Cinematical

• Interview: 'Taxi to the Dark Side' Director Alex Gibney
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Awards, Tribeca, ThinkFilm, Podcasts, Politics, Chicago, Interviews, Oscar Watch, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room won acclaim for its inventive, expressive but journalistic and rigorous expose of the facts and finances behind a story that came to represent turn-of-the-millennium capitalism gone mad. Now,withTaxi to the Dark Side, which opens today in New York and expands nationwide in the coming weeks, Gibney's looking at a very different kind of power, and a very different level of abuse. Winner of Best Documentary...
  



• Chicago Film Fest Lineup: Docs, Dramas and a Whole Lotta Greeks
  

  Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Gay & Lesbian, Horror, Independent, Romance, Thrillers, Chicago, Cinematical Indie

  If I had a few less kids and a lot more free time, I could see myself being a full-time film-festival groupie. I'd discard everything in my wardrobe that wasn't black, gray or chocolate and, like a freakish, feverish soul in search of my next fix of cinematic nectar, I'd follow the migration trail through the film festival circuit. I'd move from city to city, always staying in a Courtyard Marriott so...
  




• Cinematical Seven: The best films of 2005 that you haven't seen
  

  Filed under: Drama, Independent, Music & Musicals, SXSW, Cannes, Tribeca, Chicago, Cinematical Seven, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  A week or so ago, whilst discussing possible candidates for a year-end, Cinematical-wide Ten Best Films list with a couple of the bloggers, I realised that, despite the absolute power I weild as editor, I'd have a tough time getting a few of my picks into the top ten, for the sheer fact that I was the only one on staff that had seen any of them. The only solution was to create a seperate list. What follows are seven films which, though they've made...
  



• CIFF Diary: La Moustache
  

  Filed under: Foreign Language, Festival Reports, Chicago, Cinematical Indie

   
  
  There may be no fantasy more commonly ingrained in us than that of physical reconstruction - of making over and starting over and, essentially, getting over the gulf between who we are and who we think we deserve to be. The most recent cultural manifestation of this common thirst for self-renovation is the string of "reality" makeover shows - Extreme Makeover, The Swan; to a slightly different degree, the "life makeover" shows like Made, Pimp my Ride, and EM: Home Edition; and on some level even American Idol - all of which are structured around the climactic reveal of the new...
  



• CIFF Honors Moustache, Lazarescu, Berlin
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Awards, Tribeca, Festival Reports, New York, Chicago, Cinematical Indie

  Though screenings continue for several more days (and I'm still frantically writing up reviews from my sojourn in the city), the Chicago International Film Festival held its award ceremony this weekend, and honored a mostly international slate of films, including NYFF hitThe Death of Mr. Lazarescu, and one of the more controversial films that I saw whilst in town, La Moustache. The international jury awarded its top prixe, the Gold Hugo, to My Nikifor, a period piece about...
  



• CIFF Diary: The Puffy Chair
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, Romance, SXSW, Festival Reports, Chicago, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  I wasn't immediately taken with The Puffy Chair, when I first saw it last spring at SXSW. The dictionary definition of "unassuming", the video-shot road trip comedy of discomfiture follows the disintegration of Josh (Mark Duplass) and Emily (Kathryn Aselton), a couple whose multi-year relationship melts down when Emily accompanies Josh and his brother Rhett (Rhett Wilkins) on a roadtrip to his parents' house. A minor hit at Sundance, it eventually won the Emerging Visions award at SXSW, and already halfway through that festival a kind of Puffy...
  



• CIFF: Joe Swanberg's Diary, Chapter 5 - A filmmaker's nightmare
  

  Filed under: Festival Reports, Exhibition, DIY/Filmmaking, Chicago

  
  
  Tuesday night saw KOTM hitting the Chicago screen for the last time as part of the 41st CIFF.  There was another great crowd, which made it that much worse when the film started and the audio kept cutting in and out.  This is a filmmaker's nightmare, and suddenly we were experiencing it.  I tried to keep my cool and find a Festival staffer to figure out what was wrong, but I was freaking out on the inside.  At first I thought maybe the problem would go away, but the film kept playing, and suddenly people were missing dialogue. Eventually they finally got a clue...
  



• CIFF Diary: Elizabethtown Buzz
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Romance, New Releases, Festival Reports, Chicago

  Elizabethtown, Camerone Crowe's much maligned latest film, opened the Chicago International Film Festival last Thursday night, and people were still talking about it on Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday ... but not in a good way. Everyone I talked to who went to the opening night gala, at which Roger Ebert conducted extensive pre-screening on-stage interviews with Susan Sarandon and Cameron Crowe, seemed overwhelmed. A festival staffer - looking both ways to make sure no one was listening - told me that the interviews were part of the problem. "They're up there, talking for hours, about...
  



• CIFF: The Last Party
  

  Filed under: Festival Reports, DIY/Filmmaking, Chicago

  
  
  
  I'd been sick the whole time I was in Chicago, and, for the first few days, after shuttling around in the cold from film to film to film, all I wanted to do was go back to my hotel and eat soup in bed. But Monday night, my last night in town, I slapped myself in the face and forced myself to go out and party. It's a tough job, having to hang out with smart, interesting and funny people for hours on end, but someone's got to do it.
  
  Generally, CIFF sponsors two parties a night: a dinner, and a "late night event". Monday night's dinner...
  



• CIFF Update
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Festival Reports, Chicago, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  I'm back in New York after five hectic days at the Chicago International Film Festival. The Festival is still going strong until October 20, and whilst I really wish I could have stayed in town longer, Joe Swanberg will continue keeping his diary for us. And as I was too busy the past few days festivaling to actually write anything, I still have lots to post about - from party gossip to the details on Peirce Brosnan's disasterous post-Bond venture - so keep your eyes peeled. Below you'll find a quick guide to...