I saw this film at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a small, quiet indie with that dark comedy vibe that I love. Starring Academy Award nominees Thomas Haden Church, Elisabeth Shue, and Melissa Leo, Don McKay has some interesting high points, but definitely comes alive once all twists reveal themselves at the end. I was thinking about this movie for days after I saw it. Don McKay will be in theatres on April 2.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, directed by one of the artist’s close friends, Tamra Davis. The film features never-before seen footage of the prolific yet troubled artist, just a couple of years before his untimely passing in 1988. Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child in its entirety was released on February 21st, 2010.

Film distributor GKIDS announced today that their award-winning and surprise Oscar nominated animated feature The Secret of Kells by director Tomm Moore will open theatrically at New York’s IFC Center on March 5, which is Oscar weekend.

This New York opening at IFC Center will be followed by a previously- announced opening in Boston on March 19 (tied into St. Patrick’s day for the Irish film), and an April 2 expansion to major US markets including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and others.

Last week, The Secret of Kells garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. The distributor’s word-of-mouth Oscar campaign capitalized on audience passion to create a groundswell of support for The Secret of Kells . The nomination is a major accomplishment for an independent feature in a year with many well-regarded commercial animated releases.

GKIDS President, Eric Beckman said, “We’re still reeling from the news of the Oscar nomination and are thrilled at the opportunity to open the film in New York over Oscar weekend. Audience reaction has been simply phenomenal and it is wonderful that New York families and animation lovers will be the first in the country to discover The Secret of Kells.”

Set in a quaint fishing community on the outskirts of New York City, City Island is a hilarious and touching tale about a family whose comfortable co-existence is upended by surprising revelations of past secrets and present day lies. Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspirations to his family, Vince would rather let his fiery wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an extramarital affair than admit he’s secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan.

When Vince is asked to reveal his biggest secret in class, he inadvertently sets off a chaotic chain of events that turns his mundane suburban life upside down. Inspired by the exercise, he decides to bring his long-lost ex-con son Tony (Steven Strait) home to meet the family, and it soon becomes clear that everyone—including his college student daughter (Dominik García-Lorido), teenaged son Vinnie, Jr. (Ezra Miller), charismatic acting partner (Emily Mortimer) and drama coach (Alan Arkin)— has something to hide. A perfect storm of deception, half truths and confusion makes Vince and his family members realize that the truth may not set them free, but it is easier to keep track of than all their well-intentioned white lies.

Official Movie Site

Many of us are from the planet called Brooklyn and the pride the we display is sometimes disturbing so it comes as no shock or surprise that there will be a documentary on one of the famous neighborhoods in the borough. The upcoming full-length documentary A Walk Through Fort Greene discusses the massive Black arts movement that began back in the mid 1980s all the way through the 1990s. The story is narrated by director Nelson George as he takes a look into the catalyst for the movement as well as its development and unfolding. Some influential entertainers make appearances including Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Rosie Perez, Vernon Reid, Carl Hancock Rux, Saul Williams, Lorna Simpson, Alva Rogers, Kevin Powell, and Bill Stephany among others.

Directors: Nelson George & Diane Paragas
Cinematography: Diane Paragas, Francisco Aliwalis
Music: Dreaming in Fort Greene by Poogie Bell
Producer: Nicole Nelch

Source: LTD MAG / Hypebeast

Photo Credit: FilmReelz

I’m not a big fashionista, so I don’t really know the extent of Tom Ford’s influence in the industry, but what I do know is this: Tom Ford is on the right track in shifting from fashion to film with his directorial debut, A Single Man. Based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel of the same title, the film takes place in the course of a day in the life of Southern California English professor, George Falconer, as he goes through the daily humdrum motions while dealing with the painful loss of his lover. Set in the 1960s, the film already establishes what sort of visual artistry Tom Ford can conjure up, owing to his exposure in the fashion and design worlds, and I think that works to his greatest advantage, in spite of some early feedback on how the film feels like a two-hour-long Gucci ad. (more…)

Kanye West addresses his prodigious inner demon in this video collaboration with director Spike Jonze. Special cameo appearance by Ibn Jasper. Read our Q&A with Ibn here. The short marks the second collaboration between the two, following the experimental music video to 2007’s “Flashing Lights.” The new clip features West portraying a drunken exaggeration of his public persona, embarrassing himself in a nightclub as “See You in My Nightmares” (a track from last year’s 808s & Heartbreak album) plays in the background. Eventually, West makes love to a stranger, vomits in a bathroom, and encounters a rat demon living inside of himself (a puppet resembling characters seen in Jonze’s latest no.1 film, Where the Wild Things Are).

Eleven Tales of Love in the City That Never Sleeps

It’s like making a quilt. You start with two patches that are different in size, color, or texture, and you sew them together. Then you introduce another patch - just as different as the first two - then another, and another, and so on. Out of each patch streams an original story or insight, beautiful in its own right, and worthy of its own evaluation. But it’s the collective unit of patches that is really special - the idea that all of these individual pieces can create a much larger story with a singular vision.

New York, I Love You is the second installment in the “Cities of Love” series. Producer Emmanuel Benbihy conceived of the idea of having several directors each make short films that would be weaved into a feature-length film, with love as the central theme for each short. The series, which began with 2006’s Paris, je t’aime, has transcended continents, finding its way to one of America’s most beloved cities. Benbihy stated, “I started with Paris because that is where I am from, but I always intended to do something similar for all the mythic cities, of which New York, of course, had to be a part.” (more…)

In theaters: November 13, 2009

In his most powerful performance to date, Ben Foster stars as Will Montgomery, a U.S. Army officer who has just returned home from a tour in Iraq and is assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. Partnered with fellow officer Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) to bear the bad news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers, Will faces the challenge of completing his mission while seeking to find comfort and healing back on the home front. When he finds himself drawn to Olivia (Samantha Morton), to whom he has just delivered the news of her husband’s death, Will’s emotional detachment begins to dissolve and the film reveals itself as a surprising, humorous, moving and very human portrait of grief, friendship and survival. Featuring tour-de-force performances from Foster, Harrelson and Morton, and a brilliant directorial debut by Oren Moverman, THE MESSENGER brings us into the inner lives of these outwardly steely heroes to reveal their fragility with compassion and dignity.

Official Movie Site

Barry Jenkins’ Tall Enough is a great short film on interracial relationships, something that is common as yellow taxis in NYC. The film is part of Bloomingdales Film Festival, BFlix. You may know of Jenkins through his film Medicine for Melancholy, which also touches on racial tension, a city’s division and general poverty as it was about romance. Tall Enough is also about a romance and race, but doesn’t have time to get heavy, so it’s just got the earnestness that made us such fans for Medicine for Melancholy, Jenkins’ genuine eye and love for romance. Check out the other short films at BFlix here.