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To paraphrase Kent Jones on John Carpenter: America doesn’t have so many great directors to spare that it can afford to let Hal Hartley fall through the cracks. It’s been 11 years since Ned Rifle, and while a spate of restorations and Criterion Channel streams (to say nothing of a novel based on his aborted Amazon series) do something to reinforce Hartley’s inimitable talents, there’s the sense that this filmmaker of only 65 shouldn’t be out to pasture. Thus the all-around cheer when his Kickstarter for Where to Land reached its goal in 2023––there’s surely a better world where he doesn’t have to ask to such extents, but this is not that world.

Where to Land finally debuts on September 12 at New York’s Roxy Cinema, hopefully with cities to follow. Ahead of this there’s a trailer that features a proper Hartley cast...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Museum of the Moving Image

Tom Gunning is celebrated in a weekend-long series featuring M on 35mm, Hal Hartley’s Flirt, and an avant-garde program; films by Buster Keaton and Renny Harlin play in See It Big: Stunts!

Nitehawk Cinema

A print of Josef von Sternberg’s The Devil is a Woman screens early on Saturday and Sunday.

Film at Lincoln Center

Films by Charles Burnett, Ousmane Sembène, and more screen in L.A. Rebellion.

Museum of Modern Art

Films by Howard Hawks, Leo McCarey, and Dorothy Arzner play in The Lady at 100.

Film Forum

A new 35mm print of 8½ begins playing, while Mort Rifkin favorite A Man and a Woman continues in a new restoration.

Bam

A retrospective of Sudanese cinema begins.

Roxy Cinema

The French Connection and City Dudes screen this Saturday; The Little Rascals plays for free on Sunday,...

By mere chance, The Friend has been a part of my life for quite some time now. I was first introduced to the book when Hal Hartley recommended it for my book club sometime around 2021, when I was just a girl with two cats. Fast forward and it’s 2024, now I love dogs and had just adopted a puppy named Variety Magazine. It was during that spring, on one of those early days of puppyhood, that he got street cast for a b-roll sequence in an upcoming film… that was to be an adaptation of Sigrid Nuñez’s The Friend. […]

The post Amalia Meets Bing: Walking with the Canine Star of The Friend and Talking to Owner Bev Klingensmith and Trainer Bill Berloni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

By mere chance, The Friend has been a part of my life for quite some time now. I was first introduced to the book when Hal Hartley recommended it for my book club sometime around 2021, when I was just a girl with two cats. Fast forward and it’s 2024, now I love dogs and had just adopted a puppy named Variety Magazine. It was during that spring, on one of those early days of puppyhood, that he got street cast for a b-roll sequence in an upcoming film… that was to be an adaptation of Sigrid Nuñez’s The Friend. […]

The post Amalia Meets Bing: Walking with the Canine Star of The Friend and Talking to Owner Bev Klingensmith and Trainer Bill Berloni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! features actress Mila Kunis, who will be discussing her new film Goodrich, co-starring Michael Keaton. The film, directed by Hal Hartley, follows Andy Goodrich, whose second wife leaves him on Christmas Eve, forcing him to deal with some difficult family relationships. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will also join Kimmel for a […]

Jimmy Kimmel Live!: Mila Kunis, Nancy Pelosi...

Useful as it may be for facts and stats, an actor’s Wikipedia page isn’t ever the go-to place for a complete, nuanced description of their thespian essence, and so it proves for Isabelle Huppert. “Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation,” states the introduction, in a strikingly selective encapsulation of over half a century on screen. Huppert can certainly do froideur and severity with flair — she’s imposing beyond the bounds of her diminutive frame in such rigorous, chill-carrying films as Claude Chabrol’s “La Cérémonie,” Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” and of course Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” though whether these complex, conflicted women are “devoid of morality” isn’t a call for any one web editor to make.

But it does Huppert an injustice to paint her, however admiringly, as some...

Beloved French actor Isabelle Huppert will receive the Lumière Award in the city of Lyon in October.

Created by Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux, the Lumière Film Festival celebrates classic and contemporary cinema each fall. The Lumière Award honors a leading figure in the world of cinema and their entire body of work.

Huppert succeeds German director Wim Wenders who was awarded the prize in 2023. Former recipients include Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach, Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, Pedro Almodóvar, Miloš Forman, the Dardenne brothers and Wong Kar-wai, among others.

“It’s a great honor for me to receive the Lumière Award. It’s a magnificent prize, and so is its festival. It’s an award that bears the name of the inventors of cinema! Receiving it fills me with joy and pride,” said Huppert.

A prolific actor who shoots an average...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Anthology Film Archives

“Essential Cinema” brings films by Mekas’ Walden and Journey to Lithuania, Man Ray, Duchamp, René Clair and more; a Quebec cinema retrospective is underway.

Museum of the Moving Image

Hal Hartley’s masterpiece Henry Fool plays on 35mm this Sunday; a Jim Henson program shows on Saturday and Sunday; a Warner Bros. cartoon collection screens Friday and Sunday.

Metrograph

A complete retrospective of Lee Chang-dong has begun.

Film Forum

Le Samouraï and the Belmondo-led Classe tous risques continue playing in new 4K restorations; It Came from Outer Space plays in 3D this Sunday.

Paris Theater

A dual retrospective of Steven Zaillian and Patricia Highsmith brings films by Hitchcock, Fincher, Scorsese, Haynes, Wenders, and more.

IFC Center

The End of Evangelion continues its run, while Paprika, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, and Repo! The Genetic Opera show late.

The...

The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.

Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988

An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...

In early 2020 Hal Hartley managed to Kickstarter-finance Where to Land, a feature based on, so he claimed, the best screenplay he’d ever written. Other things––you surely noticed––from early 2020 made small, independent features a difficult prospect. Nearly four years on, however, Hartley’s returning to finance that same film with the same $300,000 price tag in a new Kickstarter campaign.

Regulars Bill Sage and Robert John Burke are expected to star alongside Katelyn Sparks; no word on the once-cast Edie Falco, Parker Posey, and Elina Löwensohn, but any appearing in his film is about the least-surprising thing that might transpire. With an essential, extensive Hartley retrospective now running on the Criterion Channel, one hopes interest in this filmmaker––among the most appreciably sui generis America’s produced the last 40 years––is sufficient to finance a new project.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Joseph Fulton, a well-regarded fifty-eight year-old director of romantic comedies,...

It isn’t news that a veritable fount of films becomes newly available to consumers each and every month. Between original movies on Netflix, the latest blockbusters fresh out of theaters, and other buzzy titles arriving across platforms, it can be overwhelming to sort through the myriad streamers to find the hidden gems you wouldn’t see otherwise.

But one of the best things about streaming is just that: It gives independent cinema a chance — no matter how small that chance may be! — to reach a wider audience long after a title’s release. Movies that had limited runs in theaters, or departed quickly after bombing at the box office, are now available at the tips of anyone’s fingers with the right subscription. From foreign features to obscure older classics, the Criterion Channel helps provide access to rare titles that prove difficult to chase down on DVD. While specialty sites like Shudder,...

Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.

Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort

Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...

We ranked the 100 best movies of the ‘80s, and listed our favorite performances, scores, and anime of the decade. We interviewed Charles Burnett about his compromised masterpiece “My Brother’s Wedding,” Susan Seidelman about bringing a new kind of woman to the big screen, “Buddies” actor David Schachter about the first movie to tackle AIDS head-on, and went deep with Hal Hartley on the making of “The Unbelievable Truth.” Michael Giacchino waxing poetic on “Raiders of the Lost Ark?” Griffin Dunne reflecting on “After Hours?” The story of the Sundance Institute from the people who brought it to life? A true Day One exclusive.

We ran essays about the synth invasion of Hollywood scores, the uncomfortably comedic role that consent played in ’80s comedies, the birth of the steadicam, the ending of “Fatal Attraction,” and — of course — why “Streets of Fire” should’ve been the biggest rock musical of our lifetimes.

“This inescapable truth about our lives today that any given moment each and every one of us could become a broken and confused animal scratching the surface of the Earth for some small sign of life.”

In August 1988, Steven Soderbergh shot his first narrative feature film, “sex, lies, and videotape,” in one month with a budget $1.2 million. Five months later, it premiered at the U.S. Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it won the first-ever Audience Award. A few months after that, it screened at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or over “Do the Right Thing.” “sex, lies, and videotape” hit theaters in August 1989, a year after it went into production, and earned over $36 million worldwide. The rest is history.

The film’s commercial success quickly turned the American independent film scene into a hot commodity, while the U.S. Film Festival rebranded as Sundance and become...

The Adults.If Dustin Guy Defa’s third feature, The Adults, has all the makings of a breakthrough, it does so not solely due to its enthusiastic reception at the Berlinale or its Universal-assisted distribution deal, but because it’s the first of the 45-year-old writer-director’s films to combine his knack for offbeat characterizations with the kind of deeply felt emotion only sporadically seen in his prior work. Unlike many of his more prolific American contemporaries, Defa’s career has progressed in oddly fitful fashion, with lengthy gaps between features broken up by a number of singular short films that, until now, have best displayed his seriocomic approach to matters of urban millennial angst and alienation. The Adults both extends and expands on these themes in ways that open up Defa’s previously cloistered world of neurotic New Yorkers, eccentric artist types, and emotionally unavailable twentysomethings.Starring Michael Cera,...

Locarno can’t get enough of Ted Hope. Five years after receiving the festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico Award, the producer of modern indie classics such as “The Wedding Banquet” and “The Ice Storm” shook things up yesterday at Locarno’s StepIN think tank with an Out of the Box keynote, a sweeping blast on the state of the industry.

It resonated hugely with senior European industry executives who are often now battling the very same issues which Hope zeroed in on.

“It was an exercise in overload,” the former Amazon exec told Variety the day after he gave the 40-minute talk. He used 150 bullet points distilled from his Substack, and talked entertainingly at one and the same time. “It’s hard to engage people in this conversation, if you don’t do something like that. It gives me a lot of ammunition for my Gatling gun.”

On Friday, Hope delivered a masterclass.

Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" marks another groundbreaking entry into an already incredible canon of work, but could it be one of his last? Some of the director's contemporaries like Quentin Tarantino have taken a less-is-more approach to their filmography, vowing to restrict themselves to a certain number of films or stop directing by a certain age. Others, like Martin Scorsese, have decided to work for as long as they can and continue to put out new projects far past retirement age. As for which of these two routes Nolan will choose, he still isn't so sure, but he sees the good in both options.

"The truth is, I understand both points of view," Nolan told CinemaBlend. "It's addictive to tell stories in cinema. It's a lot of hard work, but it's very fun. It's something you feel driven to do, and so it's a little hard to imagine voluntarily stopping.

One-time indie cinema darling Greta Gerwig is now making money for a megabucks toy company that sells vacuous, hypersexualised dolls – and no one bats an eyelid

In the early 90s, according to a story that may now have become slightly mythologised in the retelling, the actor Sarah Polley – then aged 12 – was asked by Disney executives to remove a peace sign badge she was wearing. When she refused, Disney blacklisted her. This story lost a little of its potency last month with the announcement that Polley was set to direct the new “live-action” reboot of Bambi. For admirers of Polley’s determinedly independent career, the record-scratch noise could not be louder: this is somebody who worked with Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and Hal Hartley for God’s sake, before the age of 22.

Thoughts of Polley returned this week with the now-deafening noise surrounding the release of Barbie, directed by another former queen of independent cinema,...

Intro: There’s a scene, roughly half way through the much maligned Robocop 3, in which the eponymous law enforcer is malfunctioning, battered and bruised, which is almost the perfect metaphor for the franchise at this point. As outlined in our previous video in this series, Robocop 2 may have had its fair share of issues, but alongside the annoying characters and a frustratingly dumbed down hero, it’s actually a pretty decent movie. It was just nowhere near the sequel it could so easily have been. Which leads us to part three, which is, well…Where do we start? Historically, in the wonderful world of movies in which we all often reside, part three’s, and later sequels to popular franchises, have that nagging tendency to Look like they should, but for the most part, this familiarity leads to something so very, very…Wrong! Beverley Hills Cop 3 lost all...

The 4K restoration and re-release of the comedy Party Girl brings Parker Posey to Back To One. Shortly after the success of that movie in 1995, she went on to star in so many independent films, like The Daytrippers, Clockwatchers, The House of Yes (not to mention a bunch of Hal Hartley and Christopher Guest classics), that she was dubbed “Queen of the Indies.” On this episode, she explains why that moniker was oddly detrimental to her career. She talks about recent experiences on the sets of Beau Is Afraid and The Staircase; the connection between actors and athletes; why, […]

The post “It’s a Difficult Sport”: Parker Posey first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 4K restoration and re-release of the comedy Party Girl brings Parker Posey to Back To One. Shortly after the success of that movie in 1995, she went on to star in so many independent films, like The Daytrippers, Clockwatchers, The House of Yes (not to mention a bunch of Hal Hartley and Christopher Guest classics), that she was dubbed “Queen of the Indies.” On this episode, she explains why that moniker was oddly detrimental to her career. She talks about recent experiences on the sets of Beau Is Afraid and The Staircase; the connection between actors and athletes; why, […]

The post “It’s a Difficult Sport”: Parker Posey first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including David Easteal’s The Plains (one of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year), Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy, Koji Fukada’s 10-part series The Real Thing, Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse, and more.

Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley

April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman

April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce

April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters

April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...

It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.

Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...

Verdi Productions, the company behind “Bleed for This,” will back Hal Harley’s “Where to Land.” The film is scheduled to being shooting in the spring of 2023 in Rhode Island.

Hartley, a major force in American independent film, has been trying to get this off the ground for awhile. He launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money in 2020 just before the pandemic hit. He told potential donors that the script was “the best thing I’ve written.”

The film is a farce about a well-regarded 58-year-old director of romantic comedies who wants to become assistant groundskeeper at a local cemetery and work outdoors. Meanwhile, he thinks it’s important to have his last will and testament drawn up. But his actor girlfriend thinks he must be dying and that he is just too brave to tell anyone. The rumor of his impending demise spreads and soon everyone he knows crowd...

Poland’s American Film Festival readies for its — lucky — 13th edition, unspooling Nov. 8-13 in Wrocław.

The fest, which will open with “Bones and All” and close with Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” will once again combine classics with contemporary titles, for instance pairing Nancy Buirski’s doc “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winner, or introducing retrospectives dedicated to Robert Altman and Nina Menkes.

Menkes — behind “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” — will also get Aff’s Indie Star Award. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz, David Gordon Green, Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, Rosanna Arquette and John Waters, who came to Poland last year.

“It was amazing,” Waters tells Variety, and he was “pleasantly surprised and flattered” by the local audience’s knowledge of his work.

“They really knew who I was! My favorite thing happened during a Q&a, when this man, who looked like an old Communist,...

In Spring of 1994, as Filmmaker began its third year of publication, we received a call: would we be interested in interviewing Jean-Luc Godard? Yes, we excitedly said, and when Hal Hartley agreed to be the interviewer, and the interview was a go, we made the film our cover. Rereading the interview today, I’m struck — although I shouldn’t be! — by the prescience of Godard’s musings on the future histories of cinema, the ways that it will be mediated by technology and its changing […]

The post “In Movies, Comedy and Tragedy Are All the Same”: Jean-Luc Godard Interviewed by Hal Hartley first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

What happens when you want to go back to nature, only to find that nature is not at all welcoming? If you’re the midlife-crisis-beset Martin (Rasmus Bjerg), the hangdog protagonist of “Wild Men,” you might figure that after 10 days of trying to rough it in the wild as a landlocked Viking, it would be a good time to trek out of the Norwegian woods and seek snacks, beer, smokes and other necessities at a roadside service station minimart.

Trouble is, as we see during the opening minutes of Thomas Daneskov’s gently absurdist comedy, although Martin did remember to tuck his iPhone in his animal-skin garb before fleeing the constraints of civilization, he neglected to bring along any money. And the understandably discombobulated clerk behind the counter isn’t willing to barter when Martin offers pelts, and an axe, as payment for his items. One thing leads to another,...

Not long after attending my first Cannes Film Festival almost 35 years ago, I was still green and naïve enough to ask long-time Cannes attendees why the famed French fest held such a powerful place in the pecking order of international film gatherings. The late Richard Corliss, Time magazine’s peerless and beloved film critic, answered warmly and succinctly, with his own more worldly query: “Would you rather be in Germany in the winter or the South of France in the spring?”

Corliss had a point, but in the decades since I’ve tucked my own couple of dozen Cannes fests under my belt, I’ve compiled my own list of reasons why Cannes remains the one film festival that people who’ve never been to a film festival have heard about and wish they could go to, and know that if a film has scored there, it must be worth their time.

Writer/director Eskil Vogt joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Worst Person In The World (2021)

The Innocents (2022)

The Godfather Part II (1974) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Trust (1990)

Fight Club (1999)

Evil Dead II (1987) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Getaway (1972) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

The Getaway (1994)

Junior Bonner (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Star Wars (1977)

The Limey (1999)

Point Blank (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Out of Sight (1998)

The Hunger (1983)

Providence (1977)

Blind (2014)

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

The Card Counter (2021)

First Reformed (2017) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Light Sleeper (1992)

American Gigolo (1980)

Notorious (1946) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Torn Curtain (1966)

Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Lolita (1997)

Deep Water...

Multi-faceted filmmaker Mark Duplass discusses the movies he wishes more people knew about with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Duck Butter (2018)

The Puffy Chair (2005)

Prince Of Broadway (2008)

Tangerine (2015)

The Florida Project (2017) – Dennis Cozzalio’s review

Red Rocket (2021)

Starlet (2012)

Take Out (2004)

Mack & Rita (Tbd)

Old Joy (2006)

First Cow (2020)

Wendy And Lucy (2008) – Dennis Cozzalio’s favorite movie of 2020

Henry Fool (1997)

Trust (1990)

Amateur (1994)

Medicine For Melancholy (2008)

Shang-Chi (2021)

Your Sister’s Sister (2011)

My Effortless Brilliance (2008)

What the Funny (2008)

Humpday (2009)

True Adolescents (2009)

Man Push Cart (2005)

The White Tiger (2021)

Baghead (2008)

The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012)

Language Lessons (2021)

Stevie (2002)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

American Movie (1999)

What Happened Was… (1994) – Ti West’s trailer commentary

Manhunter (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

My Dinner With Andre (1981)

Creep (2014)

Grown-Ups (1980)

Abigail’s Party (1977)

Nuts In May (1976)

Secrets And Lies (1996) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Naked (1993)

Parallel Mothers (2021)

The Freebie (2010)

East Of Eden (1955) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Strange...

French actor Isabelle Huppert is set to receive the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Her films will also be honored as part of a special Homage section.

Huppert will be awarded the prize for lifetime achievement. In conjunction with the awards on Feb. 15 at the Berlinale Palast, the festival will screen her latest movie, Laurent Larivière’s “À propos de Joan” — unveiled on Wednesday in the fest’s first batch of titles — as a special gala premiere.

Huppert has a longstanding relationship with Berlin, and has starred in seven competition films to date. She was first a guest in Berlin with Jacques Doillon’s “La vengeance d’une femme” before appearing in Francois Ozon’s “8 Femmes” as an unprepossessing woman who emerges in the end as a confident beauty. The ensemble cast was awarded a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic accomplishment.

Toward the beginning of the new HBO documentary Adrienne, director Andy Ostroy walks up and down the line at a Broadway theater asking people if they’d heard of Adrienne Shelly.

One after another, potential attendees of the musical Waitress sheepishly admit that they have not, before finally one guy looks up at the marquee and notices “Based Upon the Motion Picture Written By Adrienne Shelly.”

This captures the strange and specific and tragic nature of Shelly’s fame. Movie nerds know her as the star of several pivotal Hal Hartley films, but Waitress has been a theatrical blockbuster in New York,...

Toward the beginning of the new HBO documentary Adrienne, director Andy Ostroy walks up and down the line at a Broadway theater asking people if they’d heard of Adrienne Shelly.

One after another, potential attendees of the musical Waitress sheepishly admit that they have not, before finally one guy looks up at the marquee and notices “Based Upon the Motion Picture Written By Adrienne Shelly.”

This captures the strange and specific and tragic nature of Shelly’s fame. Movie nerds know her as the star of several pivotal Hal Hartley films, but Waitress has been a theatrical blockbuster in New York,...

I came to discover the talent of actress and director Adrienne Shelly in a weird place: the 1991 movie “Big Girls Don’t Cry, They Get Even.” Is it the best movie? No, but as a child I remember being struck by the beauty and empathy of Shelly’s performance. It’s something I continue to notice whenever I revisit the movie, which I maintain is actually very darling. The next time I heard Shelly’s name it was the announcement of her tragic murder at the age of 40, and like the death of Heath Ledger I always remembered where I was. Ironically, I saw “Waitress” soon after and was again reminded of what we lost.

Maybe because her death was so heinous, so senseless, but the people who remember Shelly’s name and work remain affected by it. So almost immediately you should expect an emotional rollercoaster going into HBO...

I hadn’t seen any of Adrienne Shelly’s work at the time of her death, but you couldn’t follow the film world in 2006 without hearing about what happened. News sites first latched onto the assumption of suicide only to discover what happened was murder—the culprit found, arrested, and confessed shortly afterwards. And amidst that tragic whirlwind during the final two months of that year, Shelly’s latest film as writer-director-star, Waitress, was in submission at Sundance. It would eventually bow at the festival, find distribution, become an overnight indie darling, and spawn a Broadway musical adaptation with songs by Sara Bareilles. She unfortunately never got to enjoy any of that success and, more importantly, never got to watch her daughter Sophie grow up alongside husband Andy Ostroy.

Because our collective memories are short, however, some probably don’t realize Waitress was a movie upon sitting down to the stage show.

"This was going to be her moment - how are we here, and she's not" HBO will unveiled an official trailer for Adrienne, a documentary film about the late actress / director / writer Adrienne Shelly. This is playing at Doc NYC this week, and will be available on HBO starting in December. Adrienne Shelly starred in over 25 including Hal Hartley's indie classics The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. She also wrote & directed shorts and feature films including the critically acclaimed Waitress. A devoted young mother, her life was right on track until her husband Andy Ostroy found her murdered. With Adrienne, Andy set out on a very personal journey to bring her back to life for viewers, to discover the truth about his wife's murder, and offer a rare window into how a family confronts the unthinkable. With Paul Rudd, Keri Russell, Cheryl Hines, Nathan Fillion, Lew Temple, Jessie Mueller, director Hal Hartley; and Sara Bareilles.

NBC announced its winter 2022 lineup, including the final season of “This Is Us,” which premieres on Jan. 4 at 9 p.m.

On Mondays starting Jan. 3 “Kenan” will air its second season with a two-episode block at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., followed by Jimmy Fallon’s variety game show “That’s My Jam” at 9 p.m., and “Ordinary Joe” will return with new episodes on this date at 10 p.m.

In addition to “This Is Us,” Jan. 4 will see the time period premieres of “American Auto” and “Grand Crew” at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., respectively, and the midseason premiere of “New Amsterdam” at 10 p.m.

On Wednesdays starting Jan. 5 “Chicago Med” returns to its traditional time period at 8 p.m., followed by “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.” On Thursdays, “The Blacklist” will air at 8 p.m., followed by “Law & Order: Svu” at 9 p.m. and “Law & Order: Organized Crime” at 10 p.

Writer/director Stephen Chbosky discusses his favorite films with host Josh Olson.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rent (2005)

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012)

Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Mean Girls (2004)

Footloose (1984)

Grease (1978)

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Wonder (2017)

Trainspotting (1996)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

The Shop Around The Corner (1940)

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)

Toy Story 3 (2010)

Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man (1976)

The Wizard Of Oz (1939) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Once (2007)

Mean Streets (1973)

Invaders From Mars (1986)

Cabaret (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Heathers (1989) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary

Sing Street (2016)

Star 80 (1983)

All That Jazz (1979) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Fiddler On The Roof (1971)

Blow-Up (1966) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Graduate (1967) – Neil Labute’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Vertigo (1958) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith...

Cinema loves an identical twin, or preferably, two. More specifically, cinema — and daytime TV — loves to instill in the 99.7% of the population who are not identical twins, the idea that they are untrustworthy types, prone to switcheroo deceptions and uncanny telepathy. These are not myths that Erin Vassilopoulos cares to dispel with her brooding, arch feature debut; in fact she embraces many such unspoken clichés. But if “Superior” feints a familiar, xeroxed plot, it parries into a strikingly individual little pleasure, a headily heightened investigation into identity, sisterhood and the uselessness of men.

A lot comes down to the casting of actual twins Alessandra and Ani Mesa in the main roles, which not only brings an authentically sororal vibe to their interactions, but also allows Vassilopoulos to maintain her lo-fi, throwback, 16mm aesthetic without any doubling fakery going on. Because style here is very much the main dish and not the dressing,...

Back at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015, director Erin Vassilopoulos debuted the short film “Superior” starring twin sisters Alessandra Mesa and Ani Mesa. The project, a nominee for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize, focused on two sisters living in upstate New York who experience an awakening of self when a stranger comes to stay with them and their father for a brief spell.

The film also sparked a creative relationship among its director and stars. Six years later, the trio is back at Sundance with a continuation, of sorts, of the original short. Also called “Superior,” the new film takes place over one transformative Halloween weekend in the late 1980s and catches up with twin sisters Vivian (Ani Mesa) and Marion (Alessandra Mesa) after years of estrangement.

“A lot of the themes from the short still live on in the feature and are kind of the continuation of that exploration,...

If “Redemption Day” were any more generic, the first thing you’d see on screen would be a bar code in place of the opening credits. It’s the handiwork of first-time feature filmmaker Hicham Hajji, making his directorial debut after years of assistant-directing gigs for Hollywood and homegrown productions in his native Morocco. And the best thing to say to say about it is, it’s certainly no worse than most other run-of-the-mill, run-and-gun action-adventures that used to proliferate on Blockbuster store shelves and which now feed the seemingly insatiable demand for VOD fare. Trouble is, it’s no better, either.

Gary Dourdan of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” fame offers the requisite displays of formidable physicality and authoritative intensity in the lead role of Brad Paxton, a U.S. Marine captain who’s hailed as a hero for his courage under fire during a roadside attack on a humanitarian mission in Syria,...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Since the early 1970s, Isabelle Huppert has amassed a staggering body of work. Relentlessly prolific and uncompromisingly daring, she has embodied an eclectic range of characters, often delving into the enigmatic recesses of individuals who are by turns destructive, tormented, and obsessed, and yet can be audaciously empowered, sexually complex, and passionately reflective. Huppert “surprises and unsettles us,” notes David Parkinson, writing for the British Film Institute, doing so by “relaxing her tightly coiled control and channeling her strength and energy into doing something shockingly impulsive.” But that control and impulsiveness was not instantaneous, nor was it effortless. Huppert’s abilities have been steadily honed over the course of more than 140 appearances in film and television. And if there is a darkness lingering over some of her more disturbing characterizations, there...

Noah Segan has been popping up everywhere over the last year. He appeared in Knives Out in a scene-stealing role, he also recently directed a segment in the horror anthology Scare Package, and now he’s playing a cowboy who must take on a coven of witches for Aaron B. Koontz’s The Pale Door, which heads to theaters this weekend and will also be available to stream on VOD and Digital Platforms as well, courtesy of Rlje Films and Shudder.

Daily Dead recently spoke with Segan about his involvement with The Pale Door, and he discussed his experiences collaborating with both Koontz as well as his fellow co-stars, the fun of getting to transform himself into a cowboy and how he hopes to add the title of “feature film director” to his resume in 2021.

So great to speak with you, Noah. You’ve been having a great run lately...

As a snooty avoider of crowdpleasers, I’d spent years steering clear of this beloved blockbuster. But how bad could it be?

See the other classic missed films in this seriesThe best arts and entertainment during self-isolation

I have a good excuse. When Forrest Gump came out in 1994 and conquered the world I was an undergraduate at New York University’s film school. I was, to put it bluntly, at my apogee of cinematic snobbishness. I was gobbling up my ABCs and when I went out to see contemporary work, it was low-budget, independent material from directors like Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley and Gregg Araki. Forrest Gump was not on my radar.

It was rare that I’d see something wide-release, and if I did it was done ironically. “We want a bus! Show us a bus!” my obnoxious friends and I chanted as we sat down to see Speed.

Founded in 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee, Big Ears Festival is a renowned event bringing together, music, film, literature, art installations, and more. Year after year, their cinema-related section continues to showcase an eclectic mix of classic and contemporary voices, striving to explore boundary-pushing works in the field. Ahead of next month’s festival, we’re pleased to unveil the 2020 edition of the film lineup.

As part of their Standard Definition program, which explores the transition from celluloid to digital, the festival will present films from Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Abbas Kiarostami, and Hal Hartley, along with U.S. theatrical premieres of Dominik Graf’s Friends of Friends and Franco Piavoli Affettuosa presenza and Paesaggi e figure. Also in the lineup is rarely screened works by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Kevin Jerome Everson, along with Michael Snow’s 2002 film Corpus Callosum and his most recent project, Cityscape.

Argentine-British artist Jessica Sarah Rinland will also get the spotlight,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Valentine’s Day begins a week early with films by Hawks, Scorsese, von Sternberg and more.

“To Hong Kong with Love” looks at one of the world’s most luminous cities in its past and present.

The great Hal Hartley retrospective has been extended.

Clueless screens early, while The Lady from Shanghai shows late.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

“To Hong Kong with Love” looks at one of the world’s most luminous cities in its past and present.

The great Hal Hartley is given an extended retrospective.

A new print of New York, New York begins screening.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople screens early, while Scarface shows late.

Anthology Film Archives

Time to...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbel Ferrara's SiberiaThe Berlin Film Festival Competition lineup has finally been unveiled, revealing a roster of heavy hitters that includes Ilya Khrzhanovsky's controversial installation project Dau, Abel Ferrara's long-delayed Siberia, Hong Sang-soo's latest The Woman Who Ran, and the anticipated return of Christian Petzold, Rithy Panh, Tsai Ming-liang, Sally Potter, and Philippe Garrel. Actor, writer, and director Terry Jones, best known for his involvement in the Monty Python comedy group and for directing the 1983 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, has died. Recommended VIEWINGGrasshopper Films has released a trailer for Pedro Costa's bold Vitalina Varela, about a woman who arrives in Lisbon from Cape Verde to attend her estranged husband's funeral. Upon its premiere at 2019's Locarno Film Festival, editor Daniel Kasman described it as "a film of fierce determination and paramount resonance.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

The great Hal Hartley is given an extended retrospective.

Dead Poets Society screens early, while Police Story shows late.

Film Forum

A tribute to Anna Karina contains plenty Godard and an underseen Rivette masterwork.

“Black Women: Trailblazing African American Performers & Images, 1920 – 2001” continues.

The restoration of István Szabó’s Mephisto continues.

Anthology Film Archives...

There’s something perverse to the notion that Hal Hartley’s three decades of writing and filmmaking amount to a “career,” as Metrograph would have it in the catalogue copy for its ten-day retrospective of his medium- and feature-length films. Whatever one thinks about Hartley, to say that his work represents a “career” means viewing the films episodically, as evidence of an enterprising filmmaker’s increasing personal ambition and competence. But if I’ve suspected anything from watching and re-watching Hartley’s films—including the shorts, which unfortunately don’t appear anywhere in the Metrograph series—it’s that they can’t so easily be assimilated in this way. I […]...