"I wish Francis 'Oggs' Cruz, Richard Bolisay, and Dodo Dayao would get space in the broadsheets, because they're far more interesting than anyone writing there regularly."--Alexis Tioseco, "Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema" When he was a boy, Richard Bolisay's... More >>

As I've mentioned in my review, I've a personal affinity for documentaries because they offer that keen insight and perspective through the filmmaker's lens on their pet subject and in Singapore, we're witnessing a growing number of quality documentarians who are... More >>

"I wish Francis 'Oggs' Cruz, Richard Bolisay, and Dodo Dayao would get space in the broadsheets, because they're far more interesting than anyone writing there regularly."--Alexis Tioseco, "Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema" According to Dodo Dayao's MySpace page, he... More >>

On the eve of Bong Joon-Ho's much loved thriller Mother hitting US screens - where you can see it now - regular contributor to these pages Diva Velez had the chance to sit and chat with the director.  Here...

"I wish Francis 'Oggs' Cruz, Richard Bolisay, and Dodo Dayao would get space in the broadsheets, because they're far more interesting than anyone writing there regularly."--Alexis Tioseco, "Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema" Lessons From the School of Inattention has... More >>

When Australian horror film The Loved Ones had its world premiere as part of the Toronto International Film Festival I had the chance to sit and talk with director Sean Byrne about his loving ode to the high school...

Easily one of the most recognizable faces in Korean cinema there is no mistaken Song Kang-ho. We love him in Park Chan-wook's JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and recently Thirst. We love him in Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder and...

Marc Vorlander's Showgirls: The Return is one of the more perplexing projects of recent days, with widespread speculation out there that the whole thing is a hoax. But if it is, Vorlander's certainly not letting on.Our good friends at...

Writer/director/producer/star Yang Ik-Jun has spent the last year globetrotting to promote his first feature-length effort behind the camera, Breathless. While in New York for a recent screening of his film, Mr. Yang was gracious enough to sit down and talk...

"I've got a lot of patience, baby / but, that's a lot of patience to lose."--Laura Nyro In his aptly-entitled essay-interview with James Benning for Artforum International--"Testing Your Patience"--Scott MacDonald emphasizes how Benning's films "confront the hysterical consumption modeled... More >>

Not since Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) has an animal eye witnessed the pitiful plight of human beings with such patient compassion, as in Antonio Nuić's sophomore feature Donkey (Kenjac, 2009), which saw its US premiere at the... More >>

The US premiere of Vortex (2009)--Lithuania's official submission to the Foreign Language category at the Academy Awards® and winner of three Sidabrinė gervė ("Silver Crane") awards for the outstanding performances of its talented trio of actors: Oksana Borbat (Best... More >>

I was frustrated when I arrived for my scheduled interview with Miguel Littin only to be advised that the interview had to be postponed due to a family emergency in Chile requiring Littin to leave for Palm Springs a... More >>

 "Dream Home": Beneath the soft, romantic title (1) lurks what might possibly be the craziest, bloodiest slasher film ever made in Hong Kong! Produced, directed and written by the rebellious and prolific Pang Ho-cheung ("You Shoot I Shoot", "Men Suddenly...

Released in France on November 25th 2009, "Une Affaire d'Etat" is a suspenseful, action-packed thriller in which three characters cross paths: a corrupt politician (André Dussolier), his henchman (Thierry Frémont), and a hard-boiled female cop (Rachida Brakni). Before you read...

"We wanted to change history, but destiny led us to this strange sensation of uncertainty and defeat. What did we do wrong? What mistakes did we make?"--Sergio Bitar, Dawson Island prisoner, and author of Isla 10. "I felt like... More >>

Best known in horror circles as a producer on All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, Chad Feehan is doing it all on upcoming psychological horror film Wake.  Serving as writer-director-producer on the film, Feehan is currently prepping for his...

Who hasn't heard about the meteoric rise to notoriety of Xavier Dolan, the Québécois teenager whose first feature film J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother, 2009) received--not only an eight-minute standing ovation at the 2009 Cannes Film... More >>

Of the documentary selections for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival one of the most immediately intriguing is Alexandre Philippe's The People Vs George Lucas.  A look into the world of the man who created Star Wars and the people...

It seems like you can't go to a film festival anywhere these days without national cinemas ending up in some kind of political stand-off. Whether or not one believes that a film festival is the proper venue to broker... More >>

Along with The Over the Hill Band and Altiplano, the third Belgian feature I caught at PSIFF10 was Felix Van Groeningen's The Misfortunates (2009), Belgium's official submission to the Academy Awards® foreign language category. Though it did not make... More >>

[Our thanks again to Splice director Vincenzo Natali for an inside look at his Sundance experience.  He checks in here with his final word from the festival.]A few days have passed since the last entry. The feverish pace of...

[With Cordell Barker's Runaway screening at Sundance, we present again the interview with Barker I conducted at the Toronto International Film Festival.]One of the most acclaimed animators in Canada, the only complaint about director Cordell Barker is he just...

"The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice."--Martin Luther King, Jr. As Claudia Llosa indicated in her Q&A session at the PSIFF10 screening of La Teta Asustada (The Milk of Sorrow, 2009), a book entitled Entre... More >>

[We welcome back Splice director Vincenzo Natali with the fourth entry in his ongoing Sundance diary.]Twenty-four hours has morphed into forty-eight since my last post. Splice received its midnight premiere on Friday and since then the festival has become...

The quiet has ended. Sundance is running on all cylinders. I sit shotgun while Cynthia Amsden, Splice's courageous publicist, tears up Park City streets in her sporty Kia rental. The GPS spits out directions with the mellifluous voice pattern...

Sundance is now upon us, which means it is time for Splice director Vincenzo Natali to check in with the second entry in his record of the festival experience.Making a film is always a long and arduous process. In...

Peruvian director Claudia Llosa's sophomore feature La teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow, 2009) stars Magaly Solier--with whom she worked on Madeinusa (2005)--and addresses the fears of abused women during Peru's recent history. It won both the Golden Bear... More >>

It seems that every 10-15 years Jacques Tati is reintroduced to the American moviegoing public. The last wave was in the late '90s when the recently-restored color print of Jour de Fête (1949)--Tati's first directorial feature--traveled the art house... More >>

Now that Rick Jacobson's cleavage-laden bubblegum-cult film Bitch Slap has landed in the larger American film markets, it seems like the right time to post up a conversation I had with one of the leading ladies a short while after...