“Annie Hall” changed the game in being a cautionary tale about a couple that conspicuously doesn’t last, while at the same time an enduring case for the wonder and necessity of romance. “The Other Way Around” is a similarly wacky subversion of the rom-com theme in that its central couple, successful millennial director Ale (Itsaso Arana) and actor Alex (Vito Sanz), cheerfully announce to their friends and loved ones that they’re breaking up. A big party will mark the occasion and duly end the relationship — which, their friends remind them, has gone on forever (more than a decade). The only people who think this is a sane idea is Ale and Alex. Not even Ale’s father(played by director Jonás Trueba’s real-life father, Fernando) can fathom it, although it was originally his idea. The concept seems to be born out of a kind of 90s stand-up...
- 5/20/2024
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
AMC’s beloved vampire drama ‘Interview with the Vampire’ returns this week, but it’s just one of several big-name premieres bound for streamers.
Wait, wasn’t it just January a few weeks ago? The relentless march of time continues unabated, with apologies to Nietzsche devotees who follow the philosophy that time is a flat circle. The current year is now officially one-third of the way over, and many are likely putting the finishing touches on summer vacations or making grand plans for the end of the school year.
If you need a break from all that, or from the existential dread that comes along with the passage of linear time, there are some fabulous new TV shows and movies making their streaming debuts this week! Follow along with The Streamable and see the top new titles coming to a streaming service near you each and every day.
Monday, May 6 ‘NCIS’ Season 21 Finale | CBS,...
Wait, wasn’t it just January a few weeks ago? The relentless march of time continues unabated, with apologies to Nietzsche devotees who follow the philosophy that time is a flat circle. The current year is now officially one-third of the way over, and many are likely putting the finishing touches on summer vacations or making grand plans for the end of the school year.
If you need a break from all that, or from the existential dread that comes along with the passage of linear time, there are some fabulous new TV shows and movies making their streaming debuts this week! Follow along with The Streamable and see the top new titles coming to a streaming service near you each and every day.
Monday, May 6 ‘NCIS’ Season 21 Finale | CBS,...
- 5/6/2024
- by David Satin
- The Streamable
The Killing of a Sacred Dear: Hamaguchi Explores Ills of Urbanization
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi explores the doctrine about the absence of evil in his latest drama Evil Does Not Exist, a quiet film pondering the necessary evils of urban development and tourism on a small, Japanese village when a corporation aims to establish a glamping hotel in their midst. Like Mohammad Rasoulof’s 2020 Golden Bear Winner There Is No Evil, Hamaguchi’s overarching theme taps into the same ‘absence of good’ philosophy expounded upon from Nietzsche to Einstein, with roots reaching all the way back to Plato. In short, as this film also depicts, there are no innately evil people, only self-serving, ignorant humans who are, also, not inherently good.…...
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi explores the doctrine about the absence of evil in his latest drama Evil Does Not Exist, a quiet film pondering the necessary evils of urban development and tourism on a small, Japanese village when a corporation aims to establish a glamping hotel in their midst. Like Mohammad Rasoulof’s 2020 Golden Bear Winner There Is No Evil, Hamaguchi’s overarching theme taps into the same ‘absence of good’ philosophy expounded upon from Nietzsche to Einstein, with roots reaching all the way back to Plato. In short, as this film also depicts, there are no innately evil people, only self-serving, ignorant humans who are, also, not inherently good.…...
- 5/2/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
I was very gratified by the response to last year’s interview with Rob Tregenza, a Zelig-like figure of modern cinema. Our very long, multi-Zoom conversation covered a life in film: four features, cherished experiences with Jean-Luc Godard, and hopes he hadn’t reached the end. What I didn’t quite find time for was, and I am embarrassed to even note it, the matter of his shooting stretches of Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies, most notably its iconic opening sequence. By any token this is a major contribution to contemporary cinema for Tregenza’s part and––by that token, at least in my estimation––a major oversight on my own.
With Criterion’s 4K Uhd release of Werckmeister Harmonies arriving this month––about a year since Janus Films’ extremely successful theatrical tour––I figured it was time to ask Tregenza about his experience shooting the film. I did not...
With Criterion’s 4K Uhd release of Werckmeister Harmonies arriving this month––about a year since Janus Films’ extremely successful theatrical tour––I figured it was time to ask Tregenza about his experience shooting the film. I did not...
- 4/29/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
There’s a beautiful scene in Jia Zhangke’s 2004 film The World in which the protagonist, Tao, crosses paths with an industrial worker nicknamed Little Sister on the rooftop of an unfinished building. They chat aimlessly beneath towering spires of exposed rebar until a massive plane soars overhead, drowning out their voices. “Tao, who flies on those planes?” he asks, to which she responds, “Who knows…I don’t know anybody who’s ever been on a plane.”
It’s this precise contrast of stasis and flux, of the sublime and the quotidian, of simple personal dreams swallowed up by massive national ambitions, that characterizes Liu Jian’s newest feature, Art College 1994. Jia also lends his voice to one of its characters: Gu Yongqing, a “roving artist abroad” who speaks of “the mysterious power of art” during a visiting lecture at the titular art college. This is Liu’s third animated feature film,...
It’s this precise contrast of stasis and flux, of the sublime and the quotidian, of simple personal dreams swallowed up by massive national ambitions, that characterizes Liu Jian’s newest feature, Art College 1994. Jia also lends his voice to one of its characters: Gu Yongqing, a “roving artist abroad” who speaks of “the mysterious power of art” during a visiting lecture at the titular art college. This is Liu’s third animated feature film,...
- 4/21/2024
- by Ryan Coleman
- Slant Magazine
The Beatles and Donovan both made some of the defining songs of the 1960s. Donovan revealed that “Sunshine Superman” reused a musical trick that was in several Fab Four songs. Notably, “Sunshine Superman” reached a milestone that several Beatles songs did. However, it aged better than some of those songs in the long run.
Donovan said ‘early Beatles songs’ inspired the chords of ‘Sunshine Superman’
During a 2013 interview with Performing Songwriter, the “Hurdy Gurdy Man” singer discussed the inspiration behind “Sunshine Superman.” “Musically, the song is built on a chord structure that came from listening to early Beatles songs,” he said. “I was messing with C7th and the odd G changes.” While “Sunshine Superman” takes some inspiration, it doesn’t sound much like any of The Beatles’ songs. While it’s a psychedelic tune, none of The Beatles’ psychedelic tunes have a comparable groove.
“The Latin groove was coming from my love of jazz,...
Donovan said ‘early Beatles songs’ inspired the chords of ‘Sunshine Superman’
During a 2013 interview with Performing Songwriter, the “Hurdy Gurdy Man” singer discussed the inspiration behind “Sunshine Superman.” “Musically, the song is built on a chord structure that came from listening to early Beatles songs,” he said. “I was messing with C7th and the odd G changes.” While “Sunshine Superman” takes some inspiration, it doesn’t sound much like any of The Beatles’ songs. While it’s a psychedelic tune, none of The Beatles’ psychedelic tunes have a comparable groove.
“The Latin groove was coming from my love of jazz,...
- 4/1/2024
- by Matthew Trzcinski
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Marvel Cinematic Universe used to be at the apex of the world of Cinema at one time, especially thanks to the massive hit of the Avengers films. Since 2008’s Iron Man, fans were immediately drawn into the world created by several talented people, as it was evident they were planning something incredible. Interestingly enough, The Matrix was also inspired by a rare 1993 Marvel comic.
The Avengers
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has undergone numerous changes and developments over the years, getting mixed responses from fans and critics alike. After all, fans still fondly remember the heydays of Marvel, especially when The Avengers came out in 2012. That film pretty much changed the course of superhero movies forever.
The Matrix Drew Inspiration From A Rare 1993 Marvel Comic Ectokid’s Dex Mungo
According to People, Lily and Lana Wachowski were born in the mid-’60s and raised in Chicago. During their high school years,...
The Avengers
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has undergone numerous changes and developments over the years, getting mixed responses from fans and critics alike. After all, fans still fondly remember the heydays of Marvel, especially when The Avengers came out in 2012. That film pretty much changed the course of superhero movies forever.
The Matrix Drew Inspiration From A Rare 1993 Marvel Comic Ectokid’s Dex Mungo
According to People, Lily and Lana Wachowski were born in the mid-’60s and raised in Chicago. During their high school years,...
- 4/1/2024
- by Subhojeet Mookherjee
- FandomWire
Alfred Herrhausen, born in 1930, was the chairman of Deutsche Bank. But to the team behind German series “Herrhausen – The Banker and the Bomb,” premiering at Series Mania, he was a “visionary.”
“He was a humane banker, always looking into the future. What you see in this show is a person who tries to do something new and others prevent him from doing it. They say: ‘We have never done it before.’ He says: ‘Well, that’s the definition of the word ‘new,’” says actor Oliver Masucci.
The show, written by Thomas Wendrich, premieres the trailer in exclusivity with Variety.
Before taking on Herrhausen, Masucci gained prominence thanks to Netflix’s “Dark.” Next, he will be seen in the BBC and CBS Studios show “King and Conqueror” alongside Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror.
“When we think of bankers now, we think of absolute capitalists. But he kept saying we needed to shift our perspective.
“He was a humane banker, always looking into the future. What you see in this show is a person who tries to do something new and others prevent him from doing it. They say: ‘We have never done it before.’ He says: ‘Well, that’s the definition of the word ‘new,’” says actor Oliver Masucci.
The show, written by Thomas Wendrich, premieres the trailer in exclusivity with Variety.
Before taking on Herrhausen, Masucci gained prominence thanks to Netflix’s “Dark.” Next, he will be seen in the BBC and CBS Studios show “King and Conqueror” alongside Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror.
“When we think of bankers now, we think of absolute capitalists. But he kept saying we needed to shift our perspective.
- 3/19/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Plenty of worthy documentaries manage to tackle a subject from all angles, offering a well-rounded portrait of a specific social issue, historical figure or cultural phenomenon. Much rarer are those that go beyond the subject to reveal something deeply and essentially human, using the camera to uncover truths that aren’t always visible to us.
French director Nicolas Philibert’s latest work, At Averroes & Rosa Parks, is one of those films. On the surface, it’s a long and immersive plunge into two psychiatric wards at the Esquirol Hospital facility, located in a leafy suburb outside of Paris. Through extended sessions between patients and their doctors, we get to know a group of people who’ve been committed with varying levels of mental illness.
By giving the patients considerable time and space to bare themselves before the camera, Philibert grants us access to the the darker sides of the human psyche,...
French director Nicolas Philibert’s latest work, At Averroes & Rosa Parks, is one of those films. On the surface, it’s a long and immersive plunge into two psychiatric wards at the Esquirol Hospital facility, located in a leafy suburb outside of Paris. Through extended sessions between patients and their doctors, we get to know a group of people who’ve been committed with varying levels of mental illness.
By giving the patients considerable time and space to bare themselves before the camera, Philibert grants us access to the the darker sides of the human psyche,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Philosophical Depths of Rust Cohle Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective is a series that’s as much about the inner workings of its characters as it is about the crimes they investigate. Rust Cohle’s monologue in the car, where he shares his views on life and existence, is a profound moment that sets the stage for the character and the series. Someone once told me that ‘time is a flat circle,’ Cohle muses, echoing Nietzsche’s concept of Eternal Recurrence. This idea resonates through the narrative, giving viewers insight into Rust’s world view and the show’s thematic undercurrents. A Masterclass in Filmmaking...
- 2/10/2024
- by Steve Delikson
- TVovermind.com
Exclusive: Steve Coogan is bringing a long-gestating Alan Partridge comedy doc series to the BBC.
Deadline can reveal that the beloved comedy icon’s latest show, And Did Those Feet.. With Alan Partridge, will see him travel around meeting locals, with the character having come in to some money after a trip to Saudi Arabia, as the ever-developing Partridge moves with the times.
BBC comedy boss Jon Petrie revealed the news to Deadline alongside a string of recommissions including for Diane Morgan’s Cunk with Netflix, Dreaming Whilst Black with Showtime, Greg Davies comedy The Cleaner and Man Like Mobeen, along with a new show, Only Child, from the producer of Guilt.
Penned by long-time collaborators Neil and Rob Gibbons and produced by Coogan and Sarah Monteith’s Baby Cow, And Did Those Feet… starts as a homecoming documentary but morphs into something more personal as the character realizes that...
Deadline can reveal that the beloved comedy icon’s latest show, And Did Those Feet.. With Alan Partridge, will see him travel around meeting locals, with the character having come in to some money after a trip to Saudi Arabia, as the ever-developing Partridge moves with the times.
BBC comedy boss Jon Petrie revealed the news to Deadline alongside a string of recommissions including for Diane Morgan’s Cunk with Netflix, Dreaming Whilst Black with Showtime, Greg Davies comedy The Cleaner and Man Like Mobeen, along with a new show, Only Child, from the producer of Guilt.
Penned by long-time collaborators Neil and Rob Gibbons and produced by Coogan and Sarah Monteith’s Baby Cow, And Did Those Feet… starts as a homecoming documentary but morphs into something more personal as the character realizes that...
- 2/5/2024
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Writer, director, and actor José Mojica Marins singlehandedly inaugurated Brazilian horror cinema in 1964 when he released At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul. This surprisingly gruesome gothic concoction introduced unsuspecting audiences to the indelible figure of Coffin Joe, a nefarious undertaker with a black top hat and cape, uncannily long fingernails, and a bloodthirsty life philosophy that’s part Friedrich Nietzsche, part Marquis de Sade. Over the next four decades, Coffin Joe would not only headline his own official trilogy but also turn up as a sometimes secondary character in numerous other films and TV shows, ultimately achieving the status of a national icon often called “the Brazilian Freddy Krueger.”
Arrow Video has assembled 10 of Mojica’s films in their staggeringly appointed new box set Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe. All of these titles have received striking new 4K restorations from original film elements, and Arrow has included many hours of bonus materials,...
Arrow Video has assembled 10 of Mojica’s films in their staggeringly appointed new box set Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe. All of these titles have received striking new 4K restorations from original film elements, and Arrow has included many hours of bonus materials,...
- 1/25/2024
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
This post contains spoilers for "True Detective: Night Country."
The first time we glimpse the spiral in the first season of "True Detective" is when Detective Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) inspects Dora Lange's corpse, which is propped up in a ritualistic manner. This is not the only time the spiral appears — we see it as a tattoo and as a part of Cohle's vision/hallucination of the shape made up by a flock of birds above an abandoned church. A primary reason why season 1 of the series is so rewatchable can be attributed to its open-ended intrigue, much like a spiral, that does not consume itself like an ouroboros. While there are countless ways to interpret what the spiral truly means, as it is established as a symbol for the depraved Tuttle cult, its symbolism remains one that evokes cyclical loops and inevitability.
"True Detective: Night Country" honors its predecessors in a taut,...
The first time we glimpse the spiral in the first season of "True Detective" is when Detective Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) inspects Dora Lange's corpse, which is propped up in a ritualistic manner. This is not the only time the spiral appears — we see it as a tattoo and as a part of Cohle's vision/hallucination of the shape made up by a flock of birds above an abandoned church. A primary reason why season 1 of the series is so rewatchable can be attributed to its open-ended intrigue, much like a spiral, that does not consume itself like an ouroboros. While there are countless ways to interpret what the spiral truly means, as it is established as a symbol for the depraved Tuttle cult, its symbolism remains one that evokes cyclical loops and inevitability.
"True Detective: Night Country" honors its predecessors in a taut,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s new book, “Prequel,” delves into the dangerous rise of fascism here in the United States in the Thirties and Forties. Picking up the story from her hit podcast “Ultra,” Maddow explores the forgotten history of what amounted to a fifth column on the home front. The book is essential reading in our perilous political moment. As Maddow recently told “Rolling Stone”: “Trump is saying immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood’ of America. He’s saying my political opponents are ‘vermin.’ He’s saying, I want...
- 11/25/2023
- by Rachel Maddow
- Rollingstone.com
At the end of “Balcony Man,” Nick Cave’s ponderous and playful song about hope, romance, and grief, he sings, “What doesn’t kill you just makes you crazier.” The words are a wry twist on Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous aphorism — but Cave says they’re also an improvement upon it.
“I don’t think Nietzsche’s quote of ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ is remotely true,” he says. “It is bad, unhelpful information that suggests we are somehow weak if we succumb to our griefs. It lacks compassion.
“I don’t think Nietzsche’s quote of ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ is remotely true,” he says. “It is bad, unhelpful information that suggests we are somehow weak if we succumb to our griefs. It lacks compassion.
- 9/26/2023
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
One night in 2016, I was working at a small movie theater in Austin, Texas, when a man leaned over the cash register and shook my hand. “Thanks for tonight,” he gleamed. He had kind eyes and a warm smile. All I’d done was show up for my shift, so I nodded back and forgot about it. There was some fundraiser going on. Minutes later, a co-worker grabbed me: “You just shook the hand of a murderer.”
It wasn’t Richard Linklater––he’s clean––but it was one of his characters, this time in real life: Bernie Tiede. “Murderer” might not be the fairest label for Bernie, but the East Texas saint-turned-sinner is the poster child for the many sweet, chatty men that undergo severe change across Linklater’s filmography. He might also be the closest character to the newest: Gary Johnson. Or should we call him Ron?
Like Bernie,...
It wasn’t Richard Linklater––he’s clean––but it was one of his characters, this time in real life: Bernie Tiede. “Murderer” might not be the fairest label for Bernie, but the East Texas saint-turned-sinner is the poster child for the many sweet, chatty men that undergo severe change across Linklater’s filmography. He might also be the closest character to the newest: Gary Johnson. Or should we call him Ron?
Like Bernie,...
- 9/7/2023
- by Luke Hicks
- The Film Stage
Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire. And now, just in time to steal the buzz from both those movies, we have Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” a screwball philosophical thriller comedy noir about the world’s unlikeliest undercover agent. He’s a one-of-a-kind movie hero, though in more ways than not he’s just like us.
The movie, which is based on a 2001 Texas Monthly article, tells the tale of Gary Johnson, a part-time college teacher who works for the New Orleans Police Department as a tech consultant, helping to make recordings of sting operations. Then he’s tapped to go undercover himself. Why would this even happen? The film...
The movie, which is based on a 2001 Texas Monthly article, tells the tale of Gary Johnson, a part-time college teacher who works for the New Orleans Police Department as a tech consultant, helping to make recordings of sting operations. Then he’s tapped to go undercover himself. Why would this even happen? The film...
- 9/5/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Even without major stars or Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” to buoy it, the opening night of the Venice Film Festival’s 80th edition was high on nostalgia for cinema’s past and excitement for the eight days of movies ahead.
A black-tie crowd gathered in the Palazzo del Cinema’s Sala Grande on the Lido for the presentation of Edoardo De Angelis’ World War II Battle of the Atlantic epic “Comandante,” the opener that replaced Guadagnino’s “Challengers” after that film was moved by MGM/Amazon to April due to the strikes.
First, though, elegant minimalist and icon Charlotte Rampling presented the festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Liliana Cavani, the Italian director of psychosexual Holocaust drama “The Night Porter,” starring Rampling and from 1974. (Wong Kar Wai muse Tony Leung Chiu-wai will also receive a Lifetime Achievement anointment later in the fest.) Rampling played a concentration camp survivor who finds her ex,...
A black-tie crowd gathered in the Palazzo del Cinema’s Sala Grande on the Lido for the presentation of Edoardo De Angelis’ World War II Battle of the Atlantic epic “Comandante,” the opener that replaced Guadagnino’s “Challengers” after that film was moved by MGM/Amazon to April due to the strikes.
First, though, elegant minimalist and icon Charlotte Rampling presented the festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Liliana Cavani, the Italian director of psychosexual Holocaust drama “The Night Porter,” starring Rampling and from 1974. (Wong Kar Wai muse Tony Leung Chiu-wai will also receive a Lifetime Achievement anointment later in the fest.) Rampling played a concentration camp survivor who finds her ex,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The first episode of How to Become a Cult Leader trudged through the topic of building the foundation of the cult. Cementing the basic idea into people’s minds and working hard enough to make sure people stick to it so that they follow without questioning your intentions. The second episode is not just about building the foundation but increasing the members of your group. A cult leader will want more people to follow him because making them believe in his truth is the ultimate goal. More followers lead to a powerful leader. This is where Reverend Jim Jones comes into the picture. The man behind People’s Temple was known for bringing thousands of his devotees under his wing and making them believe in apostolic socialism, something that capitalist America is dead against. This constant brainwashing about an apocalypse coming their way led to a tragedy of a monumental scale.
- 7/28/2023
- by Smriti Kannan
- Film Fugitives
Veering sharply away from the visceral horror that put him on the map, Wes Craven followed up the game-changing The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes with the one-two punch of the silly, surreal Deadly Blessing and the comic-book adaptation Swamp Thing. An enjoyable enough romp if taken as an amiably lunk-headed action flick, Swamp Thing starts off with an effectively mounted first act that soon gives way to a lot of splashing around in the swamps, punctuated with some incongruously poetic (and oddly endearing) Beauty and the Beast-type moments, and liberally peppered with all the airboat crashes and cigar-chomping David Hess close-ups you could ever want. Add to that running tally Adrienne Barbeau doffing her wardrobe for some tastefully lensed skinny-dipping and an ultra-suave, Nietzsche-spouting turn from Louis Jourdan as villainous Dr. Anton Arcane and it all adds up to a surefire cult film in the making.
- 7/28/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
David Corenswet may be the first Jewish actor to play Superman, but the Man of Steel himself is as Jewish as matzo ball soup.
As you may or may not know, Superman debuted in 1938, the creation of American and Canadian Jewish teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. But that authorship is just the beginning. In fact, the entire Superman myth is an American-Jewish fantasy, lifted from numerous Jewish legends and fulfilling the dream of revenge against Hitler.
Come and learn, people.
First there’s the name. The -El surnames of...
As you may or may not know, Superman debuted in 1938, the creation of American and Canadian Jewish teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. But that authorship is just the beginning. In fact, the entire Superman myth is an American-Jewish fantasy, lifted from numerous Jewish legends and fulfilling the dream of revenge against Hitler.
Come and learn, people.
First there’s the name. The -El surnames of...
- 6/28/2023
- by Jay Michaelson
- Rollingstone.com
Derren Brown’s five-star spectacle Showman will be screened on television for the first time on Sunday night (23 April).
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
- 4/23/2023
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
Derren Brown’s five-star spectacle Showman will be screened on television for the first time on Sunday night (23 April).
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
- 4/21/2023
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
What would you do if a monster took your loved ones from you? Some might not like to admit it, but pre-emptive fantasies of retribution have a cathartic quality, giving us a sense that we could take control of the narrative in a dreaded scenario. Perhaps this is why revenge thrillers are so popular. They allow us to vicariously live out such fantasies while also taking a moral standpoint, as most of us know that we would never act upon these dark reveries. It is queasily satisfying watching scumbags and murderers getting their comeuppance, even if a film ultimately comes down on the side of "vigilantism is bad."
Most of us like to think we are good and moral people and we know that taking the law into our own hands is fundamentally wrong. Not all such movies arrive at that conclusion. When "Death Wish" was released in 1974, it was...
Most of us like to think we are good and moral people and we know that taking the law into our own hands is fundamentally wrong. Not all such movies arrive at that conclusion. When "Death Wish" was released in 1974, it was...
- 4/15/2023
- by Lee Adams
- Slash Film
The recent films Drive My Car and Burning, two exquisite screen adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s fiction, delve into unsettling enigmas and longings, spun around performances of gripping subtlety. As a work of animation, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman can’t plumb behavioral depths and tics in quite the same way. But animation is an apt medium for exploring another aspect of Murakami’s work, his magic-realist spin on existential angst. Pierre Földes, a composer and visual artist at the helm of his first feature, has made something that mixes the painterly and the stylized, a film that’s lovely, mysterious and also, at times, fittingly odd.
The writer-director finds connective tissue among the various storylines in the idea of an earthquake as a psychic rupture, shaking loose the dissatisfactions and yearnings that are usually under wraps, keeping people shut off and stuck. Földes’ multiple roles here include writing the score,...
The writer-director finds connective tissue among the various storylines in the idea of an earthquake as a psychic rupture, shaking loose the dissatisfactions and yearnings that are usually under wraps, keeping people shut off and stuck. Földes’ multiple roles here include writing the score,...
- 4/14/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Providing a masterclass in empathy, Chilean documentarian Maite Alberdi lends a certain whimsy to her works that forage hope amidst roving sadness. She manages to extract each ounce of charm from her subjects and, as in her study of aging and isolation in Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent,” she continues to showcase a zest for life in the protagonists in her latest feature.
“The Eternal Memory,” her follow-up to “The Mole Agent,” was the subject of double news on Friday, walking off with the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – the section’s top plaudit – just hours after MTV Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to the doc feature.
follows former Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora and his wife, actress Paulina Urrutia, in their rigorous fight against Augusto’s memory-zapping diagnosis.
Tender and sentimental, scenes oscillate between the torture of a fast-fading history and divine moments of immense love as they navigate the...
“The Eternal Memory,” her follow-up to “The Mole Agent,” was the subject of double news on Friday, walking off with the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – the section’s top plaudit – just hours after MTV Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to the doc feature.
follows former Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora and his wife, actress Paulina Urrutia, in their rigorous fight against Augusto’s memory-zapping diagnosis.
Tender and sentimental, scenes oscillate between the torture of a fast-fading history and divine moments of immense love as they navigate the...
- 1/27/2023
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
One of the key character traits of snotty college duo Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and Paula (Brittany O’Grady) on HBO’s “The White Lotus” is their choice of poolside reading material. They’re skimming through Nietzsche and Freud when not casting side eye and throwing withering commentary about the people around them.
Later, they also pick up Frantz Fanon, Camille Paglia and Aimé Césaire. But Sweeney, speaking Saturday at the Atx TV Festival in Austin, revealed something more about that character: She believes it’s all an act. “Oh, she was not actually reading any of these books,” Sweeney told moderator Danielle Turchiano.
Sweeney said that that at the very least she was excited to read those books on set — only to learn they were props. “They were blank!” she said. The overall series experience, especially the show’s heavy dose of humor, was a delight for the actor. ““Jennifer Coolidge...
Later, they also pick up Frantz Fanon, Camille Paglia and Aimé Césaire. But Sweeney, speaking Saturday at the Atx TV Festival in Austin, revealed something more about that character: She believes it’s all an act. “Oh, she was not actually reading any of these books,” Sweeney told moderator Danielle Turchiano.
Sweeney said that that at the very least she was excited to read those books on set — only to learn they were props. “They were blank!” she said. The overall series experience, especially the show’s heavy dose of humor, was a delight for the actor. ““Jennifer Coolidge...
- 6/4/2022
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV
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