Jessica Hausner on Club Zero, Mia Wasikowska, Divisive Reactions, and the Overwhelming Stress of Youth
Across her five previous features, Austrian director Jessica Hausner (Amour Fou, Lourdes, Little Joe) has developed a distinctly unique tone––one which carries through her sixth outing Club Zero. Led by Mia Wasikowska, the dark satire follows a nutrition teacher at an elite school whose relationship with five students takes a dangerous turn. While Hausner is perhaps intentionally poking the bear as it relates to eating disorders, one could swap out the subject of her new film to another topic du jour and still retain a cogent, one-of-a-kind look at cult mentality.
“It’s All Marketing”: Ed Lachman on HDR, Maria, and Lifetime Achievement Awards
Those who’ve seen his films know Ed Lachman as a key collaborator of (naming just some) Todd Haynes, Sofia Coppola, Steven Sodebergh, Paul Schrader, and Pablo Larraín, with whom his latest collaboration, Maria, is now in theaters and soon on Netflix amidst the studio’s awards blitz. Those who attend EnergaCAMERIMAGE know him as a figurehead, no less essential to the festival than any top brass and treated like royalty at any screening, seminar, or party. It was here nearly a decade ago that I spoke to Lachman on the occasion of Carol, and in 2024 he’s been bestowed a lifetime achievement award––equal-parts earned and obligatory. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen on Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize, granting Ed Lachman such honors at a cinematography festival is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain.
India Donaldson on Good One, Girlhood, and the Rhythms of Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Kelly Reichardt
The best directorial debut of the year, India Donaldson’s Good One, is a carefully-observed portrait of both womanhood and fatherhood, capturing the 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias, in a revelatory breakthrough performance) who embarks on a camping trip in the Catskills with her father (James Le Gros) and his best friend (Danny McCarthy). As the men are in the middle of a midlife crisis of sorts, Sam is witness to their mindless banter and subtle indecencies, culminating in a piercing point of no return.
“I Want It to Feel as Real as a Documentary”: Sean Baker on Anora, Editing Breaks, and Old-School Camera Tricks
Sean Baker has been making films for nearly 25 years. With Anora, his Palme d’Or winner following the journey of a stripper from Brooklyn, he’s ascended further into popular culture. Baker isn’t a mainstream filmmaker, though, instead thriving in the independent scene with consistent critical hits. His last five films have been about sex workers, and he continues painting humanistic portraits with persistent empathy. His palette often involves hues of orange, pink, purple, and red, the skies in these places often much simpler than whatever is happening beneath them.
“I Made It So I Could Breathe”: Tarsem on Restoring The Fall, Distribution Woes, and the Next Chapter
Tarsem’s The Fall is an anomaly. Since met with polarizing critical reviews and a non-existent box office in 2007, the film has earned a reputation from its lack of accessibility. It’s been one of those rare films not found on streaming, only watched (legally, at least) by a select few with physical copies and theater owners brave enough to put on a screening. The stories around the fantasy film exist as myth and precaution alike, with the Indian director sinking much of his own money into the project, traveling to 28 countries over many years, and filming solely on-location. But as Roger Ebert said in his four-star review, “There will never be another like it.”
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Flow Director Gints Zilbalodis on Animating Animals, Allegories, and Cinema vs. Videogames
Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis’ new wordless animation Flow looks to provide an alternative this holiday season (and awards season) to audiences seeking family fare without the chattiness and slapstick typically associated with the medium. Already a festival darling and possible Oscar contender, Zilbalodis’ film uses wide-angle compositions of lush saturated colors with naturalistic lighting and camera movements to follow a troupe of realistically-proportioned animal survivors on an ark-like boat through an apocalyptic flood, a journey that challenges them to overcome their Darwinian instincts for the sake of collective survival. (If this sounds a little bit like this year’s much more Hollywood-standard CG animated contender, Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot… well, you didn’t hear it from me.)
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“Look at the Cinema”: Nickel Boys Cinematographer Jomo Fray on First-Person Filmmaking and the Opulence of Mundanity
Few features this decade commit more to a formal philosophy than RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, which adapts Colson Whitehead’s novel almost entirely from the first-person vantage of its two protagonists when it isn’t––just as compellingly––taking an archival approach to build out its social-political context. Watching the film, it’s nearly impossible not to consider the level of collaboration that needed to bring this film forward, to not grow dizzy doing so.
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“Nobody Ever Gave Me Anything”: Alan Rudolph on Robert Altman, Bruce Willis, Kurt Vonnegut, and Resurrecting Breakfast of Champions
Among the most inspired choices for a 4K restoration this year would have to be Alan Rudolph’s Breakfast of Champions. Despite coming out in the middle of Bruce Willis’ Armageddon/The Sixth Sense heyday, the 1999 Kurt Vonnegut adaptation died a quick death at the box office, which certainly wasn’t aided by the critic class who thought at the time American Beauty was somehow a more scathing critique of the country’s false promises and personal repression. A genuinely bizarre film, bolstered by an outstanding cast and an abrasive form, Breakfast of Champions arrives at just the right moment for reclamation.
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Paul Schrader on Mortality, Prayer, and Turning Down Bruce Springsteen
Fifty years after his screenwriting debut via Sydney Pollack’s The Yakuza and a mere forty-six since his directorial debut with Blue Collar, Paul Schrader is still at it. And he’s operating at a higher level than most. A household name for his Scorsese screenplays––Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ chief among them––Schrader made a compelling industry name for himself with his own projects by the late ’70s, cementing himself as one of cinema’s most divisive, most original, and most consistent directors by the late ’80s and early ’90s.
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Rodrigo Prieto on His Directorial Debut, Martin Scorsese’s Snubs, and Taylor Swift’s Feature Debut
It was just a year ago I spoke to Rodrigo Prieto about Killers of the Flower Moon, his fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese. We once again found ourselves at EnergaCAMERIMAGE––this year bringing him into jury duty for the festival’s main competition, working alongside Cate Blanchett, Anthony Dod Mantle, Łukasz Żal, Jolanta Dylewska, Anna Higgs, and Sandy Powell to award a major achievement in cinematography. (A day after our conversation they’d bestow such honor upon The Girl with the Needle.)
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The Making of the Indian Sci-Fi Box-Office Sensation Kalki 2898 AD
Each year the Busan International Film Festival screens movies at its outdoor stage. Among the titles this year was Kalki 2898 AD, a sci-fi box-office sensation from India. The story pits superhero gods against each other in a dystopian future of deserts and decaying cities.
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The People’s Joker Director Vera Drew on the Trans Awakening of Batman Forever and the Way Superhero Movies Could Survive
After a year-and-a-half of copyright drama, The People’s Joker is finally here. The daring mixture of both tones and form will be sure to impress anyone, even those without a lick of investment in the DC subject matter it is both lampooning and serenading. I was lucky enough to have an extensive chat with writer-director-star Vera Drew about the film’s conception, ideas, and the general state of comic-book cinema.
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The Seed of the Sacred Fig Director Mohammad Rasoulof on Filming in Secret and the Repression of the Islamic Republic
In September 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini was killed by authorities. She was arrested for alleged non-compliance with the country’s mandatory hijab laws, subsequently collapsing and dying while in their custody. The Iranian government denied any brutality and blamed her death on a pre-existing medical condition, but the young women of Iran knew better.
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“There’s No Villains in This Film”: Joshua Oppenheimer on The End and Value of Self-Deception
After fearlessly interrogating man’s capacity for evil in Oscar-nominated documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer returns with The End, a bunker-bound musical set at the end of the world. Despite that unexpected logline, the core themes Oppenheimer grapples with in his work––i.e. the nature of absolution and the self-deception that makes us uniquely human––are still very much present in his fiction-feature debut.
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Willem Dafoe on Hope, Morality, and Being Called God in Poor Things
Willem Dafoe is your favorite actor’s favorite actor. He’s your favorite director’s favorite actor. He’s likely most people’s dad’s favorite actor. Over his 40-year career, the 68-year-old has become synonymous with character acting. If anything, he’s more known for his supporting roles than his leading ones. The actor dabbles in auteur fare, superhero blockbusters, foreign films, and any other meaty role he can get his hands on. With four Academy Award nominations and more likely to come, the actor had seven films debut in 2023. He continues to work in all genres, including voice work for animation. Dafoe’s acting feels somehow both unique and chameleon-like, shifting into different roles yet keeping a distinctive persona.
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Melissa McCarthy, Clive Owen to Star in ‘JonBenet Ramsey’ Limited Series at Paramount+
Richard LaGravenese will serve as showrunner on the drama.
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Michael Keaton Hints He’s Ready to Change His Name Professionally
The actor's anticipated credit change references his birth name, which he couldn't use due to SAG rules.
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Olivia Wilde, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Lucy Liu Set for Chanel and Tribeca’s Through Her Lens Jury
The 2024 edition of Tribeca and Chanel's Through Her Lens collaboration will also feature Joanna Calo, Beanie Feldstein, Pamela Adlon, Mara Brock Akil, Janicza Bravo and Molly Gordon.
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How the Rhode Island Film Festival Is “Writing a New Narrative”
Executive director Shawn M. Quirk sees his role in "building this global community, as well as helping our local filmmakers who need that access."
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Dennis Quaid Says He Doesn’t “Regret Anything” About Marriage to Meg Ryan
The two actors, who share son Jack Quaid, tied the knot in 1991 before divorcing a decade later.
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Could Two New Docs Subtly Change the Presidential Election?
Films about Adam Kinzinger and James Carville might shake up the awards race — and the 2024 campaign.
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Eric Idle on ‘Monty Python’ Money Troubles, “Poor” John Cleese Relationship
The move also follows Cleese claiming he's quitting X after an Elon Musk post.
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Tyrese Gibson Held in Custody After Court Hearing for Underpayment of Child Support
The 'Fast & Furious' franchise star, who predicted his incarceration in an Instagram post this weekend, is being held in Atlanta after another contentious hearing in his protracted battle with ex, Samantha Lee.
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Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman Announce Divorce After 26 Years of Marriage
"We are incredibly proud of the loving family we have created and our countless memories together," the couple wrote in a joint statement.
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TIFF: Anti-Netanyahu Film Premiere Goes Forward in Toronto After Court Motion Fails
The screening of The Bibi Files, which showed never-before-seen interrogation footage, at times played like a government-protest rally