My best IMAX Experience

by Cláudio Alves

As a last hurrah, Oppenheimer has been back on IMAX screens since last week, allowing interested audiences to revisit it in the format before the film comes to streaming on November 21st. Enjoy your last chance to see Cillian Murphy's bronzed pores projected sky high, closeups galore for titanic portraiture, faces the size of monuments. Indeed, this year, because of Nolan's blockbuster biopic, it seems like big screen superiority has been more discussed than usual, with cyclical discourse about the latest pictures to shine bright on IMAX. So much so that it got me thinking about my best experiences with the giant screens…

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Review: Gemini Man

by Tony Ruggio

We live in a polarizing world, a place of right or left, love or hate. In the age of the internet, if you want to be noticed, if you want to be included, not ignored, you take a side. No one wants to wail about both the good and the bad and find themselves alone on an island. They want to see the good or see the bad and say to everyone "god is good" or "god is awful." 

I don't believe in astrology or zodiac signs but Geminis supposedly have dual personalities, an ability to harbor two different points of view simultaneously. Coincidence or not, I'm a Gemini. I find myself witnessing most debates from the middle of love and hate, from geopolitical quagmires to frivolous media circuses to the movies.

Film criticism often succumbs to group-think, and the need to deify or decry a particular movie. Following in the footsteps of Joker, Gemini Man is the latest victim of such...

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Jose Gives Thanks

Jose here. As a non-American, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite US holiday because it's the time of the year when it's socially acceptable for people to put marshmallows and cranberries on everything. A practice which I refuse to stop during the other 364 days of the year, but which for 24 hours helps me bond with the people I love, as I argue about why movies with subtitles are as nourishing as turkey and gravy.

Other than complex carbs, I'm also thankful for

...J.Law away from Dior's gold and diamond shackles. She has rarely looked better than in the black Ralph Lauren she wore to one of the Mockingjay: Part 2 premieres.

...Charlotte Rampling's skinny jeans in 45 Years.

...3D movies that challenge everything I thought about the medium (thank you Gaspar Noe and Wim Wenders)

...for world cinema, and for the opportunity I've had to talk to so many international filmmakers this year. It was my personal mission to interview as many directors with Foreign Language Oscar submissions as possible, and I'm appreciative of the warm response you've all given to the interviews (there are more to come...)

...Finally learning how to pronounce Saoirse Ronan's name (sear + sha ♥) so I can tell everyone how much I adored her work in Brooklyn. (Also, kudos to that movie for getting what it's like to leave your home behind to start anew abroad. It's one of the best films about immigration since Elia Kazan's America America.)

... Michael B. Jordan running around in grey sweatpants in Creed.

...The fuzzy feeling, and donut craving, every time I watch Tangerine. 

...theatre people popping up in movies (Lillias White in Nasty Baby! Brian d'Arcy James in Spotlight! Audra McDonald in Ricki and the Flash! Nikki M. James in Lucky Stiff! Patina Miller in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2) not to mention the beauty that was The Last Five Years.

...Rooney Mara and Kristen Stewart proving they are brilliant actresses and winning awards for their work in France.

...Marion Cotillard's "spot" monologue from Macbeth. 

...Nina Hoss in Phoenix. Greta Gerwig in Mistress America. Rose Byrne in Spy. Laia Costa in Victoria and the girls from The Wonders and Fort Tilden.

...the movie gods granting me an audience with Winona Ryder.

Finally, I'm thankful for  "Oscar Winner Julianne Moore" (and don't you forget it!)

You can read more about our contributors at the about page and click here for all of Jose's work

Jose & Murtada at the Fox Searchlight Holiday PartyJose Solís (Fashion / News / Interviews)
Jose Solís wanted to write about film since he was a child which is why he followed the yellow brick road and moved to Oz (ahem NYC) to make his dream come true. He has been writing about film since 2003 and regularly contributes to The Film Experience and PopMatters. He is also having a torrid affair with Broadway and theatAH and writes about those at StageBuddy.com. He is a member of the Online Film Critics Society. 
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Interview: Gaspar Noé on Shooting in 3D and How 'Love' is Like a Musical

Karl Glusman and Aomi Muyock star in "Love"

Jose here. When I show up to meet Gaspar Noé, he offers me a cigarette. I gladly accept it and we sit by a window where we puff the smoke to the beat of the sounds of a construction site below us. For a moment I feel like a teenager and remember having to wait to have the house all to myself so I could watchIrréversible when I was 16, without having people constantly interrupt me. For all its provocation and controversy, Noé’s oeuvre isn’t as much about shock value as it is about finding deep connections between people. This is a filmmaker who literally goes under the skin to uncover the miracle of life, how we’re made, how similar we are to each other.

In Love, he takes this concept to a place of utter sublimity as he chronicles the ups and downs of the relationship between Murphy (Karl Glusman) and Electra (Aomi Muyock), two young people who despite being enraptured by all-consuming passion, grow apart due to jealousy and secrets. To bring us closer to the characters Noé shot the film in 3D and he uses the medium playfully and sensually. Squeamish audience members might find themselves wishing they’d brought a poncho during some of the film’s most explicit moments, but Noé also finds true beauty in the curves of breasts, the pearls of sweat that appear on the backs of lovers during intercourse, and in the alien-like quality of tongues tangled in a kiss. As much as his films shock and alienate people, he just wants us to get closer. As we sit by the window he says “we’re in closer company because of the cigarette”, then he smiles.

More on Love after the jump.

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NYFF: Voilà... "The Walk"

Nathaniel reporting from NYFF 53 though this movie is now in IMAX theaters and next week wide for all y'all. This piece was original published in a shorter version in my column @ Towleroad

The Walk  begins in mid air with a jaunty circus-like score from composer Alan Silvestri accompanying the clouds. Our birds-eye view is quickly revealed as just above Manhattan, perched on no less a tourist icon than the Statue of Liberty. That we’re looking at something purely presentational is abundantly clear as crinkly-eyed Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his first appearance, smiling and speaking directly to the camera. And he speaks with a cartoon French accent to boot. (To be fair to JGL, many real French people sound like cartoon people when they speak English. This is meant as a compliment because who doesn’t love cartoons and/or French accents?). What’s more, at least to these only super-marginally trained ears (I watch a lot of French movies and I took French in high school –that’s the extent of it!) JGL’s actual French sounds impeccable in his subtitled scenes with French co-stars.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's adorableness can be so distracting? Is that why filmmakers keep trying to make him look not so much like Joseph Gordon-Levitt? We already know he can sing / dance / act and in this film he juggles and wirewalks and speaks fluent French. Is there anything he can’t do? 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s adorableness can be so distracting! Let’s get back on topic...

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