AltWeeklies Wire
The 2008 Alternative Fall Film Preview
There's no question that autumn is the best season for movies. While most audiences will only see a few titles from the list of 120 movies distributed between Labor Day and Christmas, alt weekly readers tend to be a more ravenous bunch of filmgoers, cramming in excess of twenty movies in the last four months of the year.
New Values: Corruption and Death in Cannes
The big movies at Cannes this year treated the subject of corruption, from betrayal of personal ethics for cash to systematic governmental abuse, with cinematic inoculations of hope for an equalizing justice for humanity.
The 61st Cannes Film Festival Awards its Favorites
CANNES, France May 25. At this year's Cannes Film Festival, the jury, presided over by Sean Penn, awarded the Palme d'Or to Laurent Cantet for his heavily work-shopped film about a French junior high school teacher in a tough neighborhood, whose teaching style is challenged by his difficult students.
Cannes So Far: Sean Penn's Festival of Response
Cannes is much more than an all-you-can-watch buffet of world cinema (more than 2,300 films are shown during its 10 days), it's a bellwether of cinematic, economic, and global social values. But to weigh these new values, we have to wait until the climactic awards ceremony on May 25th.
How to Avoid Bad Movies
There are some clues you can look for to help limit your exposure to crappy films. While this condensed list won't insure that you never spend another two hours in a darkened cinema bored to tears, it does represent some shortcuts that I use as a critic in deciding which movies to avoid.
The Best Films of 2007
Every year film critics love to bemoan what a lousy lot of movies the previous twelve months have wrought as if the art of filmmaking were hitting an all time low. However 2007 was a tremendous year for high quality movies that elevated the craft.
Accidentially Camp Thriller Begs for Audience Participation
This sublimely awful suspense thriller is especially enjoyable for the wildly varied collection of talent taking one for the team.
Tags: Awake, Joby Harold
Cannes 2007: From the Wrong Side Up
Coming on the heels of the French elections that voted in conservative nominee Nicolas Sarkosy, the Cannes Film Festival kicked off with a whimper rather than the expected bang of its 60th anniversary.
A Very Long Engagement: The Cannes Film Festival Turns 60
Round-the-clock screenings, celebrity interviews, crowded press conferences, elite parties, luxurious lunches, word-of-mouth buzz and chance encounters with icons of cinema fly by in a dizzying blur.
Clubfooted Indoctrination
"Stepping” gets trotted out as one more dance craze.
Tags: Stomp The Yard, Sylvain White
