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Documentary Dossier: THE WOLFPACK

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New York City has nearly 8.5 million residents, and though it often feels like one is sharing a rush hour subway with a large percentage of them, the truth is that we know so few of our fellow citizens. High rises and condo buildings are cropping up every day; glancing at these ever-present walls of windows, one can’t help but wonder: who’s in there? The assumption being that you could, at any moment, find out, when the inhabitants step out for work or to pick up a carton of milk at the corner deli. The Wolfpack introduces us to one NYC family where just such an encounter was unlikely to happen – until very recently.

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Talking with Michael Winterbottom of THE FACE OF AN ANGEL

Michael Winterbottom has been making films since 1990 but it wasn’t until 2010’s The Trip that international audiences pivoted their heads towards his product. Sure, 2007’s A Mighty Heart marked a turning point for Angelina Jolie‘s career – with Winterbottom’s somewhat acclaimed film demanding the actress be taken more seriously than her resume of late – and 24 Hour Party People, though not quite deserving of the title, is cult-like in its reach, what with career-beginning performances from Steve Coogan and Andy Serkis. Read More

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Director Face/Off: Wes Anderson Vs. Richard Linklater (Part Two – Film Locations)

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Wes Anderson
and Richard Linklater –prominent writer/directors, Texas natives (both have roots in Houston) and coincidentally my two favorite humans. Their latest films were nominated for Best Motion Picture this year and, delving further, their careers have evolved at very similar rates, humbly paving the quaint dirt road that was the indie film scene in the ‘90s with Slacker and Bottle Rocket. Onward, they transitioned to tastemakers, acquiring cult followings with Dazed and Confused and The Royal Tenenbaums. With each film Anderson and Linklater make, their toolbox gets a little bigger without compromising their eclectic and pridefully offbeat styles, one vastly different from the other, yet hauntingly similar. Which leads to the question, who does it better? 

Both Texas boys, Anderson and Linklater began their film careers humbly and close to home, filming in Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, and other Texas towns. Their horizons expanded as their budgets and reputations did, eventually allowing them to make what are popularly regarded as their opuses, The Grand Budapest Hotel, filmed in Germany, and Boyhood, Linklater’s “love letter to Texas.” But, allow me to ask, whose film locations are better?

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ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Season 3, Episode 2 Recap “Bed Bugs and Beyond”

Cooties; Cat fights; Relapses; Double-crossing; French fries at gun point; An ill-advised proposal; Burning Books; And some very, very bad news…

An entire female population in their underwear, a gum wrapper proposal, cat fights and hate sex in a condemned library are not nearly as much fun as they sound, in ‘Bed Bugs And Beyond.’

[This recap will discuss ‘Bed Bugs And Beyond’’ in detail, and may contain spoilers. Be advised.]

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Out in Theaters: ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

At this year’s Sundance, I skipped Me and Earl and the Dying Girl because, let’s be honest, it’s not a great title. I took in Noah Baumbach’s ruthlessly silly Mistress America instead with Earl playing just a screen over. Had I known it would go on to a standing ovation and stealing US Grand Jury and Dramatic Audience Awards at the fest, I probably would have hung around. Since its premiere, M+E+DG has gone on to become an audience favorite and critical darling throughout the territories its played, holding onto its 100% Rotten Tomato score. Having said that, I still wouldn’t suggest plopping “Dying Girl” into any future movie titles. Still a major turnoff.

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Out in Theaters: THE FACE OF AN ANGEL

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At the halfway point of Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel, Thomas Lang, a film director in the process of adapting a book about a high-profile murder case, is sitting at lunch with his collaborators on the project. The murder case involves Jessica Fuller, an American student accused of killing her study-abroad roommate in Italy, which the viewer will recognize as a story based on the real-life Amanda Knox case, which made headlines in 2007. When prompted to speak about his angle for the story, Thomas says: “The story is that there’s no such thing as real truth or justice. It’s just a popularity contest.”

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Netfix: 7 Recent (Underrated) Thrillers Streaming on Netflix

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The great thing about Netflix is that it gives you a lot of TV and movie watching options. The bad thing about Netflix is that it gives you…a lot of TV and movie watching options. So many that it can be overwhelming. I’d guess around ninety percent of our time spent on Netflix is scrolling through thousands of movies and TV shows, before finally deciding on something three hours after you’ve first logged on. The aim of this column is to provide easily accessible Netflix suggestions based on a different focal point each week.


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ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Season 3, Episode 1 Recap “Mother’s Day”

In which old friends return, people move on, plots are hatched and parties are planned, as Caputo’s “kinder, gentler regime” struggles to take hold.

Mother’s Day can be one of the hardest, as well as most exciting, days of the year in a women’s penitentiary. Inmates with children get to see how much their kids have grown, while also being reminded how powerless and trapped they are behind razor wire.

It’s a time for reflection, for remembering, which serves as an excellent re-introduction to the complex, convoluted world of Litchfield Penitentiary, in the brand new season of Jenji Kohan’s Orange Is The New Black.

[This recap will discuss ‘Mother’s Day’ in detail, and may contain spoilers. Be advised.]

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Talking with Alfonso Gómez Rejón of ME & EARL & THE DYING GIRL

Six months ago, Alfonso Gómez Rejón‘s stock was of Jordan Belfort’s penny list variety. He himself had to push it on people. And that’s exactly how he landed a gig directing the Sundance-winning, indie-record-breaking, standing-ovation-inducing Me & Earl & The Dying Girl [our review here]. Says Rejón, “I had to fight for the job…. It was torture.” But Rejón would gleefully admit that the painstaking process that got him from point A to point sitting behind that coveted director’s chair was one well worth it. After all, he’s gone from penny stock to Fortune 500 in one quick go. Read More

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The Deepest Cuts: FRANKENHOOKER

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Sci-fi and horror nerds are championing the return of a certain much-beloved low-budget aesthetic heralded by the success of George Miller’s newest installment in the Mad Max franchise, Fury Road, and in the use of practical effects in evidence in trailers for the upcoming Star Wars episode. In the case of the latter film, this reliance on puppets and robots represents a return to the ethos of episodes IV-VI – but one needn’t go back as far as 1977 to see actors interacting with real objects in the same physical space for the sake of thrills. Read More