“Frances Ha” is the utterly charming, often hilarious and surprisingly moving new film from writer-director Noah Baumbach. The effervescent Greta Gerwig, both as co-writer and performer, gives the film a buoyancy missing in Baumbach’s earlier films.
The glamour that is the Cannes International Film Festival kicked off at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, off the coast of the French Riviera, on Wednesday. The massive event, widely considered to be the granddaddy of film festivals, will showcase several of the works already thought to be in the running for various awards next winter. Here are a few of the best Cannes will offer.
From the moment “The Great Gatsby” starts, it is clear that this is Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby, not F. Scott Fitzgerald’s.
Renowned for movie darlings like “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” director Danny Boyle has been described as one of the finest directors of his generation. It’s not difficult to see why once you’ve seen his latest film, “Trance,” though it may disappoint some.
The 56th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), which runs from April 25 to May 9, mainly in Japantown at the Sundance Kabuki and New People Cinema, is already shaping up to be a very exciting couple of weeks. The festival plays host to 151 films from 51 countries and in 31 different languages. One of the great pleasures of attending SFIFF is getting to see these films the way they were meant to be seen–on a big screen, in digital projection–since many won’t get a wide release, and those that do may play only briefly at smaller cinemas like the Embarcadero Cinema or Opera Plaza Cinemas, as well as sample films from all over the world all in one day.
Netflix can be tough to sift through; although it is full of fantastic lesser-known films, there are many terrible films in the library to pad the numbers. Here is a list of five fantastic documentaries, available on Netflix now, that should not be missed.
It’s Oscar time. Time for the best- and worst-dressed lists, the endless media coverage, the analysis, the predictions and the recognition of great storytellers and their cohorts. And the vast majority of them are white and male.
“Stand Up Guys” is a story of revenge, loyalty and honor, but it’s far from your typical action/gangster flick. For one thing, “Stand Up Guys” is a snapshot of life at a much later stage than you’ll see in any given Wahlberg, Pitt, Cruise or even Clooney movie. The film stars seasoned Oscar winners Christopher Walken and Al Pacino, as well as fellow Academy Award winner Alan Arkin in a major supporting role. The result is an offbeat-yet-powerful depiction of friendship and aging.