The New Classics: First Reformed

Michael Cusumano here with the most recent film I've yet to induct into this series. Despite its newness, it's one of the titles I'm most confident will earn the label of classic in the course of time.

Can you pinpoint the moment someone crosses the line between faith and fanaticism? Is it even possible to fully define the boundaries between the two? Most reasonable people would agree it’s around the moment someone commits an act of violence in the name of God, but an individual crosses that boundary internally long before he straps on a suicide vest. 

That elusive moment of radicalization exists somewhere in the vast gray silences of Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. It passes by so quietly that it is possible to be late into the film and have no inkling of the wild-eyed zealot Ethan Hawke’s Reverend Toller will become in the film’s shocking final movement...

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Zainab Jah and Jayme Lawson reminisce about Sundance

by Murtada Elfadl

 

In the final part of the conversation I moderated between the actresses Zainab Jah (who will next be seen in Seacole) and Jayme Lawson (who will next be seen in The Batman), they talk about going to Sundance for the first time. They were there in January to premiere their film together Farewell Amor in which they play mother and daughter immigrants. With nostalgia for film festivals in full bloom, let's take a trip back to a happier time just a handful of months ago...

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Taste the Blood of Showbiz History

5 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

1941 Citizen Kane has its world premiere in NYC

1969 Wes Anderson born in Houston, Texas

1970 Happy 50th anniversary to Hammer Horror's Taste the Blood of Dracula starring Christopher Lee which opened on this day.

1998 Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke get hitched, two days after Uma's 28th birthday and two months before the birth of their daughter Maya (who is now an actress, see Stranger Things season 3). They had co-starred in the previous year's sci-fi drama Gattaca and will make two more films together (Chelsea Walls and Tape) as well as a second child before separating in 2003 - a very big year for Uma, professionally. Yes Uma has been on our brains this week.

2000 Gladiator has its world premiere in Los Angeles before opening nationwide the following weekend and becoming an enormous hit. Later it competed for Best Picture at the big awards show and when the envelope was opened it was always...

GLADIATOR!"

Juries Juries Juries: Sundance and Venice

by Murtada Elfadl

Garcia, Rees and Hawke

It seems like there's a festival jury annoucement everyday!

The Sundance Film Festival has chosen 25 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture and science to review the films among their different programs. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival Jury members are... 

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Posterized: Where'd ya go with Richard Linklater?

by Nathaniel R

Richard Linklater directing Cate Blanchett on the set of "Where'd Ya Go, Bernadette?"

Richard Linklater, who burst on to the indie film scene as the voice of the "Slacker" generation, has had quite an eclectic career all told. He's made 19 theatrically released narrative features of a wide variety of genres and been instrumental in launching new stars (Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, and Miranda Cosgrove) or adding significant lustre and awards notices to other filmographies (Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Jack Black and Patricia Arquette chief among that list). The Austin-based filmmaker's latest is the adaptation of the best-seller Where'd Ya Go Bernadette. Cate Blanchett stars as the artist in self-imposed exile. 

Linklater's films have ranged from perfect gems to little seen oddities, director for hire gigs, weird and funny larks, remakes, misfires, and ambitious personal projects. How many of them have you seen? All 19 posters are after the jump...

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