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EXCLUSIVE: Creepy New One-Sheet for IFC's 'Fear(s) of the Dark'!
Filed under: Animation, Foreign Language, Horror, Sundance, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, IFC, Fantastic Fest  I had a ball describing Fear(s) of the Dark to my fellow movie freaks. After really enjoying the film at last January's Sundance Film Festival (and calling Fantastic Fest Master Chief Tim League to give him the scoop), I made sure to come up with an apt description for the film. "Hmm, what's it about?" my fellow fest-goers would ask, to which I'd reply "Oh, it's your typical French animated ... horror ... anthology. In black & white." The next response was either "Oooh, cool,"...
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Indie Spotlight: New Releases for August 29
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Foreign Language, Independent, New Releases, Quentin Tarantino, Cinematical Indie, Indie Spotlight  The last weekend of the summer means the multiplexes will be crammed with Hollywood's leftover products, most of them rolled out without being screened for critics (never a good sign). But don't despair! The Indie Spotlight is here to fill you in on the limited-release, art-house films opening this weekend, and if they're not playing where you live, you can keep an eye out for when they do arrive. See, it gives you something to look forward to!
The six films opening...
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Telluride Reveals Its Mostly Foreign Lineup
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, New Releases, Telluride, Cinematical Indie  Last year was great for American independent cinema; this year, not so much. The lineup for the 35th annual Telluride Film Festival has been announced, and only two U.S. filmmakers made the cut -- Paul Schrader (Adam Resurrected) and Tim Disney (American Violet). In addition, David Fincher will be there to screen his cut ofZodiac and to accept the festival's Silver Medallion.
According to Michael Jones at Variety's festival blog, the scarcity of U.S. films is simply...
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Asian Cinema Scene: Spooky 'Kala,' Insane 'Muay Thai Chaiya'
Filed under: Action, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Festival Reports, Other Festivals, Cinematical Indie 
The Asian Film Festival of Dallas wrapped up last week with actor/action choreographer Tak Sakaguchi (Versus) in attendance to screen his directing debut, Be a Man! Samurai School. Unfortunately, I missed that night, but two films that screened earlier in the fest stood out for their unique visions. Indonesian movies are hard to come by in the US, so I confess my total ignorance about the country and its cinema. Is Kala (AKA Dead Time) representative in any...
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What I Learned: Arthouse Summer Wrap-up
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Thrillers, Fandom, Family Films, Cinematical Indie  With all due respect to my esteemed colleague Elisabeth Rappe, geeks are not the only ones who learned important lessons from watching movies this summer. Herewith is my personal, arthouse summer school summary.
Werner Herzog cast a disapproving eye on the ugliness he discovered at Antarctica's McMurdo Station ("they even have a yoga studio and an ATM!") and was skeptical about the sanity of some of the real-life characters he met, which is partly why Encounters at the End of the World was...
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Indie Weekend Box Office: French 'Girl Cut in Two' on Top
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Thrillers, Box Office, Cinematical Indie  The French are at it again! After last month's unexpected breakout success of French thriller Tell No One, surely it's no surprise that French thriller A Girl Cut in Two opened on top, grossing $9,750 per screens at the two theaters in New York where it opened, according to Box Office Mojo. Claude Chabrol's latest (and perhaps last) has delighted critics, including our own Jeffrey M. Anderson ("superbly made ... highly enjoyable").
Amidst a hailstorm of reviews, interviews, and offers of threesomes, Woody Allen's
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Hou Hsiao-hsien's Action Movie Moves Forward
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Cinematical Indie  If you've ever seen a film by Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, you might not initially think of him to direct an action movie, even of the slower, more poetic wuxia genre that includes films like Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonand Zhang Yimou's Hero and other recent works. But the master director has long confessed in interviews that he'd like to make a martial arts picture, and even as far back as 2002, Hou was attached to helm an adaptation of Pei Xing's 9th century fantasy novel "Nie Yin Niang," about a...
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Don't Fear the Subs: 'Tokyo Gore Police' Ups the Ante
Filed under: Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, Cinematical Indie  You can't accuse this movie of false advertising. Tokyo Gore Police, which screened this weekend as part of the seventh annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD), bursts at the seams with severed limbs, oceans of bodily fluids, and enough intestines to choke a horse. More sensitive souls will run screaming from the room during the first scene, in which a man's head explodes in a cloudburst of blood, but that sets the tone of the movie as a live-action adult cartoon. Just keep repeating to yourself: "It's only latex and corn syrup, it's only latex and corn syrup...
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The Exhibitionist: Heroes and Villains
Filed under: Foreign Language, Independent, Exhibition, Columns 
Week after week, I focus on the good and/or bad concerning moviegoing and the movie theatre industry. But as passionate as I am about the subjects of this column, I've never really felt strongly enough to label any one person either a hero or a villain to moviegoers. Perhaps the closest I've come to calling someone a hero was when I finally had my first experience with an Alamo Drafthouse cinema. On the other hand, I've certainly wanted to call a lot of people villains, including whoever was responsible for my worst moviegoing experience in years and...
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Trailer Park: I've Got the Music in Me
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Romance, Trailer Trash 
Music plays a vital role in nearly every film, but for these five it's of particular importance.
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Michael Cera has become the go-to guy for filmmakers looking to cast a romantically befuddled teen, and I have to say he's pretty darn good at it. Whether he's mooning over the best friend that he's recently impregnated (Juno) or harboring a forbidden affection for his cousin (Arrested Development), you can't help rooting for the little perv. This time out he's playing an angst ridden kid nursing...
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