TIFF Journal: ‘Carre blanc’
Without consciously planning it this way, I started off this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with a pair of foreign, existential sci-fi movies back-to-back. The first was the Spanish ‘Extraterrestrial’...
Without consciously planning it this way, I started off this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with a pair of foreign, existential sci-fi movies back-to-back. The first was the Spanish ‘Extraterrestrial’...
Greetings from the Toronto International Film Festival. My trips to the city this time of year are starting to become an annual pilgrimage. This year, I started off the festival with the very bizarre and very fun ‘Extraterre...
The 64th Festival de Cannes wrapped up this past weekend with its annual awards ceremony. The highest honor a film can receive is the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm). Acclaimed films such as ‘Taxi Driver‘, ‘Apocal...
Allow me to admit some personal bias right up front here. I hate Danish director Lars von Trier. Hate him. As a person, I find him to be a pompous jackass. As a filmmaker, I think his movies are both terrible and virulently misogy...
The Boston Independent Film Festival is going on right now. Even though I live in the city, I hadn’t been paying much attention. However, some friends suggested that Mrs. Z and I join them this weekend for a screening of ...
Morgan Spurlock is a genuine rarity in the documentary film field: a celebrity. His whole shtick, since his breakout ‘Super Size Me’, has been to put himself in uncomfortable positions and let the audience watch him sq...
When Conan O’Brien was fired from his gig on ‘The Tonight Show’ and replaced by the show’s former host, Jay Leno, it sent ripples of shock and outrage throughout the media and general populace. There was a ...
‘Source Code’ has a simple, intriguing sci-fi conceit: Through a clandestine, morally nebulous program, the government can plant the consciousness of a willing (or unwilling) solider into the body of someone who has re...
Greetings from South by Southwest! The festival this year has made one thing abundantly clear: I’m really, really old. Never is this more clear than when I start falling asleep during afternoon screenings. Or worse, when I w...
Thursday was my last day at the Sundance Film Festival. I hit a wall and just couldn’t go to any more movies. This has never happened to me in my last couple of trips to Sundance. I’ve been able to go non-stop througho...
It’s always great to discover a new comedy that everyone will be talking about months from now. ‘My Idiot Brother’ is that movie. Apatow-ian in its construction and characters, ‘My Idiot Brother’ is h...
I think I liked ‘Red State’ more than the average critic. I like its frantic pace and its completely nutty religious wackos. Michael Parks is amazing as the enigmatic cult leader. It’s an all-around fun little fi...