समाचार

It’s shaping up as an award-winning summer for actress-producer Lucy Liu.

On Saturday night Liu received the Rising to the Challenge Award at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, an honor that “recognizes artists who champion storytelling that breaks barriers and broadens representation.”

It wasn’t her only award of the night. Her new drama Rosemead, directed by Eric Lin, won Best Narrative at the 11th edition of the festival chaired by Geena Davis. Liu produced the film and stars as “Irene,” a Chinese immigrant who simultaneously faces a personal health crisis and the alarming descent of her son into schizophrenia.

“Rosemead captures the terrifying realities of motherhood in our contemporary era,” wrote the jury, comprised of filmmaker Marie Jamora (guest artistic director of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women) and filmmaker Bomani J. Story (The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster). “When culture, society, and healthcare break down,...

Rosemead, starring Lucy Liu as a terminally ill woman desperate to protect her son, took home the Best Narrative Award at the 11th annual Bentonville Film Festival.

Also a producer on the film, Liu was additionally honored with the Rising to the Challenge Award, a prize "given to a select few artists in the history of Bentonville Film Festival and honoring those who represent the true impact of supporting independent film both in front of and behind the camera."

Cofounded by Academy Award winner Geena Davis, the Arkansas-based fest also handed out Best Documentary, which went to The Librarians, Kim A. Snyder's examination of library workers facing censorship in Texas.

Best Homegrown, an award reserved for filmmakers hailing from Arkansas, was won by Sovereign. Directed by Christian Swegal, the film — inspired by true events — tells the story of a father and son with anti-governmental leanings and stars Nick Offerman,...

The Bentonville Film Foundation, in collaboration with founding partner, Walmart, and presenting sponsor, Coca-Cola, announced the winners of its 11th Annual Bentonville Film Festival on Saturday.

“Rosemead,” starring Lucy Liu, took the top prize, winning the best narrative award for a feature film. In addition, Liu was presented with the Rising to the Challenge Award, given to artists who support independent film and “put their talent, passion and experience on the line in the service of empowering stories that are otherwise underrepresented.” Directed by Eric Lin, “Rosemead” premiered earlier this month at the Tribeca Film Festival and centers on a mother faced with an impossible choice. The film has received excellent reviews, particularly for Liu’s transformative performance. In a statement, the jury that voted on the prize noted: “Director Eric Lin sparks real-world conversations about the society we’re living in through an intimate, unflinching film based on true...

The film Rosemead opens with a memory that feels like a ghost. In the soft glow of a motel room, a family dances, full of life. It’s a fleeting image of a past that no longer exists for Irene and her son, Joe. Back in the present-day San Gabriel Valley, the joy has been replaced by a quiet, suffocating tension.

Irene, played by Lucy Liu, is a widowed immigrant mother who channels her strength into the neat, orderly world of her print shop. Her son Joe, once a bright student, now moves through life like a phantom, his mind clouded by a severe mental illness that took root after his father’s death. The air between them is thick with unspoken fears.

Rosemead is not a story with easy answers. It is a slow, methodical study of a family being crushed by two separate, inescapable crises. Irene is not...

The sunny strip-mall mundanity of Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley is the fascinating setting for Eric Lin’s dark directorial debut, the unsettling and not entirely successful story of a widow struggling with her son’s mental illness. Based, very closely, on a series of real-life events that occurred in 2015 and were documented two years later by journalist Frank Shyong in the L.A. Times (be warned: the headline alone is one massive spoiler), Rosemead works better as a character study than it does as an issue movie about mental health. Though it takes a little while to get used to seeing Lucy Liu as a meek and humble mother, the film builds to a most unexpected crescendo, giving the actress her best role in years, one that could even get traction in awards season.

There is an obvious, instant comparison with Michelle Yeoh’s character in Everything Everywhere All at Once,...

Lucy Liu will be honored with a career achievement award at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival where the U.S. multi-hyphenate known for iconic roles in “Kill Bill” and “Charlie’ s Angels” will present the international premiere of Eric Lin’s “Rosemead.”

In “Rosemead,” which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, Liu reinvents herself as an immigrant widow in private turmoil over how best to deal with her son’s mental health issues, as Variety Chief Film Critic Peter Debruge puts it in his review. Debruge praised the film for Liu’s “career-redefining performance” that “explodes the slinky action-figure box that “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kill Bill” built around her.”

Liu’s career began with her breakout role in “Ally McBeal” that earned her both Emmy and SAG nominations. Her subsequent credits include standout TV series like “Why Women Kill,” “Elementary,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Star Wars: Visions,” and “A Man in Full.

Lucy Liu will attend the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland this summer to receive a career achievement award and present the international premiere of her film Rosemead, organizers unveiled on Tuesday, highlighting that she is “widely celebrated for her iconic performances across film, television, and stage.”

The festival will bestow the honor upon Liu on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 14, with the star afterwards set to present her film Rosemead about the Asian American mental health crisis, alongside the film’s cast and crew. The actress plays a Chinese immigrant battling a terminal illness while navigating her son’s worsening schizophrenia in Eric Lin’s directorial debut that premiered at Tribeca.

The festival audience will also have an opportunity to see and hear Liu the following day during a public conversation event.

“With a career spanning over three decades, critically acclaimed actress and filmmaker Lucy Liu...

Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu will be honored with a Career Achievement Award at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in August.

The lakeside festival will also host the international premiere of Eric Lin’s Rosemead, featuring a critically acclaimed performance by Liu.

The award ceremony and screening will take place on Locarno’s Piazza Grande on August 14. The following day, Liu will participate in an on stage conversation about her career.

With a career spanning over three decades, actress and filmmaker has starred in films that have collectively grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide, with credits including Kill Bill, Charlie’ s Angels, Chicago, Set It Up, Presence, and Red One.

Rosemead stars Liu as an ailing woman racing against time to protect her son from his violent obsessions in a drama inspired by true events. Liu also serves as a producer.

Liu first broke out with her performance as ambitious Chinese-American lawyer Ling Woo in Ally McBeal,...

In Rosemead, Eric Lin crafts a modest and heartbreaking story of domestic isolation and mental health in the Asian American community. The film, which premieres at Tribeca, stars Lucy Liu as Irene, an intrepid Chinese mother battling a terminal illness while navigating the painful realities of her son’s worsening schizophrenia. Joe (a fine Lawrence Shou) was once a star student and celebrated swimmer at Rosemead High School, but his father’s death triggered the young man’s latent psychological problems and he’s been struggling ever since.

Many immigrant communities either ignore mental health challenges or see symptoms as evidence of spiritual deviance. It can be difficult for those in need to get the help required. Based on a true story, Rosemead compassionately captures the various layers — from community rejection to inadequate state responses — that come with trying to find support. The film’s intimate scope — it takes place...

In a historic legal decision last year, a Michigan jury found the parents of a 15-year-old school shooter responsible for the deaths their son had caused. Could they have prevented it? Based on an upsetting true story, director Eric Lin’s “Rosemead” focuses on a Chinese single mother who takes drastic measures to deal with her son’s dark impulses, substituting one tragedy for something equally unthinkable. Even more shocking than the film’s outcome is the career-redefining performance given by lead actor Lucy Liu, who explodes the slinky action-figure box that “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kill Bill” built around her, revealing the erstwhile “Ally McBeal” star in a completely different light.

As recently widowed Irene Chao, Liu trades her signature strut for a self-effacing shuffle, using makeup not to accentuate her beauty but to downplay it. In “Rosemead” (named for the east Los Angeles neighborhood where this true story took...

Hong Kong’s film industry is flexing its muscles at the Cannes Film Festival with a campaign designed to cement the city’s position as Asia’s premier film hub and IP trading center.

“Hong Kong Cinema @ Cannes 2025,” which kicked off May 13 and runs through May 24, has brought a significant contingent of Hong Kong film companies to the Croisette in a coordinated effort backed by multiple government agencies including the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the Hong Kong Film Development Council, and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

The campaign’s centerpiece event, Hong Kong Night, drew more than 800 industry professionals to Majestic Beach on May 17, including the creative team behind “Sons of the Neon Night,” which landed a Midnight Screenings slot at this year’s festival. Director Juno Mak and stars Louis Koo and Gao Yuanyuan were on hand to celebrate the world premiere of their film alongside international producers,...

The Tribeca Festival is this year launching a festival within a festival, adding a Storytelling Summit in which emerging and mid-career creators can engage with entertainment industry leaders like Nia DaCosta, David Leitch, Leslye Headland and Lucy Liu.

The 11-day event, running June 5-15 at Spring Studios, will feature talks, workshops, case studies and networking events in the form of six thematic tracks.

Luminaries sessions will consist of in-depth talks with artists like DaCosta, talking about her career trajectory including Candyman and The Marvels; married producing partners Leitch and Kelly McCormick, who will discuss their advocacy for stunt design as a storytelling too and their upcoming Nobody 2 sequel and Problemista and Fantasmas‘ Julio Torres on his prolific creativity. There will also be talks with Steve Buscemi, Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal and Jeremy O. Harris.

Industry Now sessions will feature guidance on producing, financing and distribution including choosing stories and...

Music documentaries figure prominently in the features line-up of 2025 Tribeca Festival in June, when audiences will get first looks at new films about Metallica, Billy Idol and Culture Club, and Depeche Mode.

Metallica Saved My Life and Billy Idol Should Be Dead – both directed by Jonas Åkerlund – receive their world premieres in New York, as do Fernando Frías’s Depeche Mode: M; Matt Finlin’s Matter Of Time featuring Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder; Alison Eastwood’s Culture Club; Amy Scott’s Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately?; and Miley Cyrus’s visual album Something Beautiful.

Programme highlights expected...

Bradley Rust Gray’s melancholic drama Blood explores how one woman navigates grief in an unfamiliar environment. Carla Juri gives a deeply felt performance as Chloe, a photographer who travels to Japan months after the sudden death of her husband.

Still processing her mourning, Chloe reconnects with friend Toshi while fulfilling a work assignment photographing traditional crafts. Toshi helps guide Chloe as she interacts with new people and places, quietly struggling with regaining meaning in daily life without her partner.

Though separated by language and culture, Chloe finds solace in Toshi’s company and the kindness of others she meets, including his playful young daughter and wise grandmother. Patient shots observe Chloe experiencing the rhythms of a foreign world, sometimes accompanied by reflective conversations that provide fleeting insights into her inner experience. Through Chloe’s eyes, we see both the natural beauty surrounding her and haunting memories still clinging to familiar landscapes.

An ambitious chef (Ariana DeBose) opens her first restaurant in a remote location and faces kitchen chaos, immense self-doubt, and a supernatural presence trying to sabotage her success at every turn. This is the simple, straightforward premise of House of Spoils, written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy (Blow the Man Down), with DeBose as the main attraction. I consider DeBose (West Side Story) a versatile artist unafraid to take on roles in new genres, as her career has shown so far, so expectations were mostly positive.

House of Spoils Review Related Terrifier 3 Fantastic Fest Review — Bloody Threequel Attempts to Overexplain Its Mythos

And it’s precisely DeBose that House of Spoils relies on to stay engaging. There’s an intriguing character study at the heart of this film about self-esteem, confidence, and personal ability to overcome obstacles imposed by ourselves and others, as well as fighting...

As The Bear regularly commits category fraud to pass off its boiling-over stresses as comedy, House Of Spoils throws an extra ingredient into the heart attack atmosphere of high-end kitchens: a ghost. The haunted restaurant horror tosses plenty into the pot, but the half-developed flavors rest uneasily on the palate.

On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, leaving 168 people dead in the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. The perpetrator was Timothy McVeigh, an Iraq war veteran disaffected with the government. Writer Alex Gioulakis and director Mike Ott seek to understand how such a tragedy could occur through their film McVeigh, starring Alfie Allen as McVeigh.

Shot in a mood-sobering style, Ott keeps viewers at arm’s length from McVeigh. Through master shots and meditative pacing, we observe his descent not as a thriller but as a study of radicalization emerging from the ordinary. McVeigh lives a mundane life—selling bumper stickers at gun shows alongside friend Terry and starting a relationship with Cindy. But political unrest simmers beneath the surface as he falters further into antigovernment ideology, impacted by events like the Waco siege.

In vivid yet restrained performances,...

Fashionista Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) took quite the tumble from her position in New York’s world of style. In “The Perfect Find” — Netflix’s visually vibrant, cinema-loving, if not quite perfect, rom-com — her professional and romantic plummet is documented in opening credits that cleverly use an animated collage to relate her story.

So, when we meet Jenna in person ,she’s without a job, and her man (D.B. Woodside) of 10 years has moved on … or so it seems. The 40-year-old is sporting baggy sweats, and not because she’s headed to the gym. She’s been living in her parents’ home licking her wounds, for a year, when her mother calls her out on it. The scene between mother (Janet Hubert) and grown-ass daughter is amusing and promising. As are the musical and visual choices director Numa Perrier makes that evoke Old Hollywood in a film with characters decidedly not Old Hollywood.

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2022 Sundance Film Festival when the film was titled “Blood.”

Swiss actress Carla Juri showed us how far she could push us in the ick-factor department with 2013’s squirmy and riotously distasteful coming-of-age sex comedy “Wetlands.” In “The Exploding Girl” and “Jack and Diane” director Bradley Rust Gray’s gently plaintive soul-searching odyssey “Blood,” his latest low-key, melancholy outing, Juri shows more restraint but packs no less punch as a widow named Chloe. Adrift after the death of her husband, she finds herself in Japan on business, wandering an unfamiliar landscape that also emerges as a backdrop to her mourning. Despite Juri’s commitment, however, the world Rust has built around her (vividly conjuring the magic of on-location Japan) blunts the performance and ultimately leaves just a gossamer, alienating impression.

But how beautiful that scenic backdrop is. Awash in memories of...

A scrapbook collection of serene, observational moments in search of a story, “Blood” runs deep, but only with obscure meaning, so opaque at times that its essence feels unreachable. Writer-director Bradley Rust Gray’s first feature in a decade offers some modest rewards to patient viewers up for a challenge, but this good-natured study of a young widow’s new chapter in life is finally too understated to leave a memorable trace.

Premiering in this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance, “Blood” is exactly the type of unstructured, casually paced indie that requires the immersive experience of the movie theater: dark, big and distraction-free. The irony, of course, is that’s a hard sell these days to spectacle-seeking ticket buyers. Beyond the festival circuit, the film could find a small, committed audience on streaming platforms. Those captivated by the filmmaker’s previous, similarly dispositioned films like “The Exploding Girl” ought to turn up,...

Albeit beautifully shot and made tolerable by the warm presence of Carla Juri in the leading role, blood is a frustratingly indulgent study of emotional recovery after the loss of a loved one. This fourth feature by Bradley Rust Gray is splendidly appointed with locations in Japan and Iceland and an appreciation of emotional openness expressed by all the characters. All the same, the mostly short scenes of recent widow Chloe handling her grief day by day possess little compelling drama and are handicapped by a scruffy Japanese male lead who just doesn’t match up with his appealing female counterpart in any credible way. As with the director’s previous work, you come out of it wondering who this film was made for.

Gray, whose little-seen films over the past two decades are Salt, The Exploding Boy and Jack and Diane, has developed a style that as much as...

There’s an incredibly interesting story lurking somewhere beneath “Intrusion,” about the way mistrust and paranoia can slowly chip away at a marriage. The film, however, eschews this tale in favor of something a little more rote, and a little bit trashier. It’s a fun watch, to be sure; as a home invasion movie of sorts, it has a number of thrilling moments, and lead actors . However, the final product also exudes trepidation about its most intriguing aesthetic and narrative elements — ideas which may have only enhanced its genre sensibilities, had the filmmakers further pursued them.

Married couple Meera (Pinto) and Henry (Marshall-Green), a psychiatrist and an architect, met in college in Boston, but their fancy new duplex sits in rural New Mexico. Per the film’s dialogue, their big move was owed at least in part to the wide-open landscape, which director Adam Salky and cinematographer Eric Lin present in picturesque fashion,...

This Taiwanese murder mystery, adapted from the novel “The Soul Transplanting Skill” written by Jiang Bo is set in the near future 2032 Taipei. One night, the police arrive at the mansion of Wang Shih Tsung, the Chairman of the huge Wang Corporation and discover that he’s brutally murdered and his unconscious young wife Li Yan (Sun An Ke) is crouching next to him, holding a blunt and bloody object. Conversely, after returning home, his mentally unstable son Wang Tien Yu (Eric Lin) has fled the scene after leaving some strange occult ritualistic symbols around.

Enter Taipei’s cancer stricken but devoted prosecutor Liang Wen Chao (Chang Chen) who somehow manages to convince his boss that he should investigate the high-profile case instead of just wasting away. Assigned to assist him is his pregnant criminal investigator wife Ah Pao (Ning Chang) and as they dig further into the case, they...

Exclusive: Emmy-nominated actress Lucy Liu has signed on to star in the upcoming dramatic feature Rosemead directed by Eric Lin. Marilyn Fu wrote the screenplay based on the award-winning Los Angeles Times article “A Dying Mother’s Plan” written by Frank Shyong.

Based on a true story that took place in the San Gabriel Valley, the film follows an immigrant mother (Liu) with terminal cancer who takes desperate measures to help her unstable teenage son as she uncovers his growing obsession with mass shootings.

Rosemead marks the feature directorial debut of Lin, who has worked as a cinematographer on high-profile festival films including The Sound of Silence, Hearts Beat Loud, I Smile Back and Equity.

“This heartbreaking, true story shines a light on how important it is to understand all aspects of mental illness,...

New York City has a musical quality to all of its chaos. Stand in the right spot in Manhattan and you can hear it. The Sound of Silence knows and embraces this. An independent drama that contains a wholly lived in feel, there’s a vibe her that gets under your skin in the best way possible. Rather hypnotic in its soundscape and overall style, there’s a lot more her than meets the eyes. In fact, if it weren’t for a few small flaws, this would be a rather remarkable film. The plot is deceptively simple. Peter Lucian (Peter Sarsgaard) is a “house tuner” in New York City, with the keen ability to figure out what sound in your home is throwing off your entire life. A thorough check of your apartment could lead to the need for a new toaster, for example, as the various electronic hums...

After the Best Asian Asian Films of 2018, we felt that we should also compile more specific lists about the best of the year, since there were a lot of great 2018 films that were left out, inevitably. The first list in that regard includes the Best Action Films of 2018, in a collection of movies, which, in contrary to the aforementioned, where most entries were from Japan, has much more diversity, since the only country that is represented thrice is China, which probably has to do with the legacy Hk action films have left.

Some films are not genuine entries of the category, like “One Two Jaga” for example. which is a social drama at least as much as an action movie, but in every case, there was enough to justify the inclusion in the category, at least partially.

Without further ado, here are the Best Asian action films of 2018, in random order.

In her final film role, “The Song of Sway Lake,” the late Elizabeth Peña delivers withering looks — equal parts disgust and dismay — to a variety of characters, all of whom ably deserve her scorn. A clunky, lurching affair populated by barely sketched individuals who seem to be competing for a most-intolerable prize, Ari Gold’s drama concerns a young man who returns to his grandparents’ lake house in search of a rare treasure, for reasons as thinly defined as everything else in this saga. Shot years ago (Peña passed away in 2014), and released more than 15 months after its below-the-radar Los Angeles Film Festival premiere, it should have remained on whatever shelf it’s been occupying.

In the wake of dad Tim’s (Jason Brill) suicide, Ollie Sway (Rory Culkin) visits Sway Lake, a peaceful upstate New York idyll where he and best friend Nikolai (Robert Sheehan) hope to locate Tim...

Loosely based on the evacuation of the 225 foreign nationals and almost 600 Chinese citizens from Yemen’s southern port of Aden during late March in the 2015 Civil War, “Operation Red Sea” is kind of a sequel to “Operation Mekong”, while it shares much similarities to “Wolf Warrior 2”.

Operation Red Sea is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story revolves around Jiaolong (Sea Dragon), an eight-person special task force of the Chinese navy, to whom we are introduced as we watch them foiling a hijacking by Somalian pirates. The team succeeds, but their sniper suffers a crippling spinal injury and is eventually substituted by Gu Shun. Soon after, and as the aforementioned civil war commences, the team has to to save Deng Mei, a member of the Chinese embassy that has been captured by the rebels along with local officials, and to prevent Zaka, the leader of...

Like the unreliable-narrator novel, the unreliable-perspective movie is a tricky proposition that can be fascinating, but requires considerable finesse. The auspicious central conceit of “Aardvark,” Brian Shoaf’s first feature as writer-director, features Zachary Quinto as a mentally ill man whose difficulty separating reality from delusion is shared with the viewer. But the film can never quite decide what it wants to be — wounded-inner-child drama, quirky comedy, quasi-thriller, all the above — and its good ideas never quite gel, or lead toward sufficient narrative revelation. Though supporting roles for Jon Hamm and Jenny Slate will help spark some interest, this offbeat but low-pulse effort ultimately lands in a dissatisfying zone between the intriguing and the turgid.

Given the careless floppy hair and doughy look of someone who’s been zoned out on psychopharmaceuticals for a long time, Josh Norman (Quinto) lives a marginal existence in upstate New York. His apartment is a recluse’s dump,...

Director Brett Haley arrives at Sundance for a second year with a new dramatic feature. In 2017 Haley premiered The Hero, which went on to earn more than $4 million in the U.S. box office. He returns to Park City this year with Heart Beat Loud, a music-driven drama set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The film stars Nick Offerman as a single dad who bonds with his daughter (Kiersey Clemons) through their shared love of playing music. Dp Eric Lin (I Smile Back, Equity) shot the feature. Lin spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s screenings at Sundance about filming musical performances […]...

Shot in NYC exactly one year to date, for his directorial debut, actor, playwright and now filmmaker Brian Shoaf landed Zachary Quinto, Jenny Slate and Jon Hamm while teaming with Sundance behind the scene technicians in cinematographer Eric Lin (I Smile Back, Equity) and Heather McIntosh (Z for Zachariah) for a drama that’ll likely be compared to Lars and the Real Girl or The Beaver for it’s more subversive make-believe elements.

Continue reading...

As part of our "How I Shot That" series, Indiewire asked cinematographer Eric Lin about shooting Adam Salky's "I Smile Back," which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and opens in select theaters on October 23 and On Demand on November 6.  Based on Amy Koppelman's 2008 novel, the film stars Sarah Silverman as a suburban wife and mother who struggles with depression and addiction. What camera and lens did you use? Arri Alexa with Cooke S2/S3 Lenses How do you decide what camera to use? I'm very cautious about the tools I use. If someone is asking which camera we should shoot on and I'm offered up choices, it's always because it's either going to fit the aesthetic or the style of production. There's always something about the medium that makes sense for the project. If I know I'm going to be in very small quarters or there are...

As part of our "How I Shot That" series, we asked a select group of cinematographers with films at Sundance about the best career advice they've ever received. And now we're sharing it with you. "Surround yourself with good people. This isn’t easy as it sounds because it also means being truthful with yourself about what your own shortcomings are and what you need help with. The energy of the crew suffuses what happens in front of the camera and you want as little as possible to impede the flow of creativity on set. With the right crew, that creativity comes from all directions, the AC, the key grip, etc." - Eric Lin, "I Smile Back" "Be bold and take risks. Don’t be afraid to fail." - John Guleserian, "The Overnight" Read More: Sundance 2015 Cinematographers on How They Captured Their Most Difficult Shots "The best piece of advice...

Inspired by a personal memory of writer and director Olivia Silver, her feature debut wistfully recalls the formative period between childhood simplicity and the painful awareness of adulthood. With redeeming moments of incredible warmth, Arcadia won Crystal Bear at Berlin Int’l Film Festival and Official Selection at Sarasota Film Festival, but tells the ultimately uninventive story of a family journeying 3,000 miles in an old station wagon to their new California home.

The grueling road trip, absent mother and flawed father may bring to mind, purposefully or otherwise, Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas. Much like Harry Dean Stanton’s perfectly lined face, Academy Award nominee John Hawkes has a weathered look of experience – but drawing such a comparison to Paris, Texas’ profoundly enigmatic Travis only underlines the impenetrable surface and unexacting characterization in Arcadia. Rather than challenging expectations of paternity or embracing vulnerability, Tom is carefully rendered as the too-perfect balance...

Nominations for the 6th annual Asian Film Awards were announced in Hong Kong today:

Best Film

A Separation (Iran) Postcard (Japan) The Flowers of War (Mainland China) Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong/Mainland China) Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan) You Don’t Get Life a Second Time (India)

Best Director

Asghar Farhadi, A Separation Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Lovely Man Sono Sion, Guilty of Romance Tsui Hark, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale Zhang Yimou, The Flowers of War

Best Actor

Chen Kun, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Donny Damara, Lovely Man Andy Lau, A Simple Life Park Hae Il, War of the Arrows Yakusho Koji, Chronicle of My Mother

Best Actress

Vidya Balan, The Dirty Picture Michelle Chen, You Are the Apple of My Eye Eugene Domingo, The Woman in the Septic Tank Leila Hatami, A Separation Deanie Ip,...

The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and the other nominations for the 2012 Asian Film Awards have been announced. The 6th Annual Asian Film Awards was presented by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) “to recognize excellence of film professionals in the film industries of Asian cinema.” This year’s award ceremony will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on March 19, 2012.

The full listing of the 2012 Asian Film Awards nominations have been announced.

Best Film

A Separation (Iran)

Postcard (Japan)

The Flowers of War (Mainland China)

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong/Mainland China)

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)

You Don’t Get Life a Second Time (India)

Best Director

Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Lovely Man

Sono Sion, Guilty of Romance

Tsui Hark, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

Zhang Yimou, The...

Now up on the site are select stories from the Winter 2011 issue.

Michelle Williams talks about her upcoming film Meek’s Cutoff, as well as the challenges of trying to shake her Blue Valentine character to prepare. We chat with Apichatpong Weerasethakul about his Palme d’Or winner, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Dp Eric Lin (The Exploding Girl) talks shop with Monogamy cinematographer Doug Emmett. As well as interviews with Limitless director Neil Burger and Mike Ott‘s Gotham Awards’ Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You winner, Littlerock.

Lance Weiler also delves into his project, Pandemic, for his Culture Hacker column, which is at Sundance (see our video interview with Weiler); and we reveal a new column which will show up in the mag from time to time: Soapbox. Here Zachary Wigon writes about the cinema’s role in society.

Chicago – At a time when many so-called independent film distributors are following the mold of mainstream companies, Oscilloscope Pictures is a breath of exhilaratingly fresh air. Its films range from electrifying shoestring documentaries like “Dear Zachary” and priceless foreign imports like “Kisses” to major award season contenders such as “The Messenger” and “Wendy and Lucy.”

All of these films are independent in a way that few commercial entertainments are ever allowed to be. They are each artworks more than entertainments, and often paint riveting and provocative portraits of the society in which we live, devoid of any stereotypical speechifying. When a big star signs on for one of these pictures, the filmmakers often allow the performer to work at a raw and intimate level rarely achievable in Hollywood (much like how HBO brings out the best in every actor, from Claire Danes to Al Pacino).

DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0

Though she is...

[With its September 7th release on all-region DVD from Oscilloscope Laboratories, I thought it'd be a fine time to share my review of the film once again.]

I first saw Bradley Rust Gray's second feature, The Exploding Girl last December at Brooklyn Academy of Music's retrospective/showcase for his and filmmaker wife, So Yong Kim's (Treeless Mountain) handful of films. The Exploding Girl ended up in my top ten films of 2009. It remains the one film from that list which has really stuck with me into the new year.

College student, Ivy (Zoe Kazan) returns home to Brooklyn for spring break. She wanders around the streets, helps out at her mom's dance studio, has increasingly halting and awkward phone calls with her boyfriend, and hangs out with best bud, Al (Mark Rendell).

They share headphones in the park, play cards, mill about parties... Seemingly prerequisites for a young adult centered movie. Yet none of this is evocative of bitter, snarky mumblecore pictures or faux indie youth flicks.

Though its title may provoke wild imagery, The Exploding Girl is a quiet,...

Release Date: March 12 Director/Writer: Bradley Rust Gray Starring: Zoe Kazan, Mark Rendall Cinematographer: Eric Lin Studio/Run Time: Oscilloscope, 79 mins. Bradley Rust Gray’s low-key second film, about an epileptic college student on break in New York City, offers no grand moments or spectacular explosions. Instead, The Exploding Girl is an ambitiously life-size coming-of-age story, striving for a moody, post-adolescent realism constructed of small events and improvised chatter—and it’s this everyday scope that makes the movie both charming and frustrating....

I first saw Bradley Rust Gray's second feature, The Exploding Girl last December at Brooklyn Academy of Music's retrospective/showcase for his and filmmaker wife, So Yong Kim's (Treeless Mountain) handful of films. The Exploding Girl ended up in my top ten films of 2009. It remains the one film from that last which has really stuck with me into the new year.

College student, Ivy (Zoe Kazan) returns home to Brooklyn for spring break. She wanders around the streets, helps out at her mom's dance studio, has increasingly halting and awkward phone calls with her boyfriend, and hangs out with best bud, Al (Mark Rendell).

They share headphones in the park, play cards, mill about parties... Seemingly prerequisites for a young adult centered movie. Yet none of this is evocative of bitter, snarky mumblecore pictures or faux indie youth flicks.

Though its title may provoke wild imagery, The Exploding Girl is a quiet,...

Year: 2009

Directors: Bradley Rust Gray

Writers: Bradley Rust Gray

IMDb: link

Trailer: N/A

Review by: Bob Doto

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

The Exploding Girl is an absolute beaut’ of a film about an epileptic college student named Ivy (played perfectly by Zoe Kazan) who travels home to stay with her mother while on break from school. Ivy’s boyfriend is giving her the run around and she’s understandably, but pathetically, going along for the ride. We never meet this lad, but do have the displeasure of hearing his voice message, like, a million times. All the while Al (Mark Rendall), Ivy’s Bff from childhood, ends up sleeping on her couch for the duration of their holiday and the two act out a tortured twenty-something love story galore of the realism variety for all to see. I laughed. I cried. I wanted to never end up at another party...