Twitch: Features

China Beat: What did China See in IRON MAN 3?

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:00:00 -0500

Much has already been written, both on these pages and many others, about the landmark Hollywood-China co-production that is Marvel and DMG Entertainment's Iron Man 3. The film, directed by Shane Black, is the third solo outing for Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, and has proved a phenomenal success around the world. As it closes in on $1 billion at the global box office, the film is on the cusp of breaking $100 million in China, despite the fact that the producers withdrew their application for official co-production status at the eleventh hour. We knew ahead of time that the mainland release of Iron Man 3 would feature exclusive footage, filmed in China with homegrown stars Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing, But what exactly would these...

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CINEMA HOLOCAUST ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA, PART 1: THOSE GOD DAMN FILM BLOGGERS

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:24 -0500

MIKE'S JOURNAL. MAY 13. MORNINGI wake up sometime around five AM. My flight to France doesn't leave until five PM. I should be there for security check in sometime around 3PM. There is no reason for me to be up this early but I'm feeling anxious. I have an itch that needs scratching. I feel the urge to clean my knife collection before packing them into my luggage. I was hoping to do this while my wife, Cheryl, was still asleep. But I wake up to an empty bed. She's already up and fucking around somewhere in the house. She partied too hard yesterday, did too much molly, fucked too many of my friends. I bet she's sore as shit. I must have had her...

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FEAR & LOATHING AT CANNES, PART 1: A MAN'S HANDSHAKE SAYS EVERYTHING

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:07 -0500

CHAPTER ONE: THE BIGGER THE SIDEBURNS, THE BIGGER THE ASSHOLE. I've hit the big time now. I've finally made it. I'm in like Flint from here on out. I'm boarding a plane to France where I'll be attending the Cannes Film Festival for the first time.No more unpaid blogging from the Cash for Gold shop. No more bottom feeding. No more sitting at the children's table waiting to eat other people's left over scraps. A door has opened and I'm not about to just stick my foot in, I'm gonna knock it off the fucking hinges and dive on in from head to toe. I've been sober since coming back from Yubari in February. I haven't had a sip of the sauce since I was...

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Cannes 2013 Preview: Midnight, Un Certain Regard, and Everything Else

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:54 -0500

Today is the day! The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival kicks off this evening with the European premiere of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby . Both European Editor Brian Clark and I have been setting the stage with our previews of the Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight sidebars and the Official Competition. We wrap things up with a look at what's left -- namely the Midnight section, Un Certain Regard, and the Out of Competition screenings. Be sure to keep your eyes glued right here for fresh news and reviews from the Croisette and follow us on twitter at @TwitchFilm, @marshalclark, and @RylandAldrich. Midnight BLIND DETECTIVE Johnnie To has had films in competition at Cannes on two occasions with Election in 2005 and Vengeance...

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Destroy All Monsters: Leo DiCaprio and the Myth of the Chick Flick

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:00:10 -0500

I have a running argument about whether or not movie box office is a zero-sum game. I tend to attack film earning potential from the "mother of two" perspective - which is that while yes, it's nice to believe that if a film is good it has a theoretically unlimited audience capacity, the reality is that if you're a member of a small family raising children, you get out to the movies once or twice a year, and doing so costs a hundred bucks and makes you not want to do it again for a very long time. Film fans like to believe that they're the core of the moviegoing audience, too, but generally speaking they're not. Iron Man 3 isn't chugging towards a $400M...

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"Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions" at MoMA, An Essential Film Series Tracing 25 Years Of Chinese Documentary Practice

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:01:09 -0500

Currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, the valuable and eye-opening film series "Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions" traces the progression of Chinese documentary practice from 1988 to the present, and how filmmakers have recorded the rapid changes China has undergone over the past 25 years. This 29-film series encompasses many forms of filmmaking: both underground and state-approved documentaries, amateur videos, web-based conceptual art, as well as fiction films that are strongly influenced by a sense of the realities of contemporary Chinese society. Some major highlights of the series are films by Wu Wenguang, a pioneer of the "New Chinese Documentary Movement," such as his 1990 film Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (pictured above) and his 2005 film Fuck Cinema. Another must-see, well worth the considerable...

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5 Favorite 50s Sci-Fi Flicks

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:00:04 -0500

Quick! A meteor the size of Texas is heading toward Earth and you only have the next five minutes to name your five favorite sci-fi flicks from the 1950s! While you're mulling that over, let me waste some more of your last minutes on Earth by noting that Star Trek Into Darkness opens this week in the U.S., which prompted me to revisit 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which prompted thoughtful comments from readers who felt perfectly fine with the core ideas behind ST:TMP, which made me think of other philosophical science-fiction pictures, which made me realize that what I really wanted to do was write briefly about some of the films that grew my interest in science fiction in the first place. And...

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Cannes 2013 Preview: The Official Competition

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:58 -0500

Yesterday European Editor Brian Clark and I took you through the Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight sidebars and today we turn our attention to the main event, the competition for the coveted Palme d'Or at the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Unlike in some past years, there's no clear favorite this go around. While plenty of the directors have had films in previous years' comps, no matter who ends up on top, this time they will be a first time winner. We can't touch on every film, but here are some of the titles we felt particularly like gushing about. We'll be back tomorrow to talk Midnighters, Un Certain Regard and the Out of Competition flicks. MICHAEL KOHLHAAS Mads Mikkelsen stars as horse-merchant who...

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Indie Beat: What We Talk About When We Talk About Independent Cinema

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:00:00 -0500

(Zoe Kazan recovers from a stressful moment in Bradley Rust Gray's 2009 film "The Exploding Girl")My mindset in talking and writing about film has always stemmed from an inner dialog which goes something like this: "Well if I were out there making movies, I'd surely want someone who can write about my movies with an intelligent, considerate, and rather democratic voice. Someone who would want to start a dialog not start a fight. Someone who just doesn't only want to critique, but really dig down deep and live in the very fiber and marrow of a film. Even if it hurts them. Even if they hate the film I'd want there to be empathy in play." So as corny as that may sound, that's where I...

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Cannes 2013 Preview: Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight Sidebars

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:00:54 -0500

It's that wonderful time of the year again where brightest stars of the film world take to the French Riviera to unveil their latest masterpieces -- with a few duds likely thrown in as well. Yes it's almost time for the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival and Twitch European Editor Brian Clark and Festivals Editor Ryland Aldrich will be there in our tuxedos to tell the faithful Twitch audience just which films flip and which films flop. (Actually we'll probably just be wearing jeans and t-shirts at the press screenings, but what's the difference?) The festival kicks off Wednesday with the opening night out-of-competition screening of The Great Gatsby. You've already read one opinion of that, but Brian and I will be previewing quite...

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Twitchvision: Talking THE GREAT GATSBY, BLACKBIRD and ROOM 237

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:00:22 -0500

Scott's back in the anchor chair, and we're talking this week about Baz's much maligned Gatsby (hint: I didn't hate it!), along with indie film Blackbird and the mind-boggling insanity that is Room 237.Check out video embedded below!...

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70s Rewind: STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE Still Goes Slowly Where No One Wants to Go

Sun, 12 May 2013 11:59:00 -0500

In December 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a major letdown. Earlier in the decade, a handful of my school friends banded together to form the Science Fiction Club. Initially, we discussed Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, Ray Bradbury's stories, and other disrespected literary works. We rode our bicycles to the nearest branch of the public library, and often stopped by a nearby used paperback book store, where we carefully examined the science fiction shelves -- they were low, near the floor, and we had to sit on our haunches, but we were young -- and picked out what we could afford on our tiny allowances. (The owners were always kind and appreciative of our regular patronage, no matter how few pennies they made from...

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Press Conference: A WOMAN AND WAR Director And Cast Talk About Their Controversial War Crimes Movie

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:59:11 -0500

A Woman and War (Senso No Hitori No Onna), the debut film from director Junichi Inoue is a bold political statement. As I noted in my review, it criticises the crimes Japan committed overseas during the second world war by following the lives of three damaged people in a struggling Tokyo during the final stages of the war. Noriko Eguchi, who has worked on many independent feature films and is a regular on Japanese television screens, plays a former prostitute who is unable to experience pleasure while making love. Masatoshi Nagase has been acting for 30 years and has worked with Jim Jarmusch on Mystery Train and with director Yoji Yamada on My Sons and The Hidden Blade. Here he plays a disenchanted writer sure...

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Korea Beat: Domino Records, 10 Million Club and the Dangers of Success

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:30:53 -0500

There's a lot of talk of emerging markets these days and while South Korea is experiencing a rise similar to those developing industries, the country has already been a beacon of commercial success in the region for quite some time. 2012 ended with a rewritten record book for the Korean box office as significant new benchmarks were set for overall tickets sold (194.9 million) and admissions for Korean films (114.6 million). The Thieves also became the most successful Korean feature of all time, ousting long-standing champ The Host, though this fact is debatable depending on whose figures you choose to follow. Now the first quarter of 2013 has passed and figures have come in showing an even greater rise in attendance and local market share....

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TTTT: Marvel's IRON MAN 3 Message to Comic Book Fans

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:00:07 -0500

One of the many old clichés in superhero comic books is a big blurb on the cover promising some massive Earth-shaking event, with the qualifier, "Because you demanded it!!!" "Because you demanded it! The ultimate showdown with Thanos!" Or, "Because you demanded it! The return of Gambit!" Or even "Because you demanded it! The final issue of Dazzler!" (And that claim may've more true than any.) That was the stuff of Marvel Comics when I was a kid. My wish was that one day, they'd make movies of these stories, and the rest of the world would then see how good they are (and that I'm not a nerd and was right the whole time and they were really missing out SO THERE!). This...

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Destroy All Monsters: Daddy Issues Are For Pussies, and Other Things I Learned From IRON MAN 3

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:01:10 -0500

"That's how Dad did it; that's how America does it; and it's worked out pretty well so far," Tony Stark / Robert Downey Jr. quipped in Iron Man, in a glib one-liner delivered to a hungry batch of arms-buyers, seconds before those selfsame arms blew the whole place up. It was American overconfidence, writ large - and welcome to Marvel's 21st century superhero world, where the villain might (if you're lucky) be the fella with the red skull for a head, but is more likely to be your kid brother, or your girlfriend's dad, or the creepy bald father figure running your daddy's company for you, with the not-at-all-evil-sounding name of Obadiah Stane. By the time Tony Stark is chiding an 11-year-old boy for...

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Hollywood Beat: Battle Of The Streaming Services Heats Up - Amazon Comedy Vs. Netflix Selection

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:01:10 -0500

Within recent weeks, Amazon.com launched 14 original comedy pilot episodes, Netflix launched another new original series -- then lost hundreds of titles -- and Warner Bros. launched a streaming service for their Warner Archive. The battle of the streaming services is heating up, and with good reason. Home spending on entertainment "rose about 5 percent in the first quarter," according to the Digital Entertainment Group (as reported by the New York Times). The same report noted: "Sales in digital formats, including video-on-demand, rose more than 26 percent to about $1.6 billion, from about $1.2 billion a year earlier. Packaged good purchases rose about 2 percent to roughly $2.1 billion in the quarter, driven by growing sales in the Blu-ray format." Note the dramatic increase in...

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Win This Limited Edition CAROLINE AND JACKIE Variant Poster by Paul Jeffrey

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:30:09 -0500

Adam Christian Clark's Tribeca 2012-debuting familial thriller Caroline and Jackie opened last weekend in New York and on VOD from Phase 4 Films (check out the trailer here). To mark the occasion, we've got five of these awesome Limited Edition Variant posters to give away. Designed by Paul Jeffrey, the poster is a beautiful representation of the complex duality at play in the film. Here is a bit more about Jeffrey: "Paul has been designing movie posters, heavy metal albums, and broadway campaigns along with a bunch of other stuff for the past 10 years. His other recent works include designs for Goro Miyazaki's From Up on Poppy Hill, heartfelt horror film Dead Weight, and the indie comedy B-Side. In the past he has worked...

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Twitchvision: Talking IRON MAN 3 and More HOT DOCS!

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:30:43 -0500

With Hot Docs winding down this weekend, was time to highlight a couple more faves, from the Ross Brother's 3-hour-epic River, through Caucus, After Tiller, and 12 O'Clock Boys. Full reviews of these to come, so consider these a video tease.Also had fun with Tony Stark's latest adventure, even if (spoiler!) they couldn't keep a leading actress I don't particularly enjoy dead for very long.Ah, well, maybe they'll cull the cast next go 'round. Check out the video embedded below:...

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Learning from the Masters of Cinema: Kawashima Yuzo's BAKUMATSU TAIYO-DEN (THE SUN IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE SHOGUNATE)

Mon, 06 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

When highly respected Japanese film magazine, Kinema Junpo, published its list of the Best Japanese Films of the 20th Century back in 1999, it featured many undisputed classics from the likes of Kurosawa Akira, Mizoguchi Kenji, Naruse Mikio and Ozu Yasujiro. However, many Western observers would have been flummoxed by the film that sat proudly in the No.5 spot: Bakumatsu Taiyo-den by Kawashima Yuzo. This film, released through Nikkatsu Studios in 1957, has gone largely unseen by audiences in the West. In fact, this new DVD and Blu-ray release from Masters of Cinema marks the first time that any of Kawashima's films have been released on disc in this part of the world. The reasons for this are unclear, but when Nikkatsu produced a newly...

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Aussie Filmmaker Andrew Morgan Uses Indiegogo In Reverse To Distribute Debut Feature

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:32:25 -0500

Andrew Morgan is an experimental filmmaker, with his feature debut Yes No Yes Yes Go a sort of documentary-fiction hybrid, so it's fitting that he's also decided to release the film in an experimental way. It's a variation of what we've seen before, releasing a film online for a pay-per-view fee, but instead of using an iTunes-style platform, Morgan has opted to cut out almost all middlemen and distribute the feature direct to his audience via Indiegogo. So instead of going to his Indiegogo page to pay money to support a film that might not come out for a year or two, interested viewers can either buy a basic HD download they can watch immediately or choose from a bunch of packages all the way up...

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LA Asian Pacific Film Fest 2013: Twitch Picks 5 Can't Miss Titles

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:51:21 -0500

With the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival kicking off tonight, Twitch is here to recommend five can't miss titles for your festival planning. LAAPFF (aka VC Fest) runs May 2-12 at the DGA, CGV, and Art Theatre of Long Beach. Check out the official site for more and let us know what you are going to see! LINSANITY Evan Jackson Leong's Sundance 2013 docu has found just about as many fans throughout its festival run as the film's Chinese-American b-baller has in his meteoric rise to fame. The film opens the fest at the DGA tonight. CHINK Director Stanley Yung's crime thriller certainly has an inflammatory name. A VC alumni production through and through, the film is written by Koji Steven Sakai, produced by...

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5 Most Intriguing Indies In May: NO ONE LIVES, SIGHTSEERS, KINGS OF SUMMER, And More

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:00:03 -0500

Hollywood's summer blockbuster season "officially" begins this week -- and I'm already feeling burned out. As a curative aid, I've picked a handful of the most intriguing indies that will be receiving theatrical releases in the U.S. this month, films that I haven't seen yet. You're invited to share your picks in the comments section. If you live outside the U.S., what are the local titles you're most anticipating? No One Lives (May 10) Our own Todd Brown acknowledged that the film gives "director Ryuhei Kitamura ample room to stage and execute a series of elaborate and gory kills," although he felt everything else was handled poorly. OK, fine, but while I certainly respect Todd's opinion, our tastes in horror differ, and I'm still intrigued...

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Euro Beat: Jo Nesbø Brings OCCUPIED To TV, Plus Paris Gets A Drive-In Movie Theater

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:00:00 -0500

If you don't know the work of Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, you will very soon. Not only has a U.S. adaptation of his wacky thriller Headhunters (already adapted quite well in Norway by Morten Tyldum) been confirmed, but a U.S. version of The Snowman, featuring his recurring detective Harry Hole is also in development, though sadly no longer with Martin Scorsese directing as previously reported. And now, news has broken that Nesbø's work is coming to the small screen as well. Erik Skoldbjaerg, director of Insomnia (the one Christopher Nolan remade) will be working with the Swedish production house responsible for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films to create a ten-episode series called Occupied, based on an original idea by Nesbø. Here's the pitch,...

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Twitchvision: Talking PAIN & GAIN, THE COLONY, and More HOT DOCS Goodness!

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Our weekly Twitchvision hit, this time chatting over the phone with stalwart host Scott Laurie about the likes of The Colony and Michael Bay's Goodfellas-lite, Pain & Gain.Hot Docs is in full swing, with a number of full reviews on the site - had a chance to tease the Napster biography Downloaded, visit the hills of Branson, MO in We Always Lie To Strangers, and check out Beatlemania doc Good Ol' Freda.Video embedded below - comments are always welcome!...

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Full Disclosure: Twitch's Lists of Shame - April (Part 2)

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:00:00 -0500

Continued from hereOn the Waterfront (dir. Elia Kazan, 1954 USA)Winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay, winner of 4 Golden Globes, including Best Picture - Drama and Best Actor - DramaJ Hurtado, Contributing Writer: All I knew about Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront going in was that it was the source of the "I coulda been a contender" speech that Jake La Motta performs in Raging Bull. I knew that Marlon Brando played a former boxer, and that he had fallen from grace for one reason or another. What I was not prepared for was the gut-punch I got from a story so typical of '50s cinematic rebels. The dismantling of the American Dream and disintegration of the...

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Full Disclosure: Twitch's Lists of Shame - April (Part 1)

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:01 -0500

We carry on apace with this epic undertaking - finally each tackling a classic from our individual Lists of Shame, and sharing our thoughts with you the readers. This month sees the work of such cinematic luminaries as Ozu, Bergman and Cimino go under the spotlight, scrutinised by our writers for the very first time. So without further ado, let's go:Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (dir. George Roy Hill, 1969 USA)Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Original Song, winner of 8 BAFTA Awards, including Best FilmTodd Brown, Founder & Editor:Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is, to put it mildly, a very odd movie. A very odd movie with a litany of elements that...

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Twitchvision: Talking OBLIVION, MOLLY MAXWELL, and HOTDOCS Tease

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:30:41 -0500

Scott Laurie's back in the Anchor's chair, and we got to talk about Cruise's latest film that seems to incorporate just about every Sci-Fi film ever made, but in a kind of good way.Also chatted about Molly Maxwell by Director Sara St. Onge, a charming, nuanced tale of a high school girl falling for her teacher that succeeds by avoiding many pitfalls that usually beset such a tale.Finally, a tease of a couple films that'll be opening at Hotdocs this week, including The Manor, Muscle Shoals, and Tales From The Organ Trade....

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TTTT: Cruise at Earth's End: Watch it Spin Round to a Beautiful Oblivion

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:00:07 -0500

Hey, it's another TTTT column, where I, Jim Tudor, take you along on one of Tudor's Twitchin' Travel Tours! For this one, we leave the planet via bubbleship, only to return to to find it an abandoned post-apocalyptic wreck. That's right, I saw Oblivion. Here are a few of my thoughts on it: Oblivion (d. Joseph Kosinski, 2013. USA) When the rock band Eve 6 sang of spinning "'round to a beautiful oblivion" in the late 1990s hit song "Inside Out," the reference was to a heart in a blender. As kinda grotesque as that imagery is, the emotional turmoil it's meant to evoke is entirely relatable to many of us in the past decade-plus. The intensity of darkness, dread and lament in popular culture...

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Brussels 2013 Wrap: Blood, Guts, Singing Filmmakers

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:00:00 -0500

During the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, I saw vengeful ghosts, vampire threesomes, transvestite killers, monstrous gorillas, giant spiders and at least a dozen decapitations. Just as entertaining though, were the multiple directors that I saw singing a cappella to audiences of hundreds. I'm not sure when or how the festival tradition started (nor do I want to know), but literally every director who takes the stage to introduce their film is immediately met with a resounding chant from the audience of Chanson! Chanson! (That's "song" in French.) Most did not have a chance to thank people or say "enjoy the film." If you go to BIFFF as a filmmaker, you must sing. The reactions to this demand varied widely. Neil Jordan reluctantly went through...

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Tribeca 2013: Twitch Picks 17 Can't Miss Titles

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:25:01 -0500

Time to raise that curtain up! The Tribeca Film Fest starts tonight! We've already brought you plenty of previews with our looks at the Galas and Midnighters, the Documentary and Narrative Competitions, the Special Screenings and Shorts, and the Spotlight and Viewpoints sections. That's a whole lot of films and we're sure it's hard to pick from all of them, so we've made it easy and selected a mere 17 titles you can't leave town without checking out. And if you can't catch them all, never fear; the Twitch team will be bringing you news and reviews all throughout the fest. ADULT WORLD Emma Roberts is becoming quite the stalwart in the young quirky lead department and who better to pair her with than...

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Tribeca 2013 Preview: Spotlight And Viewpoints

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Well here we are. Tonight the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival opens with the premiere screening of The National concert documentary Mistaken For Strangers. Things then kick off good and proper tomorrow, the festivities running all the way to the 28th. So... you ready, New York? We at Twitch are just about. Before our Curtain Raiser this afternoon (featuring Team Twitch's top fest picks) Ryland and I will guide you through our selections for the Spotlight and Viewpoints programs.SpotlightALMOST CHRISTMASA Christmas comedy starring Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti as French Canadian ex-cons in New York? Well sign me up. Oh, and it's directed by Phil Morrison, the guy who did Junebug? Hey, even better! - Ben Umstead ADULT WORLD Emma Roberts stars as an aspiring poet...

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Hollywood Beat: Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski Talk OBLIVION Via Satellite And In IMAX

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:00:00 -0500

"I was scared shitless," Tom Cruise said. "Is it OK if I curse? This isn't television, right?" he confirmed. Beaming, he repeated himself. "I was scared shitless!" Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski participated in a question-and-answer session after a screening of Oblivion in New York last night that was broadcast live via satellite to nine other cities in the U.S. and was also available on the internet, as part of the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex screening series. Rebecca Keegan hosted, with the majority of the questions arriving via Twitter. Oblivion looks and sounds spectacular in a giant-sized IMAX theater, and the packed auditorium 'oohed' and 'aahed' in all the right places. Whatever else its merits as a film, Oblivion satisfies as a visual and...

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Tribeca 2013 Preview: Special Screenings And Shorts

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:00:00 -0500

With less than 24 hours until Tribeca kicks off, we're back again with another preview of this year's fest. Yesterday I laid eyes on a few fine looking flicks in the Gala and Midnight sections, this morning Ryland told you what was what in the World Documentary and World Narrative Competitions and right now we're both gonna tell you what's so special about the Special Screenings and then I'll take a look at the fest's Shorts Programming.Special ScreeningsALBERIThis video installation piece running at MoMA's PS1 looks at a strange and ancient ritual the men of Satriano, Italy once partook in: they would cover themselves in ivy, effectively becoming arboreal ghost men. If the above screenshot doesn't sell you, maybe the admission price will as this...

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Tribeca 2013 Preview: Documentary And Narrative Competitions

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:00:59 -0500

It's Tribeca time again as the film fest kicks off tomorrow in typical New York fashion with The National rock-doc Mistaken for Strangers. We took a look at that film, the other galas, and the midnight lineup yesterday -- and today we turn our attention to the documentary and narrative competitions. The documentary competition specifically has become a real focus for Tribeca in recent years. Here are a few films in each of those sections that caught our eye. World Documentary Competition MICHAEL H. PROFESSION: DIRECTOR Prolific behind-the-scenes documentarian Yves Montmayeur takes a look at the man, the myth, the legend, and the twitter account of director Michael Haneke. TEENAGE Based on a book by Jon Savage and narrated by Jena Malone, Ben Whishaw,...

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Tribeca 2013 Preview: Galas And Midnighters

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Dear readers, can you feel it? In the immortal words of Cyrus... Can you dig it? Keep your ear to the ground, your hand on the pulse, and tune into Twitch 'cause we're starting today, right now... yes, it's Tribeca Time once again. The 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival runs April 17 -28, and over the next few days Ryland Aldrich and myself will be highlighting titles from this year's program, culminating on Wednesday when our intrepid group of writers -- our eyes and ears in New York -- will be giving you their top picks in our glorious curtain raiser. But for now, take a gander at what this year's Gala and Midnight screenings have to offer.GalaBIG SHOTKevin Connolly's film on the economics of...

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Twitchvision: Talking TRANCE and THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:00:14 -0500

Ah, the joys of live television - despite skipping 42 (and having told the producers as much earlier in the week) was thrown a curveball without preparation to talk about the Jackie Robinson film that's dominated this weekend's box office. Bonus: Got to talk again about the misguided but still charming Red Tails.While I've not yet seen it, I do feel that more often than not a proper documentary does a much better job for me than a fiction film in telling a sports story - sure, there are a few exceptions, but even the likes of Ken Burn's epic PBS doc on baseball holds more interest for me than does this latest film, even if IndyHan Solo is looking particularly over-the-top in this one....

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Twitch Talks UPSTREAM COLOR

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:00:15 -0500

Shane Carruth's followup to his stunning debut Primer expands to additional theatres this week (and will be available for download and streaming May 7). Our own Eric Snider reviewed the film at Sundance, suggesting that "Upstream Color is interesting; it just doesn't get interesting till after it's over."Here's more from Eric's review: "Carruth relates this strange tale with some linear jumps, dialogue-free sections, and a few other flourishes, but the story itself isn't complicated. (Weird, sure. Not complicated.) What it means is another matter. Since we're clearly not meant to take it literally (or at least not just literally), we look for clues to its interpretation. We have to: taken merely at face value, the story is cold, dispassionate, with characters we have no reason to...

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Adventures in Classic Korean Cinema: THE BALL SHOT BY A MIDGET

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 03:00:00 -0500

Adventures in Classic Korean Cinema is a bi-weekly feature looking back at classic South Korean Cinema. Korean Cinema, especially when at its best, frequently explores pressing themes and social realities to thrilling effect. The deeper I delve into classic Korean Cinema, the clearer it becomes that this has always been the case. Throughout Korean film history, the only real difference is that the issues mined by filmmakers have changed over time. One such trait has been encroaching urbanization and among the best examples of its representation on screen is Lee Won-se's The Ball Shot by a Midget (1981). This trend can be seen in Korean films spanning a few decades starting in the 1960s, once the dust began to settle after the Korean War. In...

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70s Rewind: DEADHEAD MILES, A Trucker Comedy Written By Terrence Malick

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:00:04 -0500

Lately, Terrence Malick has been dividing audiences with To the Wonder, another visual exercise on which he is said to have tossed the script, or most of it. (Our own Kurt Halfyward weighed in on the film when it screened at the Toronto fest last fall; it opens in limited release in the U.S. on April 12 and in Canada on April 19.) So what better way to consider how far he's come then by watching a movie made from one of his early scripts? After his film school days in the first class at AFI (his fellow students included David Lynch), Malick reportedly did a couple of days work on the script for Jack Nicholson's Drive, He Said and wrote an unused draft of...

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Twitchvision: Talking EVIL DEAD, THE SAPPHIRES, JURASSIC PARK 3D and ROGER EBERT RIP

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

New guest host for this weekend's Twitchvision, but we still managed to get through quite a bit! Talked about the Evil Dead remake (which I found pretty terrible, my sentiments shared by those expressed in Kurt Halfyard's review), Jurassic Park 3D (go see it!), and the charming if slight film The Sapphires.Also had another chance to express my admiration for Roger Ebert, and to once again publicly thank the man for being such an important person in my life as a film critic. You can read my Cinerumination about him here, written a day before his death....

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Learning from the Masters of Cinema: Claude Chabrol's LE BEAU SERGE and LES COUSINS

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Welcome to a new regular feature looking at the new releases from Eureka Entertainment's Masters of Cinema series. It will publish on release day, whenever a new title (or titles) hits the shelves, taking in the film(s) in question and the package as a whole.For many, Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut are widely held to be the pioneers of the French New Wave (or Nouvelle Vague) movement. It was Claude Chabrol, however, who is credited with kick-starting this ambitious and groundbreaking filmmaking coup, with his 1958 debut Le beau Serge paving the way for such classics as Le Quatre Cent Coups, A Bout de Souffle and his own follow-up, Les Cousins. Chabrol started out, as was the case for Godard, Truffaut, Jacques Rivette and almost...

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Hollywood Beat: The Grouch-ification of Harrison Ford

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:00:04 -0500

When did Harrison Ford get so grouchy? The trailer for 42, Brian Helgeland's bio-pic that opens on Friday, April 12, reveals Ford as the growling, threatening Branch Rickey, the real-life Brooklyn Dodgers baseball executive who picked Jackie Robinson as the player to break the sport's color barrier in the late 1940s. The anger that apparently streaks through Ford's performance is not unique to his latest film; indeed, it's a personality trait abundantly evident in his three most recent roles. But it's also a tendency that has marked the work of the actor, now aged 70, for four decades, and seems to indicate that he has no interest in aging gracefully as he slopes toward the end of his career. And it could point the way...

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IFFLA 2013 Preview: India In The Spotlight Again!

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:00:38 -0500

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles is nearly upon us with an April 9th opening looming, so we thought we'd give you a little preview of the awesome films coming to the City of Angels. Unfortunately, I won't be in Los Angeles to cover the festival first hand, but I will be presenting a few new reviews for the festival as the week wears on. In the meantime, I've prepared a small list of features that are definitely worth checking out, including links to Twitch reviews from festivals past.Gangs of WasseypurIFFLA's opening night gala screening is Anurag Kashyap's crime epic Gangs of Wasseypur, which will be shown over two nights. We've written plenty about the film here, but I decided to add a little...

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Jason Gorber's Cineruminations: Ebert's Presence, aka Roger and Me [Update: R.I.P. Roger]

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:53:11 -0500

Updated April 4, 2013: One day after I posted this article, The Chicago Sun-Times announced that Roger Ebert has died at the age of 70. Click below to view video: Roger Ebert announced late last night what many had feared - his so-called "hip surgery" that resulted in an unusual respite from his torrent of tweets proved to be in fact a recurrence of cancer, the same disease that helped ravage his jaw and left him unable to speak.Typically, I write over 200 reviews a year for the Sun-Times that are carried by Universal Press Syndicate in some 200 newspapers. Last year, I wrote the most of my career, including 306 movie reviews, a blog post or two a week, and assorted other articles. I...

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Boozie Movies: EVIL DEAD and Falling Out of Love With Sam Raimi

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:00:00 -0500

As with any Boozie Movie piece, caution should be exercised when proceeding. There are spoilers ahead and I was a little bit drunk and more than a little bit cranky. But beyond exposing my state of mind it's intended to temper whatever lofty expectations you may have developed while also exploring a long relationship with the original. So take what comes ahead with a healthy dose of salt. SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!I feel so cheap and used. I feel like I've just been suckered out of my hard earned money once again by a second rate prostitute who doesn't even provide full service with any type of happy ending. I feel like I just got swindled into a $200 private dance in the...

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Okinawa International Movie Festival 2013: A Celebration of Laughter & Peace (Part 2)

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:00:00 -0500

I chose to dedicate my second full day at the 5th Okinawa International Movie Festival to exploring some of the shorts in the Local Origination Project section. These Community-Based Movies received funding from their respective region in return for highlighting values, interests and attractions unique to that specific area. The results were eclectic, ambitious and surprisingly entertaining, as the filmmakers pushed themselves to tell meaningful stories, while also exploring a variety of genres, styles and themes.MG-2416While the title doesn't offer much of a clue, Taniguchi Hitonori's film is a loving homage to the work of directors like Quentin Tarantino, Tobe Hooper and Iguchi Noboru. Centring around the small community of Marukame in Kodokawa prefecture, the story follows Shinsuke as he returns home from the big...

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Twitchvision: Talking G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, THE HOST, and Easter/Passover Movies

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:30:00 -0500

While I had to skip a press screening of the latest in the G.I. Joe franchise because of this week's "Seder" thing, I ended up paying good money to see The Rock fight some bumblebees (really, it was kind of hard to pay attention to what was going on after a while). While I enjoyed it, especially the protracted Ninjas-on-a-mountain bit, the same could not be said for The Host (which I kind of disliked, as can be seen here). Plus, brief shout-outs about picking fun Passoveaster™ films to watch during this Equinox-ish time period, including Martin Scorsese's stunning Last Temptation of Christ, Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, and, of course, the sheer magnificence that is Jesus Christ Superstar....

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Full Disclosure: Twitch's Lists of Shame - March (Part 2)

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Continued from here...The Wages of Fear (dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953 France)Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival, Golen Bear at Berlin International Film Festival, BAFTA for Best Film from any Source, Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language FilmBen Umstead, East Coast Editor:I'm going to be brutally honest here. It ain't gonna be pretty and will probably put any serious film writing I do to question, but here goes... I found Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages Of Fear utterly boring. Yep. I'm certain one Jason Gorber is spinning in his easy chair right about now, so I'll imagine him asking this: "But how, Ben? How? It's one of the greatest suspense movies of all time! The slow build up of tension, the absolute moment-to-moment...

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Full Disclosure: Twitch's Lists of Shame - March (Part 1)

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:01 -0500

It is confession time once again, and this month is a special Easter edition of Full Disclosure. In our monthly efforts to catch up with revered classics and widely-considered must-sees that have thus far passed us by, not only are we admitting our own fallibility as mere mortal cinephiles, but more importantly resurrecting a number of cinematic masterpieces for renewed debate and scrutiny.Seven Samurai (dir. Kurosawa Akira, 1954 Japan)Winner of the Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival, nominated for 2 Academy AwardsTodd Brown, Founder & Editor:The remarkable thing about Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is not that it breaks ground or does anything particularly new. No, by this point we've all seen this basic story structure - a downtrodden village enlists the help of rogue warriors to protect...

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