News

One of the earliest Alien rip-offs was made for US television. We take a look back at 1981’s The Intruder Within.

Much like Jaws, Star Wars and Mad Max before it, the success of 1979’s Alien prompted studios and producers the world over to make their own hastily-made rip-off movies. Thanks to – shall we say – enterprising filmmakers like Roger Corman and Norman J Warren, we got cheap and cheerful fare like Barracuda (1978), Battle Beyond The Stars (1980) and Inseminoid (1981).

One of the earliest Alien clones to emerge like a shambling monster, though, was The Intruder Within – a low-budget TV movie that cheekily borrowed all sorts of ideas from Ridley Scott’s hit, but transplanted the entire thing from a spaceship in the future to an oil rig in the post-energy crisis early 1980s. As you can probably imagine, it isn’t a lost classic, but it’s fascinating to revisit, both...

Following the success achieved by the Alliance of Women Directors with its Black Directors Advancement Initiative, the organization has launched the Mentor Latina Director Fellowship. Their #MentorLatinaDirectors Initiative is a fellowship program for current directing members who are Latina/x/e-identifying.

The fellowship’s Class of 2024 includes Melissa Balint; Evelyn Belasco; Maria Gabriela Cardenas; Marissa Chibás; Sophia Costanzo; Fiorella Vescovi Garcia; Saray Guidetti; Bettina Hanna; Silvia Lara; Eunice Levis; Gabriela Revilla Lugo; Paulina Manseau; Luisa Novo; Marcella Ochoa; Gabriela Paciel; Jp Perez; Jessica Rae; Michelle Salcedo; Sacha Smith; Ann Valdés; Maria Valdez; Evette Vargas; and Donna Bonilla Wheeler.

“The program was created and developed in response to a pressing need for much higher levels of equality and inclusion, specifically for Latina/x/e-identifying female directors in our industry. We trust this Fellowship will help eliminate barriers to access and success that have systematically excluded such directors. With these goals in mind,...

The Alliance of Women Directors has named Melanie Mack as its new executive director.

Awd is a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles that advocates for women directors in film, television and new media.

Mack, who is CEO of Codega Media — a multi-media company she founded in 2016 which produces and curates content created by women — will lead the member organization in its efforts to increase opportunities for women and nonbinary directors working in the screened content industry through robust advocacy, craft development programs and mentorship.

Jennifer Warren, founder and co-chairperson of Awd, said in a statement: “Melanie brings entertainment industry experience, diversity advocacy and exceptional fundraising skills to our organization. Founding Awd in 1997, I never imagined that 25 years later the goal of building gender parity for directors on set would still be so relevant and necessary. Melanie will bring Awd strong leadership at an exciting time as we double our...

MTV‘s The Exhibit: Finding the New Great Artist dives headfirst into the next challenge, this time the artists must create a piece that showcases the world’s love of social media.

Host Dometi Pongo introduces the artists to the new guest judges and reveals the latest challenge that the artists must tackle. “As you know, one of you will win the honor of showing your work at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,” Pongo shares in a sneak peek clip shared with Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “And take home $100,000.”

Hirshhorn director Melissa Chiu adds, “Artists, the Hirshhorn’s mission is to amplify artists who represent what is happening in the world right now. Remember, you’ll be judged on the body of work you produce here, not just one singular piece.”

Meet the guest judges on ‘The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist’

Pongo then introduces the artists to the guest judges.

Director/Tfh Guru Allan Arkush discusses his favorite year in film, 1975, with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rules of the Game (1939)

Le Boucher (1970)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

Topaz (1969)

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary

The Innocents (1961) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)

Rope (1948) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

The Awful Truth (1937) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Duck Soup (1933) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Going My Way (1944)

Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary

M*A*S*H (1970)

Shampoo (1975) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Bonnie And Clyde (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Nada Gang (1975)

Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Night Moves (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Katt Shea’s trailer...

The prospect of putting an ad in the Super Bowl for the first time might make some executives nervous, but not John Lagerling.

Madison Avenue regulars know they can game out the Big Game by getting consumer reaction to their ads before they put them on TV, or analyzing them with reams of data. Mercari, an online marketplace that’s running its first Super Bowl commercial on CBS next Sunday, isn’t doing too much of that, says Lagerling, the company’s U.S. CEO. “We didn’t do a lot of focus groups,” he acknowledges in an interview. “We went with our gut and heart.”

The Super Bowl is TV’s biggest annual event, and regularly attracts a horde of the world’s most popular brands. But this year, it may rely more heavily on the actions of advertisers who have never stepped into this particular arena. With PepsiCo,...

No 1960s film student had more on the ball than Brian De Palma, who enlisted a smart group of collaborators to pull together his voyeuristic student-filmmaking, Alfred Hitchcock-worshiping early experimental pictures. In these three early features we can feel the director being influenced in multiple directions — do ensemble comedy and Godard-esque minimalism have a future?

De Niro & De Palma The Early Films

The Wedding Party, Greetings and

Hi, Mom!

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1966-1970 / B&W & Color / 1:37 & 1:85 widescreen / 92, 88, 87 min. / Street Date December 11, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video

Directed by Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma fans tend to love his later overdone exercises in Hitchcockian excess and voyeurism, whereas I tend to enjoy his creative student work, his hit & run, improvise-and-hope enterprises. The man certainly had the drive. By 1964 he was co-directing a film on Long Island with the money of a rich student friend. De Palma’s lopsided...

In his 1972 essay “Notes on Film Noir”, film critic-turned-screenwriter/director Paul Schrader wrote on how the genre was “not defined…by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood.” It’s a mood best described as ‘you’re screwed, pal.’

Cynicism has always been at the heart of film noir, a genre full of desperate characters clinging to the shadows of world that’s forgotten them. It’s a cynicism born out of post-War disillusionment and anxiety that spawned the genre’s heyday from the early-40s all the way through the mid-1950s when suddenly “Dragnet” and “Leave it To Beaver” were reaffirming America’s squeaky-clean Eisenhower-era view of itself.

But with the post-Watergate 70s and Cold War 80s came a new slew of anxieties as the genre evolved, this time with less Hollywood restrictions. That meant more sex, more violence,...

Arthur Penn’s detective movie is one of the best ever in the genre, one that rewards repeat viewings particularly well. Gumshoe Harry Moseby compartmentalizes his marriage, his job, his past and the greedy Hollywood has-beens he meets, not realizing that everything is interconnected, and fully capable of assembling a world-class conspiracy. Gene Hackman tops a sterling cast in the film that introduced most of us to Melanie Griffith.

Night Moves

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date August 15, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Melanie Griffith, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Kenneth Mars, Janet Ward, James Woods, Anthony Costello.

Cinematography: Bruce Surtees

Production Designer: George Jenkins

Film Editor: Dede Allen

Original Music: Michael Small

Written by Alan Sharp

Produced by Robert M. Sherman

Directed by Arthur Penn

Night Moves is a superb detective thriller that plays with profound ideas without getting its fingers burned.

Cinema’s Hidden Pearls – Part I

By Alex Simon

One of nature’s rarest items, a pearl is produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. Truly flawless pearls are infrequently produced in nature, and as a result, the pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. Hidden pearls exist in the world of movies, as well: films that, in spite of being brilliantly crafted and executed, never got the audience they deserved beyond a cult following.

Here are a few of our favorite hidden pearls in the world of film:

1. Night Moves (1975)

Director Arthur Penn hit three home runs in a row with the trifecta of Bonnie & Clyde, Alice’s Restaurant and Little Big Man,...

By Don Stradley

The final image of Arthur Penn’s “Night Moves” certainly gets the movie pundits in a lather. The scene consists of Gene Hackman as private eye Harry Moseby, shot to pieces but still trying to steer his motor boat to shore. Bleeding badly from his wounds, he’s unable to reach the gears; he ends up setting the boat in a circling motion. From above, we see Harry’s boat circling aimlessly in the Gulf Stream. This scene, which brings the film to a finish, has been described as a metaphor for many things, including America’s lost identity after the Watergate era, to Moseby’s own fruitless search for the truth, to Penn’s own floundering career. To me, it always looks like the boat is going down a drain (or a toilet). It’s the sort of ending that leaves a viewer wondering if you’ve missed something,...

Well, this week is a bit of a bummer. Due to some contractual spats between Starz and Sony, all of the movies Sony has home video distribution over were pulled from instant streaming. Notable movies include Easy A and Grown Ups but the biggest loss will be felt this week with The Social Network staying unavailable until the corporations get all the Bs squared away.

The Movies that Would be Available to Stream this week, without the Starz/Sony Contract Dispute

The Social Network – June 20th

Burlesque – June 20th

Punch Drunk Love – June 23rd

Tamara Drewe – June 23rd

According to Netflix, the contract issue will be fixed soon and is only “temporary.”

New to Netflix Streaming On Tuesday June 21th

The best show on all of TV right now, Louis C.K.’s “Louie” is available stream this week.

New to Netflix Streaming On Friday June 24thSlap Shot (R | 1977)

Flickchart Ranking:...

Like most members of Generation Y, ever since the Playstation Network went down I've been drifting aimlessly through my weekends. I finished the phenomenal Portal 2 (2011) just as the Psn closed down; leaving what I am told is a stellar co-op experience impossible. Yet, while my video game habit has suffered from this hacker induced technological and ludic disaster, another habit has been given some much needed breeze in its sails: movie watching. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes the last thing I want to do with my free time is watch movies. I tend to spend the bulk of my time doing it and, like any habit pushed to the highest levels of involvement, it can be draining. So I fasted, cinematically, for a few days and ended up purging myself on a glut of Errol Morris documentaries and a neo-noir that had evaded my noir cinephilia: Arthur Penn...

Last week we saw the Lythgoe Family Productions presentation of Cinderella at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, California. We also had a chance to sit with the key members of the cast and talk about the British Panto style and other projects they have in the works.

Of course we were beside ourselves to think we would be sitting in a room with Jerry "Beaver Cleaver" Mathers. But we were also honored to talk to Harry Potter actor Freddie Stroma, Broadway star Jennifer Leigh Warren, newcomer Veronica Dunne, and stand out actors from the production Benny Harris and Eddie Driscoll.

They were all very excited to be involved in the U.S.'s first performance of a Panto, which incorporates current references, contemporary music and broad (oftentimes double entendre heavy) humor into a classic fairy tale. They told us that it took some getting used to for the...