ROCK THE KASBAH (2015, directed by Barry Levinson, 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Barry Levinson has unleashed what must be in the running for the worst-reviewed film of his career, a wartime Afghanistan romp with the Clash-inspired title Rock the Kasbah, starring Bill Murray as a washed-up rock tour manager sent to Afghanistan. You can see what drew excitement for the project; a chance for Levinson to tap into themes from his previous hits Good Morning Vietnam and Wag the Dog, a chance for Murray to poke fun at the military like in Stripes and a […]

  STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984, directed by Jim Jarmusch, 89 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Jim Jarmusch’s first widely-distributed film, 1984’s Stranger Than Paradise, is a Criterion-endorsed modern classic, often pegged as being a crucial cog in the birth of the American independent film movement. But how does it play today? You’ll get a chance to see how this seminal slacker comedy plays with an modern audience this Saturday when The International House on the UPenn campus runs the dryly-comic yarn as part of its celebration of films from art house institution Janus Films. It would seem dishonest […]

  HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: New details about Hail, Caesar! — the Coen brothers’ upcoming “musical comedy” — have been revealed, thanks to their oft-collaborators: composer Carter Burwell and sound mixer Skip Lievsay. During the “Dolby Institute: The Sound of the Coens” Master Class, part of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, Dolby director Glenn Kiser asked the two to describe the early parts of their process with directors Ethan and Joel Coen. “We’re doing one now,” said Lievsay of Universal’s 2016 release, with an ensemble cast that includes George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson and Jonah […]

  Final poster for HUNGER GAMES: Mockinjay 2 just released. You’re welcome.

  Eszter Balint, best known as the then-16-year-old star of Jim Jarmusch’s career-making, tide-changing, genre-defining 1984 indie flick STRANGER THAN PARADISE, has a new and quite good album out called Airless Midnight. Her acting career was revived recently when Louis CK cast her as his non-English speaking Hungarian love interest for six episodes of Louie. A few weeks ago Phawker conducted a comprehensive five-hour  interview with her. By her admission, it’s the most in-depth and revealing interview she’s ever done. Very interesting stuff. Her father was an celebrated experimental playwright in Hungary who fled to New York in 1977 when […]

MISTRESS AMERICA (2015, directed by Noah Baumbach, 84 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Director Noah Baumbach is back with his second release of 2015, showcasing the dare-I-say zany charm of his writing and romantic partner Greta Gerwig in their latest joint, Mistress America. This bittersweet comedy comes off as a continuation of their celebrated collaboration from 2012, the effervescent Frances Ha, although in their latest tale Baumbach and Gerwig seem to take her character to task for being the sort a ditsy flake with which today’s New York City will no longer abide. Where Frances Ha showed us […]

  PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: On East Somerset Street, in a clean and roomy paddock next to a tire shop, in the shade of a giant weeping willow, lives a fat and contented pony – the Pony of Port Richmond. His name is Albert, but everyone calls him Coco. Coco does not bite or kick. He is patient and gentle with the neighborhood children and the many passersby who stop to gawk, who abide by the sign on the tire shop’s gate: “Please, do not feed the animal (Horse). Thank You.” He does not flinch even when the cargo trains rumble past, […]

Due out in December, this movie will do for the NFL/concussions what 1999’s The Insider did for Big Tobacco/addiction: Let the genie out of the bottle and throw away the cap. Put on your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. SB NATION: Traumatic brain injury is the skeleton that the NFL has tried to keep in its closet for far too long. Now that’s coming to light on the brightest stage possible. Will Smith’s new movie Concussion will expose people who don’t care about football to the plights of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Smith plays Dr. Bennet […]

  Always take the initiative. There is nothing wrong with spending a night in jail if it means getting the shot you need. Send out all your dogs and one might return with prey. Never wallow in your troubles; despair must be kept private and brief. Learn to live with your mistakes. Expand your knowledge and understanding of music and literature, old and modern. That roll of unexposed celluloid you have in your hand might be the last in existence, so do something impressive with it. There is never an excuse not to finish a film. Carry bolt cutters everywhere. […]

  NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Speaking of genre, what is it about the Western for you? There aren’t many being made right now. QUENTIN TARANTINO: There are a few coming out. Antoine Fuqua is doing Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, so that’s one. Django did so well I’m surprised that there’s not even more. One thing that’s always been true is that there’s no real film genre that better reflects the values and the problems of a given decade than the Westerns made during that specific decade. The Westerns of the ’50s reflected Eisenhower America better than any other films of […]

BEST OF ENEMIES (2015, dir. by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, 87 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC With protesters in the streets and culture wars on the front burner in the U.S., the moment captured in Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s new documentary Best of Enemies crackles with modern parallels. It’s the tumultuous summer of 1968 and the country is polarized between two Presidential candidates, the non-charismatic replacement for the slain Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and the reactionary conservatism of former Red-baiter, Richard Nixon.  Desperate for ratings, the last place network, ABC decides to pair Left-leaning historian and […]