Interview: Director and Star of 'Son of Saul' on Making Art in a Politically Correct World

Jose here. The evils of the Nazi regime have been documented in myriad ways, and in practically every medium possible. Film in particular, has created a subgenre that consists of harrowing stories about concentration camps, the diabolical genocide of the Jews, and other events that put all the human race under a shameful light. However, perhaps because of Hollywood’s tendency to overpraise the human spirit, and its relentless need to “inspire”, Holocaust films have become a “niche” meant to help actors and directors win awards. Holocaust films in a nutshell always go for the emotional and rarely, if ever, attempt to touch the intellectual.

Enter first time director László Nemes, who caught Cannes by surprise with his unique Son of Saul, which has just opened in US theaters, a film that dispenses of each and every cliché you’ve seen played in every other Holocaust movie. There are no string-filled overwrought scores, no movie stars losing weight, gaining accents or donning beards, and most surprisingly, there are no attempts at oversimplifying the Holocaust as anything other than a series of personal infernos lived in a collective reality. The inner hell in this case, is that of Auschwitz prisoner Saul (Géza Röhrig), a Sonderkommando member, who one day makes a gruesome discovery that drives him to make a decision that might have deadly results.

The interview after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Star Wars & Oscar. How Will "The Force Awakens" Fare?

The second that people started realizing that everyone was actually loving the new Star Wars episode, you could feel the Oscar buzz wave building and building and broke with lots of "Best Picture nomination! demands online. The BFCA even announced a ridiculously embarrassing extra ballot measure to ask the members if they'd like to add the movie into their Best Picture lineup after the fact. In short: no one will ever take this group seriously again. (Sigh) 'The Force Awakens will be swimming in Oscars!' the internet seems to have proclaimed en masse.

But not so fast young padewans.

Oscar nominations can prove elusive, especially for franchises, family films, and genre films three groups to which Star Wars belongs. People will cite "Oscar voters grew up with the franchise -- they'll be nostalgic!" but, consider: I grew up with the franchise. I loved episode 7. And I wouldn't vote for it. 

This is not to say that I would make a typical Oscar voter. I would not. But typical Oscar voters tastes lie somewhere in the space between critics and general audiences. Put more plainly: there's a difference between totally enjoying a spectacle and wanting it honored as the very "Best" of its year.

Let's look back at Star Wars Oscar history to get some clues as to how The Force Awakens will fare after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Team Experience's Most Popular Tweets o' The Year

Year in Review Party!

Just for silly quick fun I thought we'd list our most popular tweets this year. Not necessarily the best but the ones that caught on somehow. It's like a very quick 140 character scrapbook of the film year.

Our 15 Most Popular Tweets of 2015 after the jump... 

Opening Twitter. pic.twitter.com/2s2JKHoco4

— Kyle Stevens (@cinementalist) October 12, 2015

Click to read more ...

"Tangerine" and the Case for Mya Taylor

Kieran, here taking a moment to talk about Mya Taylor’s Independent Spirit Award-nominated performance in Sean Baker’s Tangerine.

Being the calm in a storm is not as easy a dynamic to render on-screen as it looks. That’s what Mya Taylor is tasked with in Tangerine—playing the careful, contemplative counterpoint to Sin-Dee’s (Kitana “Kiki” Rodriguez) turbulent rampage through the streets of East Hollywood. When considering the two performances, both accomplished but in very different keys, I immediately thought of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Sadie and Mare Winningham’s title character in 1995’s Georgia (previously discussed here). Though both Alexandra and Sin-Dee’s lives aren’t exactly as diametrically opposed as Georgia and Sadie’s, there’s a similar thread of calm vs. irrational running beautifully through both films. Like Winningham, Taylor gifts her film with an unfussy balance of quiet observation and brimming, longstanding frustration. [More...]

Click to read more ...

Review: "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens"

This article originally appeared yesterday in Nathaniel's column on Towleroad. It is reprinted here in a slightly longer version

[Please read with the John Williams Star Wars theme blaring in your head…]

 

In the first trailer for The Force Awakens (aka Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens but we’ll go with the shorter title). Han Solo famously announced…

Chewie we’re home.

You’ll be happy to learn that it wasn’t just a well placed trailer byte but a promise to audiences that the film actually delivers on. I can state unequivocably that the The Force Awakens is the best Star Wars film in 32 years. That might sound like a backhanded compliment — for what could be worse than the 1999-2005 prequels? —  but it’s meant with great affection just like the film in question...

Click to read more ...