As superheroes go—and go they do, with alarming frequency, at the cape-wearers’ convention that the multiplex has become in recent years—Thor, or at least the Marvel-authored Artist Formerly Known As Norse God Thor, is more super than most. Where most beloved superheroes are humans (at least ostensibly so) who grow into their superhuman powers as […]

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The directors: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium) The talent: Dardennes regulars Jérémie Renier and Olivier Gourmet (who won Best Actor at Cannes for the brothers’ 2002 film “The Son”) return in supporting roles, but “The Kid With a Bike” is headlined by perhaps the most established star they’ve yet worked with: Cécile De France, the […]

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Fist to the table with granite resolve, I demand the final screen of these animated visions of Stanley Kubrick’s long list of milestone works (cleverly mounted by Martin Woutisseth) be whipped up into classy, large-ish posters, particularly the one below. Everyone else can have their Tyler Stout geek-out works (also nice, but if you’ve seen […]

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One of the mostly eagerly awaited films of next month’s Cannes Film Festival, Lars von Trier’s latest has just unveiled an international one-sheet — and while it’s less than illuminating, employing only a single (lovely) still we’ve already seen amid an ocean of white space, I’m happy for this one to play coy. Meanwhile, I […]

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The director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey) The talent: By this point in his career, auteur-photographer Ceylan is a self-standing arthouse brand — which is just as well, since the other names involved are unlikely to ring many bells with non-Turkish viewers. Leading man Yilmaz Erdoğan, a 43 year-old actor-writer-director, is a hugely popular figure in […]

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(Thanks to Israeli film critic Yonatan Doron for chipping in with extra information about this title. If any readers think they can help with further entries in this series, do get in touch.) The director: Joseph Cedar (Israel) The talent: Good news for fans of 2001’s wonderful arthouse hit “Late Marriage”: that film’s leading man, […]

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(Apologies for the break this feature took over the Easter weekend — blame the holiday spirit and the London sunshine.) The director: Alain Cavalier (France) The talent: The internet is currently not rife with details on this entry, but we do know that the film is a two-hander of sorts, headlined by the veteran director […]

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The director: Bertrand Bonello (France) The talent: Unsurprisingly for a brothel-set narrative, the film is heavy on rising female stars, including Hafsia Herzi (“The Secret of the Grain”) and Italian ingenue Jasmine Trinca (“The Son’s Room”); their more senior co-star, Noémie Lvovsky, is arguably more of an institution in France than on the international arthouse […]

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This is terribly sad news. Tim Hetherington, the gifted British photojournalist who justly shared a Best Documentary Feature Oscar nomination with Sebastian Junger earlier this year for their joint debut “Restrepo,” has died on the front line in Misrata, Libya, where he was documenting the conflict. Also killed was his colleague, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Chris […]

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[This is the first in a daily series of posts, wherein I size up the 19 films–pending further additions–in the Competition at next month’s Cannes Film Festival. We’re running through them alphabetically, by director, so it just happens that we start with a biggie: the length of the entries will vary according to the availability […]

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[NOTE: We’re kicking off our daily Cannes preview series later today — stay tuned.] We knew months ago that Robert De Niro was presiding over this year’s Cannes jury, but the eight people joining him on the bench were finally named yesterday. Red-carpet stargazers should be pretty happy with this year’s crop: joining De Niro […]

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The upcoming summer movie season is about as dark and dreary as any we’ve seen. The product couldn’t be more finely tuned to the thoughtless months and I anticipate having to dig deep for positive accounts along the way. So it goes. Maybe, then, it would be a good idea to finally lap up those […]

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Or “Bigger, Better, Faster, More: The Linda Perry Story.” Paolo Sorrentino’s latest, due to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes next month, stars the two-time Oscar champ as a rock star turned Nazi hunter. Bernardo Bertolucci (due to receive an honorary Palme at the fest, by the by) reportedly describes the film (if not […]

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After weeks of speculation, this year’s Cannes lineup was unveiled in spectacularly long-winded fashion by fest director Thierry Frémaux this morning. (French TV networks clearly got so bored with his sidebar discussions on each title he announced that they helpfully cut to commercial halfway through the press conference.) Anyway, the speculation was largely borne out […]

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I’ve had the whole of Sidney Lumet’s available DVD catalogue lined up, in chronological order, in my Netflix queue as of late. He was always a filmmaker I looked to in my own pursuits in the field as an idol, someone who seemed to stay way above the fray while consistently cranking out engaging, often […]

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It burns me up that I have to step out for most of the early part of the day right now, because I woke up to the awful news that Sidney Lumet, prolific marcher to his own drum, has left us. It’s an epic loss, I feel. Two of this man’s films have solid spots […]

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I’m continuing my 2011 resolution of not watching trailers for films I’m really looking forward to, but for the less ascetic among you, here’s our first glimpse of Lars von Trier’s latest, which will doubtless turn up in next month’s Cannes lineup. As many of you know, I’m always in the tank for von Trier […]

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