Film Festivals

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Sundance 2011 - Morgan Spurlock Takes Aim at Marketing in Latest Documentary

by AMC News on Jan 31 2011
Sundance 2011 - Morgan Spurlock Takes Aim at Marketing in Latest Documentary
Director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) stopped by the AMC News studio at the Sundance Film Festival (wearing his Technicolor logo-coat) to discuss his new documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, which premiered in the festival's newly created Documentary Premieres section.
 
In his very "meta" documentary, Spurlock looks at the world of marketing, advertising and, specifically, product placement in entertainment...all while financing the film with marketing, advertising and product placement tie-ins.
 
AMC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff sat down with Spurlock -- both were executive producers of the AMC News documentary special Committed -- to talk about how the director made and financed the film, which, thanks to a festival opening day purchase by Sony Pictures Classics, will hit theaters in April. 
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Film Festivals

Video - Checking In With the Stars of Sundance 2011

by AMC News on Jan 27 2011
Video - Checking In With the Stars of Sundance 2011
AMC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff is out in Park City, Utah, taking in the whirlwind of screenings and soirees that make up the Sundance Film Festival. He's been checking in with the talent behind some of the fest's most-buzzed-about films. In this first clip, Jacob talks with the cast and director of the new Ed Helms-John C. Reilly comedy, Cedar Rapids, about what brought together the unlikely gang of characters in the film. Watch the clip and then click through for footage of Jacob's interviews with Sundance revelers like Paul Giamatti, Morgan Spurlock, and others. more »
Video

TIFF 2010 - Ryan Reynolds Lit Many of His Own Scenes in Buried

by AMC News on Sep 20 2010
TIFF 2010 - Ryan Reynolds Lit Many of His Own Scenes in Buried

The new Ryan Reynolds suspense-thriller, Buried, is the little film that could. Shot for a minuscule $2 million in Spain over the course of seventeen days by director Rodrigo Cortés, it tells -- in real time -- the 94-minute story of how truck driver Paul Conroy (Reynolds) attempts to free himself from a coffin buried underground in Iraq.

The film had its world premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it screened at midnight for a sold-out crowd, part of which had waited six hours in line. Shortly afterward came a flood of reviews and a $3.2 million distribution deal with Lions Gate. Since then, the film has slowly been building momentum with several mysterious promotional trailers and select public screenings at the Deauville American Film Festival in France and the just-wrapped Toronto International Film Festival.

AMC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff sat down with Reynolds and Cortés in Toronto to discuss how they shot the claustrophobic film. Seven coffins not much longer than Reynolds's height were used during filming. Lighting them was primarily accomplished by Reynolds with the items he had inside -- a lighter, a cell phone, glow sticks, and a flashlight. Reynolds joked that he was also part of the lighting department in addition to his acting role in the film.

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Video

TIFF 2010 - Carey Mulligan Talks Science-Fiction Metaphors in Never Let Me Go

by AMC News on Sep 20 2010
TIFF 2010 - Carey Mulligan Talks Science-Fiction Metaphors in Never Let Me Go

Donation. Completion. These are the unsettling science-fiction elements that anchor the story in the new film Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo).

Adapted by Alex Garland from the 2005 best-selling novel by Remains of the Day author Kazuo Ishiguro, the film features actors Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield as teenage friends who are leaving the shelter of their sinister boarding school for the next phase of their doomed lives.

In our interview with Mulligan at the Toronto International Film Festival, AMC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff asked the actress about the importance of the science-fiction through line. Earlier this month, Romanek told the Los Angeles Times that he wanted it to be relatable but "never wanted it to be a science-fiction film in terms of its being fantastical." Mulligan said the science fiction in the story is more of a metaphor for the relationships between the main characters and the world around them.

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Video

TIFF 2010 - Toronto Films You'll Be Talking About During the Upcoming Awards Season

by AMC News on Sep 20 2010
TIFF 2010 - Toronto Films You'll Be Talking About During the Upcoming Awards Season

Over the years, the Toronto International Film Festival has become the place where Hollywood unveils its Oscar hopefuls. Films like Juno, Precious, and eight-time Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire all began their road to the red carpet at Toronto.

During our time at this year's fest, the AMC News team caught a number of buzzed-about films like Never Let Me Go, The Debt, and Black Swan as we prepared to shoot our upcoming AMC News special (airing this Friday night). Since we couldn't see all of the fest's most popular films, our correspondent Jacob Soboroff sat down with journalists Nicole LaPorte from the Daily Beast, Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly, and Steven Zeitchik from the Los Angeles Times to get their takes on which Toronto pics will most likely make it to the Oscars.

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Film Festivals

Tribeca Roundup 2010 -- Lola, The Killer Inside Me, The Trotsky, and More

by AMC News on May 10 2010
Tribeca Roundup 2010 -- Lola, The Killer Inside Me, The Trotsky, and More

The 2010 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival featured a few films of note, and even one genuine work of art -- but that wasn't the story that was being sold. As the film's promotional material pressed, this was the year that Tribeca was coming to your home, thanks to the relatively new video-on-demand method of film distribution. But did this year's fest feel revolutionary? Well, not on that front -- but there were plenty of intriguing movies to keep things lively. Here's how a batch of the buzziest fared.

Lola 4-star-rating.gif
In the ninth feature by the prolific Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, two grandmothers, played with majestic presence by Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio, square off over the slaying of one's grandson over a cell phone in typhoon-ridden Malabon. Sentimentality is noticeably and thankfully subdued as the lola (slang for "grandmother") of the guilty party (Carpio) borrows money and sells off possessions to make an offering to the victim's grandmother (Linda). That isn't to say that the film doesn't deal a devastating emotional blow: Mendoza continues a staggering streak of personal, politically, and morally complex films centered on lives on the fringes in his native country. None of Lola's images are as shocking as a real-time rape-murder-dismemberment (Kinatay) or as grotesque as the popping of a boil (Serbis) but, as a whole, it is the strongest film yet from an immensely talented and important director. It was one of the best films shown at Tribeca this year. - Chris Cabin

No Woman, No Cry 4-star-rating.gif
Though some might dismiss a first documentary by Christy Turlington Burns, a woman better known for her yoga body and fantastic cheekbones, No Woman, No Cry begs for deeper consideration. The film succeeds by focusing on both the health care providers and the women themselves who are faced with difficulties in delivering children all over the world. Whether looking at developing communities like Bangladesh or first-world cities like New York, No Woman examines the universal factors that contribute to high maternal mortality rates. In examining the definitions and customs of motherhood on a global scale, this affecting documentary deftly pleads for maternal and newborn care to be considered a basic human right. - Rachel Gordon

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Film Festivals

Tribeca Film Festival - Amanda Seyfried Reveals Link Between Letters to Juliet and Shakespeare's Play

by AMC News on May 4 2010
Tribeca Film Festival - Amanda Seyfried Reveals Link Between Letters to Juliet and Shakespeare's Play

AMC News talks with Amanda Seyfried about the classics connection in her new film Letters to Juliet (which premiered last week during the Tribeca Film Festival).

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