2013 TIFF Movies to Watch: #20-#11
Today’s TIFF preview (the penultimate!) features films directed by the likes of Nicole Holofcener, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, and David Gordon Green. 20.) Enough Said Program: Special Presentation Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures Directed by: Nicole Holofcener Written by: Nicole Holofcener Starring: Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Toni Collette, Julia Louis-Dreyfus Synopsis: This smart and decidedly modern romantic comedy […]
2013 TIFF Movies to Watch: #30-#21
Continuing my TIFF preview today with lots of big-name acting talent: Streep, Roberts, McGregor, Witherspoon, Firth, Johansson, Eisenberg, Wasikowska, Hiddleston, Swinton, Hemsworth, and more. 30.) August: Osage County Program: Gala Presentation Distributor: The Weinstein Company Directed by: John Wells Written by: Tracy Letts Starring: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Abigail Breslin, Sam Shepard, Dermot […]
2013 TIFF Movies to Watch: #40-#31
Previewing TIFF continues today with the directorial debut of a young superstar actor and the live-action debut of a modern animation legend, among many other promising films. 40.) Don Jon Program: Special Presentation Distributor: Relativity Media Directed by: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Written by: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Joseph Gordon-Levitt Synopsis: Joseph Gordon-Levitt writes, […]
2013 TIFF Movies to Watch: #50-#41
The Toronto International Film Festival is rapidly approaching, and I’ve identified the 50 most promising films on the TIFF lineup. Over the next five days, I’ll be counting them down. Today, the preview starts with François Ozon, Guillaume Canet, Nelson Mandela, and more! 50.) Visitors Program: Special Presentation Distributor: N/A Directed by: Godfrey Reggio Written […]
TIFF 2013: Top 10 Intriguing Performances
We’ve still got plenty of time to dissect the 2013 TIFF lineup and its films’s Oscar chances. Hell, we’ve still got plenty of 2013 TIFF films to be announced. In lieu of yet another list of the most promising 2013 TIFF films or the movies with the most Oscar buzz, I’m turning my eye toward […]
Ranking the 2015 Blockbuster Movies
As if we didn’t need another reason to totally flip about the big movies of 2015, Comic-Con came and went this past week, and DC announced a Superman/Batman on-screen meeting about 24 months from now. Incidentally, we also got a nice nugget of news about another big superhero collaboration, 2015’s sequel to The Avengers (now […]
My Netflix Instant Blind Spots
It’s been ages since I settled a classic blind spot marathon. Not getting discs from Netflix deterred me from tackling anything too complicated, plus I got sidetracked with newer releases and the like. So this idea was born. I’ve identified 25 films available now on Netflix Instant that I have never seen before. It’s actually […]
Ranking the Superman Movies
Superman’s film lineage is absolutely fascinating. Even when you remove the on-again-off-again projects during the lost years of the 1990s and early 2000s (not to mention the Richard Donner fiasco of 1980), the six films themselves are so different and so uniquely imperfect. Do we have a definitive Superman movie? Not a chance. I’ll get […]
10 Things We Learned from Cannes 2013
10.) The Coens can do no wrong. Of course you knew that already, right? Wait, you didn’t?!? Well Inside Llewyn Davis was one of the best received films of the festival, and it took home the Competition’s Grand Prix award. So let me reiterate: The Coens can do no wrong. They are the best filmmakers […]
Top 10 Arrested Development Episodes
We’ve entered the final countdown that’ll culminate in perhaps my most-anticipated cultural event of the decade so far. Arrested Development, Fox’s incredible (and tragically short-lived) sitcom, is returning after a seven-year hiatus. Left for dead by a network that had no idea what to do with something so out-there and ahead of its time, Netflix […]
The Best and Worst Cannes Openers
Playing the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival is a big deal for any film. It’s arguably the glitziest red carpet this side of the Oscars, and whether the film screening is part of the Competition or not, the honor of opening Cannes is one a director can hang his or her hat on […]
Top 10 Leonardo DiCaprio Performances
It’s kind of amazing that everyone’s favorite heartthrob circa 1997, the guy who gave us Jack Dawson himself, has turned into one of cinema’s most fascinating, exciting, and reliable actors. While a gold statue has still managed to elude him, Leonardo DiCaprio has a resume many actors would kill for. He’s Scorsese’s new golden boy […]
2013 Summer Movie Preview: Part 2
With my most-anticipated 2013 summer blockbusters countdown out of the way, it’s time to get to the good stuff. I can’t remember a year when my excitement for a crop of indie films has exceeded my excitement for Hollywood stuff by this much. Where I struggled to find ten big studio titles to list on […]
2013 Summer Movie Preview: Part 1
Last year, celestial angels with trumpets rang in the summer movie season. It was going to be the best ever—The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy, an original Pixar movie, and more. Even if the season didn’t end up meeting expectations, there was lots of good stuff out there. This year, it’s […]
The Marvel Phase 1 Movies
It’s a little funny that despite my general indifference toward the majority of the Marvel canon, I’m almost always excited for their next movie (including next weekend’s Iron Man 3). As much as anything else, it probably has a great deal to do with the fact that the studio as planted its flag firmly on […]
Ranking the Films of Quentin Tarantino
A weird thing happened this past December. As the clock ticked toward Christmas, I found myself terribly excited about a number of late-year releases—The Hobbit, Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty. Oddly enough, Django Unchained wasn’t a film I’d been thinking much about, which was strange because Quentin Tarantino is a guy I get. To date, […]
