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Richard Linklater

San Francisco

Flavorpill Guide to the Week’s Top 10 SF Events

By Bonnie Chan on

San Francisco is home to a breathtaking diversity of cultural events. Between our fair city’s world-class museums, restaurants, bars, art galleries, music scene, festivals, and clubs, between all that is weird and quirky and purely San Franciscan, there’s something going down, somewhere, every single day of the year. Check out our Flavorpill social discovery engine, where you can create and share events with friends, and follow our carefully curated editors’ picks. Below, you’ll find Flavorpill’s top picks for this week — just a little bit of help as you set out into this beautiful wide world of SF’s happenings.  … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Guide to Indie Flicks to See in May

By Jason Bailey on

It’s the first of May, which means summer blockbuster season is upon us, and the coming onslaught of sequels and reboots and 3D and general junk might have you feeling (understandably) less than buoyant about movie-going. But don’t despair! The big studios may have surrendered their slates to the desires of 15-year-old boys, but the indies realize that grown-ups might also want to enjoy an evening at the cinema during the summer months, and have counter-programmed accordingly. Here are a few must-see independent movies for the month of May. … Read More

Film

Sundance 2013: Awards, Deals, and When You Can See Them

By Jason Bailey on

Indie producers at Sundance would be wise to steer your film editor away from their screenings, since (for the second year in a row, to say nothing of Tribeca and SXSW) practically none of the films I saw over my six days in Park City managed to grab any prizes at Saturday night’s big award ceremony. I’m all out of theories for why I’m so bad at picking these things — but it’s something we’re all going to have to come to terms with, apparently. Not to worry, though; many of the very good films I did manage to see will be coming your way over the next few months, so let’s take a look at films that won both awards and big-money deals. … Read More

Film

The Best and Worst of Sundance 2013

By Jason Bailey on

This time last year, the out-of-nowhere indie Beasts of the Southern Wild emerged at the Sundance Film Festival, knocked out everyone who saw it, and embarked on a thrilling year-long ride to become a critical fave, indie smash, and multiple Oscar nominee. Of course, when you have a big hit, everyone’s looking for a sequel — and most of the press out of Park City has been eager to buzzkill, assuring us that no, there’s not another Beasts in this year’s bunch. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an incredible… Read More

Film

Sundance 2013: Richard Linklater on ‘Before Midnight’ and the Sequel Nobody Wanted

By Jason Bailey on

PARK CITY, UTAH: In Before Midnight, the latest chapter of Richard Linklater’s romantic chronicle, Jesse (the writer played again by Ethan Hawke) is told of his third novel: “It’s a better book! It’s so much more ambitious!” It plays like an in-joke, but an accurate one; Before Midnight has all the best qualities of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (a love of conversational dialogue, long takes that value the joy of performance and interaction, gorgeous European locations), yet it is a grander and more complicated achievement. There are some supporting characters this time, for example, and a fuller sense of the protagonists’ lives outside the narrow timeframe. But it also reflects, beautifully, how romance in your 40s is a very different beast from romance in your 20s, or 30s. … Read More

Film

10 Sundance 2013 Movies We Can’t Wait to See

By Jason Bailey on

Hold on to your hats, dear readers: the 29th annual Sundance Film Festival kicks off today in Park City, Utah. Your humble film editor is on the ground, in snow boots and several layers of sensible sweaters, with a film-going schedule that could alternately be described as “ambitious” or “insane.” Here are the ten movies that top our “must-see”… Read More

Film

Sundance 2013 Premiere Lineup Includes Steve Jobs Biopic and Many More

By Alison Nastasi on

Last week Sundance announced its competition lineup and spotlight films, which was thrilling enough for cineastes, but now the fest has unveiled its full list of premieres. It’s a diverse and star-studded selection that delves into the world of Steve Jobs, Dave Grohl, Linda Lovelace, Wikileaks, and Richard Linklater to name a few. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dave Grohl will make their directorial debuts at Sundance with Don Jon’s Addiction — starring Scarlett Johansson and friends — and Sound City, respectively. Linklater wraps up his love story trilogy and follows Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Before Midnight. We’ll find out if Amanda Seyfried can become porn legend Linda Lovelace, watch Park Chan-Wook‘s thriller Stoker, and see Ashton Kutcher transform into Steve Jobs. There’s a ton of great stuff waiting for your perusal after the break, which we first spotted at The Playlist. Let us know what you’re most anticipating. … Read More

Film

10 Low-Budget Films That Became Unexpected Hits

By Alison Nastasi on

James Bond’s golden anniversary moment in the spotlight hasn’t ended yet. The twenty-third film in the spy series, Skyfall, is still counting the cash, bringing home a total of $669 million so far (with a budget of $200 million). Website Pajiba recently surveyed 007′s place amongst the most expensive movies of all time, and the titles aren’t entirely surprising, but the numbers are indeed outrageous. The comprehensive list got us thinking about the opposite end of the spectrum: low-budget films that became unexpected hits. Success is subjective, and we’ve measured each movie by its cult likability and by the numbers (not adjusted for inflation). Click through for more movies made on the cheap that became big, and tell us your favorites. … Read More

Film

10 Fantastic Comedies Based on True Stories

By Jason Bailey on

You wouldn’t think that the cold-blooded murder of a defenseless old woman would make for big laughs, but that’s just one of the surprises found in Bernie, Richard Linklater’s wickedly enjoyable Texas comedy, out today on DVD and Blu-ray. And it’s all true — or, as the opening title card notes, “What you’re fixin’ to see is a true story.”

As the old saw goes, truth is stranger than fiction, and in ruminating about the pleasures of Bernie, we discovered that several of our favorite comedies were, in fact, based on real events. After the jump, a few thoughts on that film, and nine others based on (varying degrees of) true stories. … Read More

Film

Flavorpill’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorpill’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, we find Netflix purging a bunch of good titles for a giant batch of new ones in early June (must be some sort of mid-year end-of-contract period or something), so our list is mostly — but not entirely — comprised of stuff you’ll have to get on quick, featuring stars like Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Michael Douglas, Billy Bob Thornton, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Spacey, Woody Harrelson, Tom Cruise, Winona Ryder, and Sylvester Stallone. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More