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As 2024 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our eyes on titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen, so—as we do each year—we’re sharing a rundown of the best titles available to watch at home.

Curated from the Best Films of 2024 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some with which we’ve recently caught up. While our year-end coverage is still to come, including our staff’s top 50 films of 2024, this streaming guide will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to find notable – perhaps underseen – titles of late.

Note that we’re going by U.S. releases and that streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Between the Temples (Nathan Silver)

In a state of arrested development after his wife unexpectedly died from a freak accident, Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is suicidal, pleading to a truck to just run him over and begging that he be fired from his job as cantor at the local Jewish temple in upstate New York. While this set-up may not scream comedy, Between the Temples is in fact hilarious, packed with endless jokes and adoration for physical gags while we witness Ben find new meaning in life through an unexpected acquaintance. Above all, Nathan Silver’s feature, from a script he co-wrote with C. Mason Wells,is a thrillingly alive, nimble piece of filmmaking: shot on 16mm by Sean Price Williams with...

Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples is among the most formally adventurous films ever made about a late-in-life Bat Mitzvah––scripted with more narrative and structural surprise than its basic bedrock would ever suggest, shot (by Sean Price Williams) and edited (courtesy John Magary) with jaggedness to match. It’s also a film you can take your parents to, and one that gives ample room for Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane to build an unusual onscreen rapport. Talk about the best of both worlds! Ahead of its August 23 release from Sony Pictures Classics, there’s a first preview and poster.

As Jordan Raup said in our review, “In a state of arrested development after his wife unexpectedly died from a freak accident, Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is suicidal, pleading to a truck to just run him over and begging that he be fired from his job as cantor at the...

Between the Temples, co-written by C. Mason Wells and director Nathan Silver, follows a spiritually conflicted cantor (Jason Schwartzman) who finds his faith somewhat revitalized when his grade school music teacher (Carol Kane) enrolls as his latest adult bat mitzvah student. Editor John Magary discusses how he approached cutting Between the Temples, particularly when it came to navigating the film’s heavy use of improv. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired […]

The post “The Point Is to Struggle With What You’ve Been Given”: Editor John Magary on Between the Temples first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Between the Temples, co-written by C. Mason Wells and director Nathan Silver, follows a spiritually conflicted cantor (Jason Schwartzman) who finds his faith somewhat revitalized when his grade school music teacher (Carol Kane) enrolls as his latest adult bat mitzvah student. Editor John Magary discusses how he approached cutting Between the Temples, particularly when it came to navigating the film’s heavy use of improv. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired […]

The post “The Point Is to Struggle With What You’ve Been Given”: Editor John Magary on Between the Temples first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Presented by Adobe, Presenting Sponsor and official editing solution of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. For more information, click here.

“Risk…can be the catalyst that propels you forward” is a quote from Robert Redford that lives on the Sundance Institute website, a fitting message from the festival founder that has a forty-plus year history cultivating the careers of many first time filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Chloé Zhao, Cathy Yan, and Wes Anderson all made a name during the Park City event.

For the 2024 installation the tradition of directors premiering their debut project continues with over 90 films and episodic titles being showcased for the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Among them are eight titles whose editing teams looked to Adobe Creative Cloud apps to craft their stories. From an uncertain teen trying to fit in, a grandma on an action-packed revenge quest,...

In a state of arrested development after his wife unexpectedly died from a freak accident, Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is suicidal, pleading to a truck to just run him over and begging that he be fired from his job as cantor at the local Jewish temple in upstate New York. While this set-up may not scream comedy, Between the Temples is in fact hilarious, packed with endless jokes and adoration for physical gags while we witness Ben find new meaning in life through an unexpected acquaintance. Above all, Nathan Silver’s feature, from a script he co-wrote with C. Mason Wells, is a thrillingly alive, nimble piece of filmmaking: shot on 16mm by Sean Price Williams with faces of its ensemble guiding every movement, and edited by John Magary with a frenetic yet defined rhythm, Between the Temples is a witty, biting portrait of finding one’s footing in both faith and friendship.

My favorite thing about being Jewish — and it’s just so hard to pick between classic hits like “unleavened bread,” “having shoulder hair at 15,” and “being used by right-wing nationalists as an excuse to justify the same kind of genocide that tends to be inflicted upon us every other century or so” — is that I’ve always felt like the religion and its attendant culture places an unusual emphasis on being alive. Six thousand years of trying not to die can do that to you. We don’t believe in heaven, and we don’t believe in hell; when someone passes, we say “may their memory be a blessing,” and when we pray on Yom Kippur (one of the few days of the year that most of us go to shul), we only ask God to write our names in the Book of Life so that we can spend another...

Exclusive: Mickey Sumner will star opposite Elizabeth Banks in A Mistake — the medical drama from writer-director Christine Jeffs (Sunshine Cleaning) that was first announced during the 2022 Cannes Market.

Based on the novel by Carl Shuker, A Mistake follows Elizabeth Taylor (Banks), who is a gifted surgeon — the only female consultant at her hospital. But while operating on a young woman, something goes horribly wrong. In the midst of a new scheme to publicly report surgeons’ performance, Elizabeth’s life is thrown into disarray as her colleagues begin to close ranks, and even her partner (Sumner) who is a nurse at the hospital turns her back on her. Tough and abrasive, Elizabeth has survived and succeeded in this most demanding field. But can she survive a single mistake?

Cornerstone Films launched sales on the Gfc Films production at Cannes and is co-representing U.S. rights with UTA Independent Film Group. Financing...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro)

Crimson Peak works as many things: a melodramatic romance; both the recreation of a period and a revival of the way movies have made us perceive it; a genre-jumping comedy; and a critique of capitalistic excess. It does these things earnestly and without compromise, and it’s far braver — far more admirable — for having done so. What Guillermo del Toro’s film doesn’t work as: a haunted-house picture. Although the director will personally tell you it’s not meant to fit this mold, the genre’s shape and intended impacts are certainly identifiable enough to spring to mind. The extent to which it fails here is rather clear,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Jupiter’s Moon (Kornél Mundruczó)

The juxtaposition of supernatural thriller tropes and urgent socio-political issues in Kornél Mundruczó’s latest movie — an original take on the superhero origin story set to the backdrop of the refugee crisis — might prove a delicate one for some viewers to take. Those unperturbed, however, should find much to relish in Jupiter’s Moon, a film that somewhat lightly plays with themes of religion and immigration as it rumbles, crashes, and ultimately soars through the streets of the Hungarian capital. It’s a tricky balance and Mundruczó (who had a break-out with his canine revolt film White God in 2014) strikes it with style and confidence.

It’s been more than three years since The Mend established John Magary as a major talent, his film both a clear, worthy descendant of greats and UFO within the contemporary American-film scene. If a follow-up’s been frustratingly out-of-reach, the availability of an early project will do something to satiate admirers — so thanks to Le CiNéMa Club for offering his 2007 short The Second Line, a comedy-until-it’s-not set and shot in post-Katrina New Orleans. Adding to the small corpus, it makes clear that Magary has his preoccupations: another film about closely bonded men struggling to survive within environments that bring out some of their worst, most base tendencies — though this is about the bullshit of others, whereas The Mend largely concerns battles with your own

Magary said the following in a director’s statement:

“In December 2005, I went to New Orleans for the first time with my brother and my girlfriend.

Death is just a thing that happens sometimes. If we’re being completely honest, death is a thing that happens all the time. Now. And now. And in the space between those words. Almost two people die every second of every day, blindly joining hands as they close their eyes and jump into the abyss — quickly now, so as not to hold up the line. Life goes on because not everyone goes with it.

Like a traditional melodrama that’s been thoroughly filleted and then pounded flat, Russell Harbaugh’s raw and exquisite “Love After Love” is a very honest film about how things change when someone is gone, which means that it’s also a film about how they don’t. One moment a bed is full, the next moment the bed is empty; one moment a house is empty, the next moment the house is haunted. Everything is effected,...

Exclusive: Up-and-comer Maya Hawke has been tapped to star as the title character in Charlotte XVI, an indie drama directed by Indie Spirit Award nominee Myna Joseph. Described as a frank portrayal of modern female sexuality, the pic follows the dazzling, destructive nature of desire and intimacy through the parallel love lives of a willful sixteen-year-old girl and her wayward mother. Based on a screenplay by Joseph and John Magary, Charlotte XVI received support through…...

The American Murder Song tour is in full swing and its stop in Los Angeles on November 12th is nearly upon us. Continue reading for more info and ticket details. Also in today's Highlights: an exclusive, Nsfw clip from Everlasting, news on the inaugural New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival, Liz Brennan's "Body Bags" music video, and details on Dark Night's AFI Fest screening.

American Murder Song Los Angeles Show Details: Press Release: "The Star of Repo! The Genetic Opera & Songwriters of The Devil's Carnival Arrive With Their New Collaboration in Los Angeles on November 12th.

Cult film composers Terrance Zdunich and Saar Hendelman are no strangers to creating interactive fan events. With their movies Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Devil's Carnival as well as its sequel, they pioneered a punk rock approach to storytelling and distribution, touring their musical films like rock concerts and cultivating a die-hard fanbase in the process.

Cinelicious Pics and actor Elijah Wood’s production company SpectreVision will restore and re-release Toshio Matsumoto’s Japanese queer cinema classic “Funeral Parade of Roses.” A loose adaptation of “Oedipus Rex” set in the gay underground of 1960’s Tokyo, the film follows a group of transgender people as they travel through a largely unseen world of drag bars and nightclubs, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitar, performance art and black mascara.

Long unavailable in the United States, “Funeral Parade of Roses” is an intoxicating masterpiece of subversive imagery, combining elements of documentary and the avant garde. Stanley Kubrick acknowledged that the film was a major influence on “A Clockwork Orange.” Check out some exclusive images from the film below.

Read More: ‘Private Property’ Exclusive Trailer & Poster: Lost 1960s Noir Melodrama Starring Warren Oates

Cinelicious specializes in releasing independent features and docs along with brand-new 4K restorations of under-seen classics. They...

The night before it would go on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, Spotlight wound up having a great night at the Spirit Awards. Yes, Tom McCarthy’s film all but swept the Spirits, beating back what originally seemed like a strong challenge from Todd Haynes’ Carol, not to mention Sean Baker’s Tangerine and Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation. Personally, I’m thrilled that Spotlight won here, but it appeared originally like it was an awards show tailor made for Carol. Go figure. It was a night that would mirror the Academy in more ways than one ultimately, so let’s take a look… Obviously, it was a very good night for Spotlight, perhaps its best all season long. Not only did it take Best Feature, but McCarthy won Best Director as well as Best Screenplay, which he of course shares with Josh Singer. The film...

Yay! My favorite film of 2015 was the big winner at the recently concluded Film Independent Spirit Awards taking home the best feature, director (Tom McCarthy), screenplay, and editing. It was previously announced that the film was the winner of the prestigious Robert Altman Award (ensemble) as well.

Oh and kudos to the Film Independent Spirit Awards for bestowing their Best Supporting Actress Award to Mya Taylor for "Tangerine!" Taylor becomes the first transgender performer to receive major acting award! See her acceptance speech right here.

Let's see if this will continue with tonight's Oscars. See my full Oscar predictions right here.

Here's the complete list of winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards:

Best Feature

Award given to the Producer; Executive Producers are not awarded.

"Anomalisa"

"Beasts of No Nation"

"Carol"

*** "Spotlight" (Winner)

"Tangerine"

Best Director

Cary Joji Fukunaga, "Beasts of No Nation"

Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, "Anomalisa"

David Robert Mitchell,...

The 31st Independent Spirt Awards took place this Saturday, February 27 with the fiendishly talented and hilarious Kate McKinnon & Kumail Nanjiani co-hosting the event. Take a look at their parody of one of this year’s best films Room below. The show, as in years past, aligned with the Academy Awards in some moments, but also served to do what the Oscars can’t, or won’t in others. Perhaps that’s just as it should be. Brie Larson won for Best Female Lead for Room, and is very likely to win the Academy Award for Best Actress tomorrow night. However, Spotlight, which won Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay at the Spirit Awards is in a three way race with The Revenant and The Big Short for the top prize at the Oscars. Though it’s likely to take Best Screenplay there as well. Typically, the Academy favors flashier films, so...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Everest (Baltasar Kormákur)

Curtain raisers seldom come more bombastic than the last two films to open the Venice Film Festival, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity in 2013, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman last year. Attempting to maintain that level of volume this year on the Lido is Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur’s Everest, a grand-scale, by-the-numbers 3D epic about the doomed 1996 expedition to climb the titular peak.

Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" was the big winner at the 25th Gotham Independent Film Awards. The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the child molestation in the Catholic church took home the Best Feature and Screenplay trophies. I love this film! It's ripe for melodrama but McCarthy wisely avoided that!

Another film I love that won big at the Gotham Awards is Sean Baker's "Tangerine." It took home the Audience award with Mya Taylor winning the Breakthrough Actor trophy.

Here's the complete list of nominees and winners of the 25th Gotham Independent Film Awards:

Best Feature

"Carol"

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl"

"Heaven Knows What"

"Spotlight" -- Winner

"Tangerine"

Best Documentary

"Approaching the Elephant"

"Cartel Land"

"Heart of a Dog"

"Listen to Me Marlon"

"The Look of Silence" -- Winner

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director

Desiree Akhavan for "Appropriate Behavior"

Jonas Carpigano for "Mediterranea" -- Winner

Marielle Heller...

The first of the year’s award ceremonies — a full month before 2015 even ends — Gotham Independent Film Awards were held last night. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Tom McCarthy‘s journalism drama Spotlight picked up top honors of Best Feature (as well as Screenplay, and the pre-determined Ensemble award).

While Carol unfortunately came up empty-handed, The Diary of a Teenage Girl‘s Bel Powley surprised with Best Actress and Paul Dano took home Best Actor for Love & Mercy. Also featuring Tangerine‘s Mya Taylor as Best Breakthrough Actor, check out the full list of winners below in red.

Best Feature

Carol

Todd Haynes, director; Elizabeth Karlsen, Tessa Ross, Christine Vachon, Stephen Woolley, producers (The Weinstein Company)

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Marielle Heller, director; Anne Carey, Bert Hamelinck, Madeline Samit, Miranda Bailey, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

Heaven Knows What

Josh and Benny Safdie, directors; Oscar Boyson, Sebastian Bear-McClard,...

Here are the nominees! I'm hoping "Carol" will get lots of love!

Best Feature

"Carol"

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl"

"Heaven Knows What"

"Spotlight"

"Tangerine"

Best Documentary

"Approaching the Elephant"

"Cartel Land"

"Heart of a Dog"

"Listen to Me Marlon"

"The Look of Silence"

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director

Desiree Akhavan for "Appropriate Behavior"

Jonas Carpigano for "Mediterranea"

Marielle Heller for "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"

John Magary for "The Mend"

Josh Mond for "James White"

Best Screenplay

"Carol," Phyllis Nagy

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl," Marielle Heller

"Love & Mercy," Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner

"Spotlight," Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer

"While We.re Young," Noah Baumbach

Best Actor

Christopher Abbott in "James White"

Kevin Corrigan in "Results"

Paul Dano in "Love & Mercy"

Peter Sarsgaard in "Experimenter"

Michael Shannon in "99 Homes"

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett in "Carol"

Blythe Danner in "I.ll See You in My Dreams...

Todd Haynes is in the running for best director and both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are in contention for best female lead alongside Room’s Brie Larson as Carol earned six 2016 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Close behind were Spotlight and Beasts Of No Nation on five apiece, followed by indie darling Tangerine and Anomalisa on four each.

Not even a glitch that saw the list of nominees temporarily appear on the Film Independent website prior to the official announcement could spoil what turned out by and large to be a recognition of independent film in its myriad forms.

Besides the more predictable contenders like Carol, Spotlight and Room, there was plenty of love for Tangerine, shot on an iPhone, and Beasts Of No Nation from Netflix, whose day-and-date release (and what that portends) infuriated large swathes of the exhibition sector but has clearly impressed critics.

Magnolia Pictures earned...

The nominations for the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced Tuesday, giving boosts to several films' Oscars chances.

"Carol" led the pack with six nominations, including nods in most of the major categories (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay), and two Best Lead Actress nominations for its headlining duo, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It was followed by Netflix flick "Beasts of No Nation," which scored five nominations in the big categories (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Lead Male) as well as the technical ones (Best Cinematography, Best Editing).

As TheWrap notes, "Beasts" nominations have helped secure it some serious consideration come Oscars time. But another big surprise was the small number of nominations for "Room," considered by many to be a Best Picture contender at the Academy Awards. It was left off the Spirit Awards's Best Feature list, though it did score a Best Female Lead nomination for Best Actress Oscar frontrunner Brie Larson.

Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the La Film Festival and Film Independent at Lacma, announced nominations for the 2016 Spirit Awards this morning. Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at W Hollywood, with actors John Boyega and Elizabeth Olsen presenting the nominations.

Nominees for Best Feature included Anomalisa, Beasts of No Nation, Carol, Spotlight and Tangerine.

“This year’s nominees are a testament to the strength, vitality and diversity of independent, artist-driven filmmaking,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. “It’s an astonishingly strong group of films and performances this year and we look forward to celebrating them all at the Spirit Awards.”

Spotlight was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. The Altman Award was created in 2008 in honor of legendary director Robert Altman...

Todd Haynes' "Carol" is shaping up to be the movie to beat this awards season. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, the romantic drama stars Cate Blanchett as an older, married woman who is developing some strong feelings towards a seasonal shopgirl played by Rooney Mara. And the actresses may have to prepare their acceptance speeches! "Carol" leads the pack of nominees for the 31st Independent Spirit Awards!

I'm also very happy that "Tangerine" by Sean Baker received 4 nods for Best Feature, Director, Female Lead (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), and Supporting Female for Mya Taylor. shot mostly on iPhone, this small-budget wonder is truly what the Independent Spirit is all about!

Some of my few gripes are not a whole lot of love for the fantastic "Room" (just screenplay, female lead for Brie Larson, and editing -- what about the awesome child actor Jason Tremblay?), and that...

In its 31st year, the Film Independent Spirt Awards showcase the best that modest (and, occasionally, lower budget) filmmaking has to offer annually. This year, it’s little surprise the the stellar Carol is leading the pack with six nominations, while Spotlight and Beasts of No Nation are close behind with five each. On the actual smaller scale of productions, the iPhone-shot drama Tangerine picked up a heft four nominations, a film that, alongside Anomalisa and the aforementioned titles, rounds out their Best Feature category.

Ahead of a ceremony on Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 5Pm Est, check out the full list of nominations below, which also recognize It Follows, Bone Tomahawk, The End of the Tour, Room, The Mend, James White, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Heaven Knows What, and more.

Best Feature

Award given to the Producer; Executive Producers are not awarded.

“Anomalisa”

“Beasts of No Nation”

“Carol”

“Spotlight...

Winners will be announced on November 30th. Here's the complete list of nominees for the 25th Ifp Gotham Independent Film Awards:

Best Feature

"Carol"

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl"

"Heaven Knows What"

"Spotlight"

"Tangerine"

Best Documentary

"Approaching the Elephant"

"Cartel Land"

"Heart of a Dog"

"Listen to Me Marlon"

"The Look of Silence"

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director

Desiree Akhavan for "Appropriate Behavior"

Jonas Carpigano for "Mediterranea"

Marielle Heller for "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"

John Magary for "The Mend"

Josh Mond for "James White"

Best Screenplay

"Carol," Phyllis Nagy

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl," Marielle Heller

"Love & Mercy," Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner

"Spotlight," Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer

"While We.re Young," Noah Baumbach

Best Actor

Christopher Abbott in "James White"

Kevin Corrigan in "Results"

Paul Dano in "Love & Mercy"

Peter Sarsgaard in "Experimenter"

Michael Shannon in "99 Homes"

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett in "Carol"

Blythe Danner...

As 2015 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our hands on the titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen. With the proliferation of streaming options, it’s thankfully easier than ever to play catch-up, and to assist with the process, we’re bringing you a rundown of the best titles of the year available to watch.

Curated from the Best Films of 2015 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up on. This is far from a be-all, end-all year-end feature (that will come at the end of the year), but rather something that will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to seek out notable, perhaps underseen, titles from the year.

Note that we’re going by U.

Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.

One of these 124 films will win 2016’s Best Documentary Oscar.

Backed by Elijah Wood, Simon Pegg, George A. Romero, and more, The Shining hotel unveiled plans to create a $24 million, 43,000-square-foot horror film center:

“I would love to have a home for which we could constantly come year-round and celebrate with other fans from around the world,” said Elijah Wood. “There’s really no better place for there to be a permanent home for the celebration of horror as an art form than the Stanley Hotel. It was practically built for it.”

Designed by award winning, Denver-based Moa Architecture, the Film Center features multiple indoor and outdoor entertainment venues,...

Nabbing Best Actress, Screenplay, Breakthrough Director and Feature noms, Marielle Heller’s Diary of a Teenage Girl leads all Gotham Award nominations with four, while Carol is technically tied with a foursome of mentions as well. With a pre-win (Directors Tribute) accompanied by a trio of noms in the Best Feature, Screenplay and Actress categories, Todd Haynes’ drama will likely find xeroxed nom mentions for both the Indie Spirits and Oscars.

While Rick Alverson’s Entertainment and Sebastien Silva’s Nasty Baby are noticeably absent in what some consider a backhanded compliment of a ceremony, the noms for this year’s Gothams do have some wholeheartedly merited double nom mentions for the Safdie Bros.’ Heaven Knows What, Sean Baker’s Tangerine, Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy and Josh Mond’s James White. The ceremony takes place on November 30th. Here are the complete noms for the 25th anniversary Gotham Independent...

Early on in her seminal text, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, critic Molly Haskell makes dismissive note of the “modern” movie, something that was then purported by many to be a corrective to classical filmmaking. One of its chief tenets, she claimed, was that we came out of the theatre feeling superior to the foibles and insanity of the characters. Furthermore, she points to John Cassavetes’ Minnie & Moskowitz as representational of where modern screen romance stood, claiming its disorganized, improvised approach (“letting it all out”) was a poor substitute for the way an old Hollywood master (e.g. Howard Hawks) created order and understanding out of the chaos of relationships.

If Cassavetes was synonymous with what drove the culture wars of the 1970’s, then what do we make of his supposed compatriots and kindred spirits, particularly Maurice Pialat, the one labelled by many as...

Ifp unveiled on Thursday the nominations for the 25th annual Ifp Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Winners will be announced on November 30 at Cipriani Wall Street. A special Gotham Jury Award has gone to the ensemble cast of Spotlight.

“We congratulate this year’s nominated independent storytellers, who represent a richly diverse range of cinematic achievements that are bold, risk-taking, and beautifully crafted, ” said Joana Vicente, executive director of Ifp and the Made In NY Media Center.

The 2015 Ifp Gotham Independent Film Award nominations are:

Best Feature

Carol

The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (pictured)

Heaven Knows What

Spotlight

Tangerine

Best Documentary

Approaching the Elephant

Cartel Land

Heart Of A Dog

Listen To Me Marlon

The Look Of Silence

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Desiree Akhavan for Appropriate Behavior

Jonas Carpigano for Mediterranea

Marielle Heller for The Diary Of A Teenage Girl

John Magary for The Mend

Josh Mond for James White

Best Screenplay

Carol, Phyllis Nagy

[link...

Kicking off the onslaught of awards this year, as always, is the Gotham Independent Film Awards, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Usually a strong slate highlighting some of the year’s most overlooked films, 2015 is no different as The Diary of a Teenage Girl leads the pack with four nominations. Close behind is Carol and Tangerine with three each overall.

Other players in the category of Best Feature include Spotlight and Heaven Knows What, while some of my other favorite films of the year, including Listen to Me Marlon, The Mend, James White, Results, and Mistress America, were recognized. With a ceremony set for November 30, check out the full list below thanks to Variety.

Best Feature

Carol

Todd Haynes, director; Elizabeth Karlsen, Tessa Ross, Christine Vachon, Stephen Woolley, producers (The Weinstein Company)

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Marielle Heller, director; Anne Carey, Bert Hamelinck, Madeline Samit, Miranda Bailey,...

In today's roundup: Essays on Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blind Chance, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces, Wim Wenders's A Trick of the Light and actresses Rafaela Ottiano and Marceline Day; interviews with Pedro Costa (Horse Money) and John Magary (The Mend); the new trailer for Adam McKay's The Big Short, based on the book by Michael Lewis and starring Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt; and Clint Eastwood may lure Doris Day back in front of a camera. » - David Hudson...

In today's roundup: Essays on Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blind Chance, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces, Wim Wenders's A Trick of the Light and actresses Rafaela Ottiano and Marceline Day; interviews with Pedro Costa (Horse Money) and John Magary (The Mend); the new trailer for Adam McKay's The Big Short, based on the book by Michael Lewis and starring Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt; and Clint Eastwood may lure Doris Day back in front of a camera. » - David Hudson...

One of the best performances of the year so far comes from Josh Lucas, in the excellent, disturbing new film The Mend. In it, the actor plays the angry, rudderless Mat, who shacks up in his brother’s apartment after finding himself homeless. John Magary’s film avoids the pitfalls of typical odd-couple movies by playing with narrative and rhythm, and Lucas’s performance — alternating between aggression and avoidance — is a key part of the film’s unique effect. This is also an interesting development for the actor, who has had a career that spans big movies like Hulk, Poseidon, Sweet Home Alabama, and smaller ones like Undertow, Wonderland, and Hide Away. The Mend might be the smallest film he’s ever done, and certainly one of the most personal. He spoke to us recently about how he wound up in a microbudget movie, the challenges of doing such parts,...

One of the very best American independent films you’ll see this year, John Magary’s The Mend, takes what could have easily been a mundane tale of brotherly dysfunction and turns it into something abstract and electrifying. It tells you in its opening scenes the kind of movie it is — and the kind of movie it isn’t. In a few brisk frames, we see scruffy fuck-up Mat (Josh Lucas) get kicked out of his girlfriend Andrea’s (Lucy Owen) apartment right after having sex with her. We never learn why he’s been given the boot, because Magary jumps around these scenes with seeming abandon — skipping over what might have been, in a different film, important details. Then we see Mat’s straitlaced lawyer brother Alan (Stephen Plunkett), in his apartment, arguing with his girlfriend Farrah (Mickey Sumner), over … well, let’s just say it’s another matter of a highly sexual nature.

This rule-breaking film knows it’s far up its own ass, and that’s a well-suited tone for these troubled New Yorkers

There’s something special about being young, heartbroken and wasted in New York City, a place where a bona fide jerk has a grand canvas on which to paint his self-destructive portrait. John Magary’s inspired, unpredictable film The Mend is, in part, about this, but in a way that’s just tongue-in-cheek enough to keep it from going off the rails. When a random Manhattanite in a lover’s quarrel opens his windows and shouts, “Save me!” to a collection of disinterested people having brunch, it’s clear the film knows how far up its own ass it is. And for these characters, that’s perfect.

The film centres on two brothers in troubled romances. Stephen Plunkett is Alan, somewhat meek and sexually frustrated with his dancer...

Mysteries of Miseries: Magary’s Misanthropic Glance at Troubled Brothers

There’s a perverse pleasure to be had watching John Magary’s directorial debut, The Mend, if mostly for its formidable ability to keep its audience uncomfortable, on edge, and annoyed for such an extensive amount of time. It’s mostly shapeless narrative concerning two abjectly miserable brothers has the tendency to grate mostly because of laboriously drawn out sequences basically relaying the same information over and over again with only teases of tangential distraction. Because of this unpredictability, there’s a simmering energy to Magary’s scenario, as if we’re constantly waiting for an explosion that never quite transpires.

Many may find the film’s inability to clearly define what exactly is trying to be conveyed about human nature, familial obligation, heterosexual relationships, and inappropriate or dysfunctional behavior ultimately not worth their time. A meandering running time of...

This is a reprint of our review from the 2014 SXSW Film Festival. Sour, acidic leading characters in cinema are difficult to pull off. Audiences are already inured to charming, heroic protagonists and often repelled by their opposite. But Woody Allen managed unlikable characters for years, Noah Baumbach has successfully taken that mantle, Alex Ross Perry does a wonderful job of it in his latest film, and the delicate balance is usually either a charismatic lead that offsets the corrosiveness (Jason Schwartzman in “Listen Up Philip” for a very recent example), or a performance so unflinchingly committed and toxic they becomes utterly captivating (Nicole Kidman in “Margot At The Wedding” or Meryl Streep in "August: Osage County" for a recent example). First-time feature-film writer/director John Magary attempts this tricky feat with his debut indie "The Mend," and mostly misses the mark with irredeemable, unlikable and hopeless characters you don’t want to spend.

In today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum's interviews with Mark Rappaport and Béla Tarr and his review of Peter Watkins's La Commune (Paris, 1871); two new books on Stanley Kubrick, one on The Shining, the other on 2001: A Space Odyssey; reviews of Criterion's new release of François Truffaut's Day for Night; "Straight Outta Compton’s revisionist history"; interviews with Jerry Schatzberg, Lily Tomlin, Joe Dante and John Magary; a tribute to Mike Leigh; Christopher Nolan's admiration for Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay; a listener's guide to Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising—and more. » - David Hudson...

In today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum's interviews with Mark Rappaport and Béla Tarr and his review of Peter Watkins's La Commune (Paris, 1871); two new books on Stanley Kubrick, one on The Shining, the other on 2001: A Space Odyssey; reviews of Criterion's new release of François Truffaut's Day for Night; "Straight Outta Compton’s revisionist history"; interviews with Jerry Schatzberg, Lily Tomlin, Joe Dante and John Magary; a tribute to Mike Leigh; Christopher Nolan's admiration for Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay; a listener's guide to Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising—and more. » - David Hudson...

Hilarious, confrontational and compellingly disorienting, John Magary’s The Mend is one of the most striking independent films of the past couple of years. A SXSW ’14 standout, it reaches theaters this week with a run at the IFC Center in New York. Check out the trailer for this comedy of dysfunctional siblings and lost weekends, and return later this week for more on the film.

Hilarious, confrontational and compellingly disorienting, John Magary’s The Mend is one of the most striking independent films of the past couple of years. A SXSW ’14 standout, it reaches theaters this week with a run at the IFC Center in New York. Check out the trailer for this comedy of dysfunctional siblings and lost weekends, and return later this week for more on the film.

"Can we go get ice cream?!" The first trailer has premiered for an indie comedy called The Mend that is being presented in the Us by filmmaker David Gordon Green. The film is about two brothers who clash in a "tension filled house" when one returns home to find a bunch of squatters at his apartment. Josh Lucas stars along with Stephen Plunkett, Lucy Owen, Cory Nichols, Mickey Sumner and Louisa Krause. This actually looks better than anyone is probably expecting, and that's why it's worth taking a look at the trailer. There's an off-beat charm and yet still a brutal honesty to this, and I think that's what makes it oddly appealing. I'm not entirely sure. Definitely a festival film, but I'm intrigued enough to catch it. Fire this up. Here's the official UK trailer for John Magary's The Mend, direct from YouTube (via The Film Stage):...

One independent, long-undistributed film that’s been on my radar for the past year is John Magary‘s The Mend, a seemingly indescribable comedy-drama that’s nevertheless wowed those who’ve actually seen it. Because good things do sometimes happen, it’ll finally nab a (limited) U.S. opening at the end of this summer, David Gordon Green‘s stamp of approval […]...

Read More: Cinelicious Pics Acquires John Magary's Debut 'The Mend' Making his feature film debut, John Magary stunned audiences at last year's SXSW festival with his acerbic and strange sibling comedy, "The Mend." The film was especially noted for Josh Lucas' career-defining role as Mat, a volatile and self destructive man who attempts to build a stronger relationship with his more put-together brother, Alan (Stephen Plunkett.) Lucas' stellar performance as Mat has already stirred up some awards buzz, and showcases his ability to play complicated and difficult characters. The film unravels in three distinct acts, each part with its own stylistic and rhythmic uniqueness, which is already evident through the equally exclusive pulsating trailer. Check it out above, and catch a glimpse of the hilarity, drama and absurdity of "The Mend."  Read More: SXSW: Critics Select the Best Movies of the 2015 Festival...

The micro label behind pick ups such as Anurag Kashyap’s opus Gangs of Wasseypur and Josephine Decker’s first pair of films have wrestled down John Magary‘s feature debut. Cinelicious Pics will be presenting The Mend as a day and date release with David Gordon Green’s name officially wrapped around the title as presenter.

Gist: Starring Josh Lucas and Stephen Plunkett as brothers Mat and Alan, respectively, the film follows the pair as they reunite just as Alan leaves on a long-planned vacation with his girlfriend, Farrah. But when Alan returns home earlier than planned to find Mat, Mat’s girlfriend and her son have commandeered his apartment, tensions rise and a mystery emerges: why has Alan returned without Farrah?

Worth Noting: Josh Lucas starred David Gordon Green’s menacing and paint-eating thriller, Undertow.

Do We Care?: Selected in last year’s SXSW Narrative Comp, THR...