"...a richly detailed, moving, laugh-out-loud film of captivating social truth and perceptive political commentary. It's the type of film that joys as it yearns, inspires as it educates and reaches out universally while it tells one very personal story.
From time to time, it happens, by odd chance of fate, that nearly all the critics agree on where a film stands. Such has been the case for James C. Strouse's directorial debut Grace Is Gone. Here's Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times: "Grace Is Gone is not a gr...
For longtime John Sayles' fans Honeydripper is a bit of a departure. Where his works often challenge the audience--Matewan questioning the immorality of capitalist development and ambition; Sunshine State examining unchecked real estate expansion; and, Casa de...
At its best Purple Violets makes cogent commentary about middle-aged angst, but ultimately it's hard to sympathize with well-established, psychologically stable urbanites living in multi-million dollar apartments with designer kitchens and good light. Despite the fact that it's ...
It's an odd fate that Marc Forster's The Kite Runner suffers from the same quality that gives it strength. Based on Khaled Hosseini's bestselling--and brutal--novel, the film is both to its credit and detriment too gentle, its scenes so quiet and nuanced that it passes by with a ...
A mix of social commentary and metaphysical pondering, Michael Dunn's The Bet is a short of simple structure and big ideas, its gritty setting easily reflective of moral decay. As a young women gets tossed back and forth between the kind though detached Henry and ever righteous Ja...
It's rare to see a first time director arrive on scene with all his aesthetic ducks in a row. With The Bet Michael Dunn enters just that way, with a vibrant vision in a carefully crafted and intriguing philosophical horror worth its weight in unspoken themes. Through the prism of social commenta...
Adam Bertocci is the type of guy who doesn’t drink coffee; chuckles deep at his own jokes; runs self-proclaimed communist sets, where everyone pitches in to create the film; is close to and cares about his character creations “in a frighteningly real sense;” holds to libertarian politics when...
Dual parts fictive creation and documentary, Low and Behold is so much more than a typical independent film. Telling a powerful story of rebuilding after Katrina, it's not just one about an insurance claims adjuster who has a heart or a man who has
lost his dog. This is a film ...
Our lives are made up of continuous juxtaposition, and in crafting Chiayi Symphony, Stefano Giannotti uses
the fact to great effect, painting himself along the way truly a new voice in the field of experimental film.
Honeydripper's director John Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi speak with Jane Green over at Film Publicity Help. Following is an excerpt of the conversation:
MR: There’s a scene in the movie when Danny Glover’s character is waiting for the train carrying this guitar playe...
The first time David Benioff read Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, he could only marvel at the power of its ending. The second time he read it, intimidation set in, the novelist and screenwriter having secured the post on the novel’s adaptation. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. What have I gotten myself into?’,” he says.
I've heard before all the arguments regarding the need to compartmentalize books and movies, even if the latter is "based on" the former. After all, the resources available to filmmakers, and the directorial vision, indeed promote the apples-versus-oranges argument. But a small, wistful part of me yearns for adaptations that hold some of the same magic of the books.
Mid last week the Sundance Film Festival revealed its line of shorts, a programming mix of 83 films
produced from 17 countries. With 5,107 submissions, both domestic and international, the entries topped more than 15% from the previous year.
