By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore

Who would have guessed that Mickey Rourke would be hailed the comeback of the year, with his role in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" getting critical acclaim from all comers? It's been a tough road for the actor/former boxer, and he brings every bit of wear and tear to the film, which is all the better for it. In honor of Rourke, on this week's IFC News podcast we look at other actors who've faded from the spotlight only to make great comebacks, and a few who never managed to make their return work.

And don't forget to check out our footage of Aronofsky, Rourke and co-star Marisa Tomei at the New York Film Festival.

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[Photo: "The Wrestler," Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2008]

By Alison Willmore in Podcasts | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (1)

Tags: The Wrestler

By Neil Pedley

With the fall season's heavy hitters already starting to make an appearance, this week's feast of indie offers some calm before the big studio storm. Enjoy it while it lasts.

"Ashes of Time Redux"
Celebrated Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai gathered together lost and damaged footage to painstakingly rework his only martial arts epic, first released in 1994, into a fresh, definitive edition (complete with an all new score from Yo-Yo Ma). With a blindingly colorful palette, Wong paints a looping, stylized portrait of an embittered agent Ouyang Feng (the late Leslie Cheung) who channels the unbearable pain of a broken heart into commissioning bounty hunters to commit acts of vengeance. Tony Leung Ka Fai, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau and Jacky Cheung round out the still-impressive cast.
Opens in New York and Los Angeles.

By Neil Pedley in In Theaters | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (1)

By Matt Singer

With its title and indie rock soundtrack, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" tries to pass itself off as the underground music lover's dream romantic comedy. But while its characters claim to listen to music and even occasionally play music, they never talk about it in any convincingly intelligent way. Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) have exactly one minor conversation about the thing that allegedly is the source of their magical compatibility. Nick supposedly makes the best mix CDs with clever titles like "Road to Closure: Volume 2"; we don't hear them. He loves an elusive but supposedly incredible band called Where's Fluffy; we don't hear them. The movie is like a kid who likes to wear the T-shirts of cool bands but doesn't actually listen to their albums.

Nick is the only heterosexual member of a band named The Jerk Offs. According to the press notes, they're part of a "queercore" movement in New York City -- not that the movie uses that term, or any term, to describe their sound. We've got to make do with what we hear from their one brief performance at Arlene's Grocery on the Lower East Side. It's there that Nick runs into his cruel ex-girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) who also enjoys bagging on her classmate Norah's single girl status. To deflect Tris' insults, Norah impetuously drafts Nick as her stand-in boyfriend and one magically spontaneous smooch later, the duo are off in his yellow Yugo for a night of wacky misadventures through Manhattan's club scene.

By Matt Singer in Reviews | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (1)

Tags: Kat Dennings, Michael Cera, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Peter Sollett

"If I knew it was going to take me 15 years to get back in the saddle and work again because of the way I handled things, I really would have handled things differently... Change, for me, didn't come easily. I didn't want to change, until I lost everything." Mickey Rourke's role as faded professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson in "The Wrestler" is rightly being hailed the comeback, and one of the best performances, of the year. At the film's U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, he, co-star Marisa Tomei and director Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream") discussed what drew them to a wrestling picture and what goes into training to act as a wrestler (or, for Tomei, a stripper) on screen.

For more coverage of the New York Film Festival, click here.

By IFC in Festivals, Videos | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (2)

Tags: Darren Aronofsky, Marisa Tomei, Mickey Rourke, NYFF 2008, The Wrestler

"It wasn't until the film was finished, right around Cannes, that I realized... it was about engagement versus disengagement," Steven Soderbergh told the press after a screening of his four-hour bio-epic "Che," which will make its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival later this week. In the video below, he speaks about the process of making the film and presenting a figure who's retreated into an icon for t-shirts and dorm room posters.

For more coverage of the New York Film Festival, click here.

By IFC in Festivals, Videos | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (1)

Tags: Che, NYFF 2008, Steven Soderbergh

Poppy, the main character of Mike Leigh's latest film, "Happy-Go-Lucky," is a 30-year-old elementary school teacher who lives in London and who's irrepressibly, almost unnaturally cheerful. As played by Sally Hawkins, she's a fascinating and divisive figure, endearing to some and grating to others. In the video below, Leigh and Hawkins, taking questions from the press at the New York Film Festival, insist that simply writing the character off as chipper is to be unfair to what Leigh has called his "anti-miserablist film": "The thing about Poppy is that to describe her as being unadulterated[ly] happy is not really to understand her at all."

More videos from this press conference after the jump.

By IFC in Festivals, Videos | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (1)

Tags: Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh, NYFF 2008, Sally Hawkins

Steve McQueen (not to be confused with the late "Bullitt" star) went from Turner Prize-winning artist to lauded filmmaker with his directorial debut "Hunger," about the 1981 Irish hunger strike in which IRA prisoners, led by Bobby Sands, tried to win political status by refusing food. "Hunger," which won the Caméra d'Or prize at Cannes, made its U.S. debut at the New York Film Festival, where McQueen sat down with moderator J. Hoberman of the Village Voice to address the press. In the video below, he talks about the origins of the film -- he was 11 years old when the strike took place: "It was one of those moments where things just stick in your head -- an event where it sort of resonates."

More videos from this press conference after the jump.

By IFC in Festivals, Videos | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (2)

Tags: Hunger, J. Hoberman, NYFF 2008, Steve McQueen

By Stephen Saito

Despite all the talk about Iraq that may be generated by "The Lucky Ones," Neil Burger's latest film is far more interested in what's going on in America. In fact, it might be the more foreign country to its trio of soldiers (Rachel McAdams, Michael Peña and Tim Robbins) who return home to find crowded bars spellbound by "America's Got Talent," and conversations with civilians limited to a series of empty "thank you for your service" platitudes to fill the air. But that isn't to say that "The Lucky Ones" isn't hopeful -- when what's supposed to be the end of a long journey for these war vets becomes the start of a cross-country trek, "The Lucky Ones" becomes a pleasantly old fashioned road trip movie where the destination isn't as important as the company you keep. Fortunately, it's good company to be in, which surely must've been a relief for Burger both as a storyteller and in a more practical sense, since "The Illusionist" writer/director shot much of the film in a cramped van as it passed by and stopped in real locations across the country from New York to Las Vegas. I recently spoke with Burger about his diverse filmography and what he learned from being on the road before the camera rolled and long after.

By Stephen Saito in Interviews | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (5)

Tags: Michael Peña, Neil Burger, Rachel McAdams, The Lucky Ones, Tim Robbins

By Michael Atkinson

The new Israeli film "Jellyfish" (2007) -- co-directed by lifemates Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, and a Camera d'Or winner at Cannes -- is both familiar and otherworldly. Israeli filmmakers, doubtlessly because of their particularly tense position in the world, of their society's fervent militarization and of the question of the Palestinians, love the everyone's-connected social-weave film, à la "Crash" (Amos Gitai has made several), bouncing amongst a variety of intersecting characters as a way to paint a portrait of the whole culture. As a sub-subgenre, it has its pitfalls, but as all of our cultures become more and more deracinative and immigrant-scrambled, it's easy to see the idea's allure. "Jellyfish," fortunately, adopts the mode but maintains modesty: a mere 78 minutes long (hallelujah), the movie is sharp and poetic on particulars (somewhat like Keret's short fiction, though Geffen is credited as the screenwriter), and is rescued from undue ambition by drop-dead bits of mundane magical realism. Most of all, it's a woman's film; of the roughly 12 characters, only two are men. As it is, three women dominate: Batia (the rather Islid Le Besco-ish Sarah Adler, whom Godard filmed so rapturously in "Notre Musique"), a lost waitress numb from a breakup and confronted one day at the beach with a mute five-year-old girl who simply walked out of the sea; Keren (Noa Knoller), a newlywed stuck honeymooning in a Tel Aviv dump after she breaks her ankle during her reception; and Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a Filipino nursemaid far from home and commissioned to care for a belligerent old woman.

By Michael Atkinson in On DVD | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (3)

Tags: David Gordon Green, Etgar Keret, Jellyfish, Kate Beckinsale, Olivia Thirlby, Sam Rockwell, Shira Geffen, Snow Angels

By Matt Singer and Alison Willmore

"Nick and Norah"'s playlist may be infinite, but for a movie, making soundtrack choices can be like putting together the world's most high-pressure mixtape. And the most amazing soundtrack won't guarantee the greatness of your film -- on this week's IFC News podcast, we come up with a list of titles we think are overshadowed by their own music. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

Download now (MP3: 33:43 minutes, 30.9 MB)

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[Photo: "The Graduate," Embassy Pictures Corporation, 1967]

By Alison Willmore in Podcasts | Link | 2 Comments | Recommended (6)

Tags: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist