Modern Family Editor Tony Orcena on the Show’s Trickiest Episode

Tony Orcena has edited 32 episodes of Modern Family, but the one he gets asked about most was one of the most discussed comedy episodes of 2015. This was the episode that was filmed entirely on a variety of personal devices—phones, computers—as Claire, stuck at an airport, is desperately trying to track down Haley after an argument. "Connection Lost" was a first for television, and it couldn't have been possible with Orcena's editing skills.

Cutting Chaos With Homeland Editor Jordan Goldman

You may watch Homeland and assume the reason you're so riveted is the subject matter (international espionage), the performances (Claire Danes brilliant, bi-polar CIA operative Carrie Mathison, Mandy Patinkin's CIA chief Saul Berenson, etc.), and, of course, the relentless action. And you wouldn't be wrong. But what you might be missing is another key element that makes watching Homeland so intense: it's edited to put you, the viewer, in the character's shoes.

Will Legend be the Best Gangster Film in Years?

The premise is pretty fantastic—identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray aim to takeover the London underground, with a little help from the Mafia. The twins are both played by Tom Hardy, an actor of singular intensity who can hold the screen with anybody (as he did with the incredible Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road). The writer/director is Brian Helgeland, the man who wrote 1997’s L.A. Confidential,

Maya Forbes on her Highly Personal, Illuminating Infinitely Polar Bear

Behind the scenes, writer/director/producer Maya Forbes has helped directors and filmmakers tell a lot of stories, but in her directorial debut Infinitely Polar Bear, she’s telling her own.

Her new drama chronicles the eighteen months that Forbes and her sister lived with their bipolar father in Boston in the 1970s while their mother attended graduate school in New York. Although that period was sometimes tumultuous, it also gave her a lot of beautiful memories about her dad—

From Bigelow To Scorsese: 7 Music Videos & Commercials By Iconic Directors

There’s something profound to appreciate when it comes to renowned film directors who’ve pursued telling stories with images beyond the silver screen. For many, this has meant moving into the world of the music video or the high-end fashion commercial. You’re probably already familiar with some of these high profile collaborations—from Tim Burton directing “Here With Me” and “Bones” for The Killers to Sofia Coppola directing a risqué video for The White Stripes or even several of Martin Scorsese’s ad campaign ventures with brands such as Dolce &

Dana Nachman on the Phenomenon of her Doc Batkid Begins

When Miles Scott told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to be “the real Batman” no one could have predicted how epically his dream would be fulfilled. The documentary Batkid Begins, which premiered at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, goes back to November 15, 2013, when, with the help of the Mayor, the Chief of Police and thousands of volunteers, San Francisco became Gotham City, to the delight of a five-year-old boy battling leukemia.

Thomas Haden Church Talks War Dogs, More in Max

Here’s a little known fact about actor/director/writer Thomas Haden Church: Following memorable turns on television (Wings) and in film (Free Money), he stepped away from acting in late 2000 and left Los Angeles for his 2,000-acre cattle ranch in his native Texas. It was director Alexander Payne who lured him back to the screen with a plum part in 2004’s sleeper indie hit Sideways,

Feeling the Music of Fargo With Composer Jeff Russo

You would have been excused for wondering how in the world the folks behind FX's Fargo were going to take a classic Coen Brothers film and turn it into a viable television series. The challenge of adapting something beloved is hard enough when what you're adapting is a book, but to take an award winning and critically acclaimed film and turn it into a television series? That takes guts.

One of the ways in which 

Dope Debuts in Theaters After Smashing Sundance Premiere

One of the buzziest crowd-pleasers to come out of Sundance, Dope tells the story of Malcolm, a 90s hip-hop obsessed geek from Inglewood with dreams of studying at Harvard. After a wild night there’s suddenly a backpack of drugs standing in his way and only his two nerdy friends to help him offload them. (Hint: their plan involves bitcoin).

We talk to writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, who grew up in Inglewood,

How Inside Out Writer Meg LeFauve Created An Emotional Battle Inside The Mind

Inside Out comes with all the classic marks of a great Pixar movie. An all-ages storyline? Check. Beautiful animation paired with an unexpected, off-kilter premise? Check. Tears? Check and check.

The story takes place inside the mind of Riley, a pre-teen girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, a transition that unleashes a flurry of upheaval among her five main emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.

Battle of the Titans: Robert Gordon on William Buckley vs. Gore Vidal in Best of Enemies

Playing at the BAMcineamaFest in Brooklyn and AFI Docs in Los Angeles tonight, Magnolia Pictures' Best of Enemies is a riveting behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley Jr., where these two intellectual heavyweights clobbered each other over their views about God, sex, and politics.

We spoke with co-director and producer Robert Gordon about how this film came to be,

Aligning Past, Present & Future in Terminator Genisys

Director Alan Taylor and writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier had a lot to juggle when they went to work on Terminator Genisys. With the four previous Terminator films and their corkscrewing stories, the filmmakers had to find a way to honor the universe the franchise has already built while setting off on their own, singular path. At what part of the saga of man's battle with machines would they pick up,

Meet the Crew That Worked on Both Jurassic Park & Jurassic World

Universal's new Jurassic World is being heralded as a proper folllow-up to Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic Jurassic Park, the film that raised the bar for what CGI could accomplish and blew the minds of kids and adults alike. When director Colin Trevorrow took the helm of Jurassic World, the first film in the franchise in 14-years, both he and executive producer Steven Spielberg wanted to recapture the magic of that first film.

A Look at the Career of Brian Eno, Me and Earl and The Dying Girl‘s Composer

Tell me about a new Brian Eno record – one he recorded, wrote and/or produced – and yeah, I’ll hear it. What, he made a mobile app? Hold the phone. He has a new art installation? Take me. A deck of cards? A published diary?

You get it: I’m pro-Eno, 24/7.

This week another Eno project arrives in the form of an indie film score.

Katniss is Done Giving Speeches:The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Trailer

“Ladies and gentleman welcome to the 76th Hunger Games.” We just got our first look at the new trailer for Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and the word that comes to mind is payback. Of all the mega-jerks in the suite of dystopian films we've seen in the past few years, none are as sneeringly obnoxious as President Snow(Donald Sutherland). 

The new trailer starts with an enormous, glamorous wedding filled with celebration,

Me and Earl and The Dying Girl Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has faced rejection before in the movie business. In 2014, his horror film The Town that Dreaded Sundown was only released in a few theaters nationwide and then went straight to video on demand. He wanted a chance for that film to build an audience but never had the opportunity. The Texas born filmmaker had steadily worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a personal assistant for some of Hollywood's biggest stars (Nora Ephron,

Listen to the Work of American Horror Story: Freak Show‘s Composer

It’s not like composer Mac Quayle got into this line of work exclusively to score seriously demented moments, but the Grammy® nominated musician has done just that for one of TV’s most wild shows. Quayle has written music for more than 30 films and television shows, and has made a name for himself as a dance re-mixer and multi-instrumentalist, but you might have encountered his work most recently on FX’s hit series American Horror Story: Freak Show.

Is Tom Cruise’s Plane Stunt in the new Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation his Craziest?

Tom Cruise’s stunt exploits are legendary, and in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, he might of completed his most insane stunt ever. Cruise hung off the side of a an Airbus A400M as it rose 5,000 feet in the air above the British countryside. Is this Cruise’s stunt masterpiece, and can it ever be topped?

Previously, in Mission: Impossible 2 (in which he tore a shoulder muscle jumping between rocks),

Melissa McCarthy Continues Tradition of Screwball Spy Comedies in Grand Fashion

In writer-director Paul Feig’s Spy, Melissa McCarthy takes the reins as the latest bumbling protagonist in that tried and tested movie genre: the spy comedy. McCarthy plays CIA desk-jockey Susan Cooper who is unexpectedly called up to go undercover in the field. (See our interview with stunt coordinator J.J. Perry here about turning McCarthy into a proper, butt-kicking spy.)

Unlike the slick, womanizing James Bond, who navigates his way through each world-saving assignment improbably unruffled,

Suffragette: “We Don’t Want to be Lawbreakers, We Want to be Lawmakers”

"All my life I've been doing what men told me. Well, I can't have that anymore."

So says Maud (Carey Mulligan), a laundress who joins an activist group bravely agitating for women's right to vote. The recently released trailer has action, violence, bombs, politics, power, and a thumping score…the stuff of female focused movie trailers? Yes; director (Sarah Gavron Brick Lane) and writer (Abi Morgan, The Iron Lady) are bucking convention in the trailer for their historical drama