Jurgen & Marcy's Independent Film Blog August 2007 Archive

The 75th Venice Film Festival opens today with the premiere of Joe Wright's Atonement. The film, adapted from the bestselling novel by Ian McEwan, features an all-star British cast including ... Read More

You may have heard about mumblecore: low-budget films by and about twenty-somethings talking, checking their email, and learning about life and love. This week, Benten Films releases LOL by Hannah ... Read More

Ethan Hawke directs The Hottest State, an almost charming adaption of his own first novel. Mark Webber and Catalina Sandina Moreno star as young lovers. With Laura Linney, Michelle Williams, ... Read More

Seven Samurai Edward Copeland on Film is running a survey to identify the Internet's favorite 25 non-English feature films. Jurgen was one of the motley group of 51 online critics and ... Read More

Hollywood censors strike again. Last year, Kirby Dick's documentary This Film Is Not Rated explored the arbitrary ways in which an anonymous board rated films. The documentary was a fine ... Read More

The third film by young independent director Joe Swanberg opens with Hannah (Greta Gerwig) naked in the shower and ends with Hannah naked in the bathtub. Both times, she ... Read More

New on DVD today: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (winner of the 2006 Best Foreign Film Academy Award), Zoey Cassavete's Broken English (don't be surprised in Parker ... Read More

Wide-eyed Michael Pitt and cynical-as-ever Steve Buscemi star in Tom DiCillo's charming look at the battle of celebrities versus papparazzi. Alison Lohman co-stars as an angel in a push-up bra. ... Read More

An uproarious comedy set at a proper English funeral? Frank Oz proves that it can and should be done. Death at a Funeral, starring Matthew Macfayden, Rupert Graves, Daisy ... Read More

"If you want to write your name into history, you have to pay the price!" Tough talk, befitting, perhaps, a general exhorting his troops before battle. Too bad it belongs ... Read More

It's unavoidable that the even-handed but alarming eco-documentary The 11th Hour will be compared to the Al Gore Oscar-winning global warming shocker An Inconvenient Truth, but climate change is only ... Read More

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis will close the 45th New York Film Festival as one of twenty-eight new films that will be shown from September 28 - October 14. ... Read More

Tenoch and Julio cared about drinking beer and getting laid. Y Tu Mama Tambien stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna have bigger concerns. The now famous Mexican actors and ... Read More

Because of the constant references to film as a medium, I was worried that seeing David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE on DVD would diminish the experience more than it usually ... Read More

Hal Hefner. He's smart. He's almost cute. He also stutters, badly. The awkward, verbally challenged teen (Reece Thompson) doesn't seem like a top candidate for his prestigious New Jersey high ... Read More

Christophe Honoré's follow-up to Ma Mere is a loving homage to the French New Wave that stays true to its own emotional core. Heartthrobs Louis Garrell (The Dreamers) and Romain ... Read More

To Bond or Not to Bond: rumor has it Abbie Cornish is the next Bond girl. Last year, Marcy named Cornish as one of the top five newcomers to look for ... Read More

Julie Gavras' Blame It On Fidel depicts a Parisian family's political evolution through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl. The tiny drama is one of the least sappy, most knowing ... Read More

Not to put too fine a point on it: Julian Jarrold's Becoming Jane is art house dreck, Victorian porn for American women. Anne Hathaway looks lovely in an empire ball ... Read More

Remember Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? The best thing about that movie (aside from the monkey brains) was the simple elegance of the plot. Indy’s in trouble, and ... Read More