Film Fiend features dispatches from Miami International Film Festival Director Jaie Laplante as he scopes flicks on the indie film festival circuit. As another Cannes Film Festival winds down, all the chic cineastes here on the Croisette are pretending not to care about the Grand Jury prizes, awarded in a glitzy ceremony…
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, which screens at O Cinema, lives up to its grandiose title, taken from the old Michelangelo potboiler. Vikram Jayanti’s BBC production is certainly a scoop, culled from 50 hours of interviews made during the reclusive Spector’s first trial–he was accused of sticking…
The Haircut, for many in attendance, was a delightful treat at last month’s Borscht Film Festival. Clocking in at a little over five minutes, the short was filled with wonderful twists and turns. If you recall, a man saunters into a barbershop at night feeling insecure about his haircut. He’s…
Cannes 2011: dysfunction junction
The Beaver: Mel Gibson can do crazy
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector: da doo ron ron
Film Fiend features dispatches from Miami International Film Festival Director, Jaie Laplante, as he scopes flicks on the indie film festival circuit. A “melancholy” mood has set over the Cannes Film Festival today: in a few hours, Film Fiend and 2,299 of his closest personal friends will settle into the…
Greatly expanded from a four-page, single-situation short story by Raymond Carver, Dan Rush’s first feature Everything Must Go is an ambitious if enervated vehicle for Will Ferrell–playing it straight as Nick Halsey, a middle-class drunk fired from his job and locked out of his suburban home by an irate, never-seen…
NBC may have passed on the Wonder Woman pilot, but ABC is moving forward with their own nostalgic version of crime-fighting, jiggle TV — Charlie’s Angels. The new series began filming in Miami back in January (perhaps some of you showed up for the casting call?) and will air Thursdays…
An earnest, intermittently droll dramedy about a manic-depressive toy manufacturer and his bewildered family, The Beaver is a parable that’s not easily parsed. While director Jodie Foster fails to maintain a consistent tone–could there be such a thing as inspirational satire?–the movie’s lopsided wobble is undeniably enhanced by her star…
After watching RPM Miami last night we’re not sure quite what to think. We know that the show is Mun2’s testosterone-fueled sausage fest, which promotes women as immoral, materialistic whores, but…it’s still fun to watch.The show — think the Fast and the Furious shot telenovela-style — revolves around a group…
Film Fiend features dispatches from Miami International Film Festival Director, Jaie Laplante, as he scopes flicks on the indie film festival circuit. Although Film Fiend is over his jet lag, a peculiar feeling of fatigue at the Cannes Film Festival persists. Too many parties? It can’t be, I get even…
Mob Wives is pretty damn gangsta. The new VH1 realty show, now four episodes deep, fits a niche for our market. Everyone knows South Florida is the sixth borough of New York City. There are tens of thousands of exiled New Yorkers here. The mafia lifestyle is very real for…
Miami is getting another chance to move beyond the onscreen branding of Miami Vice and Scarface. The Paperboy, a new film by Precious director Lee Daniels, follow a Miami Times (no, not Miami New Times, but close) reporter who gets wrapped up in a homicide case. Adapted from a Peter…
Film Fiend is a new series featuring dispatches from Miami International Film Festival Director, Jaie Laplante, as he scopes flicks on the indie film festival circuit. Cannes is hot this year. The venerable Grand Dame of film festivals worldwide is buzzing with an upswing of stars and a recently re-energized…
Sure, any movie that has at its heart doodie is bound to get some cheap laughs. But don’t think the team that made the Wall of Shame short as part of the 24-Hour Film Race was only interested in toilet humor. A cast and crew of 20 actors, cinematographers, and…
Dexter, the Showtime series that glorifies brutal murder in Miami, just may peak in its sixth season. Rumor has it that Mos Def just signed on a deal to play a reoccurring character. He’s cast as a tough ex-con who’s found religion but can’t seem to extricate himself from a…
Bridesmaids: A movie made worse by and for me
Thor is a bore
Miami Beach Exxxotica is so close you can practically taste it (we don’t mean that literally, you pervs!) But if you’re having trouble keeping it in your pants till then Bad Girl Miami’s Erica Lynne, who we’ve already reported heavily on, is going to make the wait a little easier,…
Otto von Schirach has a dinner date. But there’s nothing to eat. Lightbulb. Otto gets an idea. In a laboratory, complete with smoking beakers, styling lab coats, and a shitload of equipment, the musician decides to concoct an intergalactic eel. Yes, an eel, a slimy disgusting animated eel, made out…
From blood-soaked slasher flicks to spine tingling paranormal feats, scary movies rip at our souls. It’s the thrill, the unanswered questions, the taboo, the unknown angst that makes us shudder, yet yearn for more. And that’s what makes the genre special- what breathes new life into it. Horror hits a…
