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Co-winner of the Audience Award at the Cinequest Film Festival, The Village Barbershop is one of those little indie films you can't help but root for. Variety called director Chris Ford's first feature "a cannily low-key charmer." We chatted by email with filmmaker Ford, lead actress Shelly Cole, and supporting actor Amos Glick (who plays star John Ratzenberg's Scrooge-ish landlord.) Each were quite candid with us about the trials and rewards of making a "small" film like Village Barbershop. Read more >> |
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Right One..., Happy Go Lucky and a lot more good stuff.
- What We're Watching: Rachel Getting Married, Saved From Flames, Sex and the Single Girl.
- Explore: Watchmen Pubcast, Frontier of Dawn, Tokyo! contest reminder.
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This Swedish film, based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, made #1 on GC's Craig Phillips Best of '08, and quite a few other best of lists as well. Craig: "One of the better vampire films in recent years, and yet it to call it merely that or merely a coming of age film is to downplay its originality and the impression it leaves on your soul. Wintry landscapes a perfect setting for the utter loneliness both protagonists feel as well as for the occasional shocks of bloody horror (though those scenes are few, if memorable)." Wesley Morris adds: "The beauty of Let the Right One In resides in the way the horror remains grounded in a tragic kind of love." |
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"[Mike] Leigh and his actors work mysterious magic in Happy Go Lucky," wrote Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "This is a movie about hitting the groove of everyday life and, nearly miraculously, getting music out of it." Adds Michael Sragow: "British director Leigh has made the first great comedy for our new depression." But of course its star should not be overlooked, even though the Oscars inexplicably did just that: "No list of the year's best performances should be made without her ( Sally Hawkins)," wrote Peter Travers. |
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Aaron Hillis on GC Daily: I would never expect everyone to embrace a film I feel passionately about, so while I happen to think Rachel Getting Married—a raw-nerved, humanist dramedy about a dysfunctional Connecticut clan who can't be as magnanimous as they think they are because they haven't dealt with a familial tragedy—was the best American film released theatrically last year, I'm not rattled that some found it shrill, or slight, or messy. (Though I think those dismissive words address the characters' behavior, not the film itself.) Beyond its awards-season snubs (including director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Jenny Lumet), there shouldn't be fear of neglect for a film that clearly had its champions, and I'm even amused... More here >> |
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Flicker Alley, the little company that could, continues to impress, releasing quality items that rival The Criterion Collection and Kino. Their newest is a pocket cinema museum, a three-disc set full of short gems of all stripes, all supposedly " Saved From the Flames." The 54 films included run a combined seven hours, but I'll give the highlights. It starts with a couple of classics from the Lumière Brothers, whose mise-en-scène still seems deceptively simple and undeniably effective... Read review >>
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It should surprise no one that when Warner Brothers tapped Joseph Heller to adapt Cosmopolitan editrix's Helen Gurley Brown's 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl the scribe behind hyper male-centric satires like Catch-22 and "Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man" would be somewhat befuddled by the plot-free (though delightfully ageless) testament to glamour and female sexual liberation. The resulting film would be a toothless sex farce celebrating marriage that feels at times oddly spiteful. Natalie Wood plays Dr. Helen Gurley Brown... read review >> |
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Film bloggers and critics Glenn Kenny and Andrew Grant sat down with Aaron Hillis at a Brooklyn bar/restaurant to " pubcast" their thoughts on Watchmen, the mega-expensive, mega-long adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' groundbreaking graphic novel. Also on the Daily: The Film of the Week, Frontier of Dawn. |
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Just a reminder about this one. In Tokyo!, three visionary directors ( Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city. To celebrate the premiere of Tokyo!, GreenCine is pleased to give away 2 pairs of tickets for the opening week screenings at the Landmark Theaters in San Francisco (exact location TBD) and Los Angeles (Nuart Theater in Santa Monica), March 20th - March 26th. Go here >> |
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