Sundance: Jenny Slate Charms in Writer/Director Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child

Gillian Robespierre’s first crack at Obvious Child was as a short that she filmed in the winter of 2009. “We were frustrated by the limited representations of young women’s experience with pregnancy, let alone growing up,” she wrote on her Kickstarter page. “We were waiting to see a more honest film, or at least, a story that was closer to many of the stories we knew.” The short starred comedian Jenny Slate, the ex-SNL cast member (who infamously dropped the f-bomb on her very first show),

Sundance: Macon Blair’s Melancholy Assassin in Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin

Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin was a hell of a way to spend an afternoon in the theater here at Sundance. Saulnier’s film is a revenge story marked not by the mindless pursuit of retribution but rather a sad, resigned commitment to a dark task. Our protagonist, Dwight (Macon Blair, outstanding), openly acknowledges the pointlessness of his task while nonetheless trudging along its bloody contours to its bleak endpoint.

The film opens with a beautiful shot of a pristine white tile bathroom filling with steam.

Sundance 2014: Young Hellraiser Fuels Kat Candler’s Impressive Hellion

The first night in Sundance required a deep breath. The Credits is a little more than a year old, so this was our first year here and it’s all slightly overwhelming at the beginning. Although the Festival is a well oiled machine at this point (free shuttles, a slew of press and industry screenings to choose from, and now Uber, expensive as ever), for a first timer here it’s a lot to take in.

We got our bearings and that initial touch of anxiety melted away once the lights went down at the Holiday Village Cinema and the first chords of heavy metal sounded in Kat Candler’s Hellion.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit & 26 More Super Spy Movies

With Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit opening this Friday, Paramount is hoping for a successful re-re-reboot (after 2002’s The Sum of All Fears, with Ben Affleck), to infuse this 24 year old spy fantasy franchise culled from Tom Clancy’s novels, with the realistic grit, vim, and vigor deployed so successfully in the Bourne films, and adapted brilliantly by the James Bond franchise in Casino Royale and Skyfall.

Can Our Social Awards Season App Predict the Oscars?

The Oscar nominations have been announced, which means our Social Awards Season App, the DataViz, which is a collaboration with global social analytics and monitoring company Brandwatch, will begin collecting all the social data mentions for the Academy Award nominees in the run up to one of the most competitive years in recent Oscar history.

When we unveiled our first iteration of our DataViz app last year,

I, Frankenstein Digitally Re-Mastered for IMAX Premiere

“I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.” So said Frankenstein’s monster, some 196 years ago in 1818 when Mary Shelley anonymously published her groundbreaking book “Frankenstein” in London. In nine days, her creation will loom larger than ever before when he enters IMAX theaters on January 24 in Stuart Beattie’s I, Frankenstein.

Writer/director Beattie’s film,

From Darryl F. Zanuck to Christine Vachon: The Quotable Producer

Jerry Weintraub, a legendary film producer, took to the stage this past Sunday to accept the Golden Globe for best TV movie or miniseries for Behind the Candelabra. The film was the work of a slew of super talented individuals coming together to create something original and daring. Some of those people include the director Steven Soderbergh, his two stars, Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his young lover Scott Thornson,

From Taliban-Infested Pakistan to Sundance Lab to Screen:These Birds Walk

Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick teamed up to make a documentary that would change their lives. They spent three years, on and off, in Taliban-infested Pakistan making These Birds Walk, a cinema verité look at young orphans and runaways in a Karachi children’s home. The home is run by Abdul Sattar Edhi, whose group runs about 300 centers throughout Pakistan. But the focus of the film is less on Edhi and more on the kids,

Can We Predict the Golden Globes? Our New & Improved Social Awards Season App

The Golden Globes are this Sunday, which means that it’s time for us to roll out our second annual Social Awards Season DataViz (short for data visualization), in collaboration with the brainiacs over at the global social analytics and monitoring company Brandwatch. Last year our one-of-a-kind Oscars prognosticator surveyed social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest for any public mentions relating to the Oscar nominees. The DataViz also tallied the predictions of film critics,

Chatting With Writer/Director Francesca Gregorini About The Truth About Emanuel

Francesca Gregorini’s film Tanner Hall marked the debut of two very talented women—Gregorini herself and her star, Rooney Mara. This coming-of-age drama focused on young women edging towards adulthood at an all-girls boarding school.

In her latest film, The Truth About Emanuel, which opens today, Gregorini gives us a portrait of two women, one just about to turn 18 (Emmanuel, played by Kaya Scoldelario), the other a young single mother (Linda,

Polar Vortex Film List: Behind-the-Chill of Some Seriously Cold Films

It's been stupidly, horrendously cold outside. It was 5 degrees in New York yesterday morning. It’s a balmy 9 degrees at the moment. And New York has it easy. You need a Tauntuan and several layers of Gortex to get around if you live in the Midwest. Around 500 people got stuck on three Amtrak trains in Illinois on Monday thanks to the polar vortex. And what a name—the polar vortex included a The Day After Tomorrow–

Talking With Adam Garber, Director of the White House Student Film Festival

The first-ever White House Student Film Festival was announced late last year, a contest for K-12 students for a chance to have their films shown at the White House, featured on the White House website, YouTube Channel and their social media pages. Submissions will be accepted through January 29, and all videos must be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. For more details, click here.

What they want to see is films that highlight the power of technology in schools.

Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke on Their Before Trilogy

Eighteen years ago, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise was released in late January of 1995. Save for a few bit speaking roles sprinkled throughout the film—a pair of Austrian theater actors, a palm reader— every minute of screen time, and every word uttered, comes from a young American, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a young French woman, Céline (Julie Delpy), who meet on a train and impulsively decide to spend the next 24 hours together in Vienna.

Interstellar, Noah, Fury & More: 2014 Movie Preview

Now that we’ve put a bow on one of the greatest years in recent film history, it’s time to look ahead at the slate of films coming out this year.

We're taking just a small bite here, and we're breaking it down by four genres that have a robust selection of films coming out—science fiction, action/adventure, superhero and historical/period pieces.

Science Fiction

There are a lot of really exciting projects in the sci-fi genre from some very talented directors and huge stars,

Stunt Coordinator Kevin Scott on Lone Survivor’s Commitment to Realism

During the making of Lone Survivor, second unit director and stunt coordinator Kevin Scott was presented with an unusual challenge. He had to show soldiers tumbling down rugged terrain with sixty-degree inclines, but he also had to make it look real. “As a stunt person, we’re used to going big and doing gags. We usually want the audience to go, ‘Whoa, that was the best stunt I’ve seen in my life!’ This movie was the exact opposite of that,”

Looking Back on Some of our Favorite Stories of 2013

When we launched The Credits a little more than a year ago, we aimed to shed a light on the many talented filmmakers who often don’t get much press for their work. While we’ve occasionally spoken to folks who need no introduction (John Waters, for example), most of the filmmakers we’ve focused on have a little less name recognition but a huge amount of talent. We interviewed a lot of people, so the below roundup is really just a taste—there were far too many people to mention in a single post.

10 Movie Themed Cocktails Crafted by Nitehawk Cinema’s Beverage Manager

As the Beverage Manager at the Nitehawk Cinema, Jen Marshall’s job is to pair cocktails with movies, a kind of cinema sommelier. At the Brooklyn theater, she comes up with cocktails for each movie on the marquee, like The Driver.

This twist on a dark and stormy is made with Gosling’s Ginger Beer and Gosling’s Black Seal Rum in honor of Drive’s moody hero and heartthrob, Ryan Gosling.

Weekend Watch List: Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle & More

Just about everybody’s aware that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are back with their fifth film together in their Wall Street bacchanal The Wolf of Wall Street. But Marty and Leo aren’t the only game in town. We take a quick look at what’s out in theaters this weekend as we wind down this incredible year in film.

 The Wolf of Wall Street

Based on the book by stockbroker and former cretin Jordan Belfort,

Subtle Shorthand: Directors & Actors Who Keep Working Together—Part II

Some frequent collaborations between a director and actor are so high wattage they’re known by last name alone: Scorcese and DiCaprio. Burton and Depp. But other repeated pairings of a director and actor glow a little less brightly. Some are even under the radar. In part two of a two-part series, the Credits reveals what makes four such collaborations tick. Read part one here.

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Actor: Danny Trejo

Movies (10): Desperado (1995);

“My Muse”: Directors & Actors Who Keep Working Together—Part I

The Wolf of Wall Street marks the fifth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio. But not all frequent director-actor pairings are made in A-list heaven. Many high-profile directors collaborate repeatedly with an actor who simply shares a similar vision, understands their method, or can read between the lines of a script—no matter if the actor is famous or a B-lister. In part one of a two-part series, the Credits takes a look at four frequent director-actor pairings you may not have realized have been right under your nose for years to discover what makes those collaborations tick.