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Cumbia music is the one grounding constant in Argentine-born Spanish filmmaker Amalia Ulman’s sophomore effort “Magic Farm,” a formally radical, biting satire about odious, privileged Americans adrift in a remote Argentine rural town. The group of foreigners works for a Vice-type media company dedicated to exploiting offbeat stories from around the world for sensationalist video content. The latest target for their culture-mining operation is Super Carlitos, a whimsical singer known for wearing bunny ears, residing in the town of San Cristobal. Unbeknown to useless producer Jeff (Alex Wolff of “Hereditary” fame), a place with that name could be anywhere in Latin America.

With the same uncomfortably dry sense of humor she exhibited in her debut feature “El Planeta” — where she and her real mother played a financially strapped mother-daughter duo — Ulman casts herself as Elena, the cameraperson and interpreter. There’s an inevitably metatextual quality to her character, since...

Superbad 2 never happened because the film's writers, director, and cast weren't on board. The raucous teen sex comedy about best friends trying to lose their virginity was directed by Greg Mottola and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Superbad stars Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Stone, Bill Hader, and Rogen. The film featured two close high school friends and a senior party that gave them one last chance to spend time together before leaving for college.

Goldberg and Rogen began crafting the script while in their teens, and it is based on real-life events that happened to Rogen and Goldberg during their senior year at their Vancouver high school in the 90s. Superbad was both a commercial and critical success, grossing over $170 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). There was also almost a Superbad 2, because producer Judd Apatow said he had an idea for the story, but...

Gaby Hoffmann has learned a lot about herself over the years, having grown up as a child actor and eventually leaving the industry only to return years later.

The Emmy-nominated actress recently opened up to The Independent about her comfort with nude scenes in movies and TV shows as well as the surrounding discourse compared to violence on screen.

“I’ve always been very comfortable being naked. So long as a woman is not being made to feel uncomfortable or isn’t being exploited, it shouldn’t be a big deal,” Hoffmann said. “I’m always shocked that nudity is such a big topic when it seems like in every other film someone gets their head blown off. Do we really need to talk about tits and vaginas? Let’s talk about AK47s, pistols, and the kind of absolutely revolting violence that is not just normal, but expected.”

She continued,...

Sundance turns 40 this year and AMC Networks is celebrating the film festival’s big 4-0 with the release of a curated lineup of dozens of movies that previously debuted at the event, including “Birth/Rebirth,” “Sleeping with Other People,” “Savage Grace” and “Heathers,” for streamer AMC+.

A long-time sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival with roots in indie films through IFC Films and now horror-focused streamer Shudder, whcih is debuting Chris Nash’s “In A Violent Nature” at the fest this year, AMC Networks will be offering the compilation of Sundance movies all through January, in connection with the 2024 edition of the film festival running Jan. 18-28.

“This collection is such a great way to honor the history of the legacy of Sundance bring AMC+ subscribers, who are not going to be in Park City, virtually to the event through this portfolio of such unforgettable films,” chief commercial officer for AMC Networks Kim Kelleher told Variety.

Rotting in the Sun streams exclusively on Mubi (almost) globally starting September 15, 2023.This week's episode features:Sebastián Silva (Chile), a director, screenwriter, singer, and painter. Over the past fifteen years, he has established himself as one of the most singular and prolific voices in Latin American cinema. His filmography—consisting of eight feature films to date, and characterized by a bold, dark humor—talks about contemporary issues like the clash between social classes, racial struggle, and suicide.In 2009, his second feature film, The Maid, was the first Chilean film to be nominated for a Golden Globe for best international feature, and also won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Since then, many of Silva’s films have premiered at Sundance, including Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus, Tyrel, and Nasty Baby; the latter film won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2015.Catalina Saavedra (Chile), a film, theater and television actress.

John Waters muse Jean Hill once said that she was well-known for “shaking hands with the dick,” and in Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun, influencer Jordan Firstman certainly takes the baton. At once an excoriating satire of the performativity of homosexuality within a social media-addled community as well as a seemingly earnest lament for the total loss of collectivity, the film minces neither words nor bodily appendages.

Silva plants tongue deep in cheek as a hopelessly depressed caricature of himself, dodging promotional commitments, slapping his shit-eating dog across the face in full view of horrified passersby, watching people watch him page through E.M. Cioran’s The Trouble with Being Born, and getting lost in a K-hole as often as he can manage. It’s not that Silva’s on-screen alter ego is out of ideas—in fact, he spends much of his time slashing away at his...

"Why don't you stay your lane?" Mubi has revealed the first official trailer for the indie comedy Rotting in the Sun, the latest film from Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva. This premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where Silva has been a regular in the past - in 2013 he premiered two new films at the festival: Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and Magic Magic. The very meta film follows social media celebrity Jordan Firstman as he starts a search for the filmmaker Sebastian Silva who has gone missing in Mexico City. He strangely suspects that the cleaning lady in Sebastian's building may be involved in his disappearance. The festival adds: "Silva returns to Sundance playing a derisive version of himself in his latest black comedy, skewering not only the business of filmmaking, but also our modern solipsistic culture. Darkly funny, refreshingly audacious in its depiction of sex,...

Sebastián Silva’s Mexico-set meta-comedy “Rotting in the Sun” has finally found a home in the U.S. and elsewhere after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023.

IndieWire exclusively shares that Mubi has acquired the rights to the latest button-pushing work from the filmmaker behind “The Maid,” “Nasty Baby,” and “Crystal Fairy.” The Park City premiere stars Silva as a version of himself, here a filmmaker staring down an existential crisis while adrift over his busted latest project, and comedian and social media sensation Jordan Firstman also as a version of himself, an outspokenly gay influencer who blows up the fictional Silva’s life.

This raunchy, sexually explicit satire of gay millennial life amused and provoked Sundance audiences with its graphic content, unapologetic drug use, and a narrative hairpin turn typical of Silva’s low-budget, genre-mixing indies. In a quote shared by Mubi, Bret Easton Ellis said the...

From its hilarious use of social media montages to the oversized white Telfar bag that seems to almost swallow one of its characters whole, Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun is the kind of film that would be best served by a review comprised entirely of emojis. And I mean that as the highest of compliments. There isn’t a single frame in the film that hasn’t been meticulously manicured in order to achieve what social media tries to do: create a vision of uniqueness while relishing in manufactured mundanity. That Silva achieves to both criticize the overuse of online personas (particularly in the white gay world) while becoming a piece meant to be meme-d and TikTok-ed into oblivion is truly remarkable.

The Chilean director, best known for his psychedelic dramedies like Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus and The Maid, plays a spiritually oversized version of himself,...

If Sebastián Silva hadn’t called his first feature Life Kills Me, it might be an apt title for his latest, Rotting in the Sun. The Chilean director’s work, as always, is an acquired taste, but his no-frills, scrappy aesthetic is particularly well suited to this slippery shot of meta-misanthropy, graphic gay sex and mordant farce. The filmmaker plays a despondent version of himself, subsisting in Mexico City on ketamine and poppers, contemplating suicide until a chance encounter with a brash American influencer and professional party boy kind of derails his plans.

Raunchy, rude and frequently incisive in its targeting of both self-pitying artists and social media celebs, the film revisits many of the director’s customary fixations — eroticism, despair, class conflict, the fragility of life and the allure of death, all of it embroidered with a mischievous thread of absurdist humor.

Its appeal to Silva fans will be...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Mubi releases the film in theaters on Friday, September 8.

Sebastián Silva has suicide on the brain in “Rotting in the Sun,” his eighth directorial feature and one in which he also plays himself. Sebastián is living in Mexico City, running out of money, addicted to ketamine, and bereft of creative ideas. But he faces a new, potentially soul-eroding opportunity when flippant gay internet persona and content creator Jordan Firstman enters the frame. Firstman also plays himself in a performance that interrogates his image as a contemporary queer icon while also mocking it — in ways self-aware and also not — in this raunchy, sexually explicit lambasting of gay male life whose target audience will both revile and revere this film.

“Rotting in the Sun” begins with Sebastián sitting at a public fountain in the Plaza Rio de Janeiro, googling...

Michael Cera will star opposite Amy Schumer in the upcoming Hulu comedy series “Life & Beth.”

Formerly known as “Love, Beth,” the show received a 10-episode order in July 2019 as part of a first-look deal Schumer signed with Hulu. She will serve as the writer, director, executive producer, and star of the series.

In the show, Beth’s (Schumer) life looks pretty great on paper. Impressive to everyone she grew up with, she makes a good living as a wine distributor. She’s in a long term relationship with an attractive, successful guy and lives in Manhattan. When a sudden incident forces Beth to engage with her past, her life changes forever. Through flashbacks to her teen self, Beth starts to learn how she became who she is and who she wants to become.

Cera will play the role of John, a farmer and chef who is always honest and to the point.

“Superbad” costars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera reunited for an interview featured in Hill’s limited edition zine “Inner Children,” released in conjunction with A24. The indie distributor is behind the release of Hill’s directorial debut “Mid90s” and asked the writer-director to interview a handful of celebrities he admires most, including Cera, Edie Falco, skateboarder Mark Gonzalez, and more. Vulture published an excerpt from Hill’s interview with Cera, which includes Cera’s unenthusiastic outlook on his “Superbad” days.

“If I think back to myself in my teenage years, it’s alarming,” Cera said. “I have this footage of us from the ‘Superbad’ press tour and even watching that and looking at myself when I was like 19, it’s really disturbing.”

Hill praised Cera for making the decision with his career to go down a quieter path when things got too hectic following “Superbad.” Throughout his twenties, Cera made...

"Never trust the white man." Magnolia Pictures has debuted the first official trailer for an indie drama titled Tyrel, the latest feature from Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva. This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and it also played at the Seattle and Sydney Film Festivals. The film stars Jason Mitchell as a guy named Tyler, who joins one of his friends for a party at a cabin in the woods. After arriving, he discovers he's the only black guy there and things start to get nerve-wracking. Also starring Christopher Abbott, Nicolas Arze, Roddy Bottum, Michael Cera, Philip Ettinger, Caleb Landry Jones, Michael Zegen, and Ann Dowd. I saw this film at Sundance and didn't really like it. Though it seems like Get Out, it's more like the anti-Get Out. Have fun. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Sebastián Silva's Tyrel, direct from Magnolia's YouTube:...

There's a time and place for films where nothing really happens, but this is not one of those times. Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva is a regular at Sundance, having brought his films Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and Magic Magic in years past. He's back again to premiere his latest film, Tyrel, and unfortunately this film is a huge let down. I'm just going to state it right up front: nothing happens in this film. It has all this underlying tension, but none of it leads to anywhere, and none of it means anything. I'm starting to think I just do not like the films Silva makes, mostly because nothing happens. They're boring exercises in telling dull, dry stories that play well at festivals, but have no place in the bigger cinematic universe. Which is unfortunate, because I was really hoping his film Tyrel might have something to say,...

Sofia Subercaseaux readily admits to editing her first feature film with the aid of “tutorials on YouTube.” That film, Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus, went on to premiere at Sundance in 2013. She has since gone on to edit Nasty Baby, Christine and Dina – all of which debuted at Sundance in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. This year she edited two films at the festival: Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing and Sebastián Silva’s Tyrel. Below, Subercaseaux discusses her continued collaboration with Silva and the “instinctual and easy to navigate” feel of editing on Adobe Premiere. Filmmaker: How and why did […]...

New strands include pop-up events, a focus on Chile and Oscar nominated Hollywood films from 1939.Scroll down for full list of strands

The Glasgow Film Festival has unveiled its line-up of strands for its 10th edition, which will run Feb 20 to March 2.

New strands include Pop-Up Cinema, comprising “boutique screenings and cinematic experiences” in a range of unusual locations.

Its builds on last year’s festival, where The Warriors screened in the Glasgow Subway system; Jaws and Dead Calm were shown in the cargo hold of the Tall Ship Glenlee; silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc was accompanied by a live soprano soundtrack at Glasgow Cathedral; and Calamity Jane was played at the Grand Ole Opry country and western saloon.

At the 2014 festival, there will be a themed pop-up event on every night of the Festival apart from the opening and closing galas. Selected events will be announced next month.

New strand...

Chicago – What to Watch is back! Miss us? Every week, we roll out 5-10 of the latest films and TV shows to be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and various streaming services. This week’s highlights include a few classics, a cult hit, a couple of recent comedies, and a family flick. In the order we’d advise buying or renting them…

The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection

Photo credit: Cohen Media Group

“The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection”

Another Wtw, another Cohen Media Group release. Seriously, the good folks at Cohen have been doing an amazing job of finding relatively obscure classics and recent foreign films and polishing them like they’re beloved worldwide. They’re rivaling Criterion and Scream Factory as studios for which every release truly matters. Their latest is a collection of four early films from the legendary Vivien Leigh, an actress best-known for “Gone with the Wind” and a true Hollywood icon.

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week:

"The World's End"

What's It About? The third installment of Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy, following 2004's "Shaun of the Dead" and 2007's "Hot Fuzz," "The World's End" features a group of five reuniting friends. They embark on an epic drinking marathon in an effort to top their pub crawl from 20 years prior, only this time an unexpected alien invasion strikes.

Why We're In: A refreshing blend of comedy and sci-fi, "The World's End" is the perfectly charming film to spoof the apocalypse genre and keep you endlessly entertained. Plus, it features hilarious (as always) performances from Wright staples Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.

Watch: Go behind-the-scenes on "The World's End" (Video)

Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week:

"Tokyo Story" (Criterion Collection)

What's It About? Yasujirô Ozu's ("Late Spring") 1953 classic, "Tokyo Story," tells the sad story of elderly couple Shukichi (Chishu Ryu) and...

Among all the national Oscar ® submissions for consideration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will nominate 5 on January 16, 2014 to compete for Best Foreign Language Film. One of those five films will receive the Oscar ® for Best Non-English-feature at the Oscar ® Awards March 2, 2014 in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards

At this point (and I have not seen all the films yet), I predict the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar going to The Great Beauty,Child’s Pose or Gloria. Those are three of my four favorites thus far. The Past, while worthy most likely will not repeat Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar 2011 win for A Separation.

Child’s Pose

I am amazed to see that no Romanian film ever even made it to the 5 Nominations level and yet their films are internationally acclaimed and Child’s Pose carries on the tradition of great filmmaking that Romania has established in recent years. A scathing indictment of the complacent bourgeois nouveau riche classes in Romania, this film leaves no doubt in our mind of how far one can go to protect a really ugly new society. The very strength of the film may make it too “high-brow” for the Academy, although it did award another “high-brow” movie when the Oscar went to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2011, but at that time, there were political motivations as well for awarding the Oscar to a dissident Iranian. If Child’s Pose does not receive a nomination however, I will attribute that to my aforesaid judgement.

Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon gave a speech at the Berlinale Awards Ceremony Closing Night where the film won The Golden Bear, which deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. ( Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).

Child's Pose , good in the vein of A Separation, went head to head in Berlin with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways and so it could again for the Oscar. The two older women were both great.

By the way, Gloria was produced by Fabula , the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced Academy Award winner in 2012 No as well as Crystal Fairy by Sebastian Silva.

Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."

Regarding Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, one of my three favorites, it is masterful how Asghar Farhadi can take a simple domestic drama – divorce, remarriage, children, step-parents – and based on one simple miss-step (a white lie in A Separation and a forwarding of emails in The Past), he weaves a surprising and suspenseful web whose strands the audience only unravels after it has fully and seemingly effortlessly played itself out.

When I saw A Separation, the Iranian exoticism initially carried it forward, and it was only at its final note played that I realized a simple lie and a few misstatements caused the greatest grief for the most innocent player of the family’s drama. The daughter was left to suffer from the well-meaning white lies of adults and that was the ensuing tragedy of the film. In this film (The Past), it is the daughter who must bear the responsibility when things get complicated.

The story goes thus: Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)'s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad's efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi's complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.

The Past, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, 2013. After playing Cannes, it went on to play at Telluride, Toronto and AFI Film Festivals.

Not only did The Past win the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Actress (Bérénice Béjo), but Asghar Farhadi’s previous film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. For that reason alone, I do not think it will win the Award this year even if it makes it to the 5 top nominated films.

41 year-old writer-director Asghar Farhadi graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998. He had won the Berlin Film Festival' Golden Bear for Best Director for About Elly. The Past is his sixth feature.

Argentinian-born and Paris-based actress Bérénice Béjo was last seen in her Academy nominated role as Peppy Miller in Best Picture Oscar winner The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Following her César-nominated breakout role in Gérard Jugnot's Most Promising Young Actress, Béjo made her American feature film debut in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Béjo is currently in production on director Michel Hazanavicius' new film, The Search.

One of French cinema's young rising stars, Tahar Rahim is best known to U.S. audiences for his indelible performance in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, for which he won both Best Actor and Best Male Newcomer Césars, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actor.

See SydneysBuzz Review of The Past .

I won’t reiterate my love for the inspirational and awesome film The Great Beauty because you can read about that in my Interview with Paulo Sorrentino the Director of The Great Beauty and for the fabulously self-affirming Gloria which you can read in my Interview with Sebastian Lelio Director of 'Gloria' and Star Paulina Garcia .

Below you can list of rights sold to all these four great films. Note who are the smart distributors buying these art films so that when you make such a film, you will know who will be watching. And for more rights to more films, buy the Rights Roundup Reports by SydneysBuzz for each great festival and market Here.

The Past

MPAA Rating: Not yet rated | Running time: 130 min.

French and Persian with English subtitles

International sales by Memento sold to

Australia-Madman Entertainment

Canada-Métropole Films Distribution

Canada-Mongrel Media Inc.

Denmark-Angel Films A/S

Finland-Cinema Mondo

France-Canal +

France-Memento Films Distribution

Germany-Camino Filmverleih Gmbh

Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited

Israel-Lev Films (Shani Films)

Italy-Bim Distribuzione

Korea (South)-Cac Entertainment

Netherlands-Cinéart Nl

Norway-Arthaus

Poland-Kino Swiat

Serbia-Soul Food Distribution

Sweden-Folkets Bio

Switzerland-Frenetic Films

Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc.

Turkey-Mars Production

U.K.-Curzon Film World/ Artificial Eye

U.S. – Spc/ Airlines – Penny Black Media

Child’s Pose

Zeitgeist Films is handling the U.S. theatrical release of Child’s Pose by Calin Peter Netzer. The film will open at Film Forum in New York on February 19, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21. A national release will follow.

Golden Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Calin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted Child’s Pose pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Beyond the Hills; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the role for which Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded her the Best Supporting Actress award) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.

MPAA Rating: Not yet rated. / Running time: 112 min.

Romanian with English subtitles

International sales by Beta Cinema sold to

Australia - Palace Films

Brazil - Imovision

Denmark - Camera Film A/S

Germany - Beta Cinema

Germany - X Verleih Ag

Greece - Seven Films

Italy - Teodora Film

So. Korea - Mediaday

Mexico - Cinemas Nueva Era

Netherlands - Contact Film

Norway - Film&Kino

Norway - Tour De Force As

Poland - Aurora Films

Poland - Transatlantyk Festival

Portugal - Alambique

Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk)

Spain - Golem Distribución

Switzerland - Filmcoopi Zurich Ag

Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films Co.,Ltd.

Turkey - Mor Film

The Great Beauty

140 minutes

Italian with English subtitles

International sales agent Pathe sold to

Australia Palace Films

Brazil Mares Filmes Ltda.

Canada Métropole Films Distribution

Denmark Camera Film A/S

France Canal +

Germany Dcm

Hong Kong Edko Films Ltd

Netherlands Abc - Cinemien

Norway As Fidalgo Film Distribution

Russia A-One Films

Slovak Republic Film Europe (Sk)

Switzerland Pathe Films Ag

U.K. Curzon Film World

Gloria

104 minutes

Spanish with English subtitles

International sales agent Funny Balloons sold to

Australia Rialto Distribution (Australia)

Austria Thimfilm Gmbh

Brazil Imovision

Canada Métropole Films Distribution

Colombia Babilla Cine

France Funny Balloons

Germany Alamode Film

Greece Strada Films

Israel New Cinema Ltd.

Italy Lucky Red

Japan Respect

Korea (South) Pancinema

Netherlands Wild Bunch Benelux

Portugal Alambique

Sweden Atlantic Film Ab

Switzerland Filmcoopi Zurich Ag

Turkey Bir Film

U.K. Network

U.S. Roadside Attractions...

Among all the national Oscar ® submissions for consideration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will nominate 5 on January 16, 2014 to compete for Best Foreign Language Film. One of those five films will receive the Oscar ® for Best Non-English-feature at the Oscar ® Awards March 2, 2014 in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

At this point (and I have not seen all the films yet), I predict the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar going to The Great Beauty,Child’s Pose or Gloria. Those are three of my four favorites thus far. The Past, while worthy most likely will not repeat Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar 2011 win for A Separation.

Child’s Pose

I am amazed to see that no Romanian film ever even made it to the 5 Nominations level and yet their films are internationally acclaimed and Child’s Pose carries on the tradition of great filmmaking that Romania has established in recent years. A scathing indictment of the complacent bourgeois nouveau riche classes in Romania, this film leaves no doubt in our mind of how far one can go to protect a really ugly new society. The very strength of the film may make it too “high-brow” for the Academy, although it did award another “high-brow” movie when the Oscar went to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2011, but at that time, there were political motivations as well for awarding the Oscar to a dissident Iranian. If Child’s Pose does not receive a nomination however, I will attribute that to my aforesaid judgement.

Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon gave a speech at the Berlinale Awards Ceremony Closing Night where the film won The Golden Bear, which deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. ( Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).

Child's Pose , good in the vein of A Separation, went head to head in Berlin with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways and so it could again for the Oscar. The two older women were both great.

By the way, Gloria was produced by Fabula , the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced Academy Award winner in 2012No as well as Crystal Fairy by Sebastian Silva.

Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."

Regarding Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, one of my three favorites, it is masterful how Asghar Farhadi can take a simple domestic drama – divorce, remarriage, children, step-parents – and based on one simple miss-step (a white lie in A Separation and a forwarding of emails in The Past), he weaves a surprising and suspenseful web whose strands the audience only unravels after it has fully and seemingly effortlessly played itself out.

When I saw A Separation, the Iranian exoticism initially carried it forward, and it was only at its final note played that I realized a simple lie and a few misstatements caused the greatest grief for the most innocent player of the family’s drama. The daughter was left to suffer from the well-meaning white lies of adults and that was the ensuing tragedy of the film. In this film (The Past), it is the daughter who must bear the responsibility when things get complicated.

The story goes thus: Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)'s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad's efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi's complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.

The Past, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, 2013. After playing Cannes, it went on to play at Telluride, Toronto and AFI Film Festivals.

Not only did The Past win the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Actress (Bérénice Béjo), but Asghar Farhadi’s previous film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. For that reason alone, I do not think it will win the Award this year even if it makes it to the 5 top nominated films.

41 year-old writer-director Asghar Farhadi graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998. He had won the Berlin Film Festival' Golden Bear for Best Director for About Elly. The Past is his sixth feature.

Argentinian-born and Paris-based actress Bérénice Béjo was last seen in her Academy nominated role as Peppy Miller in Best Picture Oscar winnerThe Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Following her César-nominated breakout role in Gérard Jugnot's Most Promising Young Actress, Béjo made her American feature film debut in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Béjo is currently in production on director Michel Hazanavicius' new film, The Search.

One of French cinema's young rising stars, Tahar Rahim is best known to U.S. audiences for his indelible performance in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, for which he won both Best Actor and Best Male Newcomer Césars, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actor.

See SydneysBuzz Review of The Past .

I won’t reiterate my love for the inspirational and awesome film A Great Beauty because you can read about that in my Interview with Paulo Sorrentino the Director of The Great Beauty and for the fabulously self-affirming Gloria which you can read in my Interview with Sebastian Lelio Director of 'Gloria' and Star Paulina Garcia .

Below you can list of rights sold to all these four great films. Note who are the smart distributors buying these art films so that when you make such a film, you will know who will be watching. And for more rights to more films, buy the Rights Roundup Reports by SydneysBuzz for each great festival and market Here.

The Past

MPAA Rating: Not yet rated | Running time: 130 min.

French and Persian with English subtitles

International sales by Memento sold to

Australia-Madman Entertainment

Canada-Métropole Films Distribution

Canada-Mongrel Media Inc.

Denmark-Angel Films A/S

Finland-Cinema Mondo

France-Canal +

France-Memento Films Distribution

Germany-Camino Filmverleih Gmbh

Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited

Israel-Lev Films (Shani Films)

Italy-Bim Distribuzione

Korea (South)-Cac Entertainment

Netherlands-Cinéart Nl

Norway-Arthaus

Poland-Kino Swiat

Serbia-Soul Food Distribution

Sweden-Folkets Bio

Switzerland-Frenetic Films

Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc.

Turkey-Mars Production

U.K.-Curzon Film World/ Artificial Eye

U.S. – Spc/ Airlines – Penny Black Media

Child’s Pose

Zeitgeist Films is handling the U.S. theatrical release of Child’s Pose by Calin Peter Netzer. The film will open at Film Forum in New York on February 19, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21. A national release will follow.

Golden Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Calin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted Child’s Pose pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Beyond the Hills; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the role for which Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded her the Best Supporting Actress award) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.

MPAA Rating: Not yet rated. / Running time: 112 min.

Romanian with English subtitles

International sales by Beta Cinema sold to

Australia - Palace Films

Brazil - Imovision

Denmark - Camera Film A/S

Germany - Beta Cinema

Germany - X Verleih Ag

Greece - Seven Films

Italy - Teodora Film

So. Korea - Mediaday

Mexico - Cinemas Nueva Era

Netherlands - Contact Film

Norway - Film&Kino

Norway - Tour De Force As

Poland - Aurora Films

Poland - Transatlantyk Festival

Portugal - Alambique

Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk)

Spain - Golem Distribución

Switzerland - Filmcoopi Zurich Ag

Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films Co.,Ltd.

Turkey - Mor Film

The Great Beauty

140 minutes

Italian with English subtitles

International sales agent Pathe sold to

Australia Palace Films

Brazil Mares Filmes Ltda.

Canada Métropole Films Distribution

Denmark Camera Film A/S

France Canal +

Germany Dcm

Hong Kong Edko Films Ltd

Netherlands Abc - Cinemien

Norway As Fidalgo Film Distribution

Russia A-One Films

Slovak Republic Film Europe (Sk)

Switzerland Pathe Films Ag

U.K. Curzon Film World

Gloria

104 minutes

Spanish with English subtitles

International sales agent Funny Balloons sold to

Australia Rialto Distribution (Australia)

Austria Thimfilm Gmbh

Brazil Imovision

Canada Métropole Films Distribution

Colombia Babilla Cine

France Funny Balloons

Germany Alamode Film

Greece Strada Films

Israel New Cinema Ltd.

Italy Lucky Red

Japan Respect

Korea (South) Pancinema

Netherlands Wild Bunch Benelux

Portugal Alambique

Sweden Atlantic Film Ab

Switzerland Filmcoopi Zurich Ag

Turkey Bir Film

U.K. Network

U.S. Roadside Attractions...

Director Sebastián Silva is now known for Sundance award-winner “The Maid” and the recent Michael Cera film “Crystal Fairy,” but before establishing his lofty international reputation, he debuted with “Life Kills Me,” which the Global Lens series springs from the vault for a welcome reassessment. Life and death come wrapped in a mutual embrace, both absurd and poignant, in this smart comedy about an unlikely friendship between a grieving cinematographer and a morbidly obsessed drifter. At work on a seriously schlocky, low-budget horror film, Gaspar is still reeling from the untimely death of his beloved older brother when he meets Alvaro at yet another premature funeral. A mildly sociopathic young man with an unyielding curiosity for the dark side, Alvaro soon coaxes Gaspar out of his shell in unexpected ways. The savvy film site Twitch calls “Life Kills Me” the “film equivalent of a Smiths song: the chirpy, stylish exterior...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave to open festival; director Peter Greenaway to receive Visionary Award.Scroll down for full line-up

Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.

It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.

Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.

McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.

Line-up

The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.

As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...

Update: An official first image has been released of Reese Witherspoon in "Wild," where she plays a woman coming to terms with the death of her mother and her dissolved marriage by embarking on a thousand-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail. It is adapted by Nick Hornby from Cheryl Strayed's memoir. Plus, Laura Dern has joined the cast. She joins the previously announced Thomas Sadoski ("The Newsroom") and Gabby Hoffmann ("Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus"). Earlier: Fox Searchlight's "Wild," starring Reese Witherspoon and Thomas Sadoski ("The Newsroom") in Nick Hornby's adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's bestselling memoir, has gone into production. The film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee ("Dallas Buyers Club"), is shooting on location in Oregon and then California. Michiel Huisman ("World War Z"), Gabby Hoffmann ("Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus"), W. Earl Brown ("The Lone Ranger") and Kevin Rankin ("Dawn of the Dead") have also joined the cast.

Gloria, which just finished playing Tiff, directed by Sebastian Lelio and starring Paulina Garcia has been selected to represent Chile in the Foreign Language race for the 86th Academy Awards ®

Fresh off its highly successful North American premiere at The Telluride Film Festival, Gloria was Special Presentation at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival.

I was lucky to be able to spend an hour speaking with director Sebastián Lelio and

2013 Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Award winner Paulina Garcia, the film’s star.

Paulina Garcia in real life barely resembled Gloria who is a seemingly comfortable “woman of a certain age” who still feels young…like me, and also like me, she enjoys dancing. Her children have lives of their own as does her former husband, she has a job and while comfortable, she is a bit at a loss for a place and for love. I had not realized that in fact those people I dance with are perhaps also looking for love – all I ever see them do is dance.

But like Gloria, though lonely, they are making the best of their situation. Her fragile happiness changes the day she meets Rodolfo. Their intense passion, to which Gloria gives her all, leaves her vacillating between hope and despair - until she uncovers a new strength and realizes that, in her golden years, she can shine brighter than ever.

Speaking with Paulina Garcia, I was first struck with how unlike the character Gloria she was. Sophisticated and refined, speaking perfect English, we related on a different level from how I related to her in the film, and I had related intimately; I had identified completely with Gloria and I had thought I would, in fact, be meeting Gloria herself.

Paulina told me how unusual it is to be in every scene. Playing such a character focused so deeply into life forced her to move the center of herself to a different point. After the movie had been shot, she felt the pain in her very bones from the different positions and motions of Gloria’s person. When it was over, she felt like she had emerged from a very deep ocean dive. Acting is on the surface, but the character played is really more like an iceberg.

Sebastian added that the relationship between Gloria and everyone else is not the action but in the air around them. It is the anti-matter you experience in the film, not the plot. The spotlight was always upon her. There was not a single frame in which Gloria’s body was not present. Every single scene is about how she is feeling about people, things and the world. And she reflects the world, as it is today in Santiago, Chile – discontented and seeking ways to take action against the discontent.

The relationship built between Sebastian and Paulina prior to filming was not based on the film, but on aligning their minds. It was an unusual friendship that was built between the director and actress. He gave her things to read unrelated to the film, she read Cassavetes on Cassavetes, (the name Gloria was not spurious); he gave her quotes, information on vortexes and whatever else interested him in those days. He was very clear about how personal the film would be, creating layers of emotion and artistry. Once they began working together, they shared a sort of mindful shorthand. He might say, “Do your own vortex” and she would define the world in her own terms so she could do her part. Paulina/Gloria was the point of the film and everything had to go around her, as if she were the vortex.

The other character in the film – whom we did not discuss at all, but who was an extraordinary counterweight to Gloria, was Sergio Hernandez who played Rodolfo. Very sexy and very soulful, he is dogged in his pursuit of Gloria and is dogged by his “ex-wife” and daughters. He has played in Sebastian Lelio’s previous films La Sagrada Familia in 2006 which I caught during my first trip to Chile as an guest of the Valdivia Film Festival in ‘05 and in El Ano del Tigre, his third film which played Locarno in 2011. Both these were also “insistent observations of characters going through evolutionary crossroads: family as a sacred trap; the interest in the tension that exists between a person and character; and the conviction that film is a face-on battle”, to quote Sebastian.

La Sagrada Familia was shot in 3 days in 35mm, a true indie film. It was a sort of “punk” film and it met with great success and so Sebastian could access national funds to make his second film Navidad which along with some private investment was finally paid off two months ago. Navidad was about teenage runaways going through a sort of initiation into the carney world. He directed Year of the Tiger just after Chile’s major earthquake and Fabula put in the money ($100,000) for this urgent film. It is a testament to the Year Zero and was shot in 12 days. It went on to play Toronto and Locarno. These are all available along with interviews on Festival Scope.

The year 2005 was the year that a new generation of filmmakers was beginning to create Chilean cinema as we know it today. Not only Sebastian Lelio withLa Sagrada Familia, but the producer of Gloria and Year of the Tiger, Fabula’s Pablo Larrain (along with his brother Juan de Dios Larrain) was developing his breakout film, Tony Manero and had just finished Fuga. Pablo also wrote and directed Post Mortem , produced El año del tigre , produced and directed No and produced this year’s Sundance hit Crystal Fairy. It was Diego Izquierdo whose Sexo con Amor we were repping who brought us to Valdivia that year as he was working on El rey de los huevones . It was the year En la Cama by Matias Bizes ( La vida de los peces ) was the most popular film in Chile and films were finally breaking from the post-Pinochet trauma. The “other Sebastian”, Sebastian Silva, was the inspiration behind the writers of Mala Leche and La Sagrada Familia, and was writing the first film he would also direct, La vida me mata (Life Kills Me).

Gloria was such a fine work of art that it was developed in the Cannes Residency (Cinefondation) program and garnered national funds for its production. It was screened as a Work in Progress first in Chile’s Sanfic and then in San Sebastian in 2012 where it won the Cine in Construccion Award. Sebastian has recently received a Guggenheim fellowship and support of the Daad Berliner Kunstlerprogram for the development of his new projects.

To be witness to Chile’s spectacular growth in the international business gives me such a thrill. I can’t wait to see Sebastian’s next film which he is working on now in the Berlinale Residency (September – December), writing it with an eye toward co-production. The new film explores masculine emotions. Perhaps it will once again star Paulina Garcia.

Gloria

Directed by: Sebastián Lelio

Tiff 2013 - Special Presentation

Chile - 109 minutes - In Spanish with English subtitles

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Starring: Paulina García

Producer: Fabula - Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín

Tiff 2013: Special Presentation

U.S. Distributor: Roadside Attractions

Canadian Distributor: Mongrel Media

The film will be released by Roadside Attractions and is being sold internationally by Funny Balloons, who has already sold it to

Australia

Rialto Distribution (Australia)

Austria

Thimfilm Gmbh

Brazil

Imovision

Canada

Métropole Films Distribution

Colombia

Babilla Cine

France

Funny Balloons

Germany

Alamode Film

Greece

Strada Films

Israel

New Cinema Ltd.

Italy

Lucky Red

Japan

Respect

Korea (South)

Pancinema

Netherlands

Wild Bunch Benelux

Portugal

Alambique

Sweden

Atlantic Film Ab

Switzerland

Filmcoopi Zurich Ag

Turkey

Bir Film

United Kingdom

Network

USA

Roadside Attractions...

On this episode, we discuss Sebastián Silva’s gut-wrenching psychological horror Magic Magic as well as his freewheeling comedy Crystal Fairy. In our week-in-review segment, we share our feelings on Michael Bay’s Pain and Gain, and Canadian filmmaker, Jason Lapeyre’s indie gems, I Declare War and Cold Blooded.

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Sebastián Silva is a Chilean director, and maybe in this time and age, the most well-known director born in Chile today -- the best-known Chilean director ever award would go to the masterful Raúl Ruiz -- and it's easy to see why. His movies get releases and are usually accepted in important festivals, like Cannes and Valdivia, and more importantly, he has managed to premiere all his films, starting with 2009's The Maid (La nana), at Sundance, and always getting an award out of it.In 2013, we've seen releases of the two movies that he premiered at Sundance this year, first a theatrical release of the Michael Cera/Gaby Hoffman drug-fueled comedy Crystal Fairy, and later a home video release of his Michael Cera/Juno Temple psychological...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Your film stars a who’s who of young, on-the-rise actors who carry brand-name recognition within the independent film world: Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”), talented and versatile British actress Juno Temple (“Killer Joe," “Jack And Diane," “The Dark Knight Rises,"“The Three Musketeers,” Emily Browning (“Sucker Punch,” "Sleeping Beauty") and Catalina Sandino Moreno (breakthrough actress and star of “Maria Full of Grace”). Your filmmaker, Sebastián Silva, is the celebrated director behind of 2009’s excellent indie “The Maid” (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner), your cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, is well regarded as one of the most excellent DPs on the planet, and your film debuts at the prestigious 2013 Sundance Film Festival. So, bearing all those riches in mind, your movie goes straight to DVD...why exactly? Perhaps two films by the same director with the same actor (Silva's "Crystal Fairy" starring Cera also unspooled at Sundance — review...

Fresh from directing Michael Cera in Crystal Fairy, director Sebastian Silva has decided to build a film around someone even younger and more self-absorbed: a baby. The baby in question is the aim of a gay couple, played by Silva and Tunde Adebimpe (TV On the Radio, Rachel Getting Married), who enlist their friend Kristen Wiig to help them have a baby. But when one man's sperm doesn't do the trick, and the other takes his shot, tensions arise. Nasty Baby also stars Alia Shawkat, Mark Margolis, Dennis O'Hare, and Reg E. Cathey. Filming hasn't started ...

Chicago – I suppose it was only a matter of time before Sebastián Silva delved into the brooding waters of psychodrama. There are countless moments in his previous pictures—from Catalina Saavedra’s piercing Bette Davis stare in “The Maid” to Michael Cera’s hallucinogenic agony in “Crystal Fairy”—that threaten to spiral into horrifying derangement.

How sad that Silva’s meticulously executed, visually stunning “Magic Magic” has been dumped on DVD by the unfeeling hands of Sony, while the director’s inferior “Crystal Fairy” scored a limited theatrical release. Not only is “Magic” an exponentially better film than “Fairy,” it’s also one of the most gripping portraits of a psychological meltdown in recent memory (it would’ve made a fine big screen double bill with Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine”). Relegating any film co-lensed by Christopher Doyle (“In the Mood for Love”) to a small screen premiere is a...

• Kristen Wiig is reportedly in early talks to join Nasty Baby, a Brooklyn drama from Crystal Fairy director Sebastian Silva. The story follows a gay couple played by Silva and Tunde Adebimpe (Rachel Getting Married) who are trying to have a kid. Their friend Anna (Wiig, potentially) would carry the baby. The Bridesmaids star can be seen next in Anchorman: The Legend Continues (out Dec. 20) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (out Dec. 25). [The Wrap]

• True Blood’s Sam Trammell has joined the cast of The Fault in Our Stars to play the part of Hazel Grace’s (Shailene Woodley) father.

You've got to hand it to director Sebastian Silva... he has certainly defied all expectations. After scoring a little arthouse hit with 2009's festival fave "The Maid," Silva didn't cash in those chips for something mainstream, but instead pivoted around and let his freak flag fly. He teamed up with Michael Cera for two movies that dropped this year, the druggy road trip "Crystal Fairy" and the Polanski-esque thriller "Magic Magic." His next move? How about a comedy about two gay men looking to have a baby? Yep, that's the premise of the bluntly titled "Nasty Baby," and even more, Silva is working a pretty serious Rolodex in casting this one. He's nabbed hot comedienne Kristen Wiig and TV On The Radio frontman and sometimes actor Tunde Adebimpe (you probably recognize him from "Rachel Getting Married") for the movie that will see two men (Adebimpe and Silva himself), who enlist...

Writer/director Sebastián Silva already “Wow’ed” me this year with his independent road-trip “comedy” Crystal Fairy, so I happily jumped at the chance to tackle his other summer release, Magic Magic. Also taking place in Chile, this story of a vacationing American is a much darker, sinister, and psychologically abusive tale, with Michael Cera returning to play an awkwardly terrifying exchange student named Brink. Silva trades laughs for tension this time around, shooting for his version of a grounded horror film, which is apparent through his indistinguishably independent delivery yet again. I absolutely loved his psychedelic take on the comedy genre, but how did his first foray into “horror” go? As quirkily as you would have imagined.

Alicia (Juno Temple) is a weary American tourist visiting her cousin Sarah (Emily Browning) while she’s studying in Chile, marking her first time outside the United States. After arriving, she meets...

Earlier this year at Sundance, Chilean director Sebastian Silva ("The Maid") made a splash with two very different movies. The first, "The Crystal Fairy," was a trippy road comedy that starred Michael Cera and Gabby Hoffman and saw a limited theatrical release this summer from IFC Films (read our review here). The other Silva joint was an equally trippy but far darker film that also co-starred Michael Cera called "Magic Magic," which will be released on DVD this week from Sony. It stars Juno Temple as a young girl who descends into madness while visiting her sister abroad (it involves many sleepless nights, hypnotism, a memorable use of a Knife song and finally some kind of witchcraft). We got to talk to Temple about what it was like working with Silva, what her reference points were for the character, and asked about what she's got coming next—Robert Rodriguez's...

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"The Place Beyond the Pines"

What's It About? In "A Place Beyond the Pines" Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine") weaves together three vignettes starring Ryan Gosling as a bleach blonde, motorcycle-riding bank robber, Eva Mendes as a tough single mother, and Bradley Cooper as a conflicted cop. The first part of the film follows Luke (Gosling) as he robs banks to support his unexpected child and to win back the mother Romina (Mendes). Halfway through "Pines" breaks off to tell the story of Avery (Cooper), a wounded cop who discovers corruption in his department.

Why We're In: While "Pines" breaks off suddenly in various directions, the film's audacious screenplay and structure are what make it so powerful and compelling. Cianfrance's drama is one of novelistic proportions and definitely worth its long running time.

Rt & Follow to win @FocusFeatures' Place Beyond The Pines Combo Pack! #BeyondThePines...

Crystal Fairy

Directed by Sebastian Silva

Written by Sebastian Silva

Chile, 2013

Crystal Fairy is an aimless wisp of a movie, a lackadaisical road trip in which very little of substance happens, but intentionally so. Michael Cera, as the film’s snide, dismissive lead, does as much deliberate damage here to his previously squeaky-clean persona as he did in his raucous cameo in This is the End. The baby-faced George Michael Bluth is long gone, and in his place is a gawky, blustery type whose misplaced confidence is a hallmark of most American comic leads these days. Seeing as Crystal Fairy takes place entirely in Latin America, and the lead character’s American-ness constantly runs up against the more laid-back mentality of his more worldly friends, perhaps his presence is fitting. At some point, though, the relaxed tone turns Crystal Fairy into something too airy to be memorable.

Cera plays Jamie,...

Smells Like Screen Spirit & IFC Films invite you to RSVP for passes to our special advance screening of Crystal Fairy Tuesday, July 30th, 2013 at 7:00Pm in Dallas, TX. CrystalFairy-poster Synopsis: Jamie is a boorish, insensitive American twenty-something traveling in Chile, who somehow manages to create chaos at every turn. He and his friends are planning on taking a road trip north to experience a legendary shamanistic hallucinogen called the San Pedro cactus. In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman - a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy - to come along. What is meant to be a devil-may-care journey becomes a battle of wills as Jamie finds himself locking horns with his new traveling companion. But on a remote, pristine beach at the edge of the desert, the magic brew is finally imbibed, and the true adventure begins. Director: Sebastián Silva Starring: Michael Cera,...

Michael Cera is growing up. It may be hard to picture, as at one point it seemed as if baby-faced Cera could forever play the awkward teenage boy next door. But in the past few months, other than a recent return to his Arrested Development roots, Cera has left behind his youthful comedies of yore, such as Juno and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and taken a turn toward the adult and the experimental.

Fresh off the film-festival circuit and into theaters this week is Crystal Fairy<...

Title: Crystal Fairy Director: Sebastián Silva Starring: Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffmann, Sebastián Silva, José Miguel Silva, Augustín Silva After the success of “Arrested Development” and “Superbad,” Michael Cera promptly, predictably found himself plugged into a roster of other Hollywood studio comedies with varying levels of successfully integrated quirkiness, while also exhibiting a keen sense of taste relating to indie projects (e.g., “Juno,” “Youth in Revolt”). This summer, after having already played a coked-up version of himself in the “Apatow All-Stars” project “This Is the End,” Cera again dives headlong into Indieville with what might very well be his most daring, off-the-beaten-path professional choice yet. Directed by Sebastián Silva — from [ Read More ]

The post Crystal Fairy Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Some young Americans go to Chile for the culture or the natural beauty. Jamie (Michael Cera) goes for the drugs. He spends his time sampling the country’s cocaine and partying every chance he gets, but his ultimate goal is a famed hallucinatory cactus. Sebastián Silva’s Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus throws a final obstacle at the arrogant anti-hero as he approaches the end of his odyssey: a harmless, friendly hippie girl....

Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus

Directed by: Sebastián Silva

Cast: Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffmann, Agustin Silva

Running Time: 1 hr 38 mins

Rating: R

Release Date: July 19, 2013 (Chicago)

Plot: A young American (Cera) ventures through Chile to experience the drug experience that comes from carefully cooking the San Pedro cactus. He is joined by a spiritual American woman (Hoffmann) who gets on his nerves immediately.

Who’S It For? Fans of Cera and his recent odd projects should certainly take a look. If anything, don’t go into this film expecting it to be a comedy.

Read our interview with writer/director Sebástian Silva

Overall

Whether this marks the continuation of fully reinventing himself or just his star image, Michael Cera’s presence continues to be lively, playing against the awkward simpleton roles that began to box him in with movies like Youth in Revolt. As with his own directed bizarre short...

Chicago – It’s a sad day in modern American distribution when a film as highly praised and perversely intriguing as Sebastián Silva’s “Magic Magic” fails to acquire a theatrical release. The very notion of a Sundance darling co-lensed by Christopher Doyle getting unceremoniously dumped on DVD is too maddening to contemplate. At a time when Disney labels a formulaic misfire like “The Lone Ranger” as a “risk,” it’s depressing to see a company like Sony Pictures follow suit.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Anyone who’s seen Silva’s 2009 masterpiece, “The Maid,” is well aware that the director operates far outside the cozy constraints of genre, allowing his narratives to evolve as organically and unpredictably as his character do. What starts out as an unsettling dark comedy may end up as an endearingly bittersweet drama or vice versa. Without taking gambles on films that challenge the most obvious of expectations, Hollywood risks boring its audience into oblivion.

Well, there’s a bit more to the title than that. According to the opening animation sequence this is called Crystal Fairy & The Magic Cactus & 2012, whew! Pretty complicated for what is really a fairly simple story. It’s a road trip picture with an American really out of his depth. Oh, and he’s on a quest as was Martin Sheen in The Way. But in this flick Michael Cera is not seeking spiritual enlightenment. Nor does he want to visit any famous sites or landmarks. He’s taking this trip so that, well, he can trip out. He’s got it all plotted out, but it looks like the title character is just gonna’ mess up everything.

As the film opens, we’re in modern-day Chile. American Jaimie (Cera) is meeting up with his Chilean pal, Champa (Juan Andres Silva) at a loud party where the drugs and booze are flowing.

Michael Cera plays selfish American Jamie in Crystal Fairy, a road trip movie about his character’s pursuit to have a drug experience in Chile with a San Pedro cactus, which offers mescaline when properly prepared. In this story written and directed by Sebastián Silva, Cera is joined by Silva’s brothers, but also Gaby Hoffmann, a free-spirited young woman who teaches Jamie an unexpected lesson in the importance of compassion.

Silva is previously known for directing The Maid, a dark comedy set in Chile. Along with Crystal Fairy, Silva directed Magic Magic also with Cera, which is set to be released on VOD in the near future.

In an exclusive phone interview, I talked to Silva about his film, the non-reinvention of Michael Cera, the difference of American audiences’ film interpretations compared to other countries, Crystal Fairy‘s evil film twin, and more.

Crystal Fairy opens in Chicago on...

DVD Release Date: Aug. 6, 2013

Price: DVD $26.99

Studio: Sony

Michael Cera terrorizes Chile in Magic Magic.

Michael Cera (Youth in Revolt), Juno Temple (Killer Joe), Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) star in the 2013 thriller Magic Magic from Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva (The Maid).

Far from home, Alicia (Temple) arrives in South America Chile to vacation with her cousin, Sarah (Browning). When Sarah is suddenly called away, Alicia is stuck on a remote island off Chile with three of Sarah’s friends, including Barbara (Moreno) and Brink (Cera), an American exchange student with a sadistic streak. Off-balance and unable to sleep, Alicia begins to spiral into a nightmarish scenario that includes ancient indigenous rites, disturbing animal behavior, hypnotic trances, and the growing threat of danger.

The R-rated film makes its commercial premiere in the U.S. on DVD following its rollout to the Cannes, Sundance and Edinburgh film festivals.

After a successful run as part of the Park City at Midnight program during this year's Sundance, we finally have the home video specs for Sebastian Silva's Magic, Magic. Read on for details.

From the Press Release

From award-winning Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva (The Maid) comes the acclaimed thriller Magic Magic, available August 6th on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Starring Juno Temple (Killer Joe, The Dark Knight Rises), Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, The Uninvited), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Che, Maria Full of Grace), Michael Cera (Juno, Superbad), and Agustín Silva (Crystal Fairy, The Maid), the film tells the chilling story of a naive young tourist (Temple) whose road trip across Chile with friends turns into a waking nightmare. Magic Magic invoked terror in audiences and praise from critics at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film “offers a more than entertaining diversion from the typical blood and guts of the genre,...

Chicago – 12 years ago, Sebastián Silva went on a road trip with his friends. Their goal was to experience the hallucinogenic ecstasy of the San Pedro cactus. Along the way, he encountered a hippie named Crystal Fairy who ended up giving him a more transformative experience than any drug ever could. An evening of soul-bearing confessions caused Silva to have great compassion for the damaged women beneath the eccentric surface.

Cut to 2011. With production delayed on his psychological thriller, “Magic Magic,” Silva decided to spend 12 days making a movie about his memorable yet fleeting friendship with Crystal Fairy. With Michael Cera already holed up in his house for three months to learn Spanish for “Magic Magic,” Silva decided to cast the actor as the star of his improvisational dramedy opposite Gaby Hoffmann in the titular role. Cera plays Jamie, an insensitive American tourist desperate for drugs and with no patience for any Fairy-related diversions.

While summer blockbuster season is upon us, and large-scale spectacles are being released every week, there’s a little film called Crystal Fairy that has provided one of the most unique watches of the summer. Independent to the core and full of heartfelt creativity, Michael Cera takes us on a journey of psychedelic self-discovery, with the help of a wild spirit named Crystal Fairy (played by the magnificent Gaby Hoffmann).

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with both Michael Cera and the film’s director, Sebastián Silva, while they were attending Crystal Fairy‘s New York City press day, and it was a pleasure listening to their experiences while working on this mainly improvised film which only took 12 days to shoot. Read on to learn about Cera’s reaction to actually drinking the San Pedro cactus on camera (which is supposed to get you hallucinating), the challenges Sebastián...

Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffmann, the stars of the new drug-fest "Crystal Fairy," went above and beyond Method acting, having admitted to taking mescaline while filming the movie, in which their characters attempt to hunt down the famed psychedelic. That realism will likely join the cadre of trippy drug scenes whose qualities have become instantly recognizable: Psychedelic music and swirling colors complement a fisheye lens and a sequence sped up or slowed way down to emphasize that, dude, this is crazy trippy, man.

As Cera and Hoffmann trek through the Chilean desert on a quest to score some mescaline, we're reminded of some of film's most elaborate drug scenes. From classics like "Trainspotting" and "Pulp Fiction" all the way to "A Very Brady Sequel," take a stroll down High As A Kite Lane with us and recall these movie characters who are caught in a haze of good times.

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