Catherine Keener

The Criterion Shelf: Four Trilogies

The Criterion Channel has put together small collections of films by noted filmmakers past and present, choosing three each to represent the essence of their work. 

TIFF 2014: Elephant Song Review

Elephant Song Special Presentations In the moment, it’s easy to get a little invested in Elephant Song, a mysterious drama about a senior doctor, Toby Green (Bruce Greenwood) being called in on Christmas to see if a charismatic patient, Michael (Xavier Dolan, acting in a film he didn’t make himself), knows anything about a missing […]

Home Entertainment Review: Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa .5

Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa .5 (Jeff Tremaine, 2014) – Part of the bizarre tradition of Jackass feature film releases is that every movie gets a DVD loaded with deleted sequences as well as a second .5 release of additional deleted sequences cut together into a second feature film. You could easily write this process off […]

Begin Again Review

Begin Again, filmmaker John Carney’s musically minded feature length follow-up to the genuinely charming Irish sleeper hit Once, has all the energy, talent, and drive of a dire, out of tune cover band that has deluded itself quite terribly into thinking all its members are swaggering rock and roll gods and goddesses.

Interview: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Dork Shelf talks with recent Emmy winner and TV icon Julia Louis-Dreyfus about her starring role in the comedy Enough Said and creating chemistry with the cast, how she brought her own personal feelings about her eldest leaving for college to the production, why she never really actively sought out work in film prior to this and stuck to TV, and what sports movie contains her favourite cinematic moment.

Interview: Nicole Holofcener

Dork Shelf talks to Enough Said director Nicole Holofcener about how she draws inspiration from real life, the passing of James Gandolfini, how the late actor wasn’t her first choice, why it took so long for anyone to give Julia Louis-Deryfuss a starring role, and the difficulties of modern filmmaking as a female director who likes making age appropriate movies about real women.

Interview: Toni Collette & Catherine Keener

Dork Shelf talks to Enough Said co-stars Toni Collette and Catherine Keener about the differences between female characters written by men and those created by women, the reality that writer-director Nicole Holofcener brings to her productions, and why they see both of their characters’ professions as somewhat crazy.

TIFF 2013: Enough Said Review

Enough Said Special Presentation Director: Nicole Holofcener A sweet and unforced romantic comedy of errors set against the spectre of divorce, Enough Said finds writer/director Holofcener going for a bit more warmth and good will this time out following the darker Please Give. While not a reinvention of anything, it’s a well acted, snappily realized […]

The Croods Review

Far from the “Ice Age with humans” pitch made by the film’s ad campaign, The Croods is an exceptional family adventure that rises above a plot cribbed from countless Disney films to create something special. It’s a funny, vibrant, and surprisingly thoughtful and sincere effort from the makers of the equally great How to Train Your Dragon with action scenes as good as anything that wowed audiences in Rango.

This Week in DVD: 3/12/13

This week brings out some heavy hitters at the video store including Life of Pi, The Master, Hitchcock, Smashed, Playing for Keeps, This Must be the Place, and A Late Quartet.