News

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The Big Sick (Michael Showalter)

From start to finish, The Big Sick, directed by Michael Showalter, works as a lovingly-rendered, cinematic answer to the dinner party question: “So how did you two meet?” Based on comedian Kumail Nanjiani‘s real life (he co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Emily V. Gordon), we meet Kumail (Nanjiani) as he finishes a stand-up set in Chicago. He becomes fast friends with a...

Dear Danny,Hot damn, now that’s a variegated mix of cinema! Even for Tiff, a place where we routinely travel among completely different genres and styles, your report shows just what a dizzyingly wide-ranging experience film festivals can be. Where else could you have your concepts of screen space repeatedly stretched, whether in the iridescent experimentations of the Wavelengths entries or in the three-dimensional swoops of To’s beguiling Office, a movie so rich with visual invention that even musical notes seem tangible and close enough to touch? And where else could you step out of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s majestically gorgeous The Assassin and right into Yakuza Apocalypse, Takashi Miike’s newest full-frontal genre blitzkrieg?The flashes of swordplay in Hou’s period tale function as sudden shifts in rhythm that fascinatingly intrude into the film’s ornate pattern, like cracks in an imperial jade vase. In Miike’s underworld/supernatural mishmash,...

Raúl Ruiz's "last movie," La noche de enfrente, played in Cannes at the Directors' Fortnight, where I saw and wrote about it. The notes below, written on the film by Ruiz and written on Ruiz by the film's producer, François Margolin, were found in the press notes for the production. I thought they were important enough to obtain permission to reprint them here. I hope you enjoy them. —Daniel Kasman

A Statement from Raoul Ruiz

My purpose is to immerse myself in the poetic world of one of the most secretive and surprising writers of Chilean literature, Hernan del Solar. He was a member of the eminent group of writers known as the "Imaginists." The "Imaginists" pushed against the grain of naturalism that reigned in the forties and fifties. They hoped to innovate with an imaginative and contemplative literature that had already been practiced by the likes of A.

Right now, the New York Film Critics are convening for the Nyfcc Awards for 2011 season. They are announcing their winners via Twitter, and the winners so far are (we'll bring you the latest winners as the information trickles in via Twitter, of course!):

"Margin Call" for Best First Feature for director J.C. Chandor. Zachary Quinto produced this brilliant film about the stock market collapse. Quinto also starred in the film alongside Stanley Tucci and Kevin Spacey.

The Best Nonfiction Film Award goes to Werner Herzog for his documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" which explores the Chauvet caves of Southern France.

Best Supporting Actress goes to Jessica Chastain for her triple threat performances in the movies "The Tree of Life," "The Help," and "Take Shelter." (My interview with the actress for "The Debt" right here, I love her!)

Best Actress goes to Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady!" I agree,...

Above: City of Pirates (1983).

Jorge Arriagada's multi-faceted, genre-crossing (and blending) collaboration with Raúl Ruiz is one of cinema's most fruitful, varied and extensive composer-director partnerships, beginning in the 1970s and continuing all the way through Ruiz's most recently released film, Mysteries of Lisbon. Here is a selection of Arriagada's scores for Ruiz, all from chapaev36's YouTube channel, to which we offer our thanks.

In the playlist below you'll find Arriagada's music from:

The Territory (1981) On Top of the Whale (1982) City of Pirates (1983) Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983) Manoel dans l'île des merveilles (Manoel's Destinies) (1984) Treasure Island (1985) Richard III (1986) The Blind Owl (1990) Dark at Noon (1993) Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) Time Regained(1999)...

Raoul Ruiz, the celebrated, prolific, Chilean-born filmmaker has died. He was 70.

Ruiz, not known for a specific standout film, was rather known for his vast catalog of more than 100 innovative, experimental works, which shirked cinematic conventions in favor of the surreal, the satirical and the strange.

Ruiz died Friday in Paris from complications from a pulmonary infection.

Ruiz had called Paris his home since fleeing Chile to escape the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in 1973. It was there he enjoyed the freedom to indulge his varied, curious cinematic whims. Among his filmography are a number of literary adaptations, including the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne (“Three Lives and Only One Death,” 1996), Franz Kafka (“The Penal Colony,” 1970), Marcel Proust (“Time Regained,” 1999) and Shakespeare (“Richard III,” 1986).

Born July 25, 1941, in Puerto Montt, Chile, Ruiz displayed a talent for writing at an early age. After studying law and theology at the University of Chile, he received...