Open | Filmmaker Magazine

John Turturro, Romance & Cigarettes

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN IN JOHN TURTURRO’S ROMANCE & CIGARETTES. COURTESY UNITED ARTISTS. John Turturro has the distinction of being both a director’s actor and an actor’s director. A favorite of both Spike Lee and the Coen brothers, over the past 20 years Turturro has marked himself out as one of the most interesting and talented actors in film, and whether it is a blocked writer (Barton Fink), a socially-awkward chess master (The Luzhin Defense) or a grief-stricken widower (Fear X), he adds a depth and humanity to the characters he inhabits. In 1992, he directed his first film, Mac, about three […]

by Nick Dawson on Sep 7, 2007

SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES

Perhaps because Gross doesn’t write for a daily outlet but more likely because the erudition of his criticism is genuinely thrilling, the occasional essays on film by screenwriter Larry Gross pack a punch within our metacritic’d, tomato-splattered blogosphere. Here he is with an early appreciation of Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There that’s just gone online at Film Comment. “How can a work not give us politics and yet be so political?” he asks in a piece that opens by quoting Jean-Godard, and Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari and ends by considering how Haynes’s film fits into a moment signified by […]

by Scott Macaulay on Sep 4, 2007

SOFT VOICES

For all the talk this past week about mumblecore — what it is and how these films are similar — it should also be noted how different the aesthetics of its various directors are. A case in point is this week’s opening at the IFC Center, Quiet City, directed by Aaron Katz, which boasts some of the trademarks of the genre — 20-something protagonists, a focus on transitory lifestates, relationship issues, an extreme naturalism — but which also has its own very distinct sensibility that’s quite different from some of the genre’s other filmmakers. As its title suggests, the film […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2007

SHIT HAPPENS

Police Beat writer Charles Mudede pens a curious ode to Stanley Kubrick in Seattle’s The Stranger. After opening by saying that Kubrick’s contempt for mankind was “deep,” he moves on to a fuller explication of his worldview: “I’m in a world of shit,” says Private Joker at the end of Kubrick’s unremittingly dark Vietnam War film, Full Metal Jacket. That is what Kubrick has to say about the state of everything: The world is shit, humans are shit in shit, life is worth shit, and there is nothing else that can be done about the situation. In Kubrick’s movies, progress, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 25, 2007

I’M NOT THERE RELEASE DATE AND TRAILER

I’ll admit that it initially seemed a little weird when news broke that Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There would be opening on two screens at the Film Forum and also at Lincoln Plaza in late November. Decently budgeted (reportedly $13.5 million) and starring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and others, it hardly, as this piece by John Anderson in The New York Times points out, seems a likely candidate for a small arthouse opening. But, it is a Todd Haynes film and the Film Forum is a great venue that carries cultural weight. I think, then, in the end […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2007

Greg Mottola, Superbad

CHRISTOPHER MINTZ-PLASSE, JONAH HILL AND MICHAEL CERA IN GREG MOTTOLA’S SUPERBAD. COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES. It’s a sign of Hollywood’s wrongheadedness that it’s been a decade since Greg Mottola last made a movie. In 1996, Mottola arrived on the scene with his debut, The Daytrippers, a funny and poignant indie that recalled the classy Hollywood comedies of the ’60s and ’70s. Though the film led to Mottola becoming friends with Woody Allen — unquestionably an influence on Daytrippers — his next two projects failed to come to fruition, so he turned his focus to television. Mottola’s work in TV has been […]

by Nick Dawson on Aug 17, 2007

DENTLER INTERVIEWS HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS DIRECTOR SWANBERG

Matt Dentler came up with a great concept to help get the word out about Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs, which begins a theatrical run Wednesday, August 22 at New York’s IFC Center. He’s done interviews with Swanberg and the film’s other principal collaborators and parceled them out to a number of different film bloggers. Here’s the Filmmaker segment, and thanks, Matt, for including us. JOE SWANBERG INTERVIEWED BY MATT DENTLER On the eve of the theatrical debut of Joe Swanberg’s SXSW 2007 hit, Hannah Takes the Stairs, I wanted to check in with each of the film’s principal […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 17, 2007

DELIRIOUS MARKETING MADNESS

Over at the website for his film, Tom DeCillo is posting a very funny series of video podcasts in which he parodies the insanity involved in promoting an independent film — in his case, Delirious, which opens August 15th. Here DiCillo is at an early marketing meeting… and what’s scary is that I’ve been at marketing meetings only slightly less crazy than this one. And here’s the latest, in which DiCillo tries to get star Gina Gershon to do some viral marketing in a clip with the Google-friendly name of “Gina Gershon Sex Tape.”

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 8, 2007

ZERO!

On the day of its opening the new Lindsay Lohan movie, I Know who Killed Me, has managed to score a big fat zero on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe as the critics who were denied permission by Tri-Star to pre-screen the movie for reviews catch up with it the score will edge up… but, for the moment, the pic seems to have scored the unattainable. In our long-tailed world of a million and one tastes, it would seem impossible to make a film that simply nobody likes. If you believe the tomato squad, however, it’s been done. As for me, well, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2007

BLADE RUNNER’S HAPPY ENDING

After years of fanboy speculation and internet chatter, Blade Runner: The Final Cut will debut theatrically in New York and L.A. on October 5 and on DVD from Warner Home VideoDecember 18. The slow-burning classic will receive three separate DVD editions: a two-disk Special Edition, a four-disk Collector’s Edition, and a five-disk Ultimate Collectors Edition. I first saw Blade Runner on its theatrical release many years ago. At the time I was underwhelmed. As a big Philip K. Dick fan, I didn’t like the noir tone that replaced the schlubby melodrama and cosmic satire of Dick’s novel. Over the years, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jul 25, 2007

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