December 2008 - Posts

Ann Savage, 1921-2008.
Mon, Dec 29 2008 1:46 PM
Ann Savage, 1940s uber femme fatale, passed away on Christmas day at age 87. Last seen playing "Mother" in Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg," casting that was halfway between a cinephile in-joke and the perfect measure of Maddin's favorite Freudian themes, Savage was probably best known for her role in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 "Detour." A cultish B-movie that was shot in six days, "Detour" is burdened with obvious budget constraints, technical mistakes and outlandish characterizations, all of which somehow magically work in its favor to make it an unforgettable 68-minute noir landmark. Tom Neal plays Al Roberts, a piano player who blames his series of ever more questionable ethical choices on sheer bad luck, inevitabilities, things out of his hands entirely -- he's doling out the voiceover, so it's his privilege -- as he tries to make his way to Sue, the sweet blond girl waiting for him in California,...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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David Hudson joins IFC.com.
Fri, Dec 19 2008 12:55 PM
It's my great, great pleasure to announce that Greencine Daily's David Hudson will be joining us here at IFC.com starting January 1st. He'll continue blogging just as he has been the past five years, inexhaustibly collecting and linking to everything worth knowing in the world of film news. I've long admired David, whose blog has been an essential source for anyone who loves film, and I'm thrilled to have him here at the site. I'll be continuing in what's become, lately, more of an editor role -- we'll be expanding and build on our regular film-related editorial content in the new year -- though this blog will live on, home to my festival coverage, film reviews and sporadic, unasked-for musings on news and so forth. David's new blog will be called, simply, The Daily -- the URL is IFC.com/thedaily, and again, he'll be starting in January. And here's an announcement...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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The year in top tens.
Thu, Dec 11 2008 12:18 PM
IFC Films' Keaton Kail has been so kind as to pass along the following endearingly obsessive spreadsheet he's put together ranking the year's films by their mentions in critic top ten lists. I'll be resurfacing this post each week or so with updates as the lists continue to be unveiled. Here's the big breakdown (click on the image to see it full-size): And here are separate charts breaking out docs and horror films:...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Gloden Golbes noms.
Thu, Dec 11 2008 8:30 AM
The Golden Globe nominations went up this morning -- you can find the full list here. The GG divide between "Drama" and "Comedy/Musical" has always been a bit of an over-inclusive cop-out, and there are no surprises in the former category: Best Picture - Drama: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON FROST/NIXON THE READER REVOLUTIONARY ROAD SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE The lighter half is a weirder, with wilder picks like the meh "Burn After Reading" and the previously unmentioned in an awards context "In Bruges," but no "WALL-E":...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Manohla Dargis is mean.
Wed, Dec 10 2008 4:52 PM
Or so says Patrick Goldstein at his blog at the LA Times, deeming her a "movie killer" and adding: It's an open secret in indie Hollywood that no one wants Manohla Dargis to review their movie, fearing that the outspoken critic will tear their film limb from limb. It's the ultimate backhanded compliment, since what they really fear is Manohla's persuasiveness -- that she'll write a review whose combination of vitriolic snarkiness and intellectual heft will actually persuade high-brow moviegoers to drop the film from their must-see list. Which is all very well, except Goldstein then digs into Dargis' review of "The Reader," which he interprets (I'd say wrongly) as "total damnation" of the film, writing that she "manages to trash the film's source material, Bernhard Schlink's much-praised novel... as well as the film itself." That "much-praised" is a cheap dig; the "But Oprah liked it!" argument doesn't make Dargis'...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Steve Coogan = 2009 Spirit Awards host.
Wed, Dec 10 2008 3:45 PM
Just announced: Steve Coogan is set to host the upcoming Spirit Awards on February 21st. With Russell Brand having kicked things off by hosting the MTV Video Music Awards, we now only need Ricky Gervais as the Academy Award host to have the requisite three British comedians to make a trend piece! [Photo: Steve Coogan in "Hamlet 2," Focus Features, 2008]...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Coppola and Peralta have something to sell you.
Wed, Dec 10 2008 1:10 PM
Sofia Coppola's debut ad for Dior is a delightfully pink confection featuring Belarusian model Maryna Linchuk bobbing around a sunny Paris to Brigitte Bardot's "Moi, Je Joue," apparently leading an enviable life of dress fittings, leisurely bicycling and pastry consumption, with pauses for the reapplication of Miss Dior Cherie perfume. You can watch it here: Meanwhile, documentarian Stacy Peralta (of "Dogtown and Z-Boys") has traveled to semi-remote areas of Thailand, Romania and Greenland at the behest of Burger King to perform unbiased Whopper/Big Mac taste tests on people who've never had hamburgers before....
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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New York and LA.
Wed, Dec 10 2008 11:53 AM
The New York Film Critics Circle has announced its awards for the year: Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky" Best Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married" Best Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire" Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk" Best Animated Film: "WALL-E" Best Director: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Critic wrangle: "Frost/Nixon."
Fri, Dec 5 2008 11:35 AM
A quick look at what my favorite critics have to say about "Frost/Nixon," Ron Howard's extremely shiny adaptation of Peter Morgan's play about the 1977 televised interviews between British TV personality David Frost and former president Richard Nixon, played, respectively, by Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, both reprising their stage roles....
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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15 observations on the Sundance line-up.
Thu, Dec 4 2008 3:12 PM
The U.S. and world competition line-ups are here; the premieres and sidebars are here. Documentary Competition: 1. Sundance often leans toward the documentary-as-journalism/vehicle for activism, and, from the descriptions, there's again plenty of that this year: Joe Berlinger (going solo!) has "Crude" is "the inside story of the 'Amazon Chernobyl' case in the rainforest of Ecuador"; "Dirt! The Movie" is about "how humans are rapidly destroying the last natural resource on earth"; "The Cove" follows "a group of activists led by Ric O'Barry, the man behind Flipper" as they look into environmental horrors in a small cove in Japan. 2. Tom DiCillo, of "Johnny Suede" and "Living in Oblivion," has made a Doors documentary?!...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Yay! Awards!
Thu, Dec 4 2008 2:37 PM
Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River" may turn out to the year's big winner, at least in the indie film award ghetto -- it won Best Feature at the Gothams on Tuesday, with star Melissa Leo taking the Breakthrough Actor award, and it's been nominated for seven Spirit Awards. "Trouble the Water" took the Best Doc prize, Lance Hammer was deemed breakthrough director for "Ballast," and "Sita Sings the Blues" picked up the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You prize. More at indieWIRE. Meanwhile, the National Board of Review, traditionally the first of the circles to hand out best o' the year designations, has picked "Slumdog Millionaire" as film of the year, with "Burn After Reading," Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," Defiance," 'Frost/Nixon," "Gran Torino." "Milk," Wall-E" and "The Wrestler" rounding out their top ten, in alpha order. Yes, that's two salutes to Mr....
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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"Glory at Sea" and "The Last 15."
Tue, Dec 2 2008 4:08 PM
Short films are often made with a practical purpose in mind: to serve as a calling card on the path to feature funding, to show off the cool camera trick someone picked up, to showcase everything learned at film school, to reach a (hopefully) memorable punchline. It's the reason so many shorts are forgettable -- they seldom stand by themselves, though there's no rule that a film has to be at least 70 minutes long to have a purpose. And the greatest proof of that fact is Benh Zeitlin's epic short "Glory at Sea," which you can now watch online here, 25 minutes of messy and magnificent post-Katrina magical realism. The film premiered at SXSW this year -- on the way to the festival, the filmmaker was in a bad car accident that left him in the hospital, which is even more unfortunate when you're sans health insurance -- and...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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Spirit Awards 2009.
Tue, Dec 2 2008 10:05 AM
The 2009 Spirit Award nominations were just announced -- check out the full list here. Big winners? "Ballast," which is up for Best Feature, First Screenplay, Director and Cinematography, as well as acting awards for JimMyron Ross and Tarra Riggs, and "Frozen River," which is up for many of the same. "Rachel Getting Married" is also up there with six nominations. Here are the nominees for Best Feature and Best First Feature: Best Feature "Ballast" Producers: Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh "Frozen River" Producers: Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae "Rachel Getting Married" Producers: Nadia Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc Platt "Wendy and Lucy" Producers: Larry Fessenden, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani "The Wrestler" Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin Best First Feature "Afterschool," Director: Antonio Campos "Medicine for Melancholy," Director: Barry Jenkins "Sangre de Mi Sangre," Director: Christopher Zalla "Sleep Dealer," Director: Alex Rivera "Synecdoche, New York," Director: Charlie Kaufman Well, congrats to all of...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
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