In “Black Flies” the full-frontal reality of two nighttime paramedics grabs you at the throat and doesn’t let go. The new Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire film is an infernal ride of double-shifts and bullying and death into the belly of the beast, the film pops, hits hard, the image is jumpy, the screams are loud, it’s a pressure-cooker, I came out of there traumatized and a little shaken. This is not the ... more >
ARCHIVES
Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan as two paramedics in the eye of the storm in “BLACK FLIES” | Cannes
Brooklyn, New York like you've never seen
Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan
Directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
THE LAST FACE at the CANNES FESTIVAL
Film was written by Erin Dignam
The score was composed by Hans Zimmer
Produced by Bill Gerber and directed by Sean Penn
"The Last Face," starring Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem and Adèle Exarchopoulos and directed by Sean Penn, premiered in Cannes this morning. In this romance drama juxtaposed with a humanitarian action story Theron plays the director of an international aid agency who meets a Doctors Without Borders doctor (Bardem), as an armed conflict in Liberia drifts into full-on civil war. The topic of a ... more >
PHOTOBOOK: Sean Penn in THE GUNMAN
Coming in March
[Thriller]
Sean Penn, there's an actor with range. This time around, Penn will morph into an action hero for the upcoming film "The Gunman," directed by French filmmaker Pierre Morel ("Taken"). The Oscar-winning actor ("Mystic River" and "Milk") plays a former gun-for-hire who used to be on the government's payroll and who now wants to out the truth about his employers' business practices. His decision will ... more >
Actors should stick to acting
But thankfully they don't.
In a past issue of the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town, actor Ted Danson talks to Elizabeth Kolbert—the magazine’s environment expert—about his work in the field of oceanography and marine conservation. He talks about the protection of oceans and marine life, about his concern over the fact that a year after the BP oil spill, offshore drilling is again being promoted. (Though why he should be ... more >
Tree of life
Making sense of the unmakingsensable
For the last twelve months the film world rallied behind one unifying cause: seeing Terrence Malick's “The Tree of life” into a major film festival. Last year's failure to complete the film in time was deemed a disappointment by many and its absence, first from Cannes and then from Venice, was difficult to swallow. And yet, even though I was myself disappointed, I couldn't help feeling a bit of ... more >
Fair game
Wife. Mother. Spy.
Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Sonya Davison
Directed by Doug Liman
Just when the recession was starting to make the Iraq war feel like a blip director Doug Liman’s (he previously directed "Bourne Ultimatum") “Fair Game” brings us more fresh outrage, this time going through the details of how the government dragged a CIA agent and her do-gooder husband through the mud. They are, of course, Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) and Joe Wilson (Sean Penn). Beginning shortly ... more >
Milk
Gus Van Sant succeeds at bringing him to life
Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch
Directed by Gus Van Sant
I was apprehensive when I went to see the new Gus Van Sant movie, since Paranoid Park had left me quite a delible impression on me. But let there be no questions about it, Milk--an undiluted view of a man's struggle against all odds and the riotous events which shaped his rise to success--is a triumph. This is a film which makes writing a review either too easy or too difficult--its faults are ... more >