Bob Odenkirk does not read as an action star. He knows this. You know this. And yet, here he is, three films deep into an unlikely second act as a guy who takes and delivers beatings on screen with the kind of bruised conviction that most traditional action leads can’t touch. With Normal, directed by...
Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby doesn’t announce itself. And yet, it arrives fully formed, like someone who’s spent enough time in therapy to know that the best medicine is to laugh at their own ridiculous idiosyncrasies. Premiering at Sundance, closing out Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, and now screening at SIFF, the film has quietly (and then...
Maria Bakalova is a star. The Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout not only captured national attention as Borat’s fictional daughter Tutar Sagdiyev in the 2020 mockumentary but she earned an Academy Award nomination for her efforts. Complete with uncomplimentary prosthetics and raggedy apparel, Bakalova fearlessly faced down judgmental southern debutants and, later, Rudy Giuliani’s roaming hands. But...
Every once in a while a movie comes along and scrambles the noggin in just the best way possible. This week, that movie was Greener Grass, an absurdist comedy/satire that takes aim at suburbia and polite society in cruelly hilarious fashion. At the front of it all, and laboring behind the scenes, are Jocelyn DeBoer...
Mads Mikkelsen might not be a household name but the Danish actor has haunted some of the biggest Hollywood properties in the known universe, from playing Jyn Erso’s father in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ’to featuring as big bad Kaecilius in Marvel’s Doctor Strange to starring opposite James Bond in Casino Royale. The...
Matthew Heineman has made a name for himself over the past few years hawking visceral documentaries in some of the world’s most harrowing war zones. In 2015, he brought Cartel Land to the screen, a story about drug smuggling and vigilantism that put the documentary filmmaker in the midst of fire fights and in the...
The Artist was an unprecedented film. Movies don’t come in black and white anymore. And no one would think to make a silent black-and-white film in 2010. When you chat with the brains behind the film, it makes sense. These are incredibly French, reserved folk who speak in hushed tones. I’ve spent a lot of time in...
A little bit uncomfortable in his armchair and quite obviously neurotic, Charlie McDowell may have been overshadowed by Mark Duplass, the star of his film The One I Love, but there was something to Duplass’ confidence in the man that made him stand taller, that made his shoulders broaden. For a first time director, working with...
I made no secret of my admiration for director Richard Linklater. Over the course of 25 years, the self-taught auteur has been responsible for some of the finest, most human pieces of film to grace the silver screen. From his hauntingly perfect Before series to his most recent – and most ambitious – masterpiece Boyhood,...
Bold move Mr. Steven Knight, bold move. Making a movie that takes place entirely in one car over a series of blue-tooth enabled phone calls doesn’t exactly pop out as exciting but it does lay the groundwork for a phenomenally restrained performance courtesy of Tom Hardy while showing an avant-garde approach to what cinema can be. ...