Category: TV & Movies

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“Joe Swanberg Talks Jake Kasdan’s ‘Sex Tape'”: Chicago’s trailblazing indie auteur, whose new film, “Happy Christmas,” opens in the Windy City on Friday, analyzes the failings of Kasdans’s latest big-budget bomb for The Talkhouse.

“Once you invoke the iPad and the Internet you open a Pandora’s Box of problems for narrative storytelling, and the people behind ‘Sex Tape’ just aren’t up to the task of dealing with these problems. One of my friends used to talk about watching ‘Seinfeld’ in syndication and realizing that most of the episodes wouldn’t work now that everyone has cell phones. The characters can’t get lost in a parking garage anymore, for instance, no matter how big and confusing. One of them would find the car and just call the others. Or they would have taken a quick photo of the section they parked in, the way I do when I find myself in a big, confusing parking garage. I actually end up in a lot of conversations with filmmakers about solving the cellphone problem, because it’s a big roadblock for many scenarios, especially now that phones also have access to the Internet. Watching ‘Sex Tape,’ I could feel the filmmakers having these conversations. ‘How …read more

One of the most beloved couples in the movie business will be honored this year by the Black Harvest Film Festival. At the Gene Siskel Film Center’s opening night celebration of the 20th annual festival on Friday, August 1st, the Deloris Jordan Award for Excellence in Community Leadership will be presented to Chaz Ebert and posthumously to Roger Ebert. LeeAnn Trotter of NBC 5 Chicago will serve as Master of Ceremonies, and the event will be followed by a reception at the Joffrey Tower, featuring performances by the Chicago Sinfonietta.

Six short films will also be screened at the event, dubbed “A Black Harvest Feast.” The line-up includes Delmar Washington’s “Chris’s Briss,” Oliver Azis’s “Frayed,” Elizabeth Myer’s “Strange Fruit,” Lydia Darly’s “The Way You Love,” Maharaki’s “Vivre” and Derrick Sanders’s “Perfect Day.” Washington and Sanders are tentatively scheduled to attend.

The ceremony kicks off at 6:15pm. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for students and $15 for Siskel Center members. Proceeds from the event benefit the Siskel Center’s educational programs. To purchase tickets, click here. For more info on the event, visit the Siskel Center’s official site.

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All of the movies in this series take stances, but those standing on either side of a disputed wall are not the only participants in a clash. So too are the witnesses. We will see in later entries that some are pro-Israeli while others are pro-Palestinian. In the list below, however, some of the films about Palestine/Israel do not side with either population as much as they side with a hope. Some hope for reconciliation and peace. Others, however, hope for annihilation and dominance. Last, we will look at two special cases.

First, the hopeful films. The common element in both of these films is that first, they are fish-out-of-water tales, involving accidental relationships. Second, they call on the opposing forces to see each other’s humanity, including the hope and heartbreak the come with the human experience. Third, much discovery happens beyond the native languages Arabic and Hebrew, through alternate languages (French and English), and through music. Thus, fourth, the films’ optimisms rely on fate rather than free will. In other words, only God can fix this problem.

“The Other Son” (2012, Lorraine Lévy)

What happens when you find out that your identity is not only taken from you, …read more

In
an interview published in a 1984 issue of American Cinematographer,
director of photography Gordon Willis said of his style: “The ideal situation is to take a sophisticated idea and reduce it to its
simplest form because then it is accessible to everyone.” The same is true of Woody
Allen, who was shooting “Zelig” at the time of Willis’s interview. The
mockumentary style of “Zelig” is, by Allen’s standards, a formal
experiment. His unobtrusive, seemingly hands-off directorial style has
crystallized over time, and is especially apparent in “Magic in the
Moonlight,” a new romantic comedy about a magician (Colin Firth) who
seeks to debunk a spiritualist (Emma Stone) in 1928 Provence.
RogerEbert.com talked with Allen last week about working with the
recently-deceased Willis, cringing at Marlon Brando, and learning from
Jennifer Lawrence.

Watching “Magic in the Moonlight,” I’m reminded that you usually favor master shots in
dialogue scenes. To paraphrase [director of photography] Gordon Willis,
you shoot to cut. That’s generally more freeing for your actors, but
when do you feel more coverage is necessary?

WOODY ALLEN: The
scene usually dictates it. If I can play a scene in a master shot, I
always prefer it. And …read more

Editor’s note: My friend J.d. Zeik, screenwriter-producer of “Ronin” and “Witchblade,” wrote this remembrance of the time he hung out with actor Dave Legeno, who was found dead last Sunday in Death Valley, Ca. Legeno came to acting later than some, following stints working at demolition sites and as a professional wrestler. He got his first screen credit in “Snatch” and was best known for his recurring role as Fenrir Greyback in three “Harry Potter” movies. For more about Legeno’s death, read the L.A. Times story here.

One of the things about working within the film industry, no matter what level
you’re at, is that it sometimes involves traveling to distant places. If you’re a mid- to
low-level screenwriter, these trips, with their first class tickets and cash per diems,
happen just often enough that you feel they should be happening all the time, and
infrequently enough that each time they occur you suspect it may be the last. For those
at the top of the film food chain I imagine this is not the case—they expect to travel in
this fashion, and can’t conceive of a time when their lives won’t work this
way. I know of an actor for whom first class …read more

Sheila writes: “Life Itself” has been getting wonderful reviews all over the country, and in case you missed it, Chaz Ebert appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on July 18th, to discuss the film and Roger. July 18th also marked Chaz and Roger’s 22nd anniversary and so the moment was especially poignant. It was a great interview, funny and emotional, and you can see the clip here.

TRAILERS

Mommy (2014). Written and directed by Xavier Dolan. Starring Anne Dorval,
Antoine-Olivier Pilon,
Suzanne Clément. Synopsis: A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household. Opens in Canada on September 19, 2014. Other release dates TBD.

A Second Chance (2014). Directed by Susanne Bier. Written by Anders Thomas Jensen. Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau,
Ulrich Thomsen,
Nikolaj Lie Kaas . Synopsis: How far would decent human beings be willing to go, when tragedy blurs the line between just and unjust? With “A Second Chance”, Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen have crafted another startling yet moving drama, about how easily we loose our …read more