Cinefile

Jack Goes Boating

In Theaters
Sep 08, 2010

Note: Cinefile covered the Sundance USA screening of Jack Goes Boating back in January, with special guests Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz! Watch that Movie Nation video here.

Jack Goes Boating is a very well acted movie. How could it not be? It stars and is directed by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman and he is joined onscreen by the always interesting to watch John Ortiz (Miami Vice, Before Night Falls) and The Wire’s Amy Ryan. Throw in a notably strong turn by stage veteran Daphne Rubin-Vega and the recipe for ripe performances is tip-fucking-top. On a lesser ...

Mississippi Chicken

On DVD
Sep 04, 2010

The documentary has certainly seen a rise in popularity over the last few years. As the climate in various arenas—economic, social, commercial—continues to shift from “good to bad,” audiences are clamoring for non-fiction accounts that can either make sense of their situation…or at least validate their original fears. John Fiege’s Mississippi Chicken is a quietly devastating doc that follows various Latin immigrant workers in the American south. Shot on Super 8 film, using mostly natural light, Mississippi Chicken is one of the more pure examples of direct cinema; that is, it brims with a wholly truthful ...

Welcome To Nollywood

On DVD
Aug 31, 2010

Every week, approximately fifty new feature film productions are released to the public in Lagos, Nigeria.  Most films are made with a budget between $5,000 and $15,000. There are no theaters and no DVD players available to the majority of the public. All films go direct to VHS and VCD format.  Despite these micro budgets, currently the industry generates over $280 million (USD) for the Nigerian economy each year.

"Nollywood" is now considered the third largest film industry in the world today. Some estimates state that industry is in-fact larger per capita than Hollywood. In Welcome To Nollywood ...

Going The Distance

In Theaters
Aug 30, 2010

Moviegoers are accustomed to treating the month of August with little more than a shrug. You see, August is caught in that cinematic purgatory between the summer box office fluff and the Oscar fare of the fall season.  This is why we have forgettable movies like The Expendables or the incredulous re-release of Avatar wedged into August. Nanette Burstein’s Going The Distance is the rare case of a late summer release that both entertains and doesn’t completely dumb down your sentiments. A real sleeper hit if there ever could be one this time of the year.

Drew Barrymore ...

Centurion

In Theaters
Aug 25, 2010

Neil Marshall’s Centurion is a bloody and brutal cinematic retaliation against the green screen finesse of Zack Snyder’s popular sword n’ sandals epic 300. Marshall, who made the impressive, claustrophobic thriller The Descent just a few years ago, trades in the CGI landscapes of 300 for the tough and cold terrains of its unforgiving European wilderness; the result is a movie that looks very distinct and sometimes feels very exciting. However, when it’s not sweeping us with its magnificent vistas or its visceral combat sections, it falls into the similar trappings of other mediocre historical epics: hokey ...

The Ghost Writer

On DVD
Aug 19, 2010

Roman Polanski is one of the last living masters of filmmaking. From the unmatched vice on paranoia in his Rosemary’s Baby to the controlled sense of somberness in his The Pianist, Polanski has always championed character over cinematic spectacle. His films let the players on the screen dazzle the audience; they’re the movie’s best special effect. Polanski’s The Ghost Writer is one of the year’s very best films and again puts Polanski in top form. The very fact that a key central character in the film is basically excommunicated from his country, runs a potent ...