Trailers: Christopher Nolan's "INTERSTELLAR"!

Folks - how are you today? If you are feeling good, bad or anything, i hope (Chris Nolan, actually) that this new poster and trailer for Interstellar will change all that for the better.

Check out the new trailer for one of the fall's most awaited movies here.



"Interstellar" opens November 2014!

Can't wait!

XXX
Raymond Lo

Film Review: "Boyhood"

I finally got to see "Boyhood" yesterday afternoon. It is an ambitious film that pays off enormously. I loved it.

The movie tracks the years in the life of a young boy named Mason from the time he was seven until he went to college. The part is played with surprising tenderness by Ellar Coltrane (he had no previous acting experience when he was cast) who literally grows up before our very eyes. Amid a summer filled with movies populated by state-of-the-art computer-generated special effects, Ellar Coltrane stands out as the best special effect there is this summer!

"Boyhood" is a heartwarming and moving film that reaffirms how precious and fleeting time is and that what we have in the present is the only thing that really matters.

I will echo the sentiments of many critics here, Richard Linklater has definitely crafted what is perhaps one of the most important and greatest contributions of America to world cinema. What he has achieved here is beyond magic; he created life on screen -- a life that mirrors pretty much our lives to some varying degree, of course. It makes you long for the childhood that you've had and also makes you look forward to more milestones, more special moments that you will create in the life that you are trying to build.

Did I already mention that I loved it? This early, the Best Screenplay and Best Director Oscars are Linklater's to lose. And if the academy would try to look ahead and place themselves in a position where they can judge "Boyhood" from some twenty years now and see its importance in the evolution of cinema as a medium to capture life then "Boyhood" is your rightful Oscar Best Picture winner already!

Rating: 5 glorious stars!!!

XXX
Raymond Lo

Trailers: "Fifty Shades of Grey"

It's here!!!

Valentine's Day is still a few months away but Universal and Focus offered avid fans of "Fifty Shades of Grey" a glimpse at the realized world of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele and the whole world (it's an exaggeration but you follow my gist, right?) dropped everything and devoted a good two minutes or so of their existence today to watch the most-awaited trailer of the most-awaited movie in many years! Yes, am a big fan of "The Fault in Our Stars" but that movie comes second to "Fifty Shades of Grey" in terms of the anticipation from avid, rather rabid (LOL!) fans of the series. (Myself included, haha!)

Here's the trailer:


And here are a few juicy screen grabs from the trailer. Enjoy!

xxx
Raymond Lo

Venice 2014: Festival Lineup

Tahar Rahim stars in Fatih Akin's THE CUT

The 71st Venice International Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, will run on Venice Lido from 27th August to 6th September 2014, directed by Alberto Barbera. 

The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organizes retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema. 

Here are the films playing at this year's edition of the festival:

VENEZIA 71 In Competition
Fatih AKIN	The Cut	Tahar Rahim Akin Gazi Simon Abkarian George Georgiou	Germany France Italy Russia Canada Poland Turkey	183’
Roy ANDERSSON	En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence)	Holger Andersson Nisse Vestblom	Sweden Germany Norway France	101’
Ramin BAHRANI	99 Homes	Andrew Garfield Michael Shannon Laura Dern Noah Lomax	USA	112’
Rakhshān BANI E’TEMĀD	Ghesseha (Tales)	Golab Adineh Farhad Aslani Mohammadreza Forootan Mehdi Hashemi	Iran	88’
Xavier BEAUVOIS	La rançon de la gloire	Benoît Poelvoorde Roschdy Zem Séli Gmach Chiara Mastroianni Nadine Labaki	France Belgium Switzerland	114’
Saverio COSTANZO	Hungry Hearts	Adam Driver Alba Rohrwacher Roberta Maxwell	Italy	109’
Alix DELAPORTE	Le dernier coup de marteau	Romain Paul Clotilde Hesme Grégory Gadebois Candela Peña Tristán Ulloa	France	82’
Abel FERRARA	Pasolini	Willem Dafoe Riccardo Scamarcio Ninetto Davoli Valerio Mastandrea Maria de Medeiros Adriana Asti	France Belgium Italy	86‘
David Gordon GREEN	Manglehorn	Al Pacino Holly Hunter Harmony Korine Chris Messina	USA	97’
Opening Film Alejandro González IÑÁRRITU	Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)	Michael Keaton Zach Galifianakis Edward Norton Andrea Riseborough Amy Ryan Emma Stone Naomi Watts	USA	119’
Benoît JACQUOT	3 coeurs	Benoît Poelvoorde Charlotte Gainsbourg Chiara Mastroianni Catherine Deneuve	France	100’
Andrei KONCHALOVSKY	Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna (The Postman’s White Nights)	Aleksey Tryapitsyn Irina Ermolova Timur Bondarenko	Russia	90’
Mario MARTONE	Il giovane favoloso	Elio Germano Michele Riondino Massimo Popolizio Anna Mouglalis Valerio Binasco Isabella Ragonese	Italy	137‘
Kaan MÜJDECI	Sivas	Doğan İzci Ezgi Ergin Hasan Özdemir Furkan Uyar	Turkey	93’
Francesco MUNZI	Anime nere	Marco Leonardi Peppino Mazzotta Fabrizio Ferracane Anna Ferruzzo Barbora Bobulova	Italy France	103’
Andrew NICCOL	Good Kill	Ethan Hawke Bruce Greenwood January Jones Zoë Kravitz Jake Abel	USA	100’
David OELHOFFEN	Loin des hommes	Viggo Mortensen Reda Kateb	France	110’
Joshua OPPENHEIMER	The Look of Silence	(documentary)	Denmark Finland Indonesia Norway United Kingdom	98’
Shinya TSUKAMOTO	Nobi (Fires on the Plain)	Shinya Tsukamoto Yūsaku Mori Yūko Nakamura Tatsuya Nakamura Lily Franky	Japan	87’
WANG Xiaoshuai	Chuangru zhe (Red Amnesia)	Lü Zhong Feng Yuanzheng Amanda Qin Qin  Hao Shi Liu	China	110’

OUT OF COMPETITION
Guillermo ARRIAGA Emir KUSTURICA Amos GITAI Mira NAIR Warwick THORNTON Hector BABENCO Bahman GHOBADI Hideo NAKATA Aléx de la IGLESIA	Words with Gods	Yaël Abecassis Masatoshi Nagase Pepon Nieto Emir Kusturica Damian Bichir Yilmaz Erdogan Chico Diaz Miranda Tapsell Ram Kapoor	Mexico USA		129’
Peter BOGDANOVICH	She’s Funny That Way	Owen Wilson Imogen Poots Jennifer Aniston Rhys Ifans Kathryn Hahn	USA		93’
Peter Ho-sun CHAN	Qin’ai de (Dearest)	Zhao Wei Huang Bo Tong Dawei Hao Lei Zhang Yi	Hong Kong China		135’
Lisa CHOLODENKO	Olive Kitteridge	Frances McDormand Richard Jenkins Bill Murray John Gallagher Jr. Zoe Kazan	USA		233’
Joe DANTE	Burying the Ex	Anton Yelchin Ashley Greene Alexandra Daddario Oliver Cooper	USA		88’
Edoardo DE ANGELIS	Perez.	Luca Zingaretti Marco D'Amore Simona Tabasco Giampaolo Fabrizio    Massimiliano Gallo	Italy	94’
Davide FERRARIO	La zuppa del demonio	(documentary)	Italy		75’
James FRANCO	The Sound and the Fury	James Franco Scott Haze Tim Blake Nelson Joey King Ahna O'Reilly Seth Rogen Jon Hamm	USA		101’
Amos GITAI	Tsili	Sara Adler Meshi Olinski Lea Koenig Adam Tsekhman Andrey Kashkar	Israel Russia Italy France		88’
Sabina GUZZANTI	La trattativa	Sabina Guzzanti Enzo Lombardo Ninni Bruschetta Filippo Luna Franz Cantalupo Claudio Castrogiovanni	Italy		108’
Closing Film Ann HUI	Huangjin shidai (The Golden Era)	Tang Wei Feng Shaofeng Zhu Yawen Wang Zhiwen	China Hong Kong		178’
IM Kwontaek	Hwajang (Make-up)	Ahn Sungki Kim Hojung Kim Qyuri	South Korea		89’
Barry LEVINSON	The Humbling	Al Pacino Greta Gerwig Nina Arianda Barry Levinson Dianne Wiest Charles Grodin	USA		112’
Manoel de OLIVEIRA	O velho do restelo (The Old Man of Belem)	Diogo Dória Luís Miguel Cintra Ricardo Trêpa Mário Barroso	Portugal France		19’
Gabriele SALVATORES	Italy in a Day - Un giorno da italiani	(documentary)	Italy United Kingdom		75’
Ulrich SEIDL	Im Keller (In the Basement)	(documentary)	Austria		82’
Anthony STACCHI Annable GRAHAM	The Boxtrolls	(animation film) Ben Kingsley Isaac Hempstead Wright Elle Fanning Toni Collette Tracy Morgan Simon Pegg	United Kingdom		100’
Lars VON TRIER	Nymphomaniac Volume II (long version) Director’s Cut	Charlotte Gainsbourg Stellan Skarsgård Stacy Martin Shia LaBeouf Jamie Bell Willem Dafoe Mia Goth	Denmark Germany France Belgium		180’

ORIZZONTI
Naji ABU NOWAR	Theeb	Jacir Eid Hassan Mutlag Hussein Salameh Marji Audeh Jack Fox	Jordan U.A.E. Qatar United Kingdom	100’
Salome ALEXI	Kreditis limiti (Line of Credit)	Nino Kasradze	Georgia Germany France	125’
Michele ALHAIQUE	Senza nessuna pietà	Pierfrancesco Favino Greta Scarano Claudio Gioè Adriano Giannini Ninetto Davoli	Italy	98’
Michael ALMEREYDA	Cymbeline	Milla Jovovich Ed Harris Dakota Johnson Penn Badgley Anton Yelchin Ethan Hawke John Leguizamo Bill Pullman	USA	96’
Benoît DELÉPINE Gustave KERVERN	Near Death Experience	Michel Houellebecq	France	90’
Renato DE MARIA	La vita oscena	Isabella Ferrari Clément Métayer Roberto De Francesco	Italy	85’
Quentin DUPIEUX	Réalité	Alain Chabat Jonathan Lambert Elodie Bouchez Kyla Kenedy	France Belgium	90’
Veronika FRANZ Severin FIALA	Ich Seh / Ich Seh (Goodnight Mommy)	Susanne Wuest Elias Schwarz Lukas Schwarz	Austria	99’
HONG Sangsoo	Jayueui onduk (Hill of Freedom)	Ryô Kase Moon Sori Younghwa Seo Kim Euisung	South Korea	66’
Duane HOPKINS	Bypass	George MacKay Benjamin Dilloway Charlotte Spencer	United Kingdom	103’
Opening film Mohsen MAKHMALBAF	The President	Misha Gomiashvili Dachi Orvelashvili	Georgia France United Kingdom Germany	115’
Ami Canaan MANN	Your Right Mind	Katherine Heigl Ben Barnes Emily Alyn Lind Clea DuVall Ryan Bingham Sheryl Lee	USA	90’
Franco MARESCO	Belluscone, una storia siciliana	Ciccio Mira Salvatore De Castro Vittorio Ricciardi Tatti Sanguineti Salvatore Ficarra Valentino Picone	Italy	95’
Elchin MUSAOGLU	Nabat	Fatemeh Motamed Arya Vidadi Aliyev Sabir Mamadov Farhad Israfilov	Azerbaijan	105’
Josh SAFDIE Ben SAFDIE	Heaven Knows What	Arielle Holmes Caleb Landry Jones Buddy Duress	USA France	94’
Ognjen SVILICIC	Takva Su Pravila (These Are the Rules)	Emir Hadzihafizbegovic Jasna Zalica Hrvoje Vladisavljevic	Croatia France Serbia Macedonia	75’
Chaitanya TAMHANE	Court	Vira Sathidar Vivek Gomber Geetanjali Kulkarni	India	116’
ORIZZONTI – OUT OF COMPETITION
Antonio AUGUGLIARO Gabriele DEL GRANDE Khaled SOLIMAN AL NASSIRY	Io sto con la sposa	(documentary) Tasneem Fared Abdallah Sallam MC Manar Alaa Bjermi Ahmed Abed Mona Al Ghabr	Italy Palestine	89’
ORIZZONTI – Short Films
Ali ASGARI	La bambina (Bache)	Sahar Sotoodeh Faezeh Bakhtiar	Italy Iran	15’
Andrea BALDINI	Ferdinand Knapp	Dominique Pinon Philippe Du Janerand Dominique Uber	France	15’
CHEN Tao	Da shu (Great Heat)	Li Xiufeng Xie Yunbo	China	13’
Guillame GOUIX	Mademoiselle	Céline Sallette Fanny Touron	France	17’
Pedro HARRES	Castillo y el Armado	(animation film) Ruben Castillo José Edil Pilly Calvin	Brazil	13’
Idan HUBEL	Pat – lehem (Daily Bread)	Adam Shmidh Marina Shoif Sasha Avshalom Agarunov	Israel	18’
Avelina PRAT Diego OPAZO	3/105	Diego Sánchez Andreea Ghermann	Spain	6’
Sidi SALEH	Maryam	Meyke Vierna	Indonesia	17’
Adrian SITARU	Artă (Art)	Emanuel Pârvu Andrei Rus Ioana Abur Iulia Crişan	Romania	19’
Brendan SWEENY	Era Apocrypha	Molly Tarlov Erica Dasher Kelsey Siepser Zena Grey Christine Presley	USA	21’
Carl-Johan WESTREGÅRD	Cams		Sweden	13’
Rami YASIN	Fi Al Waqt Al Dae’a (In Overtime)	Rami Yasin Makram J Khouri	Jordan Palestine	13’
ORIZZONTI – Short Films – OUT OF COMPETITION
Ramin BAHRANI	Lift You Up	Glyn Stewart	USA	8’
Simone MASSI	L’attesa del maggio	(animation film)	Italy	8’

To those who are going, enjoy! Have fun!!! 

XXX

Raymond Lo