Movies

Watch the "Shame" trailer with exclusive director commentary

Music

Watch an exclusive peek at the Chemical Brothers mystery footage

Movies

The Revenge of the Nerds: How the 80's movie foretold the rise of Geek Culture

Comedy

"Chapelle Show" co-creator Neal Brennan discusses race-sensitive comedy

anime

Games

The biggest achievement of the two "Mass Effect" games comes from the sprawling, richly populated universe that the action takes place in. Tons of details lay in wait, biding their time until intrepid players stumble upon them. Even if you leave aside the game's main story arc--player-created hero Commander Shepard's mission to stop a marauding machine race called the Reapers--BioWare's crafted a saga that's ripe for transmedia exploitation. There've already been novels, action figures and comics and talk of a movie deal has been a constant since "Mass Effect 1" came out in 2007. That deal's finally been struck, as READ MORE »

Movies

"Satoshi Kon was happy as an animation director."

Posted 08/26/2010 145 PM by Alison Willmore

The late Satoshi Kon's family has posted a heartbreaking final message from the anime director on his website. Blogger Makiko Itoh has translated the document, a selection from which is here: My biggest regret is the film "The Dreaming Machine." I'm worried not only about the film itself, but the staff who I was able to work with on the film. After all, there's a strong possiblity that the storyboards that were created by (our) blood, sweat and tears will never be seen. This is because I put my arms around the original story, the script, the characters and the READ MORE »

Movies

Groundbreaking Anime Director Satoshi Kon, 1963-2010

Posted 08/24/2010 320 PM by Alison Willmore

British site UK Anime Network is reporting that director Satoshi Kon passed away yesterday at age 46, apparently due to cancer. This marks the untimely death of the filmmaker second only to Hayao Miyazaki in making inroads for anime films both internationally and as weighty works of cinema worthy of serious critical consideration. From the 1998 Hitchcockian tale of a menaced pop idol "Perfect Blue" to 2001's look into the life of a aging performer "Millennium Actress" to 2006's saga of shared dreams (out-"Inception"ing "Inception") "Paprika," Kon was fond of exploring and blurring the lines between reality, memory and dreams. READ MORE »

Features

On Anime: An If/Then Guide to What You Should Be Watching

Posted 04/03/2009 1250 PM by John Lichman

Neophytes tend to have the same reaction when they're about to be introduced to anime or manga: "Is this the tentacle stuff?" It's amazing how a niche subgenre you'll likely never run across unless you're actively seeking it out in the deepest bowels of the Internet has become so notorious. The majority of anime out there exists in the form of TV series that -- despite a preponderance of over-endowed ass-kicking ninja women -- are far from a lewd free-for-all. Whether you're settling down with animation of the Japanese persuasion for the first time, or just looking to get a READ MORE »

Features

On Anime: Can Live-Action Adaptations Work?

Posted 03/06/2009 506 PM by John Lichman

There was a time when an introduction to anime meant grainy VHS tapes, glaring yellow subtitles and getting used to gratuitous violence and fan service. Box art plastered with magical sailor girls, bulky robots and shirtless heroes made it look more like you were purchasing fetish porn rather than glorified genre films. But for more than a decade now, anime has been working its way from obscurity to a recognized global art form that only began as a medium for kids. TCM aired Ghibli films, Hulu offers a swath of series both recent and classic, and, yes, IFC has also READ MORE »

Videos

Takashi Miike on "Yatterman"

Posted 02/10/2009 545 PM by Alison Willmore

Takashi Miike, the both famous and infamous director of such beloved family-unfriendly fare as "Audition," "Ichi the Killer" and "Visitor Q," takes a step toward the Japanese mainstream with his new film "Yatterman," which had its world premiere at this year's New York Comic Con. Starring pop star Sho Sakurai, the film's an adaptation of a late '70s anime series that pits a teenage couple against a thieving gang in a war of giant mechas. I got a chance to sit down with prolific filmmaker on the eve of "Yatterman"'s debut to talk about the films and how to deal READ MORE »

On DVD

On DVD: "My Father My Lord," "Takva"

Posted 12/23/2008 1024 AM by Michael Atkinson

By Michael Atkinson Just in time for the holidays, particularly Chanukah and Eid al-Adha (okay, that was a few weeks ago), here come two new Mideast films that quietly tear into the bilious, ruinous hypocrisies of fundamentalist religion. It's an ironic conflict from where we stand: nothing is as ripe and ready for the firing squad as reactionary religious discipline, and yet few social codes are as ubiquitous. What's more, they all somehow demand "respect." Outside of most neighborhoods in most American and European metropoli, you can hardly throw an Orwell paperback without hitting and infuriating a narrow-minded fundamentalist, and READ MORE »