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Telluride Review: Ben Affleck's '70s-Flavored 'Argo' Is A Terrifically Suspenseful & Entertaining Thriller

  • By Rodrigo Perez
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  • August 31, 2012 8:16 PM
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  • 20 Comments
Reviews
Ben Affleck's third feature-length film, the terrifically suspenseful dramatic thriller "Argo," is the second picture to use Warner Bros.' 1970s logo in 2012. And like "Magic Mike," the Soderbergh film that employed the same logo earlier this year, it's an augur of what's to come, announcing a tone, mood and millieu that is imported straight from that era. Sporting a love for movies on his sleeve, Affleck's film gives nods to the smart, entertaining and engaging thrillers from the '70s -- "All The President's Men," "Three Days of the Condor," et al. -- and playfully with B-movie science-fiction pictures of the era without ever trying to lean too hard into any specific homage.
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More: Argo, Review, Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Telluride Film Festival

In Theaters: 'Little Birds' Are Saying 'For A Good Time, Call' 'Lawless' And 'The Ambassador'

  • By Emma Bernstein
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  • August 31, 2012 6:24 PM
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  • 3 Comments
News
Labor Day Weekend: the last hurrah of summer and white clothing. As you bask in the relief of the mini vacation it offers, sipping your final mint julep of the season, look back on a time when that cold cocktail would have been spiked with moonshine or, worse, virgin. While you lie out in the fading sunshine, appreciate the fact that you don’t live in a post-apocalyptic desert where genocidal maniacs reign supreme. Or you could just face the cold harshness of the approaching winter head on with the spate of child-victim horror flicks. Yikes. And now, the weekend showings, for all you working stiffs out there.
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More: Lawless, For A Good Time, Call..., Little Birds

New Images From 'Les Misérables,' 'The Impossible,' 'Paranormal Activity 4' & More

  • By Benjamin Wright
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  • August 31, 2012 6:13 PM
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  • 7 Comments
News
In case you’re anxiously awaiting the Tom Hooper-helmed feature adaptation of “Les Misérables,” a new photo has dropped showing a rather angry looking Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) getting a little rough with Fantine (Anne Hathaway) – who looks eerily reminicient of a similarly balding Natalie Portman in “V For Vendetta.” Anyways, “Les Miserables” follows ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, who is ruthlessly hunted by policeman Javert (Russell Crowe) after he breaks parole. Valjean agrees to care for the factory worker Fantine’s young daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) – and oh, did we mention there is a TON of singing? The film drops just in time for the holidays on December 14th, and we’re interested to see if Hooper can bring this sweeping musical to the cinematic landscape successfully.
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More: Libertador, Les Miserables, Paranormal Activity 4, The Impossible

New Photos Thaw From DreamWorks Animation's Caveman Comedy 'The Croods'

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • August 31, 2012 5:53 PM
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  • 1 Comment
News
Of the tidal wave of animated films that are on the horizon (and trust us, there are a bunch), DreamWorks Animation's "The Croods" is one that is worth getting very excited about. Originally a stop-motion movie from "Wallace and Gromit" creators Aardman (when the studio still had a deal with DreamWorks), the movie (about a family of Neanderthals) is now in the capable hands of director Chris Sanders, who directed "Lilo & Stitch" for Disney Feature Animation before being kicked out of the Magic Kingdom when John Lasseter took over control of Disney's animated slate after Pixar was absorbed by the studio. The first photos from the spring release have emerged courtesy of Entertainment Weekly and, honestly, it looks like this stone age family is going to totally rock (sorry).
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More: The Croods, Nicolas Cage, Chris Sanders, Emma Stone

Full Official Synopsis For 'To The Wonder' Revealed, Plus Soundtrack Details Including Songs By St. Vincent, Olga Kurylenko & More

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 31, 2012 5:09 PM
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  • 14 Comments
News
We guess the mystery is over to a certain degree. With its Venice Film Festival premiere looming this weekend, details about Terrence Malick's "To The Wonder" have been coming in fits and starts, with many wondering about the course the story will take after the director has seemingly axed everyone from the movie. And while words on the page hardly convey what the helmer will conjure on screen, this latest batch of info is the best intel yet about the narrative path (such as it is) and surprisingly reveals that Malick must read Pitchfork or something.
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More: To the Wonder, Terrence Malick, Olga Kurylenko

Watch: Jazzy New Trailer For 'On The Road'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 31, 2012 4:35 PM
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  • 3 Comments
News
After premiring at the Cannes Film Festival in May, next month, Walter Salles' "On the Road" will go for round two on the festival circuit as it will arrive at TIFF in a new recut and shorter version of the film. Whether this will solve any of the problems of the film, which according to this writer, was a rather listless pace and inability to capture the adventurer's spirit, the new trailer for the movie is certainly much more upbeat.
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More: Film Trailers, On The Road

Watch: Hugh Jackman Confesses In New Clip From 'Butter'

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • August 31, 2012 4:14 PM
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  • 0 Comments
News
Around this time last year, "Butter," directed by Jim Field Smith from a Black List-approved screenplay by Jason Micallef, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival to generally warm reviews. The film, which takes place in the highly specific world of professional butter carving (not that cliché again) and stars Jennifer Garner and Hugh Jackman, is finally slated to begin its theatrical rollout very soon. In anticipation of said release, a brand new clip has hit the Internet, courtesy of the exclamation-point-heavy Entertainment Tonight site. And it features Hugh Jackman being goofy and Southern. So, of course, we love it.
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More: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner, Butter

Venice Review: Ulrich Seidl's 'Paradise: Faith' Is A Disarmingly Funny & Tender Examination Of Sex & Religion

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • August 31, 2012 3:33 PM
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  • 3 Comments
Reviews
Trilogies can come in different forms. There’s Hollywood’s favourite variety – two sequels to a hit, that organically (“The Godfather”) or inorganically (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) expand on the original film’s success. There’s the single story that’s too big to fit into a single film, like “The Apu Trilogy” or Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings.” There’s the loosely thematically linked kind, like Park Chan-wook’s "vengeance trilogy," which share nothing but a central concern. And then there’s a trilogy like Krzysztof Kieślowski’s "Three Colors," which not only share a grand thematic tapestry, but also have crossovers between their characters.
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More: Review, Venice Film Festival, Ulrich Seidl, Paradise: Faith

You're On Your Own In New 'Killing Them Softly' One Sheet Plus Character Posters For 'Anna Karenina'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 31, 2012 3:23 PM
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  • 7 Comments
News
As you might've gleaned by now, Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" is not your average movie about low lifes and gangsters. When we caught the film at Cannes, we called it "breathtakingly brilliant and admirably ambitious" as as well as "angry" with the filmmaker painting not just a story about about the fate of some hoods who knock off a mob-protected poker game, but a portrait of America itself as it rots from the inside.
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More: Killing Them Softly, Anna Karenina

Joss Whedon Talks ‘The Avengers’ Deleted Scenes, Says He Was Trying To Make A War Movie

  • By Benjamin Wright
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  • August 31, 2012 2:49 PM
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  • 0 Comments
News
Anyone with even a modicum of interest in putting comic books to film in a true and worthwhile way probably has breathed a few sighs of relief over the past few weeks. First, when “The Avengers” mastermind Joss Whedon was announced as taking the director’s seat on that film’s sequel, then when he was pretty much anointed the king of Marveland as they put the post-“The Avengers” film and television landscape in his hands, and then finally just this past week it was announced Whedon would be heading up a series for ABC based on the high-flying “S.H.I.E.L.D.” organization. So yeah, it’s a pretty good time to see the panels of your favorite comic come to life.
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More: The Avengers, Joss Whedon, Marvel

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