There is a strong possibility that Quentin Tarantino has forgotten more about movies than most filmbuffs will ever know. In addition to sporting an encyclopedic knowledge of all things cinema, he is one of the most talented and respected filmmakers of his generation.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington featured a young, authentic Jimmy Stewart who does battle with the corrupt political machine. Many decades later, that hardened view of politicians (and the machine that gets them elected) has not changed.
Too solemn for Tweens, too violent for youngsters, and too goofy for adults, Brad Bird’s film about hope and change is betrayed by a subpar script and questionable casting choices.
Last night on late night, Bill Murray hopped out of a cake on Letterman, Kimmel tried to seduce George Clooney, Jamie Foxx did great impressions, James Corden worked in a deli, and loads more!
Several weeks back we reported that Tom Ford, the acclaimed fashion designer and director of the 2009 film A Single Man, had hinted at his next film project, a two-part thriller based on a then un-revealed book. Now THR is reporting the details behind the project, titled Nocturnal Animals. Nocturnal Animals will be based on …
Shortly after the PR fallout of the Internet hating on U2’s Songs of Innocence album release, frontman Bono is in the news yet again with a story that’s arguably more WTF than the release of a smart watch. In an interview with The Independent regarding the release of his new film A Walk Among the …
YouTube announced a contest this week in collaboration with director Guillermo Del Toro in which entrants with YouTube channels can submit a short horror story to be judged by Del Toro, with the winner getting the opportunity to sign a deal with Del Toro’s Legendary Pictures. The contest is called “You Tube Space House of …
“What are you?’ That question has been on many a criminal’s mind for numerous decades. Out of absolute fear, these evildoers stare into the face of darkness personified, a creature of the night that is a true symbol of justice. I’m talking of course about Batman, the Dark Knight, a crimefighter who strikes fear into …
When you collect your wits at last and begin to look at the mess with something approaching rationalization, you will be hard pressed to find a satisfying single explanation for just what the hell was intended, aside from epic failure, with Batman & Robin.
The Monuments Men Written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov Directed by George Clooney USA and Germany, 2014 The high-school history teachers of the world, or at least of the United States, can breathe easy, because they’ll have a new movie to add to their collections soon enough. Right before exam week, they can pop …
Both Soderbergh and Clooney have tackled many different questions over their careers, but together, they consistently aim to understand celebrity in all of its glory and danger. The pair seem to inherently understand the allure of movie stars, and their most successful collaborations are celebrations of those we elevate above the status of “actor” and to the level of pop culture Gods.
A haggard voice breaks the darkness of the screen. “Tell me… “Tell me… “Tell me about Jenny.” If possible, the voice is simultaneously threatening and pleading. It’s demanding and mourning. Terence Stamp’s Wilson in Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey is a man out of place, a British ex-con in sunny Los Angeles trying to learn about his …
Read our appreciation of Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve here and here, respectively. * * * “I’m a goddamn American icon!” Depending on where you stand on Ocean’s Twelve, Ocean’s Thirteen represents either a group of enormously famous actors going back to salvage the goodwill they squandered in the middle entry of the franchise, or that same …
Soderbergh’s film came out on November 27, 2002 to middling reviews and a commercial drubbing by seasonal box office heavyweights like Die Another Day. To say that his film has acquired a cult fanbase would be an overstatement. It is still largely dismissed in favor of Tarkovsky’s canonical picture and is seen as a curiosity among Soderbergh die-hards.
Ocean’s Twelve has a reputation that will always precede it; some have called it an anti-sequel, and publications like Entertainment Weekly have dubbed it one of the worst sequels of all time. Though both reactions are, perhaps, understandable, neither is remotely accurate. Ocean’s Twelve is an inherently self-aware sequel, possibly the most self-aware follow-up in modern history. What Steven Soderbergh, screenwriter George Nolfi (whose original script, Honor Among Thieves, was completely unrelated to Ocean’s Eleven and was sold initially before that remake had been released), and the slightly larger-than-before ensemble cast did was make a sequel to a critically and commercially lauded caper film that was wholly cognizant of the fact that it was a sequel to a critically and commercially lauded caper film. Ocean’s Twelve toys with audience expectations, because to cave into them would’ve promised something potentially more disturbing and commonplace than what many perceived to be an ambitious creative flop: something boring.
During the mid-2000s, between his exercise in low-budget filmmaking and new modes of exhibition with Bubble, and his big-budget ensemble Ocean’s Thirteen, Steven Soderbergh made a mid-budget return to 1940s style with The Good German.
Announcing the unambiguous Casablanca reference with a mimicking poster, Soderbergh’s black-and-white film is full of classic Hollywood soft-lighting and sinister wartime figures.
Movie stars, as we know them, are not so much dead in 2013 as much as they’re no longer making movies. Celebrity has stretched far beyond film or television; people become famous now without having accomplished much of anything, just for being at the right place at the right time, or tweeting out the right scandalous photo to set afire the comments sections at TMZ or Perez Hilton. Though movies cost more than they used to—both to make and to partake—they are less frequently headlined by a man or woman whose very presence ensures bankability. A handful of movie stars remain, yet even someone like Robert Downey, Jr. can only guarantee a movie will make back its profit and then some when he’s donned his Iron Man suit.
Hollywood history always makes for fascinating reading. Hindsight and whatnot. During a month in which Sound on Sight takes an opportunity to tip a collective hat in the direction of recently ‘retired’ workhorse auteur Steven Soderbergh, there is a further chance to reel back the years and examine a period of time when one of …
By now, Alfonso Cuarón has pretty much earned the crown of being one of the best, if not the best, technicians in modern cinema. His last three films—Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, and now Gravity—all demonstrate a playful and intelligent command of space, his camera always roving in, around, and out of locations whenever possible. Gravity raises the bar for technical prowess in mainstream filmmaking, and Cuarón doesn’t shy away from the challenge of a film set entirely in space. This is nothing short of a flawless technical exercise, a frequently intense and relentless theme-park ride of a movie. The real downside is that Cuarón could’ve made more than just a ride.
For a period of years after the release of Pulp Fiction, mainstream Hollywood developed an obsession with structure, toying with time and pacing in ways that were often interesting and occasionally grating. The late 1990s also saw the release of a variety of pretty excellent Elmore Leonard adaptations, including Barry Sonnenfeld’s Get Shorty and Quentin …
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock since the Oscars, you’ve heard about the controversies surround Argo’s (lack of) historical accuracy. Whether it’s Iran threatening to sue Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Canada feeling relegated to postscript of history, or most recently the parliament in New Zealand motioning that Affleck “saw fit to mislead the …
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Directed by Gore Verbinski Written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, and Jay Wolpert Starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush Captain Jack Sparrow is the worst thing that ever happened to Johnny Depp’s career. The prevailing wisdom is that the constantly …
Acting and directing categories during awards seasons are always the hardest to determine. Who to choose and what for film is a constant battle, not to mention who deserves to be nominated. Between the veteran nominees (Clooney, Streep, Scorcese) to newbies in the awards season (Fassbender, Refn and Oldman (!)), let’s see who deserves a …