Sundance 2010 came to a close this weekend and I’m very happy to report that the best dramatic film that I saw there was Blue Valentine – directed by my good friend Derek Cianfrance. It was acquired two days ago by The Weinstein Company for somewhere near one million dollars; a steal for a film [...]

It’s been a whirlwind of activity, starting with the second annual Art House Convergence – topped off with a closing speech by Michael Moore – then promptly followed by, of course, a slew of films, meetings, shmoozers, and late nights fueled by donut-holes and beer (my poison of choice, anyway). Park City also saw the [...]

Tomorrow I leave for Salt Lake City to attend the Sundance Art House Conference (where special guest Michael Moore will address the 100+ exhibitors in attendance). After that it’s off to Park City to attend the Sundance Film Festival and watch as many films as possible. As I can only stay for four and a [...]

Sleep Dealer. Did you see it? Probably not. But you should. Do you like Bladerunner? The Matrix? If so, you should check out Sleep Dealer. All three are inspired in their own way. Bladerunner and The Matrix are equal parts smart fun and existential queries. Sleep Dealer is both smart and political. It can’t help [...]

The screen-grab above doesn’t do the shot justice. Too dark. But, still, you can (barely) see the shine on Harold’s shoes as he walks down the stairs (on film it’s all much clearer). The way Pablo Ferro arranges the title sequence below the shoes gives you a visual sense of the feet dangling above the [...]

By complete serendipity I revisited Heathers on the same weekend I saw Bobcat Goldthwait’s latest film: World’s Greatest Dad. It was downright eerie, because while watching the latter I couldn’t help but wonder if Goldthwait had purposefully set out to make a film that followed the Heathers mold. Both are dark comedies that use high [...]

Why are so many American movie posters nowadays so lame? It’s like they’re all being made by the same marketing group populated by lazy designers. I suspect their choices are driven by tired group data skewed by polls gathered from freebie screenings at strip malls populated by bored teenagers. The result? Faces and guns are [...]

What is the fascination with the number 10? Why is it always a “Top 10″ list? There are 12 months in the year and there are four six-packs to a case of beer – which is 12 x 2 for those keeping score (and trust me, you want the case discount because the savings do [...]

I recently got into a FaceBook tussle that then rolled over into my Fantasy Football League – it was like a bunch of drunk cowboys fighting their way from one room to the next. We all know social networks can be fun time-killers, but this topic resulted in over sixty posts flying back-and-forth. Time was [...]