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There isn’t too much drama but there is plenty of warm group atmosphere in “Dramarama,” the autobiographical first feature from writer-director Jonathan Wysocki that’s set in 1994 at a last gathering between high-school friends.

The religious background of these teens means “Dramarama” is treading in the footsteps of Stephen Cone, whose own movies in this sort of milieu, including “The Wise Kids” and “Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party,” set a patiently humanistic and non-judgmental tone that Wysocki’s film follows to a certain extent, but with a far faster pace.

“Dramarama” begins with a slight misstep as it introduces its protagonist, Gene (Nick Pugliese), flexing in front of a mirror in his bedroom and then reacting with distaste to the sound of his mother’s voice outside the door as she asks him if he is going to church. Wysocki has Pugliese stare straight into the camera after Gene dismisses his mother for us,...

One Shot is a series that seeks to find an essence of cinema history in one single image of a movie. The series Awakenings: Three By Stephen Cone is playing on Mubi in many countries. Sophy Romvari's Still Processing is also playing on Mubi in many countries.Tim: Y'all gonna be alright?Tim's Sister: Probably. Tim: Probably? Tim's Sister: Yeah, probably. Tim: Just say yes. —Dialogue excerpt from The Wise KidsThere is a sense of searching within all of Stephen Cones' films that is deeply palpable, so sticky from the summer heat, it’s impossible for the viewer to not feel it. In The Wise Kids, Cone balances ever so delicately the plight of the three main characters as they begin various transformations, all of which are treated with the same level of humanity and care. The lack of judgment is profound given the levels of pain and oppression...

Jenni Olson's The Royal Road and Arthur Bressan Jr.’s Gay USA are both part of Mubi's Pride Unprejudiced collection. The series Awakenings: Three By Stephen Cone is playing on Mubi in many countries.The Royal RoadThe morning after Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party screened at the Castro Theatre as a part of Frameline 39 (San Francisco LGBT Festival), I sat, severely hungover, in the rear floor section of that historic theatre and watched a matinee screening of Jenni Olson’s The Royal Road, an intimate, 65-minute “essay film” about California, unrequited love, narrative and nostalgia that I would eventually come to consider one of the greatest of all films. Sleep-deprived and heart-pounding from dehydration, I had no business being out in public, but with each serene 16mm California image accompanied by Olson’s dryly humorous, reflective voice-over, I began to feel that, in fact, I had no business being anywhere else.

Tyler Ross (The Killing), Derek Smith (Grey’s Anatomy), Nana Ghana (White Rabbit), Monique Kim (Looks That Kill) and Marissa Cuevas are set to recur on What/If, Netflix’s social thriller anthology drama series starring Renée Zellweger, Jane Levy and Blake Jenner, from Revenge and Swingtown creator Mike Kelley.

The series is written by Kelley, directed by Phillip Noyce and produced by Page Fright, Atlas Entertainment and Compari Entertainment in association with Warner Bros Television.

What/If explores the ripple effects of what happens when acceptable people start doing unacceptable things. The first season focuses on a mysterious woman’s lucrative but dubious offer to a cash-strapped pair of San Francisco newlyweds.

Executive producing the series are Kelley, who also showruns, and Melissa Loy via Page Fright, Alex Gartner and Charles Roven via Atlas Entertainment and Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke via Compari Entertainment. Jackie Levine of...

“Princess Cyd” is a delightful gem of a film, a delicate piece of naturalism centered around not one, but two, fully realized women characters. While it may technically be Stephen Cone’s eighth feature, the Chicago-based filmmaker has never seen a film play at Sundance, SXSW, Tiff, or any other major film festival. That’s about to change: With “Princess Cyd” receiving glowing reviews, earning Cone comparisons to the late Jonathan Demme, and an early career retrospective at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), Cone won’t be an outsider much longer.

“I’ve gotten used to the rejections,” Cone told IndieWire during a recent interview. “I’ve learned to be patient. But, I won’t lie, it’s been extremely unusual to fall through what feels like a very special crack in the floor.” Though the major American festivals have so far shut him out, Cone...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended Viewinga stunning trailer for the 4k restoration and re-release of Legend of the Mountain (1979), an under-seen, contemplative action masterpiece by Come Drink with Me and A Touch of Zen director King Hu.Hong Sang-soo's On the Beach at Night Alone gets a wry and incisive new trailer for its imminent U.S. release. We wrote on the film in February, and later interviewed the director about it.For De Filmkrant, Notebook contributors Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin investigate in a new video essay the virtuous modulation to be found in Howard Hawks' and Barbara Stanwyck's talents in Ball of Fire.Commissioned by Renzo, Le CiNéMa Club has premiered three inspired short films from Mati Diop, Eduardo Williams, and Baptist Penetticobra all loosely interpreting the theme "Inhabit the earth".Recommended READINGIn...

Princess CydStephen Cone has been making movies at a steady clip for over a decade and yet remains largely unknown. It is a momentous and wholly deserved occasion then for him to receive a retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Despite mixed receptions and even more erratic distribution patterns, his collection of films isn’t as motley as one might think. While each might tiptoe in a different direction, they maintain a hand in the Stephen Cone universe, imprinted by the same particular humanistic insight. In one of his earliest films, In Memoriam (2011), a young man so subsumed with the sudden death of a couple, fallen from a roof during the throes of pleasure, conducts his own investigation into their ill-fated demise. Innocuous curiosity masks what is essentially an existential inquiry and takes a self-referential pivot when he decides to recreate and film the events,...

by Glenn Dunks

In some ways, Stephen Cone is an unlikely name to warrant a retrospective. And yet in other ways, he’s a perfect choice. Those who already know this writer-director likely typify him, not incorrectly, by the way he infuses queer-leaning narratives with themes of religion and faith. But considering Cone’s films – of which he is likely best known for Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party from 2015 – have rarely ventured out of the queer film festival circuit and his earlier works remain virtually unseen, Talk About the Passion: Stephen Cone’s First Act is actually a well-timed way to learn about a filmmaker who is clearly doing enough right to stick around for a little while yet.

His debut as a feature direct after several short and medium-length titles was In Memoriam, a film that sits rather out of place among Cone’s filmography. Following a man who...

Stephen Cone has the tenacity of first-time director, yet he has eight feature films and dozens of shorts to show for it. His vision for filmmaking, grit in self-fundraising, and ability to collaborate with fresh faces (like Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame) and veteran actors alike results in nimble productions with a quick turn-around.

The Film Stage’s Jose Solís reviewed Cone’s newest film Princess Cyd, which opens today in NY and Chicago, saying: “With this, Cone also continues to be one of the few directors who has chosen to contextualize faith rather than demonize it. He shows greater interest in the places where we are like each other, all while celebrating what makes us different.”

Offering a look into his still-young career, Eric Hynes, Associate Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image, programmed Talk About the Passion: Stephen Cone’s First Act, going from...

Coming-of-age drama to screen at BAMcinemaFest in New York in June.

Wolfe Releasing has acquired director Stephen Cone’s Princess Cyd, which receives its world premiere at the Maryland Film Festival on Thursday.

The specialist Lgbtq distributor will screen the coming-of-age drama at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinemaFest in June, followed by a theatrical and digital release later this year.

The drama starring Rebecca Spence and Jessie Pinnick centres on 16-year-old athlete Cyd Loughlin who pays a visit to her novellist aunt in Chicago over the summer.

Eager to escape life with her depressive single father, Cyd falls for a girl in the neighbourhood while she and her aunt gently challenge each other in the realms of sex and spirit. Grace Hahn, Madison Ginsberg and Cone produced.

Princess Cyd marks Wolfe Releasing’s third collaboration with Cone after Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party and The Wise Kids.

“It is impossible to overstate how important the faith...

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party is one of 2016’s finest releases, and that you probably missed it completely during a short run earlier this year shouldn’t point towards anything about the work itself. Its day-in-the-life coming-of-age film mold strikes familiar notes; more surprising is how it captures an almost-overwhelming number of issues (e.g. religious and sexual identity, suburban life, infidelity, jealousy, and group dynamics) with the ear of a skilled novelist and the eye of an accomplished formalist. It goes without saying that a) you should watch Henry Gamble, and b) the writer-director, Stephen Cone (also of Black Box and The Wise Kids), is one to watch. With that in mind, we’re very happy to unveil first details of his next project, Princess Cyd, which will begin production this week.

Described as “a summer’s tale,” the Chicago-set picture follows Cyd (Jessie Pinnick), a 16-year-old athlete who,...

Making your way into theaters in the very start of a new year doesn’t help boost anticipation. Over the last handful of years, the months of January and February have become the dumping ground for pictures from major studios, that those executives either have little to no faith in or simply don’t know what else to do with. Focusing much of their attention on the awards fodder that begins to expand over the first few weeks of a new year (like The Revenant, opening in wide release this very weekend), studios relegate comedies or even horror to these weeks at the front end of the year, only to see them die a relatively quick death. And then there are the art house distributors, who have turned this part of the year into something far more important.

As more small, boutique distributors begin using this slow period to release...

After a festival run last year, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, the latest film from Stephen Cone (Black Box, The Wise Kids), begins its theatrical release in New York City today. A coming-of-age picture dealing with sexual confusion, social tension, and the theme of identity in middle America, we were fans of it following its BAMcinemaFest‎ screening, and are pleased to exclusively premiere the theatrical poster.

“The themes we make films about, we often don’t realize are important to us until much later,” Cone tells New York Times. “I’m 35. I haven’t spent the last 20 years thinking I need to tackle these knotty issues that I’ve been dealing with. It’s only lately in the last 5 or 6 years that I’ve decided to focus on some of the ideas and tensions that have been bubbling beneath the surface.”

Check out the poster below (designed by Caity Birmingham...

Read More: Exclusive: Trailer For 'Henry Gamble's Birthday Party' Screening At BAMcinemaFest And Maryland Film Festival Wolfe Releasing has acquired worldwide rights to writer-director Stephen Cone's "Henry Gamble's Birthday Party," starring Cole Doman, Pat Healy, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Nina Ganet, Francis Guinan and Kelly O’Sullivan. The film is set over 24 hours at a pool party in which the 17-year-old son of an evangelical preacher comes to terms with his own spiritual doubts and his adolescent sexuality. The deal was negotiated by Jim Stephens, President of Wolfe Releasing, and filmmaker Stephen Cone. "Nurturing the careers of talented filmmakers like Stephen Cone is one of our proudest achievements here at Wolfe Releasing," said Wolfe president Jim Stephens. "Having distributed his acclaimed debut feature, 'The Wise Kids,' in 2011, it is an enormous pleasure to bring Stephen's latest brilliant ensemble drama to a global audience. 'Henry...

Oh, the 90s.

The generation that grew up in the 1990s may remember grunge, parachute pants or the expansion of the Internet. But, in the urban settings, some young teens grew up with racial tensions and gangster rapper.

In the dark comedy “American Milkshake,” it is about a white high school student Jolie Jolson trying to fit in a mostly black high school by joining the varsity basketball team. He makes the team, but tries to fit in a sub-culture that he is not—being black.

Latino-Review had the opportunity to have a conversation with the main star Tyler Ross over a phone interview late last month. We discussed about basketball, preparing for this tough role and the 1990s.

“American Milkshake” is in limited theater release in Los Angeles and New York. It is also available on VOD.

Read or listen to the phone interview below.

Latino-Review: Could you tell...

Early this morning Amazon released Zombieland Season 1 Episode 1 Pilot available for free. You can watch the Zombieland Series right here for free. You can watch the trailer for the series that was released last night below. Kirk Ward (Forrest Gump) will portray Tallahassee (originally played by Woody Harrelson) The Wise Kids Tyler Ross will take on Columbus the role made famous by Jesse Eisenberg. Maiara Walsh (Mean Girls 2) is tapped to embrace the role of Wichita (initially brought to cultural relevance by Emma Stone) and young Izabela Vidovic (Find Me) rounds out the ensemble as the lovably troublesome Little Rock...

Chicago – Hollywood’s favorite night of self-congratulations commences this Sunday, finally putting an end to the awards season and allowing us to get on with the new year in film. One last look back at 2012. Will it be “Argo” or “Lincoln”? Spielberg or the field? What the heck wins Best Original Screenplay? The critical brain trust at HollywoodChicago.com — Brian Tallerico, Matt Fagerholm, & Patrick McDonald — got together to try and predict what will win, opine on what should win, and get in one last jab at what should have been nominated.

Unlike most years, there is a surprising lack of consensus in the big eight categories. We all predict the same winner in Picture, Actor, and Supporting Actress, but the other five categories offer disagreement. Having said that, at least 2 out of 3 of us pick the same winner in every category and so those are listed first below as the...

Exclusive: Sundance breakout Tyler Ross, star of indie Milkshake, and up-and-comer Izabela Vidovic have been cast as two of the four leads in Zombieland, Amazon Studios’ comedy pilot based on the hit 2009 movie. The project, produced by Sony TV, is a continuation of the adventures of Tallahassee, Columbus (Ross), Wichita, and her younger sister Little Rock (Vidovic) — four humans who band together to survive the zombie apocalypse. In the movie, the “nerdy handsome” Columbus, who also narrates the story, was played by Jesse Eisenberg; Little Rock, a worldly girl hardened by adversity, was portrayed by Abigail Breslin. Original Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote the pilot and executive produce with the movie’s producer, Gavin Polone. Ross, repped by Cesd and New Wave Entertainment, plays the lead in Milkshake, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released in the summer. He also drew praise for...

Brit Marling, Elizabeth Olsen, Edward Burns, Terrence Howard and Gabourey Sidibe all came to Park City as relative unknowns and emerged as highly sought-after talents. With the 2013 edition of the Sundance Film Festival launching tomorrow, the springboard is loaded. Here's Indiewire's picks for the 10 actors to watch this year.   Tyler Ross ("Milkshake") Why You May Know Him: 23-year-old Tyler Ross is best known for his lead turns in two gay-themed films, "The Wise Kids" and "Nate and Margaret." He also starred in two episodes of the Keley Grammer-starring series, "Boss." What Sundance Could Mean for Him: In David Andalman's feature-length debut "Milkshake," Ross is afforded his juiciest role to date as a young guy reaching for a dream he will never achieve: to become a black man. Early buzz suggests the movie is very funny, no doubt thanks in large part to his performance. If he hits it out of.

Chicago – There was no film in 2012 that moved me more deeply or left me feeling more exhilarated than Stephen Cone’s achingly personal masterpiece, “The Wise Kids.” It’s the sort of film that I’ve been hoping to see get made for quite some time. Whereas so many films about people of faith rely on condescending stereotypes to push a contrived agenda, Cone’s picture is humanistic in every sense of the word.

From the titular trio down to the smallest speaking role, every single character in “The Wise Kids” is thrillingly alive. It’s clear that Cone has a deep understanding of the Southern Baptist community portrayed in his film. There are no easy answers for the questions this movie provokes, nor are there any heavy-handed speeches designed to spoon-feed glib morals. Cone wants to start a dialogue on vital issues rather than pretend to be the final word.

Chicago – Gritty realism proves to be a perfect fit for some superhero franchises, but “Spider-Man” isn’t one of them. The more grounded and practical the world of Peter Parker becomes, the sillier the whole thing gets. Sam Raimi’s trilogy flourished precisely because it resembled a cheerfully vibrant comic book come to life. In contrast, “The Amazing Spider-Man” is a bore.

I’ll admit that Raimi’s overstuffed, undercooked “Spider-Man 3” was a good enough reason to, in the words of Todd Akin, “shut the whole thing down,” but since superhero movies have become Hollywood’s bread and butter, Columbia Pictures couldn’t resist prematurely rebooting the franchise. Yet since Raimi’s films are still crystal-clear in most moviegoers’ minds, the studio had quite a challenge in convincing audiences to sit through the same story again.

Blu-ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

That’s not to say that director Marc Webb doesn’t...

Chicago – HollywoodChicago.com writer Matt Fagerholm will chat about the latest independent films on Vocalo 89.5Fm from 9:30am to 10am on Friday, October 26th. Topics will include Tom Tykwer, Andy and Lana Wachowski’s hugely ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell’s acclaimed 2004 novel, “Cloud Atlas,” which opens in theaters on Friday, October 26th.

This is the second installment of Vocalo’s Indie Outlook series featuring Fagerholm, who created the independent film blog, Indie Outlook, this past summer. The site recently provided coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival with three in-depth interviews. Chicago’s own Kris Swanberg (“Kissing on the Mouth”) discussed her subtly eerie drama, “Empire Builder,” while Leslie Zemeckis (wife of Robert) chatted about her documentary, “Bound by Flesh,” which chronicled the lives of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton.

Director Brad Lichtenstein also discussed his Wisconsin-set documentary, “As Goes Janesville,” which follows the titular town’s...

Chicago – HollywoodChicago.com critic Matt Fagerholm will chat about the latest independent films on Chicago’s Vocalo 89.5 station from 9am to 9:30am on Friday, September 28th. Topics will include Stephen Cone’s acclaimed indie drama, “The Wise Kids,” which is scheduled to have a week-long run at the Gene Siskel Film Center beginning Friday, October 26th.

The Vocalo program will include excerpts from Matt’s podcast interview with “Wise Kids” star Allison Torem, who received a Jeff Award nomination for her performance in David Schwimmer’s 2010 stage production of “Trust.” The entirety of the podcast interview will be published this evening on Matt’s independent film blog, Indie Outlook. The site includes in-depth discussions with a wide variety of filmmakers, including Nathan Adloff (“Nate & Margaret”), Lawrence Michael Levine (“Gabi on the Roof in July”) and Todd Looby (“Be Good”). There are also some new exclusive interviews with cult icon Juliette Danielle,...

Chicago – One of Nathan Adloff’s goals as a filmmaker is mastering the art of the awkward silence. That moment when audiences shift uneasily in their chairs, balancing on the razor’s edge between amusement and agony, appeals greatly to Adloff, a self-professed fan of Christopher Guest and Todd Solondz. His award-winning shorts “Untied Strangers” and “Irregular Fruit” are both squirm-inducing gems.

For his feature directorial debut, “Nate & Margaret,” the Chicago filmmaker made a couple notable departures from his usual work method, the results of which can be seen at the movie’s Chicago premiere June 8th at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Instead of relying heavily on improvisation, Adloff crafted a script with his close writing partner, Justin D.M. Palmer. And though his picture is chockfull of awkward silences—at brutal open mic nights and in tense restaurant altercations—it is also a surprisingly warm-hearted and endearing look at an unconventional friendship.

HA0004 - Zoo Kid - "Out Getting Ribs" from House Anxiety on Vimeo.

Both gorilla vs bear and Pitchfork have selected their videos of the year and, just for the fun of it, I've scattered a few up and down this Saturday Briefing.

Via Mike Everleth comes news that the National Film Preservation Foundation has begun production on Treasures 6: Next Wave Avant-Garde, "a 2-dvd set to be released in fall 2013. Envisioned as a sequel to the Nfpf's award-winning Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986, the new anthology explores how avant-garde film took root and spread after the 1950s as the next generation embraced diversity and forged connections with conceptual and performance art." No titles have been announced yet, but we can look forward to 5½ hours of restorations from several archives.

212 featuring Lazy Jay from Azealia Banks on Vimeo.

"In this week's long review I take a look at the...

Andrew Haigh's "Weekend" won the Grand Jury Award for "Outstanding International Dramatic Feature," while Eric Brach's "Habana Muda" took the Grand Jury Award for "Outstanding Documentary Feature Film" over the weekend at Outfest, capping the 29th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The jury nod in the U.S. dramatic feature category went to Stephen Cone's "The Wise Kids," which also received Outfest's screenwriting award. Director Maryam Keshavarz's "Circumstance" won ...