I recently caught up with Sharon Badal, Short Film Programmer of the Tribeca Festival, and what I learned in thirty minutes could land dozens of books on “How to Make Short Films” in the recycle bin. Sharon's information about this underrated and experimental format, which has long been a filmmaker’s stepping stone, both confirmed some festival dos and donts and disproved some long-held theories about the short film submission process. For instance, Tribeca loves comedies

Those who prefer their accidental-murderer-with-a-guilty-conscience stories to be brooding and inconclusive will get a kick out of “Whitewash,” the more-or-less one-man dark comedy from Canada, starring Thomas Haden Church, and the small-scale Irish drama “What Richard Did,” both currently showing at the Tribeca Film Festival. Set in remote stretches of wintry Northern Quebec, Emanuel Hoss-

Here’s a topic for sitting around the campfire: are the worst films by the best directors still better than 80% of what is released? Are say, "Bringing Out the Dead" or "The Hudsucker Proxy" still relative carrots for the eyes when compared to the "Transformer" movies? Terrence Malick’s "To the Wonder" is a lot more "The Prairie Home Companion" than "McCabe and Mrs. Miller." Following in the wake of his towering

Those expecting a traditional rock documentary on The National, mapping the heralded Brooklyn indie rock band’s trajectory from its shaky origins in 1999 to its gradual breakthrough as rock stars, will be sorely disappointed by “Mistaken for Strangers,” directed by National frontman Matt Berninger’s nine-years-younger brother, Tom Berninger. The film opened the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday night. Not that there isn’t

This morning in Paris the official selection for the 66th edition of the Cannes Festival was announced during a press conference at the UGC theater. There's a strong French contingent this year, among others Francois Ozon and Roman Polanski, who will present "Venus in Fur" starring his spouse Emmanuelle Seigner as well as Matthieu Amalric. Actually Polanski claims the film to be Polish based on where the financing comes from. Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi ("A Separation") cast Berenice Bejo ("The Artist") and shot his latest film in Paris. That said, Americans have a strong showing this year, from the Coen Brothers who wil

Contrary to her ideological and racial brethren (Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, to name a few) Angela Davis has survived. She wasn't shot down like some of her peers who paid for their political committment with their own lives. No. Angela Davies is alive today and her story deserves to be told. And it's through a no-pretense documentary, without frills or gimmicks like in the glossy biopics that Hollywood is so good

Eight self-absorbed thirty-something Los Angelenos gather at that yuppie-est of conventions: the Sunday couples brunch, held at the lavish home of the brittle, bickering married pair Emma (Erinn Hayes) and Pete (Blaise Miller). The guests are uptight medic Tracy (Julia Stiles), who’s on her third date with prudish schoolteacher Glen (David Cross); tattooed hedonist Buck (Kevin M. Brennan) and his bird-brained, equally unfettered

Tom Cruise is indestructible, it seems. After escaping unscathed out of the Paramount fiasco, he now teams up with Universal to help create a sci-fi blockbuster that's ambitious and breathtaking. In any case, that's what was promised on paper. Because "Oblivion" did hold promise, yes--on a large scale. All the elements were there for serious, high-brow sci-fi entertainment: a namesake graphic novel adapted by the don dada of sci-fi geeks

Raising two is hard enough but after that you sort of get the hang of it. The next 533 should be almost a breeze. Unless you’re in your early forties and have no idea you’ve sired this crowd and you meet a fraction of those 533 when they’re young adults, way beyond nappies and baby formula. This is what David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) is faced with, a hapless meat delivery man with enough problems of his own, whose plan to somehow stagger

Stories told in the movies are often unearthed from the bric-a-brac of our own lives, since life teems with narratives. For her first documentary, Sarah Polley lifted the veil on a family secret whose revealing caused her and her close ones much, much heartache. Polley ("Take this Waltz") is an Oscar-nominated writer, actress, and filmmaker who's made two feature films about intimate relationships and the challenges faced.