Watch How They Made an Amphibious Creature a Credible Romantic Lead in Awesome The Shape of Water Video
You don’t get 13 Oscar nominations for nothing, folks. Guillermo del Toro’s lovingly made, gorgeously realized The Shape of Water is that rare film—both a technical and emotional triumph. You don’t have much time to marvel at the technical stuff because you’re pretty much immediately swept away by the emotions of the story, by the radiant performance of Sally Hawkins, as the mute heroine, Elisa Esposito, and her utterly believable, ultimately incandescent love for the Asset,
Sundance 2018: Keira Knightley Illuminates Lush Portrayal of French Literary Icon in Colette
In 2015, director Wash Westmoreland and his husband, Richard Glatzer, watched the Oscars from a hospital room at Cedars Sinai. Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her role in their film Still Alice. Glatzer passed away days later following a battle with ALS. The next project he wanted to pursue was Colette, and Westmoreland honored Glatzer’s wishes this week at Sundance.
Westmoreland, who won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and Grand Jury prize at Sundance in 2006,
This new “Kinetic Energy” Black Panther Solves a Curious Puzzle
Just how technologically advanced is T’Challa’s new suit in Black Panther? Put it this way—getting shot at makes the suit more powerful.
In a fun, potent new Black Panther clip, we get a peek at the upgrade to T’Challa’s suit (the one he wore during Captain America: Civil War was, like an old Iron Man Mark II, an outdated model) and a clever reveal of a sequence we’ve seen in countless trailers and TV spots.
Monsters and Newly Vibrant and Nimble Jaegers Collide in new Pacific Rim Uprising Trailer
Behold the new trailer for Pacific Rim Uprising, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 film starring The Last Jedi‘s John Boyega as Jake Pentecost. One of the most striking things about this new trailer are the upgrade to the colossal mech saviors the Jaegers—they are more colorful, much swifter, and much more streamlined than del Toro’s lumbering mech-beasts. In fact, these new Jaegers owe about as much stylistically to Michael Bay’s improbably lightning-quick Transformers as they do to del Toro’s lovingly (and practically) rendered saviors.
Sundance 2018: The Tale Sheds Light on Adolescent #MeToo Victims
The combined courage and talent of Jennifer Fox displayed at the premiere of The Tale was overwhelming. The audience couldn’t stand and applaud long enough. Caroline Libresco, Senior Programmer and Director, Special Programs, introduced the film saying, “This movie is inventing a new cinematic language for an ineffable human experience.”
Fox, a celebrated documentarian, began doubting her recollection of an adolescent experience when she began interviewing women about their sexuality for Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman.
Sundance 2018: This Close Director on Shoshannah Stern & Josh Feldman’s Groundbreaking Series, the First by two Deaf Creators
Director Andrew Ahn made at splash at Sundance in 2016 with his feature Spa Night, which focused on a closeted Korean-American teenager who takes a job at a Korean spa to help his struggling family, and ends up discovering a underground world of gay sex that terrifies and thrills him. Ahn was back at Sundance this year for another intriguing project, This Close, a groundbreaking new series on Sundance Now created by Josh Feldman and Shoshannah Stern,
Oscar Watch: Baby Driver’s Supervising Sound Editor Dissects the Movie’s Unique Syncopated Style
As a contingency for speaking with me about his work on Baby Driver, supervising sound editor, sound designer, and re-recording mixer, Julian Slater, made me promise two things: watch it on a really good system and turn up the volume. After running a check on my speakers and ensuring my neighbors were out for the day, I cranked it up and was blown away. It would take dozens of viewings to begin to appreciate the layers of audio that Slater has choreographed for Baby Driver,
Sundance 2018: Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men is an Astonishment
Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men is breathtaking. This is the kind of film that makes a festival so important—Green, his cast and his crew deserve as big a spotlight as possible, and few festivals offer one as intense Sundance. Told from varying perspectives from a tirelessly inquisitive handheld camera, Monsters and Men takes a hot button topic, police brutality, and delivers a story of almost unbearable emotional intensity. What’s possibly even more impressive than the assured technique deployed by Green and his crew,
A Peek at Your Oscar Contenders—A Day Before The Nominations
If there’s one film in this year’s Oscar race that could benefit from the current moment in the cultural consciousness, it’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic tale of revenge about a middle-aged badass (best actress frontrunner Frances McDormand) angry at authorities for failing to solve the murder of her daughter seems attuned to the #MeToo and TimesUp movements; ongoing allegations of abuse and harassment within the entertainment industry; and backlash against revelations of the huge pay gap between Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg for their work on All the Money in the World.
Sundance 2018: American Animals is a Gripping Heist with Real Consequence
American Animals premiered at Sundance and lived up to the pre-festival chatter. Seeing Danny Ocean mastermind a Las Vegas casino job is engrossing, but this film has a realism that drips with anxiety. In American Animals, four young men came up with a very bad idea that goes horribly wrong. And it worked.
The plan was to lift priceless books from a low security university library, purely for the thrill.
Sundance 2018: Blindspotting Captivates with a Powerful Message
The screenings at Sundance got underway with the premiere of Blindspotting, and what a way to start things off. The film, written by and starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, had a lot to say and they chose their words with absolute precision. In a feat that seems mathematically impossible on paper, the film isolated race, gentrification, the justice system, and police brutality in merely 95 minutes. Casal’s masterful wordsmithing that pushes the dialogue with musicality deserves a great deal of the credit.
Details on Leonardo DiCaprio’s Character for Quentin Tarantino’s Manson Murders Film Emerge
A fascination with sensational true crimes has gripped audiences. 2017 was the year O.J. Simpson returned to our national consciousness with the premiere season of American Crime Story and Sundance feature OJ: Made in America drawing big audiences and accolades. I, Tonya is in the thick of Oscar buzz, and Season 2 of ACS featuring the Gianni Versace murder is off with a bang. With interest in revisiting the wild crimes and the media circus around them,
Sundance 2018: Robert Redford Addresses #MeToo and ‘Fake News’ in Kick Off Press Conference
Sundance 2018 has officially begun. Founder and President of Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford, opened the festival from the historic Egyptian theater. Redford told reporters that the Egyptian was the only theater in Park City when he began the Sundance Film Festival in 1985. Inspired by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in the 1920s, the location was almost like stepping onto a film set in itself.
Redford was joined at the press conference by Executive Director Keri Putnam and Director John Cooper.
Featurette Pulls Back the Curtain on Greta Gerwig’s Directorial Debut Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig’s career has been driven by her fearlessness. She became one of the pioneers of the improvisational movement, mumblecore – a term she told CBS Sunday Morning she hates. Her acting, however, was something we all fell in love with. After roles in films like Frances Ha and Jackie, we were thrilled when she boldly stepped into directing, and her debut was a delight. A new featurette exclusive to Vimeo takes audiences behind the scenes of Gerwig’s directing method.
How Steven Spielberg Drives the Tension With Sound
Audiences often believe they most clearly recall what they see in a scene, but brilliant sound design will force you to see what’s most important. Steven Spielberg, and his sound design team, are masters of this. From sci-fi fantasies like E.T. and Jurassic Park to thrillers like Munich and The Post, the sound is always immensely descriptive and satisfying.
When we spoke with sound designer Gary Rydstrom about the tension he created for The Post,
Sundance 2018: 10 Films We’re Excited About
Call Me By Your Name rocketed off the Sundance Film Festival stage last January and is still soaring through awards season, likely to be a major player once the Oscar nominations are announced on January 24. Hot off receiving three Golden Globe nominations, Call Me By Your Name is just one very recent example of a film that began its life at Sundance, and has gone on to become a touchstone.
Think You Could be a Tomb Raider? Here’s What it Would Take
They say the best time to start getting ready for swimsuit weather is January, so here’s a foolproof regimen for you to get started on. First, absolutely no alcohol, no sugar, pack on the protein, and throw in 7 days a week of cross training. Still with us? If you’re wondering what the results will look like, check out Alicia Vikander’s prep for Tomb Raider.
Vikander’s trainer, former hockey player Magnus Lygdback,
J.J. Abrams May Return to TV With New Sci-Fi Series
J.J. Abrams is not a man who shies away from opportunity, nor does he seem to lack for ideas. You may have heard he’s currently prepping Star Wars: Episode IX, which he’s co-writing and directing. For most mortals, this would be quite enough. Bringing this new trilogy to a satisfactory close (as if Star Wars fans would be content with satisfactory) is the biggest job in Hollywood,
The Criminal Underworld Awaits You in Solo: A Star Wars Story
Disney has done their usual impeccable job of keeping details about Solo: A Star Wars Story under wraps. Once Ron Howard took the reigns from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the veteran director has single-handedly kept fans apprised of the happenings on set—usually through his social media feeds. He’s especially fond of leaving little crumbs of potential plot points and character updates via his Twitter posts. Meanwhile, Disney itself hasn’t released a single official image,
Fantastic Beasts is Going to be a Tour of the Entire Wizarding World
While the battle against Voldemort was mostly concentrated in England, it seems that Grindelwald was a bit more of a world traveler. We were introduced to the shape shifting dark wizard in America with the first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. However, the first sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald, is moving on to Paris. Director David Yates revealed to EW that the plot will continue as wizard against the world.
