Jurgen & Marcy's Independent Film Blog November 2003 Archive

Sad man William H. Macy brings bad luck in "The Cooler," a gritty gambling drama co-starring Alex Baldwin and Maria Bello. The film, which opens today, is getting advance buzz ... Read More

Our two top choices this week are French: Claire Denis' "Friday Night" concerns a lonely woman finding her way through Paris, and Patrice Leconte’s "Man on the Train," about a ... Read More

When David Cronenberg ("The Fly") adapted the life and work of Beat writer William S. Burroughs, the result combined the bizarre visions of both artists: strange drugs, giant talking bugs, ... Read More

Monumental buildings and intense family drama translated into big box office returns this week for Nathaniel Kahn's "My Architect." Playing on two screens, the documentary took in the highest per-screen ... Read More

All over the planet, strange and mysterious creatures set out upon arduous journeys: two small hobbits trek to Mordor and various flocks of birds fly to the Arctic every winter. ... Read More

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's second film (after "Amores Perros") is a doozy. Naomi Watts (pictured), Sean Penn, and Benicio del Toro star as three strangers whose lives become irrevocably bound through ... Read More

The soaring French documentary about birds in flight caused quite a stir at the independent box office. Now it is now available on DVD. But how do the spectacular images ... Read More

The ring, it's getting heavier: this week, the second installment of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is available in a special edition 4-DVD set with an extended cut ... Read More

In this lovely French film by Claude Berri, middle-aged divorcé Jean-Pierre Bacri finds solace with his irrepressible young housekeeper (Émilie Dequenne.) Can their improbable affair work out? Read the review ... Read More

World-renowned architect Louis I. Kahn designed some of the most influential buildings of the 20th century, but he died penniless in Pennsylvania Station and left three families behind. Kahn's son ... Read More

Rebecca Carroll wonders why "most independent films today – the filmmakers, the casts, the content and the industry as a whole – are all arrestingly white." Read her provocative essay ... Read More

Gus van Sant's school shooting drama "Elephant" tops indieWire's specialty box office with the highest per-screen gross of the week. "Shattered Glass," the journalistic morality tale about the renegade reporter, ... Read More

Responsible domestic care is one thing--but hallucinating exterminators and underage maids are problematic, as Claude Berri's "The Housekeeper" and Cronenberg's Burroughs adaptation "Naked Lunch" illustrate vividly. Also new this week: ... Read More

Take a look at our new section listing upcoming world and independent films, including Alejandro González Iñárritu's "21 Grams," Sylvain Chomet's "The Triplets of Belleville," and "Girl With A Pearl ... Read More

Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wei's follow-up to "In the Mood for Love," a sci-fi movie entitled "2046," is nearing completion, Variety reports. Four years in the making, the film features ... Read More

Threesome with Nazis: Rolf Schübel's award-winning love triangle, set in Budapest during the Second World War, tells the story of a melancholic song that drives listeners to suicide. Starring Joachim ... Read More

Think you watch too many movies? Compare and contrast your habits with this week's top pick "Cinemania," a documentary portrait of hopeless movie addicts by Stephen Kijak and Angela Christlieb. ... Read More

They say film is a visual medium--but then why do movie stars yak so much? From Oddjob to Silent Bob, from Chief Broom to Harpo Marx, here are the top ... Read More

Charles Busch takes his transgendered parody of Hollywood melodrama to the big screen complete with cheesy lighting, overwrought dialogue and back-projection car trips. But is "Die, Mommie, Die" any funny?