Independent Cinema
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Indiewire0 commentslike16tweet24
The Original DIY Filmmakers: The New York Punks of 'Shoot It! Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film'
There have been plenty of history books written about independent film, but few take the expansive, international view of journalist and critic David Spaner in his new book "Shoot It! Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film," released this month. "Shoot It!" is a r...
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Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
William Mapother is Creepy, But Not in "Another Earth."
When I saw "Another Earth" at Sundance earlier this year, I was caught off guard by the presence of William Mapother. A cousin of Tom Cruise, Mapother recently played the eerie "Other" Ethan on ABC's "Lost," showing up in the first season as a mysterious presence among the plane crash survivors and slowly taking on a more complex dimension over the course of the show (even long after his character was killed off). Although I wrote in my review that Mapother did powerful work in "Another Earth," which opens this week, it's mostly the material that deepens his performance. I don't really feel for the guy as a frustrated widower; he seems like a...
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Eric Kohn0 commentslike7tweet2
"Our Time," A Documentary About Today's American Youth.
I've been really curious about "Our Time," a documentary directed by Matt Heineman and Matt Wiggins about four recent college grads traveling the country in a quest to understand it. I have yet to watch the movie, which premiered on the Documentary Channel last night, but there will be other opportu...
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Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
This Saturday, Check Out the Last Panel on Distribution You Ever Need to Attend.
I've had a great time putting together a series of events this month to celebrate indieWIRE's 15th anniversary. Although I've only been involved with the site a fraction of that time, I'm always amazed when I hear from longtime readers of the site. indieWIRE has been around to cover some of the biggest accomplishments in (largely American) cinema in recent years. That's what the indieWIRE at 15 series at 92YTribeca and the premiere of the Sundance hit "Bellflower" on Friday are meant to recognize. But there's another aspect of this world--the business side--that indieWIRE has also followed closely. We'll tap into that side of the story on Sat...
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Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
A Yiddish-Speaker Sees "Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish."
You don't have to find the Yiddish language inherently amusing to get something out of "Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish" -- which is currently playing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center -- but it helps. A linguistic oddity with oodles of charm, it cleverly satirizes...
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Eric Kohn0 commentslike1tweet1
In Praise of Roman Polanski's "What?"
Roman Polanski's "What?" is a pleasurably offbeat sex romp that deserves greater recognition among fans of his work. Made in 1972 (but released in the U.S., just barely, with an X rating in 1973; see a review here), the movie preceded "Chinatown," Polanski's universally acclaimed masterpiece, and a...
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Eric Kohn1 commentlike0tweet0
5 John Carpenter Alternatives to "The Ward."
In a review posted today on the main site, I wasn't exactly kind to John Carpenter's "The Ward," although if it was just some forgettable effort from a first-timer I may have simply ignored it. Instead, it's a forgettable effort from a guy who has made masterpieces and for all intents and purposes should still be able to make them. "The Ward" proves that by containing many of the components of great Carpenter works while failing to bring them to life. Here are a few other options that will remain classics long after "The Ward" fades from memory. ("Halloween" being "Halloween," I have left it off this list. It's not really fair to compare any ...
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Eric Kohn3 commentslike0tweet0
Robert Sklar, RIP.
I was lucky enough to take one course taught by Robert Sklar, the esteemed film historian and scholar who passed away over the weekend in an unexpected accident, but wish I could have taken many more. Sklar's most influential work, "Movie-Made America," first came out over thirty years ago but remains one of the most important texts for the study of American cinema. (After all, he helped invent the field.) Its thesis, that American film culture owed much to the lower class and the struggles against capitalist interests rather than efforts to sustain them, echoed the egalitarian nature of Sklar's writing: Although primarily an academic, he had...
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Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
The Starman Who Fell to Earth.
Random question: Has anyone ever pointed out the relationship between these two films?
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Eric Kohn1 commentlike2tweet1
Interactive Theater Blows My Mind: "Sleep No More."
Art, particularly when it takes the form of a story, typically encourages a passive experience; the sensational interactive theater production "Sleep No More" works against that tendency. Loosely adapted from "Macbeth," the traveling show is currently housed at a warehouse in Chelsea, where it has b...
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