Category: Now Playing

December Now Playing: ‘We Are the Giant,’ ‘Difret,’ and more

With the announcement of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival program forthcoming, we round out this year’s slate of Sundance-supported films with a small but vigorous pair of theatrical releases – and a crop of Festival favorites coming to DVD and Blu-Ray in time for the holidays. Greg Barker’s We Are The Giant continues to gain pertinence with the ongoing detainment and trial of one of the film’s primary subjects, activist Maryam Al-Khawaja (read more here), while the Audience Award winner in World Dramatic Competition, Difret, finally brings its engrossing tale of abduction and forced marriage in Ethiopia to theaters.
In Theaters
Friday, December 12
We Are The Giant, directed by Greg Barker

Difret, directed by Zeresenay Mehari

DVD & Blu-Ray
Tuesday, December
Frank, directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Dead Snow 2: Red vs.

Read More »

November Now Playing: Happy Valley Deconstructs the Penn State Scandal

Before we turn our collective attention to a new season of independent film, a handful of releases from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival round out the year. Director Mona Fastvold’s unsettling drama The Sleepwalker, recently picked up by IFC, meditates on several fractured relationships forced to run their course in a secluded Massachusetts mansion, while Amir Bar-Lev’s Happy Valley provokes a far more disturbing variety of distress in its scathing deconstruction of the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State.
Below, check out all of the Sundance-supported films hitting theaters and coming to DVD and Blu-Ray.

Read More »

Festival Q&A: Kristen Stewart Stars as a Gitmo Soldier in the Taut Drama ‘Camp X-Ray’

First-time filmmaker Peter Sattler got the inspiration for Camp X-Ray, a gritty drama about soldiers watching over suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, after he watched documentary footage of a guard and a detainee discussing the books on a library cart.“It was the most surreal, absurd interchange I’ve ever seen in my life,” Sattler told the audience at the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere last January. “I saw this vision of a two-hander, one room-type of movie where these two characters just talk.

Read More »

#Twinning: Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig Play Estranged Siblings in ‘The Skeleton Twins’

Prior to its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, The Skeleton Twins had been billed as a non-comedy starring Saturday Night Live vets Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as estranged siblings. As it turns out, this description isn’t quite accurate. While the film is at times a very affecting and penetrating drama, it also contains as many genuine laughs as any “drama” in recent memory.

Read More »

September Now Playing: Memphis, The Skeleton Twins, and more

As we collectively lament the closing days of summer, a handful of new releases help usher in a promising fall season for indie film. The ever-enigmatic singer-songwriter Willis Earl Beal offers a captivating portrayal of a musician caught in the trap of creative inertia in Memphis, and Belle & Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch officially makes his foray into filmmaking with the pensive musical drama God Help The Girl. Bringing some levity to the month’s releases – though still sharp and thoughtful – is Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins, which tracks the reunion of estranged twins expertly played by Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig.

Read More »

August Now Playing: A Big-Headed Fassbender in Frank, Dinosaur 13, and The One I Love

How do we really know that it’s Michael Fassbender behind that lollipop-shaped fake head in Frank? Frankly (sorry), the evidence is equivocal – but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Beyond that playfully absurd film that casts Fassbender as a Daft Punk-esque musician (that is to say, full of enigma), August is a breakout month for Sundance films of all shapes and sizes. Fan-favorite and Audience Award winner Dinosaur 13 retains the childlike wonder of our dinosaur-loving days with a tension-filled documentary about the legal battle over the largest T-rex ever discovered, and indie film veterans Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss suffer through the throes of a combusting relationship in The One I Love.

Read More »

Now Playing: Obvious Child and Ping Pong Summer Round Out a Droll June

“Remember from before when we did sex to each other?” asks Jenny Slate’s character in Obvious Child, a rom-com redux that follows one crude comedian’s ungainly reaction to being “dumped up with.” After making waves in the NEXT section at this year’s Festival, Obvious Child makes its formal theatrical debut this month alongside another NEXT standout and charismatic ’80s throwback Ping Pong Summer. William Eubank’s The Signal offers a change of pace in the form of a striking sci-fi drama that delivers the tension of a classic hostage thriller, and there’s even more to discover in this month’s Now Playing blog.

Read More »

March Now Playing: Breathe In, The Raid 2, and more

Check out these Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival supported films hitting theatres, coming to DVD, or showing through #ArtistServices this month.
In Theatres
March 7
In Fear,  Directed by Jeremy Lovering
March 14 
Ernest & Celestine, Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar

March 21
It Felt Like Love, Written and Directed by Eliza Hittman 

Anita, Directed by Frieda Mock 
A Birder’s Guide to Everything, directed by Rob Meyer
March 28
Breathe In, Co-Written and Directed by Drake Doremus 

The Raid 2, Directed by Gareth Evans
DVD and On-Demand
March 5
Pit Stop (Netflix), directed by Yen Tan
March 18 
Kill Your Darlings, directed by John Krokidas
March 25
The Truth About Emanuel, Co-Written and Directed by Francesca Gregorini
#ArtistServices Netflix Launch
March 25
Breakfast with Curtis , directed by Laura Colella
Dear Mandela, co-directed by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza
The Happy Sad , directed by Rodney Evans
L.I.

Read More »