Three years ago, the United States was not quite ready for Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost. Now, the merry jesters who unleashed 2004’s zombie genre romp “Shaun of the Dead” have established themselves as darlings on the international cinematic scene – the geeks have become the stars. Their fans include Quentin Tarantino and […]
Quentin Tarantino has ruined the cinema. Yes, with his wildly popular 1994 crime opus “Pulp Fiction” he blew open the floodgates for independent filmmakers in the mid-90s and jump-started an otherwise torpid American film market. But as with all messiahs and revolutionaries, the great leader brought with him lesser followers – filmmakers satisfied only to […]
Big names in American movies today from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg to Wes Anderson have roots in independent film productions. Just two years ago, indie movies became the two biggest sleeper hits of the summer: “Garden State” and “Napoleon Dynamite.” Looking at this year’s roster of nominees for best picture at the Oscars, one […]
“I hate fathers, and I never wanted to be one.” -Steve Zissou, “The Life Aquatic” There is little doubt that Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote last winter’s “The Life Aquatic” with wunderkind Wes Anderson, is the author of that line. In his smart, resonant new film “The Squid and the Whale,” writer-director Baumbach depicts the autobiographical […]
One might call the upcoming Washington, D.C., premiere of the final Star Wars movie “Episode III: Revenge of the Altruists.” On May 12, one week before the film’s nationwide release, “Star Wars: Episode III” will premiere at a charity event benefiting the Children’s Defense Fund. Carrie Fisher, known best to film fans as the original […]
It’s an indisputable fact – American summer cinema is defined by gargantuan blockbuster films. As Batman swoops back into theaters, the “Star Wars” saga draws to a close and Johnny Depp dons a hat once worn by Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, blockbusters may rule summer 2005 even more so than usual. But perhaps the […]
When world-renowned French film director Bertrand Tavernier was approached by the American Film Institute to attend a screening of his newest film “Holy Lola,” he agreed, but also wanted to meet with the group of people that the former Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti once called “the future of the film business” […]
Everyone loves a good revenge story. Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic orgy “Kill Bill,” for all its formal splendor, was driven by an all-too-simple narrative: Bill tried to kill the Bride, and now the Bride is going to kill Bill. If one were subtract that film’s cartoonish dismemberments, decapitations and smartass postmodernist references and add a convoluted, […]
The novels of pulp author Elmore Leonard have provided the foundation for a few wonderfully realized film adaptations. Steven Soderbergh brought his too-cool-for-school stylistics to his version “Out of Sight,” Quentin Tarantino took Leonard’s book “Rum Punch” and created the subtle yet great “Jackie Brown,” and ten years ago, Barry Sonnenfeld brought “Get Shorty” to […]