Brave “New World”
Do you love movies? More specifically, do you love deeply felt, authentically authored, micro-budgeted, lived-in, sweated-over, passion project movies? But have you grown somewhat weary of Kickstarter with its Zach Braffs and Veronica Marses and creeping corporate influence? Would you rather support the first breath of a new voice than fatten the coffers of Viacom [...]
'Monsoon Wedding': The Secret Love Child of Satyajit Ray and Danny Boyle
Just a brief recommendation to start the day – Jett and I have talked about two extremes of Indian cinema lately – Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ on the one hand, and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ on the other. It’s fashionable to criticise ‘Slumdog’ in much the way that most sleeper hits eventually attract – and so the [...]
'Streak' – Demi Moore's Short Film at the Nashville Film Fest
(Jett is a Juror at this year’s Nashville Film Festival, (April 16th-23rd); he’ll be updating ‘The Film Talk’ throughout the Fest with thoughts on films seen both in and out of competition – as always Spoilers Ahoy) Streak / Featuring Brittany Snow – Rumer Willis / Written by Kelly Fremon – Allan Loeb / Directed [...]
Penelope Cruz was Robbed. By Penelope Cruz.
Through the magic of Netflix Watch Instantly – which seems to be delivering much better quality image than it used to – tonight I saw one of the films I had been eager to catch last year but missed due to unhelpful film distribution patterns/other commitments/laziness. ‘Elegy’, a film based on a Philip Roth story, [...]
Hollywood Meets Tehran
When there’s an international crisis, I know I’d prefer to have Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard on my side – strong women with a reflective presence. I’m not kidding. So it’s good to see that they’ve gone one step further than just talking about peace or acting in movies that make people feel good about [...]
If Danny Boyle Wins for Slumdog Millionaire, Should Loveleen Tandan Get an Oscar as Well?
So I get up this morning, shuffle around in my robe, take the dog out, pour myself a cup of coffee, fire up the laptop to finish the Oscar Benefit script and peruse the Tubes for film news. And what do I find? That ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is actually co-directed by a woman named Loveleen Tandan: [...]
