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"Recovering from a dangerous brain hemorrhage at the end of 2004 that left her half paralyzed for several months, [Catherine] Breillat has returned to her artistry with a dazzling ferocity," writes Michael Guillén, introducing his interview with the talented French filmmaker. "The fire of trauma has lent her a searing voice of urgency." Her new film is
The Last Mistress, of which, The New York Sun's Steve Dollar writes: "[S]o deliciously fun is the way she uses the narrative as a template for her own playful (and fever-ridden) ideas about the anarchy of passion and the disorder of decorum." Read "Catherine Breillat: "I Love Blood" >>
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Mad Men, Shotgun Stories, and more.
- What We're Watching: Mishima, Narayama, and Dirty Harry.
- Explore: Tell No One.
- Special Promo: Films We Like contest.
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This dark and fascinating TV series set in the 60s airs on AMC of all places and the critics bought what they were selling. "This sleek, sexy, smartly cynical drama about selling everything from cigarettes to Nixon also nails the era's attitudes of casual prejudice and sexual manipulation," wrote TV Guide's Matt Roush. Adds the New Yorker's Nancy Franklin, " Mad Men is smart and tremendously attractive, and it stirs you more than it probably should." Here's another cool aspect of the show. |
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"An understated gem," extolled the LA Times. "Writer-director Jeff Nichols, making his feature debut, has created a richly textured world." Adds: Roger Ebert: "Here is a tense and sorrowful film where common sense struggles with blood lust." And from the Onion AV Club: "Well-plotted, with a strong lead performance by Michael Shannon, and a fair amount of authentic regional flavor. It isn't really meant to be a treatise on Southern life. At heart, it's a country-fried genre film, minus the peppery white gravy." More. |
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Paul Schrader -- having internalized the criticism he faced after Taxi Driver of pouring his obsession with ritualistic suicide into an illiterate, mentally ill Vietnam veteran -- explores the real life (and gruesome death) of one of Japan's most revered literary figures, Yukio Mishima. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters exists in Schrader's eclectic directorial body of work squarely between the Cat People re-make and the odd Joan Jett/Michael J. Fox vehicle Light of Day. And even though he would go on to direct the widely commended Affliction and the intriguing Auto Focus, Schrader has always maintained (rightfully so) that Mishima was his greatest work. The film follows the traditional trajectory of a biopic: his dysfunctional upbringing, romantic endeavors, romantic failures, political radicalization and self-discovery but the wikipedia-approach is not the main objective. Schrader... Read review >>
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Shohei Imamura is not generally held in the same high esteem as other great Japanese filmmakers such as Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa. Even after viewing all of his later films--his segment of 11-09-01, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, Dr. Akagi, The Eel and Black Rain, I would have agreed with that assessment. Now that I have also seen two of his earlier works-- Vengeance Is Mine and the recently-released-to-disc Ballad of Narayama (from 1983), I'm inclined to hold him in similar, if not greater, regard. Narayama, I believe, is a classic film and should not be missed by anyone with a love for cinema or Japan... read review >>
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If you watch enough Dirty Harry movies consecutively -- say, all five of them, as I did this past week, in viewing the newly remastered Dirty Harry Deluxe Collector's Edition from Warner Brothers -- you either go mad, or you start to spot a number of interesting patterns... Taken as a whole, the Dirty Harry series is a fascinating study of an American period that begins with the disillusionment and tumult felt in the early 70s and ends with "Morning in America" era Reagan (and some disillusionment beginning to be felt with that as well). Individually, the films are certainly a mixed bag, but even the lesser films in the series have a certain fascination about them. And each of these new discs offers up enough extras to make not only a die-hard fan happy, but... read review >> |
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" Hitchcock's 'Wrong Man' scenario gets an invigorating French update in Tell No One, a long-winded but gripping thriller based on American author Harlan Coben's bestseller," writes Nick Schager in Slant, reviewing "a film whose entertainingly fleet (and sometimes downright harried) pace... and enticing central mysteries deliver the tangy kicks one craves from juicy pulp." With Tell No One opening on both coasts this weekend, James Van Maanen talks with Coben and actor-director Guillaume Canet about their César Award-winner.
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filmswelike is a Toronto-based independent film distribution company which represents some of the biggest films from the so-called "mumblecore" movement, including Four Eyed Monsters, Mutual Appreciation and LOL. This summer, they're visiting Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton with a collection of filmmakers who embody the DIY spirit, meaning: young, ambitious, and broke. To kick off The Generation DIY film festival filmswelike and GreenCine bring you The Generation DIY Movie Giveaway! You can win a DVD package which contains 3 movies by DIY filmmakers. For details go here.
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Happy Birthday, America
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