“It’s Sailor Jerry. It’s a Spiced Rum.” Bill Murray On The Sets Of MOONRISE KINGDOM

SIFF 2012 Dispatch: Opening Gala, Tibetan Protesters … and Oh Yes, Some Films

The Seattle International Film Festival kicked off last week, with a schedule that looks to be maybe the best overall I’ve seen for this fest — which is saying quite a lot. One of the recurrent themes of this year’s fest is the Washington state film initiative, which the film community here united en masse…

Cannes: After Lucia (Despues de Lucia)

I still can’t quite catch my breath. It is the ultimate nightmare of a parent – even of a 2 year old – to think they will be victims, victimizers, or perhaps worse, silent witnesses to the abuse of others when standing up for honor is only dangerous as a social abstraction.

Teasing THE MASTER

SIFF 2012: SIFF Visitors Guide to Coffee, Eats and Happy Hours

If you’re coming Seattle for a few days for the Seattle International Film Festival, whether as a filmmaker, or press, or just to enjoy the outstanding programming our fest offers, you need to know where to get the best food, the best coffee, and the best happy hours, right? Seattle’s got a wide variety of…

Trailering Bond 23: Hello Roger Deakins!

“The Hunt” Hits The Bullseye At Cannes

Thomas Vinterberg made what is still my favorite of the Dogma 95 movies, The Celebration. The film combined 50s style kitchen sink drama with a modern tone of brutal, brutal honesty. The Hunt is not quite as shocking a film experience. In an odd way, the two films are connected at child abuse. In the…

SIFF 2012: Opening Weekend Preview

Because Seattle’s fest is so sprawling — we’re talking 25 days of movies here, folks — I’ve decided to try something a little different this year and do weekend previews of what’s coming up at the fest and my picks each week. I’m hoping that this will allow me to focus a little more on talking up films I’m excited about seeing and what you might want to check out at the fest as it rolls along.

Tolerance and Lines in the Sand

It’s all President Obama’s fault. Last week he made his speech in which he finally openly supported gay marriage, and really, that was pretty amazing. I mean, yes, most of the people who won’t vote for him because of that one issue probably wouldn’t have voted for him anyhow, but still, wrap your head around…

Cannes iPhone Review: Rust & Bone

Yeah… you’ve seen this logline before. In fact, the awards season looks to be clogged with some of this. But you have never seen it done through Jacques Audiard’s pitiless, demanding, unrelenting eyes. The pair at the center of this journey are an impulsive muscle-head with no money with a 5-year-old he’s taken from his…

56 Seconds Of THE SOUNDS OF ARONOFSKY

[Kottke.]

Cannes iPhone Review: Moonrise Kingdom

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course. That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Wes Anderson. Wes Anderson’s natural state as an artist is artificial… and yet, somehow, intimate.

Housekeeping

A brief housekeeping note: I’ve taken lately to engaging more in conversations on Twitter and Facebook lately, and only bringing them over here if it’s something that stimulates my interest enough that I feel it’s worth expending the energy on writing a full blog post and continuing to talk about it over here. This is…

Morning in Cannes

And so it begins… There are few things odder than going to so many festivals every year and then not quite knowing which way is up as you start one. But here we go. The first line today is the line for credentials. You would think that journalists would know enough not to block the…

Aaron Sorkin’s Syracuse Commencement Speech (16’27″)

“Thank you very much. Madam Chancellor, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the faculty and administration, parents and friends, honored guests and graduates, thank you for inviting me to speak today at this magnificent Commencement ceremony. There’s a story about a man and a woman who have been married for forty years. One…

Trailering Michel Gondry’s THE WE AND THE I (1’55″)

Saves on sets.

BYOB: Heading To The Beach

Peter Berg Blows Up His BATTLESHIP In Israeli TV Interview MNSFW (1’34″)

“What the fuck is going to happen in Israel? What’s the nickname for Benjamin, what do you guys call him? You got Bibi, and who’s his Secretary of Defense, the Defense Minister? You have two men that are now dictating the policy towards Iran. It’s a real mess, because you’ve gotta decide whether it’s better to allow Iran to be armed, and whether…

Don DeLillo talks COSMOPOLIS (spoilers)

  From the press kit: ”It all happened very quickly, actually. [The script] was incredibly close to the book. Of course, Cronenberg cut out a few scenes that couldn’t work out, but it is totally faithful to the spirit of the novel. Of course, I had no intention to make comments when I read it, it…

Weekend Estimates by 50% Klady

So we have Klady estimating domestic even higher than Disney… a flat 50% for the weekend. I have always been a box office realist. I don’t take well to studios calling their shot and then magically hitting very specific, marketable targets. Never have. Never will. Doesn’t natter how I feel about the film. Of course,…