Mia Hansen-Löve’s Adolescent Developments
April 20, 2012
The quietly assured third feature from writer and director Mia Hansen-Løve, Goodbye First Love, offers a poignant and evocative look at the ups and downs of adolescent romance.
Greta Gerwig, Violet Femme
April 6, 2012
Led by Violet (Greta Gerwig), who dreams of starting an international dance craze, the titular group of women in Damsels in Distress takes in a new student, Lily (Analeigh Tipton), who slowly changes the dynamic of the group and causes them to unravel.
Papal Studies with Nanni Moretti
April 4, 2012
What happens if the Pope isn’t ready to become Pope? That is the basis for Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope, in which the newly elected Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli) refuses to step up to the Vatican podium to address his people.
Jannicke Systad Jacobsen Mines Teen Angst
March 29, 2012
Jannicke Systad Jacobsen’s debut feature, Turn Me On, Dammit!, concerns the sexual urges and subsequent shaming of gawky Alma (Helene Bergsholm), a teenager living with her single mom in a dead-end town.
Terence Davies Dives In
March 23, 2012
A film by Terence Davies can often feel like a dream. The Deep Blue Sea, an adaption of the play by Terence Rattigan, written and directed by Davies, is not just the story of a doomed relationship but the memories of one.
Carole Bouquet Keeps Blooming
March 20, 2012
The beautiful Carole Bouquet is an icon of the French cinema. Her debut came as a late teenager, working with Luis Buñuel on his final film, That Obscure Object of Desire. In her new film, Unforgivable, she works with the writer and director André Téchiné, a master at presenting complex relationships on screen.
The Story of Genesis
March 8, 2012
By focusing on the deeply committed relationship between Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and her wife, Lady Jaye—the two embarked on a years-long project to become a single entity, going so far as to get plastic surgery to more closely resemble one another—the film becomes a document of a loving union that expands the boundaries of art and life.
Searching for Bobby Liebling
March 1, 2012
Last Days Here is a rock-‘n-roll documentary that sidesteps the roll and focuses on rock bottom.
Taika Waititi’s Inner Child
February 29, 2012
In Taika Waititi’s Boy, the eleven-year-old titular character, played with comic freshness by James Rolleston, is a daydreamer. Living with his siblings, he is prone to staring out the window and imaging a world that resembles Michael Jackson music videos starring his absent father, Alamein (played by Waititi himself).
David Wain, Community Builder
February 21, 2012
Interview spoke to Wanderlust director David Wain about working too much, the benefits of balancing smaller projects with bigger films, and his beef with the legendary (and deceased) Ingmar Bergman.
Oren Moverman’s LA Story
February 10, 2012
One of the sheer pleasures of Rampart, the new film from director Oren Moverman (The Messenger), is watching Woody Harrelson let loose in the role of a lifetime.
How Eva Green Made Perfect Sense
February 2, 2012
It’s a vision of the end of the world unlike anything we’ve seen before. Perfect Sense, directed by David Mackenzie, takes place in a world struck by a mysterious disease that feverishly knocks out the senses, one by one, from the human race.
Ti West Revisits the Scene
January 27, 2012
In a sleepy New England village, two bored teenagers sit behind the desk of the Yankee Pedlar, a small, quiet, soon-to-close inn. When they’re not drinking beer or being annoyed by the employee at the coffee shop next door, they are amateur ghost hunters.
Dangerous Beauty: Gerardo Naranjo and Stephanie Sigman on Miss Bala
January 20, 2012
Avoiding the stodginess of a socially-conscious, “important” film, Miss Bala approaches its subject, the power of drug cartels in Mexico, with a frantic urgency.
The Children’s Hour: Valérie Massadian on ‘Nana’
January 12, 2012
Nana, the first film from director Valérie Massadian, is one of the great debut films of the past year, a quiet, minimalist exploration of childhood in all its elusiveness.
Gianfranco Rosi and Charles Bowden on Murder in Mexico
December 29, 2011
El Sicario, Room 164, directed by Gianfranco Rosi, is inspired by the work of Charles Bowden, a journalist who has spent many years covering crime in Ciudad Juárez. It stars a real-life hit man, obscured by a veil, who narrates his murders in great detail, directly to the camera.
Thatcher’s Match: Harry Lloyd on The Iron Lady
December 27, 2011
Harry Lloyd, who plays the young version of Denis Thatcher, eventual husband of future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in The Iron Lady, brings charm and wit to a role that exists as a ghost, a fading memory in the mind of a woman at the end of her life.
Goran Kostic’s Long Year With Angelina Jolie
December 22, 2011
A dark and often disturbing film, In the Land of Blood and Honey attempts to portray the deep ambiguities embedded in the pain inflicted on and by people during the Bosnian War. Goran Kostic, who plays Danijel, a Serb policeman, anchors the film with his co-star, Zana Marjanovich.
John C. Reilly’s Carnal Instincts
December 16, 2011
Reilly’s role in Roman Polanski’s Carnage, a hilarious and frightening cage match opposite formidable opponents—Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster—only illuminates his skill and reinforces his place among the top actors working.
Tomas Alfredson on Remaking a Classic
December 9, 2011
After the success of Let the Right One In, the suburban Stockholm-set, chilly child-vampire flick, the last thing people expected director Tomas Alfredson to do was make a spy movie, in English. And not just any spy movie, but the most British of spy stories, based on the famous source material by the very British John le Carré.