Hoke, New FX Series Set in Miami, to Hold Open Casting Tomorrow

Following in the footsteps of the much-anticipated Entourage movie and HBO’s Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson vehicle, Ballers, there’s another kid who wants to play in Miami’s muy caliente sandbox. FX Television’s Hoke, starring Paul Giamatti of Sideways fame, will soon film its pilot episode right here in South Florida. Chronicling…

The Four Good Things in I, Frankenstein

There are four good things we can say about I, Frankenstein, another muscles-and-rubble comic book adaptation just un-terrible enough not to alienate its core audience, yet never consistently grand or surprising enough to win over anyone else. First, Aaron Eckhart brings it, scowling like a champ beneath his jigsawed scar…

What Separates Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac from Porn?

Let’s start with the ending: the closing credits disclaimer that insists that none of the lead actors in Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac filmed penetrative sex. If there is real sex in the movie, and it sure looks like there is, it must have been done by one of the eight…

Miami Filmmaker Bernardo Britto Wins Sundance Animation Award

The Sundance Institute announced its winners in short filmmaking at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and Miami filmmaker Bernardo Britto came away with a prize. Britto’s short film Yearbook won the Short Film Jury Award: Animation at the awards ceremony. See also: Borscht Filmmaker Bernardo Britto Accepted to Sundance 2014…

Vanessa Hudgens Proves Truer Than Gimme Shelter

You can say this for the Disney teen machine: They sure know how to pick ’em. Vanessa Hudgens was 17 when High School Musical made her famous, the tail end of a generation of Mouseketeers that included her contemporaries Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez, and her elders Justin…

La Partida Is a Ferocious Havana Swoon

There’s hunger, and then there’s hunger, and every kind of both fuels the desperate young Cuban men who scrap through this nervy, sensual feature. The first hunger is the obvious one: Good food, like almost everything a family needs, isn’t easy to come by in late-era Havana, so husband and…

Lenny Cooke: From Basketball Wunderkind to Ordinary Guy

Ordinary life comes to look like a humiliation in the late reels of Lenny Cooke, yet another heartbreaker of a doc in which a compelling basketball story powers a discomfiting examination of a crisis facing young American men, so many of whom are encouraged to develop skills and interests having…

The Past Is Brilliant

Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi solidifies his status as one of cinema’s finest living dramatists with The Past, a superb followup to 2011’s Oscar-winning A Separation that again situates audiences amid interpersonal, familial, and household crises. Working from a script that incisively plumbs a thicket of logistical and emotional complications, Farhadi’s…

Big Bad Wolves: A Brutal Israeli Exploitation Flick

The publicity campaign for Big Bad Wolves, a nasty little revenge thriller from Israeli filmmakers Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, quotes Quentin Tarantino’s decree that it’s the “best film of the year.” Tarantino saw Big Bad Wolves at last year’s Busan Film Festival, where he reportedly showed up at a…

How Not to Make a Movie About Wynwood

How did Wynwood become Wynwood? The former warehouse district has become a favorite cultural crucible of our city, a focal point of Miami that rivals or perhaps even supersedes South Beach in the minds of much of the country. But when did all of this start adding up to Wynwood…

Is Sugar the New Cigarettes? Fed Up, a New Sundance Film, Thinks So

© Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSixty years ago, Fred Flintstone hawked Winston cigarettes. Today, he pitches cereal. And both can kill. Stephanie Soechtig’s rabble-rousing documentary Fed Up argues that it’s time to attack Big Sugar just like we successfully demonized Big Tobacco. Narrated by Katie Couric, Fed Up is the first…

Wes Craven on Why Horror Is Like Porn

Despite some reluctance, Wes Craven is a name-brand filmmaker. The phrase “Wes Craven Presents” comes with certain expectations thanks to the financial success of the Scream franchise and The Hills Have Eyes series before that. But what cemented Craven’s reputation is A Nightmare on Elm Street, a deathless cycle of…

Where to See the 2014 Oscar-Nominated Films in Miami

The 2014 Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, and if you’re a born-and-raised Miamian, you’re justifiably pissed. No love for local actor Oscar Isaac of Inside Llewyn Davis? Go home, Academy, you’re drunk. It’s enough to make you want to quit this awards season altogether. But if you’re a real movie…