“Bad Teacher” aims to be the sister comedy to 2003's "Bad Santa," another one-joke, R-rated premise about supposedly kid-friendly people hating and cursing out kids, with hints of the more lighthearted “School of Rock” thrown in. But “Bad Santa” went all the way with its indecencies, and had an actual plot framed around them. And in “School of Rock,” the joke was that Jack Black’s teacher was the child, learning to shed his ego through his students’ sweetness.

Norwegian director Anne Sewitsky’s feature debut, originally titled “Insanely Happy,” (though there may be something lost in translation) is the story of a housewife who attempts to remain happy as her family is coming apart. Kaja is concerned because her husband doesn’t appear to love her anymore, her son is constantly irritated with her, and the bleak snowy landscape is starting to overcome her and her surroundings.

Director Chris Paine's "Revenge of the Electric Car" will be released this fall in a "non-traditional" distribution format by Area23a. The film will have both regular theatrical runs in large cities as well as some one-time screenings, and will expand to a larger market across the U.S. later this fall. "Revenge" premiered at Tribeca this year, and is slated to be the closing feature at this year's Silverdocs.

I was looking for some music on iTunes when, by some coincidence, I ran into the “Carnival of the Animals” suite by French romantic composer Camille de Saint Saëns. In fact, I was looking for some house music for my morning jog at the gymn.

The arrangement I found was by Barry Wordsworth and the London Symphonic Orchestra. The melodies had a pleasant, cinematic quality to them. The titles--“Kangaroos,” “People with long ears”—sounded as if they’d been lifted from Michel Gondry’s scrap book.

And then, the unpredictable occurred: “Aquarium,” the better-known piece from "Carnival of the Animals" came on the loudspeakers. I couldn’t believe it; this was the same music that’s been used by the Cannes Film Festival for the opening title sequence which plays before every screening (see video player below).

The same fairytale-like splendor, the whirlwind-like glissandos, it was all there—I was spellbound by it. Here I was, right back in my seat at the Lumière Theatre, waiting for the first screening to start.

The same day I contacted Gilles Jacob to ask him about this all came to be.

A New York investment banker for thirteen years, Ami Horowitz has turned documentary filmmaker and made what looks like a scintillating—but unforgiving--study of the United Nations’ position in world affairs. There is art after investment banking. What’s especially thrilling about Horowitz is that he seems to pour all his investment banker energies into his documentary, standing squarely in front of the camera and addressing us with poise and combative energy.

If you can imagine that without crawling into a mental fetal position, then you can imagine “Cars 2.” In this animated sequel from Disney’s Pixar studio, Owen Wilson’s neurotic race car Lightning McQueen turns over the keys to the two-ton four-wheeled village idiot Mater, the buck-toothed tow truck. Jar Jar, it’s your big chance!

New York-based photographer Taghi Naderzad recently shot a portrait of [...]