
If a mad scientist were to design the perfect Oldenburg Festival film in a lab, it might look like The Maestro: a B-movie horror tribute from Thailand about a frustrated classical music conductor who, struggling to complete an epic composition, goes insane and starts killing his students.
“It’s basically Mr. Holland’s Opus meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” jokes Somtow Sucharitkul, the 68-year-old screenwriter, and star, of The Maestro. “I play the murderous, mad conductor. Some might call that typecasting.”
Classical music fans know Somtow as the pioneering composer of operas and symphonies, including Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 — commissioned by ...
“It’s basically Mr. Holland’s Opus meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” jokes Somtow Sucharitkul, the 68-year-old screenwriter, and star, of The Maestro. “I play the murderous, mad conductor. Some might call that typecasting.”
Classical music fans know Somtow as the pioneering composer of operas and symphonies, including Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 — commissioned by ...
- 9/16/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News

If a mad scientist were to design the perfect Oldenburg Festival film in a lab, it might look like The Maestro: a B-movie horror tribute from Thailand about a frustrated classical music conductor who, struggling to complete an epic composition, goes insane and starts killing his students.
“It’s basically Mr. Holland’s Opus meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” jokes Somtow Sucharitkul, the 68-year-old screenwriter, and star, of The Maestro. “I play the murderous, mad conductor. Some might call that typecasting.”
Classical music fans know Somtow as the pioneering composer of operas and symphonies, including Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 — commissioned by ...
“It’s basically Mr. Holland’s Opus meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” jokes Somtow Sucharitkul, the 68-year-old screenwriter, and star, of The Maestro. “I play the murderous, mad conductor. Some might call that typecasting.”
Classical music fans know Somtow as the pioneering composer of operas and symphonies, including Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 — commissioned by ...
- 9/16/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV


International cast includes Thomas Kretschmann.
Julian Sands is attached to Roland Joffe’s thriller The Maestro, which The Exchange represents for worldwide sales and will introduce to buyers at the virtual Cannes market next week.
Germany’s Thomas Kretschmann awill also star in the project, which boasts an international melting pot of talent that includes French actor Laëtitia Eïdo, Italy’s Claudia Gerini and Raoul Bova, Russia’s Alexander Petrov, and US-based actors Annie Ilonzeh and Alex Lane.
Joffe, whose credits include The Mission and The Killing Fields, is in pre-production on the film, inspired by the real story of...
Julian Sands is attached to Roland Joffe’s thriller The Maestro, which The Exchange represents for worldwide sales and will introduce to buyers at the virtual Cannes market next week.
Germany’s Thomas Kretschmann awill also star in the project, which boasts an international melting pot of talent that includes French actor Laëtitia Eïdo, Italy’s Claudia Gerini and Raoul Bova, Russia’s Alexander Petrov, and US-based actors Annie Ilonzeh and Alex Lane.
Joffe, whose credits include The Mission and The Killing Fields, is in pre-production on the film, inspired by the real story of...
- 6/17/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
2021 Oscar-Nominated Short Films
Check out Jared Mobarak’s reviews of all of this Oscar-nominated short films, including Animation, Live-Action, and Documentary.
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Concrete Cowboy (Ricky Staub)
There is a moment of surreal wonder near the start of Concrete Cowboy, the TIFF premiere co-starring Idris Elba, that is never equaled again, a sequence of unexpected radiance conjuring a sense of astonishment. A troubled teenager has been sent from Detroit to Philadelphia to spend the summer with his long-absent father. He arrives at night to a nearly empty, rather foreboding street. Eventually he finds his (seemingly) menacing father and is led into a ramshackle, messy home. Suddenly...
2021 Oscar-Nominated Short Films
Check out Jared Mobarak’s reviews of all of this Oscar-nominated short films, including Animation, Live-Action, and Documentary.
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Concrete Cowboy (Ricky Staub)
There is a moment of surreal wonder near the start of Concrete Cowboy, the TIFF premiere co-starring Idris Elba, that is never equaled again, a sequence of unexpected radiance conjuring a sense of astonishment. A troubled teenager has been sent from Detroit to Philadelphia to spend the summer with his long-absent father. He arrives at night to a nearly empty, rather foreboding street. Eventually he finds his (seemingly) menacing father and is led into a ramshackle, messy home. Suddenly...
- 4/2/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage


Ennio Morricone composed over 500 film scores during his illustrious 70-year career but few demonstrate his brilliance better than the one created for John Carpenter’s The Thing.
It may not have garnered the accolades of his soundtracks for The Mission or Cinema Paradiso, but the Italian’s heart-stopping synth-led score remains iconic, not least for the fact it was unlike anything he had produced before or since.
Up until then, Carpenter had scored the music for all of his films, earning plaudits for his pioneering use of synthesizers – something he insisted was born out of practicality as it allowed his soundtracks to “sound big with just a keyboard”.
After enjoying major hits with low budget movies like Halloween and Escape from New York, The Thing represented Carpenter’s fateful first foray into major studio filmmaking.
Handed a $15 million budget by Universal, along with the added responsibility that came with it,...
It may not have garnered the accolades of his soundtracks for The Mission or Cinema Paradiso, but the Italian’s heart-stopping synth-led score remains iconic, not least for the fact it was unlike anything he had produced before or since.
Up until then, Carpenter had scored the music for all of his films, earning plaudits for his pioneering use of synthesizers – something he insisted was born out of practicality as it allowed his soundtracks to “sound big with just a keyboard”.
After enjoying major hits with low budget movies like Halloween and Escape from New York, The Thing represented Carpenter’s fateful first foray into major studio filmmaking.
Handed a $15 million budget by Universal, along with the added responsibility that came with it,...
- 7/10/2020
- by Rosie Fletcher
- Den of Geek


Versatile film, avant-garde classical, jazz and pop composer Ennio Morricone died in a Rome hospital after falling and breaking his leg, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma announced, according to Variety. He was 91.
Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.
Morricone...
Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.
Morricone...
- 7/6/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek


Giuseppe Tornatore is directing the film, Ennio: The Maestro, about the life and works of the legendary composer.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
- 2/18/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily


Giuseppe Tornatore is directing the film, Ennio: The Maestro, about the life and works of the legendary composer.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
- 2/18/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily


When I was teaching a filmmaking course at Sarah Lawrence College in the late 1970s, Kirk joined me in producing a super-low-budget feature titled Home Movies. My concept for the course was to show the students how to make a low-budget feature by making a low-budget feature. Once the class had written the script, we sought out financing and started casting. Since Kirk and I had enjoyed working together on The Fury, I asked him to join our project.
He agreed immediately and even invested in it with me (along with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg). My students were shocked and surprised: ...
He agreed immediately and even invested in it with me (along with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg). My students were shocked and surprised: ...
- 2/11/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV


As is annual tradition, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced this year’s 25 film set to join the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Selected for their “cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance,” the films picked range from such beloved actioners as “Die Hard,” childhood classic “The Goonies,” the seminal “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and the mind-bending “Memento,” with plenty of other genres and styles represented among the list.
The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.
“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...
The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.
“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...
- 12/13/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 725 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.
Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous...
Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous...
- 12/13/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Leave it to Brian De Palma to turn one of the most traumatic events of his adolescence into a film school homework assignment.
Arguably the most personal entry in De Palma’s filmography, Home Movies began as a class project while he was teaching film production at his alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. Fresh off the supernatural successes of Carrie and The Fury, he tasked his students with the challenge of creating a low-budget film using highly personal stories from his own teenage years. As De Palma bluntly states in the documentary De Palma, “99% of film students are going nowhere” after graduation. At least these students would get hands-on training and earn a feature film credit. More importantly, De Palma would get the opportunity to revisit his early days of guerilla filmmaking and indulge some of his usual obsessions (erotic surveillance, films within films) while poking fun at some of...
Arguably the most personal entry in De Palma’s filmography, Home Movies began as a class project while he was teaching film production at his alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. Fresh off the supernatural successes of Carrie and The Fury, he tasked his students with the challenge of creating a low-budget film using highly personal stories from his own teenage years. As De Palma bluntly states in the documentary De Palma, “99% of film students are going nowhere” after graduation. At least these students would get hands-on training and earn a feature film credit. More importantly, De Palma would get the opportunity to revisit his early days of guerilla filmmaking and indulge some of his usual obsessions (erotic surveillance, films within films) while poking fun at some of...
- 9/19/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Manic, messy, and experimental, The Wedding Party serves as a 90-minute preamble, both technically and thematically, to the next decade of Brian De Palma’s young career. Co-directed with two others (Wilford Leach and Cynthia Munroe), the film was shot in 1963, only to be released in 1969, after both De Palma and Robert De Niro’s stars were on the rise. Leach was a theater professor at Sarah Lawrence, De Palma and Munroe two of his students. Fellow student Jill Clayburgh stars as Josephine, the bride-to-be, while Charles Pfluger plays Charlie, the impending groom. Jennifer Salt — who would go on to star in Murder à la Mod, Hi, Mom! and Sisters — also appears as Phoebe, friend of the bride.
Not too long after Charlie docks on the upscale island where the wedding is to take place and meets Josephine’s whole, judgmental family, his two groomsmen, Cecil (De Niro) and Alistair (William Finley,...
Not too long after Charlie docks on the upscale island where the wedding is to take place and meets Josephine’s whole, judgmental family, his two groomsmen, Cecil (De Niro) and Alistair (William Finley,...
- 9/8/2016
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Bringing up Brian De Palma as if he’s still some kind of marginalized or misunderstood figure is now heavily contentious, not just in the sense that “the discussion” has, with the presence of the Internet, become so heavily splintered that every figure has at least seem some form of reappraisal, but in that this is being discussed on the occasion of a new documentary and retrospectives in New York, Chicago, Austin, and Toronto (the lattermost of which this symposium will be timed to). Yes, the line has probably tipped past “divisive,” but that doesn’t mean there still isn’t room for debate.
It’s not hard to understand why De Palma’s work strikes a cord with a new cinephilia fixated on form and vulgarity. Though, in going film-by-film — taking us from political diatribes against America to gonzo horror to gangster films your parents watch to strange European...
It’s not hard to understand why De Palma’s work strikes a cord with a new cinephilia fixated on form and vulgarity. Though, in going film-by-film — taking us from political diatribes against America to gonzo horror to gangster films your parents watch to strange European...
- 6/17/2016
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage


Brian De Palma taught me the value of film criticism. The first time one of his films really registered for me actively was when Dressed To Kill was released in 1980. I was starting to get bit by the film bug at the time, still in the early days of the sickness, and there were many ways I would digest films beyond just seeing movies. For films I wasn’t allowed to see, there were still ways for me to get some sense of the movie. Mad magazine, for example. Undressed To Kill was one of the movie parodies that ran in 1980, and it was a beat for beat riff off of the real film. I knew the story and I even knew the twist, since Mad was not shy about spoilers. It was easy to feel like you’d seen the film after you read a Mad parody, and I...
- 6/8/2016
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
Currently making the festival rounds, writer/director Peter Hearn’s Scrawl is a fascinating, micro-budget journey into the (dangerous) minds of a group of teenagers in England, including a pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens Daisy Ridley. Daily Dead recently caught up with Peter for a chat about the film and the inspirational story behind its making.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to Daily Dead, Peter. As Scrawl is just starting to make its way around the festival circuit, could you give our readers an idea of what it’s about?
Peter Hearn: Gosh, where do I start? If I were to pitch it I would describe it as Big meets A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors by way of Phantasm and The Evil Dead. The story revolves around a boy who writes a comic book with his best friend, before finding situations depicted...
Thanks for taking the time to talk to Daily Dead, Peter. As Scrawl is just starting to make its way around the festival circuit, could you give our readers an idea of what it’s about?
Peter Hearn: Gosh, where do I start? If I were to pitch it I would describe it as Big meets A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors by way of Phantasm and The Evil Dead. The story revolves around a boy who writes a comic book with his best friend, before finding situations depicted...
- 11/20/2015
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
The Moment
Written by Gloria Norris and Jane Weinstock
Directed by Jane Weinstock
USA, 2013
Mental illness has long been a subject wrought with stigma and social taboos. Though even today those stigmas remains people are now more accepting of those troubled with emotional problems. The mission of psychiatric care mission is to learn why people think and behave the way they do. In the new drama The Moment, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a woman who is struggling with a very personal and internal battle. While the performances in this film are above average, the film as a whole is severely lacking.
The Moment focuses on Lee (Leigh), a war photojournalist who has seen her fair share of horribleness. She has flashbacks and obsessive beliefs that she has a rash all over her body. When her boyfriend John (Martin Henderson) goes missing, she begins to feel as though she’s losing her grip on reality.
Written by Gloria Norris and Jane Weinstock
Directed by Jane Weinstock
USA, 2013
Mental illness has long been a subject wrought with stigma and social taboos. Though even today those stigmas remains people are now more accepting of those troubled with emotional problems. The mission of psychiatric care mission is to learn why people think and behave the way they do. In the new drama The Moment, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a woman who is struggling with a very personal and internal battle. While the performances in this film are above average, the film as a whole is severely lacking.
The Moment focuses on Lee (Leigh), a war photojournalist who has seen her fair share of horribleness. She has flashbacks and obsessive beliefs that she has a rash all over her body. When her boyfriend John (Martin Henderson) goes missing, she begins to feel as though she’s losing her grip on reality.
- 6/13/2014
- by Randall Unger
- SoundOnSight
Nb: Films by Robert Beavers, Peter Hutton, and Luther Price were unavailable for preview. However, I said some very nice things about these men and their work in general over at The Dissolve.
In years past, I have attempted to present this extended article as a preview; my aim has been to send it off into the world either the day before of the day of Tiff's kick-off. That has proven impossible this year, and, dear reader, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee... But the fact that Wavelengths is a beat that is becoming harder and harder for one person to adequately cover is undoubtedly a sign of good health. Since last year, when Tiff enfolded the former Visions section (a space for formally adventurous narrative features) into Wavelengths (Tiff's experimental showcase), not only has interest in the section grown exponentially. The section can now more fully reflect...
In years past, I have attempted to present this extended article as a preview; my aim has been to send it off into the world either the day before of the day of Tiff's kick-off. That has proven impossible this year, and, dear reader, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee... But the fact that Wavelengths is a beat that is becoming harder and harder for one person to adequately cover is undoubtedly a sign of good health. Since last year, when Tiff enfolded the former Visions section (a space for formally adventurous narrative features) into Wavelengths (Tiff's experimental showcase), not only has interest in the section grown exponentially. The section can now more fully reflect...
- 9/9/2013
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI


The World Soundtrack Academy nominees for 2012 Awards for Best Film Composer of the Year, Best Original Score of the Year and Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film are listed below. Winners will be announced at the World Soundtrack Awards & concert on October 20, the closing night of the Ghent International Film Festival. At the Awards concert, composer James Newton Howard's work will be celebrated and performed by the Brussells Philharmonic with accompanying film clips. Howard (whose work includes "Snow White and the Huntsman," "The Hunger Games," "The Sixth Sense" and "Pretty Woman") and Dirk Brossé will conduct. Composer Pino Donaggio ("Carrie," "Home Movies," "Dressed To Kill," "Blow Out," "Body Double" and "Raising Cain") will also receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the event. Yet to be announced are the five nominees for Discovery of the Year...
- 8/13/2012
- by Sophia Savage
- Thompson on Hollywood
©Paramount Pictures
“My momma always said, .Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get..” That line was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the award-winning movie “Forest Gump” in 1994. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected that film and 24 others to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures. Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, the selections range from Walt Disney.s timeless classic “Bambi” and Billy Wilder.s “The Lost Weekend,” a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to a real-life drama between a U.S. president and a governor over the desegregation of the University of Alabama. The selections also...
“My momma always said, .Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get..” That line was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the award-winning movie “Forest Gump” in 1994. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected that film and 24 others to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures. Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, the selections range from Walt Disney.s timeless classic “Bambi” and Billy Wilder.s “The Lost Weekend,” a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to a real-life drama between a U.S. president and a governor over the desegregation of the University of Alabama. The selections also...
- 12/28/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
I’m never one to put significant stock in the film-based choices made by any kind of committee — be it an awards group, critics circle, soup kitchen line, etc. — but the National Film Registry is a little different. Not that they’re any different than those aforementioned organization types, but because the government assemblage preserves works deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” No small potatoes.
Their latest list — created for both public awareness and the opportunity to grumble, as I’ll do in a second — has been unveiled, and the selections are none too out-of-left-field. The biggest of these 25 would have to be Forrest Gump, a choice I fully understand but completely disagree with on an opinion and moral scale. The only other true objection I can raise is toward El Mariachi, film school-level junk from a director whose finest works are the direct result of working with those more talented.
Their latest list — created for both public awareness and the opportunity to grumble, as I’ll do in a second — has been unveiled, and the selections are none too out-of-left-field. The biggest of these 25 would have to be Forrest Gump, a choice I fully understand but completely disagree with on an opinion and moral scale. The only other true objection I can raise is toward El Mariachi, film school-level junk from a director whose finest works are the direct result of working with those more talented.
- 12/28/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage


At The Av Club, Steven Hyden wrote a really interesting piece today calling for a new measurement of excellence in the world of popular music. In addition to judging a band's "popularity" and "critical respectibility" he suggests you apply "the five-album test" to determine musical greatness. If an artist puts out five great albums in a row, they pass.
"Lots of artists have five or more classic albums (not including EPs or live records), but the ability to string them together back-to-back means being in the kind of zone that's normally associated with dominant college women's basketball dynasties."
It's a really fun test to apply to music -- The Replacements make the cut but The Rolling Stones don't -- which made me think that it would be equally fun to apply it to film. The five-movies test, though, is arguably even harder to pass than the five-albums test.
Many of...
"Lots of artists have five or more classic albums (not including EPs or live records), but the ability to string them together back-to-back means being in the kind of zone that's normally associated with dominant college women's basketball dynasties."
It's a really fun test to apply to music -- The Replacements make the cut but The Rolling Stones don't -- which made me think that it would be equally fun to apply it to film. The five-movies test, though, is arguably even harder to pass than the five-albums test.
Many of...
- 7/19/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
I grew up watching Bob Clampett’s Beany And Cecil in reruns, and immediately fell in love with everyone’s favorite seasick sea serpent, his lil’ beanie-wearing buddy, Beany’s squinty-eyed, bearded Captain Uncle and that most dastardly of villains, Dishonest John. After checking some websites, I discovered that only one (yes, One!) DVD of the 1960s animated series has been released on DVD—and that was back in 2000! So another collection of Clampett’s beloved cartoon was loooong overdue, and Hen’s Tooth Video has met that demand with Bob Clampett’S Beany And Cecil: The Special Edition: Volume Two. The one-disc DVD only includes 11 episodes (which run around six minutes each, give or take), but there’s a Ton of bonus features to go over, so let’s get started. I’m coming, Beany boy!
For those of you unfamiliar with the cartoon and its origins, Beany...
For those of you unfamiliar with the cartoon and its origins, Beany...
- 9/10/2009
- by no-reply@starlog.com (Allan Dart)
- Starlog
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