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‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ opens in theaters this weekend!

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Michael Petrelli — Leave a reply

Paramount Pictures will release the wonderful new film Florence Foster Jenkins starring Academy Award Winner Meryl Streep this weekend!

Heiress Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) longs to become an opera star in 1940s New York, despite possessing a horrible singing voice. With the help and encouragement of her husband (Hugh Grant) and a talented musician (Simon Helberg), she finds a very strange kind of success as a performer and recording artist. Rebecca Ferguson and Nina Arianda co-star. Stephen Frears (Philomena) directed this biopic, which is based on the real-life socialite and opera singer of the same name.

Tickets are on sale now! Check it out!

http://www.fandango.com/florencefosterjenkins_190699/movieoverview

New York Film Festival announces a wonderfully diverse lineup – Jim Jarmusch, Paul Verhoeven & Mia Hansen-Løve among directors

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

25 features include new films from Maren Ade, Pedro Almodóvar, Olivier Assayas, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Alain Guiraudie, Eugène Green, Mia Hansen-Løve, Hong Sangsoo, Jim Jarmusch, Barry Jenkins, Pablo Larraín, Ken Loach, Kenneth Lonergan, Alison Maclean, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Cristian Mungiu, Matías Piñeiro, Cristi Puiu, Kelly Reichardt, Gianfranco Rosi, Dash Shaw, and Paul Verhoeven

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the 25 films for the Main Slate of the 54th New York Film Festival, September 30 – October 16.

NYFF Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “The cinema is so many things at once. And when I look at the films in this year’s selection, I’m aware of the fact that it is a form of response. The Dardenne Brothers, Ken Loach, Cristian Mungiu, Gianfranco Rosi, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Ava DuVernay are sounding alarms, while Jim Jarmusch, Kenneth Lonergan, Barry Jenkins, Maren Ade, Olivier Assayas, James Gray, and Mike Mills are fixed on internal landscapes, proclaiming the urgency of self-realization. I also see in this year’s lineup a bounty of vital work from artists from all around the world who will not stop until they see their visions all the way to the end.”

This year’s Main Slate showcases award-winning films that wowed viewers at international festivals, presented to New York audiences for the first time. Selections from Cannes include Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or-winning I, Daniel Blake; Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper and Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, which tied for Best Director; and Maren Ade’s highly acclaimed Toni Erdmann, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize. From Berlin, Gianfranco Rosi’s Golden Bear winner, Fire at Sea, will mark the director’s NYFF debut, and Mia Hansen-Løve returns to the festival with Things to Come, which won her Berlin’s Best Director award.

Other festival veterans returning to NYFF include Pedro Almodóvar, Kelly Reichardt, Hong Sangsoo, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Matías Piñeiro, Paul Verhoeven, Alain Guiraudie, Cristi Puiu, and Eugène Green. A number of celebrated filmmakers will make their NYFF debuts, such as Kenneth Lonergan with his third feature Manchester by the Sea; Kleber Mendonça Filho, presenting Aquarius, his anticipated follow-up to Neighboring Sounds; Alison Maclean with her coming-of-age story The Rehearsal; Dash Shaw, whose animated My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is his first feature; and Barry Jenkins, with his three-part portrait of a young gay African-American man,Moonlight.

Strong female performances are a prominent focus this year, with standout turns from Isabelle Huppert in Verhoeven’sElle and Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come; Brazilian legend Sônia Braga in Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius; Piñeiro favorite Agustina Muñoz in Hermia and Helena; and Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, and Laura Dern in Reichardt’s triptychCertain Women, among others. The Main Slate also features two films that bring poetry to the screen: Pablo Larraín’sNeruda, a portrait of the beloved Chilean poet, and Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, which carries the spirit of William Carlos Williams through the story of a city bus driver (Adam Driver) who also writes poetry.

As previously announced, the festival also boasts three World Premieres in the gala slots: Ava DuVernay’s The 13th(Opening Night), Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women (Centerpiece), and James Gray’s The Lost City of Z (Closing Night).

The 13th (Opening Night, previously announced)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
USA, 2016
World Premiere
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis. A Netflix original documentary.

20th Century Women (Centerpiece, previously announced)
Directed by Mike Mills
USA, 2016
World Premiere
Mike Mills’s texturally and behaviorally rich new comedy seems to keep redefining itself as it goes along, creating a moving group portrait of particular people in a particular place (Santa Barbara) at a particular moment in the 20th century (1979), one lovingly attended detail at a time. The great Annette Bening, in one of her very best performances, is Dorothea, a single mother raising her teenage son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), in a sprawling bohemian house, which is shared by an itinerant carpenter (Billy Crudup) and a punk artist with a Bowie haircut (Greta Gerwig) and frequented by Jamie’s rebellious friend Julie (Elle Fanning). 20th Century Women is warm, funny, and a work of passionate artistry. An A24 Release.

The Lost City of Z (Closing Night, previously announced)
Directed by James Gray
USA, 2016
World Premiere
James Gray’s emotionally and visually resplendent epic tells the story of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett (a remarkable Charlie Hunnam), the British military-man-turned-explorer whose search for a lost city deep in the Amazon grows into an increasingly feverish, decades-long magnificent obsession that takes a toll on his reputation, his home life with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children, and his very existence. Gray and cinematographer Darius Khondji cast quite a spell, exquisitely pitched between rapture and dizzying terror. Also starring Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, The Lost City of Z represents a form of epic storytelling that has all but vanished from the landscape of modern cinema, and a rare level of artistry.

Aquarius
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Brazil/France, 2016, 142m
Portuguese with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
A highlight of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s follow-up to his acclaimed Neighboring Sounds revolves around the leisurely days of a 65-year-old widow, transcendently played by the great Brazilian actress Sônia Braga. Clara is a retired music critic and the only remaining resident of the titular apartment building in Recife. Trouble starts when an ambitious real estate promoter who has bought up all of Aquarius’s other units comes knocking on Clara’s door. She has no intention of leaving, and a protracted struggle ensues. Braga’s transfixing, multilayered performance and the film’s deliberate pacing and stylistic flourishes yield a sophisticated, political, and humane work.

Certain Women. Photo courtesy of IFC Films.

Certain Women
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
USA, 2016, 107m
The seventh feature by Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff), a lean triptych of subtly intersecting lives in Montana, is a work of no-nonsense eloquence. Adapting short stories by Maile Meloy, Certain Women follows a lawyer (Laura Dern) navigating an increasingly volatile relationship with a disgruntled client; a couple (Michelle Williams and James Le Gros) in a marriage laden with micro-aggression and doubt, trying to persuade an old man (Rene Auberjonois) to sell his unused sandstone; and a young ranch hand (Lily Gladstone) fixated on a new-in-town night school teacher (Kristen Stewart). Shooting on 16mm, Reichardt creates understated, uncannily intimate dramas nestled within a clear-eyed depiction of the modern American West. An IFC Films release.

Elle
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 131m
French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Paul Verhoeven’s first feature in a decade—and his first in French—ranks among his most incendiary, improbable concoctions: a wry, almost-screwball comedy of manners about a woman who responds to a rape by refusing the mantle of victimhood. As the film opens, Parisian heroine Michèle (a brilliant Isabelle Huppert) is brutally violated in her kitchen by a hooded intruder. Rather than report the crime, Michèle, the CEO of a video game company and daughter of a notorious mass murderer, calmly sweeps up the mess and proceeds to engage her assailant in a dangerous game of domination and submission in which her motivations remain a constant source of mystery, humor, and tension. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Fire at Sea. Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Fire at Sea / Fuocoammare
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
Italy/France, 2016, 108m
English and Italian with English subtitles
Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary observes Europe’s migrant crisis from the vantage point of a Mediterranean island where hundreds of thousands of refugees, fleeing war and poverty, have landed in recent decades. Rosi shows the harrowing work of rescue operations but devotes most of the film to the daily rhythms of Lampedusa, seen through the eyes of a doctor who treats casualties and performs autopsies, and a feisty but anxious pre-teen from a family of fishermen for whom it is simply a peripheral fact of life. With its emphasis on the quotidian, the film reclaims an ongoing tragedy from the abstract sensationalism of media headlines. A Kino Lorber release.

Graduation / Bacalaureat
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, 2016, 127m
Romanian with English subtitles
Cristian Mungiu’s expertly constructed drama concerns a doctor desperate for his daughter to escape corruption-plagued Romania by accepting a scholarship offer from a British university (after-the-fact layer of irony courtesy of Brexit), contingent on her high school final exams. But after she’s assaulted, perhaps for past sins of her father, the doctor must decide whether he will take advantage of his position to ensure that she receives high marks, despite her trauma. Parents anxious about their children’s education will appreciate the moral dilemma the film poses. Like Mungiu’s superb 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (NYFF ’07), Graduation resonates beyond national boundaries. A Sundance Selects release.

Hermia and Helena
Directed by Matías Piñeiro
Argentina/USA, 2016, 87m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Shooting outside his native Argentina for the first time, New York–based Matías Piñeiro fashions a bittersweet comedy of coupling and uncoupling that doubles as a love letter to his adopted city. Working on a Spanish translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on an artist residency, Camila (Agustina Muñoz) finds herself within a constellation of shifting relationships (an old flame, a new one, a long-lost relative). Mingling actors from the director’s Buenos Aires repertory with stalwarts of New York’s independent film scene (Keith Poulson, Dustin Guy Defa, Dan Sallitt), Hermia and Helena offers the precise gestures, mercurial moods, and youthful energies of all Piñeiro’s cinema, with an emotional depth and directness that make this his most mature work yet.

I, Daniel Blake. Photo courtesy of Sundance Selects .

I, Daniel Blake
Directed by Ken Loach
UK, 2016, 100m
U.S. Premiere
Unable to work after suffering a heart attack, Daniel (Dave Johns) must apply to the government for benefits. But with the seemingly endless documentation he has to provide, his lack of familiarity with computers, and the condescending attitudes of the functionaries to whom he must repeat the same information in one soul-killing encounter after another, he is all but defeated from the beginning, as is his new comrade in misery, Katie (Hayley Squires). English director Ken Loach’s thoroughly shattering film, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will strike a chord with anyone who has ever tried to negotiate their way through the labyrinth of bureaucracy. A Sundance Selects release.

Julieta
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Spain, 2016, 99m
Spanish with English subtitles
Pedro Almodóvar explores his favorite themes of love, sexuality, guilt, and destiny through the poignant story of Julieta, played to perfection by Emma Suárez (younger) and Adriana Ugarte (middle-aged), over the course of a 30-year timespan. Just as she is about to leave Madrid forever, the seemingly content Julieta has a chance encounter that stirs up sorrowful memories of the daughter who brutally abandoned her when she turned eighteen. Drawing on numerous film historical references, from Hitchcock to the director’s own earlier Movida era work, Almodóvar’s twentieth feature, adapted from three short stories by Alice Munro (“Chance,” “Soon,” and “Silence”), is a haunting drama that oscillates between disenchanted darkness and visual opulence. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Manchester by the Sea. Photo by Claire Folger, courtesy of Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions.

Manchester by the Sea
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
USA, 2016, 137m
Casey Affleck is formidable as the volatile, deeply troubled Lee Chandler, a Boston-based handyman called back to his hometown on the Massachusetts North Shore after the sudden death of his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), who has left behind a teenage son (Lucas Hedges). This loss and the return to his old stomping grounds summon Lee’s memories of an earlier, even more devastating tragedy. In his third film as a director, following You Can Count on Me (2000) and Margaret (2011), Kenneth Lonergan, with the help of a remarkable cast, unflinchingly explores grief, hope, and love, giving us a film that is funny, sharply observed, intimately detailed yet grand in emotional scale. An Amazon Studios Release.

Moonlight
Directed by Barry Jenkins
USA, 2016, 110m
Barry Jenkins more than fulfills the promise of his 2008 romantic two-handerMedicine for Melancholy in this three-part narrative spanning the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of a gay African-American man who survives Miami’s drug-plagued inner city, finding love in unexpected places and the possibility of change within himself. Moonlight offers a powerful sense of place and a wealth of unpredictable characters, featuring a fantastic ensemble cast including André Holland, Trevante Rhodes, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali—delivering performances filled with inner conflict and aching desires that cut straight to the heart. An A24 release.

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea. Photo by Dash Shaw.

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
Directed by Dash Shaw
USA, 2016, 75m
U.S. Premiere
No matter your age, part of you never outgrows high school, for better or worse. Dash Shaw, known for such celebrated graphic novels as Bottomless Belly Button and New School, brings his subjective, dreamlike sense of narrative; his empathy for outsiders and their desire to connect; and his rich, expressive drawing style to his first animated feature. Packed with action but seen from the inside out, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is about friends overcoming their differences and having each other’s backs in times of crisis, and its marvelously complex characters are voiced by Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, and John Cameron Mitchell.

Neruda
Directed by Pablo Larraín
Chile/Argentina/France/Spain, 2016, 107m
Spanish and French with English subtitles
Pablo Larraín’s exciting, surprising, and colorful new film is not a biopic but, as the director himself puts it, a “Nerudean” portrait of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s years of flight and exile after his 1948 denunciation of his government’s leadership. Larraín’s heady blend of fact and fancy (the latter embodied in an invented character, straight out of detective fiction, played by Gael García Bernal) is many things at once: a loving, kaleidoscopic recreation of a particular historical moment; a comical cat-and-mouse game; and a pocket epic. Featuring Luis Gnecco, a dead ringer for the poet and a formidable actor, alongside a terrific cast. A release of The Orchard.

Paterson
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
USA, 2016, 118m
U.S. Premiere
Paterson (Adam Driver) is a bus driver who writes poetry drawn from the world around him. Paterson is also the name of the New Jersey city where he works and lives with his effervescent and energetic girlfriend (Golshifteh Farahani). And Paterson is the title of the great epic poem by William Carlos Williams, whose spirit animates Jim Jarmusch’s exquisite new film. This is a rare movie experience, set to the rhythm of an individual consciousness absorbing the beauties and mysteries and paradoxes and joys and surprises of everyday life, at home and at work, and making them into art. An Amazon Studios release.

Personal Shopper. Photo courtesy of Sundance Selects.

Personal Shopper
Directed by Olivier Assayas
France, 2016, 105m
French and English with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Kristen Stewart is the medium, in more ways than one, for this sophisticated genre exploration from director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria). As a fashion assistant whose twin brother has died, leaving her bereft and longing for messages from the other side, Stewart is fragile and enigmatic—and nearly always on-screen. From an opening sequence in a haunted house with an intricately constructed soundtrack to a high-tension, cat-and-mouse game on a trip from Paris to London and back set entirely to text messaging, Personal Shopper brings the psychological and supernatural thriller into the digital age. An IFC Films release.

The Rehearsal
Directed by Alison Maclean
New Zealand, 2016, 75m
U.S. Premiere
Alison Maclean (Jesus’ Son) returns to her New Zealand filmmaking roots with a multilayered coming-of-age story about a young actor (James Rolleston) searching for the truth of a character he’s playing onstage and the resulting moral dilemma in his personal life. Set largely in a drama school, featuring Kerry Fox as a diva-like teacher who tries to shape her student’s raw talent, The Rehearsal, adapted from the novel by Eleanor Catton, demystifies actors and acting in order to reveal the moments where craft becomes art. The same happens with Maclean’s understated but penetrating filmmaking. Her concentration on the quotidian yields a finale that borders on the sublime.

Sieranevada. Photo courtesy of Elle Driver.

Sieranevada
Directed by Cristi Puiu
Romania, 2016, 173m
Romanian with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
A decade after jumpstarting the Romanian New Wave with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Cristi Puiu returns with a virtuosic chamber drama set largely within a labyrinthine Bucharest apartment where a cantankerous extended family has gathered forty days after its patriarch’s death (and three days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris). Rituals and meals are anticipated and delayed, doors open and close, and the camera hovers at thresholds and in corridors. As claustrophobia mounts, heated, humorous exchanges—about the old Communist days and the present age of terror—coalesce into a brilliantly staged and observed portrait of personal and social disquiet.

Son of Joseph / Le fils de Joseph
Directed by Eugène Green
France/Belgium, 2016, 113m
French with English Subtitles
U.S. Premiere
The American-born expatriate filmmaker Eugène Green exists in his own special artistic orbit. All Green’s films share a formal rigor and an increasingly refined modulation between the playfully comic, the urgently human, and the transcendent, and they are each as exquisitely balanced as the baroque music and architecture that he cherishes. His latest movie, Son of Joseph, is perhaps his most buoyant. A nativity story reboot that gently skewers French cultural pretensions, it features newcomer Victor Ezenfis as a discontented Parisian teenager in search of a father, Mathieu Amalric and Fabrizio Rongione as his, respectively, callous and gentle alternative paternal options, and Natacha Régnier as his single mother. A Kino Lorber Films release.

Staying Vertical / Rester vertical
Directed by Alain Guiraudie
France, 2016, 100m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Léo (Damien Bonnard), a blocked filmmaker seeking inspiration in the French countryside for an overdue script, begins an affair with a shepherdess (India Hair), with whom he almost immediately has a child. Combining the formal control of his 2013 breakthrough Stranger by the Lake with the shapeshifting fabulism of his earlier work, Alain Guiraudie’s new film is a sidelong look at the human cycle of birth, procreation, and death, as well as his boldest riff yet on his signature subjects of freedom and desire. The title has the ring of both a rallying cry and a dirty joke—fitting for a film that is, above all else, a rumination on what it means to be a human being, a vertical animal. A Strand Releasing release.

Things to Come. Photo courtesy of Sundance Selects.

Things to Come / L’Avenir
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
France/Germany, 2016, 100m
French with English subtitles
In the new film from Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden), Isabelle Huppert is Nathalie, a Parisian professor of philosophy who comes to realize that the tectonic plates of her existence are slowly but inexorably shifting: her husband (André Marcon) leaves her, her mother (Edith Scob) comes apart, her favorite former student decides to live off the grid, and her first grandchild is born. Hansen-Løve carefully builds Things to Come around her extraordinary star: her verve and energy, her beauty, her perpetual motion. Huppert’s remarkable performance is counterpointed by the quietly accumulating force of the action, and the result is an exquisite expression of time’s passing. A Sundance Selects release.

Toni Erdmann
Directed by Maren Ade
Germany, 2016, 162m
German with English subtitles
An audacious twist on the screwball comedy—here, the twosome is an aging-hippie prankster father and his corporate-ladder-climbing daughter—Toni Erdmann delivers art and entertainment in equal measure and charmed just about everyone who saw it at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Maren Ade’s dazzling script has just enough of a classical comedic structure to support 162 minutes of surprises big and small. Meanwhile, her direction is designed to liberate the actors as much as possible while the camera rolls, resulting in sublime performances by Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, who leave the audience suspended between laughter and tears. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

The Unknown Girl. Photo courtesy of Sundance Selects.

The Unknown Girl
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Belgium, 2016, 106m
U.S. Premiere
It’s a few minutes after closing time in a medical clinic in Seraing, Belgium. The buzzer rings. Doctor Jenny (Adèle Haenel) tells her assistant (Olivier Bonnaud) to ignore it. She is later informed that the girl she turned away was soon found dead on the riverside. From that moment, Jenny becomes a different kind of doctor, diagnosing not just her dispossessed patients’ illnesses but also the greater malady afflicting her community. And this is a different kind of movie for Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, in which the urgency pulses beneath the seemingly placid surface, and it is all keyed to Haenel’s extraordinary performance. A Sundance Selects release.

Yourself and Yours
Directed by Hong Sangsoo
South Korea, 2016, 86m
Korean with English subtitles
Prolific NYFF favorite Hong Sangsoo boldly and wittily continues his ongoing exploration of the painful caprices of modern romance. Painter Youngsoo (Kim Joo-hyuk) hears secondhand that his girlfriend, Minjung (Lee Yoo-young), has recently had (many) drinks with an unknown man. This leads to a quarrel that seems to end their relationship. The next day, Youngsoo sets out in search of her, at the same time that Minjung—or a woman who looks exactly like her and may or may not be her twin—has a series of encounters with strange men, some of whom claim to have met her before . . . Yourself and Yours is a break-up/make-up comedy unlike any other, suffused with sophisticated modernist mystery.

‘The Lost City of Z’ from James Gray to close out the 54th New York Film Festival

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces The Lost City of Z, written and directed by James Gray (The Immigrant, Two Lovers), as the Closing Night selection of the 54th New York Film Festival. The film, based on journalist David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, will make its World Premiere at the festival’s final gala screening on Saturday, October 15.

James Gray’s emotionally and visually resplendent epic tells the story of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett (a remarkable Charlie Hunnam), the British military-man-turned-explorer whose search for a lost city deep in the Amazon grows into an increasingly feverish, decades-long magnificent obsession that takes a toll on his reputation, his home life with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children, and his very existence. Gray and cinematographer Darius Khondji cast quite a spell, exquisitely pitched between rapture and dizzying terror. Also starring Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, The Lost City of Z represents a form of epic storytelling that has all but vanished from the landscape of modern cinema, and a rare level of artistry.

New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “James Gray is one of the finest filmmakers we have. Each of his movies is so beautifully wrought, visually and emotionally, but The Lost City of Z represents something new. It’s a true epic, spanning two continents and three decades, and it’s a genuine vision of the search for sublimity.”

“It’s truly a dream come true for me to have The Lost City of Z selected for the closing night of the New York Film Festival,” said Gray. “I couldn’t be more honored that the film’s world premiere will be in my hometown, a city I still love above all others.”

Gray’s previous film, 2014’s The Immigrant, was an official selection of the 51st New York Film Festival.

The Lost City of Z is produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Anthony Katagas, and Dale Armin Johnson, and is executive produced by Brad Pitt and Marc Butan.

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Programming; Florence Almozini, FSLC Associate Director of Programming; Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Film Comment and Sight & Sound; and Gavin Smith, who serves as a consultant.

NYFF previously announced Ava DuVernay’s documentary The 13th as the Opening Night selection—the first nonfiction work ever to open the festival—and Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women as Centerpiece.

Tickets for the 54th New York Film Festival will go on sale September 11. Becoming a Film Society Member at the Film Buff Level or above provides early ticket access to festival screenings and events ahead of the general public, along with the exclusive member ticket discount. Learn more at filmlinc.org/membership.

For even more access, VIP passes and subscription packages offer one of the earliest opportunities to purchase tickets and secure seats at some of the festival’s biggest events including Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing Nights. VIP passes also provide access to many exciting events, including the invitation-only Opening Night party, “An Evening With…” dinner, Filmmaker Brunch, and VIP Lounge. Benefits vary based on the pass or package type purchased. VIP passes and subscription packages are on sale now. Learn more atfilmlinc.org/NYFF.

Review: ‘The Mind’s Eye’, an unapologetic homage to David Cronenberg.

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Written and directed by Joe Begos (Almost Human), The Mind’s Eye reunites him with his Almost Human film star Graham Skipper along with cast members Lauren Ashley Carter (Premium Rush, The Woman), John Speredakos (The House of the Devil), and Noah Segan (Some Kind of Hate, Looper). THE MIND’S EYE is undeniably an homage to David Cronenberg‘s Scanners. Low budget and over the top schlock are at it’s best and tailored for the midnight audience.

(L-R) John Speredakos as Dr. Michael Slovak and Graham Skipper as Zack Connors in the horror film “THE MIND’S EYE” an RLJ Entertainment release. Photo credit Joe Begos.

Here’s the skinny on the plot: A couple with psychokinetic capabilities are held hostage by a whacked out doctor who wants to harness their energy for his own personal uses. If you didn’t know what you were signing up for when sitting down, you might be turned off by the acting, the better for tv cinematography, and a final act that resembles something more akin to a constipation battle than a mind-melding fight to see you who eff up the other person first with their overexerted brain power. But, if you know what you’re in for, you’ve come to the right place.

(L-R) Lauren Ashley Carter as Rachel Meadows and Graham Skipper as Zack Connors in the horror film “THE MIND’S EYE” an RLJ Entertainment release. Photo credit Joe Begos.

Graham Skipper‘s Zack connors sounds a bit too green in his line readings for my taste, but his look is awesome. His chemistry with Carter is spot on. John Speredakos as the mad Dr. Slovak is so over the top that I’m surprised his character didn’t appear in the Buffy series (which in a strange way is a compliment, I loves me some Whedonverse). The shining star of this film is hands down the performance of Lauren Ashley Carter as Rachel. Every moment is actually believable, filled with panic, and immensely effective. The entire cast is slotted with actors who are no strangers to the genre. It’s kind of cool to see a little indie horror love-fest going on here.

Lauren Ashley Carter as Rachel Meadows in the horror film “THE MIND’S EYE”an RLJ Entertainment release. Photo credit Joe Begos.

The practical effects are on point. This is where The Mind’s Eye excels. Heavy handed with the splatter and some truly sick prosthetic casts, these are the shining moments. In a time where Netflix‘s Stranger Things is blowing up, the release could not be more perfectly timed. Check out the trailer below. The Mind’s Eye arrives in theater today and is available on iTunes and VOD.

THE MIND’S EYE – RLJ Entertainment

IN THEATERS AND AVAILABLE ON VOD AND iTUNES: August 5, 2016

DIRECTED BY: Joe Begos

WRITTEN BY: Joe Begos

CAST: Graham Skipper, Lauren Ashley Carter, John Speredakos, Noah Segan

SYNOPSIS: Zack Connors and Rachel Meadows were born with incredible psychokinetic capabilities. When word of their supernatural talents gets out, they find themselves the prisoners of Michael Slovak, a deranged doctor intent on harvesting their powers. After a daring escape, they are free from his sinister institution, but the corrupt doctor will stop at nothing to track them down so that he may continue to siphon their gifts for his own use.

GENRE: Horror, Thriller

DISTRIBUTOR: RLJ Entertainment

Review: ‘SUN CHOKE’, is a mind melding thriller. In Theaters and on VOD.

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Nothing makes me happier while watching a film than thinking I’m watching one story and then getting hit with a proverbial 2×4 in plot. It’s a ballsy move that either pays off or loses the audience. In Ben Cresciman‘s sophomore feature as both writer and director, a young woman’s health and sanity are in serious question. With the watchful eye from her lifelong caretaker, can she conquer what lies deep down. Welcome to the oddity that is SUN CHOKE.

Sarah Hagan as Janie in the thriller film SUN CHOKE an XLrator Media release. Photo courtesy of XLrator Media.

This is was truly unexpected and shocking thriller. As the story unravels, we are privy to piecemeal information. Margo has a past, but what it entails is shrouded in mystery. It is PTSD? Why is she under house arrest? Irma is her 24hr watcher, mental health guidance, using extreme tactics to cleanse her body and soul of whatever is haunting Margo. When she is allowed to exit the house after a year, things get weird as Margo attaches herself to a stranger. Will this woman be Margo’s saving grace or is there something else driving the fascination?

(L-R) Sarah Hagan as Janie and Barbara Crampton as Irma in the thriller film SUN CHOKE an XLrator Media release. Photo courtesy of XLrator Media.

This script takes a sharp left turn and to Crescimun’s credit as a writer, it is pretty out there. While the film has left me with more questions than answers, that is precisely why I enjoyed it so immensely. It bares zero resemblance to anything I’ve seen before. With a crisp, almost sterile, and yet angelic look from Mathew Rudenberg’s cinematography, combined with the chilling original score from Boom Bip, to the off kilter sound design by Michael Solano, SUN CHOKE will make your skin crawl.

Barbara Crampton as Irma in the thriller film SUN CHOKE an XLrator Media release. Photo courtesy of XLrator Media.

Sarah Hagan, you I know best from her time of Freaks and Geeks, and the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is a beautiful mixture of helpless and frightening. With a pretty face and a soft demeanor, her actions throughout the film throw your head into a tailspin. And let’s talk about horror goddess, Barbara Crampton, as Irma. Similar to the character of Margo, the audience is unsure of her intentions. Her timeless elegance and style make her a scene-stealer with what seems like very little effort. I cannot express how wonderful she is in this role. If you want to see the pure acting ability and witness her chops as an actor and chameleon, check her out in one of my favorite films from last year, We Are Still Here, from our friend Ted Geoghegan. I am convinced she is a Time Lord or something akin to a magical creature.

SUN CHOKE

IN THEATERS: August 5, 2016

AVAILABLE ON VOD and iTUNES: August 2, 2016

DIRECTOR: Ben Cresciman

WRITER: Ben Cresciman

CAST: Sarah Hagan, Sara Malakul Lane and Barbara Crampton

SYNOPSIS: As Janie recovers from a violent psychotic break, she’s subjected each day to a bizarre holistic health and wellness regimen designed, and enforced, by her lifelong nanny and caretaker. But when she develops an obsession with a stranger, Janie’s buried demons begin to surface.

Adopt Films has released the official trailer for the upcoming film ‘The Pickle Recipe’!

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Michael Petrelli — Leave a reply

Adopt Films has released the official trailer for the upcoming film The Pickle Recipe and we have it for you below!

The Pickle Recipe, which The Hollywood Reporter called ‘crowd-pleasing, energetic, irresistibly warm,’ is the story of a local party emcee who teams up with an unscrupulous uncle to steal his grandmother’s secret pickle recipe so he can replace his professional equipment lost in a fire in time to play at his daughter’s Bat Mitzvah.

The film stars Jon Dore, Lynn Cohen (,Munich), Academy Award® nominee David Paymer (Quiz Show), and Eric Edelstein (“Parks and Recreation”). It was directed by Michael Manasseri, written by Sheldon Cohn and Gary Wolfson, and produced by Sheldon Cohn, Paul Finkel, Michael Manasseri, Jason Potash and Gary Wolfson.

Review: Suicide Squad

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Michael Petrelli — Leave a reply

Warner Brothers are off to a rough start in creating their DC Cinematic Universe with the overwhelmingly negative reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but they’re hedging their bets that David Ayer’s Suicide Squad can right the ship. With movie superstar Will Smith, the live action debut of beloved character Harley Quinn and the return of the Joker, this movie is set up to be a home run, but with early screening responses trending negative and word of back stage issues, could we possibly be seeing strike two for the movie studio or will fans embrace this rouge group of bad guys doing good and usher in a new successful comic book franchise to the ever growing genre.

It is a world post Superman and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is a government official who doesn’t plan on sitting back and waiting for an apocalyptic event to occur. Her plan is to assemble a task force consisting of a group of dangerous criminals with the intent of controlling them to do her bidding if a threat to this nation arises. She receives the approval to move forward and, along with military man Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and samurai Katana (Karen Fukuhara) she selects her team consisting of Deadshot (Will Smith), the deadliest hitman on Earth, Harley Quinn (Margo Robbie), former psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum and current crazed super-villain who happens to be the love of The Joker’s life, Boomerang (Jai Courtney), a rugged, unpredictable and mouthy criminal who utilizes deadly boomerangs, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a super-villain with the features of a crocodile, and El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), a gang member who has powers that allow him to summon flames.

Together they must take on Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), an ancient evil force that awakens to find a world where she once ruled has adopted new gods to worship. Enchantress beings to assemble a machine that will destroy the city, but it’s the Suicide Squad that is activated to take on the threat, but Enchantress isn’t the only threat to these anti-heroes. Harley Quinn’s boyfriend, The Joker (Jared Leto), the biggest criminal in Gotham is out to get his girl back and he’ll stop at nothing to get her back. Around each corner, a new threat lurks, can this team find a way to coexist or will the deeds from their past hinder their chances of success?

Director David Ayer creates a chaotic world in which to drop his suicide squad into and sets them off like a time bomb. Much like DC’s animated movie Batman: Assault on Arkham, this is very much a search and destroy film taking from recent video game plots, mixing it all into Ayer’s world and relying on the strength of the actors to make the simplistic plot as intersting as possible for the audience. Viola Davis is amazing and embodies Amanda Waller with the exact amount of venom needed to bring this “take no crap” character to the screen. Will Smith brings his star power to the film and ultimately becomes a focal point of the movie. Deadshot’s back story and character arc embrace the human side of his character while attempting to prove that even bad guys can be good. Margo Robbie’s Harley Quinn is the other focal point and her portrayal of Quinn is perfection. Robbie adds sex appeal to Quinn’s bad ass persona and brings to life one of the most beloved characters with pure class. Jared Leto unearthed the clown prince and brought the the screen a new take on the Joker. Leto’s is a perfect companion to Robbie’s Harley Quinn and one that will be highly anticipated to watch as the character makes his way thru the DCU. My only wish is that the character was given a bit more screen time. The rest of the cast including Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman and Jai Courtney were serviceable at best and really didn’t leave a lasting impression.

Overall, Suicide Squad is a highly enjoyable action film that will surely entertain fans of the comics. Will audiences embrace this movie? That’s a question for another time, but one thing’s for sure, form your own opinion and make sure not to allow the negative critical reaction from allowing yourself to see the film.

Stars:

3 1/2 out of 5

After Credit Scene?

Yes. Mid Credit

Trailer:

Warner Brothers Announces a Sequel to ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Michael Petrelli — Leave a reply

As anticipation builds for the November 18^th release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ adventure Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Studio has announced plans to return to J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World for the next film in the series, slated for worldwide release on November 16, 2018. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Wizarding world creator J.K. Rowling, who made her screenwriting debut on the first film, is scripting the sequel.

The second “Fantastic Beasts” movie moves deeper into an increasingly dark time for the wizarding world, where Newt and our other heroes have to decide on their allegiances.

Director David Yates (the final four “Harry Potter” films) will again take the helm, having recently completed work on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The new film will also reunite producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. Neil Blair, Rick Senat and Danny Cohen will serve as executive producers.

The “Fantastic Beasts” franchise is an important part of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, a brand which continues to expand. The new play, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two,” has just opened to rave reviews in London, drawing rapturous applause in sold out performances, and the script of the play, just published, has already seen unprecedented sales for a script book. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks at Universal Studios in Orlando, Hollywood and Osaka, Japan, continue to entertain record crowds and Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter offers another extremely popular experience for fans of all ages. There is much more on the horizon, all highlighting that the global interest in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World in every medium is stronger than ever.

The “Fantastic Beasts” films will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Netflix News: ‘Mascots’ from Christopher Guest with a crazy awesome cast coming October 13th!

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Mascots is a new comedy from Christopher Guest, director of Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. Starring many of his regular troupe of actors, this latest film takes place in the ultra-competitive world of sports mascots where they compete for the most prestigious award in their field, the Gold Fluffy.

The Netflix original film stars Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Ed Begley, Jr., Christopher Moynihan, Don Lake, Brad Williams, Zach Woods, Chris O’Dowd, Susan Yeagley, Sarah Baker, Tom Bennett, Kerry Godliman, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Hitchcock, Maria Blasucci, John Michael Higgins, and Jim Piddock. The film was written by Christopher Guest & Jim Piddock and produced by Karen Murphy. Mascots will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September and will launch globally on Netflix on October 13, 2016.

Follow Mascots on Twitter and Facebook.

XLrator Media acquires ‘The Windmill’ for North American Distribution on its acclaimed “Macabre” label

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

XLrator Media has acquired North American distribution rights to the suspense thriller THE WINDMILL and will release the film this October on its acclaimed “MACABRE” genre label. The film has its world premiere at FrightFest next month.

THE WINDMILL marks the directorial debut of Nick Jongerius (producer of Frankenstein’s Army and Dead End), based on his original idea with screenplay by Suzy Quid and Chris W. Mitchell. The film stars Noah Taylor (“Game of Thrones,” “Peaky Blinders”), Charlotte Beaumont, Patrick Baladi, Tanroh Ishida and Ben Batt. It was produced by Daniel Koefoed (Frankenstein’s Army), Nick Jongerius, Guirec Van Slingelandt (Kidnapping Mr. Heineken) and Eric Brenner (Amnesiac).

“THE WINDMILL is a fun and nostalgic throwback to edge-of-your-seat horror classics like Friday the 13th and The Nightmare on Elm Street from the talented producers of Frankenstein’s Army. Halloween is going to be a lot scarier this year!” said XLrator Media CEO Barry Gordon.

ABOUT THE WINDMILL

A group of unsuspecting tourists awaken a mysterious evil whilst on a trip through the Dutch countryside. When their tour bus breaks down, the strangers are forced to seek shelter in an abandoned barn beside a sinister windmill where, legend has it, a Devil-worshipping miller once ground the bones of locals instead of grain. As members of the group start disappearing, secrets are revealed that seem to mark them all for doom.

“It’s been a dream come true to shoot my feature film debut with an international cast like Noah Taylor and Charlotte Beaumont, and I’m thrilled to have it released in North America by XLrator Media,” said Nick Jongerius. “It was my aim from the beginning to use Dutch heritage and locations as the film’s backdrop. I’ve always been fascinated – and scared – by windmills. I can assure you that people will look at them differently after seeing the film.”

The deal was negotiated by XLrator Media’s Barry Gordon with Blue Fox Entertainment’s Todd Slater on behalf of the filmmakers.

“XLrator Media is one of the most innovative and forward-thinking distributors we know. We are thrilled to have them release the film in theaters and across all platforms this Fall,” said Todd Slater and James Huntsman of Blue Fox Entertainment.

‘BLUEBIRD’ is the newest title available from WE ARE COLONY with behind-the-scenes extras!

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

The newest digital release from We Are Colony is from first-time director Lance Edmands (editor of Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture) titled BLUEBIRD.

Starring Mad Men’s John Slattery, The Leftovers’ Emily Meade, The Good Wife’s Margo Martingale plus a cameo from Girls’ Adam Driver, Bluebird will available to rent and buy in the US from Monday 25th July with exclusive behind-the-scenes extras.

Synopsis:

In the northern reaches of Maine, a local school bus driver becomes distracted during her end-of-day inspection, and fails to notice a sleeping boy in the back of the bus. What happens next shatters the tranquility of her small Maine logging town, proving that even the slightest actions have enormous consequences.

Jeremy got the incredible oportunity to see Bluebird at the Indy Film Fest last year. In his review, he outlines the gutwrenching and effecting emotional hold the film has on it’s audience. I could not have said it better myself, so here are a few quotes from Jeremy’s review:

“…at this year’s Indy Film Fest, Lance Edmands’ Bluebird was far and away my favorite of those that I saw and certainly worthy of the Grand Jury Prize, tops of the fest, as well as the American Spectrum Prize for the best film made by an American director…”

“Bluebird is not a heartwarming story and thus not for everyone. It mirrors the bleakness and harshness of the landscape and the season in which it was shot so deftly by Jody Lee Lipes (also known for the great photography of Martha Marcy May Marlene). It echoes Atom Egoyan‘s The Sweet Hereafter, a film I would easily put in the top ten best of the 1990s, in tone and even bears some narrative resemblance, yet it stands on its own and makes us take notice.”

You can read Jeremy’s review in it’s entirety as well as his interview with director Lance Edmands. Take a look at the trailer below.

In renting or owning Bluebird through We Are Colony’s digital platform, you are treated to exclusive behind-the-scenes extras.

For more information on this unique platform: We Are Colony

Attention Filmmakers! ReelPitch Challenge submissions due August 9th!

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

TAA_ReelPitchChallenge_Banner_800x400_v2-1

The Audience Awards (AudAwards) invites filmmakers from around the globe to submit a pitch video of their film or web series to the ReelPitch Challenge, which will award $25,000 in cash, as well as other prizes, to four deserving projects.

The Audience Awards provides a stage for short films and engaging stories. Dedicated to celebrating the power of storytelling and building audiences for new talent, it was created by filmmakers for filmmakers to help grow careers and fund dreams.

Prizes … In addition to four (4) cash prizes, two (2) music licenses for films with a budget up to $1 million will be awarded by Filmstro, the world’s first soundtrack creation studio ($1,999 value each). Winning shorts will also be screened at the premiere Audience Awards International Film Festival, to be held in Los Angeles, Calif., April 2017, and gain invaluable exposure, including press and social media engagement.

Audience Awards:

1^st Place: $10,000, Filmstro soundtrack license ($1,999) & Audience Awards International Film Festival premiere
2^nd Place: $2,500 & Audience Awards International Film Festival premiere

Jury Awards:

1^st Place: $10,000, Filmstro soundtrack license ($1,999) & Audience Awards International Film Festival premiere
2^nd Place: $2,500 & Audience Awards International Film Festival premiere

How to Enter … Crowdfunding videos, trailers or film pitches may be submitted in one of four categories: 1) Pre-production, 2) Production, 3) Post-production or 4) Distribution & Outreach. Videos must be 10 minutes or less and submitted no later than Aug. 9, 2016 at 8:59 a.m. MDT (USA). The contest is open to all ages, professional levels and countries. Entry fee is $20.

Submitted videos will be judged for eligibility based on the quality of content and adherence to the assignment. Two prizes will be awarded by a highly noted industry jury. Two additional prizes will also be awarded by a People’s Choice competition, live from Aug. 9 at 9 a.m. MDT (USA) through Aug. 18 at 9 p.m. MDT (USA). Winners will be announced Friday, Aug. 19. Vote at: www.TheAudienceAwards.com

Jury Members … Caterina Fake, co-founder of the iconic websites Flickr and Hunch and a board member of the Sundance Institute; Darrien Gipson, Executive Director, SAGindie; Sascha Rice, Global Marketing Director, Motion Picture, Eastman Kodak Company; Harry Vaughn, Associate Programmer, Documentary and Catalyst Narratives Reader, Sundance Institute; and Adnaan Wasey, an Emmy- and Webby-nominated executive producer of innovative media, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism and head of POV Digital, the new media production division of the long-running PBS documentary series POV.

For a full list of rules or to enter: https://theaudienceawards.com/the-audience-awards/reelpitch
About the Audience Awards:

Launched in 2013, Audience Awards (AudAwards) is an innovative, online, video contest platform, with a rapidly growing community that is 100,000-members strong. AudAwards competitions are an organic opportunity to cross-promote brands, projects, products, services, causes and the work of emerging filmmakers on a broad scale. We understand what it means to be an independent filmmaker, struggling to be heard and seen – usually on a shoestring budget – and AudAwards is a unique stage for advancing careers. Top brands like Hilton, Kodak and Fusion, among numerous others, call upon our member filmmakers to produce and submit videos (following specific criteria) for people’s choice voting, allowing audiences to come together to support outstanding talent. Winners receive a variety of cash awards ranging as high as $50,000 and other in-kind prizes. Competitions have provided opportunities to be presented at prestigious film festivals and land distribution deals with major networks. Corporations and other organizations gain unique perspectives into consumer tastes, as well as rights to valuable assets. It’s a win-win! Visit us online at www.theaudienceawards.com

New York Film Festival announces Mike Mill’s ’20th Century Women’ as centerpiece

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the selection of 20th Century Women, written and directed by Mike Mills (Beginners), as the Centerpiece of the 54th New York Film Festival (September 30 – October 16). The gala screening on Saturday, October 8, will be the film’s World Premiere.

Available on Netflix

Mills’s texturally and behaviorally rich new comedy keeps redefining itself as it goes along, creating a moving group portrait of particular people in a particular place (Santa Barbara) at a particular moment in the 20th century (1979), one lovingly attended detail at a time. The great Annette Bening, in one of her very best performances, is a single mother raising her teenage son (newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann) in a sprawling bohemian house, shared by an itinerant carpenter (Billy Crudup) and a punk artist with a Bowie haircut (Greta Gerwig), and frequented by her son’s rebellious friend (Elle Fanning). 20th Century Women is warm, funny, and a work of passionate artistry.

New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “I was taken aback by 20th Century Women. It’s made with an extraordinarily unusual level of craft and attention to detail, human and visual, which is now all but extinct. As someone who actually lived through 1979 in middle-class America, I will testify to the fact that Mike Mills and his remarkable cast approach the level of the uncanny. I felt like I was back there, with all the shared behaviors and worries, the divisions, the look and feel and smell of the world as it was.”

“Everyone who worked on this film is so honored we’re a part of NYFF,” said Mills. “It’s very exciting for me to premiere my film in the city where I discovered I wanted to be a writer and director, and at the film festival where I saw so many films that inspired me and truly showed me the way. My first film school was a combination of Kim’s Video on Avenue A, Theatre 80 St Marks, and all the innovations I saw at NYFF—so beginning this film’s public life here is especially meaningful to me.”

20th Century Women will be released by A24 in December. The film is produced by Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures, Anne Carey of Archer Gray, and Youree Henley.

Earlier this month, NYFF announced Ava DuVernay’s documentary The 13th as the Opening Night selection, the first-ever nonfiction work to open the festival.

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
The Film Society of Lincoln Center is devoted to supporting the art and elevating the craft of cinema. The only branch of the world-renowned arts complex Lincoln Center to shine a light on the everlasting yet evolving importance of the moving image, this nonprofit organization was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international film. Via year-round programming and discussions; its annual New York Film Festival; and its publications, including Film Comment, the U.S.’s premier magazine about films and film culture, the Film Society endeavors to make the discussion and appreciation of cinema accessible to a broader audience, as well as to ensure that it will remain an essential art form for years to come.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO, The Kobal Collection, Variety, Loews Regency Hotel, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Support for the New York Film Festival is also generously provided by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

For more information about the New York Film Festival, visit filmlinc.org/NYFF. For the latest news, subscribe to the festival’s newsletter, follow the festival on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag: #NYFF.

The First Trailer and Images for The Upcoming Comedy ‘Office Christmas Party’ are Here!

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Michael Petrelli — Leave a reply

Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer and images for the upcoming comedy Office Christmas Party and we have them for you!

In Office Christmas Party, when the CEO tries to close her hard-partying brother’s branch, he and his Chief Technical Officer must rally their co-workers and host an epic office Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client and close a sale that will save their jobs.

The movie stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Vanessa Bayer, Jillian Bell, Jamie Chung, Rob Corddry, Abbey Lee, Kate McKinnon, TJ Miller, Olivia Munn, Randall Park, Sam Richardson, and Courtney B. Vance and is directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck.

Office Christmas Party hits theaters on December 9, 2016

Fandango Releases ‘Jason Bourne’ Ultimate Franchise Trailer

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

“Matt Damon is back this week as Jason Bourne for the first time since 2007, and he’s ready to fight his way to the top of the weekend box office,” said Fandango Managing Editor, Erik Davis.

I really wanted this to get me caught up with the series, but it doesn’t do that at all. What is does do is make me SUPER psyched to see Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. Fighting, explosions, sign me up!

‘Doctor Strange’ new poster & trailer!

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

See Marvel’s “Doctor Strange,” in theaters November 4, 2016.
Subscribe to Marvel: http://bit.ly/WeO3YJ

Follow Marvel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marvel
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For even more news, stay tuned to:
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Netflix News: New trailer for ‘Narcos’ Season 2

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Narcos chronicles the gripping real-life stories of the infamous drug kingpins of the late 1980s and the corroborative efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. Its gritty storytelling details the many, often-conflicting forces – legal, political, police, military and civilian – that clash in the effort to control cocaine, one of the world’s most valuable commodities.

Narcos is produced by Gaumont International Television for Netflix .

The Golden Globe nominated first season of Narcos is available for members to stream instantly on Netflix in Ultra HD 4K.

Follow #Narcos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Review: ‘DON’T WORRY BABY’, Daddy’s got you.

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Presents

DON’T WORRY BABY

The modern family dynamic can be complicated, at best. With the divorce rate at 50%, blended families are more the norm than anything else. The idea of Mom, Dad, 2.5 kids and a dog no longer fits inside a neat little box. If anything, that’s the oddity now. In the new film DON’T WORRY BABY, writer/director Julian Branciforte takes this concept to a whole new level.

Struggling photographer Robert (Magaro) and his philandering father Harry (McDonald) realize that they each had a one-night stand with the same woman, Sara-Beth (Walker), in the same week. Years later, they realize that either one of them might be the biological father of her adorable four-year-old daughter. They begrudgingly agree to share fatherly duties while awaiting a paternity test.

Robert and Harry are strangely pitted against one another for “father of the year” status, in an awkward competition of responsibility. Robert is not only navigating relationship normalcy but he is grasping to find happiness in general. Harry, in a sad attempt to outdo his son, uses demeaning words and actions to cut Robert down at every turn. Branciforte’s story is immensely compelling, offers moments of surprise and nothing but honesty. The performances all around are outstanding.

John Magaro‘s Robert battle self-loathing and confusion as he finds his way through career, life and love. This role for Magaro is proof that his natural talent is way more than enough. Chris McDonald‘s Harry is a self-righteous prick coming to terms with his own life long mistakes as father and husband. The performance is something I have to come expect from McDonald’s. There is a reason he has had such a long career. Dreama Walker, as Sara-beth, could have been a throwaway character. The ins and out of a quietly complex young woman were well played by Walker. As the film progresses, we become more and more invested in each role as Branciforte does a wonderful job developing everyone. To believe this story, this is absolutely necessary. With solid smaller roles filled by Britt Lower and Tom Lipinski, some of the film’s most shining moments come from Talia Balsam as Harry’s wife Miriam. The dynamic between Sara-beth and the woman betrayed is an unexpected one, but truly inspiring. Let me not forget to mention how fantastically darling Rainn Williams is as Mason, the young lady there is so much to do about. This little sweetheart is meant to be on the big screen. The chemistry between the entire cast combined with tight direction make this a winner.

DON’T WORRY BABY is ultimately about making amends. Coming to terms with what we’ve created emotionally is a huge task, and it’s one that this film dives into head first. You can catch Don’t Worry Baby in theaters and On Demand this Friday, July 22nd.

In Theaters and On Demand
July 22nd

Starring
John Magaro (Carol, The Big Short, Woody Allen’s Upcoming Series)
Chris McDonald (Happy Gilmore, Thelma and Louise)
Dreama Walker (CBS’s The Good Wife)
Tom Lipinski (USA Network’s Suits)
&
Talia Balsam (No Strings Attached, AMC’s Mad Men)

Written & Directed By
Julian Branciforte

The Dallas Film Society announces 2 new board members

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

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The Dallas Film Society, a 501(c)3 designed to promote the City of Dallas’ long-standing commitment to the art of filmmaking, and best known for its beloved annual Dallas International Film Festival, has appointed two new local tastemakers to its Board of Directors. The addition of in-demand film producer Dallas Sonnier, and non-representational artist Maureen Womack were announced by Dallas Film Society President and CEO, Lee Papert.

“I am thrilled to announce that Dallas Sonnier and Maureen Womack will all be joining the Dallas Film Society Board of Directors,” said Papert. “We have sought to strengthen the representation on our board from the both the film community and the arts community and could not have found a better duo to begin that effort. Having just completed a very successful ten years, their talent, experience and vision will assist us in our efforts to reach for even greater goals and help elevate the Dallas Film Society as we enter our second decade.”

DFS Chairman of the Board Mark Denesuk added: “The addition of Dallas and Maureen is an important one for this Board. They will add to the fabric of the impressive group of individuals already on hand to broaden the scope of this organization’s collective talents, resources, experience, and outlook. By this point in its existence, the Dallas Film Society holds a great responsibility as a leading force in the celebration, promotion, and education of film and cinema not just in Dallas, but throughout Texas and the Southwest. Each one of our members brings an expertise to the table that can only continue to build the Film Society’s reputation at a local, national and international level.”

“I left behind a crazy life full of Hollywood memories to return to my hometown of Dallas because I wanted to be a part of the amazing cultural swell that is occurring right this very minute,” said Sonnier. “From David Lowery to Shane Carruth, from Deep Vellum Publishing to The Wild Detectives, from Erykah Badu to Sam Lao, from Rambo to Chivas Clem, our city is experiencing an artistic renaissance growing organically alongside our local financial sectors and business leaders. I’m thrilled to be a part of that and joining the DFS board was a huge first step and quite the honor.”

Womack added: “Visual Arts has always been my concentration, but I believe that there is a meaningful connection between art and film. I am honored and excited to use my energy and
creativity to take the Dallas Film Society forward, helping to foster both new filmmakers and new
audiences. I love art, I love film and I love Dallas, and am eager to see what we can achieve as the
DFS enters its eleventh year.”

Dallas Sonnier is an entrepreneur and film industry professional who co-founded Caliber Media, which recently produced the two-time Spirit Award nominee BONE TOMAHAWK starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins. Sonnier is currently prepping BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, starring Vince Vaughn, as well as a reboot of the classic horror franchise PUPPET MASTER. Sonnier previously produced several indie horror films such as DARK WAS THE NIGHT, BAD MILO, SOME KIND OF HATE and CONDEMNED. As managers, Caliber was instrumental in the packaging of films like BACHELORETTE, the Academy-Award winning short film CURFEW, and TV projects such as Mozart in the Jungle (currently airing on Amazon), and The Path (currently airing on Hulu).

Maureen Womack is as a non-representational artist, with her work on display in several Dallas galleries, as well as having permanent pieces hanging in the Omni Hotel, Dallas. Womack is also a docent at the Dallas Museum of Art and this fall will mark her 8th year with the DMA. Previously, she spent the majority of her career in the advertising and marketing fields. On the agency side, Maureen worked in account service and then as an art buyer. Later she became an independent commercial film rep, representing local and national film professionals including directors, editors and music houses.

The officers for the upcoming fiscal year include Chairman, Mark Denesuk; Treasurer, Mary Hatcher; Secretary, Matt Bivona. Returning Board of Directors (in addition to the officers) include Benton Bagot, Jason Cleveland, Paul Coggins, Lauren Embrey, Clare Freeman, Suzanne Bock Grishman, Geoff Hawkes, Harry Hunsicker, Lynn Lewis, and Larry Waks.

ABOUT THE DALLAS FILM SOCIETY
The Dallas Film Society celebrates films and their impact on society. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Dallas Film Society recognizes and honors filmmakers for their achievements in enhancing the creative community, provides educational programs to students to develop a better understanding of the role of film in today’s world, and promotes the City of Dallas and its commitment to the art of filmmaking. The annual Dallas International Film Festival is a presentation of the Dallas Film Society and has been named by Movie Maker Magazine as one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World.” In addition to producing one of the largest festivals in the Southwest, the Society produces numerous year round events, screening series and programs in partnership with arts organizations around the city. The offices of the Dallas Film Society are located at 3625 North Hall Street, Suite 740, Dallas, TX 75219. For more information about the Dallas Film Society and its ongoing events, visit www.dallasfilm.org or call (214) 720-0555.

Netflix announces new episodes of ‘Making a Murderer’

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Netflix today announces that Executive Producers / Directors, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, are in production on new episodes of the Emmy-nominated Making a Murderer. The new installments will take fans of the acclaimed documentary series back inside the story of convicted murderer Steven Avery, and his co-defendant, Brendan Dassey, as their respective investigative and legal teams challenge their convictions and the State fights to have the convictions and life sentences upheld. This next chapter will provide an in-depth look at the high-stakes post-conviction process, as well as, the emotional toll the process takes on all involved.

The episodes will offer exclusive access to Avery’s new lawyer Kathleen Zellner and Dassey’s legal team, led by Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin, as well as intimate access to the families and characters close to the case “We are extremely grateful for the tremendous response to, and support of, the series. The viewers’ interest and attention has ensured that the story is not over, and we are fully committed to continuing to document events as they unfold” said creators, Ricciardi and Demos.

“Because of Ricciardi’s and Demos’ incredible vision, commitment and keen eye, audiences around the globe became completely captivated by the personal stories of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey and the unique lens their experiences provide into the criminal justice system” said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix VP of Original Documentary Programming. A criminal defense lawyer is vital when a person commits a crime. There are so many criminal attorneys or lawyers today who work in their local courts. There are also attorneys who specialize in other cases, You can go on this website for further details. When a person commits a felony, a reputable lawyer can advise regarding the procedures and court proceedings. To be involved in a crime is a serious matter. In order to get through the case, one needs to get assistance from a criminal attorney lawyer.

Domestic violence laws are becoming more obscure under current laws. It is getting to be easier to prosecute a person under these laws for almost any crime committed in the home. They encompass abuse against a family member, significant other, or basically anyone living under the same roof with you.

You need to find out state specific laws when it comes to violent crime the same as any other. Domestic violence attorneys are knowledgeable in the laws that govern your specific geographic location.

When you move to a new area or work outside of your home state you will be subject to local laws and jurisdictions. The adage ignorance of the law is no excuse carries over into this area just like other laws.If want to learn more about Domestic Violence Attorneys, visit us here.

If you are charged with a domestic violence crime you will need representation by a skilled domestic violence attorney. This crime can carry a very steep sentence if convicted. You do not want this crime on your record to follow you around.

You may be innocent but without a good lawyer who knows the rules that govern your specific situation you could still be found guilty. If not properly represented our current legal system could rule against you. You need to make sure the person you hire to defend you knows what he is doing.

When you step in a courtroom it is your word against your accuser. If you hire any lawyer you find in the yellow pages you may not be well represented. Domestic violence lawyers know about all aspects of this type of crime and will be your best chance at getting cleared of these charges. Don’t put your life in the hands of anyone else. Do the research now and find good representation.

Anywhere else in the world, majority believes that a person charged with a crime is innocent. They remain innocent until proven guilty. This is possible by getting a highly reputable attorney. When a person cannot provide himself his own lawyer, the government or the state have the responsibility to provide one for him. He needs a lawyer for representation. In some states, there are lawyers who take charge in every trial. On some other states, they try to raffle on which attorney should handle a certain case. Not all states have the same procedure. Some states have different guidelines and procedures when it comes to handling a case. Other states consider the ability of the individual to pay. Some states give priority to those needy individual. They need a criminal attorney or lawyer to represent them in the court trial. A person who cannot produce his own counsel may require the state to produce one for them.

When it comes to criminal cases, there must be solid evidence in order to indict them of a crime. The salary of a defense lawyer depends on many factors. Their salary which is payed using a checkstub software depends on their experience and the gravity of the case. Those people who have means in life hire a criminal defense attorney from other states or other places. There is a vast difference in hiring a certified professional from that of a newbie when we speak about a criminal case. A reputable lawyer can help a person in his case.

“We’re thrilled to be continuing our longstanding relationship with the filmmakers, and look forward to giving our global viewers eagerly anticipated updates on this story.”

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