Sheep Grazing In The Field

In a just-released Awards Daily poll, over 100 newspaper, magazine, and online film critics and movie writers have named Jordan Peele‘s Get Out as their favorite film of 2017. What a lazy, submissive, grass-munching herd. The lead of Jordan Ruimy’s article about the findings reads, “There was a time when film critics used to be … Read more

Awards Daily Calling!

Sasha Stone‘s Awards Daily is conducting a Best of 2017 poll. Critics, columnists, industry people, etc. I was asked to submit my top five or ten within a fenced-off area — i.e., a cutoff release date of July 1st, and no festival favorites that haven’t been released yet. The results will be posted sometime on … Read more

Spectral Bedsheet Guy

Either you’re intrigued and excited by the idea of a spooky but essentially non-scary ghost movie, or you’re not. Or you’re able to embrace the idea of a silent and passive ghost under a bedsheet, or not. 90% if not 95% of ticket-buyers prefer the dead-obvious kind of ghost flick (i.e. anything in the vein … Read more

Clock Coming Round on LAFF

Will the 2017 L.A. Film Festival follow the mindset of the ’16 and ’15 fests, which was basically to screen lower-profile, hand-to-mouth indie titles that no one had heard of or wanted to see? Or will they program at least a few not-yet-released films screened at Sundance, Tribeca or Cannes? Posted on 5.30.16: “The L.A. … Read more

No Missing The Latest Mungiu

I saw Cristian Mungiu‘s Graduation (Sundance Selects, 4.8) in Cannes about ten months ago. The great Mungiu, who shared the Best Director prize last May with Personal Shopper‘s Olivier Assayas, won’t be doing face-time interviews in Los Angeles. (Maybe phoners, I’m told.) My memory’s gone a little stale so I’m catching it again tonight at … Read more

Olly Olly In Come Free

Now that you’ve presumably seen Kong: Skull Island as well as Personal Shopper, do you understand what I was talking about a few days ago, which is that (a) Skull is a sloppy, scattershot joke (not one of those ten helicopters realized the danger and steered away from Kong’s reach during that chaotic swat-down sequence?) … Read more

Untethered Parisian Anxiety Movie (Haute Couture, Ectoplasmic Spooks, Eurostar Ghost Texting, Street Aromas, Scootering)

Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper finally opens theatrically this Friday, almost ten months after jolting and dividing the Cannes Film Festival last May. It’s being shown tonight at LACMA with Assayas and Kristen Stewart sitting for a post-screening q & a. The excitement that I felt just after the Salle Debussy screening — a sensation I’ll never … Read more