Apr 14 2008
THINKfilm
Only in existence since 2001, THINKfilm is a company whose films sail under the radar upon their release, yet are often heralded during awards season. For instance 2007’s “Taxi From the Dark Side” won the Oscar for best documentary feature. Other contributions in the genre include “Murderball,” “Spellbound,” and one of my personal favorites “I like Killing Flies.”
Their features are no slouches either. You may have seen “Primer,” “The Assassination of Richard Nixon,” or the Ryan Gosling vehicle “Half Nelson” which elicited these words from Kevin Smith, “There aren’t enough thumbs in the world to do Half Nelson the Justice it deserves.” And while their films may not always be smash hits, they are always unique, daring, and thought provoking. Here are two I stumbled on the other day.
Noise
Starring Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, and William Hurt to be released May 9th
Fortunately or unfortunately I have never had the pleasure of spending more than two consecutive nights under the bright lights of NYC; preferring the shadows of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. However, I can surely imagine the stress the big city can expel on even its most sane residents. By channeling the rage of Michael Douglas in Falling Down, yet dawning a ridiculous costume, Robbins seems to be straddling comedy and tradgedy with this one. But either way, with two Academy Award winners in this film(Robbins and Hurt), it is surely worth a look.
The Tracey Fragments
Starring Ellen Page and directed by fellow Canadian Bruce McDonald to be released in the US May 9th
Most people thought Ellen Page was great as the cute and quick witted teenager in Juno, but most people do not remember her big screen start as a twisted 14 year old pedophile hunter in 2005’s Hard Candy. While the latter was mostly difficult to watch, I am glad to see Page returning to a serious role in the The Tracey Fragments. And while this movie is by no means hot of the press (it first appeared at last years Toronto Film Festival) it may still be unheard of to most filmgoers familiar wih Page.
I have always thought of the Olympic opening ceremonies as a little overdramatic and dare I say cheesy. Well thanks to a 300 million dollar budget and the artistic vision of renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, 2008’s Bejing ceremonies were legendary - despite the frequent flood warnings and technical difficulties interrupting the broadcast thanks [...]
Bret Easton Ellis strikes again; Wayfarers, New Order, drugs, sex, and rich LA brats. Welcome to the first look at “The Informers”, the film adaptation of Ellis’s 1994 novel of the same name in which he also wrote the screenplay.
“The drama is set over the course of a week in 1983, in the chillingly [...]
In the 1950’s Hollywood was producing around forty westerns per year, that number fell to twenty during the 60’s, around ten per year in the 1970’s through 90’s, and in the new millennium, we are lucky to get five westerns each year. But when those westerns are of the caliber of 2007’s “3:10 [...]
Those trailers both look great, David - I’m especially interested in seeing “Noise.”
[...] the independent film powerhouse of ThinkFilm comes the trailer for the upcoming “Phoebe in Wonderland” starring Elle Fanning, [...]
[...] the film Noise wasn’t your idea of a glowing testament to NYC, then have a stab at the trailer for New York, [...]