Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Despite flashes of inspiration, this sequel to the unexpectedly compelling Maleficent can't seem to get out of its own way.
Darren Aronofsky
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mother! (2017)
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Director, Writer
Brian Tallerico -
Noah (2014)
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Director, Screenplay
Matt Zoller Seitz -
Black Swan (2010)
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Directed by
Roger Ebert -
The Wrestler (2008)
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Directed by
Roger Ebert -
The Fountain (2007)
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Written and directed by
Roger Ebert -
Below (2002)
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Written by
Roger Ebert -
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
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Written and Directed by
Roger Ebert -
Pi (1998)
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Written and Directed by
Roger Ebert
* This filmography is not intended to be a comprehensive list of this artist’s work. Instead it reflects the films this person has been involved with that have been reviewed on this site.
Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: January 4, 2018
A packed column on the latest on streaming, DVD, and Blu-ray, including American Made, Brad's Status, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Stronger, The Mountain Between Us, and more!
Hitting the Mother Lode: The Oscar Race Embraces Its Maternal Side
A look at the contenders for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress this year and how many of them play a historically-beloved role for Oscar, the mother.
Cupid's Arrow Pierced My Tender Heart at the Movies
A report on some good films coming your way from Telluride and Toronto this year.
TIFF 2017 Preview: 20 World Premieres We Can’t Wait to See
A preview of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, which starts tomorrow.
Venice Film Festival 2017: “mother!,” “Jim and Andy”
The latest from Venice includes Darren Aronofsky, Jim Carrey, and Tony Clifton.
Venice Film Festival 2017: Restorations
A report on classic films restored and presented at this year's Venice Film Festival.
2017 Fall Movie Preview: 25 Films We're Excited About
The 25 films we're most excited to see during the fall of 2017.
Building a Mystery: Pablo Larraín on "Jackie"
An interview with director Pablo Larraín about crafting his fascinating historical drama "Jackie."
Bright Wall/Dark Room August 2016: "Sacred Texts and Ruined Childhoods: On Aronofsky's 'Noah'" by Lauren Wilford
An excerpt from the August 2016 issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room about Darren Aronofsky's "Noah."
TV Review: “Flesh and Bone” Sings Familiar “Swan” Song
Moira Walley-Beckett’s dreary STARZ series borrows many of its melodramatic clichés from Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.”
All Are Welcome: Religion at the Movies
An analysis of recent faith-based releases, including "God's Not Dead" and "Heaven Is For Real."
No Animals Were Harmed: The Unique Perspective of “White God”
May contain spoilers
A piece on the use of animals in film in light of "White God".
"Birdman" Wins Big at Independent Spirit Awards
A report from the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Terrence Malick's Cathedrals of Cinema: Excerpt from "Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema, Vol. 3"
An excerpt from Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema Vol. 3.
NYFF 2014: Help Us Out New York!
A piece on four films from the opening week of the 2014 New York Film Festival: "Heaven Knows What," "Seymour, an Introduction," "Stray Dog" and "Beloved Sisters."
Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: July 31, 2014
A piece on the best releases new to streaming services and Blu-ray in the last two weeks, including "Noah," "Scanners," and "Life After Beth."
thumbnails 5/7/14
The science, ethics and rubber suit of Godzilla; Ralph Bakshi on animation's past and future; Ellen Burstyn on acting and direction; what videogames taught movies.
Thumbnails 4/15/14
Moments in everyday life, captured; Hank Aaron's home runs turned into singles; Say Anything 25-years later; Examining Noah through a Jewish lens; A Silicon valley disaster.
One Year Later: Richard Roeper on Roger
Richard Roeper reflects on his long friendship and professional association with Roger Ebert.
Thumbnails 10/25/2013
American education is uneven rather than simply mediocre; what NYC sounded like in the 1920s; X bassist John Doe speaks; director Jeff Tremaine on pranking people; lousy films with great soundtracks.
Thumbnails 10/17/2013
Aranofsky, Paramount spar over "Noah"; parsing "Chungking Express"; why impassioned female leaders get a bad rap; Oliver Stone, Jamie Foxx to collaborate on MLK biopic; oh, and online we're all awful.
On the Subject of Movies and Pies: Passion of the Crust
Some of our contributors muse on pies in the movies. Yes, you read that right.
Through a swan, darkly
May contain spoilersMirrors and reflections have always been an obsession for filmmakers from all over the world - something that came as a result of the wealth of symbolism that they inspire, of course, but also of the psychological development all of us go through in order to recognize ourselves as individuals. (That led, for instance, to Jean-Louis Baudry's brilliant analogy of the film spectator as someone regressing to the "Mirror Stage" described by Lacan). From Buñuel to Hitchcock and from Fritz Lang to Tarkovsky, directors from different eras and different styles have used doubles as a thematic basis of one or more of their works -- but perhaps it has seldom been used so intensely and organically as in Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan."
A Master Emerges: Conrad Hall and "The Outer Limits"
• "The Outer Limits" (original series) is available on Netflix (DVD), Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video. • "In Cold Blood" is available on Netflix (DVD and Blu-ray) and Amazon Instant Video. • "Cool Hand Luke" is available on Netflix (DVD and Blu-ray) and Amazon Instant Video. • "American Beauty" is available on Netflix (DVD and Blu-ray) and Amazon Instant Video. • "Road to Perdition" is available on Netflix (DVD and Blu-ray).
by Jeff Shannon Eyes Wide Open: A Single Artist's Vision
Ask anyone who's devoted their life to the study and appreciation of movies and they can probably tell you exactly when they were "bitten by the movie bug," that moment of personal epiphany that sparked an all-consuming passion for what is arguably the greatest, most powerful medium of artistic expression.
In my case, it was Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" that literally changed my life. That's an influential milestone I share with many cinephiles who came of age in the 1950s and '60s, especially those "movie brats" (among them James Cameron, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg) who were drawn to imaginative visions of the future. Because I'd spent most of my childhood outdoors or casually enjoying Disney films and other kid-friendly fare, I didn't see Kubrick's visionary masterpiece until it played a return engagement at Seattle's glorious Cinerama Theater, in 1971, when I was nine years old.
(With its huge, curved Cinerama screen, the Cinerama is still the only theater in Seattle capable of showing "2001" as Kubrick intended. It exclusively hosted the film's original 77-week Seattle run beginning in April 1968, and the fully restored 70-millimeter print of "2001" had its world premiere there, appropriately enough, in 2001, two years after the aging cinema was purchased and beautifully renovated by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It's now one of only three theaters in the world -- along with the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles and the Pictureville Cinema in Bradford England -- equipped to exhibit three-panel Cinerama, requiring three synchronized projectors for the only seven films created in the three-strip Cinerama process, including 1956's "This Is Cinerama" and 1962's "How the West Was Won." Starting this week [Sept. 30th] and running through mid-October, Seattle's Cinerama is hosting a "70mm Festival" of 15 films, including "2001," that originally premiered there.)
Like no other film before it, "2001" opened my eyes to the power of a single artist's vision and led me to understand the supremacy of a great director. I didn't know it then, but I'd discovered the basis of auteur theory, and while it would be foolish to deny that film is (to echo that award-acceptance cliché) the most collaborative of all art forms, it's no contradiction to embrace the Kubrick quote that greets all visitors to kubrickfilms.com, Warner Bros.' authorized Kubrick website: "One man writes a novel. One man writes a symphony. It is essential for one man to make a film." (Disregard "man"; Kubrick would've been the first to include female filmmakers in his statement.)
The AFI Class of '92
May contain spoilersCall it a bloodbath. Not literally, of course, but it sure felt like one.
It was a Friday afternoon in late spring 1993 at The American Film Institute. The Class of 1992, which had pretty much killed itself making short films ("cycle projects") since starting the program in September, was waiting for a list. Dreading it, too. Because everybody'd known all year that of 168 "Fellows," as AFI calls them --- only 40 (or just 8 across 5 disciplines - directing, producing, cinematography, editing, production design) would be invited back, making that coveted Second Year cut for the opportunity to produce a second year film.
A top secret selection committee debated late into the day. Even I, then Special Projects Coordinator and right hand to the Dean of Studies, didn't know who was meeting. There was tension everywhere, clinging like the humidity of a Midwestern summer, as the committee decided, and the Fellows waited.
