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This essay discusses the end of Phantom Thread in depth and should be read after seeing the film to avoid spoilers.Reynolds Woodcock, an esteemed and sybaritic dressmaker, believes himself to be cursed, incapable of being loved the way he wants. He’s unwilling to alter his life to accommodate a partner, as his is an existence besotted by the rigor of routine, rules, and persnickety tics. The quietude he desires has a hermetic feeling; he says an air of quiet death suffuses his house, but doesn’t realize it's because his serenity is forced, unnatural. As portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis, Reynolds is a fastidious man, one whose attire is never less than immaculate, whose choice and use of words is trenchant and unsparing. Reynolds’s assiduous attention to details, and his utter devotion to his craft, have brought him illustrious customers and a certain amount of influence. But such self-allegiance,...

We’re on the road again with a pair of eccentric new-age hobos, the kind that just can’t hack it in polite society. Gene Hackman and Al Pacino’s conflicting acting styles get a workout in Jerry Schatzberg’s tale of drifters cursed with iffy goals; Vilmos Zsigmond’s Panavision cinematography helped it earn a big prize at Cannes.

Scarecrow

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1973 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan, Ann Wedgeworth, Richard Lynch, Eileen Brennan, Penny Allen, Richard Hackman, Al Cingolani, Rutanya Alda.

Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond

Film Editor: Evan Lottman, Craig McKay

Production Design: Albert Brenner

Original Music: Fred Myrow

Written by Garry Michael White

Produced by Robert M. Sherman

Directed by Jerry Schatzberg

Movie-wise, everything was up in the air in the early 1970s. The view from Westwood in West Los Angeles, then the place to go see a film,...

I’d imagine every one of us, despite our individual life situations, however privileged or difficult they may be, wouldn’t have too much trouble coming up with a pretty long list of people and circumstances for which to be grateful, during the upcoming week traditionally reserved for the expression of thanks as well as throughout the entirety of the year.

Even in our brave new world, where gratitude and humility and generosity of spirit often seem to be in short supply, at the mercy of greed, abuse of power, disregard for the rule of law, and megalomaniac self-interest cynically masquerading as an aggressive strain of nationalist, populist passion, there are good, everyday reasons to look around and take stock of blessings in one’s immediate surroundings.

And speaking specifically as one who has the privilege and opportunity to occasionally write about matters concerning the movies, and even a (very...

Palacios screens Saturday, November 11th at 2:00pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here.

Eugene, an inner-city teen, escapes the city streets and hides away on a Midwest city rooftop during the Fourth of July holiday. He is found by Holly, a widowed alcoholic, who lives in the secluded rooftop dwelling with her Boston terrier. They commit to spending the day together above the city as they wait for a hopeful resolution to Eugene’s situation. As the day passes, a friendship grows even as their personal realities begin to catch up with them.

Robert T. Herrera, writer and director of Palacios, took the time to answer questions about his film for We Are Movie Geeks.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman

Tom Stockman: What was your filmmaking experience before Palacios?...

Richard Linklater’s new film Last Flag Flying may not be in theaters until November, but it opened this year’s New York Film Festival and the director sat down with festival director Kent Jones for extensive at the Walter Reade Theater on Saturday, September 30.

On Cinema is an annual event at the festival where world-renowned filmmakers invite festival goers to learn their cinematic inspiration and influences. Linklater built the conversation around his favorite moments in film, including The Long Goodbye, Pickpocket and Taxi Driver, among others. From the beginning of his talk, it was clear Linklater held reverence for everyone he was to discuss, but none received praise like Robert Bresson and Robert Altman.

Linklater fixates on the passing moments in film, which he calls the stuff we remember from cinema. He’s gifted American cinema with a philosophy unique to the last twenty years of filmmaking and was...

by Ilich Mejía

American director Robert Altman has been selected by the American Film Institute as the focus of AFI Fest's first annual retrospective showcasing the works of an accomplished filmmaker. AFI Fest will run, this year, from November 9 to 16. Each of those days will feature screenings and special discussions of Altman's best work. 

Even though Altman passed over ten years ago, his films are constantly remembered by film fanatics around the globe. His haunting 3 Women recently screened as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's retrospective of 1977. Other Altman classics include Julie Christie's bursting curls in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the fiery politics of Nashville, and Downton Abbey predecesor Gosford Park.

What film are you most excited to see as part of this retrospective? Share your favorite Altman scenes and moments!

Robert Altman has been chosen for the American Film Institute’s inaugural retrospective spotlighting a filmmaker of global significance. The retrospective, including screenings and discussions, will run during this year’s AFI Fest November 9-16 in Hollywood. It’s billed as the first of an annual event. Altman, who died in 2006, is, historically, the festival’s most programmed filmmaker. Twelve of his movies will be screened during the retrospective: Mash, McCabe & Mrs. Mil…...

When Lynda Carter met and married her husband, a Washington, D.C. power lawyer, she didn’t need convincing to leave the bright lights of Hollywood.

Though she and husband Robert Altman wed in 1984, at the height of her career and just five years removed from her last episode of Wonder Woman, Carter says she “was very happy to get out of L.A.”

“I had a large body of work already, and I didn’t really have a lot of substance in my life,” Carter, 65, tells People. “I spent a lot of time on movie sets — and that is...

Palacios screens Sunday, July 16 at 4:45pm at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Ticket information can be found Here

Eugene, an inner-city teen, escapes the city streets and hides away on a Midwest city rooftop during the Fourth of July holiday. He is found by Holly, a widowed alcoholic, who lives in the secluded rooftop dwelling with her Boston terrier. They commit to spending the day together above the city as they wait for a hopeful resolution to Eugene’s situation. As the day passes, a friendship grows even as their personal realities begin to catch up with them.

Robert T. Herrera, writer and director of Palacios, took the time to answer questions about his film for We Are Movie Geeks in advance of it’s screening at the St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Interview conducted by...

The United States is “my country, right or wrong,” of course, and I consider myself a patriotic person, but I’ve never felt that patriotism meant blind fealty to the idea of America’s rightful dominance over global politics or culture, and certainly not to its alleged preferred status on God’s short list of favored nations, or that allegiance to said country was a license to justify or rationalize every instance of misguided, foolish, narrow-minded domestic or foreign policy.

In 2012, when this piece was first posted, it seemed like a good moment to throw the country’s history and contradictions into some sort of quick relief, and the most expedient way of doing that for me was to look at the way the United States (and the philosophies at its core) were reflected in the movies, and not just the ones which approached the country head-on as a subject.

The classical western exists as an ideal sandbox for stories of heroism, in which white hats can immediately separate our protagonists from the black-hatted antagonists. Occasionally, though, we have a revisionist western that questions and defies the well-trodden patriarchal confines of the genre, as if looking at an old image from a tilted perspective and finding something new.

Sometimes, the characters don’t fit into the dusty old boxes occupied by so many western heroes and heroines. The hero robs and kills to stay alive, frightened and overwhelmed by this strange, new frontier. Other times, the stereotypical Western landscape disappears, blanketed in snow. Horses drive their hooves through ice-covered puddles. Wind screams past bone-thin trees — manifest destiny frozen over, encasing the American dream in ice.

In the case of Sofia Coppola’s newest, The Beguiled, gender and power roles reverse: an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) turns up at a girl’s school, an arrival which breeds intense sexual tension and rivalry among the women (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning). According to our review, the movie is “primarily based on the 1966 book by Thomas Cullinan,” and “appears, at first glance, to be a remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 film adaptation rather than any sort of new reading of the original text. Coppola, of course, is far too clever for that.”

In celebration of The Beguiled, we’ve decided to take a look at the finest examples of the revisionist western. Enjoy, and please include your own favorites in the comments.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)

Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) idolized the legendary outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt), growing up hearing campfire stories about the man. Ford loved James so much that he eventually willed himself into the man’s life story. You cannot tell James’s story without also telling Ford’s. These two tragic lives are irrevocably linked by Ford’s betrayal. The film’s dryly antiseptic voiceover narration confides that Ford grew to regret his violent ways. The same goes for James, who at one point beats a child and then weeps into his horse’s neck, unable to live with his own deeds. While James’ propensity for violence is a deeply cut character flaw, Pitt plays the outlaw like an emotionally wounded teenager. His jovial sense of humor cloaks a vindictive and self-loathing interior. Whether Jesse James hurts himself or someone else, there is always a witness looking on with wide eyes. After James’ murder, Ford became a celebrity, touring the country reenacting the shooting. But Ford gained his prominence by killing a beloved folk hero. And so, one day, a man named Edward Kelly walked into Ford’s saloon with a shotgun and took revenge for James’s murder. Unlike the aftermath of Ford’s deed, people leapt to Kelly’s defense, collecting over 7000 signatures for a petition, leading to his pardon. America hated Robert Ford because he killed Jesse James. They loved Edward Kelly because he killed Robert Ford.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (Robert Altman)

Robert Altman’s largely forgotten and often funny western about egotistical showman Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) treats its lead without respect, eagerly mocking him at every opportunity. Known across America as they best tracker of man and animals alive, Cody runs Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a rodeo-like performance of cowboy-feats, ranging from simple rope tricks to the trick-shots of the legendary Annie Oakley. However, Cody is a fraud, a walking accumulation of lies and tall-tales. When Cody gets the chance to hire Chief Sitting Bull, the man who defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn, he’s thrilled, until Sitting Bull refuses to participate in his offensive show. Contrasted with phony Buffalo Bill Cody, Sitting Bull drips with dignified authenticity, totally uninterested in living up to the ignorant public’s racist image of his people. While the manufactured “reality” of Cody’s shows gets applause from white audiences, the stoic realness of Sitting Bull initially receives jeers, until something occurs to the crowd: this isn’t showmanship; this is the real thing. Later, when Cody and his gang form a posse, he hastily removes his show attire and searches through his wardrobe, cursing: “Where’s my real jacket?” So utterly consumed by his own public image, Cody can no longer locate his true self. Altman’s film is a rare western with a lead character who never succeeds, changes, or learns from his mistakes, always remaining a hopelessly pompous horse’s ass.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)

As we meet the legendary Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) he’s scoping out a bank, recently renovated to include heavy iron bars over every window and bolted-locks on every door. He asks the guard what happened to the old bank, which displayed such architectural beauty. “People kept robbing it,” the guard says. “Small price to pay for beauty,” Butch replies. It’s a running theme in revisionist westerns to reveal the truth behind the legend. The changing times had rendered bandits on horseback obsolete. But Butch Cassidy and his partner, the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) didn’t see the end coming until the future was already upon them. After barely evading a super-posse (to use a term coined by screenwriter William Goldman) led by a ruthless bounty hunter, they escape to Bolivia with Etta (Katherine Ross) Sundance’s girl, where their criminal ways are similarly received. What began as a vacation away from their troubles slowly becomes a permanent getaway run, sowing seeds of inevitable tragedy. Etta sees what Butch and Sundance cannot: the end. “We’re not going home anymore, are we?” Etta tearfully asks Sundance, informing him that she has no plans to stick around to watch them die. George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a tearful celebration of a pair of old dogs too foolish to learn new tricks.

Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)

The gorgeous and haunting Dead Man opens with a soot-faced Crispin Glover trilling as he points out the window of a train: “They’re shooting buffalo,” he cries. “Government said, it killed a million of them last year alone.” The American machine greedily consumes the landscape, leaving smoldering devastation in its path, while a stone-faced accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels to the hellish town of Machine, where he’s promised a job. Unfortunately, there’s no job at the end of the line for this seemingly educated man, blissfully unaware of his namesake, the poet William Blake. After taking a bullet to the chest, Blake wanders this dying western landscape as if in a dream, guided by Nobody (Gary Farmer) a Native American raised in England after getting kidnapped and paraded around as a sideshow attraction for whites. At one point, Blake stumbles upon three hunters by a camp fire, one of which, played by Iggy Pop, wears a muddy dress and bonnet like a twisted schoolmarm. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s twist on the western (accompanied by Robby Müller’s flawless cinematography) hums with textured period detail and vivid costume design, the accumulation of which achieves an eerily stylized tone.

Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

The spirit of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is in the sequence scored by Jim Croce’s “I’ve Got a Name.” Django (Jamie Foxx), now a free man, removes the old saddle from his horse’s back, a saddle originally procured by a white slaver, the animal’s previous owner. He then mounts in its place, his own saddle personalized with an embroidered D. His freedom is still new and unfamiliar but, Django is more than willing to grasp those reigns. What works best about the film is how Tarantino’s screenplay embraces the politics of the Antebellum South in a fashion carefully ignored by every other western of its time. The dialogue, Tarantino’s most applauded talent, wheels a careful turn between a sly comedy-of-manners and a bluntly provocative historical indictment, always landing on a shameless exploitation cinema influenced need for violent catharsis. Tarantino’s channeling of Spaghetti Western violence, with the gore cranked up to a level far beyond that of even Sergio Corbucci’s bloodiest work, delivers tenfold on that catharsis, splattering the pristine white walls of Candyland plantation bright red.

El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Dripping with transgressive and bizarre imagery, El Topo embraces every taboo imaginable with a breathless zeal. Existing somewhere between Midnight Movie oddity and art-house epic, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second feature envisions the west as an unknowable landscape, dotted with peculiar and grotesque characters, such as a legless gunfighter who rides around on the back of an armless man. Describing the film in narrative terms, beat by beat, would be pointless, although we follow a rider in black, the titular El Topo (which means The Mole) who crosses the desert with a naked boy on the saddle. Though we spend more time with El Topo, his son is the heart of the film, this warped and subversive pseudo-fable exploring the cyclical nature of life. Jodorowsky’s painterly eye for composition lends individual shots with arresting and breathtaking resonance. With less than subtle biblical imagery scattered throughout, including a marvelous sequence involving a religion based around the game of Russian Roulette, Jodorowsky’s film feels at times like a twisted celebration of mysticism, sampling notes from Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. It’s ending, a chaotic, dream-like burst of violence, adds a scathing gut-punch to an already overwhelming experience. There is no other western quite like El Topo, to say the least.

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Film critic Charles Taylor’s first collection of essays, “Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive-in Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American ’70s,” explores the rich history of ’70s-era American filmmaking through a unique lens, opting to highlight some of the period’s underseen and often underappreciated gems. As one of the most fruitful times in American filmmaking, Taylor understands why certain features — including offerings from such respected filmmakers as Jonathan Demme, Walter Hill, and Irvin Kershner — didn’t quite make it big at a crowded box office, but he’s also eager to give them their due.

Told with an eye towards the current state of cinema — a blockbuster-driven machine that Taylor calls “nonsensical” and contributing to “the destruction of the idea of content” — the book is a loving look at some forgotten gems and the power of moviemaking that can often be ignored. In our excerpt from the book,...

Here’s a great video from Criterion in which documentary filmmaker Steve James (The Keeper, Stevie, Hoop Dreams) discusses how he was influenced by Robert Altman’s Nashville. He begins by noting that your most influential films are the ones you see when you’re young and falling in love with cinema, and he then goes on to say that he wasn’t interested in documentary filmmaking when he encountered Altman’s work. But there were aspects of Nashville that impressed him — including, yes, the zooms! — as well as notions of structure that wound up rippling into films like The Interruptors.

“Dear White People” has garnered a lot of praise for its stellar first season, and each episode is deserving of its own time in the spotlight. Part of what makes all 10 individual half-hours stand out is how creator, writer, and director Justin Simien collaborated with everyone involved — including Episode 5 director Barry Jenkins.

In a Facebook Live chat with IndieWire, Simien explained how his relationship with the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” director moved from “Twitter friends” to professional collaborators. And, further still, how that friendship helped him get the most out of the talented director.

Read More: ‘Dear White People’ Review: Justin Simien’s Netflix Series Sets the Standard for Movie-to-tv Adaptations

“My job was to free up Barry Jenkins to be Barry Jenkins,” Simien said. “A lot of it was messing with him because he was so respectful, and it wasn’t even necessary at times. He’d be like, ‘Justin, is...

There are some aspects of Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie where it seems like star Jeff Garlin (he plays the title role of Gene Handsome) is doing his best work. Then, you remember the role he plays as Larry David's sidekick in Curb Your Enthusiasm and you know better. Make no mistake about it, Garlin is doing some very solid stuff in Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie, but it is hard for me to watch him on the screen and not see (or expect) Jeff Greene or Murray Goldberg for that matter. So lets just say that, as far as I am concerned, Handsome is an idea that needs its own full blown series.

The story of Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie follows the classic tropes of all the detective movies and shows we love. Gene Handsome is a Los Angeles homicide detective who is very good at his job.

Always exciting and always affordable, Circus Flora is the best circus in America and the best show in town. Circus Flora’s new production Time Flies takes place under the air-conditioned red-and-white Big Top tent in Grand Center next to Powell Symphony Hall (corner of Grand Boulevard and Samuel Shepard Drive.) Time Flies runs June 1st through June 25th and ticket information can be found Here.

Since 1966, every student to study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting program has studied circus techniques with Hovey Burgess. He also taught in the Drama Division of The Juilliard School (1968-1972). Hovey created, directed and performed with the Circo Dell’Arte (1969-1970), which included Cecil MacKinnon, Larry Pisoni, Judy Finelli, and Jim Jansen. He taught at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (1973 – 1975, 1995), and at the Ultimate Clown School (since 1999) with Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley. His instructional...

Exclusive: Ron Mann directs film featuring legendary custom guitar maker Rick Kelly.

The Match Factory has begun worldwide sales in Cannes on Carmine Street Guitars, a documentary about Greenwich Village guitar store Carmine Street Guitars.

Toronto-based documentarian Ron Mann of Sphinx Productions, who is in acquisitions mode in Cannes wearing his other hat as head of Canadian distributor Films We Like, will direct and produce the project.

Carmine Street Guitars is home to the legendary custom guitar maker Rick Kelly, who handcrafts guitars using 100-year-old wood salvaged from historic New York buildings.

Mann will shoot a series of vignettes featuring household names who drop by Carmine Street to talk guitars and perform. Kelly’s customers over the years have included music legends such as Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Bo Diddley.

Principal photography is scheduled to begin in New York on May 29 and the project is scheduled for delivery in spring 2018.

Jim Jarmusch instigated Carmine...

Jonathan Demme, dead of cancer at 73. It's hard to take in those words.

Or to stop feeling the gut punch of his loss. High praise will flow, deservedly, about Demme's virtuosity as a filmmaker; about the Oscars he won for The Silence of the Lambs; about his concert films, from Stop Making Sense to Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, that brought audiences closer than ever before to the sweaty intimacy and creative pulse of music. His influence is everywhere. Paul Thomas Anderson was once asked for a list of the...

“Here is the screen’s most shocking exposé, of the ‘Baby-Facers’ just taking their first stumbling steps down Sin Street U.S.A.!” Robert Altman’s first feature film is far too good to be described as any but an expert step toward an impressive career. But he had to deal with a young actor who drove him up the wall, Tom Laughlin.

The Delinquents

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1957 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 72 min. / Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard, Helen Hawley, Leonard Belove, Lotus Corelli, James Lantz, Christine Altman, George Mason Kuhn, Pat Stedman, Norman Zands, James Leria, Julia Lee, Lou Lombardo.

Cinematography: Charles Paddock

Film Editor: Helene Turner

Second Unit Director: Reza Badiyi

Produced, Written and Directed by Robert Altman

The hoods of tomorrow! The gun molls of the future!

Ah, the glorious Juvenile Delinquency film, or J.D. Epic,...

Robert Altman was making a living as an industrial filmmaker in Kansas City, Missouri when an opportunity arose that would change his life — and the history of American movies — forever. It was the mid-1950s and juvenile delinquent movies like The Blackboard Jungle and Rebel Without a Cause were burning up the box office, so the son of a movie theater chain owner approached Altman with idea of producing his own teen film. Altman banged out a script in three or four days, and on a budget of $60,000 shot his first feature, The Delinquents, in two weeks with […]...

This Week in Home Video‘They’re Playing With Fire’ Blends Bloody Violence and T&A Thrills to Surprising EffectPlus 13 more new releases to watch at home this week on Blu-ray/DVD.

Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support Fsr in the process!

Pick of the WeekThey’re Playing With Fire [Kl Studio Classics]

What is it? A sexy college professor seduces her student, and then people start dying horrible deaths.

Why see it? I’ve been a Sybil Danning fan for more years than I care to recall, but somehow this one slipped past me before now. I’m not sure what teen me would have thought, but as an adult I’m in awe of just how off the rails it gets from its very clear T&A origin. From the cover to the copy the film sells itself as just another sex flick, but...

Robert Altman builds his films like dystopian prisons, convincing his residents they have the run of the place while working to ensure they can’t escape. When he actually buckles down for a psychological thriller (3 Women) or locked-room drama (Come Back to the Five and Dime, Secret Honor), any departure from the comedic tone we usually expect from him is balanced by a psychological continuity. His films consistently show that you can never really run away from your problems, and you’re inevitably due to return to them.

That Cold Day in the Park opens in a city so generic, I took the English-accented cast at face value and assumed we were somewhere in the U.K. Here, in a well-appointed apartment, lives Frances (Sandy Dennis), so entombed in the memory of her deceased parents that all her friends (and would-be suitors) are twice her age. She entertains them and...

Looking at some street poetry on a sign in the San Fernando Valley—it was a half-haiku that said "Magnolia Blvd. Dead End"—I got to wondering, how did we get from Magnolia to La La Land? I can find the line from Magnolia, in 1999, when it rained frogs, back to Short Cuts, with its tremors, six years before. Paul Thomas Anderson had breathed the same yellow air as his idol Robert Altman (and even stood behind him as "back-up" director when Altman later finished his last…...

You began your career assisting Martin Scorsese on Raging Bull. How did you get that job?

There were three directors I wanted to work for when I came out of Sarah Lawrence College: Francis Coppola, Robert Altman and Marty Scorsese. I wrote a letter to Altman but never heard back. Francis had just come home from making Apocalypse Now and had gone a little off the rails, so I thought, "Hmm, that's a little too strange." So I'm down to one guy. Then I literally bumped into Robert De Niro in the dark at a screening. I tore a...

For our most comprehensive year-end feature, we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2016. We’ve asked our contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions — those personal lists unspool following this one — and, after tallying the votes, a top 50 has been assembled.

It should be noted that, unlike our previous year-end features, we placed no requirement on a selection being a U.S theatrical release, so you may see some repeats from last year and a few we’ll certainly be discussing more during the next. So, without further ado, check out our rundown of 2016 below, our complete year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2017. One can also see the full list on Letterboxd.

50. Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

A note from Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul to the...

Success in the ’90s gave Robert Altman the opportunity to experiment once again. Several short stories by Raymond Carver interlock in a mosaic of Los Angeles populated by scores of actors in ensemble mode. Clocking in at three hours, Altman’s epic has all the time and space it needs.

Short Cuts

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 265

1993 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 187 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 18, 2016 / 39.95

Starring Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Jack Lemmon, Julianne Moore,

Matthew Modine, Anne Archer, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Penn, Lili Taylor, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Annie Ross, Lori Singer, Lyle Lovett, Buck Henry, Huey Lewis, Margery Bond, Robert DoQui.

Cinematography Walt Lloyd

Production Designer Stephen Altman

Art Direction Jerry Fleming

Film Editors Suzy Elmiger, Geraldine Peroni

Original Music Gavin Friday, Mark Isham

Written by Robert Altman, Frank Barhydt from writings...

Andrea Arnold’s American Honey and Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight each earned six nods as Film Independent announced its 2017 Spirit Award nominees on Tuesday.

Amazon Studios’ Manchester By The Sea written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan – which opened last weekend on the highest per-screen average in theatrical partner Roadside Attraction’s 13-year history – picked up five nominations.

Newcomer Robert Eggers earned two nods for The Witch in a great day for A24, which financed and distributes Moonlight, and distributed American Honey, Morris From America, and Swiss Army Man, and has 20th Century Women on the runway for a December launch.

American Honey and Moonlight will vie for the best feature prize alongside Manchester By The Sea, Fox Searchlight’s Jackie and Monument Releasing’s Chronic.

The category has become a bona fide harbinger of Oscar success as best feature winners Spotlight, Birdman and 12 Years A Slave all went on to claim the Academy Award best picture statuette in the...

Shelley Duvall’s blood-curdling screams of terror in the climax of The Shining are an indelible part of film history, and the leading lady of the 1980 horror classic went on to work in everything from comedies to children’s television shows in the decades that followed.

The actress, now 67, has stepped away from the spotlight in recent years, but that hasn’t diminished the imprint she’s left — those curious wide eyes, that high-pitched voice, her signature slender frame — in films like Popeye and Annie Hall, and in her collaborations with auteur Robert Altman (Nashville, McCabe & Ms. Miller, 3 Women).

Duvall,...

In early 1971, Leonard Cohen was still a relatively unknown singer-songwriter. Despite releasing two critically acclaimed records – 1967's Songs of Leonard Cohen and 1969's Songs From a Room – the Canadian artist, who previously plied his trade as a novelist and poet, had yet to tour the U.S. He was then living on a farm in the small town of Big East Fork, Tennessee while preparing the release of that March's Songs of Love and Hate. "I had a house, a jeep, a carbine, a pair of cowboy boots, a girlfriend … a typewriter,...

From the first time I saw it until this moment, two days before what might just be the most important, potentially resonant (for good and ill) American presidential election since the days of the Civil War, no other movie has expanded in my view more meaningfully, more ambiguously, with more fascination than has Robert Altman’s Nashville. We often hear of movies which “transcend” their genres, or their initial ambitions or intentions, and often built into that alleged transcendence is a condescension to said genre, or those ambitions or intentions, as if the roots were somehow corrupt or unworthy, in need of reconstruction. If the form of Nashville transcends anything, it’s the shape and scope of the multi-character drama as we’d come to know it in 1975, which was dominated at the time by disaster movies and their jam-packed casts filled with old Hollywood veterans and Oscar winners. But...

James + Semaj is a column where James Franco talks to his reverse self, Semaj, about new films. Rather than a conventional review, it is place where James and Semaj can muse about ideas that the films provoke. James loves going to the movies and talking about them. But a one-sided take on a movie, in print, might be misconstrued as a review. As someone in the industry it could be detrimental to James’s career if he were to review his peers, because unlike the book industry—where writers review other writer’s books—the film industry is highly collaborative, and a bad review of a peer could create problems. So, assume that James (and Semaj) love all these films. What they’re interested in talking about is all the ways the films inspire them, and make them think. James is me, and Semaj is the other side of me.

Chicago – She is the oldest daughter of movie legend Charlie Chaplin, from his fourth marriage to Oona O’Neill, but she also was a spectacular actress in her own right. She is Geraldine Chaplin, and she was honored at the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival, and was president on a film jury for the fest.

Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California. When she was eight years old, her father and mother took her on a trip to Europe, and while there Charlie Chaplin was exiled through government order from America. The family then settled in Switzerland, and Geraldine eschewed college for dance, and studied in England and Paris. She reluctantly left that art, and turned to modeling. That is how director David Lean discovered her and cast her as Tonya in the classic “Doctor Zhivago” (1965).

Geraldine Chaplin on the Red Carpet at the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival

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Editor’s note: After a two-week vacation break, we’re now back with an expanded selection to catch up.

Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.

Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

After being put through the awards season grinder — resulting in hours upon hours of conversations — what left is there to learn about the production of Richard Linklater‘s 12-years-in-the-making project Boyhood? The Criterion Collection edition proves, evidently, a fair amount. In fact, what’s so interesting about the plethora of special features — aside from an intimate...

Robert Altman, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie join together for one of the great westerns, a poetic account of the founding of a town and the way big business preys on foolish little guys. Raw and cluttered, the show gives the genre a new look, with a dreamy mix of snowflakes, opium and the music of Leonard Cohen. McCabe & Mrs. Miller Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 827 1971 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 121 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 11, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, William Devane, John Schuck, Bert Remsen, Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Michael Murphy, Antony Holland, . Cinematography Vilmos Zsigmond Production Designer Leon Ericksen Film Editing and Second Unit Director Louis Lombardo Original Music Leonard Cohen Written by Robert Altman, Brian McKay from the novel McCabe by Edmund Naughton Produced by Mitchell Brower, David Foster Directed by Robert Altman

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Robert Altman films run hot and cold for this reviewer.

Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers, is calling it a career this weekend after 67 years in the booth. If you will indulge me, I’d like to tell you about one of my favorite moments from Scully behind the microphone, and about one night at Dodger Stadium that will make me miss him even more.

But first, a little background. I was never a big baseball guy growing up, even though I played a couple of seasons on a local Little League team. (Our squad was called the Firemen.) During those days, when I wasn’t playing the game, either in Little League or somewhere on my grandma’s farm with my cousins, the presence of a baseball broadcast usually meant that something I’d rather have been watching on TV was unavailable to see because someone else wanted to watch the damn game. (I tried to sit down,...

David looks back at Brian de Palma's wildest film, ten years on from its release.

The Black Dahlia is a curious artefact. It is likely to be remembered simply by virtue of being in the catalogue of Brian de Palma, even if the film’s quality is negligible compared to his biggest hitters Carrie and The Untouchables. When compared to the other famous James Ellroy adaptation, the Oscar-winning L.A. Confidential (which celebrates its own birthday, its 19th, in just a few days), de Palma’s effort certainly pales. In the career of cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (the film’s sole Oscar nominee), it’s likely to be a footnote in the late man’s incredible career, coming after his work with Spielberg, Cimino and Altman. The film’s stars probably took a year at most to write it off as a failure on all their parts.

Yet the film...

I’ve been back from my Oregon vacation for a couple of weeks now, and though the getaway was a good and necessary one, I’m still in the process of mentally unpacking from a week and a half of relaxing and thinking mostly only about things I wanted to think about. (I also discovered a blackberry cider brewed in the region, the source of a specific sort of relaxation that I’m still finding myself pining for.) It hasn’t helped that our time off and immediate time back coincided with the bombast and general insanity of the Republic National Convention, followed immediately by the disarray and sense of restored hope that bookended the Democrats’ week-long party. The extremity of emotions engendered by those two events, coupled with a profoundly unsettling worry over the base level of our current political discourse and where it may lead this country, hasn...

Howdy folks it's Jason from Mnpp here wishing everybody a candy-colored start to a candy-colored week - that's right, today marks the first day of International Clown Week, held every year right at the start of August, aka the best time to make that make-up run right off your face and give you the time honored "Creepy Clown Effect." But while (in a weird but total coincidence) I may have just started re-reading Stephen King's It this week I'm not going to make you think about Scary Clowns today - oh I know for some of you there is no other kind, but I'm going to try to temper that with Auterism because...

... hey remember that scene in Robert Altman's 1993 masterpiece Short Cuts where Claire (Anne Archer), a professional clown, and her husband Stuart (Fred Ward) get blasted at dinner with new friends Marion (Julianne Moore) and Ralph (Matthew Modine...

Chicago – After he reigned as the father in the classic 1979 film “Breaking Away,” actor Paul Dooley suddenly became everyone’s Dad – and by everyone that meant Molly Ringwald (“Sixteen Candles”), Julia Roberts (“Runaway Bride”) and Helen Hunt (“Mad About You”). He tells all in Part Two of a comprehensive interview.

The former “Paul Brown’ was born in West Virginia, and studied acting at West Virginia University, before heading to New York City and a new career as Paul Dooley. He did stage work, stand-up comedy and the New York City version of The Second City. He got his big break in the original stage version of “The Odd Couple” in 1965, directed by the legendary Mike Nichols. While working the stage, he appeared in a number of commercials, eventually moving to Los Angeles to “be where the action is.”

Paul Dooley (right) Being Dad with Justin Henry and Carlin Glynn in...

Chicago – If there ever was a quintessential “Dad” in movies of the last generation, it would have to be Paul Dooley. The comedian and character actor is best known for portraying the patriarch in “Breaking Away” (1979) and “Sixteen Candles” (1984), but was also in director’s Robert Altman’s ‘ensemble’ and has had a stellar career.

The former “Paul Brown” was born in West Virginia, and studied acting at West Virginia University, before heading to New York City and a new career as Paul Dooley. He did stage work, stand-up comedy and the New York City version of The Second City (story below), before getting his big break in the original stage version of “The Odd Couple” in 1965, directed by the legendary Mike Nichols. While working the stage, he appeared in a number of commercials, eventually moving to Los Angeles to “be where the action is.”

The Dad: Paul Dooley, with Dennis Christopher,...

A complicated curiosity about a reclusive actress.

Two of the most intriguing characters in Robert Altman’s Nashville are Tricycle Man and L.A. Joan. When considered together, it’s a wonder Shelley Duvall didn’t wind up becoming the female equivalent of Jeff Goldblum. She should have had a long career playing eccentric but charismatic women, just as he has done (in male roles). But that kind of thing works out better for actors than actresses. So instead, he wound up starring in movies where he fought fictional aliens, and she wound up a recluse gossiped to be living in fear of aliens that are in her body.

It’s been a while since I thought a lot about Duvall, outside of regularly enjoying her in many of Altman’s films, including 3 Women and Popeye, plus Annie Hall, Roxanne, and of course The Shining. I hadn’t seen her in anything new in forever, but...

Mark and Aaron welcome old friend, Doug McCambridge to talk about Robert Altman’s “Don’t call it a” comeback film. We touch on the opening tracking shot, what Altman is saying about Hollywood, and yes, we even go into the ending — or both of them. On top of that, we give some tidbits on how to be economical with the Barnes & Noble Criterion Sale.

About the film:

A Hollywood studio executive with a shaky moral compass (Tim Robbins) finds himself caught up in a criminal situation that would be right at home in one of his movie projects, in this biting industry satire from Robert Altman. Mixing elements of film noir with sly insider comedy, The Player, based on a novel by Michael Tolkin, functions as both a nifty stylish murder story and a commentary on its own making, and it is stocked with a heroic supporting cast (Peter Gallagher,...

Cinema Art from Lawrence, Kansas?   Industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey comes through with a classic horror gem for the ages. A haunted church organist begins to suspect that her hallucinations are more than just nerves. And who is that ghoulish man who keeps appearing in reflections, or popping up out of nowhere? Carnival of Souls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 63 1962 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 78 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 12, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Herk Harvey. Cinematography Maurice Prather Film Editor Dan Palmquist, Bill de Jarnette Original Music Gene Moore Assistant Director Raza (Reza) Badiyi Written by John Clifford Produced and Directed by Herk Harvey

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Herk Harvey's marvelous Carnival of Souls is an anomaly in screen horror, a regional effort that transcends its production limitations to deliver a tingling encounter with the uncanny. Harvey was a prolific producer of industrial films,...

In our exhaustive look at Robert Altman‘s complete filmography, we declared that his 1978 effort “A Wedding” was “an insightful satire on Chicago’s upper crust.” That description may not be the most inviting, and the movie perhaps isn’t the immediate, go-to title that pops to mind when someone recommends an Altman picture, but the film is […]

The post New Trailer For 4K Restoration Of Robert Altman’s ‘A Wedding’ appeared first on The Playlist.

Robert Altman had a career like few others in the history of American film. A war hero who flew 50 bombing missions in the Pacific, Altman worked first in industrial films and then in television, producing dozens of episodes in the 1950s and beyond. He then racked up three feature films plus one co-directed documentary […]

The post The Best & The Rest: The Complete Robert Altman appeared first on The Playlist.

Robert Altman's murder tale reeks of insider access and Hollywood hipster Bs; its main claim to greatness is its fifty-plus star cameos. It may no longer seem as smart as it looked in 1992, but they don't make 'em any slicker than this. The Player Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 812 1992 / Color /1:85 widescreen / 124 min. / Available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 24, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lyle Lovett. Cinematography Jean Lépine Original Music Thomas Newman Written by Michael Tolkin from his novel Produced by David Brown, Michael Tolkin, Nick Wechsler Directed by Robert Altman

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Robert Altman's filmography is undergoing what looks like a full retrospective through Criterion; even the 1975 title Nashville came out not long ago. This very successful later picture marks a revitalization of the director's career. It's sort of a Kafkaesque spin on Hail,...

At a loss for what to watch this week? From new DVDs and Blu-rays, to what's new on Netflix and TV, we've got you covered.

New on DVD and Blu-ray

"The Finest Hours"

Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana lead a band of brothers on the high sea in this action thriller based on the true story of a 1952 U.S. Coast Guard rescue. Check it out on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere, and On-Demand on May 24. There's a ton of great bonus footage including the new documentary "Against All Odds: The Bernie Webber Story"; "Brotherhood," with the cast members reflecting on the bonds they forged during the shoot; "Two Crews," with Chris Pine and Casey Affleck sharing insights into Bernie Webber and Ray Sybert; behind-the-scenes interviews with real U.S. Coast Guard members; and new deleted scenes.

Check out...

Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller marked a turning point in cinema. Arriving after the commercial success of Mash and the bizarre noodling of Brewster McCloud, Altman's 1971 classic elevated muffled dialogue and the dirty authenticity of Vilmos Zsigmond's photography to fine art, resurrecting the American Western from the realm of exhausted genres. But it's never looked, er, exceptional, either on the big screen or on home video. Can the Criterion Collection save the day? Featuring a new 4K digital restoration, McCabe & Mrs. Miller leads a strong slate of releases from the Criterion Collection in August. Two films by Orson Welles will make their U.S. debut on home video. I missed the restoration of Chimes at Midnight during its recent theatrical run, but reviews...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

It’s hard to shake the influences behind writer/director Dennis Hauck’s feature debut Too Late.

Heavily inspired by the ’80s-’90s works from Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino, it’s one of those imitation films that always runs the risk of jeopardizing its own potential by basking in the shadows of its predecessors. And it is, indeed, perhaps just a little too reminiscent of those films — from Jackie Brown to Boogie Nights to Goodfellas — to really stand out on its own, or to become more than an elusive, moody wannabe at times.

But shot and projected entirely in 35mm film, and in a series of five single-shot acts, it’s nevertheless a beauty to behold. Impressive, if quite showy, in its presentation and bleeding with pulp, suave and sophistication, it’s a copycat for sure, but a damn good one — a crisp neo-noir...

The opening shot of a movie is the audience's first impression, and we've all been told how important first impressions can be. These are our picks for the best 10 opening shots of feature films.

Spring is upon us, and what better way to celebrate the beginning of brighter days than to celebrate the best film beginnings of all time! Check back all month long as we look at the films with the best beginnings.

Check out last week's article from this series here: The 10 Best Opening Title Sequences in Film

First impressions are important, and that’s why the opening shot of a film is not to be taken lightly. More than any other shot in a film, this is the one that audiences will pay attention to the most. Before they are invested in a story or distracted by their love or hate for the characters, they are going...