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Few artists march to the beat of their own drum as proudly as Rick Alverson. The Virginia-based filmmaker is known for his unapologetically bleak explorations of topics that might be funny in other contexts, like the Neil Hamburger tragedy “Entertainment” and the Tim Heidecker drama “The Comedy,” applying his singular, uncompromising voice to each project. And now, he wants to teach the next generation of filmmakers how to do the same thing with their own voices.

Alverson and musician Emilie Rex recently launched the Little Valley School, an arts education community in the Allegheny Highlands of Virginia. IndieWire can exclusively reveal the school’s first major program: a series of two online filmmaking workshops hosted by Guy Maddin, the director of provocative films like “My Winnipeg,” “The Saddest Music in the World” and “Rumors,” and Carlos Reygadas, the acclaimed Mexican arthouse director behind films like “Post Tenebras Lux,” “Japón,” and “Silent Light.

Bogieville Official Full-Length Trailer: "The highly anticipated southern-fried vampire road movie “Bogieville”, directed by acclaimed British filmmaker and actor Sean Cronin, releases today, June 3, 2025, in North America by Level 33 Entertainment and on June 13, 2025 in the UK via Trinity Creative Partnership, on VOD via Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home, among other premium digital channels.

Written by screenwriter Henry P. Gravelle, “Bogieville” unfolds in a decaying American trailer park where a young couple, Ham and Jody, are enticed to stay by the unsettling caretaker, Crawford. What they don’t realize is that Crawford is the guardian of the park’s grotesque residents - a clan of feral, hillbilly vampires. The film stars Indonesian actor Arifin Putra (“The Raid 2”), Eloise Lovell Anderson, and Cronin himself as the lead vampire, Madison.

The ensemble also features Jonathan Hansler, Ayvianna Snow, Sarina Taylor (“Reckless”), Andrew Lee Potts, along with newcomers Poppie Jae Hughe and Daniel P. Lewis.

What are we to do in an age where streaming services are so crammed with content (yet never seem to have the movie I want) to the point we're paralysed by the tyranny of choice? Well, we can start by not paying for the privilege, and free streamer Tubi just happens to have what might be the most capacious catalog of media in the streaming game.

Fox's free service claims to offer "the largest collection of premium on-demand content," with an alleged 275,000 movies and TV episodes and more than 300 originals. That's more than anyone could watch in a lifetime, but at least we're not paying to mindlessly scroll the interface until we give up. What's more, if you let Tubi users be your guide, there's a ready-made watch list in the form of the top 10 charts. Don't be put off by the fact that Jennifer Garner's crime thriller flop...

With White Rose, My God, a new album from Alan Sparhawk — his first since the passing of Mimi Parker, his partner in the band Low — scheduled to appear in September, the singer/songwriter has released its first single with a music video directed by independent filmmaker Rick Alverson (The Mountain). Alverson has pixellated Sparhawk’s face as the musician has digitally manipulated his voice in this eerie clip. Check it out above.

The post Watch: Rick Alverson’s Video for Alan Sparhawk’s Can U Hear first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With White Rose, My God, a new album from Alan Sparhawk — his first since the passing of Mimi Parker, his partner in the band Low — scheduled to appear in September, the singer/songwriter has released its first single with a music video directed by independent filmmaker Rick Alverson (The Mountain). Alverson has pixellated Sparhawk’s face as the musician has digitally manipulated his voice in this eerie clip. Check it out above.

The post Watch: Rick Alverson’s Video for Alan Sparhawk’s Can U Hear first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The best festivals point to the future, capture the zeitgeist, or honor the past. At Locarno in 2015, you could have had all three: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour (his first time premiering in a major competition), Chantal Akerman’s No Home Movie (the director in attendance just months before she died), and Hong Sangsoo’s Right Now, Wrong Then (a mid-career masterpiece), all played. So did Rick Alverson’s Entertainment, the final film of Andrzej Żuławski, and the directorial debut of Josh Mond, at the time best known for producing Martha Marcy May Marlene for Borderline, a company he established with Sean Durkin and Antonio Campos in 2003. Mond’s debut James White featured Cristopher Abbott’s first lead role and (one year before dazzling in A Quiet Passion for Terrence Davies) a Cynthia Nixon performance that made you sit up and take note. It won a prize in Locarno and another at Sundance.

Neon, the indie studio behind “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped the producers of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Jon Read and Allison Rose Carter, to lead their growing production arm. Read and Carter are the co-founders of Savage Rose Films.

The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...

It doesn't mean anything to say a movie is "perfect" in any objective sense. Unless Rotten Tomatoes says it does, of course.

The website that Martin Scorsese considers "hostile to filmmakers" and which would have you believe that Rick Alverson's excellent "The Comedy" is a complete dud, is to many people the be-all and end-all of movie analysis. The site occupies such a vaunted position within film discourse that it has an inordinate sway over our own viewing habits. We've all been scrolling through some streaming service only to skip over a film because of a low Rt score that is, for some reason, baked right into the interface. Likewise, if Rotten Tomatoes says a movie is "Fresh" then people are going to pay attention.

Look, it doesn't matter that last year a Rotten Tomatoes hacking scandal emerged, or that movie studios and streamers rely far too much on...

Kate Lyn Sheil is a one-of-a-kind actor, like one of those rare lunar events you better grab the telescope for, lest you wait 60 years for that true blue moon. From her early mumblecore days when she seemed the Anna Karina to Joe Swanberg's Godard, or the Michelle Williams to Amy Seimetz's Kelly Reichardt, through intense horror films, myriad shorts, and quirky dramedies, Sheil has made a career out of tipping scales. A good film becomes very good when she crosses over, and great becomes greater.

Beloved in indie film circles, Sheil never ceases to surprise; she's like an advent calendar over time, revealing new treasures that retroactively redefine our presuppositions, all the while still impenetrable and impossible to fully know. The best actors are arguably like that. We love them to pieces, because we only see pieces, chameleonic shards in shifting light. You don't know Willem Dafoe or Meryl Streep,...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Why Are We Entertained By This?

Every Neil Hamburger stand-up set is a passionate rejection of the idea that the guy telling jokes on stage should endear himself to the audience in any way.

The fictional comedian, portrayed by Gregg Turkington in comedy clubs and on talk shows for over two decades, has built a cult following for meticulously urinating on the art form to which he’s devoted his life. He takes the stage in a 1960s tuxedo that’s the sartorial equivalent of a half-cantaloupe filled with rancid cottage cheese.

Exclusive: Filmmaker Tyler Taormina (Ham on Rye) has wrapped production on Long Island on Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, a Christmas comedy to star Michael Cera (Life & Beth), Elsie Fisher (Barry), Maria Dizzia (The Good Nurse), Francesca Scorsese (We Are Who We Are), Ben Shenkman (Billions), Gregg Turkington (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Sawyer Spielberg (Masters of the Air) and newcomer Matilda Fleming.

Written by Taormina, Eric Berger and Kevin Anton, the film watches as four generations of the Balsano family gather for what may be the last Christmas in the family home. As they lose themselves in rowdy celebration, cousins Emily and Michelle sneak away to a winter wonderland, where suburban teenagers find their rebellious paradise.

The project hails from Omnes Films and was produced in association with Crypto Castle Productions and Puente Films. Producers included Cera, Krista Minto, Taormina, David Croley Broyles and Duncan Sullivan. The executive producers are Jeremy Gardner,...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it)

The Movie: "The Comedy"

Where You Can Stream It: Peacock

The Pitch: Rick Alverson is known for eschewing traditional modes of storytelling and narrative, and his filmography is basically one extended effort to subvert audience expectations and supply an alternative to mainstream cinema. His most recent film, "The Mountain," continues that project. But for me, the high point came in 2012 with "The Comedy" — a movie "about movies," according to Alverson. And when it debuted to the Sundance crowds that year, some folks were, shall we say, less than impressed.

The movie focuses on Swanson, played by alt comedy legend Tim Heidecker. The 30-something Brooklynite is completely disconnected from the world around him. He drifts through New York City in a...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, alongside his 1999 short film Judgement, as well as Bi Gan’s new short A Shory Story and his second feature Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Peter Strickland’s new short.

Additional highlights include new episodes of Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom Exodus, Denis Côté’s That Kind of Summer (which we caught at Berlinale earlier this year), Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy ahead of his imminent new project, and an Abel Ferrara double bill to close out 2022.

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

December 1 – That Kind of Summer, directed by Denis Côté | Luminaries

December 2 – The Cat’s Meow, directed by Peter Bogdanovich

December 3 – La chinoise, directed by Jean-Luc Godard | For Ever Godard

December 4 – The Kingdom Exodus: The Congress Dances, directed by Lars von Trier | The Kingdom Exodus

December 5 – Judgement,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights is a tribute to Tilda Swinton, featuring I Am Love and a trio of early films: Cycling Frame, The Box, and Egomania: Island Without Hope. There’s also a handful of notable festival favorites and new releases from the past year or so, including Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes’ The Tsugua Diaries, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Jane by Charlotte, Ted Fendt’s Outside Noise, Émilie Aussel’s Our Eternal Summer, and Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah’s Public Toilet Africa.

Also including films by Takashi Miike, Fatih Akin, Zhang Yimou, Albert Maysles, Andrew Dominik, Rick Alverson, and more check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

August 1 – Ichi the Killer, directed by Takashi Miike | Takashi Miike: A Double Bill

August 2 – Nest, directed by Hlynur Palmason | Brief Encounters

August 3 – Our Eternal Summer, directed by Émilie Aussel | Festival Focus:...

Job security in the film industry is never a sure thing. In this moment, it might look particularly fragile if you work in a vulnerable department of Netflix or a redundant division of Warner Bros. To that list, you could also add film festival programmers — and they should have some of the most secure jobs in the industry.

Consider how Netflix stock hits a new low each day in part to an overreliance on algorithms and too much content that not enough people watch. The overwhelming amount of global content production has forced even the biggest streamers to realize that curatorial decisions matter more than pure data, which means the skillsets of a programmer — and it is a skill — should be at their highest demand. This is particularly true for film festivals, which are defined by curation.

And yet recent events speak to the fragility of the profession. Last month,...

This Machine, the production company founded by veteran documentary director and producer R.J. Cutler, has bolstered its development and production team with four new hires.

Cutler, the Emmy Award-winning director behind docus including “The September Issue,” “Belushi” and most recently with “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” launched This Machine in 2020 with an investment from Los Angeles-based Industrial Media.

Cutler has named Sally Rosen Phillips as vice president, creative; Qadriyyah Shamsid-Deen as director, creative; Jim Czarnecki, senior vice president, production, and Ian Egos, vice president. The four new hires bring This Machine’s employee headcount to 20. Rosen Phillips, Shamsid-Deen, Czarnecki and Egos join senior executives Elise Pearlstein, Trevor Smith, Margaret Yen and Katie Doering.

“I’m thrilled to welcome Sally, Qadriyyah, Jim and Ian — four truly creative and passionate individuals — to our rapidly growing team at This Machine,” says Cutler, who served as a producer on Chris Hegedus and...

Larry Fessenden has been instrumental in the evolution and popularity of indie horror, not only through his own directorial efforts via Glass Eye Pix, but by supporting diverse and unique voices as well. Over nearly four decades, Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix have amassed an incredible portfolio of features, shorts, and animation, and it will all be highlighted at in New York at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) March 30 through April 19. Featuring an in-person and online program, we have all the details on the special events and screenings, including the premiere of Jack Fessenden's Foxhole!

"Glass Eye Pix, the New York independent production shingle headed by art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden, is pleased to announce that a retrospective of 26 feature films along with numerous shorts, animations, and early works created during its 37 years of operation, is being presented by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) March 30 through April...

Chicago – In my one encounter with Dean Stockwell back in 2013, he was properly off-kilter and amazing, as you expect from Frank in “Blue Velvet.” But Stockwell was so much more, starting as a child actor in Hollywood’s Golden Age, morphing to the hippie era and getting a major comeback with David Lynch and TV’s Quantum Leap.” He died in New York City on November 7th, 2021, at age 85.

Robert Dean Stockwell was born in North Los Angeles, and because he was a child actor he worked in the Golden Age of the 1940s Hollywood studio system. His first major role came when he was 11 years old, playing opposite Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in “Anchors Aweigh” (1945). He became the go-to child star in classics such as “The Boy with the Green Hair’ (1946), “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), “Song of the Thin Man” (1947) and “The Secret Garden” (1949), often with another child co-star (and...

Goes without saying there’s nobody like Udo Kier, who in recent years has been indelible for Alexander Payne, Guy Maddin, Gus Van Sant, Rick Alverson, S. Craig Zahler, and Kleber Mendonça Filho—a list of collaborators to which literally nobody else on Earth can lay claim, each of whom need his comic-malevolent presence. Rare is the starring role, though, making special Todd Stephens’ Swan Song, the recent SXSW selection wherein Kier plays a hairdresser who escapes his retirement home to style his deceased client for her funeral.

Reviews from SXSW were strong, and the trailer—released by Magnolia ahead of the film’s August 6 release—suggests something befitting Kier’s unique gifts. Our own John Fink was rather enthusiastic, saying it “is built on a wonderfully nuanced performance by Kier, who behind his sadness and longing can still lob a sassy witticism at rival Dee Dee Dale, and when...

Two of the most distinctive voices in filmmaking are teaming for a new project. American director Rick Alverson and Argentine director Lisandro Alonso will co-direct the Brazilian production The God Beside My Bed. “It will be a film about an American cultural irrelevance that Americans are incapable of seeing, lost in their romantic hall of mirrors, set in Amazonia,” says Alverson, who has shared his admiration for Alonso’s work.

“Lisandro Alonso, and Carlos Reygadas to some degree, for those contemporary filmmakers, it’s all about contention with time — the temporal, and your relationship to the thing — and how the audience changes,” Alverson told Seventh Row in 2015. “I’m really irritated by passive viewing, but I don’t think it’s the audience’s fault. I think they’re conditioned to be passive viewers, because what they see in media does everything for them. It does all of the thinking,...

Filmmaking is an interesting art. Much like music, it’s filled with artists that love to make their own work and are known for very unique styles. However, sometimes a collaboration occurs that you don’t see coming but will totally work in ways you could never imagine. You know, like Lil Nas X and Bily Ray Cyrus, for example. (Kidding.) And in filmmaking, you have a seemingly random collaboration between directors Rick Alverson and Lisandro Alonso.

Continue reading Rick Alverson & Lisandro Alonso Are Co-Directing A New Feature, ‘The God Beside My Bed’ at The Playlist.

Mexican virtual lab offers Usd 30,000 in cash prizes.

Spanish multiple Cannes award winner Olivier Laxe and Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso are among participants in the expanded third Mexican project lab Catapulta set to run as an entirely virtual event from March 24-27.

Scroll to bottom to see all lab participants

Laxe, whose Fire Will Come won the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize in 2019 and followed a 2016 Critics’ Week grand prize for Mimosas and the 2010 Fipresci award for Directors’ Fortnight selection You Are All Captains, takes part in the new development programme.

His project After (France) follows a man and...

Mexican virtual lab offers Usd 30,000 in cash prizes.

Spanish multiple Cannes award winner Olivier Laxe, US auteur Rick Alverson and Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso are among participants in the expanded third Mexican project lab Catapulta set to run as an entirely virtual event from March 24-27.

Scroll to bottom to see all lab participants

Laxe, whose Fire Will Come won the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize in 2019 and followed a 2016 Critics’ Week grand prize for Mimosas and the 2010 Fipresci award for Directors’ Fortnight selection You Are All Captains, takes part in the new development programme.

His project After (France...

Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.

Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.

Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.

Attempting to guess the less than a dozen titles in Sundance’s World Dramatic comp section is a true crapshoot but seeing that Panamanian filmmaker Abner Benaim‘s last picture Ruben Blades Is Not My Name had it’s world premiere at Sundance’s competing festival SXSW means they are keeping tabs on this project. Benaim signed up the very choosey cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman (Amat Escalante’s Heli and Rick Alverson’s last two features) and by enlisting the excellent Ilse Salas (featured in The Good Girls – check out our portrait of her in our TIFF studio) he assures that there’ll be interest for all Spanish speaking film territories and beyond. …...

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit everyone in different ways. Obviously, there are those that have been infected by the virus and are dealing with health issues. But for those of us that are lucky enough to just be stuck indoors and not facing terrible health and safety concerns on a daily basis, the lockdown provides time to possibly explore different creative avenues. And for filmmaker Rick Alverson, that means going back to music, with a new song and music video from his group, Lean Year.

Continue reading Filmmaker Rick Alverson Directed A New Video For His Folk Duo, Lean Year, While In Lockdown at The Playlist.

In the opening minutes of Tapeworm, a man (Adam Brooks) pulls into a gas station to use their restroom, only to find it occupied. Unable to hold it in, he runs into the woods where he empties his bowels on the ground. We’re then treated to a long close-up of his shit, which is covered in blood. The man, despondent at the sight of his bloody stool, continues walking into the woods. He comes upon a lake, where a young couple (Stephanie Berrington and Sam Singer) are having sex on a dirty mattress, where he startles them by taking a seat on an unused corner of the mattress. He tells them to continue, and they do.

Shot on 16mm, Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco’s Tapeworm sets a tone where numbing mundanity rules over everything. It’s set in Winnipeg, and it follows the three aforementioned characters along with...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Before we get to our weekly streaming picks, check out our annual feature: Where to Stream the Best Films of 2019.

Atlantics (Mati Diop)

Somewhere along the stretch of Senegalese coastline where Mati Diop’s feature-length directorial debut Atlantics takes place, a futuristic tower stands tall and spectral above the ocean–a sinister crossbreed between a stalagmite and a lighthouse, its lights thrusting red and warm blobs into the night. It’s a fictional place in a story of magical, mysterious elements–a love story that crisscrosses between social commentaries and ghastly apparitions, addressing the global migrant crisis through a language of disquieting and stunning reveries. – Leo G.

Sônia Braga with Anne-Katrin Titze on her role in Bacurau: "She's a person that takes care of the community." Photo: Rachel Allen

Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles' Bacurau, shot by Pedro Sotero, had its world première at the Cannes Film Film Festival where it won the jury prize (shared with Ladj Ly's Les Misérables) and is a highlight of the New York Film Festival.

On the afternoon following the Us première at Alice Tully Hall, the directors of Bacurau and Sônia Braga, (who stars alongside Udo Kier (Rick Alverson's The Mountain) and Barbara Colen) joined me for a conversation. The Paris Theatre in New York, where Bruno Barreto's Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands and Aquarius had their premières, has a special place in Sônia Braga's heart.

Bacurau co-director Juliano Dornelles was the production designer on Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius and Neighboring Sounds Photo: Anne-Katrin...

Independent film distributor Kino Lorber on Monday launched its own online movie rental and purchase platform with everything from silent classics “Battleship Potemkin” and “Nosferatu” to works by Jean-Luc Godard, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Rick Alverson.

Kino Lorber President and CEO Richard Lorber bills Kino-Now as a “kind of arthouse iTunes” where some of the most acclaimed films in history will be available at similar price points to Apple’s service. Ana Lily Amirpour’s Iranian vampire western “A Girl Walks Home at Night” is available now to buy for $9.99 or rent for $4.99, for example, and Lanthimos’ “Alps” for $9.99 and $1.99.

“We’ve been leaders in building a direct to consumer business with physical media and now is the time to assert our leadership in the direct to digital space,” Lorber said. “Our superb library will be continually enhanced by the coming of newly acclaimed and award winning theatrical releases. We believe...

In today’s film news roundup, Kino Lorber has started a VOD platform, Tony Todd is starring in a horror-comedy, the Red Nation International Film Festival sets its lineup and ballet dancer Kirsten Bloom Allen starts a production company. VOD Distribution Arthouse distribution specialist Kino Lorber is launching VOD platform Kino Now with more than 600 new releases, classics and international films. Kino Now, announced Monday, will offer exclusive early access to new theatrical releases, festival hits and exclusive titles not available on other streaming platforms or not yet available on home video.

The platform will also include special “bundle” offerings of selected hard-to-find titles as well as collections from renowned filmmakers including international TV series such as “Deutschland 83” and “Bad Banks”; documentary series including Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”; auteur collections built around Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller and Fritz Lang; and pioneers of cinema restorations of the...

Exclusive: U.S. art house distributor Kino Lorber is launching film and TV VOD streaming platform Kino Now, we can reveal. The service, which includes options to rent and buy, currently hosts 600 titles from the company’s catalog and includes early access to new releases. The number of titles is set to double by the end of the year.

Kino Lorber, which will unveil the platform at a stateside event this evening, tells us the service will be annually refreshed with more than 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber’s first-run and repertory divisions and more than 500 yearly additional titles as “festival direct” exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.

Movies will be generally available around 30-90 days after their theatrical release but some will also get day-and-date releases. Most titles will be $9.99 or less. New releases and certain films that are considered premium will be $14.99 or $19.99 if they are day-and-date releases.

Rick Alverson on Jeff Goldblum with Tye Sheridan in The Mountain: "He is using the boy as a refractive mechanism to validate himself, to show his worth."

In the final instalment of my in-depth conversation with Rick Alverson on The Mountain, he reveals that he is a fan of the films of Robert Bresson, Catherine Breillat, Michael Haneke, Bruno Dumont (Bernard Pruvost in Li'l Quinquin), and Claire Denis, and why Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker and John Cassavetes' A Woman Under The Influence are "huge" for him. He names Udo Kier as Frederick being the body of The Mountain, Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Fiennes the mind, and Denis Lavant the spirit, with Tye Sheridan's Andy as the son, and credits Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies as an influence for one of the numbers in the film.

Rick Alverson on The Mountain: "Essentially, the film is separated into mind, body and spirit.

It seems that actor Jeff Goldblum might be taking a page or two from fellow, perplexed Marvel Cinematic Universe star Gwyneth Paltrow.

In a red-carpet interview taken over the weekend at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, Goldblum appeared to be totally nonplused about the recent breakup between Walt Disney Studios, Marvel, and Sony over the Spider-Man franchise. Goldblum was on hand at the event to promote his new Disney+ show “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” in which he turns ordinary objects on their head. He also has an upcoming voiceover appearance in the Disney+ series “What If…?” which imagines an McU where certain real-life historical events didn’t go as planned. Watch his hilarious bizarre interview below.

Best trailer to come out of #D23Expo last night is Jeff Goldblum’s incredulous response to the #Spiderman drama he hadn’t heard about yet. pic.twitter.com/5Zd0MR7ZPX...

Above: Chinese poster for Spirited Away; artist: Zao Dao.The most popular poster to date on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram, by a dragon’s length, with more than double the amount of likes of its closest contender, was this gorgeous Chinese poster (and its color variant which you can see here) for Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001), which apparently just got a Chinese theatrical release eighteen years after it was made. The posters were painted by the young Chinese comic book artist Zao Dao who you can, and should, read more about here.I was happy to see Renato Casaro’s prop poster for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood’s film-within-the-film Kill Me Now Ringo, Said the Gringo—which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago—make such an impression, as well as another of my favorite Casaros painted forty years earlier, for Screamers, a.k.

With several name actors, good reviews, and top theaters, Sundance-premiere drama “Luce” led multiple new releases this weekend. Also showing promise are “The Babadook” director Jennifer Kent’s second feature, “The Nightingale,” at two initial theaters, while at one New York location “Jay Myself” scored as yet another strong documentary. And summer breakout “The Farewell” continued its strong expansion, adding over $2.4 million to its already impressive figures.

Opening

Luce (Neon) – Metacritic: 73; Festivals include: Sundance, Tribeca 2019

$132,916 in 5 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $26,583

This kind of narrative indie doesn’t have an easy pass to success these days. With Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, and Tim Roth adding to its appeal, the story of parents who face disturbing news about their adopted Eritean son opened in top New York/Los Angeles theaters. Audiences reportedly showed multiple-demographic appeal, critical for any upcoming expansion that seeks a crossover audience.

What comes next: It...

Spencer Mullen Aug 2, 2019

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, Avengers: Endgame, Veronica Mars, and more in today's daily Link Tank!

Marvel fans have found an enormous easter egg in Avengers: Endgame.

"Avengers: Endgame used time travel to revisit some of the greatest moments and characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and of course, that had to include Robert Redford as the evil Hydra leader Alexander Pierce. We all remember when Pierce shows up in 2012 to claim the Tesseract, but it turns out he might have a second, smaller appearance soon afterwards in the movie — and way further in the past in the McU."

Read more at Inverse.

Here's how the fourth season of Veronica Mars failed its protagonist.

"TV remakes and reboots have seen a steady increase over the last few years. It’s gotten to the point that, long before their predecessors have had a chance to collect dust, a reboot is announced.

Time to take a detour from the big noisy summer blockbusters and take a trip with an actual person. Well, sort of, since the main character in this film has a different name than the actual famous (or in some circles infamous) medical inventor. But it’s really more of a biography told from an unknown character’s perspective. It’s somewhat like this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner The Green Book. The more renown subject there was celebrated classical pianist Dr. Donald Shirley, but we get to learn about him via the more prominent (leading role) of his driver Tony “Lip” Vallelonga. Now they used the actual names. The new film is just a few years before Green, and a lot of time is spent cruising in a classic auto. However, the doctor of The Mountain doesn’t use his skills to bring joy and happiness. Far, far from it.

When Jeff Goldblum appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote his latest role as a lobotomist in “The Mountain,” the 66-year-old actor proclaimed that he lived more in 10 minutes than most people do in a lifetime. The next day, he proved it.

Sitting in midtown Manhattan traffic for 45 minutes en route to an NPR interview, Goldblum covered a lot of ground: revisiting his origins in theater, recalling early work with Philip Kaufman and Woody Allen, analyzing the psychology of his blockbuster performances in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Independence Day: Resurgence,” worrying about Donald Trump, and explaining his recent quest to discover world-class auteurs. At the end, he squeezed in an impromptu catch-up with Billy Crystal.

Long beloved as a lanky, bespectacled font of charisma and intellect, Goldblum is now a genuine a pop-culture force. Two decades after “Jurassic Park” and “Independence Day” made him a household name,...

It was more of same at specialized theaters this weekend. Documentaries dominated the openings, led by buzzy “Honeyland” (Neon), while response continues strong for family movie “The Farewell” (A24). Lulu Wang’s Sundance narrative dramedy starring Awkwafina bucked the current documentary trend by landing among the weekend’s Top 10 grossers, even in limited release.

Among the newbies, three Sundance non-fiction debuts opened decently with solid reviews: “Mike Wallace Is Here” (Magnolia), “For Sama” (PBS), and Netflix’s day-and-date title “The Great Hack.” A24 also threw “Skin” starring Jamie Bell as a neo-Nazi into a few theaters along with home availability, with grosses not reported. “The Mountain” (Kino Lorber) was the sole narrative debut to show positive reaction and possible further interest.

Opening

Honeyland (Neon) – Metacritic: 86; Festivals include: Sundance, New Directors/New Film 2019

$30,000 in 2 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $15,000

This marks the best opening PTA among documentaries in recent weeks.

The Mountain director Rick Alverson: "There's a lot of parallels between the lobotomy and filmmaking." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the first instalment of my in-depth conversation with Rick Alverson on The Mountain, co-written with Person To Person director Dustin Guy Defa and Colm O'Leary (The Comedy), shot by Lorenzo Hagerman (Entertainment), starring Jeff Goldblum and Tye Sheridan (Alexandre Moors's The Yellow Birds), with Hannah Gross (Michael Almereyda's Marjorie Prime), Udo Kier, and Denis Lavant (a Leos Carax and Emmanuel Bourdieu favourite), we discuss what "interrupting the trigger" means to him, "parallels between lobotomy and filmmaking", a Django Reinhardt number, and the role the threshold move plays. Rick confided to me that he is a "big Perry Como fan" and that he was "reared on all that Disney stuff" when I brought up a scene that reminded me of Snow White.

Rick Alverson on Denis Lavant: "He's more poetic than I am.

In Rick Alverson’s “The Mountain,” Jeff Goldlbum is Dr. Wallace Fiennes, a shrewd and conniving lobotomist. He travels across a dreamy ’50s American landscape, performing invasive surgery on a range of subjects who suffer from questionable ailments. Much like the repression endemic to the era, the seductive charm of Goldblum’s character masks the grotesque nature of his profession. The key turning point comes when Goldblum vanishes from the picture, forcing his wayward young assistant (Tye Sheridan) to confront a much darker world.

“I wanted very strategically to remove the Goldblum of the film,” Alverson said. “I wanted to interrupt the charisma intoxication his character brings, the neatness of that character arc. It felt consistent with the lobotomies in the film.”

It’s one of the most fascinating gambles in this summer movie season. The movie sits on a continuum with Alverson’s “The Comedy” and “Entertainment” for how it assails traditional storytelling,...

The Mountain feels like a departure for Rick Alverson, whose brand of deliberately challenging and unconventional cinema is evolving beyond the scope of his previous two films, The Comedy (2012) and Entertainment (2015). Leaving (partially) behind the examination of what constitutes humor and entertainment both as genre elements and on the larger level of cultural production, the American filmmaker is evolving formally towards a more classical type of storytelling, even if, as we discuss in the interview, he still wants to engage with those tools as a way of critiquing their traditional use.

Going back to the 1950s to build an explicitly political critique of the era’s social values with regards to masculinity, authority and passivity, Alverson uses Andy, a young man neglected by his family, as the access point to the controversial figure of Dr Wallace Fiennes, a traveling lobotomist who cast a long, charismatic shadow.…

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Who’s Wally?: Alverson Goes Retro with Punishing, Complex Period Drama

Always intent on making his audience do some of the work, American indie helmer Rick Alverson is back with a glacial road trip through the Pacific Northwest in the 1950s with The Mountain which is every bit as weird and challenging as his previous work but possibly even harder to approach due to the fewer opportunities for release, be it emotionally or merely nervous.

Tye Sheridan graduates here to a starring role after the clown that served as a foil to The Comedian in Entertainment. His Andy is also an unnerving mask (all vacant stare and rugged forehead), though of a different sort – a young man stymied by a harsh father (Udo Kier), he is constantly mortified and accused of being just like his mother, who was hospitalized due a mental condition.…...

With Rick Alverson’s Filmmaker-recommended The Mountain opening today in theaters, we’re debuting this edition of Not Getting Stoned with Caveh featuring the Virginia-based auteur and his blissed-out interlocutor, Caveh Zahedi. Re the “not,” Alverson disdains pot smoke, allowing Zahedi to puff in his presence but not exhale. Topics discussed: why filmmakers talk about financing all the time, whether cinema produces a physiological response in our bodies that can’t be adequately described in words, and how Alverson thinks about his own filmography.

With Rick Alverson’s Filmmaker-recommended The Mountain opening today in theaters, we’re debuting this edition of Not Getting Stoned with Caveh featuring the Virginia-based auteur and his blissed-out interlocutor, Caveh Zahedi. Re the “not,” Alverson disdains pot smoke, allowing Zahedi to puff in his presence but not exhale. Topics discussed: why filmmakers talk about financing all the time, whether cinema produces a physiological response in our bodies that can’t be adequately described in words, and how Alverson thinks about his own filmography.

There’s something about Tye Sheridan. Adopted early on by indie and/or iconoclastic filmmakers like Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Jeff Nichols (Mud) and David Gordon Green (Joe), he played fresh-faced innocents on the cusp of receiving wisdom or being irrevocably warped. Spielberg gave him a shot at leading-man heroics with Ready Player One; the X-Men movies gave him a chance at steady franchise superheroics by casting him as Baby Cyclops. His specialty seemed to be passivity. He didn’t look like your typical assembly-line CW hunk, though...

Let’s start here: the latest project from cinematic provocateur Rick Alverson is probably best suited for the sort of on-a-loop side room you’d find in a modern art museum, where it could endlessly challenge viewers but give curious wanderers a quick way out if they’ve had enough. Alverson calls “The Mountain” an “anti-Utopian film,” but doesn’t that describe most movies these days? Where his effort does stand out is in its gravely stark, often breathtaking beauty, and its urgent desire to Make a Point.

A cynic might wonder why a filmmaker who vocally disdains popular culture would hire Jeff Goldblum, one of its cultishly beloved icons. But Goldblum more than delivers as Wallace Fiennes, a doctor who travels California performing lobotomies in the mid-1950s. One of his patients is a woman who has been locked away for a long time, leaving her 20-year-old son Andy (Tye Sheridan) adrift and bereft.

Rick Alverson has never been a filmmaker that could be misconstrued as mainstream. His work is usually packed with detail, experimental structure, and unique dialogue. But his most recent work, “The Mountain,” might be his most, dare I say, mainstream work to date.

In honor of Alverson’s latest drama, “The Mountain,” finally hitting theaters later this week, we’re thrilled to be able to give our readers a chance to watch an exclusive clip from the film, which not only hints at the filmmaker’s unique abilities, but also shows just how majestic Jeff Goldblum is in just about every project he’s attached to.

Continue reading ‘The Mountain’ Exclusive Clip: Jeff Goldblum Smokes A Pipe & Dictates His Work In This Glimpse Of Rick Alverson’s Acclaimed Drama at The Playlist.

The Mountain Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Rick Alverson Screenwriter: Rick Alverson, Dustin Guy Defa, Colm O’Leary Cast: Tye Sheridan, Jeff Goldblum, Hannah Gross, Denis Lavant, Udo Kier Screened at: Park Ave, NYC, 7/22/19 Opens: July 26, 2019 If you enjoyed a highbrow feature like […]

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