When Drake first hosted Saturday Night Live two seasons ago, he showed tremendous promise. It's sometimes difficult to predict how someone will do before actually hosting, but Drake demonstrated both charisma and a complete commitment to every concept in his initial hosting duties. Often, he would take subpar material and make it worth through sheer force of will. There are several ways to successfully host SNL, and that's one of them.
Drake needed a lot of willpower tonight, because the material was much worse than it was back in January...
Drake needed a lot of willpower tonight, because the material was much worse than it was back in January...
- 5/15/2016
- Rollingstone.com
The Goosebumps author turns up as a creepy weirdo in this spine-tingling romp full of villains from his bestselling novels
Creators have been mixing it up with their characters for a while. You can see it in Fellini’s 8½, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry, or, heck, the Warner Bros cartoon Duck Amuck. Then there are the times when it’s not an author character showing up, but the actual author, such as Stephen King in The Dark Tower or Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions. Somewhere in between is Charlie Kaufman writing the character Charlie Kaufman for Nicolas Cage to play in Adaptation.
Now this mind-scrambling list needs to find a place for Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander’s character Rl Stine – based on the actual creator of the popular Goosebumps novels – who encounters many Goosebumps villains in the new movie called Goosebumps.
Continue reading...
Creators have been mixing it up with their characters for a while. You can see it in Fellini’s 8½, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry, or, heck, the Warner Bros cartoon Duck Amuck. Then there are the times when it’s not an author character showing up, but the actual author, such as Stephen King in The Dark Tower or Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions. Somewhere in between is Charlie Kaufman writing the character Charlie Kaufman for Nicolas Cage to play in Adaptation.
Now this mind-scrambling list needs to find a place for Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander’s character Rl Stine – based on the actual creator of the popular Goosebumps novels – who encounters many Goosebumps villains in the new movie called Goosebumps.
Continue reading...
- 10/5/2015
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
While it's clear that each new release from Pixar seems to spur people to offer a fresh assessment of the company's entire output, I'd rather not immediately try to figure out where "Inside Out" lands by comparison. It seems like a reductive way to approach this surprisingly sophisticated emotional experience. Co-directors Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen have told a very, very small-scale story when you look at what happens in the actual physical world. But in doing so, they've done something very powerful, because they have paid full respect to just how turbulent and important the inner life of a child can be. Ah, hell, who am I kidding? "Inside Out" works because we are all always wrestling with the particular balance required to keep us functioning. The film imagines five distinct beings that work in harmony (hopefully) inside each person: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger. To be fair,...
- 6/15/2015
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
When Inside Out was first announced in 2011, the prospect of Pixar making a movie specifically about human emotions seemed about as challenging as the home run king taking a stab at tee-ball. Even before the bookending emotional powerhouses of Up and Toy Story 3, Pixar’s reputation for earning its sentimentality was as sterling as the rest of its track record. Fast-forward through a few creative lean years, and in 2015 it seems possible, however unlikely, that the once-infallible studio could turn a touchy-feely premise into a film that leans more heavily on manipulation than inspiration. Parent company Disney probably wouldn’t have minded another lucrative sequel out of the studio, but what Pixar’s good name needed was another triumph. Inside Out, you’ll be happy to know, is such a triumph.
The movie takes us inside the home and head of Riley Anderson (Kaitlyn Dias), an 11-year-old girl from...
The movie takes us inside the home and head of Riley Anderson (Kaitlyn Dias), an 11-year-old girl from...
- 6/9/2015
- by Sam Woolf
- We Got This Covered
My first trip to Pixar’s Emeryville campus was 13 years ago. That alone was enough to give me pause when I was invited to the “Inside Out” press day. I’ve done it. I’ve taken the tour. I’ve seen the campus. I’ve met the artists and I’ve seen their amazing work spaces and I’ve had a chance to walk through pretty much every department. I remember standing outside the server room my first time up, looking in at the brain of this remarkable company, amazed at how those racks of black technology represented this collision of all this amazing human artistry. My other hesitation, honestly, was because we were told that we’d be seeing “part” of the movie. I’ve grown wary over the years of seeing movies in chunks because you can’t really react in any meaningful way since you’re not seeing something that’s complete.
- 5/27/2015
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
The Emperor’s New Groove
Written by David Reynolds, Mark Dindal, and Chris Williams
Directed by Mark Dindal
USA, 2000
With Disney leading its 1990s renaissance with self-serious tales accounting Greek (Hercules), Native American (Pocahontas), and Chinese (Mulan) empires, it may seem like a slight against the Disney-fication of the South American pre-Inca empire to present a through-and-through comedy. Indeed, The Emperor’s New Groove was fully prepared to be another historical drama firmly planted in the Disney canon under the title of Kingdom of the Sun, but thanks to economic troubles (Read as: really weird circumstances best covered in the documentary The Sweatbox. Look to Josh’s piece and the Mousterpiece Cinema podcast for further reading and listening.) its fate was left to the comedic stylings of Mark Dindal. It’s the sort of destiny that may have lead New Groove to the realm of films like its predecessor in Disney-proper,...
Written by David Reynolds, Mark Dindal, and Chris Williams
Directed by Mark Dindal
USA, 2000
With Disney leading its 1990s renaissance with self-serious tales accounting Greek (Hercules), Native American (Pocahontas), and Chinese (Mulan) empires, it may seem like a slight against the Disney-fication of the South American pre-Inca empire to present a through-and-through comedy. Indeed, The Emperor’s New Groove was fully prepared to be another historical drama firmly planted in the Disney canon under the title of Kingdom of the Sun, but thanks to economic troubles (Read as: really weird circumstances best covered in the documentary The Sweatbox. Look to Josh’s piece and the Mousterpiece Cinema podcast for further reading and listening.) its fate was left to the comedic stylings of Mark Dindal. It’s the sort of destiny that may have lead New Groove to the realm of films like its predecessor in Disney-proper,...
- 2/19/2014
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – Director Vincenzo Natali’s name always gets my attention. You always get the sense tha the’s trying to do something new. He first came to prominence with “Cube” (1997), which is a gorily stylistic bit of cheap psychological horror masquerading as science fiction. “Nothing” (2003) put two men in a literal void reminiscent in some ways of the classic and surreal Chuck Jones Looney Tune “Duck Amuck”. “Splice” (2009) offered an updated Frankenstein myth mixed with sexual politics and a critique of profit-driven genetic engineering.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
So, it’s a little surprising to see him tackle something as careworn as the classic ghost story. “Haunter” has been called a scary version of “Groundhog’s Day”. In reality, from its opening frame, it’s clear that Natali is after far more than simple scares or genre mashup. He’s treading old ground in surprisingly novel fashion (especially compared to his mainstream peers...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
So, it’s a little surprising to see him tackle something as careworn as the classic ghost story. “Haunter” has been called a scary version of “Groundhog’s Day”. In reality, from its opening frame, it’s clear that Natali is after far more than simple scares or genre mashup. He’s treading old ground in surprisingly novel fashion (especially compared to his mainstream peers...
- 2/14/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Why Watch? Because it’s been far too long since you last watched a really good movie about birds. The Thieving Magpie is the first of Emanuele Luzzati‘s two Oscar-nominated short films, the other being 1973′s Pulcinella. This painter, illustrator and animator had quite the career, designing for the opera and pop concerts as well as making cartoons. There’s even a museum of his work in his native Genoa. This medieval-inspired cartoon is one of his best. The set-up is simple – three kings, who have been warring for a century, decide to take a break and go on vacation together. How do they distract themselves? By killing birds. Yet there’s one winged creature who won’t fall to their arrows, a mischievous magpie that eludes and torments them. It’s set to Rossini’s overture to “La gazza ladra,” also the Italian title of this short. The integration of the music and the animation...
- 5/1/2013
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Why Watch? Well, because Steven Spielberg calls it the “Citizen Kane of animated film.” That’s not enough for you? Here goes. One Froggy Evening is among the best of Chuck Jones‘s cartoons, recognized by the National Film Registry along with Duck Amuck and What’s Opera, Doc? It’s the first appearance of Michigan J. Frog, American cinema’s most influential singing and dancing amphibian. The top-hat wearing vaudevillian toad starts out in a box, hidden in the cornerstone of a just-demolished building. The innocent construction worker who finds him can the piles of cash waiting to be collected before his eyes (literally, because this is a Chuck Jones cartoon), and rushes him off to an entertainment agency. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. We all know the story: the frog never performs when he needs to, and everyone thinks that the poor sap selling him is a lunatic. It...
- 4/17/2013
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
One hundred years ago today in Spokane, Washington, Charles Martin “Chuck” Jones was born. It is quite possible there has not been a more widely influential artist in the twentieth century.
We could easily list his over three hundred cartoons that he directed; we could talk about all of the influential cartoons that he didn’t do for Warner Brothers– Pogo, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Dot and the Line, and revitalizing Tom & Jerry; we could mention his creation and co-creations Private Snafu, Charlie Dog, Hubie and Bertie, The Three Bears, Claude Cat, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Charlie Dog, Michigan J. Frog, Marvin the Martian, Pepe LePew, the Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote; we could discuss his educational work with The Electric Company and Curiosity Shop and his works with Dr. Seuss, not to mention the multiple generations of animators he taught and trained– but we’ll simply...
We could easily list his over three hundred cartoons that he directed; we could talk about all of the influential cartoons that he didn’t do for Warner Brothers– Pogo, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Dot and the Line, and revitalizing Tom & Jerry; we could mention his creation and co-creations Private Snafu, Charlie Dog, Hubie and Bertie, The Three Bears, Claude Cat, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Charlie Dog, Michigan J. Frog, Marvin the Martian, Pepe LePew, the Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote; we could discuss his educational work with The Electric Company and Curiosity Shop and his works with Dr. Seuss, not to mention the multiple generations of animators he taught and trained– but we’ll simply...
- 9/21/2012
- by Glenn Hauman
- Comicmix.com
The fourth annual Migrating Forms media festival, which will run May 11-20 at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC, is a compelling mix of political films, pop culture explorations, ethnographic exposés and collections of new media art.
The fest begins and ends with political films directed and curated by Eric Baudelaire. His latest work, The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years without Images, opens the festival on May 11; while a pair of films – Masao Adachi & Kôji Wakamatsu’s Red Army/Pflp: Declaration of World War and The Dziga Vertov Group’s Ici et Ailleurs closes it on May 20.
Some of the special events sprinkled throughout the event include Ed Halter‘s survey of faux experimental films made for mainstream movies and TV shows that should prove to be an amazingly entertaining and enlightening discussion; a retrospective of the highly influential animation by Chuck Jones; the interactive...
The fest begins and ends with political films directed and curated by Eric Baudelaire. His latest work, The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years without Images, opens the festival on May 11; while a pair of films – Masao Adachi & Kôji Wakamatsu’s Red Army/Pflp: Declaration of World War and The Dziga Vertov Group’s Ici et Ailleurs closes it on May 20.
Some of the special events sprinkled throughout the event include Ed Halter‘s survey of faux experimental films made for mainstream movies and TV shows that should prove to be an amazingly entertaining and enlightening discussion; a retrospective of the highly influential animation by Chuck Jones; the interactive...
- 4/26/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Do watch that through to the end.
By now, you'll have heard the news: "Davy Jones of the Monkees has died of an apparent heart attack at age 66," reports Andy Greene for Rolling Stone. "Jones was born in Manchester, England and started acting as a child, though he got his big break in 1965 when he joined The Monkees. The group had a hugely successful television series, and a slew of hit songs in the late 1960s. At their peak in 1967 they sold more records than the Beatles."
The Monkees followed the series, of course, with Head (1968), "arguably the most authentically psychedelic film made in 1960s Hollywood," as Chuck Stephens writes in an essay for Criterion, still one of the best pieces on the film yet written: "Head seemed at first glance to have been dreamt up by and made expressly for fun-loving dopers, a live-action Duck Amuck filled with more 'far out!
By now, you'll have heard the news: "Davy Jones of the Monkees has died of an apparent heart attack at age 66," reports Andy Greene for Rolling Stone. "Jones was born in Manchester, England and started acting as a child, though he got his big break in 1965 when he joined The Monkees. The group had a hugely successful television series, and a slew of hit songs in the late 1960s. At their peak in 1967 they sold more records than the Beatles."
The Monkees followed the series, of course, with Head (1968), "arguably the most authentically psychedelic film made in 1960s Hollywood," as Chuck Stephens writes in an essay for Criterion, still one of the best pieces on the film yet written: "Head seemed at first glance to have been dreamt up by and made expressly for fun-loving dopers, a live-action Duck Amuck filled with more 'far out!
- 3/1/2012
- MUBI
Geek Girl Navigating the World-Gaming for the Non-gamer
I’m not a gamer. I never have been. The last gaming system that I owned (and still do, oddly enough) was the Super Nintendo. I spent a whole summer mowing lawns and saving the money to buy the Super Scope Six because Mom promised me that if I saved up the money for the scope and the games that came with it, then she would buy me the Snes. Naturally, this was long before the internet and if you wanted to have people actually play a game with you, then all of you had to be in the same room at the same time. I spent entirely too many hours blissfully using a white plastic bazooka to shoot little blue moles on “Mole Patrol” and there was another game in that Super Scope Six pack of games that involved shooting colored squares that I really liked,...
I’m not a gamer. I never have been. The last gaming system that I owned (and still do, oddly enough) was the Super Nintendo. I spent a whole summer mowing lawns and saving the money to buy the Super Scope Six because Mom promised me that if I saved up the money for the scope and the games that came with it, then she would buy me the Snes. Naturally, this was long before the internet and if you wanted to have people actually play a game with you, then all of you had to be in the same room at the same time. I spent entirely too many hours blissfully using a white plastic bazooka to shoot little blue moles on “Mole Patrol” and there was another game in that Super Scope Six pack of games that involved shooting colored squares that I really liked,...
- 12/20/2011
- by dragonwomant
- Boomtron
Michael C here from Serious Film popping in to give everybody an edge in their Oscar pools. For most of us the shorts categories represent a vague, uncharted area on our Oscar ballots where the blind guesses required balance out the relatively easy calls in the bigger categories. Just pick whichever doc short seems to have the most Nazis and leave the rest up to chance.
But now that Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have begun releasing all the nominated shorts in theaters and for purchase online there is no longer any excuse to stay in the dark. Not only do you get to enjoy some of the year's most inventive work, but you get the added suspense of following categories that have not been analyzed to death and had the novelty drained out of them by every precursor from the Golden Globes down to the Sheboygan Film Critics Society.
But now that Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have begun releasing all the nominated shorts in theaters and for purchase online there is no longer any excuse to stay in the dark. Not only do you get to enjoy some of the year's most inventive work, but you get the added suspense of following categories that have not been analyzed to death and had the novelty drained out of them by every precursor from the Golden Globes down to the Sheboygan Film Critics Society.
- 2/13/2011
- by Michael C.
- FilmExperience
A Costco in San Juan put out copies of Ricky Martin’s Me ahead of Tuesday's official release date, so the details are starting to leak out as fast as people can read and put up quotes. What struck me was his story of coming out via his website.
And then all that fear I felt, the fear many people have at the moment they come out of the closet, it was just in my head. I know that maybe this is not the case with other when they decide to do it - there are those who are faced with a painful wall of misunderstanding and rejection - but I can say my own experience was nothing but positive and empowering.
Easily the most important thing in the history of the universe was the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear today on the National Mall. The place was packed,...
And then all that fear I felt, the fear many people have at the moment they come out of the closet, it was just in my head. I know that maybe this is not the case with other when they decide to do it - there are those who are faced with a painful wall of misunderstanding and rejection - but I can say my own experience was nothing but positive and empowering.
Easily the most important thing in the history of the universe was the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear today on the National Mall. The place was packed,...
- 10/31/2010
- by Ed Kennedy
- The Backlot
CriterionCast – Episode 049 – Alain Resnais’ Last Year At Marienbad – Special Guest: Moises Chiullan
This is the podcast dedicated to the Criterion Collection. Rudie Obias, Ryan Gallagher, Travis George & James McCormick discuss Criterion News & Rumors and Criterion New Releases, they also analyze, discuss & highlight Criterion #478 Alain Resnais’ 1961 film, Last Year At Marienbad.
Special Guest: Moises Chiullan – The Arthouse Cowboy at Hollywood Elsewhere.
What do you think of their show? Please send them your feed back: CriterionCast@gmail.com or call their voicemail line @ 347.878.3430 or follow them on twitter @CriterionCast or Comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.
Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to their podcast and please leave your reviews in their iTunes feed.
They broadcast every episode Live on UStream every Friday @ 7pm Est/4pm Pst. Join in on the conversation @ CriterionCast.com/Live
Our next episode they will highlight and discuss Criterion #266 Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 film, The King of Kings.
Add It To Your Netflix Queue.
Show...
Special Guest: Moises Chiullan – The Arthouse Cowboy at Hollywood Elsewhere.
What do you think of their show? Please send them your feed back: CriterionCast@gmail.com or call their voicemail line @ 347.878.3430 or follow them on twitter @CriterionCast or Comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.
Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to their podcast and please leave your reviews in their iTunes feed.
They broadcast every episode Live on UStream every Friday @ 7pm Est/4pm Pst. Join in on the conversation @ CriterionCast.com/Live
Our next episode they will highlight and discuss Criterion #266 Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 film, The King of Kings.
Add It To Your Netflix Queue.
Show...
- 9/7/2010
- by Rudie Obias
- CriterionCast
I just had the recent pleasure of interviewing director Jacob Knapp about his upcoming horror/comedy Down With The Boogey starring Alex Gasboro, Gary Gustin, and Emily Caruthers. Just going off the trailer alone, this film definately has some cult potential along the lines of Student Bodies. For more info. into this film, make sure to visit the film's fan page by Clicking Here.
For those unfamiliar with you, who is Jacob Knapp?
That's a good question. I should have my friends answer that one for me. I know that I love my family and my friends. I always try to to make everyone else happy both in my life and in film. I'm a big horror and comedy buff. I don't know what else to say except... talk and hang out with me to know me?
So you have a movie, Down with the Boogey, that is about to make the film circuit scene.
For those unfamiliar with you, who is Jacob Knapp?
That's a good question. I should have my friends answer that one for me. I know that I love my family and my friends. I always try to to make everyone else happy both in my life and in film. I'm a big horror and comedy buff. I don't know what else to say except... talk and hang out with me to know me?
So you have a movie, Down with the Boogey, that is about to make the film circuit scene.
- 8/24/2010
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
I'm not sure if "Adaptation" is emblematic of the American-film '00s -- I'm afraid that the real culprit might be one blockbuster or another, exemplifying at this stage our fears instead of our hopes -- but it's certainly an endlessly resonating high-water mark, a mirror-hall launch that Godard could've loved, and which preemptively folded all commentary about it, positive or negative, into its self-knowing structure. Director Spike Jonze never dropped the ball, and Nicolas Cage was surpassingly brilliant, but it's Charlie Kaufman's bomb test, successful enough to establish him, in a stroke, as the most original and fecund screenwriting talent this country has seen since, possibly, ever.
A kind of perpetual motion machine, Kaufman's screenplay might be the most subversive filmmaking act in Hollywood since 1960, when Alfred Hitchcock turned the star of "Psycho" into bathtub carrion only 40-odd minutes into the film, essentially leaving it protagonist-free and the...
A kind of perpetual motion machine, Kaufman's screenplay might be the most subversive filmmaking act in Hollywood since 1960, when Alfred Hitchcock turned the star of "Psycho" into bathtub carrion only 40-odd minutes into the film, essentially leaving it protagonist-free and the...
- 12/11/2009
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
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