Film – motto.media

Bad News for Movie Lovers: FilmStruck Streaming Channel Fading To Black

Patrick Hipes and Dade Hayes report: WarnerMedia said Friday it is shuttering FilmStruck, its subscription streaming service that offers indie movies and prestige titles that are part of the Criterion Collection. The AT&T entertainment content [...]

The Criterion Collection Presents: Donald Fagen’s Top 10 Film List

“It’s silly to choose ten, but okay!” wrote Donald Fagen, the American songwriter and musician best known as the cofounder and lead singer of Steely Dan, when presented with the task of picking his favorite titles in the Criterion Collection. [...]

[VIDEO] 1960s Vintage Film: The Home Of The Future: Year 1999

Joe Blevins writes: Trying to guess what the future will be like is almost always a losing proposition. Every correct prediction will be inevitably accompanied by many more wrong ones. Still, it’s fascinating to revisit a bit of cultural ephemera [...]

Legendary Film Composer Ennio Morricone’s Melodies Beyond the Gunshots

Remember the showdown in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?” Well Ennio Morricone, one of the world’s greatest living composers, wants you to tear your eyes away from the film’s gunslingers and listen instead. “In the [...]

[VIDEO] Ann Hui on the Spark Behind Wartime Film ‘Our Time Will Come’

Ann Hui’s Our Time Will Come portrays a chapter in the history of Hong Kong’s wartime-era. In 1941, at the height of the Pacific War, Japanese forces took Hong Kong and unleashed offensive against cultural figures. The anti-Japanese Dongjiang [...]

Sofia Coppola: Do Audiences Still Want to Look Through Her Gaze?

Owen Gleiberman writes: Is Sofia Coppola ever going to take it to the next level? The answer may be no, and that could be fine. I consider myself a Coppola fan (though I didn’t care much for “The Beguiled”), and part of me thinks that she’s [...]

[VIDEO] Louis C.K. Releases LGBT Gang Documentary ‘Check It’

Dave McNary reports: Louis C.K. has made a move into movie distribution, releasing the gang documentary “Check It” through his website. “Check It,” which is executive produced by Steve Buscemi, follows the members of black gay gang in [...]

Diane Keaton Joins ‘Hall’ of Legends Feted With Famed Film School Honor

Malina Saval writes: Perhaps no living actress possesses more cinematic cool than Diane Keaton. From her iconic Oscar-winning turn as Woody Allen’s ditsy shikse conquest in “Annie Hall,” trilling “la-di-da” and inspiring an entire [...]

Cannes Film Review: ‘Becoming Cary Grant’

Cary Grant’s inner life, including his experiments with LSD, is a ripe topic for a documentary, but this one trips along the surface. Owen Gleiberman writes: “Becoming Cary Grant” is a catchy title for an inside Hollywood documentary. It [...]

LIVE: Cannes Film Festival 2017 Winners Announced

Cannes: ‘The Square’ Takes Palme D’Or; Sofia Coppola Best Director; Acting Honors For Joaquin Phoenix & Diane Kruger. UPDATED: After being snubbed by the Academy in 2015 when his lauded (and Un Certain Regard-winning) Force Majeure did [...]

Crime Film ‘Trivisa’ Takes Top Prize at Hong Kong Film Award

Live broadcast of award ceremony was blocked in mainland China when Trivisa, which is banned there, was mentioned at the presentation (source: scmp @ 10 apr 2017) Hong Kong crime film Trivisa – which is banned in mainland China – scooped the [...]

Happy Birthday Francis Ford Coppola

“The things you get fired for when you’re young are the same things you get lifetime achievement awards for when you’re old.” Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a [...]

In Honor of Roger Ebert

Professor of Film History Reflects on the Film Critic Who Changed His Life. Jeffrey Overstreet writes: In 1975, Roger Ebert was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. “We started up an email friendship,” says Todd [...]

When Kodak Accidentally Discovered A-Bomb Testing

Two thousand miles away from the U.S. A-bomb tests in 1945, something weird was happening to Kodak’s film. Matt Blitz writes: The ground shook, a brilliant white flash enveloped the sky, and the world changed forever. Code [...]

100 Performances Oscars Forgot

Originally posted on Filmotomy:
RE-POST – Originally Published September 2015. As we get sucked into the awards season vacuum again, I grabbed hold of a [...]

R.I.P. IMDb Message Boards, 2001-2017

Upon the closing of the IMDb message boards, we take a look at what we’ve lost. Tara Yarlagadda writes: Legions of online film fans wept as the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), the most popular film and TV review site with upwards of 250 [...]

Global Movie Posters for Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’: Japan, Italy, Poland & Beyond

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo might have been a critical disappointment when it came out in 1958, but it definitely had one of the most eye-catching poster designs in cinema history. The poster was designed by Saul Bass who also did the [...]

[VIDEO] Daffy Doc: ‘Going Crazy’, 1938

The Daffy Doc is a 1938 animated short subject directed by Bob Clampett starring Daffy Duck and featuring Porky Pig. Plot: In this short feature by Bob Clampett, the story takes place at the Stitch in Time Hospital where their motto is [...]