There’s no doubt in my mind that 12 Years a Slave will go down in history as a landmark film. Never before, and quite possibly never again, has the issue of African American slavery and the still present pain and anguish been this viscerally and brilliantly realized. Its effect is provocative, much like gazing into an unattended open wound that never quite heals itself, but rather reaches a point of stasis beyond which things couldn’t possibly get any worse no matter how awful a situation may be.
Dork Shelf talk to director Steve McQueen, writer John Ridley, and historical consultant Henry Louis Gates about their work on the powerful drama 12 Years a Slave, the history behind free African American turned forced slave Solomon Northup’s life, how the story came to the filmmakers, if they thought the truth of slavery being depicted on screen would be too much for audiences to handle, what Ridley found most painful about the writing process, and why McQueen believes cinema is the greatest of all art forms.
12 Years a Slave Special Presentation Director: Steve McQueen A mere capsule review at festival time could never do justice to McQueen’s powerful masterwork that’s not so much an excellent piece of filmmaking, but a landmark cinematic achievement. While no one left alive today could possibly ever be able to relay the atrocities of America’s […]
This week we look at the heavily anticipated DVD and Blu-ray releases of Moonrise Kingdom and Prometheus, which lead off a crowded week where we also look at the Adam Sandler comedy That's My Boy, and four partially Canadian productions: the complete series of The Firm, Red Lights, Surviving Progress, and Crooked Arrows
A forced attempt to resurrect the Alien franchise, Prometheus disappoints with a jarring combination of stunning visuals and a terribly half-baked script.
Following the kick-off to our coverage of the CFC's 18th annual Worldwide Short Film Festival on Friday, here's a look at a handful of programs from this year's gathering of some of the best short films from around the world that starts tomorrow night. Today, we take a look at several more of the high profile Official Selection Programs, indie comedy, music video, and science fiction showcases, and the highly anticipated all night horror marathon The Night Shift and the always star studded Celebrity Shorts.
Wrapping up our look at the cinematic offerings for the month of June, we take a look at some real heavy hitters with Brave, Moonrise Kingdom, Prometheus, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Snow White and the Huntsman, Rock of Ages, and Piranha 3DD, which will undoubtedly win the box office crown for the month.
This week, action and misery seem to be the themes as takes on Shame and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, while Noah Taylor looks at The Divide, and Phil Brown watches Contraband
Your course schedule for This Week in DVD: Psychology (A Dangerous Method), philosophy (Confuscius), physical education (Monster Brawl), American Studies (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), film studies (Corman's World), and detention (Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked).
The interesting, but flawed Haywire stands out as an anomaly in director Steven Soderbergh's recent filmography. It’s a straight up revenge film unconcerned with further reaching implications, but dripping with sexuality and action.
The nominees for this year’s Canoscars, better and more formally know as the Genie Awards (now entering its 32nd year of existence), have been announced, and while there aren’t necessarily many surprises in what’s included there’s always room to complain about it.
It was a big rush when the X-Men films finally hit the screen, all my most beloved characters expanding from the page to the screen. Then X-Men: The Last Stand came along and not only did the shit hit the fan, but it was set to high, and it splattered back in our faces many times over. X-Men: First Class is a chance for redemption, and is aimed at the diehards, while also attempting to attract some new viewers.
The trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s anticipated X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class has just hit the net. Set in the 1960's during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the film sports a very stellar cast led by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy as Magneto and Professor Xavier respectively. The film also stars Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne and Oliver Platt.
We finally have our first look at the cast of Matthew Vaughn's upcoming X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class, and the result are... well, kind of disappointing. Don't get us wrong, First Class has a pretty stellar cast led by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy as Magneto and Professor Xavier respectively — Maybe we were just expecting more from this first picture?
When British director Neil Marshall isn’t making excellent horror films like Dog Soldiers and The Descent, he is making action movies. Fairly mediocre action movies. His last attempt at the action genre, the post-apocalyptic Doomsday, was both a critical and financial failure. Which was why I was skeptical about Marshall’s next crack at the action […]
