Posted Nov 27th 2009 2:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Romance, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Shorts
Armed with a collection of the world's notable directors,
Paris je t'aime hit screens with a good deal of impact and buzz. It was to be the first piece in producer Emmanuel Benbihy's "Cities of Love," a collection of films detailing romance and metropolitan life across the globe, a series planning to travel to the likes of New York, Rio, Shanghai, Jerusalem, and Mumbai.
Three years later, the second installment is finally upon us with
New York, I Love You. With only minor changes, the film continues the tradition of joining many internationally diverse filmmakers for the journey through a popular city, but the buzz has diminished. The film is slowly making its way across screens in the U.S., and will break into Canada come November 27. But how could one of Hollywood's most beloved cities find its ode so woefully under the radar? It's not an easy question to answer because while
New York, I Love You might be flawed, it's also sweet, engaging, and nicely representative of that small island cluttered with millions of people.
Continue reading Review: New York, I Love You
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 1:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Disney, Shorts, Family Films, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips
In all of your viewings of
Up, did you ever wonder what happened to the Shady Oaks employees who helplessly watched as Carl floated up, up, and away? Well, wonder no more. Pixar wrote and animated a little short called
George and AJ that answers all your questions, and then some. Watch carefully when Carl's house soars over their heads -- you'll see an angle that reveals just where one particular character was hanging on for dear life.
What's really cute about this short is that it isn't just about George and AJ, but what the entire
city thought of Carl's flying house.
Up never stopped and went back to North America to see if anyone noticed his unusual method of flight (and very wisely, too), but this spin-off deals with some of the ramifications. It's funny and moving, and makes for a bittersweet commentary on just how we deal with the elderly members of our society.
Now, if we can just get a spin-off that tells what Russell's mother thought about her son's prolonged absence. Somehow, I don't think any cell phone he may have had on him could get good reception at Paradise Falls ....
The short is embedded below the jump, and it's just the thing to watch on a dreary Monday. Enjoy!
Continue reading What Happened Once Carl's House Took Off In 'Up'?
Posted Nov 9th 2009 5:15PM by Peter Hall
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Shorts, Trailers and Clips
It's always hard to believe it when filmmakers say they had never seen or heard of another, similar film when they made theirs. Such is the case with
Black Button, a 7-minute short from some aspiring Australians made for a mere $200 featuring a well dressed man who offers a person $10,000,000 if he'll simply press a button, killing someone else in the process.
Dark Heart Productions, the makers of
Black Button, claim to have no knowledge of Richard Matheson's
Button, Button, the Twilight Zone episode that inspired
The Box, and in this particular case I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Their short has a very different ending and moral core than either incarnation of Matheson's story; and unlike
The Box, at only a handful of minutes,
Black Button doesn't have nearly enough time to spread itself too thin.
Watch the short film over at SciFi Squad, then let us know which one you liked better:
Black Button or
The Box?
Posted Oct 26th 2009 8:10PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Documentary, Shorts, DIY/Filmmaking
Years ago, the Internet was an accessible haven for meeting people across the world -- for learning about new cultures and expanding horizons without leaving your desk. With the commercialization of this space over the years, however, that push has been forgotten. But the new project from David Lynch's son Austin and a friend named Jason S. is changing that, just a little.
If you've heard about the
Interview Project already but haven't gone, I implore you to head over right now and check it out. The pair traveled across the U.S. for 70 days, interviewing random people they came across, young and old, both men and women. The collection of footage was then edited, and gets released every few days over at
davidlynch.com. Lynch's vision definitely runs in the family. It doesn't hold the eeriness associated with much of the director's work, but it has the same eye for humanity (think mini bits of
The Straight Story).
What I love most about the collection is how cinematic each piece is, even when utterly simple or mundane. It goes to show how great any documentary can be with just a little more attention given to art and the subject. (Which, of course, also makes me demand more from homegrown projects.) It's like a little spotlight on the random people we pass on a daily basis without thinking about twice -- this swarm of stories and quirks we're close to but blind to -- that's captured and projected onto a canvas.
What do you think of
Interview Project?
Posted Oct 15th 2009 10:03AM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Independent, Shorts, Distribution, Exhibition, Newsstand, Other Festivals
When it comes to film festivals, cinephiles have a lot to choose from. But if you're in Los Angeles from October 30 – November 7, there's only one film festival that will have
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,
The Road,
The Fantastic Mr. Fox,
Werner Herzog's
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,
Youth in Revolt,
A Single Man, and tons more buzzed-about indie, foreign, and genre gems – ALL FOR FREE. That's right, folks:
AFI Fest is giving free admission for every single one of their films this year, so how can you possibly resist?
As Peter Martin
wrote back in May, AFI's groundbreaking move to free ticketing is a daring experiment. (Tickets can be reserved online and via phone starting October 16.) I suppose the rationale is that if the cost of a ticket precludes film goers from attending, why not make it even easier to participate? One look at AFI's line-up, released yesterday, pretty much makes the decision for you.
Get the full list of (FREE! ) AFI Fest screenings after the jump. Continue reading AFI Fest: See 'Dr. Parnassus,' 'Bad Lieutenant' and More - For Free!
Posted Oct 1st 2009 11:32AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Shorts, Trailers and Clips
I miss Jim Henson.
Yeah, I miss the world of puppetry he became famous for, how could I not? But there's something I am missing a whole lot more. I miss the man and creator I never knew, the one I wish could have balanced the
Muppets and
Sesame Street with his previous adult fare. See, back in 1965, he wrote, directed, and starred in a short film called
Time Piece. Let me rephrase that -- the
awesome short called
Time Piece that earned him an Oscar nomination.
A wild, surreal look at the philosophy of time, the film starts with Henson in a hospital as a doctor tries to listen to his irregularly beating heart. Henson taps his fingers, he coughs, and soon he's not an invalid. Visually and aurally set to the same beat, Henson's Man is briskly taken through a number of settings and scenarios. I'm talking everything from reenacting Tarzan's epic, vine-swinging cry to a lascivious dance scene that mixes dancing chickens, nipple tassels, and the champagne pop of sexual innuendo. And it's all from the mind of Jim Henson.
Time Piece has got a '60s groove, and while its absolutely puppet-free, some visuals definitely have that early '80s PBS feel. And like I haven't gushed enough, when all is said and done, Henson wraps it up with an ending credits sequence that's just plain excellent. I know he loved those puppets. But oh, how I wish he made more films like this. Watch it after the jump.
Continue reading Watch This: Jim Henson's 'Time Piece'
Posted Sep 27th 2009 5:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Shorts, Interviews, Toronto International Film Festival
Guy Maddin is not your everyday director. Over the last twenty years, he's made a name for himself with his beautifully hazy black and white shorts and features, from the docufantasia wonder of
My Winnipeg to the hops-filled thrills of Isabella Rossellini and
The Saddest Music in the World. These projects have inspired many to call him the Canadian David Lynch, but while the two create rich fantasies for their films to thrive in, Maddin's always have a clear-cut narrative. The path might be surreal, strange, and utterly fantastical, but it's also easily understandable. With his latest,
Night Mayor, Maddin turned an ode for the NFB's 70th anniversary into the tale of an immigrant who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to help teach Canadians their national identity.
During TIFF,
Cinematical had a chance to talk to the filmmaker about how
Night Mayor came to be, Maddin's cinematic process, the magic of collaboration, and his next project (a choose-your-own adventure!). On top of more timely chatter, Guy also took a moment to share the story behind
Sissy Boy Slap Party (my favorite guilty pleasure), and how a moment of spite turned into a memorable short.
Continue reading Guy Maddin Talks Night Mayors, Filmmaking, and Sissy Boys
Posted Sep 26th 2009 11:02AM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Action, Drama, Horror, Shorts, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking
Sometimes making your way through an
entire major motion picture can be so very trying. Or maybe all you really want is a refresher on how someone like Forrest Gump went from zero to hero over the course of a two hour-plus feature film. Enter the "One Minute" film, as perfected by a group of UK film students who've
amassed a growing fan following on YouTube. Their latest offering:
"28 Days Later in One Minute, in One Take." Watch it after the jump – it'll only take 60 seconds of your life!
It all started last spring, when a group of British film students at the University of York shot a condensed (and dare I say it? More watchable) version of
Forrest Gump for a one-minute film competition. When "
Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take" blew up on YouTube, the group – comprised of members of the campus film making society -- discovered there might be something to this 60-second movie business. A few months later "
Kill Bill Parts 1 & 2 in One Minute" followed, a virtuoso piece of carefully plotted choreography that manages to tell the entirety of Quentin Tarantino's two-flick vengeance tale in much, much less time.
After the jump, watch "28 Days Later in One Minute, in One Take." Continue reading Watch '28 Days Later' in One Minute, in One Take
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 6:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Festival Reports, Shorts, Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto might have its own short film extravaganza -- the
Worldwide Short Film Festival -- a week rife with pithy pieces of cinema. But every year, just a few months later, there's a second serving at TIFF with the collection Short Cuts Canada.
This year, the NFB (
National Film Board of Canada) had a bunch of shorts in the mix, and when I got a handful in the mail, it was like an Oscar-led explosion. Talent abounds in these films. That's not entirely surprising considering the fact that we've got the latest from Oscar-winner Chris Landreth and Oscar-nominee Cordell Barker, plus a slew of other notable talent. Talent, I must say, that's topped with
Night Mayor, the short the NFB commissioned Guy Maddin to do as part of the board's 70th anniversary.
Read on for the details of
Night Mayor, Vive the Rose, The Spine, and
Runaway.
Continue reading TIFF Shorts Roundup: From Night Mayors to Runaways
Posted Sep 10th 2009 10:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Cannes, Shorts, Trailers and Clips
In 2007, a film called
Chacun son cinema was created for the 60th anniversary of Cannes (briefly mentioned
here). Like a
Paris je t'aime for the cinematically minded, the film collected 33 shorts from directors across the world capturing their feelings about cinema. The collection was any movie-lovers dream -- David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, Jane Campion, Atom Egoyan, Elia Suleiman, Wong Kar Wai, Lars Von Trier, and even the Coen brothers.
After Cannes, it screened at TIFF and other film festivals across the world, and got two region 2 DVD releases. But not only has there been no Region 1 disc for the North Americans eager to see the film, the Coens'
World Cinema also got shafted --
not appearing on the StudioCanal DVD and not listed on the Pyramide DVD -- even though their short
was a part of screenings.
But now the short, in its entirety, has popped up online and it's awesome. The clip stars Josh Brolin (during the days of
No Country for Old Men), Grant Heslov (who just helmed
Men Who Stare at Goats), and Brooke Smith
(
Grey's Anatomy). A cowboy of sorts heads to a movie theater to catch a flick, confused about the two art films available to him. Heslov's ticket guy answers his questions, which includes the gem: "Is there livestock in any of 'em?"
Saying any more than that would ruin the magic, so check it out after the jump. And below that, you can check of Lynch's goosebump-inducing
Absurda.Continue reading Watch This: Joel & Ethan Coen's 'World Cinema'
Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:32PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Shorts, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie, Trailers and Clips
What do Transformers, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martha Stewart have in common? Push Button House! That's the name of an art installation / actual usable home by Adam Kalkin as well as a short film by Robert Profusek and Ryan Silbert; the latter is now available for free online streaming, courtesy of our friends at SnagFilms.
Both Coppola and Stewart were fascinated by the idea of a shipping container that transforms into a pre-fabricated home. As described by Luxist, the Push Button House "is a fully functional and sustainable home built inside a standard industrial shipping container. In just 90-seconds with the push of a button the shipping container turns into a five-room home with a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, living room and library." Kalkin created an earlier version in 2005; the updated illy's Push Button House debuted at the prestigious Venice Biennale in 2007 and was exhibited late in the year at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. That's where the doc catches Kalkin as he puts the finishing touches to the exhibition.
The doc is barely 12 minutes long; the directors stated: "Push Button House is a small window into Adam's amazing body of work; our hope was to be able to convey a snippet of the creative energy that he puts into every piece." And since this is a short work week for many of us, I thought the length would allow more people to give it a look. More information about the film is available at SnagFilms.
Watch Push Button House right here at Cinematical -- after the jump! Please note: NSFW due to profanity.
Continue reading Snag This: Push Button House
Posted Sep 5th 2009 11:02AM by Jenni Miller
Filed under: Independent, Shorts, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking
Neil Gaiman, the darling of comic book and fantasy fans everywhere, has been alluding to a short film project he's been working on on
Twitter. Apparently, his fans aren't the only ones who can't resist snapping up his every project, because
Variety is reporting the British TV channel has already picked up the short film as part of a "12 Days of Christmas" series.
Gaiman, who is very open to fan interaction and uses Twitter both effectively and charmingly,
Tweeted in August, "
Oh good. I have my star, who was my first (and only) choice. I have a costume designer. We agree about things. This is fun."The dapper Bill Nighy is the star of Gaiman's short silent film which is "a love story involving two statues and Christmas shoppers." We can, no doubt, expect music from Gaiman's muse and collaborator
Amanda Palmer for the soundtrack. it's so cool that he wrote a short silent movie screenplay, got it made, and sold it all in one summer. Such is the power of Neil.
The real question is, when does the rest of the world get to see it? Can we hope that Neil releases the film the same way he released videos of him reading
The Graveyard Book to adoring audiences around the world?
So, fan girls and boys, let's hope this holiday season will bring another treat under the tree or Hanukkah bush from the prolific author behind
Coraline (the book),
American Gods, Stardust (the book),
Anansi Boys, and of course, the graphic novel series
Sandman. Along with that lump of coal you no doubt deserve.
Posted Aug 29th 2009 9:02PM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Animation, Shorts, Lists
Among all the other inequalities in cinema, one of the oldest is the general preference for feature-length films over shorts. Very few short films are considered essential masterpieces, and even fewer animated short films have that title. It's even more difficult if you consider that a whole generation of us grew up watching hours upon hours of cartoons on television (with commercials), without the knowledge or experience to discern that some of them might have been actual works of genius or art. How many times, for example, did I watch Chuck Jones's
What's Opera Doc? (1957) without really contemplating or even noticing the detail and the imagination that went into it. I didn't know at the time that I would eventually go on to call it the
Citizen Kane of cartoons.
Now the blog
Shooting Down Pictures has compiled an essential list of
100 Important Directors of Animated Short Films, which -- at the very least -- gives us a starting point. The introduction specifies that the list is simply 100 important directors, and not THE 100 most important directors. The very first comment on the list was: where's Mike Judge? And the listmakers replied by saying that these filmmakers are primarily theatrical and not television-based. (That explains the lack of
Rocky & Bullwinkle, too.) The list of directors was originally created when the folks behind the great movie-list website
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? decided to make a list of the 250 greatest short films, which never materialized.
Continue reading 100 Great Animated Short Film Directors
Posted Aug 18th 2009 1:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Shorts, Trailers and Clips
Ah, the rub of Hollywood v. truly independent works. One can come together in what seems like a blink, and just moments after we learn the casting, we've got the trailer, and then the big-screen wide release. In the independent world, however, especially where shorts are concerned, time does not move that quickly. One day you might see something like
Al Purdy's recitation of "
At the Quinte Hotel" turned into a short film, but it'll be years before you can see it again.
Now (huzzah!) you can see this great short film online after the jump or over at director Bruce Alcock's website,
Global Mechanic. For most, Mr. Purdy's poem will bring to mind a certain Charles Bukowski. (The pair even kept up
a correspondence during their lives.) It's beauty juxtaposed with unpleasantness, "horse piss" and "yellow flowers" coming together in an "exquisite analogy" wrought with humor.
The short was in the works for years,
starting in 1992, back when Purdy was still alive. At first, the poet was apprehensive, but he later allowed Alcock to use a reading of the poem recorded by CBC Radio. After being shelved for years, it was completed in 2004 and made the festival circuit soon after. A mix of stop-motion photography and animation, it's a great visual embodiment of the poem, right down to the humor of Purdy's sensitive man juxtaposed with pictures of guns and hatchets.
And thanks to the beauty of the Internet that link above (
or right here) also allows you to download for your own enjoyment, and perhaps DIY filmmaking inspiration. Check it out after the jump.
Continue reading Watch This: At the Quinte Hotel
Posted Aug 10th 2009 2:45PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shorts, Trailers and Clips
Everything was in place last year. A
good trailer for
New York, I Love You hit the waves (which can still be seen
here), and the film was primed to take on TIFF before getting an early 2009 release. But it's been almost a year since that trailer appeared, and there's been no movie -- even though the film has an insanely great cast ranging from Julie Christie to Anton Yelchin, with directorial spins that range from Brett Ratner to Natalie Portman.
Finally the tide is a-turnin'. The film is now slated for an October 16 release, and
Apple scored the latest trailer -- one that makes the project even more interesting. Where the first peek may have been almost two minutes long, it took the teaser approach -- quick cuts, not a lot of details, and just quick, rolling glimpses with only a few longer peeks. This latest release, however, revels more with great moments rather than an inundation of scenes, flushing out just a little bit more of the story -- Ethan Hawke's dashed attempts to pick up, Cloris Leachman's stroll through the Big Apple, and James Caan wishing daughter Drea de Matteo would have a baby.
Here's the kicker. Know how Ratner is one of the directors? Well, ignore the bit
on IMDb about James Caan being in the director's blip (since de Matteo is credited to Allen Hughes). The piece Ratner worked on is the "new love" with Anton Yelchin
and Olivia Thirlby, where they go to the Prom. How's that for a twist?
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