Leave it to the French to philosophize about Twitter and E-books. That's exactly what Olivier Assayas' "Non-Fiction" dares to do and, for the most part, this small little trifle of a film actually works. Coming off his brilliant "Personal Shopper," Assayas decides to make a more relaxing film this time around. This intermingling of relationships and friendships, set in the publishing world, is just an excuse for Assayas to update Rohmer for the 21st century, but in a minor key.
Read moreOscars 2019: Foreign-Language Feature Shortlist Includes ‘Roma,’ ‘Shoplifters‘ ‘Burning,’ ‘Cold War’ and More
I approve 8 of the 9 shortlisted film's vying for the foreign film Oscar. I don't particularly like the German entry, but the rest are well-deserved:
Pawel Pawlikowski‘s "Cold War" (Poland), Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra‘s "Birds of Passage" (Columbia), Gustav Moller‘s "The Guilty" (Denmark), Florian_Henckel von Donnersmarck "Never Look Away" (Germany), Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s "Shoplifters" (Japan), Nadine Labaki‘s "Capernaum" (Lebanon), Alfonso Cuaron‘s "Roma" (Mexico), Sergey Dvortsevoy‘s "Ayka" (Kazakhstan) and Lee Chang-dong‘s "Burning" (South Korea).
Read moreGreat Swedish film 'Force Majeure' is being remade by Hollywood; Will Ferrell to star.
Hollywood is at it again, deciding to make an English-language remake of a soon-to-be-classic foreign film.
Deadline is reporting that Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are attached to star in the upcoming Fox Searchlight film “Downhill,” which is an English-language remake of the Swedish film “Force Majeure.” The film is set to be directed by the duo of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash ("The Descendants," "The Way Way Back") and scripted by “Four Lions” writer Jesse Armstrong.
Read moreAkira Kurosawa's ‘Seven Samurai’ Named Greatest Foreign-Language Film Ever By New BBC Poll of Over 209 Film Critics
The BBC polled 209 film critics across 43 countries, and came up with the 100 greatest achievements in foreign-language film. Sitting at the top of the list was Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” Kurosawa has two movies in the top five, “Rashomon” being the other.
BBC.com, which organized the poll, has the full list of 100 movies. But here is their top 10, in order.
Read moreLee Chang-Dong’s ‘Burning' is the Best Movie of 2018 so Far
My favorite film of the Cannes Film Festival, and of the year so far, has been Lee Chang-Dong's "Burning," which, so it happens, is a damn-near miraculous achievement. I would go as far and say I've never really seen anything quite like it. The cinematic movement happening right now in Korea is quite special.
Bar none, the best movie I saw at the last Cannes Film Festival. There wasn't even debate. Why? Because I don't think I've ever seen a movie quite like the genre-morphing "Burning." Even if it uses many of the enticing tropes of a whodunit drama, it feels incredibly fresh. Some of the filmmaker coming out of South Korea these days are utterly fascinating.
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The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.