“Sex films sell, and other stuff doesn’t . . . or at least not nearly as well,” says film preservationist Joe Rubin. Rubin, 24 years old, is one of the creators working Skinaflix, a VOD-style streaming video service he calls “the Netflix of porn.” At Vinegar Syndrome, a separate DVD/Blu-Ray–centric…
When we first meet the hero of Son of God, a kind of chintzy melodrama about the horrors of capital punishment, he’s approaching a fisherman with a classic boiler-room pitch: “Just give me an hour, and I will give you a whole new life,” Jesus (Diogo Morgado) promises Peter (Darwin…
When filmmaker Thomas Morgan first heard Pushpa Basnet’s story, he didn’t believe it. That’s because Basnet’s grassroots aid organization houses and educates children in Nepal who would otherwise be stuck in prison with their parents while they served their sentence. He thought he must’ve misheard her. He thought, surely, children…
Claude Lanzmann built Shoah, his nine-hour 1985 Holocaust documentary, from over 350 hours of footage — interviews, staged scenes, silent European landscapes as seen from a passing train, their secrets reborn in tender shades of green. One interview, with the only surviving former chairman of a Czech ghetto’s Nazi-appointed Jewish…
It doesn’t feature iPhones, Twitter, or an Internet, and yet Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop remains perhaps the most prescient sci-fi effort of the past 30 years — a work from 1987 whose continuing relevance is matched by the fact that no one would dare make it today. Or, at least, remake…
No matter what else he does, director Sam Raimi has two unassailable fan favorites under his belt: 1987’s Evil Dead 2 and the 1992 trilogy-capper Army of Darkness. (His first film, 1981’s The Evil Dead, is more “respected” than “loved” by the fans.) Released between those two films, Raimi’s 1990…
Here’s the last thing I ever would have expected out of Pompeii, that sword-thrust of 3D gladiator-vs.-volcano madness coming right at your disbelieving eyeholes. An hour or so in, when Vesuvius exhausts its portentous rumblings and blows its top (3D!), I legitimately wasn’t ready. Yes, all that third-act destruction is…
In 1990, the same year that Kevin Costner released the massive global hit Dances with Wolves, a curious thing happened in France. The name Kevin became the country’s most popular for new babies, a Gaelic moniker edging out national stalwarts like Antoine and Jules. Imagine if everyone in America suddenly…
Action heroes with nothing to lose are the best kind, perhaps the only kind worth watching. In the opening seconds of Jaume Collet-Serra’s Non-Stop, Liam Neeson’s federal air marshal Bill Marks slumps in his parked vehicle, sloshing a few glugs of whiskey into a paper cup and stirring it up…
First, let’s get this out of the way: There is no Santa Claus. Now, on to a perhaps even harsher truth: There are certain indications that Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, whose 17th-century paintings — like Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Music Lesson — show an extraordinarily delicate touch…
The Sedona International Film Festival is rapidly approaching, and if you’re as overwhelmed by the cinematic possibilities as we are, don’t fret. With about 150 films showing between February 22 and March 2, there are a lot of options to sift through, making it well worth the nearly two-hour drive…
Unless you’re really into the local tattoo artist scene, you’ve probably never heard of Old Town Ink co-owner Aaron “Bubba” Irwin. But Irwin’s notoriety will likely grow this month, after the season four première of Spike TV’s Ink Master at 10 p.m. Tuesday, February 25, in which Irwin is a…
Director José Padilha’s long-delayed RoboCop reboot has arrived, and it’s neither an unalloyed (see what I did there?) triumph nor the travesty that partisans of Paul Verhoeven’s subversive Reagan-era classic had feared. At least, and at most, it’s different, taking bold liberties with the original text, as remakes should. One…
The endless love in question unfolds in that universe where shy, bookish teenage girls are always catalog-model beautiful, not a pimple in sight or a pound overweight, not a garment from Hot Topic darkening their closets. The movie tells us that 17-year-old Jade Butterfield (Gabriella Wilde) is “awkward” and has…
Just as animated characters who look too human creep us out, could there be a phenomenon we might call the RomCom Uncanny Valley, a case when movie stars’ gorgeousness fully outshines our ability to believe their characters’ humdrum relationship problems? Radiant lovers make radiant love — and then argue about…
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, both of which publish special daily issues at the major international festivals, may be the most famous movie trade magazines. But every morning at any of these festivals, including Berlin, most critics I know – and probably plenty of industry people, too – turn to…
Mark your calendars, film buffs. The Phoenix Film Festival returns to Harkins Scottsdale 101 from Thursday, April 3, through Thursday, April 10, and, if its opening night is any indication, we’d bet that this year’s lineup will be a good one…
One of America’s first child stars, Shirley Temple Black, passed away Monday, February 10, at age 85. The box office golden child of the 1930s will always be remembered for such film classics as Heidi, The Little Colonel, A Little Princess, The Littlest Rebel, and Wee Willie Winkie, which, as…
Congratulations, Detroit. In 1987, Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop cemented it as the most violent city in the world, an honor the Motor City resented for decades until its powers that be realized they may as well erect a statue of Peter Weller and milk the tourism. Twenty-seven years later, the attention…
Does Bob Costas have pink eye? Yikes. #welcometoSochi pic.twitter.com/oPE7iTpkdb— Dan Ukrainetz (@Dan_Uk1) February 8, 2014 The lead-up to Sochi was filled with dire signs that Putin’s games were doomed. The toilets are weird! There’s no Chobani! They’re butchering thousands of dogs! My honey packet had a bee in it! And…
Remember in college when all of your friends started playing Ultimate Frisbee? Well, it turns out some people are still way into it, as documented by the new, disc-infused web series The Break Side…
Arizona-based film company Running Wild Films has completed its goal to shoot a film a week for one year. Now, Running Wild will screen the films at the 52 Films/52 Weeks Festival this weekend from Friday, February 7, through Sunday, February 9. The festival will be held at Mariscos Vuelve…
