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Pennan vs. Forks, towns made touristy by movies.
Fri, Nov 20 2009 1:55 PM

Today, innumerable thousands of shrieking tweens (and older counterparts who really should know better) will descend on the nation's multiplexes, baying for "New Moon" blood. The phenomenon isn't limited to theaters: Forks, Washington -- where Stephanie Meyer set her novel without ever visiting -- has seen tourism jump way up, from 18,000 visitors... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Twilight: New Moon, Forks, Pennan, Local Hero

Roadtrip/no roadtrip.
Wed, Nov 18 2009 1:50 PM

Nothing says 1969 like "Easy Rider," the bad-trip Altamont to the ebullient celebration of the next year's "Woodstock." While the hippies were partying down, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson were discovering there was no place for them in America, either old or new. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, Keith Phipps retraced... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Dennis Hopper, Milestones, Easy Rider, Robert Kramer

In defense of John Woo's American period.
Wed, Nov 18 2009 9:00 AM

Friday sees the release of an abridged version of John Woo's new film, "Red Cliff," a two-part, five-hour epic condensed for American audiences into what's still an admittedly pretty entertaining regular-length feature. As Glenn Kenny notes at The Auteurs while comparing the two versions, what's gone is a lot of character detail and poetic... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Face/Off, Hard Boiled, Paycheck, John Woo, Red Cliff, Mission: Impossible II

Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" sequel bites the dust.
Tue, Nov 17 2009 10:00 AM

"Dazed and Confused" is effectively beloved by everyone who's seen it -- including me -- so I got uber-excited about the prospect of Richard Linklater making a "spiritual sequel." And now it's dead on the ground. It was apparently called "That's What I'm Talking About," in honor -- we presume -- of the kind of stoned... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, That's What I'm Talking About, Dazed and Confused, School of Rock

You should see "The Box."
Wed, Nov 11 2009 5:00 AM

In an interview right here on IFC.com last week, Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko," "Southland Tales") claimed his new movie "The Box" -- which came out last Friday -- was intended to be more linear and commercial, paving the way for future studio work. The fact that Kelly actually believes this is tribute to the fact that he's living... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, David Lynch, Southland Tales, The Box, Richard Kelly, Knowing

Uwe Boll's "Darfur" drama.
Wed, Nov 4 2009 6:42 AM

Like the part of Cannes you don't usually hear about, the American Film Market is the largely unglamorous event held every year in L.A. where film buyers and distributors from across the globe come to put the business back in show business, looking at the latest Sofia Coppola film in the same way they look as "The Whiffler," a comedy about a 'roided... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Alex Cox, Repo Chick, Darfur, Luke Goss, Andrew Keegan, Nick Carter, Uwe Boll, American Film Market, Tekken, Don Johnson, Billy Zane

Roger Avary pioneers jail-tweeting.
Wed, Nov 4 2009 5:36 AM

Until recently, Roger Avary was a respected if controversial writer/director, best known for "Rules Of Attraction" (easily the best of the Bret Easton Ellis adaptations) and for breaking up with video store-days friend Quentin Tarantino over accusations he was shafted on credit for the "Pulp Fiction" screenplay (he only got a story credit... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Quentin Tarantino, Odds, Twitter, Pulp Fiction, The Rules of Attraction, Roger Avary, Bret Easton Ellis, Silent Hill 2

Barbet Schroeder's Don Draper.
Mon, Nov 2 2009 11:18 AM

"Mad Man," the series with which every critic in the country seems to be smitten except me, lured no less than Barbet Schroeder in to direct last night's episode "The Grown-Ups," Schroeder's first venture into TV and the next-to-last installment of the season. (And one that -- whoops -- some found disappointing.) Schroeder's not... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Mad Men, Barbet Schroeder, River's Edge, Freaks and Geeks, Tim Hunter, Paul Feig, Barfly, Daisy von Scherler Mayer

Boston, home of the new American noir.
Mon, Oct 26 2009 2:30 PM

Ben Affleck's directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" is one of the best American movies of the decade, though somehow most people never found out (it stalled at $20 million domestically). Its greatest achievement is its sense of place -- shooting in Boston, Affleck spent a lot of time highlighting the terrifying alcoholic faces of the city's poorer... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Clint Eastwood, The Proposal, Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane, Mystic River, Boston, Ben Affleck, The Pink Panther 2, Gone Baby Gone

Roger Corman strikes back.
Tue, Oct 20 2009 5:18 PM

Roger Corman's been laying low; since his last turn as a director with 1990's "Frankenstein Unbound," the legendary cheapie producer has pretty much kept to dabbling in direct-to-video fare like "Supergator." But now he's back, reteaming with alumnus Joe Dante for a three-episode web series for Netflix.com called "Splatter... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Siskel & Ebert, Roger Corman, Netflix, Joe Dante, Gremlins, William Castle, Corey Feldman, Splatter, Mr. Sardonicus, Mr. Payback

Why "Batman & Robin" is "the most important comic-book movie ever made."
Mon, Oct 19 2009 10:40 AM

Ten years ago, when Akiva Goldsman was overwhelmingly associated with writing "Batman & Robin," the film that temporarily killed a seemingly infallible franchise, the idea that he'd be back on top in Hollywood because "his populist tastes, skill with story and that old comic-book collection make him a man for the moment in Hollywood"... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Batman, X2, Tim Burton, Christopher Reeve, Akiva Goldsman, Marvel, Hellboy, Batman & Robin, Spider-Man

The gloves come off on Heath Ledger.
Wed, Oct 14 2009 6:15 PM

It had to happen eventually. The reverential haze surrounding the late Heath Ledger was bound to dispel. And it's David Thomson, critic, film historian and actor-crazed obsessive who once wrote a whole book about Nicole Kidman in which he gasped over her "gingery pubic hair," who's stepped up to bat first. Thomson takes actors and their iconography... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Heath Ledger, Mickey Rourke, Brad Pitt, Brokeback Mountain, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Robert Downey Jr., David Thomson

You always adapt the ones you love.
Mon, Oct 12 2009 5:17 PM

Is David Foster Wallace really as adaptation-proof as everyone's always said? The mediocre reviews for John Krasinski's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" aren't exactly encouraging on that front. At the Guardian, Danny Leigh believes that the film's problems lie partially in the book Krasinski chose, a short story collection that's... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace, Bobby Cannavale, John Krasinski, Frankie Faison, The Shining

Arguing "Afterschool."
Mon, Oct 12 2009 10:15 AM

A brief note: Antonio Campos' "Afterschool" -- a movie I saw and hated at last year's New York Film Festival -- is in its last week at New York's Cinema Village. If you're in the area and haven't seen it yet, I'll be arguing against it following tonight's 6:45pm screening. Bilge Ebiri (of New York, not to mention director... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Afterschool, Antonio Campos, self-promotion

Jackie Chan nostalgia.
Mon, Oct 5 2009 12:05 PM

"Was Bruce Lee actually any good at martial arts?" wonders Robert Twigger at the Guardian. It's a fair question -- how can non-martial artists know how to evaluate the impressive-looking stuff in fight scenes? The answer turns out to be, of course, yes, yes, yes, and Twigger unearths some good anecdotes and facts about Lee, including the fact that... Read More...

by IFC.com - Indie Eye

Filed under: Odds, Richard Nixon, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, The Matrix, Twin Dragons, Bruce Lee, Wu-Tang Clan, The 36 Chambers of Shaolin, Mr. Nice Guy