The Playlist

Tony Kaye Says Unreleased 'Black Water Transit' Is "Not Finished Yet"

By Gabe Toro
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April 28, 2011 6:20 AM
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Monday night was the world premiere of Tony Kaye’s “Detachment” at the Tribeca Film Festival. Our heads are still buzzing from the strange and experimental film -- you can check out our review here (but this writer strong disagrees with the take). But, lost in the shuffle of “Detachment” finally reaching audiences is the fact that Kaye has another completed film on the shelf, the 2008-shot thriller, “Black Water Transit” starring Karl Urban, Laurence Fishburne, Brittany Snow, Stephen Dorff and more. The crime drama follows the divergent agendas of criminals, cops and lawyers as they collide over a shipment of illegal firearms and a double homicide. Earl Pike (Urban), a criminal, tries to get his family's illegal gun collection to a safe haven, while attempting to get his junkie son freed from prison. While 'Transit' is involved in a similar situation as David O. Russell’s “Nailed,” being from the same financiers, Kaye seems optimistic about the film seeing a release soon.

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Christophe Honoré's 'Les Bien-aimés' The Official Closing Film Of The Cannes Film Festival

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 28, 2011 6:13 AM
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1 Comment

If last year had a dearth of big name celebs, attendees at the Cannes Film Festival this year will be beating them off with a stick. Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Tilda Swinton, Ryan Gosling, John C. Reilly, Antonio Banderas, Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mia Wasikowska...the list goes on, and one more addition to the festival promises more paparazzi guests.

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Tribeca Review: Tony Kaye's 'Detachment' Is A Fascinating Mess You Can't Look Away From

By Cory Everett
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April 28, 2011 5:33 AM
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8 Comments

Though it had flown mostly under the radar, cinephiles were pretty thrilled a few weeks ago when the Tribeca Film Festival announced the addition of “Detachment” to its lineup. Not only was the cast top notch but behind the director's chair was British provocateur Tony Kaye, the filmmaker behind the controversial “American History X,” a picture made over 12 years ago. In the interim, things have been tough for the notoriously difficult director and "Detachment" is only his third feature and first narrative film since 1998. "American History X" had its own infamously troubled history when star Edward Norton essentially took over the film, edited it on his own without the director, and Kaye subsequently made a gigantic stink in Hollywood, putting ridiculous ads in Variety and eventually tried to take his name off the film and replace it with the pseudonym Humpty Dumpty. Norton would go on to receive an Oscar nomination for his performance but Kaye (following an unsuccessful attempt to sue New Line Cinema) ended up in director jail for nearly a decade.

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Tribeca Review: 'Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest' Is Engrossing & Real

By The Playlist
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April 28, 2011 5:23 AM
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1 Comment

Captivating, well-balanced and at times, painfully honest, actor Michael Rapaport's directorial debut, the documentary, "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" is much more than a music doc about the seminal '90s hip-hop group; it's an engrossing and moving portrait of brotherhood, unity and how the strongest of friendships can be susceptible to breakdown if unacceptable levels of rising toxicity run unchecked.

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Watch: Clever, Backwards Trailer For Hong Sang-soo's Cannes Bound 'The Day He Arrives'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 28, 2011 5:16 AM
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1 Comment

Walking home with the Un Certain Regard prize for "Hahaha" at Cannes last year (and you can check out our review of the film, which we caught up with at SFIFF right here) director Hong Sang-soo returns to the south of France this year hoping for a repeat.

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Tribeca Review: 'The Guard' Is Ireland's Acidic Answer To The Buddy Cop Formula

By Gabe Toro
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April 28, 2011 4:15 AM
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1 Comment

Sgt. Gerry Boyle is a man of simple pleasures. The unassuming, burly inspector works the unspectacular beat in his quiet, rainy hamlet of Galway, Ireland, wasting the days away alone with his Chet Baker record collection and his afternoons of illicit sex with the prostitutes of Dublin. His identification with police television shows is one of the very few ways he connects with the outside world of what he does, as his menial tasks seem far away from the pavement-slapping action of his colleagues. He's the rarest of movie cops: the one who seems almost offended at the possibility of interrupting his lifestyle for high speed chases or sexy gunfights.

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Lars Von Trier Invites You To The Most Depressing Wedding Ever In New Poster For 'Melancholia'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 28, 2011 3:54 AM
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2 Comments

The Cannes Film Festival is so close you practically smell it and with less than two weeks to go, we'll be getting more and more glimpses and previews of the films that will be walking the red carpet.

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Lizzy Caplan Talks The Curious Link Between The Upcoming 'Frankie Go Boom' & 'Queens Of Country'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 28, 2011 3:32 AM
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2 Comments

It's only a matter of time before the talented and funny Lizzy Caplan finds the role that will finally break her out in a big way. We recently placed her on our 15 Actresses On The Rise list, saying that she's "a new spin on the Diane Keaton type." But for those who have been paying attention, they've already noticed her talents in "Cloverfield," "Mean Girls" and more recently on the two season run of "Party Down." Not content to sit and wait for Hollywood to come calling, Caplan has three low-budget, but high concepts flicks on her slate: the improv comedy "High Road" directed by Matt Walsh; the wacky music comedy "Queens Of Country" and the equally ambitious "Frankie Goes Boom."

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Gangster Flicks Are The New Fairy Tale Movies, Apparently: Duelling Capone Films In Development

By Oliver Lyttelton
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April 28, 2011 3:18 AM
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1 Comment

Once every six months or so, the Hollywood Elders, the shadowy collection of media moguls, Freemasons, Jewish lizardmen and Warren Beatty that control the film industry, don their robes, gather in their secret chamber under the Hollywood sign and plot out their agenda. Sometimes, it's elevating a particular actor or actress for no apparent reason -- Alex Pettyfer was a homeless 37-year-old drifter until they surgically re-sculpted him into the hottest young actor in Hollywood (though he's on his way to torpedoing that all by himself). Sometimes it's pushing technological breakthroughs -- 48 FPS cameras? Developed in their lair. And sometimes it's just deciding what sub-genre of films will suddenly be everywhere.

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SFIFF Review: Hong Sang-soo's 'Hahaha' Has Some Pleasant Memories, But Not Much More

By Sean Gillane
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April 28, 2011 2:56 AM
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0 Comments

The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival is currently in full swing with 190 films from around the world. Featured amongst the international films at SFIFF is last year’s Un Certain Regard winner “Hahaha,” writer/director Hong Sang-soo’s (“Like You Know It All,” “Night and Day”) 10th feature film starring Kim Sangkyung (“A Tale of Cinema”) and Yu Junsang (“Wide Awake”), both alums of the director’s previous work.

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