Some kind of creature from Aggro DR1FTImage: Courtesy of Edglrd
At Metrograph in downtown Manhattan last month, Harmony Korine, clad in a neon ski mask, introduced his new film, Aggro Dr1ft, to a room of about 75% men. The film, which had played the festival circuit during the preceding fall...
At Metrograph in downtown Manhattan last month, Harmony Korine, clad in a neon ski mask, introduced his new film, Aggro Dr1ft, to a room of about 75% men. The film, which had played the festival circuit during the preceding fall...
- 5/31/2024
- by Drew Gillis
- avclub.com
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we take a look at several music videos made by Harmony Korine. When you watch a music video Harmony Korine made, you can immediately pinpoint them to what point in time he made it. His first music video, for Sonic Youth's Sunday (below), is an ode to teen angst, starring Macauley Culkin shedding the last of his youthful glow. It is very much cut from the same cloth as films like Kids, Julien Donkey-Boy and Gummo. Whereas the VHS-thetics of The Black Keys' Gold On The Ceiling (also below) fit right into the art school wannabe...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 5/13/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Any photographer who shoots what’s happening in the gleaming, raw, people-packed carnival of New York City — the stores and walls and towers and alleyways, the celebrities, the endless cross-section of humanity — already has an artistic leg up. But the other leg is what he or she does with it. Weegee shot the violent night world of sin and crime. Diane Arbus captured the hidden freak show and showed us its humanity. Alfred Eisenstaedt and William Klein caught the hurly-burly of the everyday. But as you watch “Uncropped,” an addictive look at the life and work of the magazine and newspaper photographer James Hamilton, you may think: He’s the greatest New York photographer of them all.
Hamilton’s black-and-white images — in the documentary, we see hundreds of them — have a burnished tactility, and a psychology so effortless that every one of them tells a story. The photographs are gallery beautiful,...
Hamilton’s black-and-white images — in the documentary, we see hundreds of them — have a burnished tactility, and a psychology so effortless that every one of them tells a story. The photographs are gallery beautiful,...
- 4/24/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers opens in an intentionally disorienting manner: We are in New Rochelle, New York for a tennis challenger. Wearing cheap shorts that resemble boxers, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) battles Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), clad in head-to-toe Uniqlo, while the glamorous Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya) watches tensely from the stands. Flashbacks, first from a few days prior, and then way back to 13 years ago, slowly fill in the gaps on how these two former best friends ended up in such a position: playing against one another in a mid-tier tennis challenger comically sponsored by a tire brand.
Even as Challengers zips back and forth in time with boundless energy, the narrative, to Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes’ credit, is never hard to follow. Sometimes the foreknowledge afforded by time jumps end up sacrificing drama, but in Challengers this sacrifice makes space for us to feel the burden of these broken relationships.
Even as Challengers zips back and forth in time with boundless energy, the narrative, to Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes’ credit, is never hard to follow. Sometimes the foreknowledge afforded by time jumps end up sacrificing drama, but in Challengers this sacrifice makes space for us to feel the burden of these broken relationships.
- 4/12/2024
- by Caleb Hammond
- The Film Stage
Throughout his career, Hong Kong director Lawrence Ah Mon has told numerous stories about the disenfranchised in Hk society. Considering most of his colleagues focused on genres such as thriller and action, his features stand out as they give the viewer an idea of the way issues such as the shift between generations, youth culture and the feelings of teenage angst and isolation are experienced in Hk culture. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy examples of his filmography is “Spacked Out” from 2000, a feature which was honored with as “Film of Merit” by the Hong Kong Film Critics in 2001 and has recently been restored so that audiences worldwide have the chance to experience this story one more time or maybe even for the first time.
Spacked Out is screening for a one-week New York exclusive theatrical run at Metrograph theater and a two-week exclusive streaming release on Metrograph At Home,...
Spacked Out is screening for a one-week New York exclusive theatrical run at Metrograph theater and a two-week exclusive streaming release on Metrograph At Home,...
- 12/31/2023
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Kevin Turen, the producer of HBO shows Euphoria and The Idol, died from multiple heart issues, according to a medical examiner’s report.
The official cause of death was acute cardiac dysfunction and hypertrophic heart disease, with coronary artery disease also cited.
Turen was driving his Tesla on a California freeway when stricken. His 10-year-old son managed to stop the car and take it to the side of the road. Turen was then taken to the hospital and died there.
Turen first produced Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers, and later went on to work with Sam Levinson to produce Malcolm and Marie, Trey Shultz’s Waves, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, Kornel Mondruczo’s Pieces of a Woman, Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes, and Ti West’s X trilogy.
The 44-year-old producer is survived by his wife, Evelina, and his two sons, Jack and James.
The official cause of death was acute cardiac dysfunction and hypertrophic heart disease, with coronary artery disease also cited.
Turen was driving his Tesla on a California freeway when stricken. His 10-year-old son managed to stop the car and take it to the side of the road. Turen was then taken to the hospital and died there.
Turen first produced Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers, and later went on to work with Sam Levinson to produce Malcolm and Marie, Trey Shultz’s Waves, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, Kornel Mondruczo’s Pieces of a Woman, Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes, and Ti West’s X trilogy.
The 44-year-old producer is survived by his wife, Evelina, and his two sons, Jack and James.
- 12/2/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Michele Civetta is the director of feature films “Agony” and “The Gateway” and music videos for Lou Reed, Sean Lennon, and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.
We came from a generation…
With aspirations of what cinema is as an art form, what it can do to provoke change, illuminate dreams of individual stories, and propel cultural narratives. Inspired by the American New Wave of Cinema, living under the banner of the Cahiers du Cinema auteur theory, a world where writers, directors, and producers created stories in the emerging screen revolution colliding between world cinema and the 90s independent film boom. Looking inside the cinematic kaleidoscope, imagining how to penetrate the dream factory, Kevin Turen was born to be a maverick as he surmounted this unpaved road for our generation of friends and filmmaking talent. As New York City Kids, we crossed the threshold into our professional years. Kevin helped out...
We came from a generation…
With aspirations of what cinema is as an art form, what it can do to provoke change, illuminate dreams of individual stories, and propel cultural narratives. Inspired by the American New Wave of Cinema, living under the banner of the Cahiers du Cinema auteur theory, a world where writers, directors, and producers created stories in the emerging screen revolution colliding between world cinema and the 90s independent film boom. Looking inside the cinematic kaleidoscope, imagining how to penetrate the dream factory, Kevin Turen was born to be a maverick as he surmounted this unpaved road for our generation of friends and filmmaking talent. As New York City Kids, we crossed the threshold into our professional years. Kevin helped out...
- 11/21/2023
- by Michele Civetta
- Indiewire
Kevin Turen, producer of Euphoria and The Idol, has died. He was 44.
Turen died suddenly over the weekend. His cause of death is not known at this time. The producer is survived by his wife, Evelina, and his two sons, Jack and James.
His father Edward Turen said in a statement Sunday night: “Kevin was so incredibly special, this world is going to be less without him.”
Turen first produced Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers and later went on to work with Sam Levinson and produce Malcolm and Marie, Trey Shultz’s Waves, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, Kornel Mondruczo’s Pieces of a Woman, Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes and Ti West’s X trilogy.
Turen’s work in television included Levinson’s Euphoria and The Idol as well as Olivier Assayas’a Irma Vep.
Jay Penske, CEO of Deadline’s parent...
Turen died suddenly over the weekend. His cause of death is not known at this time. The producer is survived by his wife, Evelina, and his two sons, Jack and James.
His father Edward Turen said in a statement Sunday night: “Kevin was so incredibly special, this world is going to be less without him.”
Turen first produced Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers and later went on to work with Sam Levinson and produce Malcolm and Marie, Trey Shultz’s Waves, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, Kornel Mondruczo’s Pieces of a Woman, Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes and Ti West’s X trilogy.
Turen’s work in television included Levinson’s Euphoria and The Idol as well as Olivier Assayas’a Irma Vep.
Jay Penske, CEO of Deadline’s parent...
- 11/13/2023
- by Armando Tinoco
- Deadline Film + TV
This story about Christine Vachon first appeared in the College Issue of TheWrap’s magazine.
Over the course of more than 30 years and 100 films, Christine Vachon has become one of the most impactful producers of independent film — and as the artistic director of the Mfa program at Stony Brook Manhattan, one of the most intriguing film educators as well. She founded her company, Killer Films, with fellow New York-based producer Pamela Koffler in 1996, five years into a career that had begun with Todd Haynes’ feature debut, “Poison,” and would go on to include every one of Haynes’ movies, among them “Velvet Goldmine,” “Far From Heaven,” “Carol” and the upcoming “May December.”
Vachon’s other films include Larry Clark’s “Kids,” Todd Solondz’s “Happiness,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Kimberly Peirce’s “Boys Don’t Cry” and Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.” She’s known for working with young and first-time directors,...
Over the course of more than 30 years and 100 films, Christine Vachon has become one of the most impactful producers of independent film — and as the artistic director of the Mfa program at Stony Brook Manhattan, one of the most intriguing film educators as well. She founded her company, Killer Films, with fellow New York-based producer Pamela Koffler in 1996, five years into a career that had begun with Todd Haynes’ feature debut, “Poison,” and would go on to include every one of Haynes’ movies, among them “Velvet Goldmine,” “Far From Heaven,” “Carol” and the upcoming “May December.”
Vachon’s other films include Larry Clark’s “Kids,” Todd Solondz’s “Happiness,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Kimberly Peirce’s “Boys Don’t Cry” and Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.” She’s known for working with young and first-time directors,...
- 10/25/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.The Deep Blue Sea.REMEMBERINGTerence Davies has died, aged 77. Michael Koresky, who wrote a monograph on Davies in 2014, penned a beautiful Sight & Sound obituary, in which he wrote that “no one made movies like Davies, who precisely sculpted out of a subjective past, creating films that glided on waves of contemplation and observation, inviting viewers to join him in the burnished darkness of a past about which he felt complex, contradictory feelings.” Last year, Dan Schindel wrote for Notebook about the role of poetry in Benediction (2022), and in 2012, Michael Guillen interviewed Davies about The Deep Blue Sea (2011). "The problem with film is that it's always in the eternal present,” says Davies. “But it's closest, I think, to music. You don't have to be a musician to follow a symphonic argument. If you love the music,...
- 10/11/2023
- MUBI
Nightclub-set drama sells to France, Spain, Brazil and Ukraine.
Anthony Lapia’s debut feature After, that world premiered in Berlin’s Panorama, has been sold to Potemkine Films in France who are planning a theatrical release in the first semester of 2024.
The After party will continue with Filmin in Spain, Pandora/Gardia Distribuidora in Brazil and KyivMusicFilm in Ukraine.
Scriptofilm is handling international sales for
the French nightclub-set drama, which kicks off in a Parisian techno club then follows a young lawyer who meets an Uber driver on the dance floor before bringing him back to her apartment as their...
Anthony Lapia’s debut feature After, that world premiered in Berlin’s Panorama, has been sold to Potemkine Films in France who are planning a theatrical release in the first semester of 2024.
The After party will continue with Filmin in Spain, Pandora/Gardia Distribuidora in Brazil and KyivMusicFilm in Ukraine.
Scriptofilm is handling international sales for
the French nightclub-set drama, which kicks off in a Parisian techno club then follows a young lawyer who meets an Uber driver on the dance floor before bringing him back to her apartment as their...
- 9/29/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
There’s been a lot of jealous talk about nepotism in the film world lately, but who would really want to come into the movie world as a, what, fourth-generation Huston? There are likely swords already being sharpened for Jack Huston, the handsome, charming, 40-year-old nephew of Anjelica, grandson of John and great-grandson of Walter. But his directing debut, Day of the Fight, which premiered this week in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Extra section, is certainly worthy of the family name. It’s a little earnest, sometimes a bit too style-conscious, and Huston is inclined to put performance before story every time. But the emotional input really earns its payoff in a confident, imaginatively mounted calling card.
For many, Huston is off to a flying start with the casting of Michael Pitt, a terrific actor rescued from a life of Dawson’s Creek himbo-dom by Larry Clark in his...
For many, Huston is off to a flying start with the casting of Michael Pitt, a terrific actor rescued from a life of Dawson’s Creek himbo-dom by Larry Clark in his...
- 9/8/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Of the many directors to emerge during indie cinema’s heyday in the 90s, Harmony Korine probably remains the most iconoclastic. It’s not an understatement to say that his script for Larry Clark’s Kids, which he penned at age 18, is the most conventional thing in his whole filmography. Everything since — from his irreverent feature debut Gummo (which The New York Times deemed “the worst film of the year”) to the Dogme 95-certified Julien Donkey-Boy to his Jackass-like Trash Humpers to the tripped-out Florida-set heist flick Spring Breakers and bizarro Matthew McConaughey vehicle The Beach Bum — has been an experiment of one kind or another.
But the 80-minute assassin movie Aggro DR1FT (all caps, one digit) is something else entirely. In fact, it’s not really a movie at all, but more like a cross between a movie, a video game and a flow of hallucinatory images that could...
But the 80-minute assassin movie Aggro DR1FT (all caps, one digit) is something else entirely. In fact, it’s not really a movie at all, but more like a cross between a movie, a video game and a flow of hallucinatory images that could...
- 9/2/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Harmony Korine used to be a movie junkie, someone who’d watch anything and everything. These days, when people recommend a movie, “I’ll look at it and I feel nothing, like dead inside,” says the guy whose own films, from “Spring Breakers” to the controversial screenplay for Larry Clark’s “Kids,” are nothing if not disruptive.
“Watching a lot of this shit, you really feel the algorithms,” he says the day before receiving the Pardo d’onore Manor prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Whereas, “I’ll see a clip on TikTok that is so inexplicable, so outside the realm of what I even imagine someone creating. Like, I can have an experience with a 30-second clip that goes so far beyond” what movies do for him.
TikTok. YouTube. Video games. Those are the influences operating on Korine’s latest feature-length provocation, “Aggro Dr1ft,” which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
“Watching a lot of this shit, you really feel the algorithms,” he says the day before receiving the Pardo d’onore Manor prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Whereas, “I’ll see a clip on TikTok that is so inexplicable, so outside the realm of what I even imagine someone creating. Like, I can have an experience with a 30-second clip that goes so far beyond” what movies do for him.
TikTok. YouTube. Video games. Those are the influences operating on Korine’s latest feature-length provocation, “Aggro Dr1ft,” which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
- 9/1/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The city of Tzfat, located west of the Golan Heights, and south of Lebanon, is considered an important spiritual ground for the Jewish nation of Israel; a place of pilgrimage and spiritual knowledge. It’s perhaps not the place you’d expect two young girls, battling prejudice and the uncertainty of adolescence, to visit. Or perhaps, due to its uniqueness, it gives them a great chance, while still on the cusp of adulthood, to figure out their priorities. With a style of filmmaking closer to the subcultures of Larry Clark than contemporary Israeli cinema – more focussed on Idf narratives, dating misadventures and emigrant stories — casting director turned director Sarah Meital Benjamin’s debut drama short Arava is a fresh road trip that shows careful consideration for its characters and a meticulous cinematic style — all low-angles, constantly roving camera and subjective viewpoints. Ahead of today’s premiere we talked to Benjamin...
- 8/30/2023
- by Redmond Bacon
- Directors Notes
Charles Burnett is best known for his landmark portraits of Black American life, from the aching neorealism of “Killer of Sheep” to the mordant mysticism of “To Sleep with Anger,” his films aim to depict the broken contract the country made with its African American citizens in the aftermath of World War II.
His lesser-known masterpiece “My Brother’s Wedding,” however, is emblematic of a different continuum running through Burnett’s films: the theme of becoming.
An intimate window into early ’80s Los Angeles, where confluences of Black Southern roots were still trying to flower in a hostile urban environment — “My Brother’s Wedding” is a heated tale about the perils of upward mobility, the rising drug epidemic, and the tight alliance shared by two Black men, Pierce (Everett Silas) and Soldier (Ronnie Bell), the latter of whom has just been released from prison as the film begins.
Young and proudly working-class,...
His lesser-known masterpiece “My Brother’s Wedding,” however, is emblematic of a different continuum running through Burnett’s films: the theme of becoming.
An intimate window into early ’80s Los Angeles, where confluences of Black Southern roots were still trying to flower in a hostile urban environment — “My Brother’s Wedding” is a heated tale about the perils of upward mobility, the rising drug epidemic, and the tight alliance shared by two Black men, Pierce (Everett Silas) and Soldier (Ronnie Bell), the latter of whom has just been released from prison as the film begins.
Young and proudly working-class,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Robert Daniels
- Indiewire
Harmony Korine teased upcoming Venice premiere “Aggro Dr1ft” in Locarno, where he picked up the Pardo d’onore Manor award for outstanding achievement in cinema.
“I am excited. I have never made anything like it. I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement,” he said.
“Aggro Dr1ft” stars Spain’s Jordi Molla and Travis Scott. Korine has already worked with Scott on “Circus Maximus” – as well as his friend Gaspar Noé, surprise guest at the fest, who ended up co-moderating his Saturday masterclass.
“It was pretty wild. It was crazy!,” said Korine about the “last-minute” collab with Scott, also opening up about his humble beginnings.
“I grew up in Nashville, I was born into a commune. My dad made strange documentaries about Southern moonshiners and circus people, and then he sold some weed.
“I am excited. I have never made anything like it. I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement,” he said.
“Aggro Dr1ft” stars Spain’s Jordi Molla and Travis Scott. Korine has already worked with Scott on “Circus Maximus” – as well as his friend Gaspar Noé, surprise guest at the fest, who ended up co-moderating his Saturday masterclass.
“It was pretty wild. It was crazy!,” said Korine about the “last-minute” collab with Scott, also opening up about his humble beginnings.
“I grew up in Nashville, I was born into a commune. My dad made strange documentaries about Southern moonshiners and circus people, and then he sold some weed.
- 8/12/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Lady Bird and Renfield are among recent films that were cut for Australian audiences, who may be unaware that they’re not getting the full version
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How many cops does it take to turn off a DVD? Twenty years ago, Sydney police raided Balmain town hall to do exactly that – ending up in a standoff with revered film critic Margaret Pomeranz.
It was to a chorus of boos that two New South Wales law enforcement officers strode across the stage on 3 July 2003, as the opening credits rolled on Larry Clark’s banned picture Ken Park. The film, which had been refused classification in Australia because of its graphic sexual content, was being screened in protest by Pomeranz. The police superintendent shook her hand and explained they’d come to apprehend it.
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How many cops does it take to turn off a DVD? Twenty years ago, Sydney police raided Balmain town hall to do exactly that – ending up in a standoff with revered film critic Margaret Pomeranz.
It was to a chorus of boos that two New South Wales law enforcement officers strode across the stage on 3 July 2003, as the opening credits rolled on Larry Clark’s banned picture Ken Park. The film, which had been refused classification in Australia because of its graphic sexual content, was being screened in protest by Pomeranz. The police superintendent shook her hand and explained they’d come to apprehend it.
Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop...
- 7/31/2023
- by Simon Miraudo
- The Guardian - Film News
Harmony Korine, the director of cult classics like “Spring Breakers” and “Gummo”, has teamed up with rapper Travis Scott for a new film that was shot entirely in infrared. The film, titled “Aggro Dr1ft”, is produced by A24 and will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023.
“Aggro Dr1ft” is described as an action-oriented film that stars Scott and Spanish actor Jordi Mollà, who has appeared in films like “Bad Boys II” and “Riddick”. The plot of the 80-minute film is still unknown, but the first production still released by Venice shows Scott and Mollà wearing masks, body armor, and guns in a dark and surreal setting.
Travis Scott and Harmony Korine
Scott signed a production deal with A24 in August 2021, and announced it by posting a photo of a coffee and blood stained script with the title redacted on Instagram. A year later, he posted two...
“Aggro Dr1ft” is described as an action-oriented film that stars Scott and Spanish actor Jordi Mollà, who has appeared in films like “Bad Boys II” and “Riddick”. The plot of the 80-minute film is still unknown, but the first production still released by Venice shows Scott and Mollà wearing masks, body armor, and guns in a dark and surreal setting.
Travis Scott and Harmony Korine
Scott signed a production deal with A24 in August 2021, and announced it by posting a photo of a coffee and blood stained script with the title redacted on Instagram. A year later, he posted two...
- 7/30/2023
- by amalprasadappu
- https://thecinemanews.online/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IMG_4649
Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s War Pony embodies the unconventional spirit that’s marked the former’s acting career. Shot on location at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and starring a cast of indigenous Lakota non-actors, the film details the daily struggles of a hustler, Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting), and a neglected middle-schooler, Matho (Ladainian Crazy Thunder). Structured in intertwining storylines, War Pony possesses a gritty essence, but for however uncompromising its glimpse into Bill and Matho’s stagnantly bleak existences may be, the film also feels generic in execution.
This can be chalked up to War Pony’s glaring, almost frustrating lack of nuance or specificity, as the filmmakers never effectively detail the characters’ relation to the various cultural, psychological, or historical intricacies of their milieu. Instead, they’re almost stubbornly focused on capturing an unflinchingly unvarnished view of day-to-day life on society’s fringes.
This can be chalked up to War Pony’s glaring, almost frustrating lack of nuance or specificity, as the filmmakers never effectively detail the characters’ relation to the various cultural, psychological, or historical intricacies of their milieu. Instead, they’re almost stubbornly focused on capturing an unflinchingly unvarnished view of day-to-day life on society’s fringes.
- 7/23/2023
- by Wes Greene
- Slant Magazine
History ended in the 1990s, at least according to a famous essay by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama. Under his inflammatory headline, Fukuyama argues that the end of the Cold War and the establishment of the United States as the world’s sole global power pole meant that liberal democracies have become the ultimate form of government. As if to prove the argument correct, the US and the UK entered a period of governmental peace and capitalist expansion.
However, those of us who actually lived through the 90s know that the decade wasn’t nearly as rosy as some predicted (or recall). Against the picture of ascendancy painted by Bill Clinton and, eventually, Tony Blair, pop culture reflected the fragmented state of actual lives, and we ended up with some of the most controversial movies of all time.
In addition to the big breakthroughs of the decade, such as Quentin Tarantino...
However, those of us who actually lived through the 90s know that the decade wasn’t nearly as rosy as some predicted (or recall). Against the picture of ascendancy painted by Bill Clinton and, eventually, Tony Blair, pop culture reflected the fragmented state of actual lives, and we ended up with some of the most controversial movies of all time.
In addition to the big breakthroughs of the decade, such as Quentin Tarantino...
- 5/31/2023
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including the exclusive streaming premiere of Albert Serra’s extraordinary Pacifiction, a trio of films by Todd Haynes, two by Michael Haneke (Caché and Amour), plus works by David Cronenberg, Shin’ya Tsukamoto, and Derek Jarman.
Additional selections include Alice Rohrwacher’s Corpo Celeste, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, Sean Baker’s early film Starlet, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short Mekong Hotel.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
June 1 – Is This Fate?, directed by Helga Reidemeister | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema
June 2 – Safe, directed by Todd Haynes | I Really Love You: Three by Todd Hayne
June 3 – Caché, directed by Michael Haneke | Close-Up on Michael Haneke
June 4 – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke | Close-Up on Michael Haneke
June 5 – Topology of Sirens, directed by Jonathan Davies
June 6 – Tetsuo, the Iron Man, directed by Shin’ya...
Additional selections include Alice Rohrwacher’s Corpo Celeste, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, Sean Baker’s early film Starlet, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short Mekong Hotel.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
June 1 – Is This Fate?, directed by Helga Reidemeister | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema
June 2 – Safe, directed by Todd Haynes | I Really Love You: Three by Todd Hayne
June 3 – Caché, directed by Michael Haneke | Close-Up on Michael Haneke
June 4 – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke | Close-Up on Michael Haneke
June 5 – Topology of Sirens, directed by Jonathan Davies
June 6 – Tetsuo, the Iron Man, directed by Shin’ya...
- 5/23/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Independent film pioneer Harmony Korine will be honored at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival with the Pardo d’onore Manor, the Leopard of Honor award, for “outstanding achievement in cinema.”
Korine, who first broke into the scene with his script to Larry Clark’s groundbreaking Kids (1995), has cut a unique path in indie cinema, with a series of unconventional and experimental movies, including his 1997 directorial debut Gummo (1997), about two teen outcasts wandering around a tornado-ravaged town in Ohio; the 1999 feature Julien Donkey-Boy, starring Werner Herzog as the unhinged patriarch of a dysfunctional family; and 2007’s Mister Lonely, which stars Diago Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator and Samantha Morton as a Marilyn Monroe look-alike. Only recently, with his 2012’s trippy sun-soaked crime thriller Spring Breakers, starring Selena Gomez and James Franco, and 2019’s The Beach Bum, with Matthew McConaughey in the eponymous role, have Korine’s films received wider recognition and distribution.
Korine, who first broke into the scene with his script to Larry Clark’s groundbreaking Kids (1995), has cut a unique path in indie cinema, with a series of unconventional and experimental movies, including his 1997 directorial debut Gummo (1997), about two teen outcasts wandering around a tornado-ravaged town in Ohio; the 1999 feature Julien Donkey-Boy, starring Werner Herzog as the unhinged patriarch of a dysfunctional family; and 2007’s Mister Lonely, which stars Diago Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator and Samantha Morton as a Marilyn Monroe look-alike. Only recently, with his 2012’s trippy sun-soaked crime thriller Spring Breakers, starring Selena Gomez and James Franco, and 2019’s The Beach Bum, with Matthew McConaughey in the eponymous role, have Korine’s films received wider recognition and distribution.
- 5/9/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
U.S. director and artist Harmony Korine, whose films include “Gummo,” “Spring Breakers” and “Beach Bum” – which stars Matthew McConaughey as a stoner poet named Moondog – is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Pardo d’onore Manor lifetime achievement award.
Born in Bolinas, California, in 1974, Harmony Korine broke out in the filmmaking world in 1995 when he wrote the screenplay for Larry Clark’s controversial “Kids.” In 1997 he made his directorial debut with “Gummo,” a realistic look at youth alienation in America, for which he won awards at the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week and at the Rotterdam fest.
In 1998, he directed his first music video for the song “Sunday” by Sonic Youth, starring Macaulay Culkin. The same year Korine published his debut novel “A Crack-Up at the Race Riots.”
Korine’s second feature “Julien Donkey-Boy,” the experimentally told story of a schizophrenic, went to Venice in...
Born in Bolinas, California, in 1974, Harmony Korine broke out in the filmmaking world in 1995 when he wrote the screenplay for Larry Clark’s controversial “Kids.” In 1997 he made his directorial debut with “Gummo,” a realistic look at youth alienation in America, for which he won awards at the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week and at the Rotterdam fest.
In 1998, he directed his first music video for the song “Sunday” by Sonic Youth, starring Macaulay Culkin. The same year Korine published his debut novel “A Crack-Up at the Race Riots.”
Korine’s second feature “Julien Donkey-Boy,” the experimentally told story of a schizophrenic, went to Venice in...
- 5/9/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Somebody give Chloë Sevigny what she wants: glamour!
“God, how many more frumpy mommies can I play?” says the actress (and real-life mother), whose recent run includes shedding her fashionista ways in such projects as Bones and All, The Girl From Plainville, We Are Who We Are and The Act. “Give me some glamour, for crying out loud. What am I in this business for?”
She gets some glitz in her next role, playing C.Z. Guest in the next installment of Ryan Murphy’s Feud, and describes the socialite as the precursor to Martha Stewart. “This is about a bygone era of glamour.”
The former “It” girl — who recently spoke to THR about archiving her collection of clothes worn on red carpets with The Wardrobe clothing preservation service — also weighed in on what it takes to harness the buzz: “There’s a reason why Julia Fox is having a moment or Paloma Elsesser.
“God, how many more frumpy mommies can I play?” says the actress (and real-life mother), whose recent run includes shedding her fashionista ways in such projects as Bones and All, The Girl From Plainville, We Are Who We Are and The Act. “Give me some glamour, for crying out loud. What am I in this business for?”
She gets some glitz in her next role, playing C.Z. Guest in the next installment of Ryan Murphy’s Feud, and describes the socialite as the precursor to Martha Stewart. “This is about a bygone era of glamour.”
The former “It” girl — who recently spoke to THR about archiving her collection of clothes worn on red carpets with The Wardrobe clothing preservation service — also weighed in on what it takes to harness the buzz: “There’s a reason why Julia Fox is having a moment or Paloma Elsesser.
- 4/29/2023
- by Degen Pener
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Actor and online influencer Alexis Ren has signed with WME in all areas.
Ren is best known for her breakout performance opposite Antonio Banderas in the 2022 crime thriller The Enforcer, in addition to having a vast online presence. On Instagram alone, Ren carries over 17 million followers. With WME, Ren will seek new opportunities on-screen in television and film alongside digital, fashion and brand partnerships.
Earlier this year, Deadline reported that Ren has signed on to star in Latency, a gamer action thriller written and directed by James Croke. Ren will join Russian model and actor Sasha Luss in the flick, which follows Hana, a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia. When Hana receives a new game controller that works by interpreting her brain activity, with the help of her best friend Jen, she experiments with this new device only to soon discover the device may, in fact, be controlling her.
Ren is best known for her breakout performance opposite Antonio Banderas in the 2022 crime thriller The Enforcer, in addition to having a vast online presence. On Instagram alone, Ren carries over 17 million followers. With WME, Ren will seek new opportunities on-screen in television and film alongside digital, fashion and brand partnerships.
Earlier this year, Deadline reported that Ren has signed on to star in Latency, a gamer action thriller written and directed by James Croke. Ren will join Russian model and actor Sasha Luss in the flick, which follows Hana, a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia. When Hana receives a new game controller that works by interpreting her brain activity, with the help of her best friend Jen, she experiments with this new device only to soon discover the device may, in fact, be controlling her.
- 4/17/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Australia should remove its strict censorship of legal sex fetishes and some acts of violence in film, a government-commissioned report has recommended.
The country has a national system of films and games classification that has been little changed since 1995 – the pre-internet, smartphone and streaming era – as well as differing systems in each of the country’s states.
The federal government this week released a report compiled by Neville Stevens in 2020, but not published for more than two years.
Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said this week that the government would recommend to the states that video games with simulated gambling should attract at least R18+ and that certain types of video games should attract an M classification. She has not commented on the report’s other recommendations.
Australia has famously given outright bans (“refused classification” or “Rc”) to films that include both sex and violence, even if the violence is not related to the sex.
The country has a national system of films and games classification that has been little changed since 1995 – the pre-internet, smartphone and streaming era – as well as differing systems in each of the country’s states.
The federal government this week released a report compiled by Neville Stevens in 2020, but not published for more than two years.
Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said this week that the government would recommend to the states that video games with simulated gambling should attract at least R18+ and that certain types of video games should attract an M classification. She has not commented on the report’s other recommendations.
Australia has famously given outright bans (“refused classification” or “Rc”) to films that include both sex and violence, even if the violence is not related to the sex.
- 3/31/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including David Easteal’s The Plains (one of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year), Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy, Koji Fukada’s 10-part series The Real Thing, Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse, and more.
Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley
April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman
April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema
April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce
April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters
April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...
Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley
April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman
April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema
April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce
April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters
April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...
- 3/23/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Four young boys come of age in Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s textured yet maudlin kitchen-sink drama Beautiful Beings. Guðmundsson’s sophomore feature (and Iceland’s Oscar submission) oddly mashes together the bleak nihilism of a Larry Clark feature with flashes of magical realism, never really synthesizing the two competing styles. While compelling in individual scenes, especially as the boys navigate their increased anger at the world, Beautiful Beings ultimately whiplashes between too many ideas and subplots to create a coherent thematic through line.
We begin following Balli (Áskell Einar Pálmason), a young boy who is brutally bullied at school. After a particularly violent incident in which he is beaten with a tree branch, he makes the local news and is forced to wear a face mask to cover up his injuries. At this point the narrative switches to Addi (Birgir Dagur Bjarkason), the one who assaulted Balli. Addi takes an interest in the quiet boy,...
We begin following Balli (Áskell Einar Pálmason), a young boy who is brutally bullied at school. After a particularly violent incident in which he is beaten with a tree branch, he makes the local news and is forced to wear a face mask to cover up his injuries. At this point the narrative switches to Addi (Birgir Dagur Bjarkason), the one who assaulted Balli. Addi takes an interest in the quiet boy,...
- 1/18/2023
- by Christian Gallichio
- The Film Stage
Stars: Olivia Luccardi, William Baldwin, Sam Quartin, Owen Campbell, Virginia Rand, Guinevere Turner, Eden Brolin | Written and Directed by John Swab
Whilst it’s set in 1996, Candy Land reminds me very much of the 70s exploitation era of filmmaking, where the lines between genres blurred and a wide variety of subject matter was explored by filmmakers willing to take chances on stories that the mainstream wouldn’t tell… The latter of which is certainly the case here as writer/director John Swab tells the story of Remy (Olivia Luccardi; It Follows), a seemingly naive and devout young woman, who finds herself cast out from her religious cult. With no place to turn, she immerses herself into the underground world of truck stop sex workers a.k.a. “lot lizards,” courtesy of her hosts, Sadie (Sam Quartin; Body Brokers), Riley (Eden Brolin; Yellowstone), Liv (Virginia Rand) and Levi (Owen Campbell; X...
Whilst it’s set in 1996, Candy Land reminds me very much of the 70s exploitation era of filmmaking, where the lines between genres blurred and a wide variety of subject matter was explored by filmmakers willing to take chances on stories that the mainstream wouldn’t tell… The latter of which is certainly the case here as writer/director John Swab tells the story of Remy (Olivia Luccardi; It Follows), a seemingly naive and devout young woman, who finds herself cast out from her religious cult. With no place to turn, she immerses herself into the underground world of truck stop sex workers a.k.a. “lot lizards,” courtesy of her hosts, Sadie (Sam Quartin; Body Brokers), Riley (Eden Brolin; Yellowstone), Liv (Virginia Rand) and Levi (Owen Campbell; X...
- 1/10/2023
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Iceland’s Oscar© 2023 Submission for Best International Feature: ‘Beautiful Beings’ by Guðmundur Arnar GuðmundssonA teenage boy adopts a bullied misfit into his gang of outsiders. Left to their own devices, the boys explore aggression and violence but also learn about loyalty and love. As their behavior escalates towards life-threatening situations, one, Addi, raised by a clairvoyant mother, begins to experience a series of dreamlike visions which tentatively pull him back from the edge as the film takes us on a path filled with danger.
Watching this film, I was inevitably drawn back in time to 1991 when my friend and contemporary, the Icelandic director Fridrick Thor Fridrickson was nominated for the Academy Award for Children of Nature, the only Icelandic film ever nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the first of six of his films submitted to the Academy, more than any other Icelandic director.
(Ágúst Guðmundsson, Baltasar Kormákur and Hrafn Gunnlaugsson have each represented Iceland four times. In 1990, Guðný Halldórsdóttir became the first Icelandic woman to represent the country.)
Perhaps those were simpler days. Fridrickson’s growing up in the 60s and making making movies in the 90s gave him a different outlook. Fridriksson’s films have a strong rooting in Icelandic culture and often depict characters at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. Guðmundsson‘s characters are at crossroads as well, but more of dismal modernity and the chaos we feel today as possible future scenario for us all. As for Icelandic culture: if this is a sample of Icelandic culture then to compare the two films is like trying to bridge an abyss one never dreamed existed in Iceland. Guðmundsson says that he and his childhood friends come from normal working-class families. But the culture is less that of Iceland than of worldwide working class alienation from the bourgeois culture shown in Fridricksonn’s films.
Fridriksson’s films combine a wry sense of humor and genuine solidarity with the characters. Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson also has a genuine solidarity with the characters and there is a sarcastic humor, less subtle and less kind. Both Guðmundsson’s and Fridriksson’s films are deeply personal.
The four boys in Beautiful Beings form a tight unit of themselves against the world. There’s a real camaraderie and their ensemble acting is a winning combination. Friendship and confused emotions, raw notions of manhood and tender acts of kindness mix enough to keep you watching as you fear for these young men. Spoiler Alert: At the end, only two end up happier and wiser for all they have gone through, and the process of the four coming to grips with the grim lives they and their parents live is sometimes excruciating to watch.
The prevalent emotion is horror, not as in a horror movie, but as in seeing real life at such a low denominator. One must ask, does this show what has happened in Iceland over the past 50 years since Children of Nature?
That said, perhaps audiences have also become more inured than I to such raw scenarios as testified by the fact that the film has won top honors and has earned positive reviews.
In the Berlin Film Festival 2022 it won Europa Cinemas Label prize as best European film in the Panorama section. It also screened in Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — Horizons, Transilvania International Film Festival — Competition, Guadalajara International Film Festival — Premio Maguey Competition, Istanbul Film Festival and in
Biografilm Festival 2022 where it won the Italian Critics Sncci Award. In
Off Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema it won Fipresci Jury Award and in the Taipei Film Festival it won the International New Talent Competition Special Jury Prize.
Watch the official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFIhZsQhy_4
The film is very well-done. The many shots of hands — wringing, trembling, bloody, acting as signs of the emotional states of its inarticulate characters is a smart device. The boys themselves at the transitional age between boyhood and manhood were well chosen. I would be happier with less visually dark scenes where I could barely make out the outlines of people or shapes.
Let’s hear what Gudmunson has to say about the place of this film in his own development and in cinematic traditions today and this second feature shows promise of a shining career. The film is in a direct line of descendency with those coming of age films of directors such as Rob Reiner, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Larry Clark, Alfonso Cuaron and Gus Van Sant.
As I was exploring stories to write for my second feature film, certain dreams haunted me and did not stop until I started writing this story. On top of that, in my family, the belief in meaningful dreams and supernatural senses.
Beings brings up the questions: What is true friendship? Can boys who seem like bad influences still be good friends? And finally, how do you find your own path? What is the importance of listening to one’s intuition?
As a filmmaker my hope is to give the audience an authentic sensation of being a teenager. We should experience the boys’ world like we are there with them. I love the visual and poetic aspects of film and I am a strong believer in the importance of the stories we tell. I went into filmmaking because I aspired to move people and enrich their senses, like many great films have done for me. I hope that Beautiful Beings also does that for some, with a story about friendship, the importance of role models, self-acceptance and intuition.
How did you find your actors?
We have no professional actors within this age range, in Iceland, therefore we start by inviting kids over the whole country to an open casting. Then slowly we narrow our selection down to the final group. This is done approximately a year before the principal shooting. After we have our group of kids we invite them for an acting workshop where we teach them the basics of acting before introducing them to their characters and the script. We set it up in small steps alongside their school as it is important that it become an enjoyable experience and they can grow as actors before having too much responsibility placed on them. When it comes to the principle shooting they are all very well prepared.
You have dealt with boys and the passage to adulthood in all four of your films, will you continue to explore this or are you looking at other themes?
Childhood and adolescence is a very interesting period as they can be almost in another world than adults. I remember thinking as a kid that grown ups around me had little idea what was really going on in my and — friends’ lives. I know I want to tell more stories related to young people but that doesn’t exclude stories with adults. Right now I want to explore the supernatural element further that I touch on in Beautiful Beings. I have a certain dream project, fairytale and hope to have the opportunity soon to bring it to an audience.
What happens to you in the process of writing and producing?
I work very intuitively when I write and direct. It is always a balance between structure and exploration. Filmmaking has so many layers of storytelling, emotion, visuals, sound and telling a good story with all the elements is very important to me. Then it is the whole collaborative part where you have amazing talents supporting the process. I enjoy the shooting process the most, the bubble that you enter and the creative collaborations.
What happens to you between films?
I have a production company called Join Motion Picture that I co-founded and own with my long time associate. So when I am not working on my own projects I’m developing or producing the projects of others.
What do you consider your strongest attribute as a director?
The ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. I truly believe problems are just another side of opportunities and if I keep going with that mentality I always find myself in a good place at the end.
Where do you feel least assured?
I find it a bit limiting not being able to communicate as clearly with my composer as I can with other creative partners. I never studied instruments as a kid so technically I am limited. Still on the other side it is also a bit exciting as that forces me to let go more and become more open to different outcomes that can be very pleasant.
Title — Beautiful Beings
Country — Iceland
Director — Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Screenwriter — Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Cinematography — Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Editor — Andri Steinn Gudjónsson, Anders Skov
Original Music — Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Producer — Join Motion Pictures
Starring — Birgir Dagur Bjarkason, Áskell Einar Pálmason, Viktor Benóný Benediktsson, Snorri Rafn Frímannsson, Aníta Briem, Ísgerður Gunnarsdóttir, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
International Sales — New Europe Film Sales
US Distributor — Altered Innocence
Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson graduated in Fine Art and studied screenwriting. His short films and feature debut have been showcased and awarded in numerous festivals. Among these accolades are Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and a nomination for the European Film Awards. His debut feature “Heartstone” premiered in the Venice Days Competition in 2016 and ended up collecting over 50 awards worldwide.
Filmography
2022 Beautiful Beings (123min)
2016 Heartstone (129min)
2014 Artun (20min)
2013 Whale Valley (15 Min)
Produced
2019 A White,White Day (109 min, Executive Producer, Join Motion Pictures) 2019 Sealskin (13 min, Executive Producer, Join Motion Pictures)
2016 Heartstone (129 min, Sf studio & Join Motion Pictures)
Selected Review Excerpts
“An Icelandic Coming-of-Age Tale Radiant with Violence and Tenderness.”
“Boasts an outstanding juvenile ensemble cast.”
“Ravishing.”
“Subtle, underplayed edge of magic realism.”
“There is a freshness and an inhabited vibrancy that makes this painful coming of age story feel exactly its own.”
“A story told poetically, impressionistically, through sun-flare and cigarette smoke and the somehow heartbreaking details.”
“Tenderness that breaks through the veneer of toughness.”
“Captivating, even when… brutal.”
Jessica Kiang — Variety
“Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s sophomore Icelandic feature finds tenderness in a cruel adolescent world”
“The impressive second feature from Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson confronts the feral cruelty and violence of children on the cusp of adulthood, but finds also a tenderness amid the sharp edges and posturing”
“Gudmundsson clearly has strong instincts for casting and a knack for coaxing nuanced performances from young actors”
Wendy Ide — Screendaily
A story about growing up, friendship and survival, but also a portrait of overwhelming moral decay and neglect, Beautiful Beings confirms 40-year-old Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s talent as a sharp and sensitive director with a knack for conveying strong emotions through tiny brushstrokes, much like the great affection hiding behind these four bullish protagonists’ small gestures, without ever sliding into superfluous cruelty.
Vittoria Scarpa — Cineuropa
“A sensitively told tale of healing and growth.”
“Gently dissects various performances of masculinity.”
“Plenty of surprises in store for the audience.”
“Admirably sensitive and affirming.”
“A moving tale of friendship and recovery, despite all the sadness and trauma that run through it.”
“Guðmundsson portrays this co-existence of masculine aggression and soothing tenderness with vivid, richly textured images. The camera frequently gets very close to the characters, catches their most minute glances or gestures, and emphasizes the luminous nature that surrounds them.”
Eren Odabaşı — ICSFilm.org
“Beautiful Beings is the latest triumph from (…) Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson, whose distinctive lyrical style makes him one of the most impressive talents on the international indie film scene.”
“The director avoids simplistic solutions in a subtle narrative that uses its ample running time to explore every single chink of the boys’ developing personalities and how they react with each other.”
“Silver Bear awarded DoP Starla Brandth Grovlen (Victoria) works wonders with his camera”
Filmuforia
“A compelling mix of warmth and darkness that will shake you up before it will melt your heart”
“Beautiful Beings takes on the glamour and the anxieties that define teenagehood”
“As humanistic as it is unsettling.”
“Much of the film’s raw effectiveness is due to the young cast’s wisdom and effortless on-screen chemistry.”
“There is honesty to the central performances that endears the boys to the viewers”
“(Beautiful Beings) focuses on delivering a unique presentation — impressionistic imagery and gentle nods at magical realism complement a more grounded, down-to-earth aesthetic; neither style dominates, rather, they converse and flirt with one another.”
Eye For Film
“an affecting coming-of-age melodrama that gently dissects various performances of masculinity”
“Beautiful Beings gradually evolves into an unexpectedly sensual and dreamlike (and often nightmarish) experience with plenty of surprises in store for the audience”
“At its core, this is a moving tale of friendship and recovery”
“Guðmundsson portrays this co-existence of masculine aggression and soothing tenderness with vivid, richly textured images”
“this lovely Icelandic drama turns into a sensitively-told tale of healing and growth in Guðmundsson’s capable hands”
Ics Films, USA
“Its premise seems to lean heavily on familiar tropes, but the magic is in the execution.”
“Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has delivered a film with a distinctive freshness, and a grimly compelling plausibility”
“There’s a real camaraderie amongst the young cast, with the strength of the writing combining with the actors’ characterisations to ensure that the roles all seem like fully realised people”
“intelligent and confident, and more than a bit unsettling in places”
The Upcoming...
Watching this film, I was inevitably drawn back in time to 1991 when my friend and contemporary, the Icelandic director Fridrick Thor Fridrickson was nominated for the Academy Award for Children of Nature, the only Icelandic film ever nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the first of six of his films submitted to the Academy, more than any other Icelandic director.
(Ágúst Guðmundsson, Baltasar Kormákur and Hrafn Gunnlaugsson have each represented Iceland four times. In 1990, Guðný Halldórsdóttir became the first Icelandic woman to represent the country.)
Perhaps those were simpler days. Fridrickson’s growing up in the 60s and making making movies in the 90s gave him a different outlook. Fridriksson’s films have a strong rooting in Icelandic culture and often depict characters at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. Guðmundsson‘s characters are at crossroads as well, but more of dismal modernity and the chaos we feel today as possible future scenario for us all. As for Icelandic culture: if this is a sample of Icelandic culture then to compare the two films is like trying to bridge an abyss one never dreamed existed in Iceland. Guðmundsson says that he and his childhood friends come from normal working-class families. But the culture is less that of Iceland than of worldwide working class alienation from the bourgeois culture shown in Fridricksonn’s films.
Fridriksson’s films combine a wry sense of humor and genuine solidarity with the characters. Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson also has a genuine solidarity with the characters and there is a sarcastic humor, less subtle and less kind. Both Guðmundsson’s and Fridriksson’s films are deeply personal.
The four boys in Beautiful Beings form a tight unit of themselves against the world. There’s a real camaraderie and their ensemble acting is a winning combination. Friendship and confused emotions, raw notions of manhood and tender acts of kindness mix enough to keep you watching as you fear for these young men. Spoiler Alert: At the end, only two end up happier and wiser for all they have gone through, and the process of the four coming to grips with the grim lives they and their parents live is sometimes excruciating to watch.
The prevalent emotion is horror, not as in a horror movie, but as in seeing real life at such a low denominator. One must ask, does this show what has happened in Iceland over the past 50 years since Children of Nature?
That said, perhaps audiences have also become more inured than I to such raw scenarios as testified by the fact that the film has won top honors and has earned positive reviews.
In the Berlin Film Festival 2022 it won Europa Cinemas Label prize as best European film in the Panorama section. It also screened in Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — Horizons, Transilvania International Film Festival — Competition, Guadalajara International Film Festival — Premio Maguey Competition, Istanbul Film Festival and in
Biografilm Festival 2022 where it won the Italian Critics Sncci Award. In
Off Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema it won Fipresci Jury Award and in the Taipei Film Festival it won the International New Talent Competition Special Jury Prize.
Watch the official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFIhZsQhy_4
The film is very well-done. The many shots of hands — wringing, trembling, bloody, acting as signs of the emotional states of its inarticulate characters is a smart device. The boys themselves at the transitional age between boyhood and manhood were well chosen. I would be happier with less visually dark scenes where I could barely make out the outlines of people or shapes.
Let’s hear what Gudmunson has to say about the place of this film in his own development and in cinematic traditions today and this second feature shows promise of a shining career. The film is in a direct line of descendency with those coming of age films of directors such as Rob Reiner, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Larry Clark, Alfonso Cuaron and Gus Van Sant.
As I was exploring stories to write for my second feature film, certain dreams haunted me and did not stop until I started writing this story. On top of that, in my family, the belief in meaningful dreams and supernatural senses.
Beings brings up the questions: What is true friendship? Can boys who seem like bad influences still be good friends? And finally, how do you find your own path? What is the importance of listening to one’s intuition?
As a filmmaker my hope is to give the audience an authentic sensation of being a teenager. We should experience the boys’ world like we are there with them. I love the visual and poetic aspects of film and I am a strong believer in the importance of the stories we tell. I went into filmmaking because I aspired to move people and enrich their senses, like many great films have done for me. I hope that Beautiful Beings also does that for some, with a story about friendship, the importance of role models, self-acceptance and intuition.
How did you find your actors?
We have no professional actors within this age range, in Iceland, therefore we start by inviting kids over the whole country to an open casting. Then slowly we narrow our selection down to the final group. This is done approximately a year before the principal shooting. After we have our group of kids we invite them for an acting workshop where we teach them the basics of acting before introducing them to their characters and the script. We set it up in small steps alongside their school as it is important that it become an enjoyable experience and they can grow as actors before having too much responsibility placed on them. When it comes to the principle shooting they are all very well prepared.
You have dealt with boys and the passage to adulthood in all four of your films, will you continue to explore this or are you looking at other themes?
Childhood and adolescence is a very interesting period as they can be almost in another world than adults. I remember thinking as a kid that grown ups around me had little idea what was really going on in my and — friends’ lives. I know I want to tell more stories related to young people but that doesn’t exclude stories with adults. Right now I want to explore the supernatural element further that I touch on in Beautiful Beings. I have a certain dream project, fairytale and hope to have the opportunity soon to bring it to an audience.
What happens to you in the process of writing and producing?
I work very intuitively when I write and direct. It is always a balance between structure and exploration. Filmmaking has so many layers of storytelling, emotion, visuals, sound and telling a good story with all the elements is very important to me. Then it is the whole collaborative part where you have amazing talents supporting the process. I enjoy the shooting process the most, the bubble that you enter and the creative collaborations.
What happens to you between films?
I have a production company called Join Motion Picture that I co-founded and own with my long time associate. So when I am not working on my own projects I’m developing or producing the projects of others.
What do you consider your strongest attribute as a director?
The ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. I truly believe problems are just another side of opportunities and if I keep going with that mentality I always find myself in a good place at the end.
Where do you feel least assured?
I find it a bit limiting not being able to communicate as clearly with my composer as I can with other creative partners. I never studied instruments as a kid so technically I am limited. Still on the other side it is also a bit exciting as that forces me to let go more and become more open to different outcomes that can be very pleasant.
Title — Beautiful Beings
Country — Iceland
Director — Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Screenwriter — Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Cinematography — Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Editor — Andri Steinn Gudjónsson, Anders Skov
Original Music — Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Producer — Join Motion Pictures
Starring — Birgir Dagur Bjarkason, Áskell Einar Pálmason, Viktor Benóný Benediktsson, Snorri Rafn Frímannsson, Aníta Briem, Ísgerður Gunnarsdóttir, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
International Sales — New Europe Film Sales
US Distributor — Altered Innocence
Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson graduated in Fine Art and studied screenwriting. His short films and feature debut have been showcased and awarded in numerous festivals. Among these accolades are Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and a nomination for the European Film Awards. His debut feature “Heartstone” premiered in the Venice Days Competition in 2016 and ended up collecting over 50 awards worldwide.
Filmography
2022 Beautiful Beings (123min)
2016 Heartstone (129min)
2014 Artun (20min)
2013 Whale Valley (15 Min)
Produced
2019 A White,White Day (109 min, Executive Producer, Join Motion Pictures) 2019 Sealskin (13 min, Executive Producer, Join Motion Pictures)
2016 Heartstone (129 min, Sf studio & Join Motion Pictures)
Selected Review Excerpts
“An Icelandic Coming-of-Age Tale Radiant with Violence and Tenderness.”
“Boasts an outstanding juvenile ensemble cast.”
“Ravishing.”
“Subtle, underplayed edge of magic realism.”
“There is a freshness and an inhabited vibrancy that makes this painful coming of age story feel exactly its own.”
“A story told poetically, impressionistically, through sun-flare and cigarette smoke and the somehow heartbreaking details.”
“Tenderness that breaks through the veneer of toughness.”
“Captivating, even when… brutal.”
Jessica Kiang — Variety
“Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s sophomore Icelandic feature finds tenderness in a cruel adolescent world”
“The impressive second feature from Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson confronts the feral cruelty and violence of children on the cusp of adulthood, but finds also a tenderness amid the sharp edges and posturing”
“Gudmundsson clearly has strong instincts for casting and a knack for coaxing nuanced performances from young actors”
Wendy Ide — Screendaily
A story about growing up, friendship and survival, but also a portrait of overwhelming moral decay and neglect, Beautiful Beings confirms 40-year-old Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s talent as a sharp and sensitive director with a knack for conveying strong emotions through tiny brushstrokes, much like the great affection hiding behind these four bullish protagonists’ small gestures, without ever sliding into superfluous cruelty.
Vittoria Scarpa — Cineuropa
“A sensitively told tale of healing and growth.”
“Gently dissects various performances of masculinity.”
“Plenty of surprises in store for the audience.”
“Admirably sensitive and affirming.”
“A moving tale of friendship and recovery, despite all the sadness and trauma that run through it.”
“Guðmundsson portrays this co-existence of masculine aggression and soothing tenderness with vivid, richly textured images. The camera frequently gets very close to the characters, catches their most minute glances or gestures, and emphasizes the luminous nature that surrounds them.”
Eren Odabaşı — ICSFilm.org
“Beautiful Beings is the latest triumph from (…) Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson, whose distinctive lyrical style makes him one of the most impressive talents on the international indie film scene.”
“The director avoids simplistic solutions in a subtle narrative that uses its ample running time to explore every single chink of the boys’ developing personalities and how they react with each other.”
“Silver Bear awarded DoP Starla Brandth Grovlen (Victoria) works wonders with his camera”
Filmuforia
“A compelling mix of warmth and darkness that will shake you up before it will melt your heart”
“Beautiful Beings takes on the glamour and the anxieties that define teenagehood”
“As humanistic as it is unsettling.”
“Much of the film’s raw effectiveness is due to the young cast’s wisdom and effortless on-screen chemistry.”
“There is honesty to the central performances that endears the boys to the viewers”
“(Beautiful Beings) focuses on delivering a unique presentation — impressionistic imagery and gentle nods at magical realism complement a more grounded, down-to-earth aesthetic; neither style dominates, rather, they converse and flirt with one another.”
Eye For Film
“an affecting coming-of-age melodrama that gently dissects various performances of masculinity”
“Beautiful Beings gradually evolves into an unexpectedly sensual and dreamlike (and often nightmarish) experience with plenty of surprises in store for the audience”
“At its core, this is a moving tale of friendship and recovery”
“Guðmundsson portrays this co-existence of masculine aggression and soothing tenderness with vivid, richly textured images”
“this lovely Icelandic drama turns into a sensitively-told tale of healing and growth in Guðmundsson’s capable hands”
Ics Films, USA
“Its premise seems to lean heavily on familiar tropes, but the magic is in the execution.”
“Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has delivered a film with a distinctive freshness, and a grimly compelling plausibility”
“There’s a real camaraderie amongst the young cast, with the strength of the writing combining with the actors’ characterisations to ensure that the roles all seem like fully realised people”
“intelligent and confident, and more than a bit unsettling in places”
The Upcoming...
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
John Waters officially unveiled his semi-annual list of top 10 films of the year, filled mostly with sex-laden dramas and yes, one Polish existential donkey movie.
Waters awarded the top honor of 2022 to François Ozon’s “Peter Von Kant,” calling the Rainer Werner Fassbinder-inspired feature “by far the best movie of the year” in a list shared with Artforum.
“Fassbinder’s classic lesbian melodrama is appropriated and remade as a gay Frenchman’s love letter to the original version,” Waters wrote. “Hilariously stilted, often overwrought, but always highly entertaining, this cock-eyed tribute will make you swoon when Hanna Schygulla finally makes an appearance and Isabelle Adjani soon follows. My God, it’s just plain Douglas Sirk perfect.”
Waters’ second pick, “Eo” by Jerzy Skolimowski, is another “tribute film” with Waters calling it “Bresson’s ‘Au Hasard Balthazar’ meets ‘Old Yeller.'”
“Can a donkey remember? Just ask Isabelle Huppert, who...
Waters awarded the top honor of 2022 to François Ozon’s “Peter Von Kant,” calling the Rainer Werner Fassbinder-inspired feature “by far the best movie of the year” in a list shared with Artforum.
“Fassbinder’s classic lesbian melodrama is appropriated and remade as a gay Frenchman’s love letter to the original version,” Waters wrote. “Hilariously stilted, often overwrought, but always highly entertaining, this cock-eyed tribute will make you swoon when Hanna Schygulla finally makes an appearance and Isabelle Adjani soon follows. My God, it’s just plain Douglas Sirk perfect.”
Waters’ second pick, “Eo” by Jerzy Skolimowski, is another “tribute film” with Waters calling it “Bresson’s ‘Au Hasard Balthazar’ meets ‘Old Yeller.'”
“Can a donkey remember? Just ask Isabelle Huppert, who...
- 12/7/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Spanish streamer Filmin is set to launch its latest original series, “Autodefensa,” a semi-autobiographical show about two young women in Barcelona living a wild and care-free life while also struggling with the conflicts and frustrations faced by Generation Z.
Co-created by Miguel Ángel Blanca (“Magaluf Ghost Town”) and stars Berta Prieto and Belén Barenys, “Autodefensa” is a documentary-like work about two friends in their 20s described as a mash of Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” Larry Clark’s “Kids” and the works of Lars von Trier.
Blanca, who also produced and directed the series, was selected by Variety last year as one of Spain’s 10 rising talents and has enjoyed success with his own recent award-winning documentary, “Magaluf Ghost Town.”
Up-and-coming talents Prieto and Barenys also boast growing popularity: Prieto is an author and playwright, while Barenys, who also goes by the stage name Memé, is an actress and singer with...
Co-created by Miguel Ángel Blanca (“Magaluf Ghost Town”) and stars Berta Prieto and Belén Barenys, “Autodefensa” is a documentary-like work about two friends in their 20s described as a mash of Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” Larry Clark’s “Kids” and the works of Lars von Trier.
Blanca, who also produced and directed the series, was selected by Variety last year as one of Spain’s 10 rising talents and has enjoyed success with his own recent award-winning documentary, “Magaluf Ghost Town.”
Up-and-coming talents Prieto and Barenys also boast growing popularity: Prieto is an author and playwright, while Barenys, who also goes by the stage name Memé, is an actress and singer with...
- 10/18/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The bell just rang, school is out for summer. Maybe it’s out forever—leaving school behind as our heroes and antiheroes spend long, hot days laying about in the city or countryside, anticipating college dreams or fearing a return to the classroom. Or, more likely, not thinking of studies at all, just anticipating the next summer day and how to score more thrills.As the season winds down, here is a mix that is an ode to the teenage summer—so wonderfully captured in many films—a choice selection that evokes endless possibilities: sweat, love, passion, booze, drugs, and questions of the great unknown just around the corner. The characters of these summertime stories are either breaking hearts, heartbroken, running from hell or somewhere lost in between.Some favorite moments include the confusion, chaos and otherworldly essence of Gheorghe Zamfir’s flute from the unforgettable score for Peter Weir...
- 9/19/2022
- MUBI
Greece’s Homemade Films has boarded Mahdi Fleifel’s upcoming feature “Men in the Sun,” currently in the final stages of development. The story, set in Athens, will deal with masculinity, exile and loss, showing young refugees in their 20s hustling to survive in the urban pressure cooker.
The company is also ready to start shooting Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal,” co-producing with Nabis Filmgroup, Ars Ltd., Digital Cube and Felony Productions.
Furthermore, its founder Maria Drandaki recently presented new projects at Venice Gap-Financing Market. “Arcadia,” directed by Yorgos Zois, will see Homemade Films joining forces with Foss Production and Red Carpet. “Titanic Ocean” by Konstantina Kotzamani will be shot in Japan and Singapore in 2023.
“I’m very excited to be working with this group of directors on a variety of different genres that span from drama to fantasy and mystery,” says Drandaki. She added that she is very interested in...
The company is also ready to start shooting Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal,” co-producing with Nabis Filmgroup, Ars Ltd., Digital Cube and Felony Productions.
Furthermore, its founder Maria Drandaki recently presented new projects at Venice Gap-Financing Market. “Arcadia,” directed by Yorgos Zois, will see Homemade Films joining forces with Foss Production and Red Carpet. “Titanic Ocean” by Konstantina Kotzamani will be shot in Japan and Singapore in 2023.
“I’m very excited to be working with this group of directors on a variety of different genres that span from drama to fantasy and mystery,” says Drandaki. She added that she is very interested in...
- 9/10/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
When Chloë Sevigny found herself walking the Oscars red carpet nominated for her work in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” it was surprising, to say the least. Her brand of indie film anarchy, which she shared with her sometime boyfriend Harmony Korine, wasn’t really Oscar material. “I remember like the year before Harmony and I watching and being like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we could like nuke the Oscars and like just wipe away all the status quo?,'” she told IndieWire during a recent interview.
Sevigny’s 1990s in film started with her breakout role in Larry Clark’s ever-controversial 1995 “Kids” and ended with her at the Academy Awards, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, playing the girlfriend of Brandon Teena. It was a journey from the sensational fringes of the avant-garde to the biggest platform imaginable. “I told my publicist that the minute I’m in People magazine,...
Sevigny’s 1990s in film started with her breakout role in Larry Clark’s ever-controversial 1995 “Kids” and ended with her at the Academy Awards, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, playing the girlfriend of Brandon Teena. It was a journey from the sensational fringes of the avant-garde to the biggest platform imaginable. “I told my publicist that the minute I’m in People magazine,...
- 8/19/2022
- by Esther Zuckerman
- Indiewire
In “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a dysfunctional group of rich kids who have long outgrown each other hole up in one of their parents’ mansions during a hurricane. When they’ve had enough of getting crossed and making TikToks, they turn to an old pastime: a Mafia-like game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies” that always ends in tears and hurt feelings. This time, though, the stakes aren’t just emotional: after the power cuts out, actual bodies begin to drop. Inside one of these chronically-online narcissists lurks a killer – who could it be?
If that synopsis makes the film seem difficult to categorize, it’s by design. “When [writer Sarah DeLappe] and I started to work together, we both felt that the biggest mistake you can make with a group film – and especially the slasher, or whatever genre you want to call this – is to have all the cliches,” director Halina Reijn said in an interview with TheWrap.
If that synopsis makes the film seem difficult to categorize, it’s by design. “When [writer Sarah DeLappe] and I started to work together, we both felt that the biggest mistake you can make with a group film – and especially the slasher, or whatever genre you want to call this – is to have all the cliches,” director Halina Reijn said in an interview with TheWrap.
- 8/6/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
If Larry Clark had ever found his way onto the Pine Ridge Reservation, he probably would have come away with a film like “War Pony,” which observes its young Native American characters hustling, skating and stealing drugs from otherwise distracted adults. Presenting such behavior without judgment, first-time directors Gina Gammell and Riley Keough developed this unvarnished portrait in collaboration with their actors, capturing something at once tragic and true about these kids, who are torn between Oglala Lakota traditions and the consumer culture around them.
A few years older than the hero of Chloé Zhao’s recent “The Rider” — a movie this one can’t help but resemble, at least superficially — Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is like the slacker version of that American dreamer. He siphons gas from strangers’ tanks and goes around asking people if they want to buy a stolen PlayStation. He already has two kids by two different women.
A few years older than the hero of Chloé Zhao’s recent “The Rider” — a movie this one can’t help but resemble, at least superficially — Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is like the slacker version of that American dreamer. He siphons gas from strangers’ tanks and goes around asking people if they want to buy a stolen PlayStation. He already has two kids by two different women.
- 5/21/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
A series of thematically arranged Hong Sang-soo double features has begun.
IFC Center
The new restoration of Inland Empire is now playing, while Eraserhead, Dune, Twilight, Mamma Mia!, and Derek Jarman’s Sebastiane have late-night showings.
Roxy Cinema
A 35mm-heavy Alex Ross Perry retrospective is underway; a print of Lady Terminator plays on Saturday; prints of River’s Edge and The Seventh Seal play on Sunday.
Museum of Modern Art
As retrospectives of Larry Fessenden’s genre house Glass Eye Pix and films by Larry Clark continue, The Birds has a screening.
Metrograph
The Robert Siodmak retrospective continues, as does “Pop Plays Itself,” a collection of musicians onscreen; Eden and After plays in Left Bank Cinema; Perfect Blue and Son of the White Mare are in “Late Nights.”
Anthology Film Archives
The Hong-Kong-a-Thon returns, while programs screen in “Essential Cinema.
Film at Lincoln Center
A series of thematically arranged Hong Sang-soo double features has begun.
IFC Center
The new restoration of Inland Empire is now playing, while Eraserhead, Dune, Twilight, Mamma Mia!, and Derek Jarman’s Sebastiane have late-night showings.
Roxy Cinema
A 35mm-heavy Alex Ross Perry retrospective is underway; a print of Lady Terminator plays on Saturday; prints of River’s Edge and The Seventh Seal play on Sunday.
Museum of Modern Art
As retrospectives of Larry Fessenden’s genre house Glass Eye Pix and films by Larry Clark continue, The Birds has a screening.
Metrograph
The Robert Siodmak retrospective continues, as does “Pop Plays Itself,” a collection of musicians onscreen; Eden and After plays in Left Bank Cinema; Perfect Blue and Son of the White Mare are in “Late Nights.”
Anthology Film Archives
The Hong-Kong-a-Thon returns, while programs screen in “Essential Cinema.
- 4/7/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Paris Theater
An all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective is underway, with the director present for The Piano on Sunday.
Metrograph
Films by Varda, Chris Marker, Demy, and Resnais play in a new series on Left Bank cinema; “Metrograph A to Z” returns with Polanski’s Bitter Moon; Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, and Perfect Blue screen late.
Museum of Modern Art
A Peter Bogdanovich retrospective has begun, as has a look at the films of Larry Clark.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of Black Orpheus and Pink Narcissus play this weekend.
Film Forum
A new restoration of Joseph Losey’s The Servant begins playing, while Donkey Skin screens on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
As First Look commences the Museum offers “Second Look,” a retrospective of past festivals that includes a print of Chantal Akerman’s Almayer’s Folly and Loznitsa’s Donbass.
Paris Theater
An all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective is underway, with the director present for The Piano on Sunday.
Metrograph
Films by Varda, Chris Marker, Demy, and Resnais play in a new series on Left Bank cinema; “Metrograph A to Z” returns with Polanski’s Bitter Moon; Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, and Perfect Blue screen late.
Museum of Modern Art
A Peter Bogdanovich retrospective has begun, as has a look at the films of Larry Clark.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of Black Orpheus and Pink Narcissus play this weekend.
Film Forum
A new restoration of Joseph Losey’s The Servant begins playing, while Donkey Skin screens on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
As First Look commences the Museum offers “Second Look,” a retrospective of past festivals that includes a print of Chantal Akerman’s Almayer’s Folly and Loznitsa’s Donbass.
- 3/11/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
When your films are as esoterically titled as "Gummo," "Julien Donkey-Boy" and "Trash Humpers," there's bound to be a messed-up filmmaking origin story lurking in your early adulthood. For transgressive auteur Harmony Korine, this certainly proves true. Before he would go on to helm the neon-soaked "Spring Breakers" or the slacker cinematic classic "The Beach Bum," Korine's first venture was a script which "honestly" (and crudely) portrays the delinquent and depraved behavior of NYC teens, a faction that the 19-year-old Korine was enmeshed in at the time. Directed by the oft-lascivious photographer Larry Clark and starring Chloë Sevigny and Rosario Dawson in their first feature roles, the...
The post The Kids Controversy Explained: Contentious Child's Play appeared first on /Film.
The post The Kids Controversy Explained: Contentious Child's Play appeared first on /Film.
- 1/12/2022
- by Natalia Keogan
- Slash Film
Exclusive: Lightyear Entertainment has acquired two documentaries that made their world premieres at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival: Thomas Robsahm’s A-ha: The Movie and Eddie Martin’s We Were Once Kids. The former will open in theaters across the U.S. and Canada on April 8, with the latter set for release in May.
A-ha: The Movie celebrates the 40th anniversary of the synth-pop band’s irresistible single “Take on Me,” which is still one of the most played songs of the last millennium. The musicians from small-town Norway became global sensations and heartthrobs overnight when they released the song and its groundbreaking pencil-sketch animation video, seeing their newfound fame overshadow their original dream to make music. In the years since, each has taken separate roads to get back to what they loved most.
A-ha has released 15 albums to date, which have sold more than 55 million copies. The band has also earned eight MTV Awards,...
A-ha: The Movie celebrates the 40th anniversary of the synth-pop band’s irresistible single “Take on Me,” which is still one of the most played songs of the last millennium. The musicians from small-town Norway became global sensations and heartthrobs overnight when they released the song and its groundbreaking pencil-sketch animation video, seeing their newfound fame overshadow their original dream to make music. In the years since, each has taken separate roads to get back to what they loved most.
A-ha has released 15 albums to date, which have sold more than 55 million copies. The band has also earned eight MTV Awards,...
- 12/20/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s been a crazy year for Fernando Sulichin. But then crazy is kind of Sulichin’s wheelhouse.
The 56-year-old head of production at finance group New Element Media — born in Argentina, based in London — has built his career in the independent film business backing the movies and directors that don’t fit the mainstream models. His first big break came with Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, which he joined as an associate producer, helping secure the first-ever film shoot in Mecca for the project.
Sulichin’s eclectic tastes have led him to work with auteur outsiders Larry Clark ...
The 56-year-old head of production at finance group New Element Media — born in Argentina, based in London — has built his career in the independent film business backing the movies and directors that don’t fit the mainstream models. His first big break came with Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, which he joined as an associate producer, helping secure the first-ever film shoot in Mecca for the project.
Sulichin’s eclectic tastes have led him to work with auteur outsiders Larry Clark ...
- 11/1/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s been a crazy year for Fernando Sulichin. But then crazy is kind of Sulichin’s wheelhouse.
The 56-year-old head of production at finance group New Element Media — born in Argentina, based in London — has built his career in the independent film business backing the movies and directors that don’t fit the mainstream models. His first big break came with Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, which he joined as an associate producer, helping secure the first-ever film shoot in Mecca for the project.
Sulichin’s eclectic tastes have led him to work with auteur outsiders Larry Clark ...
The 56-year-old head of production at finance group New Element Media — born in Argentina, based in London — has built his career in the independent film business backing the movies and directors that don’t fit the mainstream models. His first big break came with Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, which he joined as an associate producer, helping secure the first-ever film shoot in Mecca for the project.
Sulichin’s eclectic tastes have led him to work with auteur outsiders Larry Clark ...
- 11/1/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Cinemateca Brasileira. (WikiCommons)A devastating fire hit the Cinemateca Brasileira on July 29 and has left significant damage to the longest-running cinema institution in Brazil. In response, the workers of Cinemateca Brasileira have shared a statement regarding the continual mistreatment of facilities and staff by the government: "Without workers archives can not be preserved!" After facing unexpected budget cuts, microcinema No Evil Eye Cinema has announced a fundraising call for action and is seeking grants, foundational support, and other funding opportunities to sustain their programming and educational programs. On the Score podcast last week, composer Carter Burwell stated that "[Ethan Coen] just didn’t want to make movies anymore," in response to a question about Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth. This may mean the Coens are done working as a directing duo,...
- 8/4/2021
- MUBI
As far as titles go, you can’t accuse Jeremy Elkin’s “All the Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip-Hop and Skateboarding (1987-1997)” of false advertising. Tracing the two youth cultures as they dance around one another and finally intersect on the streets of New York City throughout the decade, the director gathers an astonishing amount of vintage footage, and finds no shortage of deep veins to tap. And yet, despite its doctoral dissertation-style title, “All the Streets Are Silent” lacks a thesis: less a sociological study of the rapper-skater convergence than a celebration of a very specific type of guy in a very specific fragment of space and time. In this case, the kind of young person who felt most at home roaming the streets of Dinkins-era Manhattan with only a board and a boombox for company.
And one might argue that that type of guy, now older,...
And one might argue that that type of guy, now older,...
- 7/30/2021
- by Andrew Barker
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Los Angeles-based Premiere Entertainment Group has taken international rights to This Game’s Called Murder, Adam Sherman’s (Happiness Runs) thriller starring Ron Perlman. Also starring are Vanessa Marano (Switched at Birth), and Natasha Henstridge (Species).
The movie follows the daughter (Marano) of iconic women’s luxury footwear designer Mr. Wallendorf (Perlman) who sabotages her sadistic father’s business in a dark tale of murder, greed, and betrayal based in a consumer-crazed society. Henstridge plays Wallendorf’s wife. James Lastovic, Judson Mills, Tyler Steelman, Annabel Barrett, and Tory Devon Smith round out the key cast.
Sherman, who previously produced Larry Clark’s Marfa Girl and Marfa Girl 2, produces the film alongside Hagai Shaham and Paul Laurens. Noémi Santo co-produced.
Premiere CEO Elias Axume and Carlos Rincon negotiated the deal with producer Adam Sherman and attorney Alana Crow. Rights will be shopped in Cannes.
Sherman said, “The fool who...
The movie follows the daughter (Marano) of iconic women’s luxury footwear designer Mr. Wallendorf (Perlman) who sabotages her sadistic father’s business in a dark tale of murder, greed, and betrayal based in a consumer-crazed society. Henstridge plays Wallendorf’s wife. James Lastovic, Judson Mills, Tyler Steelman, Annabel Barrett, and Tory Devon Smith round out the key cast.
Sherman, who previously produced Larry Clark’s Marfa Girl and Marfa Girl 2, produces the film alongside Hagai Shaham and Paul Laurens. Noémi Santo co-produced.
Premiere CEO Elias Axume and Carlos Rincon negotiated the deal with producer Adam Sherman and attorney Alana Crow. Rights will be shopped in Cannes.
Sherman said, “The fool who...
- 7/2/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
What would it be like to see your childhood friends rise to fame, scratch at fortune, then die tragically young, only to become googled curiosities and cautionary tales? This was the journey of Hamilton Chango Harris, who appeared alongside his real-life skater pals in Larry Clark’s 1995 hit, “Kids.” Now, Harris aims to rewrite the narrative of the late Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter with “The Kids,” a documentary that reveals disturbing behind-the-scenes secrets and their aftermath.
Continue reading ‘The Kids’ Aims To Rewrite The Tragic Narrative Of The Skate Teens In Larry Clark’s Notorious Film [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Kids’ Aims To Rewrite The Tragic Narrative Of The Skate Teens In Larry Clark’s Notorious Film [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.
- 6/18/2021
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Playlist
The Kids Aren’t All Right: Martin Offers a Case Study on Exploitation from 90s Cult Film
It’s mind boggling to look back on the not-too-distant past to realize how certain accepted practices and procedures were as inappropriate and outrageous as something in the Wild West. The past in question here is the mid-1990s, when twenty-six odd years ago, director Larry Clark became a notorious provocateur Kids was unleashed at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. A cultural sensation which blossomed a cult following for Clark, documentarian Eddie Martin revisits the non-professional actors cast in the film and the destructive effects the experience had on several of them.…...
It’s mind boggling to look back on the not-too-distant past to realize how certain accepted practices and procedures were as inappropriate and outrageous as something in the Wild West. The past in question here is the mid-1990s, when twenty-six odd years ago, director Larry Clark became a notorious provocateur Kids was unleashed at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. A cultural sensation which blossomed a cult following for Clark, documentarian Eddie Martin revisits the non-professional actors cast in the film and the destructive effects the experience had on several of them.…...
- 6/14/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Larry Clark’s “Kids” went off like a bomb in 1995 as a no-holds-barred-whatsoever portrait of debauched teenagers in New York City. Unvarnished in depicting sex and drug use among disaffected youth, the film written by Harmony Korine is now being reconsidered in a new documentary premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, “The Kids,” directed by Eddie Martin.
The film drew controversy even in its production stages for bringing on nonprofessional, underage actors and exposing them to an unruly set where drugs were readily available, and anything resembling an intimacy coordinator was nonexistent.
In a new interview with Deadline, one of the film’s actors Hamilton Harris opened up about the traumatic aftermath of starring in the movie, especially given that two of his co-stars, Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter, died young amid tragic circumstances in the years after the film’s release.
“Twenty five years ago, yes, I felt exploited.
The film drew controversy even in its production stages for bringing on nonprofessional, underage actors and exposing them to an unruly set where drugs were readily available, and anything resembling an intimacy coordinator was nonexistent.
In a new interview with Deadline, one of the film’s actors Hamilton Harris opened up about the traumatic aftermath of starring in the movie, especially given that two of his co-stars, Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter, died young amid tragic circumstances in the years after the film’s release.
“Twenty five years ago, yes, I felt exploited.
- 6/12/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
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