Deadline reports that Scott Derrickson, enjoying the success of his new horror film Sinister (here’s my review), is moving to direct a film based on a Stephen King novella called Breathing Method. The adaptation was written by Scott Teems (That Evening Sun). What’s it about? The novella was part of the 1982 King collection Different Seasons and was the only story in the volume that hasn’t yet been adapted. If focuses on an elderly physician named Dr. Emlyn McCarron who recounts an... Read more
"Sinister" is not only director Scott Derrickson’s most fully realized vision but also his most personal film so far. And as haunted houses go, this one is beautifully noisy. Read more
Many are predicting an array of Oscars for "Argo." It's a more deserving film than a lot of recent Best-Picture winners. Count me among its admirers. But don't number among the enthusiasts. Read more
Early reviews suggest that Scott Derrickson’s new movie Sinister, starring Ethan Hawke, is going to ruin moviegoers’ peace of mind across the country over the next several weeks. Today, the director himself admitted as much, when he responded to me on Twitter like this… (more…) Read more
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Babette's Feast, my favorite movie about food... here's a tribute to the my favorite big-screen feasts. Read more
Five years ago today, No Country for Old Men played in the U.S. for the first time. The buzz had begun at the Cannes Film Festival a few months earlier, and anticipation was high. It went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, surprising some by winning over Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood and Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton; the Coens won the Best Directing award and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay; and Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor. ... What’s your favorite Coen Brothers film? Can you think of any other novels that seem like great material for the Coens to adapt? Read more
[UPDATE: I’ve just been informed that, due to a strange corruption of the file in which the submissions were compiled, some of the names and toasts were mixed up. Thus, the vote-tally turned up a bad result, with the wrong name attached to one of the winning toasts. My apologies to the person who was erroneously congratulated, and to the true winner – Adam Beckmeyer – whose toast is the Second Place Winner. Fortunately for Adam, prizes have not been... Read more
I want to read perspectives and interpretations... not assessments of "I liked it" or "It sucked." When I was a child watching Siskel and Ebert, the thumbs-up/thumbs-down was a suspenseful gimmick; I couldn't wait to see the sparks fly when the critics' thumb-ation of the film put them odds. But it was what they said beyond that, the thought process that inspired the thumb-arization, that affected me. They taught me that people could disagree on a film without one person being Right and the other person being Wrong. Read more
Thousands of dollars, countless hours in committee meetings, and all kinds of consumer testing later... we have a decision. This blog now has a convenient new address. Read more
Do you feel the tremors? Yeah, that's the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie in theaters. In-depth reviews are popping up everywhere. Here are links to some that I've found very helpful. Read more
Looking Closer
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