News

by Cláudio Alves

Superstar is my favorite new-to-me film of 2023. What's yours?

As the year draws to a close, it's time for reflection and hopes for the year to come. All over film publications, lists dominate, cataloging the best pictures of 2023, rushing to proclaim their champions before the ball drops. Here, however, let's do another exercise. Looking back at the past twelve months, I like to think about my favorite first-time watches of years gone by, classics and other sorts that were new to me, even if they were well known to everybody else. 

I think of Brian De Palma's Body Double, a perverse predilection I discovered on my travails through Erotic Thrillers. Then, there was Labyrinth of Cinema, Nobuhiko Obayashi's swan song, and a wild counterpoint to Nolan's Oppenheimer. While I wrote about those two, I have yet to mention my affection for Jafar Panahi's rebellious...

In any form of adaptation of real-life events, even the direct ones, the formation of a barrier between fact and fiction turns out to be the most crucial indicator by which to measure the qualitative aspects of the said adaptation—more so in the case of crime-oriented cases. So often, it happens that for mass appeal, reality is distorted in adaptations, thereby trivializing the impact of a crime on the lives of the people involved. In that regard, May December, a movie adaptation of one of the most sensitive scandals in the United States—the infamous case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a middle-aged woman who seduced one of her minor students and went on to have a family with him—was always going to be the most scrutinized entry. Most importantly, the way Mary Kay as a person became a household ‘topic’ during the late 90s due to the media...

Todd Haynes says LGBTQ people in the U.S. are currently living in a “culture that just seems to be becoming more infantile in every conceivable way” and that has resulted in an “open season on queer and trans bodies, identities and youth.”

Haynes spoke about the current political and cultural climate for LGBTQ people while accepting the NewFest35 Queer Visionary Award last Thursday at New York’s Sva Theater. As the May December director sat down for a brief, career-spanning discussion ahead of the screening of his new film, he addressed his work on Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and Velvet Goldmine; making art — especially queer-centric art — across several challenging decades; and his longstanding relationships with collaborators like Julianne Moore, Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon.

At one point, Haynes reflected on his decades-long career in filmmaking, starting when the LGBTQ community was “under attack” in the ’70s and ’80s to now,...

Speaking to the press after a screening of May December, Todd Haynes identified himself primarily as an interpreter, both of cinematic forms of the past and of the pre-existing material from which his work is often adapted. That characterization certainly tracks through his filmography, from metacinematic homages to kaleidoscopic renderings of pop idols to his contemporary readings on midcentury fiction.

Loosely based on the ’90s tabloid scandal of Mary Kay Letourneau, who at age 35 served a prison sentence for rape when her sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy was made public, May December is perhaps the slipperiest entry in that interpretive project to date. Written by Samy Burch, the film examines real-world events through the lens of mass media with a wry humor that masks profoundly complex and painful undercurrents of emotion.

May December centers on two star turns that complement each other with a rare sensitivity: Julianne Moore as LeTourneau stand-in Gracie Atherton-Yoo,...

Exclusive: Before Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie captured the zeitgeist with their Warner Bros-backed Barbie, the popular doll was the subject of a much darker indie pic directed by Todd Haynes.

Titled Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), the experimental pic used archival material, dramatized talking heads, and, most importantly, stop-motion animation featuring Barbie dolls to tell singer Karen Carpenter’s rapid journey from obscurity to pop stardom and her untimely death due to anorexia-related-complications. Among the team behind the film was stalwart indie producer Christine Vachon, who dug into the film’s origins and checkered legal past at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Monday afternoon.

Vachon isn’t listed as a producer on the pic but receives a “Special Thanks” from the filmmakers. She told the audience in Karlovy Vary that Barbie’s parent company Mattel paid a visit to their office when the film was released, but...

In the summer of 1974, the Carpenters sat down with Rolling Stone writer Tom Nolan at Hollywood’s Au Petit Café for a cover story. Richard and Karen Carpenter, who had spent the past four years scoring massive soft-rock hits like “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Superstar,” and “Top of the World,” took the opportunity to vent to Nolan about the uncool, wholesome image that they felt the press had created for the sibling duo.

“This …thing they’ve built up, where it’s...

The director that epitomized the 1970’s, Joseph Sargent, has sadly passed away. (1925-2014)

With a career lasting 50 years, Sargent brought to the big screen such thrilling cinema as The Taking Of The Pelham One Two Three, MacArthur, White Lightning and Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Directors Guild of America President Paris Barclay made the following statement upon learning of the passing of director Joseph Sargent:

“When it comes to directing Movies for Television, Joe’s dominance and craftsmanship was legendary – for the past 50 years. With eight DGA Awards nominations in Movies for Television, more than any other director in this category, Joe embodied directorial excellence on the small screen. He was unafraid of taking risks, believing in his heart that television audiences demanded the highest quality stories – whether chronicling uncomfortable historic events like the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study in Miss Evers’ Boys, or compelling personal stories about inspiring individuals like...

A sports broadcaster, chatshow host, radio DJ and best-selling author, Alan Partridge switched gears to feature films earlier this year with the release of his first movie Alpha Papa.

To mark the DVD and Blu-ray release of his big screen smash hit, Digital Spy asked Norfolk's finest to tell us his favourite movies. He gave us four, and assured us at the time of writing he was about to watch Pacific Rim...

Annie (1982)

"The 1982 musical Annie reads like a Who's Who of the cast of Annie, but for me it's all about one performance: flame-headed ingénue Aileen Quinn played the title role, and like Daddy Warbucks himself, I was quite quite taken by her. On the advice of family and friends and myself, I waited until she turned 18 in 1989 before I even attempted to become pen pals with her. I wrote to her three times, but left it there."

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A sports broadcaster, chatshow host, radio DJ and best-selling author, Alan Partridge switched gears to feature films earlier this year with the release of his first movie Alpha Papa.

To mark the DVD and Blu-ray release of his big screen smash hit, Digital Spy asked Norfolk's finest to tell us his favourite movies. He gave us four, and assured us at the time of writing he was about to watch Pacific Rim...

Annie (1982)

"The 1982 musical Annie reads like a Who's Who of the cast of Annie, but for me it's all about one performance: flame-headed ingénue Aileen Quinn played the title role, and like Daddy Warbucks himself, I was quite quite taken by her. On the advice of family and friends and myself, I waited until she turned 18 in 1989 before I even attempted to become pen pals with her. I wrote to her three times, but left it there."

Splash...