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19 articles
SXSW Review: 'Furious 7' Starring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Paul Walker, And More
7 hours ago
Just as there are spoonthrowers and then those who wonder why cutlery shows up at screenings of “The Room”, the “Fast and the Furious” series has grown a fandom that’s intent on properly marking the film's place as pop art in film history. Seen as transcendent through its continued narrative and willfully ridiculous action, its primary focus of the franchise is on “family,” each member of the crew spouting love for one another. Due to tragic circumstances in the death of Paul Walker, “Furious 7” ramps up that sentiment, while also seeking to deliver the powerfully stupid spectacle and winding melodrama in which its grown over six films. Shown as a last-minute world premiere at SXSW, the film certainly feels like an ending. “Insidious” director James Wan, his first time with the franchise, plants Dom (Vin Diesel) and his globe-trotting gang in Abu Dhabi, La, Tokyo, and London, features »
- Charlie Schmidlin
'The Fisher King,' 'Five Easy Pieces,' Andr Gregory & Wallace Shawn Box Set & More Hit Criterion In June
9 hours ago
Every four weeks or so, The Criterion Collection unveils their next batch of titles and our wallets shed a few more tears. This June we'll try not to blow our tax return on the impressive slate of movies the boutique label is bringing, so let's dive in. At the top of the pile is Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King," starring Jeff Bridges and the late Robin Williams. And yes, this will be loaded with extras, including commentary by Gilliam on both the movie and the deleted scenes, a batch of new interviews, and an older talk with Williams from 2006. Everything is remastered to look and sound its best, and there will be a video essay with on-set photos from Bridges. "Five Easy Pieces," previously part of the Criterion box set "America Lost And Found: The Bbs Story," now gets a standalone release. The biggest extra to dig into is the 2009 documentary "BBStory, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
SXSW Review: Colin Hanks' Insightful Tower Records Documentary 'All Things Must Pass'
9 hours ago
While the title of Colin Hanks' directorial debut documentary, "All Things Must Pass," refers to the message on the marquee the employees of Tower Records left for their customers at their Sacramento store after it closed, it's also the name of George Harrison's classic album, the kind of artifact the late great music store was designed to sell. The triple LP released in 1970 came housed in a beautiful cardboard box, something of a novelty at the time for rock records, when gatefold covers were the norm for multiple discs. But All Things Must Pass is the perfect example of the tactile experience of buying music that today's era of streaming and downloads has lost. Indeed, all things must pass, and no one knows that more than Tower Records, and Hanks' insightful tribute to the retailer, and chronicle of their history, is the story of the music industry, who had it all, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Exclusive: Oscar Winner Graham Moore & Author Walter Isaacson Talk 'The Imitation Game' In DVD/Blu-Ray Features
10 hours ago
The awards season is over, and with critical acclaim, a healthy box office haul of over $205 million worldwide, and an Oscar win for screenwriter Graham Moore, "The Imitation Game" is a big success. Whether you missed it the first time around or are eager to see the movie again, the film and special features will be available for digital download on March 20th, and the Blu-ray/DVD will be on shelves March 31st. And today we've got an exclusive peek at a couple of the featurettes. Moore and author Walter Isaacson ("The Innovators: How A Group Of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses And Geeks Created The Digital Revolution," "Steve Jobs") sit in to discuss Alan Turing's genius. In the first clip, you see the pair explain the purpose of the titular imitation game. The second highlights the importance of Turing's work and how it lead to the modern computer. And there's certainly »
- Edward Davis
SXSW Review: Marijuana Documentary 'Rolling Papers' Provides An Uneven High
10 hours ago
The new marijuana documentary, “Rolling Papers,” tells the story of Denver Post’s Ricardo Baca, a journalist who landed the first ever job as marijuana editor, and started “The Cannabist” column. When the first legal marijuana stores opened in January 2014, Colorado got global media attention as not only the first place in America, but the first place in the world, to constitutionalize the recreational use of the drug for adults 21 years of age. Smoking weed was finally as legit as drinking alcohol, and the newspaper jumped on the opportunity to cover the rapidly expanding culture of cannabis. Directed by Colorado native Mitch Dickman, the documentary struggles to remain relevant throughout its short run time, and wobbles between glorification and reflection until it completely tilts over. Part of the trouble is that it’s not sure about whether it tells Ricardo’s story or simply follows him around during the somewhat uneventful beginnings of “The Cannabist. »
- Nikola Grozdanovic
George R. R. Martin Has "No Bloody Idea" If There Will Be A 'Game Of Thrones' Movie; New Season 5 Trailer, Pics & More
11 hours ago
It was almost exactly a year ago when author George R. R. Martin said that a "Game Of Thrones" movie was under discussion. The only question was how many seasons the show would run, and he even suggested that "Tales Of Dunk And Egg" could serve as the source material. But a lot can happen in twelve months. Just last week, HBO exec.Michael Lombardoexpressed a desire for the hit fantasy show to run at least ten seasons, while also sharing that he was cool on the idea of a movie saying, "...when you start a series with our subscribers, the promise is that for your HBO fee that we’re going to take you to the end of this. I feel that on some level [a movie would be] changing the rules: Now you have to pay $16 to see how your show ends.” As for Martin, he's clarified his movie talk with »
- Kevin Jagernauth
SXSW Review: Fresh, Original, & Surprisingly Tender Horror 'Nina Forever'
11 hours ago
Rob (Cian Berry) is a grocery store clerk who recently tried to kill himself after not being able to cope with the depression brought on by the sudden tragic death of his girlfriend Nina (Fiona O’Shaughnessy). Holly (Abigail Hardingham) is Rob’s co-worker, who has a morbid fascination with pain and death, so obviously she’s immediately smitten with Rob. This is the perfect pairing, at least for now, since Rob is in desperate need of a romantic connection in his life so he can at least attempt to get over Nina’s death, and Holly needs to be in an edgy relationship after her ex dumped her for being too "vanilla."The sex that bookends their date seems to be going spectacularly well. Sparks fly as the two young lovers copulate with abundant mutual attraction and chemistry. Suddenly, the sheets are covered with blood, a pair of gory »
- Oktay Ege Kozak
20 Films We Hope To See At The 2015 Cannes Film Festival
12 hours ago
We can’t quite believe it —Berlin and Sundance are barely finished, and SXSW is still underway— but we’re now less than two months away from the start of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The 68th installment of what’s probably still the world’s best known, most prestigious film festival is coming up fast, and yet there’s still little known about the festival, beyond that the fact thatJoel and Ethan Coen will be taking time out of post-production on the upcoming “Hail Caesar” to head up the competition jury. Normally, we’d have learned at least what the opening film of the festival by this this time would be, but the line-up remains very much under wrapsat the moment. Yet there are plenty of likelies and strong potentials, and so with our eyes on the Croisette, we’ve rounded up twenty of the films »
- The Playlist Staff
Watch: New Trailer For 'Insidious Chapter 3' Shows How The Terror Got Started
12 hours ago
While "Insidious Chapter 3" promises to share the origin story behind the franchise, it looks like producer Jason Blum is tying his various successful horror series together in the manner of the shared universe model that has overtaken blockbuster moviemaking. In an interview with Cinema Blendat the SXSW Film Festival,Blum was asked about doing something akin to the Marvel model. "Yeah! I want to do that. We’ve been putting Easter Eggs in movies in different things. There’s some in 'Insidious 3.' There’s some in 'Sinister 2.' So yeah, we’ve been doing that. I would like to do more of that," he explained, though he cautioned that fans shouldn't expect any kind of team up film soon. "We’re not close to an 'Avengers,' but I do like the idea of having the worlds collide in the different franchises we work on. That’s a really cool idea… »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Ryan Reynolds Says 'Deadpool' Is Aiming To Please "The Most Critical Of Fanboys"
13 hours ago
Ryan Reynolds knows a thing or two about taking criticism from nit-picking fanboys. Just four years ago, he starred in the misfire "Green Lantern," and two years before that he popped up in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool. The problem in that film? Well, "the merc with a mouth" didn't have many lines, one of the more confusing choices in a movie already riddled as such. But at the very least Reynolds is getting a second crack at the X-character, and he hopes to deflect the barbs of the super-fans with a movie that will deliver exactly what they're looking for. "I’m incredibly happy about it —we’ve got a director that understands that world and writers with a slavish devotion to the canon of that character. That’s the most important aspect: it’s made in a way the most critical of fanboys could embrace. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
SXSW Review: 'A Wonderful Cloud' Starring Kate Lyn Sheil Is A Good Kind Of Weird
13 hours ago
People in L.A. are weird. That's my first impression of Eugene Kotlyarenko's "A Wonderful Cloud," a movie based in eccentric Los Angeles, where "first impressions are everything." That's a quote from one of a dozen or so colorful supporting characters who make sure that it's at least an entertaining kind of weird, elevating the film well beyond its central meta fixation on the film's director (playing an exaggerated version of himself) and Katelyn (Kate Lyn Sheil, whom you'll immediately recognize as Lisa from "House of Cards"). The two were a couple in real life, and Kotlyarenko had already documented the fallout of their relationship in his Skype film "Skydiver," so he's clearly holding on to something dear from their relationship. It's commendable that he's funneling these feelings through creative means in a quasi-fictitious feature where most of the dialogue is completely improvised, real people portray parodic versions of themselves, »
- Nikola Grozdanovic
Danny Elfman Says He's Working On A "Hybrid" Theme For 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron,' Plus New Poster
14 hours ago
Last month, a new poster for "Avengers: Age Of Ultron"revealed that Danny Elfman was providing "additional material" to Brian Tyler's score. It was an interesting little nugget of info, but now the composer himself has detailed what exactly his work will be on Joss Whedon's upcoming sequel. "...I've contributed music to the new 'Avengers' movie. I took part of Alan Silvestri's theme on the original [movie], which I really liked, and I pulled it into it the new theme, which became kind of a hybrid. I really enjoyed that," he told891 ABC Adelaide(via MovieWeb). So, keep your ears out for that. In the meantime, Ultron takes center stage in the latest poster for this Marvel movie. If he wasn't hellbent on destroying the superhero team, maybe he could be the first robot supermodel. 'Age Of Ultron' arrives on May 1st. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
2015 Tribeca Film Festival Adds Talks With Christopher Nolan, Bennett Miller, George Lucas, Brad Bird, And Many More
14 hours ago
While we're always excited to hit a film festival and watch anything and everything until our eyes can't take it anymore, sometimes it's worth staying out of a screening and taking in a panel discussion or interview instead. This year at the Tribeca Film Festival, organizers have put together such a terrific slate of talks, we might just have to skip the movies altogether or learn to go a week or two without any sleep. Let's start with the Tribeca Talks series which has four exciting events scheduled: Christopher Nolan talking about this work with Bennett Miller; George Lucas doing the same with Stephen Colbert; Brad Bird talking about his spectacles withJaneane Garofalo, while Cary Fukunaga gets down with James Schamus. Meanwhile, post-screening talks include chats with Gus Van Sant ("Good Will Hunting"), Courtney Love ("Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck"), while the Tribeca Talks Conversations lineup includes Harvey Weinstein and much, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
SXSW Review: Paul Feig's 'Spy' Starring Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, And More
15 hours ago
As I noted in my review of this year's "Kingsman: The Secret Service," 2015 is going to be lousy with spy movies — and not just overtly serious spy stuff, but spoofs of the spy genre, too. This year, secret agents are the new superheroes. And the latest spy send-up is "Bridesmaids" director Paul Feig's "Spy," a film which once again reunites him with Melissa McCarthy, this time playing a desk-bound office drone that is forced into active duty. The last time Feig played with genre, the result was "The Heat," an iffy buddy cop movie that I failed to connect with. This time around, though, Feig has found a winning formula between the silly and the serious, smartly housing an occasionally outrageous comedy in the strict trappings of a traditional espionage tale. This approach of delivering a silly comedy with a straight face benefits "Spy" hugely, and makes it an uneven but undeniably entertaining romp. »
- Drew Taylor
Watch: New Trailer For 'Furious 7' Is All About Family And Cars Jumping Into Skyscrapers
15 hours ago
Last night at SXSW, Universal treated audiences with a "secret" midnight screening of "Furious 7." We'll have our verdict on the movie later today, but first, a new international trailer has arrived for the movie which positions it's two key selling points: it's a movie about family....where cars parachute out of gigantic airplanes and speed out of one skyscraper and crash land in another skyscraper. In case you haven't been made aware until now, this franchise has all the subtlety of a punch to the groin. Anyway, this new international spot follows the general beats of the domestic trailers, but with a good amount of new footage tossed in for good measure. You're not here to see character moments, but the sizzle reel stuff. And yes, you will get served with macho dudes fighting and expensive machines being trashed real good. Vin Diesel will never let you down. "Furious 7 »
- Kevin Jagernauth
SXSW Review: Judd Apatow's 'Trainwreck' With Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton, John Cena, LeBron James, More
16 hours ago
You notice a change: when the camera rests in Judd Apatow’s “Trainwreck” for an extended beat, it retains a sense of the character in the frame, rather than just highlighting a mid-riff improvised quip that made the cut. Or, perhaps, in the ten years since his directorial debut and the start of an empire, Apatow has refined his process into a seamless manner. Or, more likely, he’s been handed a gift in the form of Amy Schumer, starting with her focused, warm script that retains her comedic DNA, and continuing with a lead performance that’s utterly watchable in a sea of watchable performances. At the very least, “Trainwreck” will go down as the film that unveiled John Cena and LeBron James as surprise comedic talents, and also the one that let Tilda Swinton— playing an unrecognizable, eyeliner-heavy English magazine boss — snarl to Schumer’s character, “I wouldn »
- Charlie Schmidlin
Nicolas Winding Refn's 'Neon Demon' Inspired By Countess Bthory, Reportedly Set In The World Of Supermodels
16 hours ago
Filming starts this month on Nicolas Winding Refn's "The Neon Demon," with Elle Fanning,Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Keanu ReevesandAbbey Lee starring in the film. But there hasn't been much in the way of plot details. We do know that the script was co-written by Mary Laws, and that the film is set in Los Angeles, but outside of that things get fuzzy. However, things are becoming slightly more focused. Last month, Dazed And Confusedcaught up with Liv Corfixen, Refn's wife and the director of "My Life Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn," who revealed that the film is inspired by the tale of Countess Bthory, the serial killing sixteenth century countess who apparently bathed in the blood of virgins to stay young (the last detail is apocryphal, but makes for a good yarn). Moreover, the movie will apparently be like a mix of the »
- Kevin Jagernauth
"I Haven't Returned Yet": David Lynch Says There Are Contract "Complications" Holding Up 'Twin Peaks'
17 hours ago
Better pour yourself a cup of damn good coffee, because this bit of news might be hard to take if you're a diehard "Twin Peaks" fan. Last fall, it was announced with great fanfare that "Twin Peaks" would be returning for a new season in 2016 on Showtime, with many of the original cast members coming back. After a flurry of news not much has been heard since, and it would appear there's a good reason why. During a Q&A session as part of his "Between Two Worlds" exhibition in Brisbane, Australia, the filmmaker responded to questions about "Twin Peaks" by saying there were "complications" at the moment. He then further added on the ABC News program "The Mix" that,"I haven't returned yet. And we're still working on the contract. But I love the world of Twin Peaks and I love those characters. And I think it will be »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Alexandre Desplat To Score 'Star Wars: Rogue One'
17 hours ago
While John Williams is maintaining the musical continuity by once again stepping up to the conductor's podium for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," it looks like the spinoffs will be allowing for a bit more creative flexibility. And one of our favorite musical score voices will be given his chance to play in the galaxy. Film Music Reporter has spotted the news that Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat ("The Grand Budapest Hotel," "The Imitation Game") dropped on Radio Classique’s Culture Club— he'll be scoring "Star Wars: Rogue One." The gig will reunite him with director Gareth Edwards whom he collaborated with on "Godzilla" (and delivered some pretty solid work). Overall, Desplat is one of the best around and we're pretty excited to see how he'll be inspired by the "Star Wars" universe. Felicity Jones is the first confirmed actor for the spinoff, which will open on December 16, 2016. Production starts this summer. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
19 articles
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