As an actor, John Turturro grabbed attention in the ’90s in films by Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Clockers, He Got Game, Girl 6, Summer of Sam, She Hate Me, and Miracle at St. Anna) and the Coen Brothers (Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, … More Interview: John Turturro, Writer-director-star of Fading Gigolo

There’s always the danger with reductionist film making that sticking with a single character and/or  location–as in films like Castaway, Phone Booth, and Buried–will come off as more of a stunt than an actual film. That’s certainly not the case in writer-director Steven Knight’s new film Locke, starring Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke, an ordinary … More Interview: Locke Writer-director Steven Knight

Drawing on the real-life WWII heroics of Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum, Walking with the Enemy tells the story of Elek (Jonas Armstrong), a young Hungarian Jew who, in the final months of the war, donned an SS uniform and posed as a German officer in order to save hundreds of Jews in Budapest. Working from his … More Interview: Walking with the Enemy Stars Jonas Armstrong and Simon Dutton

You may have heard that Under the Skin is an adaptation of Michel Faber’s 2000 novel. It is and it isn’t; at times the film strips away much of the book’s plot and details, leaving a very bare-bones abstraction. You may have heard that Under the Skin is the third feature film from writer-director Jonathan … More Interview: Under the Skin Writer-Director Jonathan Glazer

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

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