Much of its reputation comes from exposing the masses to special effects that had been done much more excitingly, not to mention economically, in experimental shorts. Only where money really counts -- the finicky construction of model spaceships -- does it move into new territory. Kubrick's paranoid spoofs on modern …
Much of its reputation comes from exposing the masses to special effects that had been done much more excitingly, not to mention economically, in experimental shorts. Only where money really counts -- the finicky construction of model spaceships -- does it move into new territory. Kubrick's paranoid spoofs on modern …
Much of its reputation comes from exposing the masses to special effects that had been done much more excitingly, not to mention economically, in experimental shorts. Only where money really counts -- the finicky construction of model spaceships -- does it move into new territory. Kubrick's paranoid spoofs on modern …
Upwards of a dozen New Yorkers in destiny's dance on New Year's Eve, 1981. Flatly written comedy, and broadly acted in compensation. Wall-to-wall oldies. (It's an MTV Films co-production.) With Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, Janeane Garofalo, Kate Hudson, Courtney Love, Jay Mohr, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci, Paul Rudd; written by …
The Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel, and Ringo Starr in a video-taped rock fantasy. It looks a lot like a television variety show, with a flat, oddly colored image, and with studio sets and skits and musical numbers, but it is several lengths raunchier, and longer, than Dean Martin's weekly.
Roland Emmerich's widest view of disaster to date: the sky-high eruption of Yellowstone (Old Faithful gone Vesuvius), the toppling of the Washington Monument and St. Peter's Basilica (the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower would be so old-hat), the block-by-block collapse of Los Angeles (a rented limo outrunning the …
Score one for mass culture: the animating forces behind The Simpsons aren't about to teach you anything new about the possibilities inherent in illustrated storytelling, but "Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'" dominates this year's field through old-school craft and wit, and offers a politically topical Ayn Rand hook to …
While brevity demands that a short film keep its focus tight and on-point, it has the opposite effect on a documentary. In a short doc, it is enough for the viewer to be presented with a detailed, engaging slice of life, with no point required save the sharing of lived …
By turns exhilarating and devastating, the 2013 live-action short film lineup serves as a reminder of why movies matter, what they can do, and why they needn't be larded up into three-hour epics that hit all the expected beats. Every entry confronts the blunt fact of death; every entry provides …
For once, Pixar is out of the picture — The Blue Umbrella was almost (but not quite) as dire as the feature that followed it (Monsters University). That clears the field for...Disney? Sigh. Look, if you've seen Frozen (and by this point, what parent hasn't?), then you know all about …
This year's lineup includes brief looks at a digger of art caves, a meeting between a Neo-Nazi and the gay he once went after, an attempt at peaceful regime change in Yemen, a terminally ill prisoner and the volunteers at his hospice, and tips on living a long and happy …
Another Oscar season, another opportunity to wonder aloud why it is that, in this age of supposedly dwindling attention spans, there has not been an explosion of interest in the short-film form. The live-action slate features a trio of heartrending horrors: It Wasn’t Me (child soldiers in Africa), Helium (terminally …
A lightweight slate: nine films, but only two that marry really engaging visuals with narrative heft. Those two are Me and My Moulton, a middle sister's memoir of her family life in sixties Norway, and The Dam Keeper, a gorgeous fable about an orphaned pig who has to navigate the …
A solid collection of five films that make the most of the short form and the simplicity it permits. Boogaloo and Graham tells the story of a pair of Belfast boys and their pet chickens (and also their Mum and Dad). The Phone Call lets us watch a woman working …