If there’s one thing that can be said for the Soviet project, it produced some damn fine science fiction. There’s nothing like living in a grim present which continually promises a great future to inspire new visions of the way that humans or others might exist, and nothing like restrictions on criticising one’s government to precipitate the development of parables. What’s interesting is how well that tradition has survived to the present day, blooming again as Putin has tightened the screws. Dmitriy Moiseev’s Encounters acknowledges its roots with direct reference to forebears including Tarkovsky’s Solaris, but also in its style and, dare one say it, its quality.
The Soviet legacy is everywhere present in the remote Russian town where the action in this film takes place. Crumbling apartment blocks line the streets, which are largely empty of both traffic and pedestrians. Older buildings and...
The Soviet legacy is everywhere present in the remote Russian town where the action in this film takes place. Crumbling apartment blocks line the streets, which are largely empty of both traffic and pedestrians. Older buildings and...
- 4/27/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A sci-fi road trip steeped unevenly in grief, “We’re All Gonna Die” introduces its concept in exciting fashion before pushing it far into the background. Its lead performances are occasionally powerful, but writer-directors Freddie Wong and Matthew Arnold — of web-based studio RocketJump — struggle to keep their subject matter sincere, resulting in tonal oddities.
An enormous alien “spike” crashes down on Earth and begins teleporting between locations, a premise the movie establishes deftly through news and social media clips. Twelve years and nearly 1500 “jumps” later — setting the movie somewhere in 2036, though technology has seemingly come to a standstill — mass death and casualty have run so rampant that they’ve become entirely commonplace.
As beekeeper Thalia (Ashly Burch) goes about her day, her parents and in-laws gather to mourn her departed husband and daughter, a loss she seems to ignore, letting the weeds around their tombstones run wild with neglect. As the...
An enormous alien “spike” crashes down on Earth and begins teleporting between locations, a premise the movie establishes deftly through news and social media clips. Twelve years and nearly 1500 “jumps” later — setting the movie somewhere in 2036, though technology has seemingly come to a standstill — mass death and casualty have run so rampant that they’ve become entirely commonplace.
As beekeeper Thalia (Ashly Burch) goes about her day, her parents and in-laws gather to mourn her departed husband and daughter, a loss she seems to ignore, letting the weeds around their tombstones run wild with neglect. As the...
- 3/10/2024
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Variety Film + TV
Cillian Murphy is the favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer on Sunday Night. The actor spent almost six months researching and prepping to play the role of the Father of the Atomic Bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. It was not the first time the actor did extensive research for a role. One such research for a $34 million movie changed him from an agnostic to an atheist.
Cillian Murphy as physicist Robert Capa in Sunshine
In the 2007 sci-fi film Sunshine, Cillian Murphy played another physicist role, Robert Capa. The film takes place in the future and tells the story of a group of astronauts on a dangerous mission to save the Earth by reigniting a dying Sun.
Cillian Murphy’s Belief System Was Changed By His Research For Sunshine
Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, and Troy Garity in Sunshine
Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle...
Cillian Murphy as physicist Robert Capa in Sunshine
In the 2007 sci-fi film Sunshine, Cillian Murphy played another physicist role, Robert Capa. The film takes place in the future and tells the story of a group of astronauts on a dangerous mission to save the Earth by reigniting a dying Sun.
Cillian Murphy’s Belief System Was Changed By His Research For Sunshine
Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, and Troy Garity in Sunshine
Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle...
- 3/9/2024
- by Hashim Asraff
- FandomWire
People starting the movie Spaceman would be forgiven for thinking that their Netflix had glitched. Yes, we do see Adam Sandler’s character Jakub dressed in a space suit. But he’s not floating through the cosmos. He’s walking through a wooded stream, the greenery of the trees and bushes reflecting off his mask.
What the heck does this have to do with being a space man, one might ask? By the end of the movie, directed by Johan Renck and written by Colby Day (adapting the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař), Spaceman answers all your questions. Or rather, Jakub’s new friend, an alien spider named Hanuš, explains everything in the gentle, dulcet tones of Paul Dano.
Spaceman‘s strange, but ultimately clear, approach may frustrate some viewers. It may excite others, leaving them wanting to watch more sci-fi movies with a surrealist approach. Regardless of...
What the heck does this have to do with being a space man, one might ask? By the end of the movie, directed by Johan Renck and written by Colby Day (adapting the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař), Spaceman answers all your questions. Or rather, Jakub’s new friend, an alien spider named Hanuš, explains everything in the gentle, dulcet tones of Paul Dano.
Spaceman‘s strange, but ultimately clear, approach may frustrate some viewers. It may excite others, leaving them wanting to watch more sci-fi movies with a surrealist approach. Regardless of...
- 3/4/2024
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
This Spaceman article contains spoilers.
Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) has lofty goals. The first astronaut in the Czech Space Program, Jakub is on a year-long solo mission to study a strange violet phenomenon in deep space, dubbed the Chopra Cloud. “As I enter the Chopra cloud,” he tells the public via video-link from his ship the Jan Hus-1 (named from the 14th century proto-Protestant theologian), “I might just unravel some secrets of the universe.”
Despite Jakub’s grand ambitions, Spaceman director Johan Renck and screenwriter Colby Day, adapting the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar, intend instead to explore the mysteries of the human heart. Jakub spends more time thinking about the death of his informant father and his estrangement from his pregnant wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan). Of course a lot of that soul searching comes via Hanuš, a giant telepathic spider who arrives to help heal Jakub’s distress.
Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) has lofty goals. The first astronaut in the Czech Space Program, Jakub is on a year-long solo mission to study a strange violet phenomenon in deep space, dubbed the Chopra Cloud. “As I enter the Chopra cloud,” he tells the public via video-link from his ship the Jan Hus-1 (named from the 14th century proto-Protestant theologian), “I might just unravel some secrets of the universe.”
Despite Jakub’s grand ambitions, Spaceman director Johan Renck and screenwriter Colby Day, adapting the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar, intend instead to explore the mysteries of the human heart. Jakub spends more time thinking about the death of his informant father and his estrangement from his pregnant wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan). Of course a lot of that soul searching comes via Hanuš, a giant telepathic spider who arrives to help heal Jakub’s distress.
- 3/1/2024
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
After two slow-as-molasses months, things are about to heat up at the 2024 box office in March. Fortunately, for those more inclined to stay home as we wait out the final weeks of winter, there are plenty of alternative options for your entertainment fix to choose from on Netflix. In addition to its usual smattering of kids' shows, international releases, and comedy specials, the streamer will unveil intriguing new projects starring the likes of Millie Bobby Brown and Regina King, along with some endeavors that could only exist on Netflix.
Don't believe me? There's a South Korean comedy series about a woman being turned into a chicken nugget that's written and directed by Lee Byeong-heon, whose 2019 action-comedy "Extreme Job" was the highest-grossing movie in South Korea at the time of its release. Has the streamer found the next "Squid Game" already, or is this one destined to remain a roundly niche offering?...
Don't believe me? There's a South Korean comedy series about a woman being turned into a chicken nugget that's written and directed by Lee Byeong-heon, whose 2019 action-comedy "Extreme Job" was the highest-grossing movie in South Korea at the time of its release. Has the streamer found the next "Squid Game" already, or is this one destined to remain a roundly niche offering?...
- 2/26/2024
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Adam Sandler has gone pseudo-serious before, from a mentally agitated toilet plunger salesman in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” to a depressed comic in Judd Apatow’s “Funny People.” But he’s never been so dour as cosmonaut Jakub Prochazka in Johan Renck’s lonely island of a science-fiction drama, “Spaceman,” where he’s six months into a solitary research mission investigating spectral cloud activity around the planet Jupiter.
Sci-fi cinephiles are certainly familiar with the cinematic wonderments capable of the gas giant, thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s Stargate sequence in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which sends Keir Dullea on an existential trip into Jupiter’s furthest depths. But Renck’s film, written by Colby Day, is too concerned with the far more banal Earthly dramas Jakub has left behind in the form of his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan), who is preparing to leave him. “Spaceman” is a miserable...
Sci-fi cinephiles are certainly familiar with the cinematic wonderments capable of the gas giant, thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s Stargate sequence in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which sends Keir Dullea on an existential trip into Jupiter’s furthest depths. But Renck’s film, written by Colby Day, is too concerned with the far more banal Earthly dramas Jakub has left behind in the form of his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan), who is preparing to leave him. “Spaceman” is a miserable...
- 2/22/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
For a time, it seemed like an auteur war was about to break out over Adam Sandler, with some of America’s most revered directors vying to find the right role for the comedian. It was rumored, but never confirmed, that Quentin Tarantino imagined him a key role while writing Inglourious Basterds, although this might have been wishful thinking from critics who saw the talented Sandler heading in the same direction as John Travolta until Pulp Fiction saved him from a lifetime of Look Who’s Talking movies. In the end, Paul Thomas Anderson got there first, with Punch Drunk Love (2002), although the glow of a bona fide arthouse hit didn’t last long, and Jack and Jill still happened less than ten years later.
Nevertheless, though he returned to the fanbase, Sandler has always been good in serious supporting roles, even in films that don’t broadly work, like...
Nevertheless, though he returned to the fanbase, Sandler has always been good in serious supporting roles, even in films that don’t broadly work, like...
- 2/21/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
‘Spaceman’ Review: As a Czech Astronaut Suffocating From Loneliness, Adam Sandler Gets Lost in Space
Adam Sandler, we can all agree, is a serious actor — at times a great one. His comic DNA will often thread its way through his performances, but not always. In “Uncut Gems,” he had a frantic aggro desperation worthy of a Scorsese crime film. In “Hustle,” the crowd-pleasing Netflix sports drama he made after that, he played a pro-basketball scout with a menschy mouthiness that carried the audience right along. So when you sit down to watch “Spaceman” (also made for Netflix), in which Sandler plays a morosely bearded and tired-looking Czechoslovakian astronaut who is six months into a solo mission to the far side of the solar system, you give him the benefit of the doubt. We’ve seen space operas about stranded voyagers before (like Matt Damon’s red-planet Robinson Crusoe in “The Martian”). If any actor has the resources to hold down the center of a movie like this one,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Adam Sandler stars as a Czech cosmonaut grappling with existential matters in this impressive adaptation of Jaroslav Kalfař’s best selling 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia. Directed by Swedish musician turned filmmaker, Johan Renck. The film also stars Carey Mulligan, The Big Bang Theory alum Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rossellini, and Paul Dano (The Fabelmans).
In a parallel universe not to dissimilar from ours, Czech astronaut Jakub Procházka is sent on a mission to the edge of our solar system to study a mysterious cloud visible to the naked eye. Back on earth, Jakub’s heavily pregnant wife Lenka has decided to leave him without explanation. As he struggles with feelings of loneliness and constant dread, Jakub’s lonely existence onboard of the spacecraft is soon shattered by a mysterious creature (voiced by Paul Dano) that purports to want to help him reach his destination.
As he gets to know the creature,...
In a parallel universe not to dissimilar from ours, Czech astronaut Jakub Procházka is sent on a mission to the edge of our solar system to study a mysterious cloud visible to the naked eye. Back on earth, Jakub’s heavily pregnant wife Lenka has decided to leave him without explanation. As he struggles with feelings of loneliness and constant dread, Jakub’s lonely existence onboard of the spacecraft is soon shattered by a mysterious creature (voiced by Paul Dano) that purports to want to help him reach his destination.
As he gets to know the creature,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In Spaceman, Adam Sandler joins a long line of lonely men lost in space, a proud cinematic tradition going back past Ryan Gosling’s First Man, Brad Pitt in Ad Astra, Sam Rockwell in Moon, and Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar to the crew in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris.
The latest in this sci-fi linage, adapted from Jaroslav Kalfar’s novel Spaceman of Bohemia, is set in an alternative future where the Czechs are frontrunners in the space race and their national hero is Jakub (Sandler), a cosmonaut on a solo mission to investigate a mysterious dust cloud on the edge of Jupiter that might just hold the secrets of the universe.
But millions of miles away from home, and from his pregnant wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), Jakub is consumed by loneliness and existential angst. Enter a huge, telepathic and empathetic space spider, voiced by Paul Dano, who promises to help...
The latest in this sci-fi linage, adapted from Jaroslav Kalfar’s novel Spaceman of Bohemia, is set in an alternative future where the Czechs are frontrunners in the space race and their national hero is Jakub (Sandler), a cosmonaut on a solo mission to investigate a mysterious dust cloud on the edge of Jupiter that might just hold the secrets of the universe.
But millions of miles away from home, and from his pregnant wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), Jakub is consumed by loneliness and existential angst. Enter a huge, telepathic and empathetic space spider, voiced by Paul Dano, who promises to help...
- 2/18/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Out with the old, in with the new! Hulu is ushering in the new month with plenty to add to your to-watch list but not before it says farewell to dozens of its current movies and shows available for streaming. Its first loss will come on the first of the month with the critically acclaimed “Lucky,” starring the late Harry Dean Stanton, but the streamer will remove titles all month long, from the “Pusher” trilogy to “Magic Mike.”
Don’t miss out—- find out everything leaving Hulu in February, including The Streamable’s picks for the top of your watch list!
30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Hulu in February 2024? “Lucky” | Thursday, Feb. 1
Accomplished character actor Harry Dean Stanton stars in the drama, one of his final on-screen roles before his death at the age of 91, as, fittingly, a 90-year-old on...
Don’t miss out—- find out everything leaving Hulu in February, including The Streamable’s picks for the top of your watch list!
30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Hulu in February 2024? “Lucky” | Thursday, Feb. 1
Accomplished character actor Harry Dean Stanton stars in the drama, one of his final on-screen roles before his death at the age of 91, as, fittingly, a 90-year-old on...
- 2/1/2024
- by Ashley Steves
- The Streamable
There’s a story about a Soviet commissar who, upon seeing Solaris, proved that he both completely understood the movie and didn’t understand it at all by indignantly demanding to know what the point is of humanity going from one end of the universe to the other if they bring all their emotional shit with them. That’s not far from the moral of Aaron Schimberg’s third feature A Different Man, the story of a man who gets radical plastic surgery only to find out he still has to live with himself. Containing elements of Seconds (plastic surgery with unintended consequences) and […]
The post Sundance 2024: A Different Man, Realm of Satan first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Sundance 2024: A Different Man, Realm of Satan first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/22/2024
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
There’s a story about a Soviet commissar who, upon seeing Solaris, proved that he both completely understood the movie and didn’t understand it at all by indignantly demanding to know what the point is of humanity going from one end of the universe to the other if they bring all their emotional shit with them. That’s not far from the moral of Aaron Schimberg’s third feature A Different Man, the story of a man who gets radical plastic surgery only to find out he still has to live with himself. Containing elements of Seconds (plastic surgery with unintended consequences) and […]
The post Sundance 2024: A Different Man, Realm of Satan first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Sundance 2024: A Different Man, Realm of Satan first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/22/2024
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Anyone who's ever watched "Apollo 13" knows that space travel is arguably the most dangerous thing humanity has ever attempted. That's not a shocker given that the entire expanse of space might as well be specifically designed to ruin our day, from radiation to lack of air to extreme temperatures -- and that's not even counting more cinematic threats like asteroids and extraterrestrials. But when it's all said and done, usually it's the unsexy dangers that will get you in the end. Such as, say, profound loneliness and the helpless feeling of a marriage on the rocks.
That's the central idea behind "Spaceman," the latest Adam Sandler movie, depicting the star as a wayward astronaut in the midst of a lengthy solo journey amid the harsh, unforgiving vacuum of space. But as movies like "Solaris" and "Moon" and "Gravity" have depicted before, sometimes it's the worries and fears closest to...
That's the central idea behind "Spaceman," the latest Adam Sandler movie, depicting the star as a wayward astronaut in the midst of a lengthy solo journey amid the harsh, unforgiving vacuum of space. But as movies like "Solaris" and "Moon" and "Gravity" have depicted before, sometimes it's the worries and fears closest to...
- 1/16/2024
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
The question of how to get the most authenticity possible out of actors has been riling up filmmakers for as long as the film medium has existed. William Wyler ("Ben-Hur") did 40 takes; Robert Bresson ("Pickpocket") insisted on simple movements and monotone line deliveries; Italian Neorealists cast people off the street; Robert Altman ("Nashville") let actors improvise; Andrei Tarkovsky ("Solaris") kept them in the dark about how the story would end.
When it comes to horror, the quest becomes even more daunting: How do you convince viewers that the people they're seeing on screen are genuinely disturbed and terrified, while also securing enough distance between actors and characters to keep the shoot sustainable? Some films have attempted to split the difference by instilling genuine scares, discomfort, and emotional distress on their actors. Others assembled their respective violent scenarios to within an inch of their lives, placing performers into circumstances that were...
When it comes to horror, the quest becomes even more daunting: How do you convince viewers that the people they're seeing on screen are genuinely disturbed and terrified, while also securing enough distance between actors and characters to keep the shoot sustainable? Some films have attempted to split the difference by instilling genuine scares, discomfort, and emotional distress on their actors. Others assembled their respective violent scenarios to within an inch of their lives, placing performers into circumstances that were...
- 1/15/2024
- by Leo Noboru Lima
- Slash Film
February––particularly its third week––is all about romance. Accordingly the Criterion Channel got creative with their monthly programming and, in a few weeks, will debut Interdimensional Romance, a series of films wherein “passion conquers time and space, age and memory, and even death and the afterlife.” For every title you might’ve guessed there’s a wilder companion: Alan Rudolph’s Made In Heaven, Soderbergh’s remake, and Resnais’ Love Unto Death. Mostly I’m excited to revisit Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, a likely essential viewing before Megalopolis.
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
When Paul Thomas Anderson went against the industry grain and cast Adam Sandler as the lead in his fourth feature, "Punch Drunk Love," many people in Hollywood felt the brashly talented filmmaker's ego had inflated to Welles-ian proportions. After the dazzling excess of "Magnolia" (which was more divisive at the time than it is now), there was a sense that he was provoking for provocation's sake. Outside of Steven Seagal, it's possible there wasn't a more critically loathed star in America — and it wasn't just the movies they hated. They detested him. They considered him a charisma vacuum who needed someone as irresistibly lovable as Drew Barrymore to render his presence in a film tolerable.
Anderson shattered these misconceptions. Though Sandler didn't dive headlong into dramas after "Punch Drunk Love," he'd take on a non-comedic part every few years and remind us of his untapped potential — which he fully realized...
Anderson shattered these misconceptions. Though Sandler didn't dive headlong into dramas after "Punch Drunk Love," he'd take on a non-comedic part every few years and remind us of his untapped potential — which he fully realized...
- 12/21/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
In Steven Soderbergh's sexy 1998 crime thriller, George Clooney plays the world's smoothest bank robber, Jack Foley, a man so charming that he manages to rob a bank using nothing more than a yellow highlighter. Foley begins "Out of Sight" in prison, having been busted after someone snitched on him. He bonds with imprisoned compatriots -- notably, Albert Brooks -- and the two of them arrange for Jack to get a job upon his release. When released, however, Jack is double-crossed by the Brooks character, and he is ejected from the building with no job. The rejection leads Jack, in a fit of resentment, to commit the above-mentioned robbery. He is caught, and put right back in prison.
Clooney, a handsome man sculpted out of hardened cologne, makes his yellow prison jumpsuits look downright dashing, while his silvering hair swoop and five o'clock shadow are impeccably maintained behind bars. Some...
Clooney, a handsome man sculpted out of hardened cologne, makes his yellow prison jumpsuits look downright dashing, while his silvering hair swoop and five o'clock shadow are impeccably maintained behind bars. Some...
- 12/20/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem is best known for his 1961 novel Solaris, which was adapted a decade later for the screen by Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film would go on to be widely heralded as a classic of the medium, but Lem criticized Tarkovsky’s focus on human relationships over the technical detail and theorizing of the source material. The author’s work, then, is a particularly odd fit for a video game, as the medium often prioritizes action and instant gratification above all else. But with their adaptation of Lem’s 1964 novel The Invincible, Krakow-based developer Starward Industries very nearly succeeds at translating Lem’s work to gaming without losing sight of its density of ideas.
As a sly way of incorporating long stretches of sci-fi description, the game models itself on the back-and-forth radio conversations of Firewatch. The player character, a biologist named Yasna, is sent to...
As a sly way of incorporating long stretches of sci-fi description, the game models itself on the back-and-forth radio conversations of Firewatch. The player character, a biologist named Yasna, is sent to...
- 11/7/2023
- by Steven Scaife
- Slant Magazine
The 2000s were a great time for science fiction. Thanks to The Matrix closing out the 90s, studios were more willing to give the green light to stories about science gone awry, leading to favorites such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Paprika, as well as superhero hits like Spider-Man 2, X2, and Iron Man.
With so much good stuff out there, it’s no surprise that some really good movies would pass by audiences. Sometimes, these movies simply got buried by higher profile and more popular works. Sometimes, they were rejected by audiences disturbed by their audacious or disturbing ideals.
For anyone who wants to catch up on some sci-fi movies they have missed, here are ten great overlooked entries from the start of the millennium.
Solaris (2002)
After the 1-2-3 punch of Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and Ocean’s Eleven, Steven Soderbergh could do almost anything he wanted, especially since...
With so much good stuff out there, it’s no surprise that some really good movies would pass by audiences. Sometimes, these movies simply got buried by higher profile and more popular works. Sometimes, they were rejected by audiences disturbed by their audacious or disturbing ideals.
For anyone who wants to catch up on some sci-fi movies they have missed, here are ten great overlooked entries from the start of the millennium.
Solaris (2002)
After the 1-2-3 punch of Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and Ocean’s Eleven, Steven Soderbergh could do almost anything he wanted, especially since...
- 10/27/2023
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
Sony’s “The Equalizer 3” has finally toppled the six-week reign of “Barbie” atop the U.K. and Ireland box office.
Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller, headlined by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, debuted with £2.7 million ($3.4 million), per numbers from Comscore.
In its seventh weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” slid down to second place with £1.6 million for a mighty total of £92.5 million. It is the highest grossing film of 2023 and occupies seventh position on the all-time charts for the territory behind “Spectre,” which has £95.2 million.
Also in its seventh weekend, Universal’s “Oppenheimer” slid down a spot to third with £960,504. With £55.4 million, it is the second highest grossing film of 2023 and is level with “Bohemian Rhapsody” at No. 34 on the all-time chart.
Angel’s “Sound of Freedom,” a massive success Stateside, debuted in fourth place with £760,060. Rounding off the top five was Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which...
Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller, headlined by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, debuted with £2.7 million ($3.4 million), per numbers from Comscore.
In its seventh weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” slid down to second place with £1.6 million for a mighty total of £92.5 million. It is the highest grossing film of 2023 and occupies seventh position on the all-time charts for the territory behind “Spectre,” which has £95.2 million.
Also in its seventh weekend, Universal’s “Oppenheimer” slid down a spot to third with £960,504. With £55.4 million, it is the second highest grossing film of 2023 and is level with “Bohemian Rhapsody” at No. 34 on the all-time chart.
Angel’s “Sound of Freedom,” a massive success Stateside, debuted in fourth place with £760,060. Rounding off the top five was Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which...
- 9/5/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Paris Theater
The Paris reopens with a new Dolby Atmos screen and a 70mm series featuring Playtime, Lawrence of Arabia, 2001 and more.
Metrograph
One of France’s greatest directors and producers, Paul Vecchiali, is subject of a new retrospective that includes Jeanne Dielman and the terrific, too-little-seen Simone Barbès.
Bam
The Thin Red Line, Solaris, and more play in “Intimate Epics.”
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Korean cinema’s “golden decade” has begun.
Roxy Cinema
Passing the torch to Chapo Trap House‘s Movie Mindset, the 35mm print of Rio Bravo is now playing under their guardianship; Madonna fans can flock to Vision Quest, Who’s That Girl, Evita, and Spike Lee’s Girl 6 on 35mm.
Film Forum
Michael Roemer’s great The Plot Against Harry and the Tarantino-presented Winter Kills both screen on 35mm; Contempt continues
Museum of Modern Art...
Paris Theater
The Paris reopens with a new Dolby Atmos screen and a 70mm series featuring Playtime, Lawrence of Arabia, 2001 and more.
Metrograph
One of France’s greatest directors and producers, Paul Vecchiali, is subject of a new retrospective that includes Jeanne Dielman and the terrific, too-little-seen Simone Barbès.
Bam
The Thin Red Line, Solaris, and more play in “Intimate Epics.”
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Korean cinema’s “golden decade” has begun.
Roxy Cinema
Passing the torch to Chapo Trap House‘s Movie Mindset, the 35mm print of Rio Bravo is now playing under their guardianship; Madonna fans can flock to Vision Quest, Who’s That Girl, Evita, and Spike Lee’s Girl 6 on 35mm.
Film Forum
Michael Roemer’s great The Plot Against Harry and the Tarantino-presented Winter Kills both screen on 35mm; Contempt continues
Museum of Modern Art...
- 9/1/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The day’s finally arrived for developer Fallen Leaf and their psychological sci-fi thriller Fort Solis. Published by Dear Villagers, the game is out now on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam (which has a 10% launch discount) and the Epic Games Store, and the launch is accompanied by a new trailer.
“Inspired by classic sci-fi films like Alien, Solaris, Moon, and Sunshine, we wanted to create a timeless tale that uses sci-fi ideas and aesthetics to the heart of the human condition,” said James Tinsdale, Game Director at Fallen Leaf. “We’ve spent the last few years really honing our craft to make Fort Solis as immersive and moody as possible, so we’re beyond excited that people will finally be able to experience our passion project.”
Fort Solis has you assume the role of engineer Jack Leary, as he spends the longest night of his life on an isolated mining base on Mars.
“Inspired by classic sci-fi films like Alien, Solaris, Moon, and Sunshine, we wanted to create a timeless tale that uses sci-fi ideas and aesthetics to the heart of the human condition,” said James Tinsdale, Game Director at Fallen Leaf. “We’ve spent the last few years really honing our craft to make Fort Solis as immersive and moody as possible, so we’re beyond excited that people will finally be able to experience our passion project.”
Fort Solis has you assume the role of engineer Jack Leary, as he spends the longest night of his life on an isolated mining base on Mars.
- 8/22/2023
- by Mike Wilson
- bloody-disgusting.com
The Guardian’s longstanding film critic, who has died aged 91, was known for his insight into blockbusters and art pictures alike. Here are excerpts from his takes on Solaris, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, Malcolm X and more
• Peter Bradshaw on Derek Malcolm: my predecessor was a mighty critic, film world darling and heir to a scandal
• Derek Malcolm obituary
26 September 1969...
• Peter Bradshaw on Derek Malcolm: my predecessor was a mighty critic, film world darling and heir to a scandal
• Derek Malcolm obituary
26 September 1969...
- 7/20/2023
- by Compiled by Richard Nelsson
- The Guardian - Film News
“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “E.T.” were just some of the films recognized at the 16th Krakow Film Music Festival in Krakow, Poland. The festival concluded on Monday, wrapping up the celebration of this year’s celestial lineup.
“Faced by the challenges posed by the pandemic, as well as the war that broke out at our doorstep, many of us have taken refuge in cinematic works – either trying to glimpse into the future or relive the amazing films from our childhood,” said Carolina Pietyra, director of the Krakow Festival office, in a statement. “The headline of this year’s edition of the Krakow Film Music Festival – Out of Space – stands for everything that takes us to other spaces and responds to our longing to explore realms unknown.”
The festival’s Space Gala featured otherworldly film scores including Jóhann Jóhannsson’s “Arrival,” Cliff Martinez’s “Solaris,” Steven Price’s “Gravity...
“Faced by the challenges posed by the pandemic, as well as the war that broke out at our doorstep, many of us have taken refuge in cinematic works – either trying to glimpse into the future or relive the amazing films from our childhood,” said Carolina Pietyra, director of the Krakow Festival office, in a statement. “The headline of this year’s edition of the Krakow Film Music Festival – Out of Space – stands for everything that takes us to other spaces and responds to our longing to explore realms unknown.”
The festival’s Space Gala featured otherworldly film scores including Jóhann Jóhannsson’s “Arrival,” Cliff Martinez’s “Solaris,” Steven Price’s “Gravity...
- 5/31/2023
- by Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
Tubi opens June with an intense WWII drama “Inglourious Basterds.” Allied officer Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) assembles a team of five tough Jewish soldiers to spread fear throughout the Third Reich. They have one assignment: assassinate Nazi leaders. Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the unconventional war drama. Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, and Christopher Walz co-star.
Watch the trailer of “Inglourious Basterds”:
The network is also streaming the original documentary “Mystery Unsolved: The Adnan Syed Story” on June 7. The murder of teenager Hae Min Lee was the focal point of a “Serial” podcast, which questioned if boyfriend Syed was her killer. After serving 22 years in prison, Syed was released, still proclaiming his innocence. Now, he may return.
Another streamer original, “Magic Carpet Rides,” arrives June 14. It centers on a social influencer torn between sharing her budding romance or honoring her boyfriend’s request to keep their life private.
Check...
Watch the trailer of “Inglourious Basterds”:
The network is also streaming the original documentary “Mystery Unsolved: The Adnan Syed Story” on June 7. The murder of teenager Hae Min Lee was the focal point of a “Serial” podcast, which questioned if boyfriend Syed was her killer. After serving 22 years in prison, Syed was released, still proclaiming his innocence. Now, he may return.
Another streamer original, “Magic Carpet Rides,” arrives June 14. It centers on a social influencer torn between sharing her budding romance or honoring her boyfriend’s request to keep their life private.
Check...
- 5/31/2023
- by Fern Siegel
- The Streamable
In addition to coming to Steam later this Summer, developer Fallen Leaf has teamed up with Dear Villagers to bring their upcoming third-person sci-fi thriller Fort Solis to PlayStation 5. To commemorate this occasion, Fallen Leaf has revealed an all new gameplay trailer for Fort Solis.
Taking cues from films such as Moon, Sunshine, and Solaris, Game Director James Tinsdale states that the team “wanted to capture a feeling of being alone, unsafe, and unsure of what’s going on” with Fort Solis. “We hope this trailer offers a taste of the eerie tone we’re aiming for ahead of Fort Solis’ release this Summer.”
“When we first saw Fort Solis we knew Fallen Leaf was making something special,” said Guillaume Jamet, Head of Publishing for Dear Villagers. “It really stood apart from other sci-fi horror games with its brilliant script, classy presentation, environmental storytelling, and narratively open-ended game design. We...
Taking cues from films such as Moon, Sunshine, and Solaris, Game Director James Tinsdale states that the team “wanted to capture a feeling of being alone, unsafe, and unsure of what’s going on” with Fort Solis. “We hope this trailer offers a taste of the eerie tone we’re aiming for ahead of Fort Solis’ release this Summer.”
“When we first saw Fort Solis we knew Fallen Leaf was making something special,” said Guillaume Jamet, Head of Publishing for Dear Villagers. “It really stood apart from other sci-fi horror games with its brilliant script, classy presentation, environmental storytelling, and narratively open-ended game design. We...
- 3/24/2023
- by Mike Wilson
- bloody-disgusting.com
By Olivia Popp
Premiering at the Tokyo International Festival and moving to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, “The Clone Returns Home” is Kanji Nakajima’s virtually unknown grounded sci-fi turned imaginative meditation on memory, life, and what can’t be captured within humankind’s attempt to control life. With Nakajima’s dreamscape and near-fantastical tale of being human, it’s no wonder that the movie easily attracts comparisons to Tarkovsky’s “Solaris.” The Japanese director brings his 2006 Sundance / Nhk International Filmmaker’s Award screenplay to life in this pensive piece with a small cast and a simple premise.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
After an introduction to the world of the film, in which a space agency is experiencing unexpected and unforeseen deaths among its astronauts, the astronaut Kohei Takahara (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) is given the option to prepare materials so that the agency may create...
Premiering at the Tokyo International Festival and moving to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, “The Clone Returns Home” is Kanji Nakajima’s virtually unknown grounded sci-fi turned imaginative meditation on memory, life, and what can’t be captured within humankind’s attempt to control life. With Nakajima’s dreamscape and near-fantastical tale of being human, it’s no wonder that the movie easily attracts comparisons to Tarkovsky’s “Solaris.” The Japanese director brings his 2006 Sundance / Nhk International Filmmaker’s Award screenplay to life in this pensive piece with a small cast and a simple premise.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
After an introduction to the world of the film, in which a space agency is experiencing unexpected and unforeseen deaths among its astronauts, the astronaut Kohei Takahara (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) is given the option to prepare materials so that the agency may create...
- 3/7/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Welcome to the return of Intermission, a spin-off podcast from The Film Stage Show. Led by yours truly, Michael Snydel, I invite a guest to discuss an arthouse, international, or experimental film of their choice.
For the fifteenth episode, I talked to The Film Stage co-founder/The B-Side co-host Dan Mecca about the ever-prolific Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 reimagining of Polish author Stanisław Lem’s seminal 1961 science fiction novel, Solaris.
Coming off a disparate and largely consistent run of projects, Soderbergh was and remains an unpredictable filmmaker who’s as likely to knock out a four-quadrant-blockbuster as an obtusely rendered conspiracy thriller throwback like Kimi.
Today’s conversation touches on Soderbergh’s ongoing fluency switching between different filmmaking modes and how those successes and failures inform both each other––and the exact timing of 2002’s notoriously poorly received Solaris. Coming after one of the most successful commercial and critical runs...
For the fifteenth episode, I talked to The Film Stage co-founder/The B-Side co-host Dan Mecca about the ever-prolific Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 reimagining of Polish author Stanisław Lem’s seminal 1961 science fiction novel, Solaris.
Coming off a disparate and largely consistent run of projects, Soderbergh was and remains an unpredictable filmmaker who’s as likely to knock out a four-quadrant-blockbuster as an obtusely rendered conspiracy thriller throwback like Kimi.
Today’s conversation touches on Soderbergh’s ongoing fluency switching between different filmmaking modes and how those successes and failures inform both each other––and the exact timing of 2002’s notoriously poorly received Solaris. Coming after one of the most successful commercial and critical runs...
- 3/1/2023
- by Michael Snydel
- The Film Stage
There seems to be no end to the supply of new indie projects at this year’s Berlin European Film Market. As the 2023 EFM kicked off Thursday, Newen Connect, the distribution arm of fast-growing production and sales group Newen Studios, added a new title, Another End, with a starry cast and high-concept sci-fi premise that is sure to get buyers buzzing.
Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal (Old, Amores Perros), The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve and The Artist and The Past headliner Berenice Bejo have signed on to star in Another End. Italian director Piero Messina (Netflix TV series Suburra: Blood on Rome) will write and direct.
The film is set in a not-too-distant future where technology allows people to say a final farewell to those who have died. A blurb on the project sent to potential buyers — “what remains of all the love that the bodies...
Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal (Old, Amores Perros), The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve and The Artist and The Past headliner Berenice Bejo have signed on to star in Another End. Italian director Piero Messina (Netflix TV series Suburra: Blood on Rome) will write and direct.
The film is set in a not-too-distant future where technology allows people to say a final farewell to those who have died. A blurb on the project sent to potential buyers — “what remains of all the love that the bodies...
- 2/16/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Science fiction movies have shared a close relationship with their literary counterparts for as long as they've existed. The first sci-fi film ever made, Georges Méliès' 1902 short "A Trip to the Moon," was inspired by two Jules Verne novels, "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Around the Moon," as well as H.G. Wells' serialized novel "The First Men in the Moon." From there, countless movies — including some of the greatest of all time — have been based on sci-fi novels, novellas, and short stories.
Let's put it this way: Without the vast cosmos of sci-fi literature to draw from, we would never have experienced "Metropolis," "Frankenstein," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," "Solaris," "Planet of the Apes," "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "Starship Troopers," "The Thing," "Jurassic Park," "Minority Report," "Children of Men," "Arrival," "Annihilation," "Edge of Tomorrow," and a hell of a lot more.
Let's put it this way: Without the vast cosmos of sci-fi literature to draw from, we would never have experienced "Metropolis," "Frankenstein," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," "Solaris," "Planet of the Apes," "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "Starship Troopers," "The Thing," "Jurassic Park," "Minority Report," "Children of Men," "Arrival," "Annihilation," "Edge of Tomorrow," and a hell of a lot more.
- 2/7/2023
- by Chris Heasman
- Slash Film
This looks rad!! Deaf Crocodile Films & Vinegar Syndrome have announced a restoration Blu-ray re-release of a long lost, rarely seen Romanian animated film called The Son of the Stars. This originally debuted in 1985 and showed up in the US in 1987, but hasn't been seen since. The film is getting an HD version based on a new 4K scan from the original 35mm negative and sound elements, with a digital restoration by Deaf Crocodile Films. From the same filmmakers as the marvelous Delta Space Mission, The Son of the Stars gets more freakadelic as Dan grows up ala Luke Skywalker, encountering giant disembodied eyeballs, a world of massive decaying Cubist structures, floating purple tentacles, and alien-headed cosmic flowers, and even a sword-wielding medieval Space Knight in armor. Using the voices of Mircea Albulescu, Mihai Cafrita, Ion Caramitru, Mirela Gorea-Chelaru, and Virgil Ogasanu. "His visions of his lost parents and the missing cosmonaut are especially psychedelic,...
- 2/5/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
When Natascha McElhone got her big break as an actor, she very nearly blew it. She was fresh out of drama school and appearing in Richard III at the Open Air Theatre in London’s Regent’s Park. It was pouring with rain one evening and, though McElhone didn’t know it, the writer and director James Ivory, of Merchant Ivory fame, had come to watch the show. She had briefly met him a few weeks earlier while reading for a part in his 1996 film Surviving Picasso, a biopic of the artist told from the perspective of the painter Françoise Gilot, who was his lover for a decade. “I had gone in, read a page of the script and was immediately ushered out, so I didn’t think anything of it,” she recalls.
And so, on this rainy night, McElhone was having a post-show drink at the bar when “this...
And so, on this rainy night, McElhone was having a post-show drink at the bar when “this...
- 2/1/2023
- by Fiona Sturges
- The Independent - TV
Critical reactions to Joseph Kosinski's post-apocalyptic thriller, "Oblivion," have either been begrudgingly appreciative or outright dismissive since its release in 2013. Most perceive it as a bland, hollow tentpole movie that regurgitates telltale action-thriller beats, where Tom Cruise plays yet another morally-ambivalent character who eventually emerges as the "hero." However, the core of Kosinski's sci-fi gem lies beneath several layers of visual spectacle — somewhere in the strikingly desolate landscape, there's a lush forest opening with a cozy cabin filled with loving memorabilia. This safe space plays a seminal role for drone repair technician Jack Harper (Cruise), as it functions both as an emotional tether and a hideout until the war on Earth is over. It also elevates "Oblivion" above run-of-the-mill sci-fi entries about alien takeovers and clones, while adding layers to a thought-provoking human adventure.
Visually, "Oblivion" is as modern as it gets, utilizing a mix of real-life locations and...
Visually, "Oblivion" is as modern as it gets, utilizing a mix of real-life locations and...
- 1/30/2023
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Fresh off the overwhelming success of 1995's "Mortal Kombat," Paul W.S. Anderson set his sights on helming an R-rated horror that mimicked the scares of a haunted house mansion set in space. Although Anderson sought inspiration from a dozen classic sci-fi horrors, including "Alien" and "Solaris," during the film's script rewrites, the end result was a profoundly unnerving brand of nightmare fuel that consistently manages to repulse and terrify. Welcome aboard "Event Horizon," Anderson's finest cinematic offering about an exploratory vessel that mysteriously reappears near a decaying orbit seven years after its disappearance. Aboard this titular research vessel, Hell is only a word, and the prospects of salvation are incredibly slim.
Today, "Event Horizon" is a certified banger, a cult classic that is rightfully revered for unflinching plunging viewers into a world that is insufferably bleak and beyond hope. When the film was released 26 years ago, it was both a...
Today, "Event Horizon" is a certified banger, a cult classic that is rightfully revered for unflinching plunging viewers into a world that is insufferably bleak and beyond hope. When the film was released 26 years ago, it was both a...
- 1/25/2023
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
I am often haunted by a 2011 New York Times article called "Eating Your Cultural Vegetables." In the op-ed, author Dan Kois admits to experiencing something akin to an existential crisis when confronted with Kelly Reichardt's feature film "Meek's Cutoff." That film, starring Michelle Williams, is set in 1845 on the Oregon Trail and details the fate of a doomed wagon train. Like all of Reichardt's films, it is quiet, ground-level, and — most notable to Kois — very, very slow-moving. Kois admits that he seeks out slow-moving movies, but only as an object of outsider fascination. He writes that he might feel somewhat, distantly moved by a slow film, but then flies off into the abstract, saying: "But am I actually moved? Or am I responding to the rhythms of emotionally affecting cinema? Am I laughing because I get the jokes or because I know what jokes sound like?"
Kois, like many film audiences,...
Kois, like many film audiences,...
- 1/8/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
HBO Max may (hopefully) be done randomly pulling original series from the service, but there are still a number of TV shows and films due to leave HBO Max in January as part of the regularly scheduled shuffling.
Multiple seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” will leave HBO Max on Jan. 3, so get those final binge-watches in Asap. And the beloved WB series “Everwood” is due to depart on Jan. 21 if you feel like seeing what young Chris Pratt was up to in the early 2000s.
In terms of movies leaving HBO Max, there are quite a lot. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” turns into a ghost on Jan. 20, while Jon M. Chu’s delightful musical “In the Heights” leaves on Jan. 27.
Noteworthy films leaving HBO Max on Jan. 31 include the first three “John Wick” movies, the first three “Jurassic Park” films, the first two installments in the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise,...
Multiple seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” will leave HBO Max on Jan. 3, so get those final binge-watches in Asap. And the beloved WB series “Everwood” is due to depart on Jan. 21 if you feel like seeing what young Chris Pratt was up to in the early 2000s.
In terms of movies leaving HBO Max, there are quite a lot. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” turns into a ghost on Jan. 20, while Jon M. Chu’s delightful musical “In the Heights” leaves on Jan. 27.
Noteworthy films leaving HBO Max on Jan. 31 include the first three “John Wick” movies, the first three “Jurassic Park” films, the first two installments in the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise,...
- 1/2/2023
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
Magic Mike’s Last Dance is the upcoming dramedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek. It is written by Reid Carolin.
It is the sequel to 2015’s Magic Mike Xxl, and is scheduled to release February 10, 2023.
Premise
Mike Lane takes to the stage again after a lengthy hiatus, following a business deal that went bust, leaving him broke and taking bartender gigs in Florida. For what he hopes will be one last hurrah, Mike heads to London with a wealthy socialite who lures him with an offer he can’t refuse… and an agenda all her own. With everything on the line, once Mike discovers what she truly has in mind, will he—and the roster of hot new dancers he’ll have to whip into shape—be able to pull it off?
Director Steven Soderbergh. De nicolas genin from Paris, France – Cropped version from a...
It is the sequel to 2015’s Magic Mike Xxl, and is scheduled to release February 10, 2023.
Premise
Mike Lane takes to the stage again after a lengthy hiatus, following a business deal that went bust, leaving him broke and taking bartender gigs in Florida. For what he hopes will be one last hurrah, Mike heads to London with a wealthy socialite who lures him with an offer he can’t refuse… and an agenda all her own. With everything on the line, once Mike discovers what she truly has in mind, will he—and the roster of hot new dancers he’ll have to whip into shape—be able to pull it off?
Director Steven Soderbergh. De nicolas genin from Paris, France – Cropped version from a...
- 12/22/2022
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
Prolific animator and manga-ka Satoshi Kon had a sustained interest in exploring the nature of reality, particularly the way in which humans interact with their perception of what's real. This thematic fascination encapsulates Kon's body of work, which deal with characters oscillating between objective reality and constructed ones, with the line between the two getting increasingly blurred as the narrative progresses.
Kon's most famous work, "Perfect Blue," which is considered his magnum opus, exclusively revolves around a J-pop star-turned-actor losing their grip on reality while crumbling under the weight of worldly perception, voyeurism, and fractured identity. Similar themes are also peppered throughout "Paprika" and "Millennium Actress" — films that further hone Kon's vision of crafting realistic worlds that harbor something sinister beneath a pretty facade. However, Kon first forayed into these themes as early as 1995, when he collaborated with "Akira" animator Kōji Morimoto on "Magnetic Rose."
Kon's "Magnetic Rose" still...
Kon's most famous work, "Perfect Blue," which is considered his magnum opus, exclusively revolves around a J-pop star-turned-actor losing their grip on reality while crumbling under the weight of worldly perception, voyeurism, and fractured identity. Similar themes are also peppered throughout "Paprika" and "Millennium Actress" — films that further hone Kon's vision of crafting realistic worlds that harbor something sinister beneath a pretty facade. However, Kon first forayed into these themes as early as 1995, when he collaborated with "Akira" animator Kōji Morimoto on "Magnetic Rose."
Kon's "Magnetic Rose" still...
- 12/12/2022
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Alongside being a movie megastar, George Clooney has always had a penchant for smaller, less commercially ambitious films. For every "Gravity" and "Ocean's Eleven" there's a "Solaris" or a "Good Night, and Good Luck." The latter of those, released in 2005, was a product of Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight Productions — a relatively short-lived production company responsible for the "Ocean's" franchise as well as smaller productions like "Syriana".
The company was shuttered in 2006, with Clooney leaving to start his current production company, Smokehouse Pictures, with his "Good Night, and Good Luck" co-writer and producer Grant Heslov. But for a while, Clooney and Soderbergh's joint venture was churning out an impressive slate of films, some of which proved successful both commercially and critically. But it was the smaller movies that its co-founders were particularly interested in. The two struck a deal with Warner Bros. to make relatively low-budget films in exchange for,...
The company was shuttered in 2006, with Clooney leaving to start his current production company, Smokehouse Pictures, with his "Good Night, and Good Luck" co-writer and producer Grant Heslov. But for a while, Clooney and Soderbergh's joint venture was churning out an impressive slate of films, some of which proved successful both commercially and critically. But it was the smaller movies that its co-founders were particularly interested in. The two struck a deal with Warner Bros. to make relatively low-budget films in exchange for,...
- 11/14/2022
- by Joe Roberts
- Slash Film
From The Godfather to Solaris to Aguirre, the Wrath of God to Pink Flamingos to Cries and Whispers to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie to Cabaret to The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 1972 had no shortage of landmark cinematic works. One film hailing from 50 years ago that certainly deserves more attention will now hopefully get its due thanks to a new restoration.
The first female-directed Canadian narrative feature to come out of Quebec, Mireille Dansereau’s groundbreaking, 16mm-shot debut Dream Life has been restored in 2K by Éléphant: la mémoire du cinéma québécois. Courtesy of Arbelos, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new trailer ahead of a week-long run at NYC’s Metrograph beginning on November 4.
A sensual and beguiling drama, the film centers on Isabelle and Virginie (Liliane Lemaître-Auger and Véronique Le Flaguais), two single young women who meet through their work at a Montreal film...
The first female-directed Canadian narrative feature to come out of Quebec, Mireille Dansereau’s groundbreaking, 16mm-shot debut Dream Life has been restored in 2K by Éléphant: la mémoire du cinéma québécois. Courtesy of Arbelos, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new trailer ahead of a week-long run at NYC’s Metrograph beginning on November 4.
A sensual and beguiling drama, the film centers on Isabelle and Virginie (Liliane Lemaître-Auger and Véronique Le Flaguais), two single young women who meet through their work at a Montreal film...
- 10/20/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Remaking a classic film is always a dangerous endeavor. If a remake tries too hard to capture the same tone as the original it can feel very repetitive, but stray too far and it's no longer the same story. There has been no shortage of terrible science fiction remakes in recent memory. "The Day The Earth Stood Still" from 2008 paled in comparison to the original because the 1951 version works as a grim warning about the dangers of militarism, while the remake is simply a generic alien invasion movie.
Similarly, 2012's "Total Recall" was a major disappointment. The advancements in computer-generated imagery somehow made the new film look less imaginative than the original, while Paul Verhoeven's 1990 film is still as awe-inspiring and exhilarating today as it was during its initial release. That doesn't mean that remaking a classic is never a good idea. A remake has the opportunity to enhance the visual sensibilities,...
Similarly, 2012's "Total Recall" was a major disappointment. The advancements in computer-generated imagery somehow made the new film look less imaginative than the original, while Paul Verhoeven's 1990 film is still as awe-inspiring and exhilarating today as it was during its initial release. That doesn't mean that remaking a classic is never a good idea. A remake has the opportunity to enhance the visual sensibilities,...
- 10/12/2022
- by Liam Gaughan
- Slash Film
In 2057, the sun will begin to fade out and die. Life on Earth is under threat of extinction. Humankind's solution is to gather what scant fissile materials that are remaining on the planet, construct a powerful nuclear bomb, and launch it into the sun in the hope of "restarting" it. The first mission, Icarus I, has already failed. It will be up to the crew of Icarus II to complete the mission. Like the ship's namesake, they are to fly too close to the sun. They are literally Earth's last hope. The mission will, thanks to various cosmic powers, become increasingly desperate and difficult. Additionally, facing the awesome power of a heavenly body drives most of the astronauts into an existential torpor. The captain often goes to a heavily shaded observation deck to look at the sun directly. In his more ponderous moments, he orders the computer to reduce the...
- 10/8/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
As we are seeing this film festival season return to what we all knew and loved pre-pandemic, we are so excited to have one of the longest-running U.S.-based film festivals return for its 60th year. The non-competitive New York Film Festival has a lot of great films, as always, this year which includes multiple films by Hong Sangsoo, a 50th Anniversary screening of “Solaris” complete with a live musical accompaniment, “Master Gardener” by Paul Schrader, and “Decision to Leave” by Park Chan-wook.
Read More: Fall 2022 Preview: 60+ Must-See Films To Watch
The 60th annual New York Film Festival starts this week, running from September 30 to October 16.
Continue reading 2022 New York Film Festival Preview: 14 Must-See Movies at The Playlist.
Read More: Fall 2022 Preview: 60+ Must-See Films To Watch
The 60th annual New York Film Festival starts this week, running from September 30 to October 16.
Continue reading 2022 New York Film Festival Preview: 14 Must-See Movies at The Playlist.
- 9/26/2022
- by Jamie Rogers
- The Playlist
His windswept, airbrushed canvases have given shape to landmark films for decades, from Solaris to Dances With Wolves. Now 86, the designer looks back at his highlights
Now 86, Renato Casaro is one of the world’s most influential poster designers, best known for his classical, windswept, airbrushed canvases: heady reminders of the pre-digital era. His style turns matinee idols into Michelangelos, from Stallone to Schwarzenegger, Costner to DiCaprio. His posters are unabashed theatrics, stuffed with sweaty biceps and heaving bosoms, which transport the punter outside the picturehouse to a thrilling third reel.
Born in Treviso, Italy, in 1935, as a boy Casaro would visit his local cinema every day in the hope of taking home posters of films whose runs had ended, so he could try to reproduce them. In his teens, he struck deals with the owners: free tickets in exchange for painting their walls with huge original posters. At 18, he joined Studio Favalli,...
Now 86, Renato Casaro is one of the world’s most influential poster designers, best known for his classical, windswept, airbrushed canvases: heady reminders of the pre-digital era. His style turns matinee idols into Michelangelos, from Stallone to Schwarzenegger, Costner to DiCaprio. His posters are unabashed theatrics, stuffed with sweaty biceps and heaving bosoms, which transport the punter outside the picturehouse to a thrilling third reel.
Born in Treviso, Italy, in 1935, as a boy Casaro would visit his local cinema every day in the hope of taking home posters of films whose runs had ended, so he could try to reproduce them. In his teens, he struck deals with the owners: free tickets in exchange for painting their walls with huge original posters. At 18, he joined Studio Favalli,...
- 9/14/2022
- by Sam Moore
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: US Teaser poster for Crimes of the Future. Design by Bangers & Mash.In the middle of the Venice Film Festival, and in the lead-up to the Toronto and New York fests, still the most “liked” poster of the last six months of my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram was a teaser poster that appeared in the run-up to Cannes in the spring. The poster was for was one of the most anticipated films of Cannes, a film that has since been disseminated to the world with a much tamer big-head poster and even tamer home video art. The Crimes of the Future teaser racked up nearly 2,000 likes and not far behind it was a gorgeous art print for Cronenberg’s 30-year-old Naked Lunch by the very talented (and seemingly Cronenberg-obsessed) Nick Charge that I posted a few months later. As I’ve been doing for the past few years,...
- 9/9/2022
- MUBI
In Tales of the Purple House, French-Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel and his wife, Lebanese artist Nour Ballouk, offer a collaborative video diary of the last few years of their lockdown life and, through that figurative keyhole, their account of the unraveling world outside. Their film is about domestic things––weather, painting, lots of cats––but it’s also about shockwaves of Covid and the Syrian refugee crisis, and of the explosion that rocked Beirut in August 2020, leveling the city’s port and taking over 200 lives. (It is also about their government’s failure to adequately respond to these things.)
Purple House is a reminder that this period––rocky for us all––has been astonishingly turbulent for the Lebanese, even by their country’s historic standards. There is no shortage of stories there, and Fahdel doesn’t skimp: over a lengthy, indulgent 186 minutes, we observe not only the slow change of...
Purple House is a reminder that this period––rocky for us all––has been astonishingly turbulent for the Lebanese, even by their country’s historic standards. There is no shortage of stories there, and Fahdel doesn’t skimp: over a lengthy, indulgent 186 minutes, we observe not only the slow change of...
- 8/19/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The Harvey Weinstein drama “She Said,” the Emmett Till biopic “Till” and new documentaries from Martin Scorsese and James Ivory have been added to the New York Film Festival lineup as world premieres.
The films will all premiere in the Spotlight section of the festival, and they’re headlined by Maria Schrader’s “She Said” starring Carrie Mulligan and Zoe Kazan about the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. There’s also Chinonye Chukwu’s civil-rights era drama “Till” about the lynching of Emmett Till.
Also world premiering are “Is That Black Enough for You?!?,” a new documentary film from film critic Elvis Mitchell that looks at the Black revolution of 1970s cinema, James Ivory and Giles Gardner’s “A Cooler Climate” about Ivory’s trip to Afghanistan in 1960, and “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” from Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi about singer-songwriter David Johansen of the New York Dolls.
The films will all premiere in the Spotlight section of the festival, and they’re headlined by Maria Schrader’s “She Said” starring Carrie Mulligan and Zoe Kazan about the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. There’s also Chinonye Chukwu’s civil-rights era drama “Till” about the lynching of Emmett Till.
Also world premiering are “Is That Black Enough for You?!?,” a new documentary film from film critic Elvis Mitchell that looks at the Black revolution of 1970s cinema, James Ivory and Giles Gardner’s “A Cooler Climate” about Ivory’s trip to Afghanistan in 1960, and “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” from Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi about singer-songwriter David Johansen of the New York Dolls.
- 8/16/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
“She Said,” a drama about the sexual harassment investigation that took down Harvey Weinstein and sparked the #MeToo movement, will have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival.
The Universal Pictures movie is screening as part of the festival’s spotlight section. Other movies that will be highlighted include Chinonye Chukwu’s historical drama “Till,” Elvis Mitchell’s documentary “Is That Black Enough for You?!?,” James Ivory and Giles Gardner’s non-fiction film “A Cooler Climate,” and Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s New York Dolls documentary “Personality Crisis: One Night Only.”
Additional spotlight entries include “Bones and All,” directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet; Marco Bellocchio’s “Exterior Night,” a six-part series about the kidnapping and eventual murder of the Italy’s influential statesman and former prime minister Aldo Moro; director Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom Exodus,” a third season of...
The Universal Pictures movie is screening as part of the festival’s spotlight section. Other movies that will be highlighted include Chinonye Chukwu’s historical drama “Till,” Elvis Mitchell’s documentary “Is That Black Enough for You?!?,” James Ivory and Giles Gardner’s non-fiction film “A Cooler Climate,” and Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s New York Dolls documentary “Personality Crisis: One Night Only.”
Additional spotlight entries include “Bones and All,” directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet; Marco Bellocchio’s “Exterior Night,” a six-part series about the kidnapping and eventual murder of the Italy’s influential statesman and former prime minister Aldo Moro; director Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom Exodus,” a third season of...
- 8/16/2022
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
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