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Alan Clarke’s brutally unflinching prison drama Scum is set to make its long-awaited return to digital platforms in the UK and Ireland, with Vertigo Releasing confirming a release date of 17th March. The controversial 1979 film, which remains one of the most hard-hitting portrayals of the British borstal system, stars Ray Winstone in a breakthrough performance that would cement his status as one of the country’s most formidable actors.

Originally produced as a BBC television play in 1977, Scum was banned before its intended broadcast, deemed too extreme for public consumption. Clarke and screenwriter Roy Minton refused to let their vision disappear into obscurity, reworking the film as a theatrical release in 1979. What followed was a harrowing portrayal of institutional brutality that quickly became one of the most infamous British films of its era.

Set in a juvenile correctional facility, Scum follows Carlin (Winstone), a young offender who quickly learns...

Like Friday the 13th meets Skinamarink, In a Violent Nature takes an arthouse approach to the slasher genre. While the experiment proved to be divisive, I found myself mesmerized by it.

Regardless of your feelings on the film, its Blu-ray release deserves to be celebrated. Harkening back to the halcyon days of physical media, IFC Films and Shudder’s two-disc Collector’s Edition is loaded with special features.

Two audio commentaries are included: a production and cast audio track with writer-director Chris Nash, actors Ry Barrett (Johnny) and Andrea Pavlovic (Kris), and producers Peter Kuplowsky and Shannon Hanmer, as well as a technical track with Nash, Hanmer, cinematographer Pierce Derks, and sound designers Tim Atkins and Michelle Hwu.

Here are nine things I learned from the In a Violent Nature commentaries…

1. The film was influenced by Gus Van Sant.

Gus Van Sant’s only foray into the horror genre is his shot-for-shot remake of Psycho,...

From “Boy A” (the movie that launched Andrew Garfield’s career) to “Zero for Conduct,” movies set in broken boarding schools and juvenile reformatory centers are a dime a dozen. With “Nickel Boys,” director RaMell Ross finds fresh colors in such a rigidly codified genre, turning a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel into a minimalist tone poem. The book by Colson Whitehead is brilliant, but much of it you’ve probably seen before on-screen, so Ross strips away as many of the words as possible, searching instead for images to tell the story of Elwood, a Tallahassee teen who’s so much more than a victim of the system.

Except, Ross doesn’t tell the story so much as inhabit it, to the extent I found myself wondering whether I could have followed the plot — which alternates between the 1960s and the early 2000s — had I not already read Whitehead’s novel.

The screenwriter of Alan Clarke’s classic drama, who died in December, describes how the untried young actor secured his approval

My first sighting of Tim Roth was from an office window that looked down on to Soho Square, close to Oxford Circus in London’s West End. Director Alan Clarke had chosen Tim to play the leading role in Made in Britain, the last of a quartet of films I had been commissioned to write about young people and their experiences within the education and social services. As I looked out of Alan’s office window, Tim was clearly at odds with another youth sporting a flamboyant purple and red Mohican haircut. Quite a scrap was going on and it took time for a passing policeman to break it up.

In 1978, as producer of the Play for Today series, Margaret Matheson was responsible for Roy Minton’s Scum, about life in a borstal.

Mike Ott’s McVeigh is an immersive, chilling, meticulously paced portrait of Timothy McVeigh, played by Alfie Allen, who embodies the bleak, quiet rage of the radicalized terrorist. Entering the story months before he carries out the deadliest attack of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, McVeigh is a loner who spends his days selling bumper stickers and books at gun shows and visiting with Richard Snell (Tracy Letts), a white supremacist on death row. Bothered by the political temperature of the era and Snell’s pending execution on the anniversary of the Waco Siege, McVeigh and Terry Nichols (Brett Gelman) start stockpiling weapons and planning an attack. The details of said attack are never mentioned. Ott and co-writer Alex Gioulakis instead meditate on the man’s psychology.

McVeigh is narratively sparse by design, making certain assumptions and taking liberties, such as the character of Cindy (Ashley Benson), a waitress...

“It’s just a thrill a minute,” filmmaker Chris Nash is quick to joke of his debut feature, “In a Violent Nature.”

“We made this movie with an audience of maybe five people in mind. So having anybody like it and endure the walking and just the pace of the film, it’s been a testament to the patience of an audience,” he said.

Nash cuts himself short — a metaphor made more apt when you’ve seen just how creative the filmmaker can be with a paralyzed victim and a well-placed log splitter. The extra gutsy first-time feature writer/director and his star Ry Barrett spoke with IndieWire in April at The Overlook Film Festival. That’s an annual horror event in Louisiana, where Nash’s spellbinding slasher deconstruction for IFC Films and Shudder screened for the second time after making its world premiere at Sundance. “In a Violent Nature...

Many of cinema’s hard men are notorious softies in real life. Ray Winstone may well be one of those, even if he admits to not looking particularly approachable.

“My wife always says to me, ‘Why do you look like you’re going to kill someone when you walk into a room?'” he tells Variety. “But I don’t mean to!”

Winstone’s long-standing status as the go-to man to depict violent approach-with-caution individuals or British mob bosses continues to serve him, however, as “The Gentleman” — Guy Ritchie’s eight-part Netflix spinoff of his 2019 gangster comedy feature of the same name — proves. In the series, awash in the classic Ritchie mix of guns, drugs, violence, aristocrats, boxing and tweed, Winstone stars as a gangland patriarch and head of a massive weed-growing empire. Because of course he does — who else would you cast as an elder statesman than the actor...

A slow-cinema spin on well-burnished tropes, In a Violent Nature largely strips the artifice of the slasher formula, which dictates a deformed man must hunt down attractive teens or young adults in either the woods or suburbia. A film built around a mythology that comes to life, as our killer rises from a grave, Chris Nash’s picture could almost be the kind of film Kelly Reichardt might make if her current patron A24 asked her to make a slasher flick.

The result is a deconstruction of all of the clichés that never quite comes into its own, suffering from the same shortcomings as David Gordon Green’s more traditional slasher character study Halloween Ends. The story is told largely from the perspective of a masked killer who may or may not be the son of a rural logging town figure who was executed due to a vendetta. Like László...

Leland is best known for directing ’Wish You Were Here’, ’Land Girls’ and TV series ’Band Of Brothers’.

Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson have heralded their collaborations with leading UK director, writer and actor David Leland who died on December 24, 2023 at the age of 82

Brosnan thanked the filmmaker, best known for directing Wish You Were Here and The Land Girls, for giving him his first professional acting role in Tennessee William’s stage production of The Red Devil Battery Sign.

“It was the thrill of my young lifetime to be cast as McCabe, working with David and Tennessee. David will...

From Wish You Were Here to Mona Lisa and The Big Man, he was determined to shine a light on those marginalised in society albeit using his quirky sense of humour

David Leland was a master of understatement with a social conscience and wildly wicked sense of humour, arising like his friends the Pythons from our everyday humdrum British universe in the 60s and 70s.

More than 40 years ago I saw the astonishing Made in Britain. The film that made Tim Roth – who played a violent skinhead – a star, was written by Leland for the producer and director Alan Clarke. It was a a biting attack on rightwing Thatcherite policies and it is just as relevant to today’s brutal system.

David Leland, a director of stage and screen whose filmmaking CV includes films such as Wish You Were Here, Personal Services and Land Girls, has died. He was 82.

Born in 1941 in Cambridge, Leland initially trained as an actor at the Central Speech of School and Drama and had many stage credits before moving into direction at the Crucible Theatre. That began his collaboration with Alan Clarke in 1981. He wrote Made In Britain, which Clarke directed and featured the first screen role of Tim Roth. In 1986, Leland and director Neil Jordan co-wrote the screenplay for Mona Lisa, which starred Bob Hoskins.

Leland then wrote Personal Services, which was directed by Terry Jones and followed the true-life story of Cynthia Payne, who ran a private brothel.

Payne was also the subject of Leland's next film his directorial debut, Wish You Were Here, which chronicled her teenage years, starring Emily Lloyd.

While his next two films,...

David Leland, the British writer, director and actor whose credits include “Wish You Were Here,” “The Borgias” and more, died on Dec. 24, according to his agents Casarotto Ramsay & Associates. He was 82. A cause of death was not revealed.

Leland cut his teeth in theater, where he directed the world premiere of Michael Palin and Terry Jones’ “Their Finest Hours” and gave Pierce Brosnan his first opportunity to act on stage in the British premiere of Tennessee Williams’ “The Red Devil Battery Sign.”

A distinguished film and TV screenwriting career followed, including “Made in Britain” (1982) directed by Alan Clarke and starring Tim Roth; “Birth of a Nation” (1983) by Mike Newell; and Neil Jordan’s Oscar, Golden Globe and WGA-nominated “Mona Lisa” (1986), featuring a BAFTA-winning performance by Bob Hoskins.

Leland made his directorial debut with “Wish You Were Here” (1987), which won him the BAFTA for best original screenplay, and the film...

British director and actor David Leland has died aged 82, according to his long-time agency, Cassaroto Ramsay & Associates

The theater, film and TV star passed away on Christmas Eve (December 24), surrounded by his family.

Leland’s career spanned over five decades. He is known for writing two films about British suburban madam Cynthia Payne, the BAFTA-nominated Personal Services in 1987 and the Cannes Film Festival hit Wish You Were Here.

The former was directed by Terry Jones and starred Julie Walters, while Leland directed the latter himself, with Emily Lloyd starring.

Leland won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for Wish You Were Here and the film won the Fipresci prize at Cannes.

He is also noted for serving as co-showrunner of Showtime series The Borgias and for giving Pierce Brosnan his first stage opportunity in the British premiere of Tennessee Williams’ The Red Devil Battery Sign at The Round House, which Leland directed.

Wes Anderson beamed with joy as his 40-minute short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” received a nearly 4-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere.

Prior to the screening, Anderson was given Cartier’s Glory to the Filmmaker Award, which was presented to him by his frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat. Anderson humbly accepted the honor, remarking that he had researched the award in advance and observed that it had been given to filmmakers “at their premieres of some of their worst movies.”

“I hope I’m not going to repeat that,” he wisecracked.

After the quirky comedy — starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dev Patel — played its end credits, it became clear that Anderson had not joined that list of worst movies, but he continued to convey humility, bashfully waving goodbye to the crowd before the applause had fully ceased.

Based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection,...

Thomas Hardiman's Medusa Deluxe is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries—including the United Kingdom, India, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico—from August 4, 2023, in the series Debuts.Medusa Deluxe.In the midst of navigating the drama that ensnares all of Medusa Deluxe’s characters, Claire Perkins’s Cleve looks at a fellow hairdresser and explains, “There is some serious history in this hairstyle, do you know that? A story.” The hairstyle in question is initially shown as an unfinished work of art (or travesty if you’re a competitor hoping for a fellow stylist’s downfall): a mess of strands that’s easy to see through and hard to make sense of. But as the film progresses, Cleve creates a truly beautiful and engrossing design out of what was once incoherent webbing: a glowing ship upon a wave of hair, meant to be a recreation of the Orient,...

Susan Sarandon, playing the U.S. Secretary of State Alaska Adams, gets the better of Bryan Brown, as the Australian prime minister, in a fast-paced verbal duel that represents the first footage from the Sean Penn-produced satirical comedy series “C*A*U*G*H*T.”

An elite team of Aussie soldiers is sent to an island nation to retrieve a secret file that has gone astray. Mistaken for Americans, they are captured by freedom fighters and produce a hostage video that goes viral. When the soldiers achieve celebrity status on social media, they realize that being caught might just be the best thing that could’ve happened to them.

“C*A*U*G*H*T” explores themes of identity, fame, and the absurdity of the viral age. “Why can’t we comedically deconstruct the intellectual ideas that humanity is facing right now?” says Kick Gurry who directs, produces and stars in the six-part series.

Exclusive: Stan has ordered a trio of original drama series as part of its content boss Cailah Scobie has called “a massive week” for the Australian streamer.

We can reveal Stan has commissioned Bluey producer Ludo Studio to make eight-part road series Thou Shalt Not Steal, and also ordered coastal mystery thriller Exposure and Invisible Boys, a contemporary drama about a closeted gay teenager in small-town Western Australia. A trio of UK-based international distributors have signed on for the shows.

Stan has been working closely with international partners as it builds out its slate, with Deadline in the past year revealing comedy series C*A*U*G*H*T, which stars Sean Penn and Matthew Fox, and epic family drama Prosper, developed with Lionsgate.

“The shows are representative of our entire slate,” Stan Chief Content Officer Scobie said of the new originals in an exclusive interview with Deadline. “We back distinctive voices and tell Australia...

Netflix has shared the release date for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a new short film by Wes Anderson adapted from Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name. After its September 1st premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the title will land on streaming Wednesday, September 27th.

The 39-minute-long The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar stars leading man Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, a compulsive gambler who discovers a new method of cheating. Ralph Fiennes will also star in the film as Dahl, while Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade round out the ensemble cast.

This marks the second time Anderson has brought a Dahl story to the screen, following 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. In an interview with IndieWire earlier this year, he explained that he’d long been wanting to adapt Henry Sugar — the Dahl family had even set it aside for him...

This fall, quirky auteur Wes Anderson follows up this year’s Asteroid City with another project slated to stream on Netflix in the fall. The movie is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and surprisingly, it’s only a short film. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar clocks in at 39 minutes and is scheduled to premiere on the streaming service on September 27. Prior to its premiere on the content platform, Netflix is also proud to announce that the Wes Anderson short will also be making its debut at the Venice Film Festival.

The official logline for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar from Netflix reads,

“A beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.” In typical Wes Anderson fashion, the filmmaker has assembled an all-star cast for his project.

Wes Anderson’s latest take on Roald Dahl comes to Venice and Netflix this fall.

Anderson writes and directs the short film adaptation of Dahl’s 1977 story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Anderson previously helmed the Dahl adaptation “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which earned Oscar nominations for Animated Feature and Original Score in 2010.

Per the official synopsis, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is a beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.

Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade star in the 39-minute short film, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival out of competition.

“For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar,'” Anderson told IndieWire earlier this year. “They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them.

The well-liked film critic is fondly remembered as a passionate supporter of arthouse films.

Figures from the UK and international industry have been paying tribute to the beloved former Guardian, Screen International and Evening Standard film critic Derek Malcolm, who died aged 91 at the weekend.

“Derek Malcolm was a great critic and a true friend of the Venice Film Festival. Even at the Lido he exercised his great curiosity and sensitivity towards global cinema. It’s a big loss for film culture,” Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the Vernice Film Festival, told Screen.

Legendary US documentary maker Fred Wiseman reminisced...

Wes Anderson is making 2023 special by adding two projects to his release calendar. The imaginative director’s Asteroid City touches down in theaters next week, and the filmmaker is busy bringing an adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar to Netflix. Many wonder how Anderson is pulling off two movies in a single year. However, there’s a simple explanation. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a relatively short feature. It’s 37 minutes long!

Speaking with IndieWire, Anderson revealed the adaptation’s brief runtime, saying he’s delighted to present something akin to the BBC series Play for Today. This series brings short-form filmmaking to a broad audience, with installments being an hour or less in length. “It’s not a feature film,” Anderson told the outlet. “It’s like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl...

Wes Anderson announced in an interview with IndieWire that his upcoming Netflix movie “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection, will only be 37 minutes long. The film is Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation after “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. Notably, “Henry Sugar” marks Anderson’s first Netflix original. He told IndieWire that collaborating with the streamer was more out of necessity than personal preference.

“In my case it’s a little bit of a weird thing,” Anderson said about partnering with Netflix. “I knew Roald Dahl since before we made ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar.’ They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke,...

“Why’s the world so tough? It’s like walking through meat in high heels.” This line comes from Alan Clarke’s 1987 TV movie Road, an adaptation of Jim Cartwright’s stage play, and it goes some way towards explaining the visceral and sensory experience that is Molly Manning Walker’s quite exceptional debut How to Have Sex.

In British cinema, working-class stories lost a major advocate when Clarke died soon after, in 1990, but Walker recovers some of that lost ground with her Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard entry, a subtle but powerful deconstruction of teenage dreams and desires that explores class and culture in a similarly human way.

Walker’s sterling work as a Dp — notably in the upcoming Sundance London opener Scrapper — proved she certainly has an eye, but her feature debut proves she also has a very distinct and confident voice. For a vague comparison, you...

‘It’s a harrowing film, perhaps not one for a Saturday night with a pizza. But it’s stood the test of time – and that’s down to the genius of Gary Oldman’

I’d briefly met Gary Oldman at film-maker Alan Clarke’s funeral in 1990 and later received a message saying he wanted to see me. We met on the steps of the Royal Court theatre in London, where I was working. With a coffee in hand, he told me all about this incredible piece of work he’d written, and how much he’d like me to do it. What a compliment that was, coming from someone like Gary Oldman.

Walk Up.“Surprising”: that’s how a character in Hong Sang-soo’s Walk Up describes the decision to hold a film festival in 2022. Filmmaker Byung-soo (Hae-hyo Kwan) has just been invited to attend a complete retrospective of his work overseas, but he and his partner are discussing what this would actually entail: the couple would need to pay her way since the cinematheque can only cover one plane ticket, and Byung-soo would need to quarantine upon returning home to South Korea. The trip would be expensive, “complicated.” They hash it out over greens in a sparsely decorated apartment, boxed into a deeply unglamorous, black-and-white medium shot. Initially, Walk Up left a very light impression on me, but it was on my mind more than most films as I departed TIFF. Byung-soo is a proxy for Hong, and the plainness of his—and Walk Up’s—fatigue with filmmaking is wryly bourgeois,...

Ashley McKenzie, the Nova Scotia-based director of the elliptical and scarifyingly intimate methadone-addiction drama “Werewolf,” returns with another tale of codependence and the Canadian welfare state. Talking to Film Comment in 2018, McKenzie copped to a desire “to have more extensive scenes and more elaborate choreography and staging” in future projects and hinted at her then-gestating second feature. “The elevator pitch would probably say ‘Certain Women’ meets Alan Clarke BBC portrait dramas,” she said.

And so it is: “Queens of the Qing Dynasty,” about a neurodivergent teenager hospitalized following a(nother) suicide attempt, and the genderqueer Chinese-immigrant advocate she bonds with during her recovery, is at once rigorously intimate and richly symbolic.

Continue reading ‘Queens of the Qing Dynasty’ Review: Ashley McKenzie Crafts An Intimate And Rich Story of Friendship [TIFF] at The Playlist.

When Chloë Sevigny found herself walking the Oscars red carpet nominated for her work in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” it was surprising, to say the least. Her brand of indie film anarchy, which she shared with her sometime boyfriend Harmony Korine, wasn’t really Oscar material. “I remember like the year before Harmony and I watching and being like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we could like nuke the Oscars and like just wipe away all the status quo?,'” she told IndieWire during a recent interview.

Sevigny’s 1990s in film started with her breakout role in Larry Clark’s ever-controversial 1995 “Kids” and ended with her at the Academy Awards, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, playing the girlfriend of Brandon Teena. It was a journey from the sensational fringes of the avant-garde to the biggest platform imaginable. “I told my publicist that the minute I’m in People magazine,...

San Francisco, Feb 13 (Ians) The US-based carmaker Ford has hired former Tesla Engineer Alan Clarke, who left the company over 12 years to oversee Ford’s “Advanced Ev Development” projects. According to Clarke’s LinkedIn, he accepted the position this week and officially joined Ford in California, reports Teslarati. At Tesla, he spent over 12 years […]...

Tim Roth is a director’s actor. The London native began his on-screen career under the helm of Alan Clarke with a volatile role in his 1982 television play “Made In Britain,” exploding in front of the camera and immediately putting himself on the map. One director after another was lining up to work with him, leading to plum subsequent parts in the years to follow with Mike Leigh (“Meantime”), Stephen Frears (“The Hit”), Peter Greenaway, and Robert Altman (“Vincent & Theo”) by the time he had reached his first full decade in films.

Continue reading Tim Roth On Making ‘Sundown’ Like a Silent Movie, The Directors Who Shaped Him & Rejoining The MCU In ‘She-Hulk’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

It’s been a long journey for Barry Jenkins, from his humble debut “Medicine for Melancholy” in 2008 to eventual Oscar winner “Moonlight” eight years later and the sprawling miniseries adaptation “The Underground Railroad” earlier this year. All along, though, there has been one constant for him: The Telluride Film Festival. Jenkins first attended the festival as a film student almost 20 years ago and eventually became a volunteer, then rose through the programming ranks to oversee the shorts program, a gig he maintained even after his career took off.

Now, he’s leveled up again in Telluride stature by serving as the festival’s guest director.

Over the course of this year’s five-day event, Jenkins will introduce six screenings of films handpicked by a director best known for blending his passionate cinephilia with underrepresented voices. His program does that, too: While Jenkins’ favorite director Claire Denis is represented with her debut “Chocolat,...

Andy Kelleher’s accomplished drama debut is packed with deft performances as its characters make the best of a grim situation

Andy Kelleher has directed documentaries about the film-makers Carol Reed, Alan Clarke and Chris Petit, but now makes an accomplished fiction debut with a film hovering in the edgelands of London, the south-east and on the protracted plains of middle age, receding out towards uncertainty. It concerns a medical diagnosis that should be devastating, but – aided by a deftly off-key performance from lead actor Cathy Naden – actually functions as an awakening.

Naden plays fortysomething history lecturer Kathy, whose impulsive behaviour has begun to unsettle her friends. Stuck in a zombie marriage, she takes up with gangly, long-haired landscape gardener Nick (Jerry Killick) after throwing him a line next to his vintage BMW: “You can take me for a spin some time.” Alarmingly forthright has become her social modus operandi.

The next chapter of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series will center around the music recorded in the aftermath of his Christian period in the early Eighties. The package includes studio outtakes from 1981’s Shot of Love, 1983’s Infidels, and 1985’s Empire Burlesque along with songs recorded during live rehearsals in 1980, his 1984 European stadium tour, and his 1984 appearance on Late Night With David Letterman.

Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985), set for release September 17th, will be available as a two-disc set and a deluxe package containing a...

Ramin Bahrani, Oscar-nominated writer/director of The White Tiger, discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The White Tiger (2021)

Man Push Cart (2005)

Chop Shop (2007)

99 Homes (2015)

The Boys From Fengkuei (1983)

The Time To Live And The Time To Die (1985)

The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

La Terra Trema (1948)

Umberto D (1952)

Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)

Nomadland (2020)

The Runner (1984)

Bashu, the Little Stranger (1989)

A Moment Of Innocence a.k.a. Bread And Flower Pot (1996)

The House Is Black (1963)

The Conversation (1974)

Mean Streets (1973)

Nashville (1975)

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)

The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Paris, Texas (1984)

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Vagabond (1985)

Luzzu (2021)

Bait (2019)

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Abigail’s Party (1977)

Meantime (1983)

Fish Tank (2009)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Malcolm X (1992)

Nothing But A Man (1964)

Goodbye Solo (2008)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)

Dekalog (1989)

The Double Life Of Veronique...

A film that is both timely and timeless, Judas the Black Messiah resists intertwining current events with historical figures––an approach that Spike Lee has excelled at in his work. Instead, director and co-writer Shaka King’s examination of the final moments of Fred Hampton’s short life is grounded firmly in the politics of the late 1960s. It goes without saying that little has changed and therefore it’s easy to connect the dots to recent struggles.

Hampton, a revolutionary turned martyr as the FBI grew fearful of his influence, worked to unite similar socio-economic factions in Chicago against the powers that be. His story has been well documented and although we know the facts, the film proves an illuminating character study brought to life with a fiery and flawless performance by Daniel Kaluuya. Where the film breaks new ground is telling the story of William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield...

“Education.” That’s as good a title as any for the final episode of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” project — a series of five features, some little more than an hour, designed to educate and inform audiences about the experience of London’s West Indian immigrant population, about the expectations of assimilation raised by a white-majority country and the obstacles such a society puts in the way of that goal.

To get the picture, audiences needn’t see every entry of this prismatic project, which views the community from different angles at different times over several decades, and this may well prove to be the least watched of the lot, being the last and least starry of them. But do yourself a favor: Don’t miss “Education.” Watch it with your kids — it’s the most accessible to young audiences — and share it with others.

Set in the 1970s, this...

Actress Carrie Coon joins Josh and Joe to discuss the Best of what she’s been watching during the pandemic.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Nest (2020)

Gone Girl (2014)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Sabrina (1954)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Opening Night (1977)

Husbands (1971)

Too Late Blues (1961)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Faces (1968)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Gloria (1980)

Mephisto (1981)

The Cremator (1969)

Zama (2017)

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017)

Wanda (1970)

Blue Collar (1978)

The Lunchbox (2013)

63 Up (2019)

To Sleep With Anger (1990)

Killer of Sheep (1978)

The Glass Shield (1994)

My Brother’s Wedding (1983)

Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987)

Rio Bravo (1959)

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

Cutter’s Way (1981)

Scenes From A Marriage (1973)

The Magician (1958)

The Silence (1963)

The Magic Flute (1975)

The Last House on the Left (1972)

The Virgin Spring (1963)

Summer with Monika (1953)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Wings of Desire (1987)

Black Girl (1966)

Fat Girl (2001)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Parasite (2019)

Jesus of Montreal (1989)

Other Notable Items...

The writer/director of Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest takes hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante on an exploration of his favorite cinematic endings.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

The Nest (2020)

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Cowboys (1972)

The Parallax View (1974)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Limbo (1999)

Nashville (1975)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

3 Women (1977)

Chinatown (1974)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Third Man (1949)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Shoot The Moon (1982)

Parasite (2019)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Ice Storm (1997)

Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)

The Brood (1979)

The Graduate (1967)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Candidate (1972)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Birds (1963)

The Firm (1989)

Scum (1979)

The Firm (2009)

The Vanishing (1988)

The Vanishing (1993)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Repulsion (1965)

Pirates (1986)

What? (1972)

Blowup (1966)

Blow Out (1981)

The Long Good Friday (1980)

Other Notable Items

Jude Law

Carrie Coon

Quentin Tarantino

John Wayne

The Pure Cinema Podcast

The Film Forum

Warren Beatty

Tfh Guru Howard...

If his work on Skate Kitchen and Sollers Point didn’t yet clue you into the immense talents of cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, get ready for one of the greatest achievements in the field this year: Steve McQueen’s five-film anthology series Small Axe. From the immersive, ecstatic Lovers Rock is a Jubilant Portrait of Community”>Lovers Rock to the fiery, urgent Mangrove“>Mangrove, Kirchner brings an immaculate, varied eye to these stories of the West Indian community of London. Now, he’s set to embark on his directorial debut.

Screen Daily reports Kirchner will direct Augustown, adapting Kei Miller’s 2016 novel with a script by Courttia Newland and executive produced by Steve McQueen. Backed by Potboiler Productions and Rathaus Films, as well as BBC Film, the story is set in 1980s Jamaica.

According to the official synopsis, the “story begins when a teacher cuts off the dreadlocks of Kaia, a...

The November 2020 lineup for The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, toplined by a Claire Denis retrospective, including the brand-new restoration of Beau travail, along with Chocolat, No Fear, No Die, Nenette and Boni, Towards Mathilde, 35 Shots of Rum, and White Material.

There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.

There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.

See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.

Acclaimed stuntman and action director extraordinaire Jesse V. Johnson joins us to discuss the U.S. based action films and filmmakers that have influenced him the most.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

On The Waterfront (1954)

Fultah Fisher’s Boarding House (1922)

Undisputed (2002)

Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)

Undisputed III: Redemption (2010)

Boyka: Undisputed (2016)

The Killer Elite (1975)

Convoy (1978)

The Osterman Weekend (1983)

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Straw Dogs (1971)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Birdcage (1996)

Cross of Iron (1977)

Electra Glide in Blue (1973)

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)

Easy Rider (1969)

Fail Safe (1964)

The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

Ride The High Country (1962)

Major Dundee (1965)

Jinxed! (1982)

Beowulf (2007)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

The Girl Hunters (1963)

Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Point Blank (1967)

Falling Down (1993)

M (1951)

M (1931)

The Black Vampire (1953)

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Scum (1979)

Elephant (1989)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), possibly Joe’s favorite John Ford...

Alex Westthorp Oct 1, 2019

Witches, demons and ancient pagan rituals: Alex explores the use of folk horror in the Doctor's adventures...

This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.

Thought to be a relatively recent term, coined by director Piers Haggard and popularised by Doctor Who's own Mark Gatiss, "folk horror" is essentially horror based on old countryside folklore. It is a sub-genre of occult fiction, which encompasses paganism, witchcraft, superstition, legends and the traditions of the countryside. Often texts will refer to "Green man" rituals, stone circles, Devil worship, disfigurement and the "memories" of the earth.

In the cinema, folk horror is at the fore in films like the 1967 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher's vision of the 1934 novel by Denis Wheatley, Piers Haggard's own 1974 film Blood On Satan's Claw (which incidentally features a terrific cast including a pre-Who Anthony Ainley and a post-Who Wendy Padbury...

One of the strengths of German cinema is its diversity, says Simone Baumann, managing director of the national film promotion agency German Films.

As well as the three films at Toronto directed by female German helmers, there was also German filmmaker Thomas Heise’s documentary film essay “Heimat Is a Space in Time.” Then there were the many German-funded films directed by non-Germans, including “My Zoe,” by France’s Julie Delpy, and “Guns Akimbo,” by New Zealander Jason Lei Howden.

The country is one of the world’s leading coproduction nations, which was much in evidence in Toronto – with 30 German films in the festival, including coproductions such as U.S. helmer Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” Swede Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness,” and “Proxima,” by France’s Alice Winocour.

It is hard to make generalization about German cinema, a point the filmmakers make themselves. Since the heyday of the Berlin School,...

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s the best of the best for June 2019.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime isn’t offering its subscribers much in the way of exclusives this month, and — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — the brunt of the platform...

Stars: Aml Ameen, Shantol Jackson, Stephen Graham, Antwayne Eccleston, Fraser James, Rayon McLean, Mark Rhino Smith, Sheldon Shepherd, Christopher Daly, Alexandra Vaz, Chris-Ann Fletcher, Paul Haughton, Everaldo Creary | Written by Brock Norman Brock, Martin Stellman | Directed by Idris Elba

Yardie is the much anticipated directorial debut from much beloved British acting veteran Idris Elba – who’s famed for his turn as grizzly and gritty roles ranging from his much-beloved turn as Dci John Luther to Hollywood action prowess of Pacific Rim, Thor and Star Trek Beyond.

With Yardie, adapted from the novel by the same name by author Victor Headley released in 1992, Elba strips away the Hollywood gloss and expense, pushing himself into the deep end in the realm of the dearly missed British production of a gritty and dark tale of greed and murder, reminiscent of the vast social politic and exaggerations from the likes of Alan Clarke and Guy Ritchie,...

There is an entrenched tradition of realism in British cinema, ranging from kitchen sink films of the ’60s to the signature Steadicam shots of Alan Clarke, up through the TV films of Mike Leigh and as recent as “Hunger,” the striking debut of Oscar-winning Steve McQueen. There was surely no other approach on the table for photographer and artist Richard Billingham when conceptualizing his debut feature film, “Ray & Liz,” an autobiographical account of his childhood.

Continue reading ‘Ray & Liz’ Is A Vivid Portraiture Of Family Dysfunction & Nostalgia [Fnc Review] at The Playlist.

There’s a long history of actors winning Oscars for portraying Nazis in war films. But playing a Neo-Nazi? That’s a different story. Be it neo-Nazi, Kkk member, skinhead or white nationalist, actors such as Edward Norton, J.K. Simmons, Patrick Stewart and even Daniel Radcliffe have all given fiery, hateful performances on screen. Topher Grace made headlines when it was revealed he would be playing former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke in Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” opening this Friday. Here are some other famous actors who have shaved their heads or donned a white hood for a role.

Tim Roth in “Made in Britain” (1983)

Tim Roth made his onscreen debut in Alan Clarke’s TV movie “Made in Britain.” He played a teenage, British skinhead who rejects authority, frequently gets violent and has a torrent of four-letter words in his arsenal. Roger Ebert called Roth’s performance “truly satanic.

A different kind of class will be back in session in New York City and London with a new semester of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. The latest lineup of horror-themed classes and lectures will kick off stateside with an in-depth look at the 1974 folk horror film Penda's Fen, and we've been provided with two free registration slots for the class to give away to lucky Daily Dead readers.

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Prize Details: (2) winners will receive:

(1) free registration for "Sacred Disobedience: On Penda's Fen," a Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies class taking place from 7:00pm–10:00pm Est on Tuesday, January 9th at New York City's Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole, Greenpoint, Brooklyn).

How to Enter: For a chance to win, email contest@dailydead.com with the subject "Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies Contest". Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01pm Est on Monday,...

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Nathan Gelgud, an artist who has brought a wry comic book charm to the world of cinephilia. It seemed only natural that I should find out more about the art that has influenced him and so I asked him to select his personal top ten favorite movie posters. He was more than up for the challenge and decided to narrow the field to illustrated posters, which makes perfect sense. Here are his ten favorites, in no special order.1. (Above) Us one sheet for Five on the Black Hand Side (Oscar Williams, USA, 1973). Artist: Jack Davis.I love all the accouterments on the main figure—the hat, the cigar, the umbrella, suitcase, those things that go over the shoes. But even better is the way Davis has arranged all the characters around him, the way the jumping guy’s arm joins with the guy...

Skinheads, hit men, cops, criminals, cops-posing-as-criminals, princes, junkies, executioners, politicians, supervillains, an 18th-century fop, a 19th-century impressionist painter and a 21st-century psychotic chimp – you name it, and there's an extremely good chance that Tim Roth has played it. The 56-year-old British actor has the sort of varied, overstuffed resumé that suggests a reserved spot in the steadily-working-character-actor canon, and has not one but two projects hitting TV screens at the moment: Tin Star, an Amazon thriller that about an expat cop living in Canada that starts as a quirky fish-out-of-water...