Mile High Horror Film Festival ’13: An Introduction

October 7, 2013Posted in2013, Authors: Walter Chaw, Blog, Film Festivals, Horror

Milehighby Walter Chaw I'd been vaguely aware of the Mile High Horror Film Festival its previous three years to the extent that I'd reached out at some point to see about coverage, but it came to nothing and was easy for me to ignore. Then a good friend moved from the Denver Film Society to the newly-opened Denver location of Alamo Drafthouse as creative director, and one September morning, I found myself driving down to meet with him and chat about his new position. This Drafthouse is beautiful, by the way, and for cinephiles in the Denver area, it's a hope devoutly wished, answered. If you don't support this venue and its mission statement ("to save cinema," its co-owner, Tom, declared to me proudly), you don't deserve it. Anyway, in the cavernous, leather-lined lobby, I met my friend, who had just come from a planning meeting with festival founder Tim Schultz. Handshakes facilitated, I got in touch with ace PR guy Travis Volz a few days later, and suddenly found myself sitting in a little booth across from Jim Mickle, director of a very, very good remake/not-really-a-remake of We Are What We Are.

Heads-up!

October 3, 2013Posted inBlog
If you're looking for our review of this week's big release Gravity, just a reminder that Walter Chaw reviewed it last month as part of his Telluride Film Festival coverage. Check it out here.

TIFF ’13 Wrap-Up

September 22, 2013Posted in2013, Authors: Bill Chambers, Blog, Film Festivals, Palme d'Or Winner, TIFF

Moebius

by Bill Chambers The cause célèbre at this year’s TIFF was critic Alex Billington’s 9-1-1 call. For those living under a rock, what happened was that Billington entreated Festival volunteers to do…something…about the guy using his light-emitting cell phone at a P&I (press and industry) screening of Ti West’s The Sacrament. When they declined, Billington dialled emergency services, live-tweeting the whole sorry affair as a gift to the gods of schadenfreude. This is indeed absolutely childish and cowardly behaviour, yet a similarly insufferable sanctimony deluged the incident in think pieces and @ replies, some of them from yours truly. Yes, crying wolf to 9-1-1 is irresponsible, though I imagine Billington’s wasn’t the first or even second false alarm Toronto EMS received that morning. Yes, P&I screenings are free, throwing Billington’s sense of entitlement into relief, although they do come with the Faustian obligation to write about them at some point. (Something that isn’t made easier by a viewing filled with peripheral distractions.) And, sure, industry folk need to be able to conduct business in a darkened theatre if it comes to that, because TIFF is a buyer’s market ultimately supported by the wheeling-and-dealing that happens over a ten-day period.

Telluride ’13: An Introduction or, The Stand

August 31, 2013Posted in2013, Authors: Walter Chaw, Blog, Film Festivals, Telluride, Telluride 2013

Telluridethestand

by Walter Chaw It's a six-and-a-half hour drive from my
home in Arvada, CO to Telluride on the Western Slope, and there are two ways to get
there. One way is all highway; the other way is all beauty. I took the
second route, and it made all the difference. I've been in a dark, difficult
place for a long time now, or, at least, long enough in the parlance of
near-crippling depression. I was caught in eddies; I had become inert. I had
almost completely stopped writing. Not just essays like this one, but reviews,
too, which I used to be able to pump out with I think alarming speed and ease.
Early on, someone asked my editor how I did it; at times over the last couple months, I wondered if I'd ever write like that again. Things are hard when you're dark.
Getting out of bed was a negotiation–getting out to a screening was a near act
of God. The thought of accidentally eavesdropping other people's thoughts was
agony. The times I did, of course, were good, because the guilt I would have
felt had I gone and not written on the privilege would have been untenable.
Would that the guilt of not writing on home-video releases have the same
lubricative effect.

“Shrink-Ray”

August 28, 2013Posted in2013, Animation, Authors: Bill Chambers, Blog
Please excuse this self-indulgent post, but the latest episode of my side-project "The Monster Show", "Shrink-Ray," just went live, in glorious 1080p. Thanks for checking it out, I hope it's a pleasant waste of your time. If you like what you see, you can catch up with previous instalments here.

Extracurricular Activities: “The Monster Show”

April 10, 2013Posted in2013, Animation, Authors: Bill Chambers, Blog, Comedy

by Bill Chambers Recently, my brother Derek
and I–a failed screenwriting team if ever there was one–took advantage of the new technological democracy and decided to make our own web cartoon, spun off from
a short story Derek wrote ("The Monster Strikes") about a closet
monster who goes on strike and becomes roommates with his intended victim. For
years we had scribbled ideas for a potential TV show based on the concept,
though our initial desire to satirize sitcom tropes changed (evolved?) over
time as we realized we wanted to get away from meta humour and do something
more organically stupid.

“Zero Dark Thirty”: The Ashes Of American Flags

April 9, 2013Posted in2012, 2013, Authors: Jefferson Robbins, Blog, War

by Jefferson Robbins Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty is politically abhorrent, an ideologue’s digest of how torture “works” on behalf of democratic governments seeking to defend from or avenge themselves upon terrorism. There’s no debate: by means of torture, CIA operative Maya (Jessica Chastain) digs her way from Osama bin Laden’s outer network to his inner circle, one, two, three. As journalist Malcolm Harris put it, “That Kathryn Bigelow used to be involved in left aesthetics should make us shiver in fear about who we may yet become.” But subtly, in the way Bigelow presents her lead character’s view of the battlefield and the flag under which she strives, Zero Dark Thirty betrays mixed feelings about its own ramifications.

Privacy Policy

February 12, 2013Posted inBlog
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Here is a url for more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies.

A Man and a Woman: Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva – TIFF Cinematheque Retrospective

January 15, 2013Posted in2013, Authors: Angelo Muredda, Blog, Film Festivals, France


Amanandawoman

by Angelo Muredda When Michael Haneke’s Amour met its first wave
of hosannas at Cannes, the press seemed eerily unanimous with respect to all
but the film’s place within the German-Austrian taskmaster’s oeuvre. Although
some were quick to call it the warmest of his many portraits of couples in
crisis (it would be hard not to be), others saw it as of a piece with his
austere horror films about complacent bourgeois hoarders reduced to ashes by
external invaders–in this case, not the home intruders of Funny Games or Time
of the Wolf (though there is a break-in, for those keeping
score), but the more insidious threat of age-related illnesses. The truth is
probably somewhere between those poles. It’s no surprise that the key
players in this two-hander are named, as they always seem to be in Haneke’s
pictures, Anne and Georges Laurent–sturdy middle-class monikers for tasteful
piano teachers. But it’s difficult to wholly ascribe the universal quality we often
associate with Haneke’s Laurents to the familiar, if weathered, faces of
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, who–far more than the chameleonic
Juliette Binoche or Isabelle Huppert, other Haneke collaborators–recall a
bygone era of French cinema.

Annual Professional Commentary on the Oscar Nominations (2013 edition)

January 10, 2013Posted in2013, Authors: Bill Chambers, Best Picture (Academy Awards), Blog

by Bill Chambers

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Amour (2012): To Be Determined = sure

Argo (2012): Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney = shrug

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012): Dan Janvey, Josh Penn, Michael Gottwald = barf

Django Unchained (2012): Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone = still haven't @!$#ing seen it

Les Misérables (2012): Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh = barf

Life of Pi (2012): Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark = hmmm

Lincoln (2012): Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy = you knew this was coming

Silver Linings Playbook (2012): Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, Jonathan Gordon = yawn

Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison = thumbs-up emoticon


Film Freak Central’s Top 10 of 2012

January 1, 2013Posted in2012, 2013, Authors: Angelo Muredda, Authors: Bill Chambers, Authors: Walter Chaw, Best-of Lists, Blog, Directors: Paul Thomas Anderson, Directors: Steven Soderbergh

Top102012

by Walter Chaw I wish To the Wonder had been released this year–Take Shelter, too. The one because I love Terrence Malick and I’m excited that he’s working so much, the other because I fear that Take Shelter is the last time Michael Shannon will anchor a picture without being instantly Christopher Walken-ized. It’s his The Dead Zone, and he’s amazing in a movie that takes big risks and pays off in a meaningful way; if he were to star in it now, I think it would be mistaken for camp. I also wish I’d seen Margaret in time for my 2011 list. Alas, local publicity has never been terribly interested in my participation. Nevertheless, thanks mostly to Netflix and FYC screeners, I saw a great many great films this year.

Echoes

December 10, 2012Posted in2012, Blog, Echoes
Opening shot of The Night of the Hunter (1955, d. Charles Laughton): Opening shot of Dune (1984, d. David Lynch):

August 26, 2012Posted inBlog
***NEW*** 'Til Friday, September 7, receive 20% off Walter Chaw's acclaimed Miracle Mile using the coupon code CITHARA20. This discount is good for both the eBook and trade paperback versions, so don't delay! And if you haven't yet, be sure to check out not only Twitch's review of the monograph, which includes an interview with Walter Chaw, but also The House Next Door's recently-published take on the book.

The Female Eye Film Festival

June 21, 2012Posted in2012, Authors: Angelo Muredda, Blog, Film Festivals, Theatrical

Unionsquare_02.jpg_medium

by Angelo Muredda Following the boys-only slate of the Cannes Film Festival, which made room for tepidly-received efforts from the likes of Andrew Dominik and Lee Daniels but shut out women in a comparable phase of their careers, June has been a surprisingly fruitful month for female directors of North American independents. Not that it's compensation for that snub, but it's heartening to see Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister and Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz get the lion's share of positive indie press in recent weeks, putting them in good company with Wes Anderson, whose Moonrise Kingdom did make Cannes's official selection. You could think of the Female Eye Film Festival, now entering its tenth year and running through June 24th at Toronto's Carlton Cinemas, as a low-key companion to those higher-profile releases.

What the !@?# is up with this new website?

May 24, 2012Posted inBlog
Hey folks, got your e-mails. Here's what's happening with the site: I'm currently in the process of importing a bevy of old reviews and interviews, which have to be re-encoded from scratch to comply with the redesign. My bad. But, much like before, the main page--that is to say, the middle column of the main page--displays recent content, and only recent content. You ask me where, say, our Dark Shadows review is, and the answer is, scroll down. It's not far. It can't be; we've only covered a few titles since then. Once I've finished importing the archive, that "Recent…

The 5 Pre-“Avengers” Flicks In Order Of Quality

May 7, 2012Posted in2012, Authors: Jefferson Robbins, Blog, Superhero

by Jefferson Robbins

5. Iron Man 2 (2010)

It's a messy casserole of Avengers promotion and crossover frippery, shoehorning in unnecessary supporting characters and dual archvillains, devolving its hero to the shallow dickweed he was at the start of the first movie just to generate some character conflict, throwing in a little slapstick martial arts so its director can have an onscreen star moment alongside a sexy A-lister…

Bigger Stronger Faster

April 17, 2012Posted inBlog
Welcome to Costco, I love you. No, wait--welcome to the new and (hopefully) improved FILM FREAK CENTRAL. Pardon the mess (the broken/missing links, the bugs, the general chaos), as we are in the process of importing all our old content and thus rebuilding the site, brick by brick. The last time FILM FREAK CENTRAL got renovated was 2001. That became a strange point of old-school pride, but a redesign--complete with all the social-media widgets you demanded (I got your letters, thanks)--felt like the perfect way to mark the occasion of our 15th anniversary on the web. With any luck, this…