In 2010, the internationally celebrated Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested at his home. A neorealist who has been a vocal opponent of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, Panahi was accused of “[participating] in a gathering and carrying out propaganda against the system,” sentenced to six years in prison, and banned from…
The reports of the death of 3D may be slightly exaggerated. The recent re-launch of Titanic in all its schmaltzy glory is further proof that the technology is going to just keep “Comin’ At Ya!”Despite box office flop after flop, Hollywood studios are convinced that the movie-going world wants the…
FDR: American Badass has more random similes than a roast of Rob Schneider co-hosted by the Family Guy-writing manatees and Saturday Night Live’s Stefon. Which is to say, there are a lot. The unapologetically absurd spoof – brought to you by the writer/director team of the equally ridiculous parody Poolboy:…
The news came late yesterday that Bully – the controversial documentary about bullying in America’s schools that launched a nationwide debate when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) granted it an R rating – has been re-cut to earn a PG-13 rating. This revision comes in anticipation of its…
Here’s the thing about American film ratings systems: They’ve never been particularly consistent or logical. Consider Kate Winslet’s breasts, which will be revisiting a theatre near you beginning this week in James Cameron’s 3D reinvention of Titanic. Access to a teenage audience (of the sort who could best appreciate Leonardo…
Watch any 11-minute episode of Adult Swim’s warped, experimental sketch series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and then try to explain what Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim — the show’s stars and creative engine — do for a living. “‘Comedians’ never seems the right word for it, does…
A historical romance with a then-unheard-of price tag, James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic was the nearest thing to a Gone With the Wind-style cinematic event that the millennials could call their own. Now Titanic has bobbed to the surface yet again in a 3-D re-release, making a play for an audience…
Sometimes a movie screens for one night only, and sometimes it shows for weeks — months even. That’s why when it comes to catching an independent or limited-release film at a local theater, planning ahead is crucial. Planners that we are, we’ve selected five must-see flicks screening in the Valley…
For some, The Woman in the Fifth is like the lullaby you hear before a nightmare: dark, foreboding, but still alarmingly beautiful. For others, it is like the lullaby you hear before you slip, confused, into a midday nap in your theater seat. Written and directed by award-winning Polish filmmaker…
Monster Brawl is the kind of idea that you and your friends come up with at around 2:30 in the morning, when the collective genius is stifled only intermittently by handfuls of pizza-flavored Goldfish. The setting: a wrestling ring in the middle of a spooky graveyard. Eight movie monsters –…
Zhang Yimou was an ideal choice to be chief director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics’s opening and closing ceremonies. With recent movies like House of Flying Daggers and Hero, the Chinese filmmaker of Raise the Red Lantern lately has proved to be a man more enamored of spectacle than characters…
Yes, really. Thanks to The Online Musical (and our friends at Changing Hands for sharing the link), we can now (over)indulge in our Hunger Games obsession with the introduction of the Beanie Baby Hunger Games, officially described as “a parody of the melodrama of The Hunger Games and of the…
The Phoenix Film Festival starts this week. Whether you’re an aspiring filmmaker, a connoisseur of cinema, or just someone who enjoys festivals where your primary activity involves sitting down, you’ll definitely want to check out this eight-day movie marathon from March 29 to April 5.The festival offers a variety of…
After what seems like an eternity, AMC’s sytlized drama Mad Men will return for its fifth season with a two-hour premiere this Sunday at 9 p.m. after nearly a year and a half off the air. And for mega fans (which we will absolutely cop to being) that means going…
“If no one watches, then they don’t have a game,” a teenager says in this faithful if cautious adaptation of the first volume of Suzanne Collins’ astronomically successful dystopic YA trilogy. A withering indictment of omnipresent screens, endless spectacle, and debased celebrity culture, The Hunger Games was inspired, the author…
In the first scene of 2012 Israel’s Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, Footnote, Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi) — a 40-something Talmudic scholar whose research has earned adulation while his 60-something father’s has mostly been ignored — accepts an honor with an obliviously glib speech built around a childhood anecdote about…
Welcome to the Morning Buzz, a catch-up on interesting happenings around the city and country and a quick guide to what (and who) to keep your eyes on. We’ll be here, first thing every weekday, to get you going. Here’s what’s buzzing this morning: This week in supposedly popular television shows…
Clayton McDougall, Ben Kitnick, and Saxon Richardson chat excitedly around a table at Cartel Coffee in Tempe. The ASU film students are in their freshman year, and between worrying about mid-terms and what they’ll do for spring break, they’re planning the big release of their web series, K.C. Carrington Presents:…
Written and directed by Paul Weitz, Being Flynn is an adaptation of Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which explored the author’s pivotal experience working at the Boston homeless shelter where his down-and-out dad, Jonathan, was a frequent guest. In the movie, Paul Dano and Robert…
Bro, how times have changed: 21 Jump Street is now a buddy comedy. The television show 21 Jump Street, about cops who go undercover as high-schoolers, debuted on Fox in 1987 — one year after the network debuted — and ran until 1991, launching the career of Johnny Depp (who…
How did the Will Ferrell-in-Spanish movie ever get made? Casa de Mi Padre is a Spanish-language comedy starring Will Ferrell as a simpleminded, asexual Mexican cowboy who welcomes the return of his prodigal brother Raul (Diego Luna) to the family ranch but eyes Raul’s beautiful fiancée with suspicion. The movie…
If the plot of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel The Hunger Games — and the soon-to-be-released film adaptation — seems eerily familiar, it’s probably because it is. The ultra-popular teen-oriented tale of adolescents fighting to the death at the behest of the government in the not-too-distant future is similar in many…
