a global pandemic. Around 2018, I started working on the script for 18½ […]

In their latest short film, The Last Days of August, which depicts the slow-motion desolation of a Nebraska town economically denuded by online retail, prolific filmmakers Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck create a haunted visual poetry — a blend of formally arresting, incisively spare images and heightened sound design. The two filmmakers, who appeared on our 25 New Faces list in 2010, began as shorts filmmakers and in recent years have directed arresting character-based, documentary-tinged features (God Bless the Child, When She Runs, and, for Machoian solo, The Killing of Two Lovers and The Integrity of Joseph Chambers). But throughout their […]

The first trailer has arrived for Darren Aronofsky‘s dark drama The Whale, which stars Brendan Fraser in a highly-anticipated comeback role for the actor. The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and London Film Festival. A24 will distribute the film stateside. Based on the 2012 play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter (who wrote the screenplay), The Whale follows a 600-pound man named Charlie (Fraser), a reclusive former English teacher who attempts to re-connect with his estranged 17-year-old daughter (Sadie Sink). Hong Chau […]