Jocelyn Towne is the latest actor to wear a number of different hats on a movie with her new feature film, I Am I. Not only did she write, executive produce and direct, but she also stars in the movie as Rachael, a young woman mourning the death of her mother when she becomes reacquainted with her estranged father, Gene (played by Kevin Tighe).
Land Ho! is one of the more amusing and thoughtful films to release during the 2014 summer movie season. It stars Earl Lynn Nelson and Paul Eenhoorn as a pair of ex-brother-in-laws who were once close friends but ended up drifting apart through various circumstances. They find themselves dealing with aging and loneliness as their wives have long since left them, and in an effort to reclaim their youth, they decide to take a vacation together to Iceland. What looks like your typical odd couple road movie becomes an engrossing study of two people facing down their personal adversaries and regrets while taking in the amazing sights that Iceland has to offer.
For moviegoers and critics alike, Steve James’ documentary Life Itself is a very special film, as it looks at the life of world famous movie critic Roger Ebert. Based on the memoir of the same name, James takes us back to the beginning as we see how Ebert became the head film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, how his relationship with Gene Siskel evolved, and how the loss of his voice made him all the more prolific as a writer.
Earth to Echo marks the feature film directing and screenwriting debuts of Dave Green and Henry Gayden. A throwback to classics like E.T. and The Goonies, where it’s up to the children to save the day without any help from the adults, we follow three youngsters whose families are being forced out of their homes due to highway construction. As they are packing to move, they start receiving strange messages on their cell phones, leading them to ride their bikes out into the middle of nowhere. They eventually come across a small, friendly alien who's stranded on Earth and is looking for a way back home.
Brenton Thwaites is an actor who's about to explode in Hollywood. With roles in Oculus, Maleficent and The Giver, he is certain to become one of the breakthrough stars of 2014. However, one of the best movies that he's done this year is The Signal, a science fiction thriller in which he plays MIT freshman Nick Eastman.
Leave it to actress Lin Shaye to take a small role and make it one of the best and most memorable things in a movie. That’s certainly the case with The Signal, in which she plays Mirabelle, a character who speaks gibberish but knows more than she is letting on. Many actors would have just played this character as a complete loon, but Shaye saw more in Mirabelle and imbued her with a beauty and an intelligence that makes her completely unforgettable.
With Non-Stop arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this week, Universal Pictures held a rather special press day at Air Hollywood, "the world's premiere aviation-themed studio." In attendance was director Jaume Collet-Serra, who was more than happy to talk to journalists about his recent thriller starring Liam Neeson.
Clark Gregg is most well known for his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. Executive Director Phil Coulson from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with his latest film, Trust Me, he reminds us that he can be a real triple threat. Not only does he star in the movie as Howard Holloway, a Hollywood agent for child actors, but he also wrote and directed it just like he did with Choke.
The Sacrament is the latest horror film from writer/director Ti West, and while on the surface it may look like your typical found footage flick, it's far from "typical." The film follows fashion photographer Patrick (Kentucker Audley) and his reporter friends from Vice, Jake (Joe Swanberg) and Sam (A.J. Bowen), as they travel to a commune out in the wilderness called Eden Parish. It's there that Patrick is reunited with his sister Caroline (Amy Seimetz), who joined the commune after leaving rehab. Though it seems like an ideal place to live at first glance, as Patrick and the Vice reporters begin to talk with members of Eden Parish, they come to discover a sinister edge that doesn’t jive with the peaceful setting they were welcomed into.
Writer, cinematographer and director William Eubank showed us with his previous film Love that he has a very strong and distinct visual style. Now, he's showing off that style again with his latest film, The Signal. Starring Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke and Beau Knapp, the plot follows three young kids who travel to an isolated place in the Nevada desert in order to find a hacker named Nomad. Once there though, they lose consciousness and find themselves in a confined area being studied by scientists in hazmat suits. Eventually, they realize that they are part of a plot that is much bigger than any of them could have ever imagined.
