GreenCine is proud to be a sponsor of an excellent film event in Seattle put together by our friends at The Warren Report: The Act Now series of monthly screenings of stellar, progressive documentaries.

Their first screening was this past Tuesday - the stirring eco-doc The 11th Hour, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio - at the Seattle Art Museum, but there will be a bunch more throughout the fall. If you're a GreenCine member and would like to get on the guest list to see these screenings for free, email us at pr@greencine.com to let us know. Then we can tell The Warren Report who is coming and how many.

The screening schedule:

Let us know which of these you'd like to attend, your name and GreenCine member name, and an email address, and we'll put you on the list!

Continue Reading Screenings in Seattle: GC members get on the guest list

Interview By Jeffrey M. Anderson

As all screenwriters eventually must, the talented Scott Frank makes his directorial debut with the dramatic thriller The Lookout. Aside from his talent, Frank has enjoyed a very lucky career, seeing his screenplays for the most part produced by the right people at the right time, resulting in films like Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991), Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate (1991), Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty (1995), Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998) and Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002).

The Lookout is now out on DVD.

Continue Reading Scott Frank, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode Keep their Eyes Peeled

Any time a previously unreleased film by Luis Buñuel arrives on DVD, it's an event. And here we have two. Truth be told, one of them - Gran Casino - can only be called an interesting misfire, but the other, The Young One, is a forgotten masterpiece. Just one of two English-language films Buñuel ever made, and it's also, wrote Slant's Ed Gonzalez, his "most expressive film—it's setting may be Spartan but its look is scarcely unceremonious. Framed by a monophonic rendition of 'Sinner Man' by Leon Bibb, the film has the scorching emotional urgency of a black spiritual...Not a single frame is wasted."

Continue Reading Bunuel's well: Two from a master

Next week will be a huge releasing week, so this week is fairly quiet -- but still some good titles out there.

Check out this week's new releases and a ton of titles coming out soon!

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: August 7, 2007

A smallish new releasing week but still some good variety to be bad - Brit-flicks, epics, indies, some anime - something for everyone.

Continue Reading New on DVD: July 31, 2007

Interview By Hannah Eaves

After finding success in the UK by documenting the lives and work of eccentric artists like Gilbert & George and currency vandal J.S.G. Boggs, director Philip Haas jumped the narrative fence with an adaptation of Paul Auster's Music of Chance, the first in what would become a long line of literary adaptations for the screen. With his next film, Angels and Insects, Haas broke through the arthouse market and received Cannes and Academy Award nominations. His latest film, The Situation, starring Connie Nielsen (Gladiator) as an American journalist caught in a Graham Greene-like situation, takes place in Iraq and marks his first collaboration with noted journalist Wendell Stevenson.

Hannah Eaves talks with Haas about working with artists vs. actors, directing scenes in Arabic and about how journalists and soldiers have reacted to The Situation - which is now out on DVD.

Continue Reading Philip Haas: Understanding the Situation

"Ever fired your gun in the air and yelled, 'Aaaaaaah?'"

Director Edgar Wright and actor-writer Simon Pegg's follow-up to Shaun of the Dead was yet another affectionate genre homage/comedy that was merely "The best, surely the smartest, English-language movie of the year to date," according to Time's Richard Corliss. Adds the LA Times' Kevin Crust: "Wright and Pegg are storytellers who weave their naughty bits into genuine characters and a plot. It's a ridiculous plot, but one that's absolutely in the spirit of the films they're satirizing." Now, after you check out our video Q&A with Pegg, Wright and co-star Nick Frost, why not give our brand new contest a whirl? The little hand says it's time to rock and roll! Bring the noise! Two lucky blokes (or lasses) will win a copy of the brand new DVD, out today, plus secret Hot Fuzz memorabilia!

To be eligible for the prizes, send an email with the correct answer to contest@greencine.com, including your name, email address and, if you're a GreenCine member, your username in the email, and "Hot Fuzz" in the subject header. Winners will be selected at random from all correct entries. The deadline is Monday, August 6, at 12PM PST. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in future editions of the GreenCine Dispatch newsletter.

The Question: Which two action movies does Danny (Frost) make Nicholas Angel (Pegg) watch to get up to speed?

Continue Reading Hot Fuzz: Trivia Contest!

It's a cornucopia of new releases today - well, relatively, for summer, anyway - with titles from all over the world, two classics from Criterion, and some indies, anime, and more. Read Craig Phillips' review of the indie caper comedy Live Free or Die on Guru and his thoughts on The Host, too.

Read on for this week's new releases and those coming soon, too!

Continue Reading New on DVD: July 24, 2007

Interview By John Esther

"Eschewing the reactionary tropes of the supernatural or working class threats to the paranoid ruling classes vis-àis mutant horror in most American movies, Bong Joon-ho's The Host (Gue-Mool) brings a social conscious to a story of a world run amok. The film commences with chemicals being dumped into a drain leading to the Han River..." John Esther spoke with director Bong Joon-ho about his newest feature The Host. An impressive buzz has built up around the film, including coverage in ArtForum.

The Host is now available on DVD.

Continue Reading Bong Joon-ho: Horror on the River Han

"Not for nothing did this movie open the International Critics' Week (and win its grand prize) last year at Cannes," wrote J Hoberman in The Village Voice of this biting, (very) French drama set at a university. "Poison Friends may be all talk, but it's cut like an action flick."

Adds the LA Times: "Steeped in shrewdness about the often contradictory workings of human nature, gratifying in the best tradition of French cinema."

Continue Reading Poison Friends: Cannes winner