Arthouse meets grindhouse in Funny Games, and the results are no fun at all. Writer-director Michael Haneke, the Austrian provocateur behind The Piano Teacher (2002) and CachÁƒ© (2005), is a…
Film
In my post about The Rules of Attraction a few weeks back, commenter Idp presented the idea that many of the heroes in action movies fall into a subclass of…
Look. I know. I hear you. YouÁ¢€â„¢d rather be reading about 10,000 B.C., that caveman-and-saber-tooth-tigers thing opening today. Listen: IÁ¢€â„¢d rather be writing about it. Cavemen (cavewomen), saber-tooths, mastodons —…
Even though I live in Los Angeles, I’ve never been an actor, a writer, a director, a writer-director, a grip, a cameraman, or worked in the film industry in any…
Much like the stupid redneck protagonist of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell’s latest sports comedy, Semi-Pro, revolves entirely around a paper-thin character that’s supposed to be…
Penelope made its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. The 2006 Toronto Film Festival. Not a good sign that the movie has languished this long without being released. The story…
For those that aren’t completely sick and tired of trashy melodramas centered on Queen Elizabeth (I and II), director Justin Chadwick takes a slightly different approach with The Other Boleyn…
It’s fitting that Chicago 10, a Roadside Attractions release, is opening February 29. It’s a weird, once-every-four-years day, and Chicago 10 is a weird, out-of-time movie. Here we have a…
There’s a certain art to crafting a great movie trailer that is sort of a scale model of the art of crafting the advertised movie itself. Often a trailer contains…
There was one movie that my movie critic peers and I were looking forward to seeing in these dog days of winter, and it was Be Kind Rewind, Michel Gondry’s…
You have to give the makers of Vantage Point credit for one thing: what the movie lacks in plausibility, it makes up for with raw enthusiasm. They think their movie…
We critics like to make a big fuss over films that have had their release dates pushed back — usually because it’s a sign of a studio’s lack of confidence…
Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges is an interesting little film. It’s one part action-comedy, one-part Shakespearean tragedy, and no matter how fucked up that may sound, it completely works. Arranged like…
Most people are familiar with the concept of the alpha male. Aggressive and dominating, he exists in our society as a result of our evolution as primates, when relatively small…
Hey, it’s Scott again. Thought I’d get this in on time so all of you could catch some more of my suggestions for Turner Classic Movies’ “31 Days of Oscar.”…
Okay, I dropped the ball on posting some more of my suggestions for the Turner Classic Movies 31 Days of Oscars fest they have each year. Truth is I’m still…
Sometimes, when you’re choosing the soundtrack for an adapted screenplay, the source material hands your songs right to you (such as in the novels High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, and…
I don’t think Michael Mann is particularly interested in popular music. It’s practically impossible to think of Phil Collins’ classic song “In the Air Tonight” without thinking of the iconic…
The first time I ever visited Sherman Oaks and saw the childhood home of my old roommate Miles (this was back when we lived in San Diego, before he got…
As I expect every one of you knows, Heath Ledger died yesterday. I won’t speculate as to the details of his death (I’m sure the tabloids and gossip websites will…
Exit Music is a sister series to Motion Picture Soundtrack. Yeah, they’re both named after Radiohead songs. So what? You wanna fight about it? As long as you’re less than…
Never in my life have I been so glad that I wasn’t caught up in the hype for a film. Yes, obviously, I was aware of Cloverfield. I’m way too…
To begin: Music has been a essential part of movies since the very first images were committed to celluloid — in fact, motion picture scores existed before spoken dialogue did…
Ellen Page, welcome to the show. In Juno, the Canadian actress portrays high schooler Juno MacGuff, who gets knocked up after a sexual encounter with her crush and best friend,…
Sequels aren’t always good, but the movie-loving teenager who continues to take up space inside my soul will always be excited by them, especially the mere concept of sequels, i.e….
I’ve been busy working on a script, which is a good thing. Although it takes me away from the blog, it means I’ve broken through the crippling writer’s block that…
I have some great news. After only a week posted on the iklipz website, “King’s Highway” was chosen as the “Film of the Week”. Above is a screen capture of…
Fear has gripped me for the past year. I’ve been afraid to take a simple risk for fear my work may get rejected and ridiculed. I have feared that should…
Christopher Nolan continues to amaze me with his talent both as a filmmaker and a storyteller with the film, “The Prestige”. In it, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play rival…