Spotlight might be the ugliest film of 2015. It’s so wrapped up in its own aesthetic of reality—washed out faces that blend in with pale, drab wallpaper, garish orange furniture clashing with a painfully ordinary office—that you might cry foul that it’s meant for the big screen at all. Yet Tom McCarthy, the visionary director behind […]
Tomm Moore, Writer/Director of Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells
There is a certain magic to animation that allows filmmakers to bring our imagination to life. Even live action films depend on these techniques through CGI and other means to help us visualize fantastical versions of our own reality. This outlook drives Tomm Moore, one of the filmmakers behind The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014). After starting […]
Which Pixar Films Will Get Sequels?
No one’s happier than I am after hearing from Edwin Catmull that Pixar has recommitted itself to original films. To sum up, Catmull stated that Pixar’s current strategy is to release an original film every year, while releasing a sequel/prequel/etc. every other year. For example, Bob Peterson’s The Good Dinosaur, an original film, is coming out in 2014. […]
Is Story Still King? An Examination of Pixar’s Future
Among the fabled Pixar legends, which include the “Black Friday” Toy Story reel, the cancelled Newt project, and the reason why Cars 2 exists, there is the story of one quietly life-changing lunch. In 1994, a year before Toy Story came out and birthed the digital animation craze, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and […]
The Hobbit at 48 FPS
Update Peter Jackson has offered a short rebuttal to criticisms of the new format: “At first it’s unusual because you’ve never seen a movie like this before. It’s literally a new experience, but you know, that doesn’t last the entire experience of the film; not by any stretch, after 10 minutes or so. That’s a […]
Up with Chad and Søren (Archive)
This is from the archives, back when Movie Fail was just two high school kids and a computer. In this piece, Chad and Søren discuss Pete Docter’s Up, starring Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, and Jordan Nagai. Chad’s Verdict: Movie Win Søren’s Verdict: Movie Win Score: 90% Note: This review is not indicative of the format of future podcast reviews. Pre-2012 podcasts do […]
