"It's not good enough... I wasted six months of our lives." Nicolas Winding Refn held himself, once again, to a very high standard. The Danish director was coming off the smash film Drive and feeling the pressure that comes with the followup. In this case, that would be Only God...

Mark Ruffalo. Michael Keaton. Rachel McAdams. Liev Schreiber. John Slattery. Stanley Tucci. Together, in one movie? Yes. That would be Spotlight. And it's a monster. Tom McCarthy's newsroom drama will surely go down as one of the year's best films. Based on true events surrounding the take-down of the Catholic Church in...

Director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) said that she wanted to ensure that Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette bonded before shooting began. As she has done so often before, during pre-production she invited the actors to her home for several readings, and rehearsals, in hopes a relationship would bloom; one that...

At filmmaker Lázló Nemes' request, Son of Saul screened at MVFF using a gorgeous, organic 35mm print. Interestingly, after opening promos, the screen and drapes re-sized to a 4:3 aspect ratio. Odd, I thought. I suspected this was an artistic choice. It gives the viewer little relief, and contributes to...

You don't see horror films too often at mainstream film festivals. And you also don't see new Coppola films all that often either. Sacred Blood, thankfully, serves up both. Fortunately I was able to view an advance screening. Scheduled to premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, this low budget gorefest is the...

A preview of some of this year's gems at the Mill Valley Film Festival begins with 'Taxi' ('Taxi Tehran'), a banned film shot on the streets of Tehran. Jafar Panahi stars in his own film, as a taxi driver. When a rider recognizes the famed Iranian director -- even in that beret!...

It's a documentary, but it could be a horror film. Desire for Beauty begins with a young, attractive Polish woman getting drawn up by a surgeon for breast implants. She stands naked, red dash marks across her upper torso. She smiles nervously (while a cadre of cameramen film her every move)....

Horror is a tricky genre. Just about everything has been done... to death. Found footage. Haunted houses. Ghost stories. Demons. The self-aware. Comedy-horror. Been there, done that--again, and again. So it's welcome relief when something new comes along. As is the case with It Follows, something fresh, a small film that...

If you judge movies largely by the ending you may be slightly disappointed by Irrational Man. That would be unfortunate though, and perhaps even unfair because everything that comes before the abrupt sign off is deliciously dark, and quite the hoot. Woody Allen's more recent films appear to be opening...

"Are you happy?" It's like a sucker punch. And the chills come fast. When Robin Williams's character Nolan Mack, a quiet and reliable banker, is asked that question by his boss, the sadness is multi-layered, the emptiness very real. Boulevard is one of Robin William's last big screen performances. Others include...