News

In 2008, Ira Sachs got fired by his manager. The most indie spirited of independent filmmakers had refused to play the game for too long, and the bill had finally come due.

“I understood it in a way,” Sachs, more than a decade and a half-dozen features removed from that experience, says. “Because I was not entering the business, and his job was to facilitate the business of Hollywood, which was not what I was interested in doing. They were trying to get me jobs as opposed to what I was trying to do, which was produce my own work.”

For the record, Sachs thinks that he never would have gotten the gigs that his representatives wanted him to land. But the experience helped rethink his value in an industry that usually measures those things in terms of box office grosses.

“Before that, I thought I was kind of owed a career based on certain successes,...

Essentially forgotten after its 1991 Sundance premiere, Christopher Munch’s beautiful, spare, imagining of John Lennon and Brian Epstein’s friendship, “The Hours and Times,” has finally been restored and is being given a proper release courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories. While this understated film may not be for everyone, it is nonetheless a stunning time capsule into the independent film movement of the early-’90s, and a psychologically complex look into the lives of both Epstein and Lennon, right before ‘Beatlemania’ hit.

Continue reading ‘The Hours And Times’: Christopher Munch’s Acclaimed John Lennon Drama Gets A Beautiful New Restoration [Review] at The Playlist.

A few newcomers shined among the specialties on the weekend following the Oscars, while Oscar winners The Favourite and Free Solo added runs to take advantage of a post-Awards bounce. A24 drama-horror Climax by Gaspar Noé took the weekend’s highest per-theater average. A debut out of last year’s Cannes Directors Fortnight, Climax grossed an estimated $121,655 in five locations, averaging $24,331.

Epic doc Apollo 11 by Todd Douglas Miller launched exclusively in IMAX theaters across the country just weeks after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The Neon release played 120 locations for the weekend’s highest specialty gross at $1,650,000, for a $13,750 PTA.

Although only in two theaters, Music Box Films’ Transit edged over that average. The German/French drama by Christian Petzold is coming in at $35,368, averaging $17,684.

Vertical Entertainment bowed Toronto debut Giant Little Ones with Maria Bello, Kyle MacLachlan and Taylor Hickson with an exclusive run, grossing $13,500.

Among other limited run openers,...

Universal and DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was able to fend off Lionsgate's release of Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral and retain the weekend's #1 spot at the box office even though Perry's final outing as Madea outperformed expectations with the fourth best opening in the now nine-film franchise. Focus's Greta settled outside the top five in its debut weekend, while Universal's Best Picture winner, Green Book, saw a strong bump following its Oscar night win. With an estimated $30 million, Universal's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World dipped -45% in its second weekend, pushing the film's domestic cume to $97.6 million after ten days in release. The film dipped a little more than we expected heading into the weekend, but still managed to hold on better than the second film in the franchise over its sophomore frame as it is still outpacing...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Three by Ringo Lam and the films of Ulrike Ottinger, rarely screened, come in a pair with respective series.

Weekend and Ghost in the Shell have late-night showings, while Some Like It Hot plays through the weekend.

In honor of Michel Legrand, Cléo from 5 to 7 screens this Saturday.

Anthology Film Archives

Films by Renoir...

"I found you an engaging and remarkable man, Brian." Oscilliscope Labs has debuted a new trailer for the restored re-release of The Hours and Times, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Christopher Munch. This played at the Toronto Film Festival in late 1991, then at the Sundance, Berlin, and Tokyo Film Festivals in 1992. The film has been restored from the original 35mm negative elements, and re-printed as fresh 4K Dcp, which will be touring theatrically starting in March for those interested in catching this. The film is a fictionalized account of what may have happened when John Lennon and Brian Epstein went on holiday together to Barcelona in 1963. Starring Ian Hart as John Lennon (of The Beatles), and David Angus as Brian Epstein (manager of The Beatles). The film won numerous indie awards back in 1992, but never really got a chance to shine. Hopefully it will find a bigger audience with this re-release.

The Sundance Film Festival has added the world premieres of Dakota Johnson-Armie Hammer’s “Wounds” and Demi Moore-Ed Helms’ “Corporate Animals” to its lineup.

Both movies have been added to the midnight section. “Wounds” is a horror-thriller focusing on the disturbing aftermath of a bartender in New Orleans picking up a phone left behind at his bar. Zazie Beetz and Karl Glusman also star. Babak Anvari directed from his own script, based on Nathan Ballingrud’s novella “The Visible Filth.”

“Corporate Animals” is a horror-comedy, directed by Patrick Brice from a screenplay by Sam Bain. Moore portrays an egotistical CEO of an edible cutlery company, leading her long-suffering staff on a corporate team-building trip in a New Mexico cave, where Helms plays the guide. The pic also stars Jessica Williams, Karan Soni, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Calum Worthy, Dan Bakkedahl, Martha Kelly, and Nasim Pedrad.

The fest...

Sundance has added five films to next month’s lineup, including Babak Anvari’s “Wounds.” The writer-director, whose “Under the Shadow” made waves at the festival two years ago, returns to Park City alongside Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, and Zazie Beets with a film in which “disturbing and mysterious things begin to happen to a bartender in New Orleans after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.

Also returning to Sundance are “The Blair Witch Project” and “The Hours and Times,” which are screening as part of From the Collection. “Wounds” isn’t the only premiere, as “Corporate Animals” — which stars Demi Moore, Ed Helms, and Jessica Williams — and “Paddleton” (led by Mark Duplass and Ray Romano) are likewise bowing at the fest.

Premieres

“Paddleton” / U.S.A. — An unlikely friendship between two misfit neighbors becomes an unexpectedly emotional journey when the younger man is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Before the New Year rings in the Sundance Institute added five features and a Special Event today to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival taking place from Jan. 24 to Feb. 4.

This includes the world premiere of Alex Lehmann’s Paddleton which follows the friendship of two misfit neighbors, one of whom has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mark Duplass, Ray Romano, Ravi Patel, Christine Woods star and Mark and Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alana Carithers, and Sean Bradle produce.

In the Midnight Section, there’s two world premieres, Patrick Brice’s Corporate Animals and Babak Anvari’s Wounds.

The logline for Corporate Animals written by Sam Bain reads: Disaster strikes when the egotistical CEO of an edible cutlery company leads her long-suffering staff on a corporate team-building trip in New Mexico. Trapped underground, this mismatched and disgruntled group must pull together to survive. Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Jessica Williams, and Karan Soni star.

Prior to the Sundance Film Festival 2015, we sent out questionnaires to filmmakers with films in competition, asking them which films inspired them. The films they chose ranged from classics such as "The 400 Blows" and "A Clockwork Orange" to recent releases such as "Listen Up Phillip" and "Ida." Many also named dark comedies, including "Happiness" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." Some filmmakers listed television shows which inspire them including "Louie," "Transparent" and "The Wire." Here are the filmmaker's responses: James Ponsoldt ("The End of the Tour"):"California Split," "The American Friend," "Withnail & I," "Amadeus," "The Hours and Times," "Don't Look Back," "Fat City," "The Social Network," "Midnight Cowboy," "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," "Happy Together" and...

ABC is adding a little more international flavor to "Marvel's Agents of Shield."

British actor Ian Hart has been cast in a recurring part as a scientist on the highly anticipated series, EW reports. That's all the description available right now, though -- as with most things "Shield," Marvel and the network are keeping details very close to the vest.

Hart joins fellow Brits Iain de Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge in the cast. Coincidentally (or not? It's anyone's guess at this point), they play the scientific support team for Shield agents Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) and Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen).

Hart most recently appeared on the DirecTV series "Rogue." His other U.S. TV credits include "Luck," "Dirt" and "Bates Motel." He has also played John Lennon on three separate occasions -- in the feature films "The Hours and Times" and "Backbeat" and in an episode...

Outside of maybe Harry And The Hendersons, there’s not too many Bigfoot movies that showcase the creature in a kinder light. Every once and a while a film dares to be different and that’s definitely the case with Letters From The Big Man. I’m not exactly sinking my teeth into the concept, but it scores for being unusual. Go ahead and take a peek at the trailer below and let us know how you feel about Letters From The Big Man:

After swearing off relationships, a fiercely individualistic artist named Sarah (Lily Rabe, daughter of the late Jill Clayburgh) takes to the woods with the dual goals of surveying a stream and finding herself. As she ventures deeper into the wilds of southwestern Oregon, a series of strange incidents lead her to suspect that she isn’t alone, after all. Before long, Sarah’s mysterious neighbor...

"In five features over two decades Christopher Munch has cultivated a singular career on the margins of the independent film world," begins Dennis Lim in the New York Times. "Although his debut, The Hours and Times (1991), was grouped with the emerging New Queer Cinema, Mr Munch, 49, has never fit in with a movement, and it's hard to think of another working American filmmaker with a similar sensibility or array of interests."

Writing in Filmmaker, Howard Feinstein suggests that Munch "explores that chaotic region where two forms of desire butt up against each other: the wish for a more perfect world, for one, usually depicted as majestic nature and whatever beauty man might have put into it (the old, deserted railroad in Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day [1996]) — an American version of classic German Romanticism, or blood and soil when taken to a nationalist extreme; and two, the physical attraction...

American independent director Christopher Munch has been making movies now for over 30 years — longer if you count the award-winning short he directed for a PBS affiliate at age 15 about the San Diego Zoo — carving a niche for himself on the international festival circuit as a shape-shifting film artist with a highly idiosyncratic voice. In 1992, Munch won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for his 57-minute black-and-white feature The Hours and Times, a talky, speculative film about an erotically charged weekend that John Lennon and his manager Brian Epstein purportedly spent in Barcelona in 1963. Four years later, the California native won the “Someone to Watch” Award at the Independent Spirit Awards for Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day, a gorgeously photographed period film about a Chinese-American man’s deep historical and spiritual connection to the Yosemite Valley Railroad, an old-world relic which he attempts to save from...

Movie lovers with a prolonged case of the Munchies could soon be sated. Indie-pure director Christopher Munch is back, in fine form, with his latest film, Letters From the Big Man.

Munch imbues his works with a distinct nostalgic longing. The Germans have a precise word for it: Sehnsucht. He explores that chaotic region where two forms of desire butt up against each other: the wish for a more perfect world, for one, usually depicted as majestic nature and whatever beauty man might have put into it (the old, deserted railroad in Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day) — an American version of classic German Romanticism, or blood and soil when taken to a nationalist extreme; and two, the physical attraction of one living being toward another. The latter might be a gay man’s unrequited feelings toward a disinterested straight man (The Hours and Times), or even two brothers...

The Longest Cocktail Party will document tumultuous period between founding of Apple Records and sessions for Let It Be

Michael Winterbottom is to bring the story of the final years of the Beatles to the big screen in The Longest Cocktail Party, reports the Playlist.

The Fab Four have been immortalised on film on many occasions, but Winterbottom's take would appear to be a rare glimpse of the band at the peak of their powers. Based on Richard Dilello's book, it will trace the timeline from the founding of Apple Records in 1968 to the tumultuous sessions for the final Beatles album, Let It Be.

Dilello worked for Apple Records between 1968 and 1970, writing The Longest Cocktail Party about his experiences. The title is a reference to the company's penchant for entertaining guests at lavish free events in the final days of the swinging 60s, a habit which helped bring Apple...

Recalling the heyday of New Queer Cinema, Gregg Araki brings back the ‘90s with the college-set Kaboom, depicting a pansexual college experience where students are more concerned with hallucinogens and getting laid than studying. While 1992's The Living End wasn't Araki's debut film, it was the first one to bring him anything approaching mainstream attention. Its depiction of a couple of gay, HIV-positive outlaws on the run drew on the AIDS activism of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and it was often linked with films like Todd Haynes' Poison and Christopher Munch's The Hours and Times as part of the New Queer Cinema movement. Araki has proved adept at reinventing himself. Nothing in The Living End suggested that one day he would make a stoner comedy like Smiley Face, or a drama as sober as Mysterious Skin, which brought him back into critical favor after years of inaction.

Predators

Extras include:

Commentary by producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimród AntalMotion ComicsMoments of ExtractionCrucifiedEvolution of the Species: Predators RebornThe ChosenFox Movie Channel presents Making a SceneDeleted and Extended ScenesTheatrical Trailer

Apocalypse Now (Full Disclosure Edition) Blu-ray

Extras include:

Apocalypse Now - original 1979 CutApocalypse Now ReduxCommentary for both versions"A Conversation with Martin Sheen" interview by Francis Ford Coppola"An Interview with John Milius" interview by Francis Ford CoppolaComplete Francis Ford Coppola interview with Roger Ebert at the 2001 Cannes Film FestivalMonkey Sampan "lost scene"Additional Scenes"Destruction of the Kurtz Compound" end credits with audio commentary by Francis Ford Coppola"The Hollow Men," video of Marlon Brando reading T.S. Eliot's poemThe Birth of 5.1 SoundGhost Helicopter Flyover sound effects demonstrationA Million Feet of Film: The Editing of Apocalypse NowThe Music of Apocalypse NowHeard Any Good Movies Lately? The Sound Design of Apocalypse NowThe Final MixApocalypse Then and NowThe Color Palette...

… but the Shallow Grave actor is considering a move into comedy after primal scream soul-baring of Lennon Naked

Back in 1994, when Christopher Eccleston was playing a psychotic chartered accountant in Shallow Grave, he spent the best part of a day in a working mortuary pretending to be dead. There wasn't enough money to recreate the mortuary in a studio and, anyway, director Danny Boyle wanted to keep it real. So Eccleston, then 30 and best known for playing Derek Bentley in Let Him Have It three years earlier, was put in a drawer with a Glaswegian member of the crew.

"I was stark bollock naked and the Glaswegian, who was dressed in a parka, Doc Martens and jeans, kept saying, 'Are we finished? 'Cos I'm fucking freezing, by the way.' And all this time, I'm lying not only naked but next to a head that had recently been fished out of the River Clyde.

In the past week, news has emerged of two competing Beatles projects, each taking a very different approach to its subject matter. In one corner is Oasis frontman-turned-movie producer Liam Gallagher. His plan is to adapt former Apple Records PR guy Richard Dilello's book, "The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary of the Beatles, Their Million Dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall," into a feature film. There's no writer, director or cast yet, but we can at least expect the title to change (read: shorten). Gallagher is expected to make a formal announcement about the project next week at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the other corner is author Alan Goldsher and his upcoming book "Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion," which Deadline reports has been optioned for a film treatment by "Pulp Fiction" producers Michael Chamberg and Stacey Sher. The story, told as an...

With their florid use of the F-Word, Ray Winstone and his low-life cronies hit a high note

Can profanity be poetic? Does swearing make a screenplay soar? Can excessive use of the F-word push back the literary frontiers?

Singular screenwriters Louis Mellis and David Scinto (who penned Sexy Beast after disowning the equally edgy Gangster No 1) clearly think so and on the evidence of 44 Inch Chest they may have a point. I struggle to remember a movie which contains quite so much blistering Anglo-Saxon verbosity or which features a line to rival the full-frontal, four-letter phrase: "You fucked his fucking wife, you fucking wife fucker!" The swearing is so intense, so incessant, so insane, that at times you start to wonder whether the ghosts of Derek and Clive haven't entered the room to fulminate upon the subject of "the worst job I ever had…" And yet in the midst of...

Artist Sam Taylor-Wood surprises us with an old-fashioned, affecting film exploring John Lennon's early years, writes Philip French

As composers, performers, producers and the subjects of documentaries, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have made a remarkable contribution to the cinema over the years. The dominant figure, of course, has been Lennon. He's been impersonated by his fellow Liverpudlian Ian Hart in both Backbeat, Iain Softley's film about the Beatles in Hamburg, and The Hours and Times, Christopher Munch's picture about his 1963 trip with Brian Epstein to Barcelona, and more fleetingly in Todd Haynes's Bob Dylan movie I'm Not There. He's at the centre of a fascinating documentary on his political activities, The Us vs John Lennon (2006) and haunts the shadowy edges of The Killing of John Lennon, Andrew Piddington's 2006 portrait of his assassin, Mark Chapman. Now we have Sam Taylor-Wood's feature debut,...