Sundance 2016: Celebrate Noam Chomsky Day with Captain Fantastic

Sundance 2016 Follow all of our Sundance 2016 coverage. One look at the pic above or the synopsis below and you’d be forgiven for thinking that writer/director Matt Ross‘ new film Captain Fantastic is yet another quirky dramedy about oddballs trying...

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Sundance 2016: Birth of a Nation Reclaims That Title to Honor Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Sundance 2016 Follow all of our Sundance 2016 coverage. The greatest accomplishment of Nate Parker‘s The Birth of a Nation might be reclaiming that title from the important and influential but irredeemably racist Birth of a Nation released 101 years earlier....

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'Spotlight', Leonardo DiCaprio & Brie Larson Win 2016 SAG Awards

As the Sundance Film Festival was wrapping up with its awards in Utah, Hollywood was abuzz announcing the Screen Actors Guild Awards winners. The SAG Awards honor the greatest performances from 2015, as chosen by other actors which means this is one of the most...

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Sundance 2016: Levity Makes 'The Fundamentals of Caring' a Winner

It's not exactly easy to make light of and laugh at disabilities without coming across as insensitive, which is why this film is so unique. The Fundamentals of Caring (original Sundance title, as it has apparently been changed to The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving)...

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Sundance 2016 Awards: 'Birth of a Nation' Wins Audience & Grand Jury

The official awards for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at a ceremony in Park City. We've been anxiously awaiting the results of the awards at Sundance, and now we know who won big - The Birth of a Nation, the powerful directional debut...

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Rotterdam 2016. First Steps

Ear, Nose and Throat I've arrived in the Dutch city of Rotterdam after a one year absence—flummoxed several editions in a row by the sprawling but often undistinguishable festival program of international cinema, I decided to try the Berlin film festival instead...

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Sundance 2016: Animated Disney Films as Therapy in 'Life, Animated'

We all know that movies can change lives, in small ways and in big ways. But that change is often internal, and it's hard to track exactly how we are affected. The documentary Life, Animated (which premiered at Sundance) is an absolutely wonderful documentary...

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Sundance 2016: Frightening Iranian Ghost Horror 'Under the Shadow'

Sundance loves to find and premiere the next generation of horror films, and this is one of them. It's very likely most people have never seen a ghost movie like this before, which is refreshing for the genre. Under the Shadow is a horror-thriller set in Tehran,...

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Video Essay. The Semantics of Adventureland’s Mixtape

The eleventh entry in an on-going series of audiovisual essays by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin. Greg Mottola's Adventureland (2009) is now playing in the United States through February 29. Few subjects divide people more sharply and ferociously than respective tastes in music. We build our identities, our system of values, even...

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Two quick, overdue announcements

Lee Yongkwan. DB here: The first, only slightly overdue: Tony Rayns criticizes the ongoing efforts to dismiss Busan Festival Co-Director Lee Yongkwan. Tony’s open letter is at Geoff Gardner’s estimable blog. As far as I can tell, this turn of events...

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Everyone is Getting Into Talking Animals in 2016

The history of talking animals in cinema is one that is long, checkered and filled with plenty of big name stars. The likes of Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum and Kevin James have all done either human work or voice work in films such as Dr. Doolittle,...

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For the Love of Storytelling - Why I Can't Stop Going to Film Festivals

When you really think about it - film festivals are a bit crazy. They gather up 100+ films, show them all 3 or 4 times over the course of 10 days, invite thousands and thousands of movie fans to town, and most of us (at least many of my colleagues) watch as many...

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What’s Happening on Hulu

This week, enjoy a vacation from winter’s muted palette with Directing in Color, our free festival on Hulu, featuring a selection of our favorite directors’ first films in color. On offer are: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, and Tim Whelan’s The . . . Read More ...

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Kathryn Bigelow & Mark Boal Making a Film on Detroit's Race Riots

This sounds like it could be pretty good. After making Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal were planning to make a movie about POW Bowe Bergdahl. They've been working on it but with changes in Bowe's story and planned coverage in the...

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Is You, Me and The Apocalypse a Winner?

Welcome to Last Night on TV, our daily column that looks back at what happened on television the night before. If we’re going to stay up all night and watch TV, we might as well talk about it the next morning. Last night on TV, we spend some time at the end of...

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Watch: First Trailer for New Remake of Eli Roth's 'Cabin Fever' Horror

Another day, another remake. The first official trailer for the remake of Eli Roth's 2002 horror film Cabin Fever has arrived online. I don't know why anyone felt it was necessary to remake this horror film, but they went for it anyway. Eli Roth actually executive...

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Sundance 2016: Down a Crazy Rabbit Hole in 'Tickled' Documentary

This documentary is freakier than most horror movies. Tickled is not really a documentary about tickling, even though it is a documentary about tickling. Produced out of New Zealand, this entertaining and egaging documentary (co-directed by David Farrier and...

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2016 Oscar Nominated Documentary Short Films Ranked From Worst to Best

It’s that special time of year when movie theaters all over America start playing short films. Some places are hosting a total of 15 of them. Most of those participating, though, will be screening only 10. The shorts receiving this privileged exhibition are...

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