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Prime Video's crime comedy Brothers is outrageous and hilarious, with a star-studded cast to pull of the wild plot. The film, which takes inspiration from the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito comedy Twins, sees Peter Dinklage and Josh Brolin team up as a conflicted criminal duo, joined up by their irresponsible and unapologetic mother, played by the iconic Glenn Close. To make matters even better, the leading cast of Brothers is joined by notable names like Brendan Fraser, M. Emmet Walsh, Taylour Paige, and Marisa Tomei.

Brothers see convicted felon Jady Munger (Peter Dinklage) cut a deal with the corrupt Judge Farful (M. Emmet Walsh) to get out of jail free, so long as he produces some valuable stolen emeralds. To pull this off and live his life free and clear, Jady must team up with his brother Moke (Josh Brolin), who has done his best to move on from the family life of crime.

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.The actor: Kelly Reichardt, Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes, Kathryn Bigelow. All names that appear multiple times in...

Universal Pictures’ Wicked has found its goat. Peter Dinklage is set to voice the character Dr. Dillamond in the movie adaptation of the iconic Broadway musical.

The news was revealed Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas as Universal closed out its CinemaCon presentation by sharing new footage of Wicked, which hits theaters over Thanksgiving of this year. Universal and director Jon M. Chu made the film in two parts, with the second installment set to open over the year-end holidays in 2025.

Wicked — the untold story of the witches of Oz — stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman who is misunderstood because of her unusual green skin and who has yet to discover her true power. Ariana Grande plays Glinda, a popular young woman graced by privilege and ambition but who has yet to discover her true heart. After meeting as young women, their extraordinary adventures ultimately see them fulfill their...

Game of Thrones alum Peter Dinklage was unveiled today as the voice of Dr. Dillamond in Universal’s upcoming two-part musical Wicked.

Peter Dinklage joins Ariana Grande as Glinda; Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba; Michelle Yeoh as Shiz University’s regal headmistress Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, a roguish and carefree prince; Ethan Slater as Boq, an altruistic Munchkin student; Marissa Bode in her feature debut as Nessarose, Elphaba’s favored sister; and Jeff Goldblum as the legendary Wizard of Oz.

There’s also the characters of Pfannee and ShenShen, two conniving compatriots of Glinda played by Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James, and a new character created for the film, Miss Coddle, played by Keala Settle.

In the film adaptation of the Broadway musical phenomenon, Dr. Dillamond, a goat, is a professor of history at Shiz University who warns Elphaba about rising dark forces that threaten the speaking animals of Oz,...

Steve Buscemi has had a versatile career, starring in critically acclaimed TV series like Boardwalk Empire and appearing in numerous independent films. Buscemi's performances in films like Lean on Pete and The Messenger demonstrate his ability to portray complex and emotional characters with depth and nuance. From classics like The Big Lebowski to breakout roles in Reservoir Dogs and Fargo, Buscemi has cemented his status as a captivating actor in iconic crime thrillers.

Steve Buscemi is an incredibly versatile actor who has started in some of the most important films in modern film history. One of his most prominent leading roles was as Enoch 'Nucky" Thompson in the critically acclaimed HBO series Boardwalk Empire in which he appeared in 56 episodes across 5 seasons. Buscemi is also a regular in Adam Sandler's crew of characters seen throughout several of his most famous comedies such as Big Daddy (1999), Mr. Deeds (2002), Grown Ups...

The 1990s were a terrific decade for comedies on both a studio and independent level. While indie comedies like Flirting With Disaster and Living in Oblivion would go on to become cult favorites among certain cinephiles, studios were getting more audacious thanks to the comedic prowess of major stars like Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Will Smith, and Johnny Depp. Even films that were initially disregarded as garbage by film critics, such as Big Daddy and Dirty Work, ended up finding an audience, and several comedies such as Election and The Full Monty became major award season contenders. However, there was one comedy that was so universal that it became instantly relatable to everyone that saw it. Mike Judge’s 1999 comedy masterpiece Office Space was the perfect representation of workplace culture at the time, and its themes of dead end employment and corporate mismanagement still ring true to this day.

Odds are strong that at one point or another, a large portion of this website’s readership have contemplated making a movie, and if so, Tom Dicillo’s 1995 Living in Oblivion is the quintessential filmmaker’s movie for them. While there are plenty of movies about the rewards and pitfalls of making movies out there, the majority take place in the wackily excessive world of Hollywood, glamorizing it as the dream-maker that so many grow up believing it to be. Recently, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon fought against Hollywood’s glamorization by highlighting the early days of the industry for the bloody, cocaine-fueled carelessness that defined it. But if Babylon seems to posit the question: what if your heroes were in fact ruthless megalomaniacs as corrupt and flawed as the rest of us, Living in Oblivion seems to more lightly ask: what if your heroes were just as troubled, lost, and...

Kevin Smith's latest film, "Clerks III," catches up with the characters of Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) after their brief dalliance with low-level employment at a burger joint in 2006's "Clerks II." At the end of that film, Dante and Randall found themselves directionless after spending their 40s in minimum-wage jobs. Dante left his fiancée, and the pair found themselves in jail with the perpetual stoners Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith). Dante and Randall found that their way out of their rut was to go back. Using weed money from Jay and Silent Bob, Dante and Randall merely bought the convenience store they felt trapped in back in the original "Clerks."

It was a happy ending for Dante and Randall, but also a declaration from Smith. Staying put (critics might say stagnating) was, Smith declared, a form of triumph.

In "Clerks III," however, Dante...

Peter Dinklage may be one of the most recognizable actors working today, but that doesn’t limit his range. As a clip reel of his nearly 30-year career in film and TV proved ahead of a tribute on the first day of the Telluride Film Festival, Dinklage can play a sensitive loner (“The Station Agent”) just as well as an icy mob boss (“I Care a Lot”) and the anarchic schemer Tyrion Lannister from “Game of Thrones.” The screening of his new movie that followed a brief onstage conversation, “Cyrano,” also proved that Dinklage can sing.

Director Joe Wright’s lavish adaptation of the 2019 off-Broadway musical, written by Dinklage’s wife Erica Schmidt, finds the actor embodying Cyrano de Bergerac as a swashbuckling 17th century wordsmith who buries his attraction to childhood friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett) by helping an inarticulate guardsman (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) romance the woman by writing love letters for him.

The July lineup at The Criterion Channel has been revealed, most notably featuring the new Wong Kar Wai restorations from the recent box set release, including As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, and his shorts Hua yang de nian hua and The Hand.

Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.

With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...

Game of Thrones fans came out in force today to celebrate their very own Tyrion Lannister, aka Peter Dinklage on his 52nd birthday. While already a well-established actor, it was his role as hard-done-by Tyrion that brought him to the attention of many new fans and gave his career an amazing boost. Since his time on Thrones, he doesn't seem to have stopped for breath, even having a role of a rather large "dwarf" in Avengers: Infinity War, one who as it turns out played an important part in the proceedings, building Stormbreaker for Thor.

Dinklage was born in New Jersey in 1969, and studied acting at Bennington College before starting work in a guitar shop and partaking in a number of amateur dramatic productions. He made his film debut in Living in Oblivion in 1995, an independent dark comedy that also starred Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener. His big break didn't...

The first death occurs about midway through “I Blame Society,” Gillian Wallace Horvat’s very mean-spirited and very funny feature debut. After the deed, Horvat, who also stars (as a sociopathically dedicated filmmaker called Gillian Wallace Horvat) stares at her tear-streaked reflection in the ugly light of her bathroom mirror, and confesses to the GoPro strapped to her head that it has “precipitated a very drastic tone change” in her film.

To that point, she’s been shooting a relatively light-hearted if deeply self-involved documentary, riffing chirpily on the “compliment” some friends once paid her that she would make a pretty good murderer. Sure enough, the second half of “I Blame Society” skews ever bleaker and nastier as the body count climbs: Aside from all its other virtues, this film is a truly inspiring example of committing to the bit.

On its surface, it’s a bit we’ve seen before.

Delirious will be released on VOD & Digital HD on October 6th from Shout Factory, and on Blu-Ray and DVD on October 13 from Mvd Entertainment Group. Here’s a trailer:

Les (Steve Buscemi) is a small-time paparazzi with dreams of making it big. His luck changes for the better when he befriends a young homeless kid, Toby (Michael Pitt), and makes him his assistant. The two form an unlikely bond running through the sham and glam of NYC’s celebrity scene but when Toby falls for a pop diva and becomes a reality TV star, Les takes the rejection personally. The never-before-seen Director’s Cut features bonus and behind-the-scenes content including a new filmed introduction by director Tom Dicillo detailing the motivation behind his 12-year search for the film.

“Delirious is a very meaningful film for me, both personally and artistically,” states Dicillo. Just before its original release some editing choices...

April 11, 2020 | Start the Film: 5:00pm Cst | Join the Q&a: 7:00pm Cst

On April 11th, film festival audiences from across North America will join together for a virtual screening of the independent film Phoenix, Oregon and filmmaker Q&a. Plus, when you purchase tickets using the link below, proceeds will be split with Cinema St. Louis.

Check Out the Trailer for Phoenix, Oregon :

Cinema St. Louis is participating in the first Film Festival Day, with 29 other film festivals across the Us, an initiative of the Film Festival Alliance, a collaborative community of mission-driven film festivals, and Theatrical At Home.

More than 175 film festivals across North America have been cancelled or postponed as a result of Covid-19. Movies unite us in a way that no other art form can and film festivals play an essential role in connecting our community to support the works of independent storytellers. Please...

Ever since Gaspar Noé cranked up his ambition with “Enter the Void” 10 years ago, the filmmaker has divided audiences with unruly, disorienting filmmaking techniques. Frames blink in and out, cameras float and speed through unexpected spaces, and neon palettes pulsate. His recent spate of movies often yield overwhelming experiences closer to the visceral terrain of avant-garde cinema than the narrative traditions he roots within the mayhem. His style can be a mixed bag of visual provocations, but his showmanship remains admirable for its bold swings each time out.

It’s hard to imagine that Noé could serve any master other than himself, and it comes as no great surprise that his recent assignment to make a 15-minute commercial for Yves Saint Laurent went awry when Noé turned it into his own weird thing: “Lux Æterna,” a 50-minute psychedelic mockumentary about a film shoot gone wrong, distills Noé’s talents to a more palatable serving size.

Exclusive: The cast for Amazon Prime Video’s vengeance-driven Nazi-hunting series executive produced by Academy Award winner Jordan Peele continues to grow with Kate Mulvany joining as a series regular and James Le Gros, Ebony Obsidian, Caleb Emery, Henry Hunter Hall and Jeannie Berlin boarding in key recurring roles. They join an already robust cast including Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, Jerrika Hinton, Josh Radnor as well as Lena Olin, Carol Kane, Saul Rubinek, Tiffany Boone, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Greg Austin and Dylan Baker.

The Hunt, created by David Weil, follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. The Hunters, as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team of Hunters will set out on a bloody quest to bring the Nazis to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.

Here’s the warning before you start One Cut of the Dead: you may not like it at the beginning. You may get motion sickness from the long handheld take—the titular “one cut,” as the camera bobs around, zooming in and out on the frenzied, exciting action. You may think to yourself, “Well yes, this is all good and fun, but where the hell is it going? I mean, I love practical effects and zombies, but what’s the point?” And you’re probably going to get the urge to back out of the film and go perusing down the digital highway to find another film that might satisfy you better. But I would recommend that you don’t do that under any circumstances, because you’d be missing out on one of the sweetest, funniest films of the year.

One Cut of the Dead is the kind...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.

This week’s question: In honor of “Godard Mon Amour,” Michel Hazanavicius’ movie about Jean-Luc Godard, what is the best film about filmmaking (or filmmakers)?

Matt Zoller Seitz (@mattzollerseitz), RogerEbert.com

I always thought the best movie about filmmaking, and filmmakers, and about artistry in the commercial system generally, is “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” A lot of people have similar visions based on real life incidents, and pursue it in various creative ways, but only one makes it to the landing site, and he only succeeds because he’s devoted himself to it so singlemindedly that he throws his own family aside. He has the mind of a child and ends the film surrounded by childlike beings. All the scenes of Roy Neary trying to realize the shape through sculpture...

In the spirit of fun and satire as only the Lebanese can do it (think Nadine Labaki), “ Very Big Shot” (Lebanon, Qatar; 2015) takes an unexpected twist from its initial drug heist opening to its anti-hero protagonist grasping the power of the image of media and ultimately spinning into the power of image in politics. This romp brings to mind 2012 Toronto Film Festival’s “Seven Boxes” (“7 Cajas”) which sold very well internationally.

The comedic mask covers a lot more for the audience to either pick up on or just to enjoy for what it is: a well told fun and funny story. The story has a particular Lebanese flavor and it began in a particular community which has drug dealers and violence and fanatics, but it moves into more universal contradictions between what is real, what is fiction as depicted in the movie being made within the film we are watching and how fiction becomes political fodder.

“ Very Big Shot “depicts the lives of three brothers – Jad, who is just coming out of prison after serving five years for a crime committed by his elder brother Ziad, and their middle brother Joe. A delivery for a local crime ring spins out of control and Ziad seizes the opportunity to make a fortune.

That “Very Big Shot” was made by three brothers and actually stars an actor who, after coming out of prison for manslaughter could not find other employment, makes this movie more nuanced than most audiences would imagine.

The directorial debut of Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, who worked with his two brothers, Christian Bou Chaaya and Lucien Bou Chaaya, “Very Big Shot” started out as a short and received such positive attention and critical acclaim at several international festivals, that the idea of developing it into a full-fledged feature film was born.

The feature film project received support both from the region and international talent, giving the Arab world a powerful film on organized crime and the political nexus.

Earning tremendous acclaim at its screening at the third Ajyal Youth Film Festival, “Very Big Shot” is a dark comedy that pans the camera on Lebanese society, tackling multiple layers of the society. Says director Mir-Jan, “in Lebanon there is no separation between social life and political life and the scenario reflects that”.

It is co-written by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya and Alain Saadeh, who also stars in the film. The three Bou Chaaya Brothers combine financial know-how of brother Lucien who was (and still is) an investment attorney in Paris before turning his attention to raising financing for this film and talent; director Mir-Jean and actor producer Christian, a real-life restaurant owner which reflects directly on this film where the three fictitious brothers make a living running their father’s legacy, a pizza take-out place. In real-life one of the three brothers would always keep the others going in the face of obstacles which are inevitable for first time filmmakers.

We sat and spoke with the three brothers and actors Alain Saadi,Fouad Yammine, and Alexandra Kahwagi

Sydney at SydneysBuzz: One of my favorite scenes was when the woman’s scarf was snatched off of her in the movie scene being shot within the actual movie and how locals believed it was real and joined the staged fight. It was very much like neorealism in “The Bicycle Thief” when what was being shot on film as a mob stopping the thief was amplified by real citizens joining in and actually beating up the thief/ actor.

Mir-Jean: In the short, the film was shot in the street and a fifty, fifty-five year old woman saw the Muslim woman and the Christian man fighting and entered the scene and slapped the actor and so we put the scarf scene in the movie as well.

What are your favorite movies about movie making?

Mir-Jean: De Sica’s “After the Fox”, Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors”, Truffaut’s “Day for Night”, Kiarostami’s “Through the Olive Trees” , “ Living in Oblivion”. Reality and fiction is a very interesting subject, but the power of the image was the key in our film, not the making a movie within a movie.

It’s funny, “Argo” premiered in 2012 when the short was also showing. “Argo” won an Oscar and the short was compared to it.

Alexandra Kahwagi : “Living in Oblivion” and “Singing in the Rain” are my favorites.

Alain Saadeh, how do you play the characters you play?

I work from within. As a kid, I liked the sort of tough guy character. I wanted to be like a tough guy in our family. There is a neighborhood in Lebanon where they say, “Don’t make trouble, just shoot him and go home”. But aside from liking that kind of character, to get to the human side, you have to be open minded to your own inner motivations as well.

Being true to yourself leaves no room for imitation.

Mir-Jean: I tried to be true to the milieu and therefore used the same street lingo without any modification to lend the film an authentic feel. The participation of Marcel Ghanem, multi-award winning television host, helped raise the profile of the movie as well as give confidence to the cast and crew.

We did not interfere with the actors and gave them total freedom, thus giving them the space to deliver a nuanced performance.

It seemed like an anachronism to be using “film” in the movie.

The use of film in the movie was a gesture to pay homage to George Nasser, the first Lebanese in the Cannes Film Festival.

The ending seemed rather sudden and I didn’t quite understand it…

There were three endings to this movie. One was a well-developed one but this was not convincing. It was about the ultimate form of manipulation, therefore the screen went to black. The story really ends at the airport, but the movie ending as it was, was more important than the ending of the story itself. There was a transformation of the character who, in being true to himself, discovers the power of image and the power of media. He had to become either a lobbyist or a politician. The ending also said something about the nature of politics in Lebanon.

What about the film’s distribution?

After “Very Big Shot” premiered in Toronto this fall, word of mouth was good but no international sales agent was on board to make deals for these first time filmmakers. B for Film picked it up for international representation and it went on to play in Talinn and London Film Festivals.

Here in Doha, Qatar, we were thrilled by the audience’s strong and positive reception. “Very Big Shot” looks like it could do very well at the box office, not only in the Middle East and North Africa where it will be distributed by Front Row after playing Dubai and Marrakesh Film Festivals. It has already been released in Lebanon November 19 to very good attendance considering it has no names. It opened in the top four (against three Hollywood blockbusters) which proves that people are interested in home-grown cinema.

The film will earn returns on sales in North America, Europe and Latin America as well for those loving a good (if foreign-language) caper with a view into Lebanon today (did you know there has not been a president there for 18 months?).

How did you go about financing the film?

Lucien: The biggest challenge for unknown new talents is finding finance and the platform to take the film to a global audience. We thank Doha Film Institute for its support to the film and Ajyal Youth Film Festival for screening it and supporting the emerging talent.

When the short was first seen in Abu Dhabi, an investor associated with Doha came in to help and that was how we became a Doha Film Institute grant recipient. Doha’s support did more than give us the first monies; it made us count in the international film community.

I knew every financial detail had to be transparent to create a comfort zone for investors. I furnished a completion bond and a detailed budget. Four Lebanese expats in Paris invested to support Lebanese film.

Well known music composer Michel Elefterides was one of its first investors which also gave credence to the film. He had liked the short and saw its potential. He also discovered two musicians, the Chehade Brothers who played in the film and who are now best sellers in Lebanon.

The film gained from the international collaboration that came from writer George Nasser whose 1957 film “Whither?” was the only Lebanese film to make it to Cannes Film Festival and Yves Angelo. They brought Hollywood and French cinematic sensibility to the production.

This combination helped us to create a powerful script and a movie that resonates with the global audience.

We are also seeking to support filmmakers and film industry in Lebanon and the Arab World through our institute SuppAr-the Arab Art Support Group.” The Arab Art Support Group gives us and other filmmakers a support system to raise money in a sustainable, ongoing way. In effect it is a financial company created to support the arts.

This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of November 17th, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.

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Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Wireless Headphones / Bluetooth Transmitter MST3K Kickstarter Update Arrow Low-Quantity Update News Vudu Expands Warner 4K Movie Offering Upcoming Scream Factory Blu-ray Releases Twilight Time Pre-orders: Friday, November 20th New Releases The Apu Trilogy A Bullet For Joey Catch My Soul Chaplin’s Essanay Comedies The City of Lost Children The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki Deadliest Prey Deadly Prey Faults Faust Gatchaman The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Extended Edition The House on Carroll Street In Cold Blood Jimmy’s Hall Living In Oblivion Man From U.N.C.L.E. Meru Pitfall Requiescant Troll / Troll 2 We’re Back! A Dinosaur...

In Living in Oblivion, Tom Dicillo’s 1995 triptych of the agony and ecstasy of indie film production, Murphy’s cinematic law is in full effect. Prima donna actors. Uncooperative smoke machines. Blown lines. Soft focus. Booms in the frame. However, the film’s most soul-crushing moment comes when the camera isn’t even rolling. It arrives when the faux film’s director, played by Steve Buscemi, takes a moment to run lines with his two lead actresses. And of course — with the camera sitting idle and the cinematographer off set vomiting out-of-date milk from the meager craft services table — the scene comes […]...

In Living in Oblivion, Tom Dicillo’s 1995 triptych of the agony and ecstasy of indie film production, Murphy’s cinematic law is in full effect. Prima donna actors. Uncooperative smoke machines. Blown lines. Soft focus. Booms in the frame. However, the film’s most soul-crushing moment comes when the camera isn’t even rolling. It arrives when the faux film’s director, played by Steve Buscemi, takes a moment to run lines with his two lead actresses. And of course — with the camera sitting idle and the cinematographer off set vomiting out-of-date milk from the meager craft services table — the scene comes […]...

Tom Dicillo's satire about the pitfalls of low budget filmmaking is less farce than it is a loving valentine to the difficult task of getting something relevant on film. Steve Buscemi is the frustrated director, Catherine Keener the insecure actress, and Peter Dinklage the little person not pleased that he's been hired to play a phantom in a dream sequence. Hilariously clever, the show also has a big heart. Living in Oblivion Blu-ray + DVD Shout! Factory 1995 / Color & B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date November 17, 2015 / $29.99 Starring Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck, James LeGros, Rica Martens. Cinematography Frank Prinzi Production Designer Stephanie Carroll, Thérèse DePrez Art Direction Janine Michelle, Scott Pask Film Editor Dana Congdon, Camilla Toniolo Original Music Jim Farmer Produced by Hilary Gilford, Michael Griffiths, Robert M. Sertner, Marcus Viscidi, Frank von Zerneck Written and Directed by Tom Dicillo

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

A charming,...

“Phantom Halo” tries to become a modern Shakespearean tragedy and ends up as a painfully generic family crime drama. The Shakespeare connection is not really far fetched, since Antonia Bogdanovich’s (yes, Peter Bogdanovitch’s daughter, he executive produced the film) feature directorial debut, about a family struggling to survive amidst a barrage of economic hardships, contains a father-son duo who are obsessed with the Bard. Bogdanovich’s film even begins with a run of the mill art house black-and-white dream sequence, the kind that Peter Dinklage in “Living in Oblivion” would have made fun of, as the unnecessarily dour voiceover recites the famous soliloquy from “Macbeth.” Alas, “Phantom Halo” tries to be a tale full of sound and fury, but in the end it signifies nothing. Co-written by Antonia Bogadanovich and Anne Heffron, and based on Boganovich’s short film, “My Left Hand Man,” “Phantom Halo” follows the exploits of the Emerson family.

40. Empire Records

Directed by: Allan Moyle

Ah, the coming-of-age story. There was no sub-genre more hijacked for a quick buck in the 1990′s. In between the good ones (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyz in the Hood”), the cheesy ones (“She’s All That,” “She Drives Me Crazy”), and the under-appreciated ones (“The Man in the Moon,” “Angus”), there were the middling ones that, if anything, boasted a cast that would go on to bigger, better things. Enter “Empire Records,” which is not only a coming-of-age story, but one that takes place at a record store, no less. Talk about the double dip. The entire film takes place over the course of one day, focusing on the employees, played by Anthony Lapaglia, Ethan Embry, Renee Zellweger, Rory Cochrane, and Liv Tyler. The independent record store is in Delaware – the hot spot of American music – and sees Joe (Lapaglia) allowing night manager Lucas...

Whether you are a filmmaker, or one of the Sundance programmers whose task it is to identify the films that make up a line-up, it is indeed the most wonderful, panic-filled and nerve racking time of the year. The 31st edition of the Sundance Film Festival kicks off on January 22nd with Park City and Salt Lake City playing host to some of the more innovative, thought-provoking narrative and non-fiction films of 2015. Last year, a Jenga tall order of 4,057 features and 8,161 shorts were submitted. Now let’s think about those numbers for a second.

Twenty years ago, Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb claimed the Grand Jury Prize Documentary award, Living in Oblivion‘s Tom Dicillo was honored with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and Edward Burns’ micro-budgeted The Brothers McMullen (there is a read-worthy, lively, eleventh hour account on how it was submitted to the fest in Ted Hope’s “Hope...

Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage had a full-on mullet in a picture from his 1987 high school yearbook.

Peter Dinklage's Mullet

In the late 1980s, Dinklage attended Delbarton prep school in New Jersey, where he proudly sported a mullet that had an impressive amount of volume. A Reddit user uncovered the yearbook photo of the actor with the ‘do and uploaded it for posterity. It wasn’t long before the vintage snap went viral – on imgur is has more that 1.5 million views.

Complementing the actor’s hair in the yearbook picture was his senior quote, which was by actor and writer Sam Shepard. It reads, “Words are the tools of imagery in motion.

After graduating from Delbarton in 1987, Dinklage went on to study at Bennington College, from where he graduated in 1991. While at Bennington, Dinklage apparently had some more fun with his hair. He had “long flowing hair,” Dinklage...

There are plenty of (usually independently produced) movies that take firm aim on the "eat 'em up and spit 'em out" nature of Hollywood. (My favorites are Swimming with Sharks, Living in Oblivion, The Player, and The Day of the Locust.) But while those films are satirical and often very funny deconstructions of The Hollywood Machine, the new indie horror film Starry Eyes is sort of a kick-straight-to-the nuts of the film industry.   You could probably figure out the plot of Starry Eyes if I described the film as "Faust in lower-middle class Los Angeles," but we can get just a little more specific than that: Sarah (Alexandra Essoe) is a sweet but emotionally fragile young ingenue who, like virtually everyone in Hollywood under the age of 30, dreams of being a movie star. More specifically, old-school '40s-era Hollywood stardom is what Sarah is looking for. Unfortunately the only production...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 24 Oct 2013 - 06:46

Another 25 unsung greats come under the spotlight, as we provide our pick of the underappreciated films of 1995...

The year covered in this week's underrated movie rundown was significant for a number of reasons. It was the year that saw the release of Toy Story - the groundbreaking movie that would cement Pixar's reputation as an animation studio, and set the tempo for CG family movies for the next 18 years and counting. It was the year that saw James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan for the first time) emerge for GoldenEye after a six-year break. It was also the year of Michael Mann's Heat, Dogme 95, and the moment where Terry Gilliam scored a much-deserved hit with 12 Monkeys.

As ever, we're focusing on a few of the lesser-known films from this particular year, and we've had to think carefully about what's made the cut and what hasn't.

The Boardwalk Empire star on how the Republicans have held the Us hostage and why the pursuit of money is not a worthy goal

Dressed in dark colours and a black baseball cap, in person the 55-year-old Steve Buscemi cuts basically the same slight, rumpled figure we met a quarter-century ago in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train. He might be a roadie coming off a world tour. His famously exophthalmic eyes are a washed-out blue and he's tired, back home in Brooklyn after staying at his house in upstate New York. He likes to go there and hang out and do nothing, he says, maybe take a walk or do a bit of yardwork: he spent the weekend raking leaves. Self-effacing, friendly, polite, it's clear he's here under low-grade sufferance; interviews, he says in his quick, metallic, slightly strangulated way, "aren't my favourite thing to do".

He is a patient...

Director Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix company has announced that season 2 of the horror-themed Tales from Beyond the Pale audio play series will be released on the suitably spooky date of Friday, Sept. 13. The second batch of terror tales was recorded live in New York and features actors Sean Young, Vincent D’Onofrio, James LeGros (Living in Oblivion, Girls), and Kate Lyn Sheil (Sun Don’t Shine), among others. “Having a season of tales already behind us, we thought it would be a fun challenge to pull back the curtain on our process and perform them live,” said filmmaker...

Documentaries about the production of a movie can go two ways. The film being filmed is completed without a hitch and the studio or distributor puts the “making of…” special on the DVD, or it’s a disastrous shoot and not exactly something executives want to flaunt in the form of a bonus feature. The latter can include docs on films that are miraculously finished (Burden of Dreams; Overnight; Hearts of Darkness) or unsurprisingly unfinished (Lost in La Mancha; It’s All True; the upcoming Death of “Superman Lives”). Either way, there’s usually good reason to isolate all that drama for a separately (or solely) released feature-length work. In the case of Unmade in China, the aim seems to have always been to cover a catastrophe. Director Gil Kofman (The Memory Thief) had already gone to the city of Xiamen to make the movie Case Sensitive, a YouTube-inspired thriller scripted by an American writer and intended...

Over the weekend, Dave Shelton — an award winning writer, cartoonist, and voice actor, with a varied resume that includes Everybody Loves Raymond, National Lampoon, Tweety And Sylvester and Against Type — and Tami Zorge hosted the world premiere of his pilot Professor Creepy’S Scream Party at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.

The “Garage TV” pilot, which was shot in only one day and edited in one more, is a live action variety show that is billed as a retro mash up of sixties kids shows, horror hosts, and dance shows. Picture the Hilarious House Of Frankenstein meets Vampira meets American Bandstand, with a Vincent Price-esque mad scientist as host. How does that not pique one’s interest?

The event is a testament to how hard work can pay off. The pilot process was described to me as a Living In Oblivion-esque experience, with financiers backing out, the lead actor...

There really is no business like show business. Everybody would love to make movies for a living, its the dream job of a lot of people. Making movies however can be a lot of hard work, long hours, can sometimes drive you to the brink of insanity, and at any given moment all hell could break loose costing thousands if not millions of dollars. Hey sounds like a great idea for a movie! Here are 10 great movies we feel sum up what its like to actually make a movie.

Don’t forget to check out Hitchcock, a movie about the making of one of Hollywood’s most classic films, Psycho. Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren opens November 23rd.

10. Living in Oblivion

This saucy little independent film tells the tale from 3 different perspectives about the worst things that could happen on set while shooting a saucy little independent film.

As far as I can tell, regular folk don’t care for movies about movies or films about filmmaking. They used to, back when Hollywood was a more glamourous and idolized place for Americans. Classics like Sunset Boulevard, Singin’ in the Rain, The Bad and the Beautiful and the 1954 version of A Star is Born were among the top-grossing releases of their time. But 60 years later, it seems the only people really interested in stories of Hollywood, actors, directors, screenwriters, et al. are people involved with the film industry — the self-indulgence being one step below all the awards nonsense — and movie geeks, including film critics and fans. If you’re reading Film School Rejects, you’re not one of the aforementioned “regular folk,” and you probably get more of a kick out of stuff like Living in Oblivion, Ed Wood, Get Shorty, State and Main, The Hard Way, The Last Tycoon, The Stunt Man...

The finalists have been announced for the Australian Writers’ Guild awards – or Awgies.

Wish You Were Here is up for best feature film, along with Last Dance and Not Suitable For Children.

The Slap and Underbelly: Razor are up for best TV mini-series.

The short list in full:

Telemovie Original

Beaconsfield – Judi McCrossin

Mabo – Susan Smith

Television Mini-series – Adaptation

The Slap – Emily Ballou, Alice Bell, Brendan Cowell, Kris Mrksa with Cate Shortland

Underbelly: Razor – Peter Gawler, Michaeley O’Brien, Felicity Packard and Jeffrey Truman

Television Mini-series – Original

Only one nomination and the winner will be announced on the night.

Television – Series

Spirited: If You See Her Say Hello – Alice Bell

Offspring: Episode 206 – Michael Lucas

Spirited: Living In Oblivion – Ian Meadows

Spirited: I’ll Close My Eyes – Jacquelin Perske

Television – Serial

Home & Away 5437- Louise Bowes

Home & Away 5391 – Fiona Bozic

Neighbours 6231 (Jim’s Death) – Pete McTighe

Comedy...

The nominees for this year's Awgie awards include the scribes behind local films such as The Sapphires, The Eye of the Storm, Wish You Were Here and TV programs such as Mabo, Beaconsfield, and Underbelly.

Battling in the feature film adaptation category will be Judy Morris. The Eye of the Storm, starring Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davies, and The Sapphires from Keith Thompson and Tony Briggs. Michael Lucas has also been nominated for his first original feature, Not Suitable for Children while Last Dance by Terence Hammond and David Pulbrook and drama Wish You Were Here, written by Kieran Darcy-Smith and Felicity Price, have also been nominated.

Among television nominees, the team of writers behind The Slap and Underbelly: Razor have been nominated as well as Susan Smith for indigenous telemovie Mabo, and Judi McCrossin for Beaconsfield. Michael Lucas was also nominated for the television series Offspring while three scripts...

Peter Dinklage is an American actor that captures attention as soon as he appears in a scene. He is currently starring in Game of Thrones (TV) as Tyrion Lannister. His outstanding performance in this series has earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama series in 2011 and in 2012 a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Of German and Irish descent, Peter was born in Morristown, New Jersey on June 11, 1969. His mother, Diane, is an elementary school music teacher and his father, John Carl Dinklage is a retired insurance salesman. He graduated from the prestigious prep-school Delbarton School in Morristown in 1987, attended and graduated from Bennington College in 1991. Dinklage was born with achondroplasia, a condition which affects a persons height. During an interview in 2003 when he was asked about his height, he said: "When I was younger, definitely, I let it get to me.

If you haven't yet read Alison Macor's book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: 30 Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas, you are missing out on the rich history of Austin's film community. I was excited when Ryan Darbonne, executive director of Cinema41 -- a volunteer group of cinephiles producing twice-monthly screenings at The Salvage Vanguard Theater -- told me that the group's namesake was Cinema 40 Film Society, a student-run volunteer effort at The University of Texas that he'd read about in Macor's book.

The year was 1965 and much like the Austin Film Society, Cinema 40 started out as a way to showcase art films presented by the directors. The group enjoyed highlights with Jean Luc Godard and Andy Warhol presenting work ... a pedigree worthy of reincarnation by a recent college grad looking for black independent films and indies of the 80s and 90s on Austin screens and coming up short.

Darbonne...

‘90s indie filmmaker Hal Hartley has made 12 feature-length films, but even ask certain-aged cinephiles and they'll only have a limited grasp of who he is and what his peculiar, chatty and philosophically arch lo-fi serio-comedies are actually about. Normally, one could attribute this to ignorance, but being an expert on Hal Hartley is perhaps akin to being a connoisseur of similar promising Gen X '90s indie director Tom DeCillo or Alexandre Rockwell films -- not many of us exist anymore.

But perhaps even more so than Rockwell’s "In The Soup" or Dicillo’s "Living In Oblivion," Hartley's films are of a time and place and his audience, those who went to college in the ‘90s living off a steady diet of college-rock (which transformed into its mainstream alt rock form) have dwindled over the years now that many of them have grown into Gen X boomers and don't...

George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) has had it with the movies in "The Artist"Over at Fandor's Keyframe blog I'll be musing about the Oscar race on a biweekly basis. This week's topic is the unusual abundance of movies about movies in this year's Oscar race from Marilyn Monroe (My Week With Marilyn) to George Melies (Hugo) to Hollywood's seismic sound shift in the late 20s (The Artist). But one thing I didn't dwell on too much in the article (which I hope you'll go and read!) is the lack of Oscars won for movies about movies.

Everyone predicting a win for The Artist (2011) before the nominations are even announced should consider the following list and sobering fact: No movie about movies has ever won Best Picture.

Movies About Movies: How Do They Do With Oscar?

(Best Picture Nominees are in red) 

Janet Gaynor (already an Oscar winner) was nominated again...

Actor Also Talks 'Knights of Badassdom' & 'Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage – he of the recent Emmy win for the HBO series “Game of Thrones”--has been in his fair share of indie films (“The Station Agent,” “Living in Oblivion,” “Human Nature,” “Saint John of Las Vegas”). So when his friend Alexandre Rockwell ("In the Soup," "Four Rooms") approached him to star in his new film, the noir-ish dramedy “Pete Smalls Is Dead”--which hits VOD today, November 4th--the actor offered to take on an additional role as a producer. “Producer titles kind of get handed out like candy a little…...

Level 10 Films and Battle of Ireland Film recently send us over stills for their film "Some Guy Who Kills People". It's one of the films that's playing at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival. The film stars Kevin Corrigan (Living In Oblivion), Barry Bostwick ( The Rocky Horror Picture Show) , Karen Black (House of 1,000 Corpses), Lucy Davis (Shaun of the Dead)Leo Fitzpatrick (Kids)...

Catherine Keener has been a supporting actor for years, with a reputation for being interesting in valuable, offbeat pictures

Catherine Keener is a beloved figure among the several million who are always hoping for the best from American independent pictures. She promises feeling, humour and a sense of life as it is really lived, plus a nice acidity. Keener has been attractive without threatening outright beauty or glamour. Her persona springs from ironic intelligence and that's what any wise man or woman should be searching for in life. The trouble is that in America, women actors are often supposed to be knockouts who dominate their pictures just by virtue of standing there and letting themselves be photographed.

So Keener has been a supporting actor for more than 25 years, with a reputation for being different and interesting in valuable, offbeat pictures. Indeed, she has often been taken as a talisman and even a guarantee.

An eyepatch indicates the wearer has been in the wars or had his eye pecked out by a hawk like axe-hurling Kirk Douglas in The Vikings

Now that everyone has woken up to the genius that is Jeff Bridges, perhaps it's time to give John Heard his due. By the mid-1980s, after starring in a brace of films by Joan Micklin Silver, Paul Schrader's Cat People remake and pulp horror C.H.U.D, he looked all set for leading man status. But it never happened; instead he turned into one of those character actors whose presence never fails to cheer you up. It didn't help that the release of Cutter's Way, which gave him the role of his career, was bungled by United Artists, which saw it as a failed thriller instead of the noirish character study it was. It faded into obscurity, trailing a few rave...

TNT and TBS, which staged their Upfront presentation today in New York, are making bold moves to bolster their remarkably strong foundations in original programming. The networks are developing extensive new lineups of scripted and unscripted series and making a new push into half-hour comedy in partnership with some of the top talents in the industry, from award-winning actors to acclaimed producers, writers and best-selling authors.

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit The Closer, starring Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television's next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has been...

TNT and TBS, which staged their Upfront presentation today in New York, are making bold moves to bolster their remarkably strong foundations in original programming. The networks are developing extensive new lineups of scripted and unscripted series and making a new push into half-hour comedy in partnership with some of the top talents in the industry, from award-winning actors to acclaimed producers, writers and best-selling authors.

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit, The Closer, starring Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television’s next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has...

It looks like Andy Richter will be stepping from behind the podium on Conan to another podium (I am guessing) for a new game show on TBS entitled Pyramid. The show is reportedly a modern-day take on the iconic game show that began asThe $10,000 Pyramid.

I really enjoye watching Men of A Certain Age, and highly recommend it. The new shows don't really catch my interest yet, aside from Pyramid. Check out the full lineup below and share your thoughts on what shows you are most interested in seeing.

TNT scripted series in development

Untitled Kip Koenig/John Wells Productions Project – Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, this drama follows a family of cops who uncover the mystical and often crime-ridden world of a small town where things aren’t as they appear. The project comes to TNT from Warner Horizon Television, Kip Koenig (Grey’s Anatomy) and John Wells Productions (Southland,...

Film-makers usually come off badly when films get made about them. François Truffaut is the honourable exception

It speaks well of film-makers that movies about movies are usually black comedies. Our industry is so detestable – so filled with lies, thefts, backstabbing, blacklisting, drug dealing, and the occasional murder – that one would expect a tendency to cover things up. Instead, almost all the films I can think of which deal with the film-making process portray it in the grimmest possible light.

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is a classic instance: a dark comedy in which a failed screenwriter (William Holden) attempts to gain fame on the back of a faded silent-movie star (Gloria Swanson): she ends up mad, he, shot and drowned. Even the good-hearted comedy Singin' in the Rain (1952) conversely, depicts a hierarchical system dominated by the talentless, in which people who are actually good at something (in this case dancing) are ritually humiliated,...

Peter Dinklage isn’t your father’s dwarf actor. Actually, there’s a pretty good chance your father didn’t even know he had a dwarf actor. It’s easy to get confused when the majority of them are dressed like elves, leprechauns, Oompa-Loompas, or Ewoks. When dwarf actors do get to show their faces, they tend to be sight gags at best, forced to wear diapers, get thrown around by a sniggering Mike Myers, or, if they’re lucky, play magical creatures who befriend children. And then there’s Peter Dinklage. He made his screen debut in 1995’s Living In Oblivion, screaming at Steve Buscemi, “You can take this dwarf sequence and shove it up your ass!” He’s played at least one magical creature who befriends children—Trumpkin the dwarf in a Chronicles of Narnia sequel. But he’s also played Richard III in an off-Broadway production, and...