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The sprawling international cast of Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic Inglourious Basterds features prolific actors from all over the world playing complex characters. Inglourious Basterds revolves around two separate plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler – one by a Jewish refugee seeking revenge for the deaths of her family and one by a platoon of Allied soldiers – that converge at the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film. From the Apache leader of the Basterds to the sinister SS officer determined to foil the assassination, Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds script is full of great parts for actors to sink their teeth into.

Tarantino looked outside his regular company of actors to cast big-name stars he’d never worked with before, like Brad Pitt, as well as brilliant undiscovered actors who delivered star-making performances in the movie, like Christoph Waltz. Regular Quentin Tarantino movie actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel made brief cameo appearances,...

Quentin Tarantino assembled one of the biggest casts of his filmography for his Spaghetti Western Django Unchained, featuring revered actors playing complex characters. Set in the Deep South during the time of slavery in America, Django Unchained revolves around a freed slave training in the art of killing so that he can exact revenge on sadistic white plantation owners. During his vengeful crusade, Django meets a couple of allies and makes plenty of enemies, all of whom make up a sprawling ensemble. The main cast is led by some of Hollywood's biggest stars, and the supporting cast consists of renowned character actors.

Tarantino had used tropes, music cues, and filmmaking techniques from the Western genre in his previous movies, but Django Unchained was his first straightforward Western about a gunslinging antihero on the frontier. The movie's cast includes actors who had worked with Tarantino before, like Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz,...

Michael Ahr Matthew Schuchman Apr 12, 2019

Visionary director Terry Gilliam talks with us about his view of filmmaking and what it took to complete The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

It seems that director Terry Gilliam can't escape the narrative that The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been a film 30 years in the making, even though his final effort only encompassed the last few years with a modified story and new actors, Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver. We had the opportunity to speak to the director for The Fourth Wall, our interview podcast, about the evolution of his film and the final version of the long-suffering tale that ultimately ended up on the screen.

In addition to discussing The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Gilliam addresses issues such as the use of special effects, the freedom enjoyed by his peers in streaming television, the omniprescence of Marvel movies, and his...

It was quite something sitting down to watch this film. Few films have had such a difficult, and well-documented journey to the big screen as this one. The playful opening credits allude to this arduous parturition, and it was with no small buzz of delight that Terry Gilliam finally brings The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to audiences.

This is not the film Gilliam set out to make at the end of the turn of the century. However the shadow of the beleaguered and painful production has worked its way into the fabric of this new narrative. What unfolds is a mesmerising absurdist fantasy, as much a satire of the modern filmmaking process as it is a quest for identity on the constantly shifting sands of sanity. It is visually stunning, emotionally powerful and handmade in the best possible way.

Ostensibly it is the story of a film director (Adam Driver...

Spike Lee’s anticipated Netflix film Da 5 Bloods has rounded out cast, we can reveal. Clarke Peters (The Wire), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (BlacKkKlansman), stage star and singer Norm Lewis (Sex And The City 2), Mélanie Thierry (The Zero Theorem) and Vikings and BlacKkKlansman actor Jasper Pääkkönen are joining previously announced Chadwick Boseman, Jean Reno, Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors and Paul Walter Hauser.

Drama Da 5 Bloods, currently in pre-production, will follow the story of four African American vets who return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen squad leader (Boseman) and the promise of buried treasure, the heroes battle forces of man and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.

Script comes form Danny Bilson, Paul DeMeo, Matt Billingsly, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee. Producers are Lloyd Levin (Hellboy), Beatriz Levin, Jon Kilik (The Hunger Games) and Spike Lee. Cinematographer is...

We were so thrilled when we heard that Garrard Conley's memoir Boy Erased was getting a big-screen adaptation written and directed by Joel Edgerton. The story follows Jared, a teenager living in a small Arkansas town who is unwillingly outed to his devout Baptist parents and subsequently must attend a gay conversion therapy program through his church. It's a compelling story that's already been getting a ton of buzz, and we have been counting down the days until its Nov. 2 release.

That excitement quadrupled when we heard the power players who would head up the cast. Ever since Nicole Kidman knocked our socks off in Big Little Lies, we've been patiently waiting for more opportunities to see her own the theater. She has been cast as Nancy, Jared's mother, and we can hear the Oscar buzz already. Then, we have New Zealander Russell Crowe depicting Jared's pastor father, Marshall.

Handling more films than any other international sales agent at this year’s Locarno Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-summer film event, Brussels-based B For Films will represent new films by Bettina Oberli, one of Switzerland’s most popular cineasts, Canadian Philippe Lesage’s return to A-fest international competition after debut “The Demons” dazzled at San Sebastian, and Antoine Russbach’s first feature, the highest-profile Swiss debut this year at the Swiss festival.

The two Swiss titles are for “no special reason,” said B For Films Pamela Lau, who set up the sales company with pan-European sales-financing-production company Playtime.

But Lau recognized that Be For Films has been approached by Swiss producers since the success of Lisa Brühlmann’s “Blue My Mind,”which sold 15 territories off a San Sebastian Festival world premiere last year.

Only about half B For Films’ titles are Belgian, and often minority co-productions. Reteaming Lesage with producer...

Terry Gilliam does not do anything the conventional way. You have only to take a cursory look at his body of work to see that this is the case. But for the Gilliam Faithful who have been waiting upwards of five years since his last effort, 2013's The Zero Theorem, today brings us a video that rewards their patience and celebrates the Oscar-nominated filmmaker's unconventionality. At long last, the first trailer for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is now here! The last we heard from Gilliam, the movie had wrapped production, but this was about a …...

Director Terry Gilliam is making headlines again, but not for any of his films. Instead, he's taking a controversial stance against the #MeToo movement, calling it "mob rule." The filmmaker was interviewed by Agence France Presse (Afp) for a new opera he is directing in Paris entitled "Benvenuto Cellini," when he had some very interesting things to say about the #MeToo movement, and the wave of sexual misconduct allegations that have surfaced since Harvey Weinstein's decades of harassment and abuse were uncovered last October. He also lines up his crosshairs on President Trump and fellow Monty Python friend John Cleese.

While Gilliam states that he thinks Weinstein, "is a monster," who was exposed because he, "is an a--hole and he made so many enemies," he also thinks the reaction to these revelations has become ugly and simplistic, while speaking about Harvey Weinstein's victims.

"People are frightened to say things,...

The long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote may finally have an official release date. Director Terry Gilliam’s passion-project was completed earlier this year with Jonathan Pryce, Adam Driver and Stellan Skarsgård heading up the cast.

The news comes from French film site AlloCine, which reported on Twitter that Gilliam’s epic will finally premiere in France in May 2018.

L'homme qui tua Don Quichotte de Terry Gilliam avec Jonathan Pryce et Afam Driver sortira en salles en mai 2018. #fncf2017 @OceanFilmsFR

— AlloCiné (@allocine) September 28, 2017

If this report is true, this movie will be his first released film since 2013's The Zero Theorem, which was met with a mixed critical reception.

Keep in mind there is still no word yet on an American release for the film, but Amazon Studios has acquired distribution rights as of 2015 when this iteration of film was first being financed, so Amazon’s streaming platform, at least for now,...

Terry Gilliam Finishes Production On The Man Who Killed Don Quixote Shooting has ended on The Zero Theorem director Terry Gilliam‘s highly-anticipated fantasy film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Long regarded as a lost film, the project languished for years in development hell and became the subject of a story as outlandish as the [...]

Continue reading: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018): Filming Wraps On Terry Gilliam Film...

Chris here, with some heartwarming news: a film nearly twenty years in the making has finally wrapped filming. You'll remember Terry Gilliam's ill-fated attempts to adapt Cervantes's legendary Don Quixote to the big screen as they were told in the documentary Lost in La Mancha - floods, lost funding, and casting woes made this film one of the most notorious productions of all time.

But now Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will rise from the ashes of cinema history. Gilliam has completed filming - with a new cast that includes Adam Driver, Jonathan Price, and Stellan Skarsgård - and Amazon will bring the film to theatres sometime next year. Someone please protect the digital print (or film, if Gilliam went that route) from any mishandling so that Gilliam isn't put through the ringer again!

Gilliam's last film The Zero Theorem came and went quietly,...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

From “School Ties” to “Live By Night” and this weekend’s “The Great Wall,” Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have each — for better and worse — left a considerable and ever-increasing footprint in the cultural landscape. But while the world is wide enough for both of them, our hearts are not. And so, we forced our panel of critics to choose: Ben Affleck or Matt Damon?

There can be only one.

Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse), Freelance with Rolling Stone, Vulture, Vox

This is a toughie. In terms of looks, both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s faces remind me of between forty and fifty of my least-favorite classmates during...

Author: David Sztypuljak

Every year, Ee sponsor the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards here in London town. The award is always a fascinating one since it’s voted for by the public.

Star Wars’ John Boyega won the 2016 BAFTA Rising Star Award

The nominations have just been announced from BAFTA HQ are in the running for the 2017 spot are all listed below. It’s going to be very interesting to see who takes the win this year with the likes of Tom Holland as Spider-Man being so mainstream and Anya Taylor-Joy appearing in the likes of The Witch.

Previous winners of the award include James McAvoy, Eva Green, Shia Labeouf, Noel Clarke, Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Will Poulter, Jack O’Connell and last year the award was taken by Star Wars star John Boyega.

This year the nominations are as strong as every with Laia Costa,...

Ryan Lambie Aug 25, 2016

Christoph Waltz is currently in talks to play a major role in the forthcoming Battle Angel movie, directed by Robert Rodriguez...

After years of going nowhere in a hurry, the live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga and anime Battle Angel Alita is finally seeing some progress. Back in May, Maze Runner actress Rosa Salazar landed the title role of Alita, an amnesiac cyborg abandoned on a futuristic scrap heap.

In the original comic and anime, Alita (or Gally as she was called in Japan) is found and revived by a scientist named Ido - a character who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, could be played by Christoph Waltz in the Us movie. Waltz is reportedly in talks to play Doctor Ido, and after a string of villain roles, the role could mark a return to the kind of mischievously likeable performance he provided in Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem.

Not since 2013’s oddball sci-fi The Zero Theorem has the illustrious Terry Gilliam stepped behind the lens, but that’s all about to change very soon.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Gilliam’s own white whale, has finally started to display signs of tangible progress in recent months, a streak that can be traced back to the casting of the so-hot-right-now Adam Driver. Fast forward a few weeks and both Michael Palin and Olga Kurylenko have closed deals to star, and now production company Entre Chien & Loup have seemingly let slip that Willem Dafoe and Stellan Skarsgard are on the verge of signing along the dotted line.

No official statement to relay at this time, but it’s clear that Gilliam’s long-gestating project – one that has been retooled to focus on an arrogant publicist, who evokes old memories by returning to the village where he filmed his student project,...

Turkey’s Tolga Karacelik, whose Ivy was at Sundance at Toronto last year, among those to bring new features to CineLink.

The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has revealed the first six projects selected for its CineLink Co-Production Market, which is set to run Aug 18-20.

The titles include Butterflies, from Turkish director Tolga Karacelik, whose psychological drama Ivy world premiered at Sundance 2015 and went on to play at Istanbul, Sydney, Karlovy Vary and Toronto among others.

Butterflies is “a black comedy about death and two brothers reuniting”, which won The Binger award at Istanbul’s Meetings on the Bridge Film Development Workshop and was selected for Sundance Lab.

Ela And Hilmi is from another Turkish director, Ziya Demirel, whose 2015 short Tuesday (Sali) was selected by Cannes for its shorts competition and secured a special mention at Sarajevo.

The Heroes Were Dancing is the next project from Serbian filmmaker Nikola Ljuca, whose mystery...

This compact little satire — set in 1990s Balkans — is a small, personal story about huge unfairnesses and injustices. Bleakly, bitterly, blackly funny. I’m “biast” (pro): love Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

The title of the film is, ironically, the least ironic bit of absurdity four humanitarian aid workers confront in this bleakly bitter black comedy set in the Balkans in 1995. (One unintentional bit of bleakness: the reminder that 1995 is 20 years ago.) The three veterans — Mambrú (Benicio Del Toro: Sicario, Guardians of the Galaxy), B (Tim Robbins: Welcome to Me, Life of Crime), and Katya (Olga Kurylenko: The Water Diviner, Oblivion) — may come from very different parts of planet Earth, but they are united in their comparative privilege, relative to this one small...

Last night, Johnny Galecki and Christoph Waltz sat down with James Cordon and Reggie Watts for a thoughtful, well-informed and (totally inappropriately) solemn discussion of "How to Be a Bad Bitch" by Amber Rose.  Read More: Watch: Christoph Waltz is a Bald Recluse in New Trailer for Terry Gilliam's 'The Zero Theorem' The book club discussed the finer points of bad bitch-dom and their newly discovered freedom to finally be the person they all knew they could be. Amber Rose's newest tome offered some insights into their life, teaching Waltz the power of friendship and that there's "nothing better than being a bad bitch."  "When you re-read a classic," explained Cordon, "You don't see more in the book, you see more in yourself than you did before." Watch the men rediscover themselves (and their best bad bitch) on Corden's The Late Late Show above.  Read More:...

Terry Gilliam is heading to television as, in a new interview, the filmmaker has revealed that he is developing a TV series adaptation of his cult 1981 fantasy film "Time Bandits" along with an original project that he's been talking about for many years.

Asked by The Guardian whether he'd be interested in bringing his filmmaking talents back to television. He says:

"Yes I am! We are involved in two possibilities - one, a TV series based on Time Bandits, another based on a script by Richard Lagravanese and I wrote after Fisher King, called The Defective Detective. We're currently adapting a two-hour film into a six-hour series. It's about a middle-aged New York cop who was once a hero who has grown fat and cynical and is in the middle of a breakdown, ending up in a child's fantasy world where the rules of the mean streets of New York no longer apply.

The film director and Python has written his autobiography, and he joined us to answer your questions in a live webchat. Catch up with his answers here, from his creative process to his admiration for Tarantino and Heath Ledger

1.43pm BST

Thanks to everyone who posted questions, and to Terry Gilliam for so generously staying to answer as many as he could. Until next time!

Goodbye from me, and thank you for all the interest. I now return to my lonely, hermit-like existence.

1.42pm BST

BrianShaw001 asks:

Have you ever considered a really cut-down, raw, basic film production? It’d be great to see your direction and humour without the (admittedly amazing) “pomp and circumstance” . Almost like a Beckett play, I suppose.

Well, obviously you've not seen The Zero Theorem.

The film director and Python has written his autobiography, and he joined us to answer your questions in a live webchat. Catch up with his answers here, from his creative process to his admiration for Tarantino and Heath Ledger

1.43pm BST

Thanks to everyone who posted questions, and to Terry Gilliam for so generously staying to answer as many as he could. Until next time!

Goodbye from me, and thank you for all the interest. I now return to my lonely, hermit-like existence.

1.42pm BST

BrianShaw001 asks:

Have you ever considered a really cut-down, raw, basic film production? It’d be great to see your direction and humour without the (admittedly amazing) “pomp and circumstance” . Almost like a Beckett play, I suppose.

Well, obviously you've not seen The Zero Theorem.

Continue reading...

Films offer some of the best explorations of isolation and loneliness, argues James...

"In space no one can hear you scream." . The tagline for Alien, and the sad truth for anyone who's crying out for company in the wider cosmos beyond our stratosphere.

The following is a true story - many winters ago I decided that it'd be a good idea to leave behind my loved ones and wider society and go into solitary exile. I made an agreement with a stranger online and said I would spend the whole of that December looking after her two cats while she was away in Australia.

I then headed off to a cottage in the Welsh Valleys to fulfil this responsibility and, aside from those two indifferent kitties, I had no company at all. In my mind I'd envisioned this as a perfect retreat from a Christmas season I couldn't be mithered...

If you were perusing the Variety.com website at just the right time yesterday, you may have noticed an obituary for filmmaker and Monty Python member Terry Gilliam. The article was promptly removed shortly thereafter, since the director is actually alive and well. The obituary was clearly pre-written by Variety writer Dave McNary, and published on accident, but the filmmaker took the whole ordeal in stride, posting the following statement on his Twitter and Facebook pages last night.

"I Apologize For Being Dead especially to those who have already bought tickets to the upcoming talks, but, Variety has announced my demise. Don't believe their retraction and apology!"

Stuff.nz speculates that the article may have been published in response to a fake Facebook hoax that claimed Terry Gilliam, 74, had passed away. The filmmaker's statement on his own Facebook page included a photo that showed the director on his "death bed,...

For once, things were looking up for Terry Gilliam. His last movie “The Zero Theorem” received better notices on the whole than some of his previous pictures, and after years of seemingly fruitless questing, Amazon stepped up to finance his longtime passion project “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” and potentially other projects, including a miniseries version of his old script “The Defective Detective.” Read More: Interview: Terry Gilliam On Rewriting 'Don Quixote,' His Role In 'Jupiter Ascending' & Lacking Diplomacy And then he had to go and die! For about ten minutes. If you read Variety anyway: the trade accidentally published an obituary for the american Monty Python animator and filmmaking great yesterday, sparking a brief spout of Twitter panic and then a million jokes about dead parrots. Gilliam responded in typically hilarious fashion on his Facebook page, saying “I Apologize For Being Dead, especially to...

It was about a month ago when it was quietly revealed Terry Gilliam signed a deal with Amazon to have his latest project housed by the streaming service company. It wasn't official at the time, but it seemed more likely than not the project in question would be his long, long, long, long in development The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, and, indeed, the U.S. distribution and partial funding of the film is in the cards. But there may be more than that involvement, it seems. Talking with The Playlist ahead of the Criterion Collection release of The Fisher King, Gilliam continued to talk about the project which has stuck with him despite many failed starts all these years. "It's my madness," he proclaimed with a laugh. And while past history hasn't been in its favor, plans at the moment are to shoot in early 2016, with Jack O'Connell (Unbroken...

Whoa. Some impressive casting news for Marvel's Dr. Strange movie in the works. THR is reporting that Oscar winning actress Tilda Swinton is discussions to play the character called The Ancient One, a Tibetan mystic who is a mentor to Dr. Strange, originally a male role in the comics but now a female role in the movie. Director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil, The Day the Earth Stood Still) is at the helm of this new Marvel introduction, and it seems like he's really pushing for bold choices in the cast. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to play the lead Dr. Strange, and now with Swinton, this is an excellent duo so far. More casting news is likely on the way soon, as shooting us supposed to begin in November. Read on. Tilda Swinton is one of our favorites because she can play such unique characters. She's been in plenty of films recently: Snowpiercer,...

Amazon seems to have the funds and means to make themselves on par with not only their streaming competitor Netflix but also every other independent studio in Hollywood right now, and with their power it looks like they're going down the auteur route. In addition to producing Spike Lee's next "joint" Chiraq and working on Woody Allen's first-ever TV show, they have also inked deals on the next projects from directors Terry Gilliam and Jim Jarmusch. Deadline broke the story, but it was the astute eyes over at The Playlist found the scoop buried in their report. Amazon has yet to confirm what projects the filmmakers have signed onto with their banner, so to figure out what's in the works one has to rely solely on what each filmmaker announced previously. Although Gilliam expressed interest in making a steampunk version of 1984 in recent history, it would seem this is mostly likely the very,...

John Fremes has joined Voltage Pictures as president of international sales and distribution and will report to president and COO Jonathan Deckter.

Fremes arrives from Nu Image / Millennium and replaces Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard, who is transitioning into a production deal with Nicolas Chartier’s company and to that effect will be on set in Ireland for John Moore’s I.T. starring Pierce Brosnan.

For the last three years Fremes served as president of international sales and distribution at Nu Image / Millennium, where he sold titles like Expendables 2 and 3, Olympus Has Fallen, Homefront and the upcoming London Has Fallen and Mechanic: Resurrection.

Voltage has also brought in Scott Bedno from Spotlight Pictures as vice-president of international sales. Bedno, along with Voltage’s international sales coordinator Mike Quinn, will report directly to Fremes.

The moves underscores Chartier’s plans to ramp at the company up after he brought in Deckter as partner last month.

“We are thrilled...

At a loss for what to watch this week? From new DVDs and Blu-rays, to what's streaming on Netflix, we've got you covered.

New on DVD and Blu-ray

"Top Five"

Chris Rock's rom-com got rave reviews, and the Blu-ray offers some insight with a commentary from Rock and co-star Jb Smoove and other extras.

"Song of the Sea"

This gorgeous Oscar-nominated animated feature is about a girl named Saoirse and her brother Ben, who discovers that the fairy tales his mother told him about selkies -- half human, half seal creatures -- are all too true.

"Penguins of Madagascar"

Here's another animated feature, albeit one with a much more modern flair. The bumbling penguins of previous "Madagascar" films are recruited for a wild espionage adventure. Voice actors include Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, Chris Miller, and plenty of others.

TV Worth Watching

"Dancing With the Stars" (Monday, ABC at 8 p.

A grownup storybook of a movie spun out of candy-colored nonsense that challenges you to embrace its falseness and deny its romance. I’m “biast” (pro): love Wes Anderson

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Thank god for Wes Anderson. Our entertainment ecosystem may be one of bland tediousness in which creatively bankrupt movie machines spit out the same stories over and over again, but once in a while Anderson will commute from the other plane of existence he lives on — I imagine the colors are brighter there, and the air always faintly redolent of baking cookies — to bestow upon us a cinematic bonbon such as The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson’s boons are a torment as much as a treat, of course, reminders of just how unoriginal almost everyone else making movies is. Somehow, I endure them anyway.

Most...

They've done what they've had to do to survive on AMC's The Walking Dead, brining hope and despair to palpable life on the small screen with gritty realism every week. Covered in grime, splattered in blood, and trudging down the sun-baked backroads and brush-bordered trails this season, the stellar cast and crew of The Walking Dead have paid their dues and then some, and now they're getting a tip of the cap in return with seven nominations for the 41st Annual Saturn Awards.

Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Emily Kinney, Melissa McBride, Chandler Riggs, and Andrew J. West have all earned nominations, with the TV series itself receiving one as well. Also recognized in this year's nominations is Scream Factory's Nightbreed: The Director's Cut Blu-ray, NBC's Hannibal TV series, Only Lovers Left Alive, and many more.

Press Release - "The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films announces the...

Though it is apparently still in post-production, a trailer for A Perfect Day has hit the web ahead of WestEnd Films packaging it for sale at the European Film Market next week.

Written and directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa (Mondays In The Sun), who adapted the story from the novel Dejarse Ilover, by Paula Farias, A Perfect Day tells the tale of five conflict zone aid workers who all have various agendas. They find themselves having to work together to left a dead body out of a well, so a community can have access to water. The film stars Academy Award winners Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) and Tim Robbins (Mystic River), who are ably supported by Olga Kurylenko (Oblivion) Melanie Thierry (The Zero Theorem), and Fedja Stukan (In The Land Of Blood And Honey)

Variety reports that writer-director Fernando Leon de Aranoa explained his view of the project to the press last year:

“Fast,...

The Drop I really liked The Drop and it was a little frustrating Fox Searchlight didn't show much interest in raising the film's awareness after the lukewarm response in Toronto. I think this still could have been a hit of sorts if they had shown a little more enthusiasm, but I guess once it was clear it wasn't going to be an Oscar contender they just figured "what's the usec" Nevertheless, check it out now that it's on DVD and Blu-ray, and for my theatrical review click here.

Lucy Solid movie, fun and certain to be quite enjoyable from the comfort of your own home. I have a Blu-ray copy here and I'm going to check it out a second time... at some point.

My Winnipeg (Criterion Collection) It was nice to get back to reviewing some Blu-ray titles recently as Criterion's release of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg was...

This week is a big one for sci-fi fans, as several fantastic films from 2014 are making their home entertainment debuts, including The Zero Theorem, Lucy and Coherence. Horror fans have a lot to look forward to as well with the releases of several notable titles like Wolves, Annabelle and Gnome Alone, which looks to be a hoot of a genre send-up.

Spotlight Titles:

Lucy (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD/Digital HD & DVD)

From La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element, writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Now, Besson directs Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, an action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic. Lucy also stars Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman.

Wolves (Ketchup, DVD)

Cayden...

I loved Terry Gilliam’s Brazil when it first came out 30 years ago, but tried watching it again and didn’t feel it aged well at all. To me, the film now seemed bloated and unnecessarily complex, pushing self-indulgence to the limit. Gilliam’s newest film The Zero Theorem is the Gilliam film most akin to Brazil, another surreal comic take on Orwell’s 1984 focusing on a bureaucrat in a retro-future world. While Gilliam’s troubles with studio interference regarding Brazil are the stuff of legend (and even the subject of a book), it at least received a wide theatrical release. The Zero Theorem had a spotty release, screening in St. Louis just two nights at Webster University, but it makes its way to DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA on January 20th.

Explaining the plot of The Zero Theorem is kind of pointless. Something about a computer hacker...

After "Birdman" led the Central Ohio Film Critics Association's list of nominees, it was "Selma" that proved the most popular effort of the bunch. The film won five awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Whiplash," meanwhile, each won a pair of honors. Check out the nominees here, the full list of winners below and a whole lot more at The Circuit. Best Film "Selma" Top 10 1. "Selma" 2. "Whiplash" 3. "Snowpiercer" 4. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" 5. "Nightcrawler" 6. "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" 7. "The Imitation Game" 8. "Boyhood" 9. "A Most Violent Year" 10. "Gone Girl" Best Director Ava DuVernay, "Selma" (Runner-up: Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel") Best Actor David Oyelowo, "Selma" (Runners-up: Jake Gyllenhaal, "Nightcrawler" and Michael Keaton, "Birdman") Best Actress Essie Davis, "The Babadook" (Runner-up: Scarlett Johansson, "Under the Skin") Best Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash" (Runners-up: Josh Brolin, "Inherent Vice" and Mark Ruffalo,...

A new year of films may beckon, but there are lots of movies from 2014 you may have missed. Here's a list of 2014's most underappreciated...

There was no shortage of magnificent films in 2014 of every kind, from the expensive and explosive to the low-key and experimental. But it's a sad fact of life that not all movies do as well as they should, either because of poor distribution or simply because they'd been released at the same time as something much bigger and more star-laden.

While the list below is by no means an exhaustive one - there are plenty of great films from 2014 that we're still getting around to seeing - it's our attempt to highlight a few fine pieces of work that didn't get quite as much love as they deserved.

So without further ado - and in no particular order - we'll start with a stunning...

In nominations announcements from those critics groups who bother with them, "Birdman" is far and away the leader, even if "Boyhood" remains the overall victor on the winning side. That played out again with the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, which handed Alejandro González Iñárritu's film 10 nominations Sunday morning. One wonders whether the film could lead with the Oscar nods, too, when they are announced in just 11 days. Check out the full list of winners below. Winners will be announced Jan. 8. And catch the rest at The Circuit. Best Film "Birdman" "Boyhood" "Gone Girl" "The Grand Budapest Hotel" "The Imitation Game" "A Most Violent Year" "Nightcrawler" "Selma" "Snowpiercer" "Whiplash" Best Director Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" Damien Chazelle, "Whiplash" Ava DuVernay, "Selma" Alejandro González Iñárritu, "Birdman" Richard Linklater, "Boyhood" Best Actor Ralph Fiennes, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" Jake Gyllenhaal, "Nightcrawler" Michael Keaton, "Birdman" David Oyelowo, "Selma" Eddie Redmayne,...

A great film score complements without burrowing too far into the ideas, wrestles with genre without locking the picture into a fixed identity, amplifies actors and actress’ choices without spilling the beans. A composer’s job is a balancing act. More and more, movie music finds itself backing off too far, devolving into incidental muzac, or going too far, where full-blast orchestral sounds pummel us like the Transformers’ energon punches. There’s a sweet spot, and the best film scores of the year ride it for an entire runtime. I shouldn’t be surprised that my favorite film scores of the year line-up closely with my favorite films of the year. As someone who goes to the movies with his ears as wide open as his eyes, I found myself captivated by 2014’s audio-visual offerings. Below, what I’d consider the "best" of the year (along with a few runner-ups,...

It's that time of the year again, when not-so-jolly critics start making those lists, checking them twice, to break down an entire year of movies in list form. Last year, I split up my year-end piece into three separate stories, Most Overrated, Most Underrated and my Top 10. This year, I'm changing things up again, ever so slightly, discarding the Overrated category entirely. It's a category I always seem to have trouble with it, and, this year, only two of my picks were wide releases, with another that hasn't even hit theaters yet. I'm also changing the Underrated list to "Overlooked," since it fits better with what I'm trying to say: that these five movies below are truly fantastic, but simply weren't given their just due in theaters.

That's not to say I'm completely surprised that this quintet is overlooked. After all, the "widest" release for all of these films was a whopping 63 theaters,...

Terry Gilliam’s second solo directorial effort, Time Bandits, remains an oddly hilarious bridge between his work with the Monty Python gang and his subsequent dystopian solo films like Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and even last year’s The Zero Theorem. Drenched in English dry wit and warped by the cartoonist’s soul that pervades all of Gilliam’s work, the film sees a gang of little people abandoning their posts as the creator’s right hand men to leap through the corridors of time pillaging as many treasures as they can drag with them, while a child gets wrapped up in the mischief along the way. Of its period in more ways that one, it feels a bit like a valiant attempt at emulating Spielberg with Gilliam-Goggles on.

With a stolen map of all time and space in hand, the little gang of burglars, led by Randall (played by a...

Adorable. So witty and compassionate and bittersweet and just the right little bit of snarky that you will cry tears of joy from the perfection of it. I’m “biast” (pro): love the cast

I’m “biast” (con): was worried about CGI creepiness

I have read the source material (and I am indifferent about it)

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

So, a small brown illegal immigrant — he doesn’t even have a passport — sneaks over the border into the United Kingdom… and is instantly welcomed into the home of a quintessentially English family in London, complete with a kooky elderly kinswoman of unspecified relation and a house that is the epitome of storybook chic.

And it is adorable.

Adorable.

Paddington is, in fact, so cute and witty and compassionate and bittersweet and just the right little bit of snarky and positively downright altruistic that...

It’s not funny, only its villains speak truth, and its putative heroes are now the horrible bosses… though the movie doesn’t seem to realize that. I’m “biast” (pro): enjoyed the first movie

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

It’s disconcerting when this happens: My reaction to a sequel is so powerfully diametrically opposite my reaction to its progenitor that it makes me wonder if I entirely misread that first film. (This has happened before.) Horrible Bosses 2 left such a rancid taste in my mouth that it left me reconsidering the fact that I kinda liked Horrible Bosses. Was I wrong back in 2011?

But I rewatched Bosses, and no: It’s a pretty good — not great, but pretty good — black comedy with a little bit of something to say about the desperation of the Great Recession...

Happy birthday, Terry Gilliam! Today the director, writer, animator and erstwhile-American turns 74 years old. It’s certainly cause for celebration. Even as a septuagenarian he’s still working. The Zero Theorem only recently opened in the United States, his twelfth feature film as director. There are plenty of ways to pay tribute to the artist and his work with your Saturday, though I’d imagine it’s hard to make the time to watch each of his dozen movies in a row. Instead, if you can carve out just under ten minutes, here’s a more practical option. It’s got more laughs per minute than most of his feature work as well. Storytime is cobbled together from two separate cartoons that Gilliam made for two different TV shows. The first, the diptych of “Don the Cockroach” and “The Albert Einstein Story,” aired on The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine in 1971. Gilliam also did the opening titles for...

The Zero Theorem

A Terry Gilliam Film Starring Academy Award® Winners Christoph Waltz, Matt Damon & Tilda Swinton, with David Thewlis & Melanie Thierry

Debuting on Blu-ray™ & DVD Jan. 20

Bonus Material Includes Four Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes

Witness a vision of the techno-philosophical future from visionary director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) when The Zero Theorem debuts on Blu-ray™ and DVD Jan. 20 … Continue reading →

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Matt Damon has signed on to star in Downsizing for 20th Century Fox and writer-director Alexander Payne.

We first reported on the project back in March 2009, when the filmmaker had actors such as Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and Sacha Baron Cohen attached to star. The project never moved forward, as the filmmaker went on to direct The Descendants just a few years later.

The story centers on a man (Matt Damon) who comes to the realization that his life would be much better if he shrunk himself. Alexander Payne co-wrote the screenplay with Jim Taylor, who he won an Oscar with for writing Sideways. They also co-wrote the screenplays for Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt, which were all directed by Alexander Payne.

With Matt Damon taking on Downsizing, that puts him out of contention for Legendary's The Great Wall, a project the actor has been circling since September. He...

As we all know, Terry Gilliam's quest to make a film about Cervantes' Don Quixote is well into its second decade: the original iteration, "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote," which was to have starred Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort, fell apart years back, and though Gilliam eventually got the rights back, names like Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall and Ewan McGregor have been attached to the project without the film ever getting to the start line. But fresh off semi-return-to-form "The Zero Theorem," and the success of the Monty Python reunion, Gilliam's back for another go, and though he recently talked of a 'hiccup,' it seems to have been overcome as Variety confirm recent rumors that fast-rising star Jack O'Connell, from the excellent "Starred Up" and "'71," is starring in the film. O'Connell, who's about to go supernova in Angelina Jolie's Oscar hopeful "Unbroken," will take...

Tilda Swinton is a brainy actress who swings easily from passion indie projects ("Orlando," "The Deep End," "Julia," "I Am Love," "The Zero Theorem") to studio fare, from arch-villains to objects of desire, and from devoted mother in the Scottish highlands to glamourous globe-trotting movie star.  Swinton's androgynous attributes, from Sally Potter's "Orlando" to Bong Joon-ho's "Snowpiercer," are an asset for this chameleon. Her latest roles in "Snowpiercer" (which is now streaming on Netflix) and "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Wes Anderson's follow-up to "Moonrise Kingdom" (in which she also starred), are generating supporting actress awards talk. They both brought out the clown in her, she says in our video interview below at the Sunset Tower Hotel. She got a kick out of creating these face-distorting roles. She and Bong wanted to...

Even though Matt Damon and Ben Affleck aren't usually associated with science fiction—Damon has a small role in The Zero Theorem and Affleck has Paycheck—the duo will be developing the sci-fi espionage thriller Incorporated for Syfy. Per the press release, the show is "set in a world where corporations have seemingly unlimited power. This will be the story of one man’s efforts to beat the system." A world where corporations have seemingly unlimited power? That's preposterous! I don't know if anyone can buy a series that's set in a world that sounds exactly like our world. David and Alex Pastor (The Last Days) will write the pilot. Ted Humphrey (The Good Wife) will serve as executive producer/showrunner, with Damon, Affleck and Jennifer Todd also executive producing. Pearl Street Film’s Margaret Chernin will serve as associate producer. Hit the jump for the press release. Syfy Gets...