Is this the end of the Indie Eye blog?
By Alison Willmore on 07/20/2010
Well, sort of. The Indie Eye is being combined into the main IFC News blog. So head to IFC.com/news/movies for continuing film coverage. MORE »
Bill Murray teaches us how to leave the room.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/19/2010
Filed under: In quotes
We're living through a golden age of Bill Murray interview -- which is to say he's actually doing them. On TV, Letterman's the only host sharp and pissy enough to keep up with a guy whose public appearances almost always involve some kind of performance art element. Many comedians have a reputation for being self-loathing and/or hard to deal with; Murray, though, is almost scary, as in the much-bandied-about story where Murray comes up to someone in a park, puts his hands over their eyes, then says "no one will ever believe you" and walks away. Even when he's inexplicably... MORE »
Fitting into a box, lessons to be learned from faith-based films.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/19/2010
Filed under: Watchy
In an interview with genre cult figure Philip Ridley at Twitch comes the following disclosure: "The kind of films I've been interested in making are not very easy to get off the ground. They don't fit into a neat box or category." It's a variation of a common lament of filmmakers who have trouble working as fast as they'd like is, to filmmaking as "I'm not here to make friends" is to reality TV. What, then, can we make of Sherwood Baptist Church, the highly successful organization whose ministry is responsible for the Kirk Cameron-starring Christian redemption tale "Fireproof" (technically... MORE »
Albert Brooks' secret epic aspirations.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/19/2010
Filed under: Odds
Despite his status as one of the more cerebral comics to emerge from the '70s, Albert Brooks -- unlike rough stand-up contemporaries Woody Allen and Steve Martin -- has never been much of an essayist, and certainly not a book-writer. Until now: next May will see the publication of his first novel, "2030: The Real Story of What Happens in America," which more or less makes it sound like Brooks -- who hasn't made a movie in five years -- is entering his Al Franken period. The plotline sounds awfully didactic: A population that has finally been freed from the... MORE »
Clooney going to court vs. the Mel Gibson tapes.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/16/2010
Filed under: Odds
There was something refreshingly old-fashioned, in this week of Mel Gibson, in the sight of George Clooney arriving at a Milanese courtroom to a press corps cluster so big the judge had to get a bigger space to accommodate all the journalists and paparazzi. Clooney showed up in his usual natty style, offering 90 minutes of testimony about the three men who'd allegedly forged Clooney's signature to fraudulently promote a clothing line in his name. He gave a few good lines -- "Nice to meet you," he said to the only defendant in court, "it's the first time" -- and... MORE »
The box office futures market has no future.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/16/2010
Filed under: Memoriam
Tucked inside the controversial but long overdue financial reform bill that passed yesterday was a clause that will mean a lot to the movie industry. The hot disputed box-office futures market that had been set to launch this summer -- in which investors could buy and trade shares in upcoming movies based on their predicted performance -- was unambiguously killed dead. It made pretty much everyone besides the companies who'd spent time developing and promoting it happy. Worries about insider trading or attempts to sabotage a movie's values through manufactured negative word-of-mouth had become prevalent. (One thing you can say... MORE »
The unexpected cult status of Peyton Reed's "Bring It On."
By Vadim Rizov on 07/15/2010
Filed under: Watchy
The New Beverly in Los Angeles is hosting a tenth anniversary midnight screening of "Bring It On," this weekend. By virtue of being better than it needs to be, "Bring It On" is one of the few studio teen films of the last decade to earned non-studio-manufactured goodwill, a small cult of genuine affection. Part of that has to do with its relatively sharp craft, and part has to do with director Peyton Reed, who was, for a while, a rising young auteur and whose career might, at any moment, resurge unexpectedly. Reed's directed music videos (he did three for... MORE »
Los Angeles is getting to play itself again.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/15/2010
Filed under: Watchy
There's been an increase in movies, shows and commercials are being shot in LA -- 16% more this quarter, according to the Los Angeles Times. It's part of an ongoing recovery after Hollywood staged a retreat from itself, in search of bigger and better tax incentives elsewhere. For most moviegoers, there's not going to be a noticeable difference. Up through the '80s, a lot of movies that didn't require elaborate locations were shot in California. Movies shot in New York seem to automatically celebrate that. Movies shot in LA (not on a sound stage, but just around the city) tend... MORE »
When anticipation becomes everything.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/14/2010
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Slate cartoonist James Sturm has been conducting an experiment in seeing what his life would be like if he quit the internet entirely for four months. It's a fascinating series -- not least because he's already had a lapse -- that reminds us that even those who work at home are no less plugged-in to the online world than those with office jobs (maybe more so, if you ever have to consult anyone who's not there). And that's, of course, the prime readership for many blogs. Moviegoers haven't gotten more voracious -- after all, by the 1910s, Photoplay magazine was... MORE »
Jack Ryan, the character who can't seem to hold down a franchise.
By Vadim Rizov on 07/14/2010
Filed under: Coming attractions
In an interview with the AV Club that ran through his past roles, Ciarán Hinds made a revealing statement about his participation on the last installment in the Jack Ryan movie, "The Sum of All Fears." He recalled coming up to director Phil Alden Robinson on the second day of the shoot and saying "It's lovely to meet you and thank you. I don't know how I got this job." Robinson's all-too-believable response: "I don't know why they asked me to direct this film, either." That desultoriness perfectly characterizes the Jack Ryan movies, a series based on the Tom Clancy... MORE »
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