Columbia Pictures (Sony) released their new comedy/musical "Annie" 2014 remake flick into theaters this weekend, and the top,major movie critics have all submitted their reviews. It turns out that it was very unliked by most of them with an overall 33 score out of a possible 100 over at the Metacritic.com site. The movie stars: Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, David Zayas, and Quvenzhané Wallis. We've added blurbs from a couple of the critics,below. Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com, gave it a decent 75 score, stating: " Annie is light on its feet, frothy, and always insistently, at times provocatively kind, determined to melt grumpy hearts like marshmallows." Claudia Puig over at USA Today, gave it a 50 grade. She said: "Quvenzhané Wallis is adorably plucky as the lead in Annie. She and Jamie Foxx as the newfangled Daddy Warbucks character have an appealing chemistry and...
- 12/20/2014
- by Derek
- OnTheFlix
Magnolia Pictures released their new comedy film, "Life Partners," into theaters today, and we got some reviews in from the top,major critics. It turns out that the overall view is mixed as it got an overall 56 score out of a possible 100 across 13 reviews at the Metacritic.com site. The film stars: Adam Brody, Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Gabourey Sidibe and Kate McKinnon. We've posted blurbs from a couple of the critics,below. Claudia Puig from USA Today, gave it a fairly nice 75 score, saying: "Partners is exceedingly well-cast and well-acted, bringing a lightly satirical and witty script to life. Meester and Jacobs have a disarming chemistry, and their conversation is filled with a comfortable shorthand." Sara Stewart over at the New York Post, gave it a 75 grade as well, stating: "Fogel’s focus is female friendship, and the challenges presented by growing older and pairing up. It all makes for a rocky road,...
- 12/5/2014
- by Megan
- OnTheFlix
And the Oscar season is off and running! Nominees for the 24th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards have been unleased and Richard Linklater's fantastic "Boyhood" led the pack with four nods including Best Feature, Best Actor for Ethan Hawke, Best Actress for Patricia Arquette, and Breakthrough Actor for Ellar Coltrane.
We'll find out the winners of the 2014 Gotham Awards on December 1st! Here's the complete list of nominees:
Best Feature
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers (IFC Films)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Love Is Strange
Ira Sachs, director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, producers (Sony Pictures Classics...
We'll find out the winners of the 2014 Gotham Awards on December 1st! Here's the complete list of nominees:
Best Feature
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers (IFC Films)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Love Is Strange
Ira Sachs, director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, producers (Sony Pictures Classics...
- 10/23/2014
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced Thursday morning the nominees for the 24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. Highlighting the best of the year’s independent film, the Gotham Awards give an early bump to the smaller films that could get lost in the studio shuffle. For 2014, the seven competitive awards include Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Actor, Best Actress (presenting sponsor euphoria Calvin Klein), Breakthrough Actor, the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director award, and the Gotham Audience Award. In addition to the competitive awards, Tilda Swinton, director Bennett Miller, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos will be honored with tributes. 24 films received nominations this year, not including a special award handed bestowed to Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum for their ensemble work in “Foxcatcher.” Voting for the primary awards begins on Nov. 19th at 12:01 Am Est and concludes on November 26th at 5:00 Pm Est. “Each year the Gotham...
- 10/23/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
"No amount of familiarity with whistleblower Edward Snowden and his shocking revelations of the U.S. government’s wholesale spying on its own citizens can prepare one for the impact of Laura Poitras’s extraordinary documentary Citizenfour," declares Ronnie Scheib in Variety. "Far from reconstructing or analyzing a fait accompli, the film tersely records the deed in real time, as Poitras and fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald meet Snowden over an eight-day period in a Hong Kong hotel room to plot how and when they will unleash the bombshell that shook the world." We're gathering reviews and have posted the trailer and a video interview with Snowden. » - David Hudson...
- 10/12/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
"No amount of familiarity with whistleblower Edward Snowden and his shocking revelations of the U.S. government’s wholesale spying on its own citizens can prepare one for the impact of Laura Poitras’s extraordinary documentary Citizenfour," declares Ronnie Scheib in Variety. "Far from reconstructing or analyzing a fait accompli, the film tersely records the deed in real time, as Poitras and fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald meet Snowden over an eight-day period in a Hong Kong hotel room to plot how and when they will unleash the bombshell that shook the world." We're gathering reviews and have posted the trailer and a video interview with Snowden. » - David Hudson...
- 10/12/2014
- Keyframe
Cannibal – Manuel Martin Cuenca
Limited Release & VOD – July 25th
Distributor: Film Movement
Awards & Fests: Selected for the 2013 Toronto Int. Film Festival, this had important stops at San Sebastian, Torino and the upcoming Karlovy Vary film fest. Film Movement folks picked it up in December. Award-wise, it managed to land a couple of Cinema Writers Circle Awards win and several Goya Award nominations.
What the critic’s are saying?: Variety got to the film a little late, but Ronnie Scheib found plenty to admire in the “sumptuously shot in carefully composed long takes, the film firmly keeps its butchery offscreen, and given its glacial pace and lack of overt sensationalism, it definitely ranks as a niche item — and a rarefied one, at that.”
From Tiff, THR’s Jonathan Holland touts Cuenca as a strong filmmaker, “as capable of exploring a series of frankly outlandish filmic, thematic and moral propositions with...
Limited Release & VOD – July 25th
Distributor: Film Movement
Awards & Fests: Selected for the 2013 Toronto Int. Film Festival, this had important stops at San Sebastian, Torino and the upcoming Karlovy Vary film fest. Film Movement folks picked it up in December. Award-wise, it managed to land a couple of Cinema Writers Circle Awards win and several Goya Award nominations.
What the critic’s are saying?: Variety got to the film a little late, but Ronnie Scheib found plenty to admire in the “sumptuously shot in carefully composed long takes, the film firmly keeps its butchery offscreen, and given its glacial pace and lack of overt sensationalism, it definitely ranks as a niche item — and a rarefied one, at that.”
From Tiff, THR’s Jonathan Holland touts Cuenca as a strong filmmaker, “as capable of exploring a series of frankly outlandish filmic, thematic and moral propositions with...
- 7/1/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
"Sopranos"-creator David Chase debuted his first directing gig "Not Fade Away" October 4 at Nyff, to mostly positive response from the early reviewers (catalogued below). Rather than chronicle the rise and fall of successful rock group, "Not Fade Away" tells the story of a band that didn't quite make it in the 1960s. Critics note that the political and contextual backdrop plays second fiddle to young romance and family struggles in the movie, especially between John Magaro's character and his father -- a "knockout" performance by James Gandolfini. While the history is a little messy, everyone agrees that the music is great. Here's Toh's review and Q & A report. Ronnie Scheib, Variety Music not only serves as the subject but informs the very fabric of "Not Fade Away," David Chase's savvy '60s-set feature film debut. Aided immeasurably by his keen ear for dialogue, Chase filters a...
- 10/8/2012
- by Maggie Lange and Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
The clip comes via Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay: "Continuing an extraordinarily prolific phase that has also encompassed his year-long subscription service, Joe Swanberg premieres his latest film, Caitlin Plays Herself, tonight at Brooklyn's reRun theater. His new star is Caitlin Stainken, a member of the Neo-Futurists Theater Ensemble." As always with Joe Swanberg's films, reviews fall on either side of a pretty wide split.
"Co-written by Swanberg and Caitlin Stainken, the movie is a sad, simple, and effective glance at a relationship that, more substantially, explores the blurred distinctions between life and art," writes Henry Stewart in the L. "A lot of the movie's 70 minutes are filled what the title implies: Jeanne Dielman-lite snippets of eating a banana, reading a magazine, rotating compost, writing, rehearsing conceptual theater pieces…. Swanberg, who shares cinematography credit with sometimes-collaborator Adam Wingard, shoots in long takes, never editing within scenes, a realism-enhancing technique that...
"Co-written by Swanberg and Caitlin Stainken, the movie is a sad, simple, and effective glance at a relationship that, more substantially, explores the blurred distinctions between life and art," writes Henry Stewart in the L. "A lot of the movie's 70 minutes are filled what the title implies: Jeanne Dielman-lite snippets of eating a banana, reading a magazine, rotating compost, writing, rehearsing conceptual theater pieces…. Swanberg, who shares cinematography credit with sometimes-collaborator Adam Wingard, shoots in long takes, never editing within scenes, a realism-enhancing technique that...
- 12/2/2011
- MUBI
Alone among our Gotham "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" nominees was the winner, You Won't Miss Me, because it was the sole film not to have received a Variety review. That was nicely remedied tied its win, as Ronnie Scheib caught up with the film and had this to say. Ry Russo-Young's sophomore outing, You Won't Miss Me, circles, tracks and finally zeroes in on Shelly (co-scripter Stella Schnabel, daughter of helmer Julian), a troubled 23-year-old Gothamite newly released from a mental institution. Quasi-experimental pic unfolds in nonchronological, unconnected moments, its heroine's day-to-day existence lacking the internal structure that might tie scenes together. But Russo-Young's cubist technique infuses these moments...
- 12/3/2009
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Other Roads, Other Tracks
Criticism is very important, and difficult. I can’t think of a better thing for a person to do.
—Manny Farber
“One of the most important facts about criticism is obvious,” Manny Farber once advanced in an interview. “It’s based on language and words. The desire is always to pursue: what does the word mean, or the sentence, or the paragraph, and where does it lead? As you follow language out, it becomes more and more webbed, complex. The desire is always to find the end. In any thought you put down, what you’re seeking is truth: what is the most believable fact and where is the end?
“It’s the idea of writing about the film as commensurate with the way the filmmaker’s mind is,” Farber continued. “The work’s qualities should influence the structure of the piece. . . . I don’t think you can be mimetic enough.
Criticism is very important, and difficult. I can’t think of a better thing for a person to do.
—Manny Farber
“One of the most important facts about criticism is obvious,” Manny Farber once advanced in an interview. “It’s based on language and words. The desire is always to pursue: what does the word mean, or the sentence, or the paragraph, and where does it lead? As you follow language out, it becomes more and more webbed, complex. The desire is always to find the end. In any thought you put down, what you’re seeking is truth: what is the most believable fact and where is the end?
“It’s the idea of writing about the film as commensurate with the way the filmmaker’s mind is,” Farber continued. “The work’s qualities should influence the structure of the piece. . . . I don’t think you can be mimetic enough.
- 11/18/2009
- MUBI
The Bad News: Year One is drawing comparisons to Land of the Lost. (That might actually be considered really bad news.)
The Good News: If Year One is in fact a bomb, Michael Cera could be humbled enough to reconsider his A-lister attitude towards the Arrested Development movie.
"...a dreary experience..."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"...has a handful of chuckles, but it's also harmless and scattershot, without much primitive bite."
— Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"...the script ... is strictly bargain basement, offering a plethora of poop, sex and fart jokes and vulgarity without a smidgen of wit."
— Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
"...lacks seismic guffaws but elicits many mild smiles."
— Ronnie Scheib, Variety
Next Showing:
Link | Posted 6/18/2009 by reelz
Michael Cera | Year One...
The Good News: If Year One is in fact a bomb, Michael Cera could be humbled enough to reconsider his A-lister attitude towards the Arrested Development movie.
"...a dreary experience..."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"...has a handful of chuckles, but it's also harmless and scattershot, without much primitive bite."
— Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"...the script ... is strictly bargain basement, offering a plethora of poop, sex and fart jokes and vulgarity without a smidgen of wit."
— Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
"...lacks seismic guffaws but elicits many mild smiles."
— Ronnie Scheib, Variety
Next Showing:
Link | Posted 6/18/2009 by reelz
Michael Cera | Year One...
- 6/18/2009
- by reelz reelz
- Reelzchannel.com
Pablo Proenza and Erin Ploss-Campoamor of Cut Glass Productions have sold their film Dark Mirror, a feature length supernatural thriller, to IFC Films, which has scheduled a May 6th date for its release on "Movies on Demand" as part of "IFC in Theaters" service. The film stars Lisa Vidal, David Chisum, Christine Lakin and Lupe Ontiveros. Variety said of the film: "tour-de-force performance," "excellent!," "a spin on the genre."
Watch the trailer at -- http://www.vimeo.com/4113686
With a broadcast premiere of May 6th approaching the husband and wife creative team are fanning out next week to bring added fanbase attention to the project. Pablo will be participating on a panel about the film at Fangoria's Weekend Of Horrors (http://tinyurl.com/cg7mjp) at the La Convention Center, while Erin presses the flesh at the National Association of Latino Independent Producer's (Nalip) 10th anniversary conference (http://www.nalip.
Watch the trailer at -- http://www.vimeo.com/4113686
With a broadcast premiere of May 6th approaching the husband and wife creative team are fanning out next week to bring added fanbase attention to the project. Pablo will be participating on a panel about the film at Fangoria's Weekend Of Horrors (http://tinyurl.com/cg7mjp) at the La Convention Center, while Erin presses the flesh at the National Association of Latino Independent Producer's (Nalip) 10th anniversary conference (http://www.nalip.
- 4/14/2009
- by noreply@blogger.com (LATIN HORROR)
- Latin Horror
Contrary to what you might think, it was not Todd’s thorough synopsis of Nocturna that encouraged me to watch the film; but, the respected advice of Todd’s guest audio reviewer (and young son), Willy. When it comes to kids movies, you gotta trust kids!
Premiering out of competition in the Venice Nights sidebar at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, with an international premiere in the Sprockets Family Zone at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Adrià Garcia and Victor Maldonado’s debut animated feature “pitches the seductive idea that there exists an entire working universe dedicated to actively manufacturing the effects of the night” (Ronnie Scheib, Variety). Ray Bennett at The Hollywood Reporter described Nocturna as “handsomely drawn telling a charming tale of an orphan who learns why he shouldn’t be scared of the dark.” Both critics appreciated the film’s hand-drawn animation to counter the numbing ubiquity of computer-generated 3D animation.
Premiering out of competition in the Venice Nights sidebar at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, with an international premiere in the Sprockets Family Zone at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Adrià Garcia and Victor Maldonado’s debut animated feature “pitches the seductive idea that there exists an entire working universe dedicated to actively manufacturing the effects of the night” (Ronnie Scheib, Variety). Ray Bennett at The Hollywood Reporter described Nocturna as “handsomely drawn telling a charming tale of an orphan who learns why he shouldn’t be scared of the dark.” Both critics appreciated the film’s hand-drawn animation to counter the numbing ubiquity of computer-generated 3D animation.
- 9/26/2008
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
Yesterday Variety said "Jonathan Demme's dysfunctional family drama Rachel Getting Married lifted the Venice Film Festival out of its midpoint slumber, as the Lido heads toward what is expected to be a more satisfying final stretch." This came on the heels of Ronnie Scheib's review gushing about the performances, directing and music saying it rides "emotional rollercoasters to the ever-changing rhythms of the wonderfully eclectic in-house bands whose music never ceases." The Hollywood Reporter pointed out the film's political parallels while Deborah Young's review says the film "breathes a breath of honest cinema into a lackluster competition" at the Venice Film Festival. Rachel Getting Married will also be showcased at the Toronto International Film Festival, which begins today and we have just received the poster for the film starring Anne Hathaway and directed by Jonathan Demme in a film which centers on Kym (Hathaway), who returns from...
- 9/4/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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