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Freddie Prinze Jr. is one of the most beloved stars who reigned in the ’90s, starring in a number of movies now considered a classic – remember Scooby Doo?

Wow that was comedy gold, even though Prinze Jr once revealed he didn’t have a particularly fun experience shooting the movie.

This time round, the star is opening up about the reason he hated acting in general during the beginning stages of his career.

Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Mom Didn’t Want Him To Have Anything To Do With Acting

Freddie Prinze Jr. has come a long way in Hollywood, not only due to the success of his movies, but the way his mindset has evolved since the days he was just coming out of his first big break.

“When I was a kid, my mom was like, ‘Absolutely not. It’s just not gonna be your life,’ ” Prinze Jr., now 48, told hosts Randy Spelling,...

Exclusive: Some high-profile jurors will be selecting winners for the 20th edition of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival.

Among those on board to adjudicate for the festival, which runs from August 8-18 at the TLC Chinese Theater in Hollywood: Rachel Brosnahan; Rosario Dawson; Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious franchise); Matthew Modine; David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil); actor-director Alex Winter; Adrienne Barbeau; Danny Pino; Josh Hamilton; Peter Macon; Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), Sarah Shahi; Jon Huertas; Samuel Arnold (Emily in Paris), among others. [Scroll for complete list of jurors]

Former NBA great Metta Sandiford-Artest (Metta World Peace) will serve as...

More background fluff from the streamer, this time from Mean Girls director Mark Waters with a splashy Thailand location

Despite experience mostly insisting caution, certain markers still allow one to naively daydream that a new Netflix comedy might be worth more than a background half-watch while ironing. A big name, an experienced writer, a genuine studio-trained director, some substantive source material, anything to allow us to glide on the brief hope that we’re not in hammy, Hallmark-adjacent territory.

This thinking sometimes works – 2019’s Let It Snow was based on a solid YA novel, 2021’s Moxie had Amy Poehler in front of and behind the camera, this year’s Players benefited from the considerable charm of star Gina Rodriguez – but it too often makes precious little difference. For Mother’s Day in the US, the streamer has Mother of the Bride, a breezy comedy that arrives from director Mark Waters,...

The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.

Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988

An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...

Parker Posey knows the pitfalls of being an indie darling.

The “Party Girl” breakout star recalled being pigeonholed as an indie actress early in her career, leading her to lose mainstream roles to Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts, among other stars. Posey told Vogue that she auditioned for “Speed” before the part went to Bullock, and shared even being told by her agent that she was “too indie.”

“I wasn’t really getting offered anything good,” Posey said of the early 2000s coming off of her iconic turn in “Scream 3.” “I would audition for all these great parts that ended up going to bigger names like Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock.”

She added that she asked her agent at the time, “‘Can’t I just be Matt Damon’s ex-wife in two or three scenes of some action movie?’ I would never get those either. I asked what the...

The 4K restoration and re-release of the comedy Party Girl brings Parker Posey to Back To One. Shortly after the success of that movie in 1995, she went on to star in so many independent films, like The Daytrippers, Clockwatchers, The House of Yes (not to mention a bunch of Hal Hartley and Christopher Guest classics), that she was dubbed “Queen of the Indies.” On this episode, she explains why that moniker was oddly detrimental to her career. She talks about recent experiences on the sets of Beau Is Afraid and The Staircase; the connection between actors and athletes; why, […]

The post “It’s a Difficult Sport”: Parker Posey first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 4K restoration and re-release of the comedy Party Girl brings Parker Posey to Back To One. Shortly after the success of that movie in 1995, she went on to star in so many independent films, like The Daytrippers, Clockwatchers, The House of Yes (not to mention a bunch of Hal Hartley and Christopher Guest classics), that she was dubbed “Queen of the Indies.” On this episode, she explains why that moniker was oddly detrimental to her career. She talks about recent experiences on the sets of Beau Is Afraid and The Staircase; the connection between actors and athletes; why, […]

The post “It’s a Difficult Sport”: Parker Posey first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Concerns over theatrical viability and a public promise from streamers to avoid spending sprees left this year’s Sundance Film Festival light on big purchases and — for now — high on orphans.

While there were a few major acquisitions such as “Fair Play” and “Theater Camp,” there was a notable absence of lower-profile sales or smaller pickups, while several seemingly surefire titles were left waiting for a buyer. Titles like the Anne Hathaway/Thomasin McKenzie 1960s women’s prison melodrama “Eileen” and the Chiwetel Ejiofor/Emilia Clarke sci-fi drama “The Pod Generation” left the festival empty-handed.

Sources say that even Randall Parks’ well-reviewed directorial debut “Shortcomings” had trouble drumming up interest, partially because the film’s major screening reportedly conflicted with other big premieres. Jonathan Majors’ grim bodybuilder drama “Magazine Dreams” had its premiere undercut by controversy when jurors walked out over Marlee Matlin’s failed captioning device.

“One big question,...

When Heather Matarazzo’s indelible film debut “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” went to the Sundance Film Festival in 1996, the young star didn’t attend. “I didn’t go,” she told IndieWire during a recent interview. “Sony wouldn’t pay for me.” Now, it’s hard to imagine a breakout star of Matarazzo’s caliber, let alone the lead of a Grand Jury Prize winner, not being feted in the mountains of Park City.

At the time — and, as a tween herself — she wasn’t fazed by the decision on the part of distributor Sony Pictures Classics. “I didn’t know what a big deal it was,” she said.

Matarazzo’s performance as Dawn Wiener was a shock to the system. In Solondz’s pastel-colored New Jersey suburbia, Dawn is a gangly 11-year-old with glasses whose classmates call her “lesbo” and whose teachers chide her for being a “grade grubber.” Matarazzo,...

“She’s All That” changed Rachael Leigh Cook’s life. The 1999 teen romantic comedy — a modern-day retelling of “Pygmalion” — starred Cook as Laney Boggs, a homely, artsy outcast who transforms, in late ’90s parlance, into a “total hottie” and captures the heart of the high school heartthrob, played by Freddie Prinze Jr.

When the movie opened in theaters, it grossed $103 million worldwide, birthed a chart-topping soundtrack (thanks to Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me”) and made both of its leads into sought-after commodities in Hollywood.

It’s an experience Cook, now 40, looks back on with nostalgic fondness.

“I’m just grateful every day that I didn’t come of age in the era of camera phones, and yet, that makes me sound way more scandalous than I actually was,” says Cook, who started acting professionally at age 14.

But Cook still grapples with how to describe the formative years of her career.

Jason from Mnpp here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" contest, which this week will be marking the milestone of 50 freaking years of the eternal goddess Parker Posey. Do you recall the first place you saw her? I feel like for most people it was probably Dazed and Confused but I have a really vivid memory of her in Coneheads, for some reason. Whatever is was she's since given us half of her life and heaps of iconic characters in that time, and we're gawping in the presence of greatness today.

It seems a bit blasphemous to ignore her work with Christopher Guest ("Busy Bee!") but I'm gonna - I'm gonna go with two of her characters that ended up shaping my perception of her screen-image the most. And those two are Mary in Party Girl and Jackie O in The House of Yes...

bike tracks

Previously Our Halloween hangovers...

Acclaimed photographer Laurie Simmons’ debut feature film “My Art” is headed to this month’s Tribeca Film Festival for its North American premiere, after bowing at Venice last year. Mongrel International will be repping the film at the fest, as it recently acquired international sales rights, including U.S., for the feature.

Read More: Tribeca 2017 Lineup: New Films From Alex Gibney, Azazel Jacobs and Laurie Simmons Lead the Eclectic Mix

“We’re so delighted to be involved with ‘My Art,'” said Mongrel Acquisitions & Sales executive, Caroline Habib in an exclusive statement. “The movie spoke very strongly to our all women team — it’s funny, it’s warm and it’s extremely smart. Laurie gave us, with grace and humor, an honest glimpse into the artistic process.”

Simmons added, “I could not be more excited having Caroline, Charlotte and the entire team at Mongrel stand behind our film. To be...

A lot can happen in 13 years: You can watch two wars start and finish; you can see social media platforms sprout up and change the public conversation; you can elect a country's first black president and its first orange one. What you apparently can't do, however, is teach an old dog like Willie Soke, the profane petty crook and several-leagues-less-than-jolly St. Nick for hire of Bad Santa, new tricks – or worse, make his old tricks somehow still seem appealing by default. For those of us who love Terry Zwigoff's...

Rob Leane Kirsten Howard Mar 6, 2018

A reboot of Irwin Allen’s Lost In Space is coming to Netflix in April. Here's a new trailer...

We heard early on in 2017 that Netflix was working on a remake of Irwin Allen's 1965 cult classic family sci-fi series Lost In Space, and we later got confirmation that a full series of 10 episodes were on the way.

Here's the first full trailer for the series:

Before that was this little teaser trailer that also announces an April release date. You can watch it below...

Netflix's Lost In Space reboot will be skippered by Toby Stephens, who currently navigates the fleet of pirate vessels on the Starz series Black Sails as Captain Flint. Here's what Stephens had to say about the overall feel of the series last year...

"It’s a very clever, modern reworking of a great story. Lost In Space is Swiss Family Robinson in space,...

If your annual Turkey Day tradition involves watching "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," then good news: it's streaming right now on Netflix.

So is the very non-feel-good '90s indie drama "The House of Yes" and several other movies where Thanksgiving is celebrated -- or ignored or trampled on altogether.

To get in the holiday spirit, here are 10 movies you'll want to watch now on Netflix.

Gaumont

Netflix’s “Cult Films” section is peculiar in that it really doesn’t contain too many films you’d instantly think of when thinking about cinema’s true cult classics. There are definitely a few (as you’ll see), but for the most part the category is made up of films that are kind of cult by default: not quite classics, not insanely well-known or popular, but not obscure enough that they’re completely unheard of, either.

There’s no sign of The Big Lebowski, The Wicker Man, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Withnail and I, Harold and Maude – but there are films which are completely at odds with the very idea of a cult movie: Halloween 6, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, The House of Yes.

Of course, the term is diffuse – and people will certainly have their own criteria for defining a truly cult picture – but it...

Woody Allen announced the cast of his upcoming film on Tuesday, revealing a roster that includes “Ant-Man” actor Corey Stoll and “The House of Yes” actress Parker Posey. Stoll and Posey join a cast that includes Kristen Stewart, Bruce Willis and Jesse Eisenberg. The as-yet-untitled film begins filming in New York and Los Angeles in August. Also Read: Amazon's Roy Price Defends Deals With Woody Allen, 'Top Gear' Hosts Blake Lively, Jeannie Berlin and Ken Stott are also among the cast. Anna Camp, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick, and Paul Schneider are co-starring in the project. Both Stoll and...

Chicago – It was a Chicago moment for the legendary filmmaker Woody Allen, as he walked the Red Carpet on behalf of his latest film, “Irrational Man.” He was joined by a co-star in the film, Parker Posey, and HollywoodChicago.com was there to capture these Exclusive Portraits.

Woody Allen at the Chicago Preview of ‘Irrational Man,’ July 18th, 2015

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

“Irrational Man” is Woody Allen’s 47th film as director, an amazing output for an American filmmaker, and unlikely to be duplicated for mainstream releases in the future. He began with “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” in 1966, won an Oscar for directing Annie Hall (1977) and has written or co-written every screenplay he has ever filmed. “Irrational Man” is another Woody Allen contemplative film, set on a college campus, regarding a philosophy professor (Joaquin Phoenix) who shakes himself out of a case of...

It looks like Parker Posey will once again be teaming up with Woody Allen, as she's in final negotiations to appear in the filmmaker's next project.

The actress could feature alongside Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Bruce Willis in the upcoming movie, reports Deadline.

No title or plot details have been released yet for Allen's next film, although it will be produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum and Edward Walson.

Posey previously appeared in Allen's Irrational Man with Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix.

She is also known for roles in The House of Yes, Party Girl and Superman Returns.

Watch a trailer for Irrational Man below:...

Let's jump back in time to a little over 16 years ago. It's the summer of 1998 and if you hit a gay bar or club in the continental United States, you could not miss Stars on 54's dance remake of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind." It was simply everywhere. The track was the promotional single for "54," a movie that promised a sexy look at the infamous New York City nightclub Studio 54 but couldn't ultimately live up to the marketing hype surrounding its release. The Miramax production was generating a ton of publicity because of its subject matter (one of the most legendary clubs of all-time), young up-and-coming stars such as Ryan Phillippe and Salma Hayek, the participation of Neve Campbell, who was coming off four straight hits (the first two "Screams," "The Craft" and "Wild Things"). Most buzzworthy of all, it was the first dramatic role for...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…

Josh Hamilton: Book: Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon. Record: The Clean — Anthology.

Movies: Dance of Reality and Two Days, One Night.

Lavallee: At this year’s Sundance, you’ve got a brief appearance in the Experimenter (working with a seasoned pro) but you find yourself (not unlike a “little” Sundance debut film called The House of Yes) working for a newbie. I was wondering if you could first describe your first impressions about Matt Sobel’s text, subtext, dialogue, themes and character set and if there is an added layer of profundity when you find yourself drawn to a project coming from a new voice?

Hamilton: When I first read Matt’s script, I was struck by the delicate yet unmistakable level of tension and unease that existed among these people. In any piece about families- where the layers...

The holidays are almost upon us, and if you just can't wait to re-watch seasonal classics like "White Christmas" or "The Muppet Christmas Carol," they're available right now on Netflix. There are also a few Thanksgiving-themed movies you can stream, our favorite being, of course, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

There's something for almost every taste, whether you want something nice like an animated film for the kids or something very naughty, like "Bad Santa."

Thanksgiving Movies

1. "American Son" (2008) R

Nick Cannon stars as a young Marine who's just completed basic training and is about to ship out to Iraq: But first, he's home for a volatile four-day Thanksgiving with friends and family.

2. "The House of Yes" (1997) R

Parker Posey proves why she was the '90s Indie Movie Queen in this film where she plays a Jackie Kennedy-obsessed who is unreasonably jealous when her brother (Josh Hamilton) brings home...

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"Veronica Mars"

What's It About? Everyone's favorite teen Pi Veronica Mars is all grown up. She's living in NYC with Piz and just about to snag a plum lawyer gig when she's called back to Neptune to help out her ex Logan. In typical Logan fashion, he's in legal hot water - this time around, he's accused of murdering his girlfriend. Oh, it's also their high school reunion. Fun times!

Why We're In: Okay, if you're a diehard Marshmallow, chances are you're already getting a copy of the movie from Kickstarter. But, hey, while you wait for them to be sent out, why not snag an extra copy or two?

Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week

"Ace in the Hole" (Criterion)

What's It About? Kirk Douglas stars as a ruthless reporter scheming to keep his latest scoop in the headlines. A classic film noir,...

Like most Americans living today, I was born after November 22, 1963, so I don't remember John F. Kennedy and can't tell you where I was when news broke of his assassination. So here's what I know about the man, his presidency, and his death, thanks to the history professors of Hollywood.

Let me see if I have this right: JFK was a handsome man with the charisma of a movie star. (Indeed, he had connections to Hollywood through his father, a onetime movie producer; through his brother-in-law Peter Lawford and fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra; and through his torrid affair with Marilyn Monroe.) Through his youth, good looks, charisma, and forward-looking rhetoric, he inspired a nation to stop wearing hats, build rockets to the moon, and join the Peace Corps. His even more attractive, youthful, stylish, and patrician wife Jackie swept out the dowdy cobwebs of the Eisenhower years and turned...

Since he made his directorial debut in 1997 with the dark and demented comedy The House of Yes, Mark Waters has shown a flare for unfolding tales about sassy and at times dangerous young women. Best known for helming the adored 2004 comedy Mean Girls, it's hardly surprising that he's been selected to direct Blood Sisters, the first in Reliance Entertainment and Im Global's Vampire Academy franchise. Variety reports Blood Sisters will be a family affair as Waters will direct the script penned by his brother, Dan Waters, screenwriter of another biting comedy about teen girls, 1988's Heathers. Based on the six-book Vampire Academy Ya series, the film will have elements of romance and the paranormal. But with the Waters brothers on board, I suspect a dark vein of comedy will likewise run through Blood Sisters. The story focuses on the teens of St. Vladimir's Academy, a place where young vampires...

Not the Bargain It Appears To Be

Price Check, director Michael Walker’s sophomore feature, coming twelve years after his 2000 debut, Chasing Sleep is a complete 180 from his first film. Whereas Walker’s first foray was in the psychological art house, this latest feature is a comedic character study that has one delectable asset that is both the sole reason to see the film, and also, sadly, what viciously outshines every other aspect of the film; and that’s a wickedly perfect role for Parker Posey.

Eric Mabius stars as Pete Cozy, a disinterested employee in regional pricing and marketing for a flagging grocery store company in Long Island. Having given up a career in producing music, Pete’s job supports his stay at home wife and their new child. When his boss suddenly leaves for bigger and better things, his replacement is a super motivated force of nature, Susan...

Parker Posey, the rather elusive actress who first hit most people's radar with Richard Linklater's Dazed And Confused, has bounced around Hollywood, sticking close to her indie roots, while toying with bigger ventures (Blade: Trinity for one).  From Party Girl to The House Of Yes, Posey has seemed to find a niche, which revolves around the quirky female lead and it's worked for her.  And, it looks like she's following suit with Price Check, another off-beat character role...

Director Michael Walker's Price Check screened earlier this year as part of the 2012 Sundance Premieres line-up.  Now you can get a look at the trailer for the film.  Starring Parker Posey (The House of Yes) as a pricing/marketing executive for a grocery chain, Price Check follows her relationship with an employee (Eric Mabius) who gives into her temptation at the cost of his family life.  This trailer is all over the place and Posey comes off as a bit unhinged, which is my least favorite kind of Posey.  Mabius simply seems at a loss for how to handle the material but perhaps that's what his role calls for.  Hit the jump to check it out for yourself. Here's the first trailer for Price Check.  Click over to Yahoo! to view in HD: Check out the official synopsis for Price Check below: A husband and father with plenty of...

In today's casting news, Parker Posey (The House of Yes) and Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) are poised to join director Olivier Dahan's Grace of Monaco.  The biopic, which stars Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly, centers on the Hollywood star's involvement with Monaco's Prince Rainier III during his financial difficulties under taxation from France's Charles De Gaulle. We also have word that Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) has joined Jason Statham and James Franco in Gary Fledler's Homefront. The adaptation of the Chuck Logan book centers on ex-dea agent Phil Broker (Statham) who moves his family to a small town in hopes of a quieter life.  Instead, he runs afoul of a meth-pushing kingpin by the name of Gator (Franco).  Hit the jump for more details on these latest casting assignments. First up from Variety comes word that Posey will star in Grace of Monaco as Madge Tivey-Faucon, Kelly's scheming lady-in-waiting.  The...

From The House of Yes to Best in Show, and even Josie and the Pussycats, there is something distinctly and deeply satisfying about watching Parker Posey play entitled bitches. Really no one does it better. She somehow manages to create characters audiences loathe yet envy. So it's a brilliant move on the part of the producers of Grace of Monaco to have signed Parker to play a calculating lady-in-waiting in the court of Grace Kelly's Monaco. Nicole Kidman will star as Kelly with Tim Roth portraying her beloved Prince Rainier III, and Variety reports will play scheming social climber Madge Tivey-Faucon. With a name that fussy, Madge seems destined to be a part for Parker. Directed by Olivier Dahan, who helmed the 2007 Oscar-winning biopic La vie en rose, the film will be a less humorous affair than Parker is generally associated with, but let's not forget the indie actress...

From The House of Yes to Best in Show, and even Josie and the Pussycats, there is something distinctly and deeply satisfying about watching Parker Posey play entitled bitches. Really no one does it better. She somehow manages to create characters audiences loathe yet envy. So it's a brilliant move on the part of the producers of Grace of Monaco to have signed Parker to play a calculating lady-in-waiting in the court of Grace Kelly's Monaco. Nicole Kidman will star as Kelly with Tim Roth portraying her beloved Prince Rainier III, and Variety reports will play scheming social climber Madge Tivey-Faucon. With a name that fussy, Madge seems destined to be a part for Parker. Directed by Olivier Dahan, who helmed the 2007 Oscar-winning biopic La vie en rose, the film will be a less humorous affair than Parker is generally associated with, but let's not forget the indie actress...

A week long near-drought brings a condensed version Your Netflix Instant Weekend this week. There very few titles of note added, though there are still a few gems to be found. If you're looking for other options, don't forget you can always look at entries from previous weeks for other ideas of titles to add to your queue! This week we're going to travel South of the border for a thriller and some sci-fi from Mexico.

Read more on Your Netflix Instant Weekend: Bajo La Sal, Sleep Dealer, and more...

Other articles that you might like:

Your Netflix Instant Weekend: My Name Is Nobody, Cloud 9, and more Your Netflix Instant Weekend: BMX Bandits, The House Of Yes, and more Your Netflix Instant Weekend: Jar City, The Horseman, and more

Other articles that you might like: Your Netflix Instant Weekend: My Name Is Nobody, Cloud 9, and more Your Netflix Instant Weekend: BMX Bandits,...

Awesome magic powers? Check. Snarky talking sidekick? Check. Crazy origin story? Check, check and check!

But, wait. This new big screen superhero is actually a superheroine ... and her magical powers lie in an entirely different realm than, say, Batman or Spider-Man. Our favorite teen witch Sabrina Spellman, of "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" fame, and her black cat Salem are getting their very own live action film that will tell the story of how Sabrina got her supernatural skills.

For the uninitiated, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" was a funny and kinda goofy TV show starring Melissa Joan Hart. Salem (the cat) always had some wisenheimer remark on hand (or paw, as the case may be).

Sabrina herself got her start in the wholesome Archie Comics in the '60s. Her latest manifestation, however, will have a little more bite to it. Deadline reports that Salem will actually be "a transformed prince...

When they get around to carving Mount Rushmore-like busts into the mountains surrounding Park City, the smirking face of Parker Posey is sure to have a prime location. The actress is a Sundance favorite, winning an acting award for The House of Yes in 1997, and serving as a member of the 2010 jury that honored Winter’s Bone and Restrepo. This year, she plays a monstrous boss — think if her Dazed & Confused character grew up and went corporate — in Price Check, and on Thursday night, she joined Joseph Gordon-Levitt on stage and gave his Hit RECord at the Movies show her...

Parker Posey is clearly no stranger to the Sundance Film Festival. Over the years, films like "Party Girl," "The House of Yes" and "Broken English" all made their debuts in Park City, helping Posey gain her unofficial title as the "queen of indie." She's back again this year with Michael Walker's "Price Check," where she takes on a monster of a character in Susan, an intensely ambitious new boss in the marketing department of a grocery store chain. Susan wreaks havoc on the life of Pete (Eric Mabius), a family man struggling to balance work and home while making enough money to support his wife and son. It's yet another great role for Posey, who characteristically nails the film's mix of dark comedy and of-the-times drama. The ever-charming actress sat down with Indiewire the day after "Price Check" premiered to talk about the film, her relationship to Sundance, the state of independent filmmaking.

Well hello! And welcome to the second installment of The Ae Movie Club, the best-looking gathering of film geeks since Timothy Olyphant squared off against Sarah Michelle Gellar in Scream 2.

First off, I'm So Excited by the response to last week's premiere column - it was wonderful to hear everyone's thoughts, opinions and tips on movies new and old. If you chimed in with a comment, keep your peepers peeled this week because I'm giving a few shout-outs along the way.

This week's big movie news was of course the Oscar nominations, so we'll start off with some Reviewlets of the nominated films. I'll direct you to some fun fan poster art, serve up some reheated beefcake courtesy of Jason Beghe (with an assist by Stanley Tucci), and ask you to join me once again in the Movie Confessional for another round of cinematic shame. There's a We Need to Talk About Kevin...

  There have been many pretenders of the years, but there is only one Queen of Sundance and after a two-year absences she's finally returning to her kingdom.   Parker Posey became the face of Sundance in the late '90s early '00s thanks to acclaimed roles in films such as the indie classic "Party Girl," "The House of Yes" and "Personal Velocity." The irony of course, is that those were the only three features she had at the festival in that period, but boy did they hit a nerve.  But the moniker has stuck mostly because she represents a time when...

The Sundance Film Festival announced today that indie favorite Parker Posey will host its 2012 awards ceremony. Several of her films have been Sundance darlings, including Party Girl, House of Yes, and Broken English. Today’s announcement also saw festival heads name the 22 members of its six juries, highlighted by Anthony Mackie, Julia Ormond, Mike Judge, Fenton Bailey, Shari Berman, and Dee Rees.

The Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 19-29, Posey will host the awards ceremony on Jan. 28. Past big winners at this particular ceremony have included Like Crazy, Precious, American Splendor, and The Believer.

NYC Horror fans take note: you've got plans this Tuesday and Wednesday. Smart, funny and intense in equal measure, indie-horror flick Caprice is getting its New York premiere with a two-night exclusive engagement at The House of Yes in Brooklyn. Centered around a spellbinding lead performance by Renee Thrasher (better known to New Yorkers as burlesque star Stormy Leather), Caprice will screen both nights accompanied by live music, burlesque performances and other surprises, all for the modest admission fee of $10 at the door (doors open at 10pm). 

Read more...

NYC Horror fans take note: you've got plans this Tuesday and Wednesday. Smart, funny and intense in equal measure, indie-horror flick Caprice is getting its New York premiere with a two-night exclusive engagement at The House of Yes in Brooklyn. Centered around a spellbinding lead performance by Renee Thrasher (better known to New Yorkers as burlesque star Stormy Leather), Caprice will screen both nights accompanied by live music, burlesque performances and other surprises, all for the modest admission fee of $10 at the door (doors open at 10pm). 

Read more...

Oscar nominee James Cromwell has joined the cast of Still, Michael McGowan.s Canadian independent film shooting currently in northern Ontario and Brunswick. Cromwell joins fellow Oscar nominee and Canadian native Geneviève Bujold (Anne of the Thousand Days, The House of Yes) to tell the story of an elderly couple forced to battle local authorities as they try and construct a home. McGowan, who opened the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival with his Score: A Hockey Musical, has assembled a cast with deep Canadian roots. In addition to Bujold, Still features Canuck actors Rick Roberts, Julie Stewart and Jonathan Potts, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Representing America in the Great White Northern cast will be Campbell Scott. Anytime an indie can lure a marketable, awards-caliber star like Cromwell, it.s an instant boost to the production. This is McGowan.s fifth feature, and while he is a name in his ...

When John Schultz was in elementary school, his favorite classroom activity was when the teacher would hand out a vocabulary list of 20 words and he would have to write a story that employed all of them. "I loved that challenge of here's what you have to work with. Make it work," Schultz said.

It shouldn't be all that surprising then that the director is making his third indie feature, but it is refreshing that with this week's "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer," he's aiming to entertain today's elementary school kids by working in the indie world's least prolific genre, the family film. Oddly, in the considerably more ungoverned area of the medium that's wide open to personal coming-of-age stories and cinematic anarchy, few are made with the intention of appealing to all audiences.

Less unusual has been Schultz's career path, though it still might strike some as peculiar.

It's a sad fact of life that some people just don't treat movies properly. June 1st saw the first of the releases made available on the Instant Netflix service through a deal with Miramax. Not long after they appeared, people discovered the horror- most of the titles intended to be presented in the 2.35 aspect ratio are cropped to 1.78, losing much of the valuable visual information presented by the director. This includes classics like Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, and Reservoir Dogs. That's not it, though, one of my favorite underseen horror films, Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive, cuts off after 31 minutes. Quality control seems to be lacking at Netflix HQ. As such, I urge you to use caution when streaming movies (especially recently added Miramax titles) and do not hesitate to use Netflix' "Report problem" link (found under "Your Account & Help" > "Instant Watching Activity") for any streaming film not up to standard.

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: You never can tell when that first Oscar nod will arrive. So on the morning that nominations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards were announced, Pamela Martin admits that she was in bed with the TV off.

“When I heard my husband’s cell phone ping at 6 a.m., and then I heard mine downstairs start going ping ping ping, I figured there was some good news,” Martin said with a big laugh.

The best kind of news, in fact. Martin received her first Oscar nomination for her work editing David O. Russell’s Best Picture-nominated “The Fighter.” And while she was able to bask in the glow of industry recognition for a few minutes, reality immediately pulled this grounded professional right back down to earth.

“I work full-time, and I’m a mother,” Martin said. “Even the morning of the nominations, I started...

Mark Waters is in talks to direct the comedy Get Back, which is about two die-hard Beatles fans who travel back in time to prevent John Lennon from ever meeting Yoko Ono, who they blame for breaking up the group.

Get Back is the last song from The Beatles’ final album Let It Be, so in a way it is truly the last song before they broke up. Chris McCoy wrote the script for the film, which was featured on the 2007 Black List.

I am curious if rights to the likeness of John Lennon have actually been secured from Yoko Ono. The film does not sound like it will present Ono in a good light. There will not likely be much support for the film, unless she has a good sense of humor or the story ends well.

Waters is a good choice for this type of comedy/fantasy film.

We only recently got our first look [1] at Mark Waters' latest film, the Jim Carrey-starring Mr. Popper's Penguins, and already the director is negotiating a deal for his follow-up project. He's in line to direct Get Back, a comedy about two die-hard Beatles fans who, upon discovering a time machine, travel back in time to prevent John Lennon from ever meeting Yoko Ono, who they blame for breaking up the group. Learn more after the break. The film is of course titled after the popular Beatles song, which is perfect not only in terms of its time travel connotations, but also in that the song is the closing track of The Beatles' final album Let It Be -- making it, in a sense, their last song before they broke up. That's a nice bit of cleverness from writer Chris McCoy, whose script for the film was featured on...

I love that a heated discussion over Titanic’s infamous Oscar sweep of 1998 has already begun over at Laurent’s excellent retrospective. I guess it’s just the nature of this particular film. There is something about Titanic that hits a raw nerve in people and they feel a need to defend/criticize it so passionately.

As it happens, I fall in the ‘unconditional love’ category and I’m not afraid to admit it. To this day I have a passion for Titanic, a film that so perfectly matches what a glorious, spellbinding, big spectacle romance against an historic backdrop should be, and those films are so rare, especially when they are made with such precise and meticulous detail from James Cameron.

We shouldn’t be embarrassed over how much we loved Titanic in the 90′s. We should embrace it. So as our third ‘Choose The Winners’ article, we are...

Filed under: Columns, Cinematical

There are those who like to chide the moments when theater pieces hit the big screen, and to be fair, they often have a point. At times feature films are simply too grand of a scale for a world once defined by a stage and structured sets. It was something I never truly realized until watching Woody Allen's 'Whatever Works.' Though that film wasn't a play, it felt like one -- so distinctly intimate in nature that on film it was as exciting as a flea aimlessly running through an empty gymnasium, a story too small to properly fill the confines of the screen.

But 'The House of Yes' is the exact opposite -- a film that thrives on the big screen even though it has the simplest of sets, and only a small handful of characters to discover. Rather than being...

Filed under: Columns, Cinematical

There are those who like to chide the moments when theater pieces hit the big screen, and to be fair, they often have a point. At times feature films are simply too grand of a scale for a world once defined by a stage and structured sets. It was something I never truly realized until watching Woody Allen's 'Whatever Works.' Though that film wasn't a play, it felt like one -- so distinctly intimate in nature that on film it was as exciting as a flea aimlessly running through an empty gymnasium, a story too small to properly fill the confines of the screen.

But 'The House of Yes' is the exact opposite -- a film that thrives on the big screen even though it has the simplest of sets, and only a small handful of characters to discover. Rather than being...

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Columns, Cinematical

Since Thanksgiving doesn't get much cinematic love, most of the holiday's films are quite earnest. These movies dive into the worlds of food and family -- from the first-Thanksgiving jitters of 'Pieces of April' to ethnic celebrations with 'What's Cooking' -- wondering what we should give thanks for, and how we can come together and become a familial unit no matter what the scenario.

But what if the familial foibles extend far greater than years-old misunderstandings? What if the holiday festivities are plagued with Kennedy Family obsessions, mental disorders, hormones and inappropriate sibling love? In a sea of straight-forward Thanksgiving affairs, the darkly comedic world of 'The House of Yes' shines it's bright, cultish light.

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