Last August when I sat down with writer-director David Gordon Green to talk about his excellent existential comedy Prince Avalanche, I hijacked part of the interview to pry into his next project: an adaptation of the late Larry Brown’s 1991 novel Joe starring Nicolas Cage. Joe is now out in theaters. It follows Joe Ransom … More Interview: Joe Director David Gordon Green and Star Tye Sheridan
British comic actor Nick Frost knows that he’s best known (especially in the States) for the “Three Flavours Cornetto” film genre-spoof trilogy he helped create and co-starred in with Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright: 2004’s Shaun of the Dead (zombies), 2007’s Hot Fuzz (cops), and last year’s The World’s End (aliens). But that’s only … More Interview: Nick Frost, Star of Cuban Fury
In 2011, Welsh-born writer-director Gareth Evans dazzled the hard-core action-flick world with his second film, The Raid: Redemption. The high-energy, ultra-violent Indonesian-language crime film starred Iko Uwais as a Rama, a rookie cop, martial artist, and member of a task force invading a crime lord’s fortified high-rise apartment in Jakarta. Evans had discovered Uwais at … More Interview: The Raid 2 Director Gareth Evans and Star Iko Uwais
The moment you point out the howling historical inaccuracies and possibly harmful over-the-top fantasy violence in a piece of super-stylized hard-core war porn like 300: Rise of an Empire (or in its equally offensive predecessor 300), some pundit or punter with one hand in a bucket of bloody popcorn is going to whine, “You don’t … More 300: Rise of an Empire: The Half-Truths and Bloody Fog of Cartoon War
Like the mighty Mississippi itself, for better or worse the notion of rugged frontier independence rushes wide through the American Character—sometimes contained and guided within the banks of civilized society, sometimes overflowing, overpowering and washing away those same muddy borders. And sometimes just gunking up our National Psyche with a lot of useless, miring sludge … More 2013 Faves: Mud: Take Me to the River
There was no compelling reason to remake Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 RoboCop. And there’s no great reason anyone has to go see José Padilha’s 2014 remake. A healthy, happy, culturally fulfilled life can be easily led without it. Even those jonesing for a mid-winter hit of PG-13 sci-fi action violence can probably find suitable sustenance elsewhere. … More Shut the Robo-whining: The Remake Has Something on its Mind
Labor Day is the new romantic-convict (rom-con!) from writer-director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Young Adult), based on the 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard (To Die For, At Home In the World). Seen through the eyes of 13-year-old Henry (Gattlin Griffith), the film and novel tell the story of a Labor Day weekend … More Interview: Labor Day Author Joyce Maynard
While watching Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street last month, I jotted in my notes: “Just try to write about this without mentioning Goodfellas”. So there’s that challenge already failed. After all, as everyone has noted, Wolf and 1990’s Goodfellas share quite a bit of cinematic and structural DNA, not just through the obvious … More The Wolf of Wall Street: What’s So Funny About Greed, Ludes, and Unchecked Capitalism?
A decade ago, directors David O. Russell and Paul Thomas Anderson’s artistic paths crossed streams. Anderson started out in the mid-‘90s dabbing at genre with the gritty down-and-out drama Hard Eight (aka Sydney) and then exploding into the full-blown backstage, “a star is porn” faux-musical Boogie Nights. Around the same time, Russell was grabbing critical … More David O. Russell, American Hustler
When doing film interviews, you talk to a lot of different folks involved in different parts of film making, and like anything, different interviews go well or not-so-well for different reasons. Sometimes you get to talk to big-name actors or legendary directors where it’s a thrill just being in the same room with them. Sometimes … More Interview: Contracted Writer-Director Eric England
Hammer & Thump 