Annemarie Jacir has done something remarkable in her sophomore feature film. She’s managed to couch the tricky subject of the 1967 Palestinian-Israeli war into the romanticised tale of a mother’s love for her son. Having been separated from their father (presumed dead) as Israel began...
Read More »Olivier Assayas discusses shifting gears after "Carlos" to direct the semi-autobiographical tale "Something in the Air."
Read More »David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" won the Blackberry People's Choice Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Read More »Just as with Austrian Markus Schleinzer’s "Michael," Norwegian Eva Sørhaug’s is obsessed with the banality of evil. Three men go about their everyday activities before the tales explode or implode as the men produce acts of senseless violence. What makes them do such acts is left to conjecture. Just as "Michael" was seen in the light of the Fritzl case, those looking for real-life context will point to the Breivik mass murder of last year. In splitting the film into three stories, each showing the final 90 minutes in the life of a victim, Sørhaug comments on the frequency with which evil occurs...
Read More »Iceberg Slim made his name by writing the autobiographical book "Pimp: The Story of My Life." Released in 1969, it was an eye-opening account of how pimps persuade, cajole and beat women into agreeing to sell themselves. Director Jorge Hinojosa (long time manager of Ice-T) doesn’t just concern itself with his seminal book, but looks at how the author turned himself from a seller of women to a seller of words. The mix of talking heads and archive photographs works better than some clunky use of pulp-style animation. Hinojosa goes to the usual suspects to chat about black culture, Ice-T, Snoop Dogg and rent-a-quote Chris Rock...
Read More »While the Toronto International Film Festival's City-to-City strand has focussed on Mumbai’s new wave of subversive independent filmmakers, the Gala section of TIFF has opted for standard Bollywood fare with this light-hearted comedy. Most of the action takes place in New York and features a band of English language students hailing from Africa, India, Mexico, France and China. Bollywood fans will be delighted with the news that the very watchable Indian actress Sridevi has come out of retirement to play a mother-of-two growing increasingly frustrated with life as a housewife in Pune, India. The Manhattan wedding of a niece...
Read More »Javier Bardem was one of the few actors to work on "To the Wonder" and make it to the finish line of Terrence Malick's latest opus (Rachel Weisz, Jessica Chastain, Michael Sheen, Amanda Peet and Barry Pepper, did not). But he along with co-star Ben Affleck have been noticeably absent on the press ci...
Read More »Too much like watching a filmed stage play for its own good, "The Patience Stone" is a flawed attempt to discuss the position of women in the Islamic world. Afghani born director Atiq Rahimi has adapted his own book for screen, just as he did with his previous outing in the director’s chair "Earth and Ashes" (2004). Although punctuated with a few flashbacks, Rahimi relies on beautiful Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani to carry the picture as she delivers a monologue to her comatose husband, revealing her deepest, darkest secrets, including infidelity. Bordering on madness herself, Rahimi’s attempt to descr...
Read More »Snoop Dogg likes weed. That was common knowledge long before the alternative youth culture magazine Vice asked its global editor Brit Andy Capper to take his camera to Jamaica and show Snoop foraging down hills in search of a perfect high. It’s only after the 20-minute haze of smoke has settled that a story of any interest emerges in this authorised biopic. Snoop is ostensibly on the island to make a reggae album. Recording songs with Bunny Wailer, Snoop shows his skills as a musician while embracing Rastafarianism. It’s the former Wailer that tells Snoop that he should be renamed "Snoop Lion." On breaks f...
Read More »No matter how closely you follow the buzz from the Toronto International Film Festival each year, chances are strong that you only get one piece of a very long equation. With nearly 300 features in its program, the festival is overwhelmingly dense, particularly during its first weekend. Even the mos...
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Check out @indiewire's article about "Welcome to New York" starring Gerard Depardieu, directed by Abel Ferrara: http://t.co/oyp18fVLJK
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RT @indiewire: What can you find on Steven Soderbergh's strange new website? Bolivian liquor, obscure t-shirts and more: http://t.co/SsJT5RLE16
Posted 3 minutes agoRT @indiewire: Um...Steven Soderbergh quit filmmaking and launched an incredibly bizarre website. Check it out: http://t.co/SsJT5RLE16
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Not at #Cannes? Celebrate Films About Films & #Filmmakers with @Indiewire @Hulu Docs http://t.co/yBKDKE7s5d
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