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The spirit of collaboration runs deep in Alison Maclean’s “The Rehearsal,” the filmmaker’s often ambitious and hearteningly daring big screen adaptation of Man Booker Prize-winning author Eleanor Catton’s first novel of the same name. Catton won the prestigious Booker for her latest novel — only her second! — “The Luminaries,” making her the youngest recipient of the storied book prize since its inception in 1969.

That Catton is so accomplished at such a young age speaks to the themes of “The Rehearsal,” which she wrote when she was just 21 as her Master’s thesis, which follows a teen girl dealing with the fallout from her older sister’s affair with a teacher at their high school, juxtaposed alongside the story of a group of drama students who later attempt to use the ensuing scandal as fodder for an important performance. The two stories and their respective characters mix and mingle in unexpected ways,...

“Based on the novel by Eleanor Catton” has become a much more marketable phrase in the three years since the New Zealand author won the Man Booker prize for “The Luminaries,” a marvel of an 848-page tome currently being adapted as a miniseries for BBC. Her first novel, “The Rehearsal,” has beaten her second to the screen courtesy of filmmaker Alison Maclean. Set at a prestigious drama school and frequently engrossing, the film unfolds like an experimental acting workshop that occasionally falters when the plot intrudes on the performances.

Both Catton and a hardcover copy of “The Luminaries” make brief cameos here, but the real star is James Rolleston. Familiar to anyone who’s seen “Boy” or “The Dark Horse,” he plays Stanley, a shy but talented thespian in the process of finding himself as both a person and a performer — making him the perfect candidate for the baptism-by-fire approach...

The Nyff main slate largely consists of well-established and years-in-the-making auteurs, which inevitably means that the — note: I rather dislike this term, and especially when discussing a festival that does much to provide audiences with world cinema, so forgive me — “smaller” selections get a bit overshadowed, even if only on first glance. One such item that’s caught my eye is U.S. premiere The Rehearsal, the new film from Alison Maclean (Jesus’ Son) that adapts the debut novel by Eleanor Catton, a New Zealand author who’d go on to bigger things with her Man Booker-winning follow-up, The Luminaries.

But enough about “bigger” and “smaller.” The Rehearsal is a finely drawn, conceptually adventurous novel (in its theatrical focus, often reminiscent of Rivette) attuned to the many particulars feelings that come with entering a new school and trying to make something of yourself in light of others’ expectations — easy-to-connect-with, hard-to-translate...

Rick Grimes and and the living dead of Robert Kirkman's comic book world get a new look from artist Gilbert Hernandez in the Wizard World Las Vegas variant cover art for The Walking Dead #1. Also featured in our latest round-up are release details for The Lazarus Effect Blu-ray, as well as the trailer for The Dead Lands.

Variant Cover for The Walking Dead #1: Press Release - "Las Vegas, April 13, 2015 -- Wizard World, Inc. (Otcbb: Wizd) and Skybound, Robert Kirkman’s imprint at Image Comics, today announced that Love & Rockets creator Gilbert Hernandez has drawn the seventh in a yearlong series of Limited Edition Exclusive Variant Covers of The Walking Dead #1 comic, to be provided free to all full-price attendees at the inaugural Wizard World Comic Con Las Vegas, April 24-26. Skybound’s The Walking Dead created by Kirkman, the groundbreaking, Eisner Award winning comic book series, continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

Why Watch? This short film from Richard Hughes is sweat and gristle. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a fist. Yet like most outstanding explorations of manhood, Man proves the power and pure muscle are not enough to make you whole. It focuses on a middle-aged sheep shearer who’s one bad afternoon away from being sent to pasture. He takes a young kid under his wing, trying to teach him to stay on the right path, but the young troublemaker has the unfortunate solution to the old man’s problem in a tiny plastic bag. Man is aggressive and unrelenting — with evocative shots that place us firmly in the dirt and heat of the barn to a storming performance from a feral Shane Connor as the old man. He growls his way through a forced paternal role, anchored by strident frustration and a too big piece of himself that wants to do the right thing. There...