DOCTOR STRANGE (2016, directed by Scott Derrickson, 115 minutes, USA) BY RICHARD SUPLEE By now everyone knows what to expect from a superhero film. We get one every other month and they all follow the same pattern: A man suffers some tragedy, acquires impossible abilities, finds an enemy with similar abilities he has to fight to protect the world, and he saves the world. A love interest and (at least in the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) tons of sarcasm are usually sprinkled throughout. There are some minor variations (the man might be a god or a whole […]

THE GUARDIAN: The movie itself may yet be a different proposition, but this first full-length trailer is clearly on a mission to rekindle the passions of those who adored the first Trainspotting. McGregor is still harping on about lifestyle choices, but this time it’s our reliance on social media and porn that’s getting his goat. The sonic stun-gun that is Underworld’s Born Slippy gets a run out, and there’s a sense that Boyle will be doing his level best to recapture the wired, kinetic intensity of the original, complete with phantasmagorical segues and those sudden, thrilling instances of extreme violence. […]

AMERICAN HONEY (2016, directed by Andrea Arnold, 163 minutes, U.K./U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Writer/director Andrea (Fish Tank) Arnold’s perspective is apparent from the first frame of her immersive youth epic American Honey. Being a British director shooting in the U.S. for the first time, you might imagine that Arnold’s instinct would be to use the widescreen frame to capture those endless horizons of the American Midwest. But no, Arnold uses an unusually boxy 1.37:1 aspect ratio to tell her story, a story of young characters enjoying a rambling freedom but not necessarily endless possibilities. The film laces us […]

BIRTH OF A NATION (2016, directed by Nate Parker, 120 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’m surprised how often I’ve heard critics and commentators sigh about, “another Hollywood film about slavery.” Has Hollywood really exhausted the subject? The 1975’s potboiler Mandingo, Spielberg’s overly-stately Amistad, Jonathan Demme’s mishandled adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Tarantino’s leering Django Unchained and Steve McQueen’s 2013 Academy Award-winner 12 Years a Slave; I’d say that is five major efforts over the last forty years. Like the Jewish Holocaust, the era is ripe with raw emotions and dramatic possibilities, but like the American genocide of […]

Artwork by MR DEKS NEW YORK TIMES: Like those young men in a hurry, Edward falls under the sway of two antithetical father figures, a silky apparatchik played by Rhys Ifans, and an unbuttoned renegade played by Nicolas Cage. Drawn to intelligence work out of a sincere desire to serve his country, Edward is not immune to other attractions of the job. He likes the intrigue, the money (especially after he becomes a private contractor) and the feeling of being part of a select group of insiders who know how things really work. But he is not a figure of […]

GIZMODO: What you’re about to watch is a compilation of footage that shows what director George Miller actually shot on the set of 2015’s masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road. And you will be amazed at how much was actually done, practically, on set. You’ve heard stories about it but actually seeing it is simply incredible. MORE

  SULLY (2016, 98 minutes, directed by Clint Eastwood, 96 minutes) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The lean, squinty, man-of-few-words Clint Eastwood has had an affinity for pilots going back to one of his earliest roles, dropping the bomb on top of the giant spider in the 50s sci-fi classic, Tarantula. Those stoic figures, who hold the lives of others in the palms of their hands, fits right into mold of many of the characters Eastwood himself has played: stoic, solitary men who we can count on in dangerous times to get the job done. With the true story of […]

EMPIRE ONLINE: The product of four years’ work and more than 20 interviews with the man himself, David Lynch: The Art Life is an origin story, therapy session and celebration of the formative years of David Lynch. It’s making its bow at the Venice Film Festival this weekend, in advance of a date at the BFI London Film Festival, and has an exclusive new clip to share with Empire readers. This candid footage charts a young Lynch’s traumatic move from the serenity of Boise, Idaho to Alexandria, Virginia. He relates his sense of dislocation, charting the same edgier, unsettled mood […]

  Your childhood dies a little more every day. VARIETY: Gene Wilder, who regularly stole the show in such comedic gems as “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Stir Crazy,” died Monday at his home in Stamford, Conn. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83. The comic actor, who was twice Oscar nominated, for his role in “The Producers” and for co-penning “Young Frankenstein” with Mel Brooks, usually portrayed a neurotic who veered between total hysteria and dewy-eyed tenderness. “My quiet exterior used to be […]

  WIRED: One great irony of the German director’s newfound interest in technology is that, while Herzog may have mixed feelings about the Internet, the Internet has long had a special place in its heart for Herzog. William Pannapacker, an English professor at Hope College in Michigan, once spent a year watching Herzog’s entire oeuvre. “I started, almost beyond my control, doing imitations of things Herzog would say, in my daily life, in the voice, out loud,” he says. “I started thinking in Herzogian ways, and I felt like I needed an outlet for that.” Pannapacker set up a Twitter […]