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Plot: A suburban dad (Tim Robinson) becomes hellbent on being BFFs with his charismatic new neighbour (Paul Rudd).

Review: Confession time – this movie is my introduction to Tim Robinson. Sure, I’ve had folks name-drop his show I Think You Should Leave, and it’s always been on my list of stuff to check out. But, I walked into this more-or-less fresh, not knowing what to expect. What I got was one of the most cringe-inducing comedies I’ve ever seen – and I loved every second of it.

To be sure, this kind of humour isn’t for everyone. There were times while I was watching Friendship in the (jam-packed) TIFF screening that I’m sure I annoyed the people sitting next to me by how many times I sunk in my seat, covering my face with my hands and repeating “no, no, no” louder than I should. That’s...

Laughter strikes from all sides in “The Gutter,” the kind of brash and boisterous broad comedy that has largely been missing from multiplexes in recent years. Directors Yassir and Isaiah Lester seem to share a special ability with their main character Walt (Shameik Moore), who has a habit of hitting the central pin in spite of having a different delivery every time he steps up to the line. The same goes for the filmmaking siblings in this hysterical tale of a bowling alley employee who finds he’s better on the lanes than behind the bar.

Although Walt changes things up from a fast-pitch softball-like windup to simply throwing the bowling ball overhand, you just don’t know where a sight gag or a sharp one-liner will hit you when every part of the frame seems like a ripe opportunity for humor. Nothing seems off limits when Walt takes an...

Fortress Talent Management, a leading agency for composers and music supervisors, has promoted Jake Kozarec to partner.

Kozarec has been with Fortress since 2016, and has overseen the careers of Lorne Balfe, Matthew Margeson, Jeff Cardoni (White House Plumbers), Keegan DeWitt, Jay Wadley, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (Candyman), David Fleming and Alex Belcher.

Kozarec has played a key role in growing Fortress’ formidable roster, which includes Oscar-winners Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain), Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) and Rachel Portman (Chocolat) and Oscar nominees Nicholas Britell (Moonlight), Daniel Pemberton (Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse), Philip Glass (The Hours), Alberto Iglesias (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Clint Mansell (The Fountain) and Owen Pallett (Her).

The company’s clients...

It’s never a great sign when the funniest part of your romantic comedy involves the female lead’s flawless boyfriend being killed by a drunk driver in the opening scene, but in fairness to James C. Strouse’s absurd “Love Again,” this unclassifiable whatsit isn’t a traditional rom-com so much as a grief drama with a severe identity disorder.

Based on a German film called “SMS für Dich” — which sadly doesn’t mean what it sounds like — Strouse’s moribund yet almost intoxicatingly strange new movie is more or less exactly what you would expect to happen if the guy behind depressive indies like “Lonesome Jim” and “Grace Is Gone” decided to make a poppy date flick that adhered to the rhythms and logic of a Lindsay Lohan vehicle from 2006.

Yes, most of the laugh lines in “Love Again” are stale enough that even just hearing them kind of hurts your teeth,...

Reconstruction in documentary filmmaking is an eternally divisive technique: What some deem vivid and immediate, others find distancing and artificial, cloaking and blurring reality in the language of fiction cinema. Yet what if the reconstructions don’t just feature the documentary’s real-life subjects, but are expressly conceived and realized by them — not recreating reality so much as their lingering, haunted memories thereof? That’s a different proposition entirely, as is “Procession,” a risky, wrenching film in which celebrated docmaker Robert Greene frequently surrenders the directorial reins to his subjects and collaborators: six middle-aged, middle-American men living with the trauma of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic Church priests and clergymen.

With each of these survivors given the means and support to make an interpretive short film rooted in their decades-old experience, “Procession” is intricately woven from the amateur filmmakers’ original work, alongside Greene’s patient, empathetic observation of their creative process.

As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music–whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song–can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 25+ films that best expressed this notion this year.

From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each musical example perfectly transported us to the world of the film. Check out our rundown of the top 25, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full.

25. The World to Come (Daniel Blumberg)

24. Little Fish (Keegan DeWitt)

23. Crestone (Animal Collective)

22. Shiva Baby (Ariel Marx)

21. Summer of 85 (Jb Dunckel...

The sexual abuse of children perpetrated by members of the Catholic clergy is paradoxically the stuff of compulsively watchable drama or, alternately, abject silence. It is toward this seemingly intractable crisis of representation that filmmaker Robert Greene has purposed his reflexive cinematic style into a form of collective amelioration with Procession. Working in direct collaboration with six adult male survivors of abuse and the guidance of a professional drama therapist, Greene recruits their self-selected stories as the basis for staged scenes in which the survivors become agents of their own traumatic narratives. Enacting their personal histories for screen, these men hope to oversee memories too painful to forget (or to remember), conjured now not solely as victims but rather as autonomous auteurs. Fellow survivors, along with Greene’s crew, are enlisted in the actualization of these episodic dramas that are imbricated with the documentary. As such, the basic creation of...

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s singular animated doc Flee and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Summer of Soul will head into the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors as the leaders in nominations, Cinema Eye announced today.

Flee led all films with seven nominations, with Summer of Soul claiming six. Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi and E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s The Rescue followed with five noms apiece, with Todd Haynes’ Apple pic The Velvet Underground claiming four. HBO led all distributors with 16 nominations, with Hulu notching 12. Nat Geo and Neon followed with 11 each.

Of particular note with regard to the noms list was a newly introduced category for Outstanding Sound Design, which will see All Light, Everywhere contending alongside Faya Dayi, Flee, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground.

The award ceremony recognizing...

Natalia Dyer is starring alongside Rachel Keller and Danny Ramirez in “Chestnut,” a queer love triangle drama that marks the feature film debut of director Jac Cron. Shot on location and named for the epicenter of queer culture in Philadelphia, Chestnut, the film quietly wrapped production this month. It’s eyeing an early 2022 festival premiere.

Dyer stars as a recent graduate who becomes unexpectedly entangled in a relationship with a man and a woman during an aimless summer after college, with Keller and Ramirez forming the other corners of the love triangle. The film also stars Chella Man (HBO Max’s “Titans”) and Caleb Eberhardt, and features a score

by composer Keegan DeWitt. It was produced by Lizzie Shapiro and Lexi Tannenholtz.

Chestnut reunites Shapiro with Utopia, who released “Shiva Baby” earlier this year. In addition to executive producing, Utopia is handling worldwide sales for the film.

Dyer is best...

There have been plenty of horror films set in the Old West and the Old South, as well as eras of religious inquisition in the Old World. “The Last Thing Mary Saw” goes where relatively few have gone before, however, by taking place in the still-new United States’ “civilized” rural East, where an industrial age had yet to penetrate and mores remained none too distant from the earliest European settlers’ harsh Puritanism.

Most obviously comparable would be 2015’s sleeper hit “The Witch,” though this first feature by writer-director Edoardo Vitaletti is not as vivid in atmospheric or suspense terms. Still, it’s similarly distinguished by a strong sense of a particular cultural epoch’s comingled faith, fear and oppression, even if “Mary” is set more than 200 years later. Perhaps more rewarding in the end as straight, downbeat period drama than as an occult thriller, it was acquired by genre platform...

“They say you can’t forget feelings,and I still believe that.”

In Little Fish, newlyweds Jude (Jack O’Connell) and Emma (Olivia Cooke) find themselves amidst a global pandemic where memories begin to fade without warning. When Jack’s memory starts to deteriorate, the two will stop at nothing to hold on to the life they know and remember the love they share.

Writer/director Chad Hartigan is best known for his award-winning feature films This Is Martin Bonner and Morris From America. Hartigan won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the “Best of Next” Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, for This Is Martin Bonner. Hartigan won the Waldo Scott Screenwriter Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival for his film Morris From America. Little Fish marks the third collaboration between childhood friends Hartigan, composer Keegan Dewitt (Hearts Beat Loud) and cinematographer Sean McElwee...

This year’s Oscars have set a new record for the largest number of entries ever in the Best Original Song category, but the 105 eligible songs do not include Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ “(If Only You Could) Save Me,” a 1930s-style big band song from “Mank” that was recently nominated for the second annual Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards.

The song is heard briefly coming from a radio in the background of one scene and plays for only about 40 seconds. Academy rules require “a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody,” and the song was judged to not fulfill that requirement.

Other songs that didn’t make the list, although they were thought to be in the running, include “Uh Oh” from “Promising Young Woman” and “Boss Bitch” from “Birds of Prey.” Even without those, the list of eligible songs tops 100 for the first time...

Following his breakout film, the affecting character study This is Martin Bonner, and his follow-up, the vibrant fish out of water tale Morris In America, director Chad Hartigan had a prescient, ambitious vision for his next feature. Set during a global pandemic in which a growing portion of the population is affiliated with memory loss, Little Fish tenderly follows the relationship between a couple (Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell) as they must face this scary new world and the personal strife they are forced to reckon with. As Hartigan elegantly jumps between the past and the present to show all facets of the bond at the film’s center, he contends with the universal fear of having those closest to you drift away.

Written by Mattson Tomlin, based on Aja Gabel’s short story, the logline of tackling a global pandemic may seem it could be conveyed with immense scope,...

The phrase “eerily prescient” is overused, but for “Little Fish” — a romantic drama set during a global epidemic — it’s apt. Directed by Chad Hartigan, purveyor of Sundance favorites “Morris From America” and “This Is Martin Bonner,” “Little Fish” revolves around a global epidemic that leads to memory loss and charts a young couple’s fight to hold onto each other despite the disease. That blend of romantic and cerebral sci-fi earned the film comparisons to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

Here’s the official synopsis: “Imagine waking up in a world where a pandemic has broken out, which strikes with no rhyme or reason, and causes its victims to lose their memories. Imagine waking up and not remembering the person you love. This is the world that newlyweds Emma (Olivia Cooke) and Jude (Jack O’Connell) find themselves in, not long after meeting and falling in love. When Jude contracts the disease,...

A directorial debut from a talent who is a complete unknown to us, New York based Italian filmmaker Edoardo Vitaletti enlisted the likes of Stefanie Scott, Isabelle Fuhrman, Rory Culkin and Judith Roberts from You Were Never Really Here for mythological horror item titled, The Last Thing Mary Saw. Scored by Sundance vet Keegan DeWitt, production took place back in December of 2019 in New York.

Gist: Set in 1843 that follows the youngest daughter of a strict religious family who finds herself detained after discovering her ominously matriarchal grandmother dead.

Production Co./Producers: Intrinsic Value’s Aimee Schoof and Isen Robbins, Arachnid Films’ Harrison Allen and Madeleine Schumacher, Stephen Tedeschi.…...

On the surface, the Ya adaptation All Together Now may seem like something Netflix is releasing in an effort to capture the tween market. Sure, it’s adapted from a Ya novel and has an appealing young cast, but the secret weapon here is that it’s made by an old soul in Brett Haley. The filmmaker made his bones directing veteran actors and actresses who were due starring roles, like Sam Elliott and Blythe Danner, before recently moving towards younger skewing casts. Now, this latest effort of his shows how effective material potentially meant for a younger audience can be in the right hands. Haley’s sure nature and talented direction makes this a family friendly but wholly effective work that’s absolutely heartwarming. The film is a drama, based on the novel Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick. Amber Appleton (Auli’i Cravalho) is the kind of...

Chad Hartigan’s clever sci-fi drama “Little Fish” sums its chief concerns in one grim line: “When your disaster is everyone’s disaster, how do you grieve?” A change of pace for the director of “Morris From America,” Hartigan’s weighty romance takes place in world afflicted by memory loss, with all the devastating results implied by that premise. , “Little Fish” plays as both an effective metaphor for Alzheimer’s, and the disintegration of a relationship without closure or reason.

Lead couple Emma (Olivia Cooke) and Jude (Jack O’Connell) are battling to recover their memories of each other as Jude succumbs to the affliction, which so far leaves Emma untouched. They aren’t the only ones working through that problem: In “Little Fish,” everyone in the world is collectively losing their memory to something called Nia, or “neuroinflammatory affliction.” It’s first seen in victims who suddenly forget who they...

What a wonderful surprise this film is! Rather under the radar, Netflix has released one of the better movies of 2020 so far with All the Bright Places, a tremendously effective and mature adaptation of the Young Adult novel of the same name. Ya titles can often pull their punches and leave you lacking, but director Brett Haley, one of the most underrated storytellers in the business, does not fall into that trap. Along with writer Liz Hannah, he makes this a deeply impactful and moving experience. I’m not sure Netflix knows what they have on their hands here, and that’s a shame. It really deserves a theatrical release, like they afford their prestige flicks. It’s more than good enough for that status. The movie is a teen drama about a pair struggling with emotional scars. Violet Markey (Elle Fanning) and Theodore Finch (Justice Smith) meet when the...

Director Brett Haley’s “All The Bright Places” may tackle a few dark issues, but this teen weepie about two hurting souls is drenched in warmth and compassion. Adapted by Jennifer Niven and Liz Hannah from Niven’s bestselling young adult novel, Haley’s feature contains all the necessary ingredients for success that films like “The Fault in Our Stars” and its ilk have — undeniably cute leads adept at conjuring cheers and tears, a solid soundtrack and a pass-the-tissues third act — yet its pure beating heart and humanistic undertones make it somewhat of a standout. That said, audiences might want to exercise some caution as content dealing with suicide, grief and mental health, while handled with an extremely sensitive touch, might be triggering for those who feel compromised.

While out running one morning, Theodore Finch (Justice Smith) spots classmate Violet Markey (Elle Fanning) silently contemplating jumping off a bridge. She...

As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music–whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song–can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 20 films that best expressed this notion this year.

From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each musical example perfectly transported us to the world of the film. Check out our rundown of the top 20, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full where available.

20. Climax (Various Artists)

19. August at Akiko’s (Alex Zhang Hungtai)

18. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Emile Mosseri)

17. An Elephant Sitting Still...

For years, filmmaker Lynn Shelton has been making low key independent slice of life movies. In looking at largely ordinary, if quirky, characters throughout her career, Shelton has made quite a niche for herself. This week, her latest outing opens in Sword of Trust, another small scale character based comedy. What makes this one of her best ones yet isn’t just the light and playful tone, but the central turn by actor, comedian, and podcaster Marc Maron. Bringing his own life and personality to the role, Maron mixes with Shelton to create a memorable character who anchors the picture and helps make it a cut above. The film is a low key comedy, with some dramedy overtones, centered around a potential sale of a sword. At the start, we hang around the pawn shop owned by Mel (Maron), a curmudgeon who has hints of a soft side. He hangs around his store,...

2019 is shaping up to be the year where Charles Manson and his horrific crimes are repeatedly depicted on screen. So far, we’ve seen the atrocious film The Haunting of Sharon Tate turn the Manson Family’s spree into exploitation horror. If you’ll recall, I listed it as one of the worst movies of 2019 so far. Later on this year, Manson will be a figure on the periphery of events in Quentin Tarantino’s hotly anticipated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That has the possibility of being one of the year’s best. Now, this week sees the release of Charlie Says, a contained look at the women in Manson’s circle. It’s an interesting flick, though one that ultimately ends up underwhelming. The film is half told in flashbacks, filling in gaps as needed. Essentially, the story for Charlie Says centers around the young women who...

Most times, when a movie or TV show features a fictional band, it takes months or even years for an enterprising artist to design fake merchandise for sale on an unaffiliated third-party apparel outfit. For “Her Smell,” the recent indie drama starring Elisabeth Moss, that wait is a lot closer to non-existent.

As the film makes its way through various theaters across the country, “Her Smell” now has an official merch store, complete with music and apparel from the world of the movie. Directed by screenwriter (and burgeoning awards pundit) Alex Ross Perry, the film follows the trajectory of fictional punk singer Becky Something (Moss). As she navigates the twin burdens of addiction and artistic expectations, the movie tracks Becky’s evolution, as well as those of her band Something She and ascending colleagues The Akergirls.

The collection is a mirror of the merch design in the film. There’s...

Elisabeth Moss’s latest role has her flirting with death…or at least singing about it.

In “Her Smell,” Moss plays a former ’90s punk rock star named Becky Something. The singer and her band, Something She, once filled arenas but now she struggles with addiction, motherhood, getting older and fading fame.

“I always flirt with death, I look ill, but I don’t care about it,” Moss sings in this first trailer for the film. “I think I’m on another world with you.”

Also Read: Amy Poehler to Direct Punk Rock Riot Grrrl Film 'Moxie' at Netflix

Alex Ross Perry directed the film, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and will next play at SXSW. The movie features an original score and songs by Keegan DeWitt, who wrote the indie-pop jams for last year’s Sundance darling “Hearts Beat Loud.”

But in addition to Moss, the cast includes Cara Delevingne,...

In a not-so-bold prediction, when the books are closed on 2019 films, few performances will stand out as much as Elisabeth Moss in Her Smell. Alex Ross Perry’s punk epic tackles a fierce range of emotions across its five intimate scenes as we follow Becky Something (Moss), a rock ‘n’ roll legend who is dealing with a different side (and level) of fame. The director, with his team of composer Keegan DeWitt, cinematographer Sean Price Williams, and editor Robert Greene, create a music film no other and now the first trailer has arrived ahead of an April release.

Kyle Pletcher said in our Nyff review, “Distinct from musicals, music biopics, and documentaries, fiction films about the challenges faced by musicians in practicing their craft have been around since the earliest days of cinema. From The Jazz Singer and A Star Is Born to recent releases such as Not Fade Away and Inside Llewyn Davis,...

Today we are recognizing Hearts Beat Loud, as well as co-writer/director Brett Haley, plus co-stars Kiersey Clemons and Nick Offerman. Our Hollywood Film Tributes recognize films and talent for their excellence in the art of filmmaking. In a more just and fair world, Hearts Beat Loud would have at least one Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. That Oscar snub hurts, but we are still left with another lovely crowdpleaser from Brett Haley. Not only does he have wonderful songs from Keegan DeWitt at his disposal, he also is utilizing wonderful turns from Kiersey Clemons and Nick Offerman. They’re well deserving of this moment in the sun today. Here is a bit from our rave review published back in the summer: Never underestimate a film that can leave you with a warm feeling on the inside. Crowd pleasing cinema is like chicken soup…it’s just good for you.

Exclusive: Cinema Eye Honors said that Eyes on the Prize, the landmark civil rights docuseries that first aired on public television in 1987, will receive the group’s 2019 Legacy Award. The honor will be bestowed January 10 during the 12th annual Cinema Eye Honors awards ceremony in New York.

“For me and so many others, Eyes on the Prize was a transformational cinematic experience, artfully crafting the history of a nation into an unforgettable story,” Cinema Eye board co-chair Dawn Porter said Thursday. “Countless filmmakers have been inspired by this elegant body of work.”

Created and by the late Henry Hampton’s Blackside, the 14-part Eyes on the Prize is considered the definitive documentary record of the American civil rights era, tracing the country’s long and brutal march toward equality and the fight to end decades of discrimination and segregation. It aired in two parts, the first covering the years 1954–1965 and...

Keegan DeWitt will be participating in TheWrap’s third annual songwriters panel on Monday at the Dolby Screening Room Hollywood Vine. A version of this story first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.

Portland-born, Los Angeles-based composer and songwriter Keegan DeWitt has become one of the go-to composers for Sundance movies over the last few years; in 2018 alone, he had music in six indie films, including the documentary “Bisbee ’17,” for which he won the Ida Documentary Award for best music score.

He also wrote songs for Brett Haley’s touching and funny “Hearts Beat Loud,” starring Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons as a father and daughter who have unexpected success with a song they write and record together. One of those songs, the uptempo “Everything Must Go,” is the film’s entry in the Oscars’ Best Original Song category.

Also Read: 'Hearts Beat Loud...

“Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu’s film about working-class Illinois skateboarders whose raucous lifestyle hides brutal family stories, has been named the best nonfiction film of 2018 at the International Documentary Association’s Ida Documentary Awards, which took place on the Paramount Studios lot on Saturday night.

Liu also received the Emerging Filmmaker Award, and he and Joshua Altman won the award for best editing.

Other craft awards went to “Distant Constellation” cinematographer Shevaun Mizrahi, “The Other Side of Everything” writer Mila Turajlić and, in a tie, “Bisbee ’17” composer Keegan DeWitt and “Hale Country This Morning, This Evening” composers Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers.

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Film Review: Powerful Doc Depicts Skateboarders In Transition to Adulthood

The award for the best music documentary also ended in a tie, between Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” and Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!”

In its first year,...

The 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards were handed out Saturday night at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles with Bing Liu’s Minding The Gap taking top honors in the Best Feature category.

Hosted by actress and producer Ricki Lake, the ceremony also honored Floyd Russ’s Zion as Best Short as well as Netflix’s Wild Wild Country which won for Best Limited Series.

Other winners for the evening included HBO’s John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Pov for Best Curated Series, Showtime’s The Trade for Best Episodic Series, Mel Films for Best Short Form Series, and Jayisha Patel’s Circle for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award. The New York Times’ Caliphate won the inaugural Best Audio Documentary category.

In addition, the Career Achievement Award was presented to three-time Academy Award winner Julia Reichert and Ida...

Rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding The Gap” beat out the competition to win top honors at the 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. The portrait of a group of skateboarders took home Best Feature, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Editing. Liu had accepted a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where the Pov film was acquired by Hulu.

Other winners include Floyd Russ’s “Zion” (Best Short), Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” (Best Limited Series), HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” (the ABC News VideoSource Award), PBS’ Pov (Best Curated Series), Showtime’s “The Trade” (Best Episodic Series), Mel Films (Best Short Form Series), and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” (the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award). Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” won Best Music Documentary,...

Rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding The Gap” beat out the competition to win top honors at the 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. The portrait of a group of skateboarders took home Best Feature, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Editing. Liu had accepted a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where the Pov film was acquired by Hulu.

Other winners include Floyd Russ’s “Zion” (Best Short), Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” (Best Limited Series), HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” (the ABC News VideoSource Award), PBS’ Pov (Best Curated Series), Showtime’s “The Trade” (Best Episodic Series), Mel Films (Best Short Form Series), and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” (the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award). Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” won Best Music Documentary,...

Peter Sattler could very well be making a return trip to Sundance following up 2014’s Camp X-Ray (we called it a remarkable screenwriting and directorial debut) with further dramatic tensions in Love & Oatmeal – a film that is toplined via the likes of Yvette Nicole Brown, Lola Kirke, Alphonso McAuley and Ben Platt. Shot in Vancouver, production began in June and they already had Park City regular in composer Keegan Dewitt score onboard for what could be an early 2019 bow.

Gist: Written by Steve Waverly, In the wake of his father’s death, a twenty-something writer sees his dream of moving to Paris put in jeopardy when he’s forced to temporarily take in his wildly unpredictable, mentally ill sister.…...

The Cinema Eye Honors, which annually presents awards to “celebrate outstanding artistry and craft in nonfiction film,” has revealed its nominees in 10 categories, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Nonfiction Short. Multiple nominees include Robert Greene’s ​”Bisbee ‘17,” Sandi Tan’s “Shirkers,” and RaMell Ross’ ​”Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” with five nods each. While Greene is a Cinema Eye Honors vet, both Tan and Ross are first-time filmmakers.

Another first-time filmmaker on the rise: Bing Liu, whose autobiographical skateboarding doc “Minding the Gap,” leads the nominees with a total of seven nominations. That’s good enough to put the newbie filmmaker into rarefied territory, tying his film with lauded documentaries like Louie Psihoyos’ ​”The Cove​​,” Lixin Fan’s ​”Last Train Home​,”​ and Ari Folman’s “​Waltz With Bashir​​” for most Cinema Eye Honors nods ever. As Liu is a named nominee for six of those awards, he’s...

Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” an look at small-town American life through the lens of a group of skateboarder friends, led the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors nominations for nonfiction filmmaking Thursday.

The film, a Hulu original documentary, landed seven bids, for direction, editing, cinematography, original score, debut feature and the audience award, in addition to outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature filmmaking, the organization’s top prize. It was also mentioned in the “Unforgettables” sidebar honoring the subjects of many of this year’s documentaries.

The seven-nomination haul was enough to match Cinema Eye’s record, held by Louie Psihoyos’ “The Cove,” Lixin Fan’s “Last Train Home” and Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir.”

The other nominees for outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature filmmaking were “Bisbee ’17” (five nominations), “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (five nominations), “Of Fathers and Sons” (three nominations), “Three Identical Strangers” (three nominations) and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?...

“Minding the Gap,” a documentary that mixes stories of skateboarding teens with a dark family story, led all films in nominations for the Cinema Eye Honors, one of the top awards devoted to all facets of nonfiction filmmaking.

Bing Liu’s highly personal film tied a Cinema Eye record by receiving seven nominations overall, one in a previously announced category and six in the 10 categories that Cinema Eye announced on Thursday. Those included nominations for directing, editing, cinematography and music, as well as one in the marquee category, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking.

Other nominees in that category were Robert Greene’s “Bisbee ’17,” RaMell Ross’ “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Son,” Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers” and the 12th highest-grossing documentary of all time, Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Film Review: Powerful...

So about that title. It stinks. It’s pungent and rancid. “Her Smell” could have a positive connotation, but you just know that it doesn’t here. There’s a hostility to it, like an odorous barrier you’d have to get through in order to reach the woman exuding it. Viewers familiar with any of Alex Ross Perry’s previous films will probably be holding their noses as they walk into this one. Newbies might want to follow suit.

Perry knows what he’s doing. His work has always had the courage to be profoundly unpleasant. We’re talking about a guy whose breakthrough film (“The Color Wheel”) was a micro-budget 16mm road trip comedy that built to a sudden eruption of incest, and whose comparatively star-studded follow-ups have shined a light on some of New York’s shittiest people. The most “likable character” in his entire body of...

“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the ’60s ended abruptly on Aug. 9, 1969.” This famous quote, from Joan Didion’s essay “The White Album,” refers to the date of the murders of Sharon Tate and four others by members of Charles Manson’s self-dubbed “Family.” And in coolly definitive white-text-on-black, it opens Mary Harron’s “Charlie Says,” which tells the story of the sluggish moral reawakening of three of Manson’s murderous acolytes, in the years after the killings, when they were incarcerated in the California Institution for Women.

As scintillating and influential as Didion’s work is, it is not without its detractors — those who find her memoirist’s approach to the journalistic essay form too colored with the personal to earn the sweeping certainty of her generalizations. But “Charlie Says” could use a little of that forceful, opinionated clarity — even at the potential risk of giving offense — because without it,...

by Chris Feil

Brett Haley is quietly becoming the American independent counterpart to Once and Sing Street’s John Carney, crafting happy-sad narratives with music as a key ingredient. With music partner Keegan DeWitt, Haley’s films feature characters at the end of their performance days taking one renewed grasp toward fulfillment. His newest film Hearts Beat Loud is the most addictively musical, and like his I’ll See You in My Dreams before it, its songs come straight from the heart.

Loud is the story of Frank and Sam Fisher, played by Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons, a father-daughter pair preparing for imminent college bicoastal separation. Frank is a failed musician and now record store owner, forever pushing the gifted Sam towards a music collaboration she perpetually resists...

This weekend sees the release of “Hearts Beat Loud,” a winsome new indie about a father (Nick Offerman) and a daughter (Kiersey Clemons) who unexpectedly form a band together during the summer before the kid goes off to college. Riding a poppy, heartfelt soundtrack by Keegan DeWitt (whose songs are brought to life by the actors who sing them), “Hearts Beat Loud” is a nice reminder that movies are a peerlessly effective mechanism for bringing new music into our lives.

With that in mind, here are our picks for the 10 best original songs from the movies of the 21st century.

10. “Montage” (from “Swiss Army Man”)

Pop-pop-corn pop-pop-corn pop-pop-corn pop-pop-corn

pop-pop-corn! pop-pop-corn! pop-pop-corn! pop-pop-corn!

It’s already stuck in your head. This self-referential ear worm — the highlight of the exquisitely strange soundtrack that Manchester Orchestra wrote for Daniels’ exquisitely strange first movie — is dropped right into the middle of “Swiss Army Man,...

Before “Hearts Beat Loud” screened for the first time at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Brett Haley strutted to the stage to speak. While introductions to a film often feel more obligatory than necessary, Haley leaned into sincerity. He explained that in these chaotic times, he wanted to make a “sweet movie.” The kind of film “that makes you feel good and helps to forget your problems for 90 minutes.”

What he wanted is what we received. For the duration of “Hearts Beat Loud,” you’ll often attempt to unearth the stakes. You’ll wonder when tragedy may strike, or if plans will go dangerously awry. Here’s a not-so surprising spoiler: They don’t.

Written by Haley and frequent collaborator Marc Basch, the story begins inside Red Hook Records, a Brooklyn vinyl shop operated by Frank (Nick Offerman). He’s a single father to Sam (Kiersey Clemons), who...

Never underestimate a film that can leave you with a warm feeling on the inside. Crowd pleasing cinema is like chicken soup…it’s just good for you. Brett Haley is a master at this. The writer/director has been forging an incredibly underrated career, one that a few decades ago would have made him an A-list auteur. Regardless, he’s sure to get his due this week, as his latest movie Hearts Beat Loud is about to open. A hit at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, it’s one of the year’s best films, bar none. Emotional and warm in the way a fantastic hug can be, this is a cinematic experience that may well take your breath away. A music fill dramedy, Hearts Beat Loud tells the story of a Brooklyn based father and his daughter in the summer before the latter leaves for college. In a matter of almost magical alchemy,...

The pretty faces that give Hollywood its glamour eventually fade, but Alexandra Hall’s documentary reveals a remarkable woman who parlayed her beauty into an incredible life — from nude scenes in a notorious 1933 Austrian film, to eleven years in Hollywood as MGM’s ‘most beautiful girl in the world’, to a seemingly incompatible achievement: she invented a revolutionary communications technology for the WW2 war effort, and only belatedly received credit for it. A remarkable audio interview with the legendary lady brings a fabulous life into focus.

Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr Story

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber / Zeitgeist

2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 widescreen / 88 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 22.99

Starring: Hedy Lamarr, Jeanine Basinger, Peter Bogdanovich, Mel Brooks, Gillian Jacobs, Wendy Colton, Jan-Christopher Horak, Diane Kruger, Guy Livingston, Anthony Loder, Jimmy Loder, Lodi Loder, Denise Loder-DeLuca, Art McTighe, Fleming Meeks, Robert Osborne.

Cinematography: Buddy Squires, Alex Stikich

Film Editor: Alexandra Dean,...

Under the radar, filmmaker Brett Haley has been doing something rather impressive. Haley has been making independent films that people actually go to see in theaters. With the one two punch of I’ll See You In My Dreams and The Hero over the last few years, the director has made movies about older characters that audiences seek out. They’re crowd pleasing indies that shoot their lead actors or actresses into the awards conversation. That used to be a thing plenty of auteurs did, but these days it’s fairly rare. Now, Haley is back again with a slightly younger skewing film, and a musical one at that. Hearts Beat Loud made a lot of noise at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and now has a Trailer to increase the buzz. You can see that at the bottom of the post, but first, some more on the movie.

Not many teenagers would want to be in a band with their dad — but if your dad was Nick Offerman, you’d might reconsider. In the debut trailer for Hearts Beat Loud, we see the first look at the musically-driven father-daughter film that warmed hearts at Sundance earlier this year.

Directed by Brett Haley (The Hero, I’ll See You In My Dreams, Hearts Beat Loud follows single dad Frank (Offerman) as he prepares to send his daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) off to UCLA while confronting the realization that his record-store business is failing. In the trailer above, we see that they have a strong father-daughter relationship and share a love of music. The two have a weekly “jam sesh” that Frank wants to turn into a full-fledged band — but Sam isn’t too keen on it. After some speed bumps along the way, they eventually become a musical duo...

"This is so good...! You wrote this?" "Yeah, with my dad." Gunpowder & Sky has released the first official trailer for the heartwarming, lovely indie film Hearts Beat Loud, which premiered to some rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. I adore this film, it was one of my favorites of the fest - check out my full review here. Set in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the film is about a father and daughter who become an unlikely songwriting duo in the last summer before she leaves for college. Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons star, along with Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, and Blythe Danner. With original songs and music by Keegan DeWitt, which you can hear a bit of in this trailer. Really, this film is stellar and I hope it gets your attention with this trailer. It is a feel good story, but just the right amount of sweet.

Aaron Katz’s Gemini opens with a vertiginous upside-down shot of palm trees against a saturated indigo sky—a postcard-perfect Los Angeles, inverted. The camera lingers for a few minutes and then tilts slowly back to earth, as if emerging from a psychedelic stupor. It’s an excellent introduction to Katz’s beguiling neo-noir. Although rife with wry nods to familiar tropes and meta-commentary on the making of mysteries, Gemini is not so much an ironic perversion of the genre as a woozy, Instagram-y evocation. It resurrects the ghosts of L.A. noirs past and filters them through a neon-slicked lens, constructing a sleek thriller around distinctly millennial themes of celebrity and identity. Katz is known primarily for being one of the originators of the mumblecore movement—a verbose, low-key brand of cinema whose predilection for non-events and naturalistic banter seems almost antithetical to the demands of genre filmmaking.

The idea that Los Angeles is a city of angels run by devils – that this is where people go to make their dreams come true and where dreams go to die – is, by this point, a completely overplayed cliché. (One based in truth, some might argue, but still.) But the notion that Hollywood, as both a place and a concept, remains a great place to stage a murder mystery? There's still fertile ground to be tilled on the corner of Fountain and Fairfax. Exhibit A: Gemini, a chilled exercise in...

Once a staple of Hollywood cinema, the film noir has seemingly become almost solely the realm of independent fare. Studio honchos just don’t fawn over them like they used to. You can argue about whether that’s a bad thing or not, but that’s just the way it is currently. The likes of Brick, for example, showcase that small scale versions are still perfectly done. This week, a new indie noir comes out that deserves to find an audience. It’s Gemini, a modern noir that occasionally subverts the genre in pretty interesting ways. In some ways, it’s exactly what you’d expect. In others, it really goes in a different direction. The movie is a Hollywood set noir, though one that’s definitely on the unique side. Jill LeBeau (Lola Kirke) is an assistant to actress Heather Anderson (Zoë Kravitz), and the two clearly share a friendship as well.

Premiering his second film with writer/director Brett Haley at Sundance 2018, Nick Offerman is back on the promotional circuit this week for the director’s latest, musical drama Hearts Beat Loud. Featuring original songs by Keegan DeWitt, the film centers on a father (Offerman) who bonds with his daughter (Kiersey Clemons) over music just as he is sending her off to college. “I was a fan of Brett's film I'll See You In My Dreams two films ago. I thought it was really…...