The PopMatters Film Blog 2013-05-23T12:23:08Z Copyright (c) 2013, PopMatters.com ExpressionEngine tag:popmatters.com-short-ends-and-leader,2013:05:23 tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171765 2013-05-22T16:00:00Z 2013-05-22T16:00:00Z David Maine Welcome to our weekly field guide to 1950s horror and sci-fi movies and the creatures that inhabit them. This week: little tiny critters grow up to be great big monsters in THEM! ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171630 2013-05-20T15:00:00Z 2013-05-20T15:00:00Z Bill Gibron Just a reminder that revamping the Star Wars universe won't be as simple as tackling the once tired Star Trek franchise. One's for thinkers. The other's for doers. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171587 2013-05-17T21:00:45Z 2013-05-17T21:00:45Z Bill Gibron You have to give Hating Breitbart credit. No other film on the subject would be as slavishly non-objective as this one. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171588 2013-05-17T20:20:00Z 2013-05-17T20:20:00Z Dorothy Burk Vasquez Chinese orphan Mei-Mei and her Australian sponsor, Dean Randall, have communicated throughout postcards for years. When Mei-Mei visits Australia with the children's choir she helps direct, she discovers the truth about her sponsor and even more about herself. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171561 2013-05-17T13:10:00Z 2013-05-17T13:10:00Z Bill Gibron In this spoiler heavy overview of the new Star Trek film, we discuss how the fanboy nation is gnashing its teeth over what J.J. Abrams and company have wrought. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171301 2013-05-16T15:10:00Z 2013-05-16T15:10:00Z David Maine Welcome to our weekly field guide to 1950s horror and sci-fi movies and the creatures that inhabit them. This week: a one-woman invasion force strikes Scotland in Devil Girl From Mars. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171503 2013-05-15T17:00:00Z 2013-05-15T17:00:00Z Bill Gibron The saving grace of many dysfunctional family films is finding the universality in the truly insular. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171456 2013-05-14T13:10:00Z 2013-05-14T13:10:00Z Bill Gibron Some of the best actors working today hail from the UK. Here are our choices for 10 of the very best. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171386 2013-05-13T14:00:00Z 2013-05-13T14:00:00Z Bill Gibron Paramount's decision to not screen Star Trek: Into Darkness for critics signals a troubling turn of events for the film industry. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171372 2013-05-10T19:32:37Z 2013-05-10T19:32:37Z Bill Gibron Renoir is one of those movies where all the pieces are in place for something intriguing and insightful. To that end, the film fails. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171351 2013-05-10T15:00:00Z 2013-05-10T15:00:00Z Bill Gibron (T)he filmmaker fashions an experience where nothing is what it seems, where the first 25 minutes or so see more twists and turns than in a dozen derivative fright flicks... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171354 2013-05-10T12:30:00Z 2013-05-10T12:30:00Z Bill Gibron With its leisurely pace and lengthy run time, Lore will make those expecting a quick and easy indictment of the entire postwar world unhappy. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171238 2013-05-10T08:25:00Z 2013-05-10T08:25:00Z Bill Gibron Luhrmann's Gatsby may be the most boisterous downer ever put to film. By playing up the highs, the director increases the depth of the lows. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171272 2013-05-09T14:00:00Z 2013-05-09T14:00:00Z David Maine Welcome to our weekly field guide to 1950s horror and sci-fi movies and the creatures that inhabit them. This week: an island haven turns into a horrible nightmare in Terror Is a Man. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171210 2013-05-08T16:00:00Z 2013-05-08T16:00:00Z Cary O'Dell Aging actors paired with significantly younger female co-stars? It's nothing new for Hollywood. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171165 2013-05-07T14:00:00Z 2013-05-07T14:00:00Z Ben Travers Some classics are timeless solely for their quality, but The Great Gatsby carries remarkable relevancy for today's audiences. Can Baz Luhrmann make a film worthy of the great Gatsby name? ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171164 2013-05-06T14:00:00Z 2013-05-06T14:00:00Z Bill Gibron Our choices for five Summer films that (probably) won't live up to expectations, artistically or commercially. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.171043 2013-05-03T16:00:00Z 2013-05-03T16:00:00Z Bill Gibron As a modern commentary, as a piece of pop culture popcorn pizzazz, Shane Black has started the Summer 2013 season off well. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170850 2013-05-02T14:00:00Z 2013-05-02T14:00:00Z David Maine Welcome to our weekly field guide to 1950s horror and sci-fi movies and the creatures that inhabit them. This week: humanity reels from a threat it can’t see in Invisible Invaders ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170938 2013-05-01T16:00:00Z 2013-05-01T16:00:00Z Bill Gibron Late to the party when it comes to Ms. Swinton, this is my mea culpa for not recognizing her greatness before now. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170641 2013-04-30T15:00:00Z 2013-04-30T15:00:00Z Bill Gibron After a less than promising start, Spring 2013 redeemed itself, sort of. Here's Short Ends and Leader's choices for the five best, and worst, films of the January through April movie malaise. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170822 2013-04-29T17:00:00Z 2013-04-29T17:00:00Z Bill Gibron Aside from the obvious one. Duh. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170823 2013-04-26T21:00:45Z 2013-04-26T21:00:45Z Bill Gibron After nearly a decade in the DVD wilderness, Jim VanBebber's incredible The Manson Family is being roadshowed around the country. In this interview, the filmmaker talks about his past, his present, and his propensity for film. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170776 2013-04-25T19:15:54Z 2013-04-25T19:15:54Z Bill Gibron (This movie is) Michael Bay talking down to his audience, addressing previous criticisms about excess and hyperbole by offering equal amounts of both. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170719 2013-04-24T16:00:00Z 2013-04-24T16:00:00Z Bill Gibron The rocker turned filmmaker is just as genuine, and just as good, as his Oscar winning counterpart and for many of the same cinematic reasons. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170640 2013-04-23T14:14:00Z 2013-04-23T14:14:00Z Bill Gibron Think Hong Kong and Taiwanese cinema is all martial arts and crime movies? Well, that's part of its allure, but these 10 auteurs prove there is more to the industry than action and thrillers. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170669 2013-04-22T13:12:00Z 2013-04-22T13:12:00Z Bill Gibron Oblivion reminds you of other science fiction films? Really? Maybe you know too much about the genre to enjoy a decent example of same. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170596 2013-04-19T15:00:00Z 2013-04-19T15:00:00Z Bill Gibron For all its impenetrable possibilities, the most obvious thing one can say about Upstream Color is that it is great. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170546 2013-04-18T16:00:00Z 2013-04-18T16:00:00Z David Maine Welcome to our weekly field guide to 1950s horror and sci-fi movies and the creatures that inhabit them. This week: planet Earth ain't big enough for the five of us (plus a few more) in The Day the World Ended. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170501 2013-04-17T16:30:00Z 2013-04-17T16:30:00Z Bill Gibron Not much. Or put another way, not much that we didn't already know. Yet, the MTV Movie Awards have argued that, more than any other mainstream celebration of cinema, they have their finger on the pulse of the under 30 populace. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2013:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.170439 2013-04-16T14:00:00Z 2013-04-16T14:00:00Z Bill Gibron Known for romance and the rococo, France and its main city Paris have long been fodder for filmmakers. Here's ten examples of how animation has treated the celebrated City of Light. ]]>