Film
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Prickly Protagonist
Can a great movie be about a terrible person? The tenet of traditional screenwriting is that audiences need a relatable protagonist. Even jerks have...
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Love Shots
It's tough to say what director Tomer Heymann wanted out of I Shot My Love, an hour-long documentary about identity, family and desire. He opens...
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Over Sexed
In Shame, everything starts with a look. All sorts of possibilities exist in each one -- this time, maybe they'll do it pinned up against...
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Puppet Masters
Nostalgia's a funny thing. It nags us when we least expect it, triggered by a smell or a phrase or some odd sensation that's burrowed...
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Midlife Aloha
Alexander Payne had made quite a name for himself on the backs of middle-aged discontents. In Election, it was the stagnant, scheming sort. In Sideways,...
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Insecurity
Clint Eastwood deserves a whole lot of credit. As a director, he's pushed away the man's man archetype that made him famous -- you know,...
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Building Violation
Tower Heist is loud, stuffed with famous people, insistent to the point of shamelessness, and oh-so-very obvious. There's no common denominator it can't lower and...
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Inspiring Betrayal
Stephen Pevner is a busy guy. After jetting off to Europe last week, where he attended a film festival in England, took a short trip...
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Cult Clash
Martha Marcy May Marlene: Elizabeth Olsen and Sarah Paulson (Photo by Jody Lee Lipes) It won't surprise you to learn that a movie with Martha...
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Rip-Off Artist
Say, do you like John Carpenter's The Thing? Or maybe its '50s predecessor, The Thing From Another World? I bet you'd be thrilled to hear...
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Love Story
There are plenty of films that want to be Weekend. They trickle into multiplexes around the country a few times a year, feeding into a...
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Girl on Film
Summer may be over, and so is 1987. With Dirty Girl, you can revisit both. It's hot, dismal and dusty. It's the end of the...
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Good Chance
Walking the line between comedy and tragedy is tricky. How can filmmakers draw out the appropriate emotions from their audiences? When do those triggers inspire...
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Shorts Circuit
It's kind of amazing short films aren't more popular. The barriers that stand in the way of feature-lengths -- namely, cash, the crazy expensive cameras...
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Midnight Madness
Paul Klein didn't have a clue about Clue. ''The one I had no idea we were supposed to love was Clue,'' Klein says, about gay...
