Movies Features

Latin American Film Festival spotlights Brazil

Curiosity led Anna Faris to The House Bunny

Clone Wars proved a galactic task for production team

Javier Bardem finds the real in Vicky Cristina Barcelona role

Latin American Film Festival spotlights Brazil

By Ken Eisner

This year's program features nine titles from South America's largest nation, and you won't be disappointed by the mixed bag that includes vistas of Rio far removed from postcard clichés.

Goal II's Kuno Becker bends it with Beckham

By Ken Eisner

In Goal II, the actor who started out in Mexico telenovelas before attracting international attention plays Santiago Muñez, a budding soccer star who gets picked to play with the galacticos of Real Madrid.

Dreams doc bares sharp-toothed sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison

By John Lucas

Erik Nelson's documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, includes extensive interviews with the author and footage of him reading from his work, as well as talking-head chats with a few of his famous friends.

Frozen River gets life of its own

By Ken Eisner

Smuggling immigrants from Canada is the focus of American writer-director Courtney Hunt's movie, which won the grand jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

UBC film alumni rally to roots for program

By Craig Takeuchi

Students and graduates convinced the university to save the suspended film-production program, which will launch again in September with increased interdisciplinary learning opportunities and new faculty positions.

Curiosity led Anna Faris to The House Bunny

By Ian Caddell

The actor says she chose Playboy bunnies as an appropriate model after looking at the options available to women who have spent their youth focusing on using their looks to their advantage.

Clone Wars proved a galactic task for production team

By Travis Lupick

Producer Catherine Winder describes the challenges of working under budgetary and time constraints in creating an original look for the first animated Star Wars feature film.

Star Wars bad to the Clone

By Travis Lupick

Star Wars: The Clone Wars will finally give audiences the opportunity to see George Lucas’s animated vision of a war that has been on his mind for 30 years.

Javier Bardem finds the real in Vicky Cristina Barcelona role

By Ian Caddell

When Woody Allen was writing the part of a Spaniard who seduces two American tourists, he had Javier Bardem in mind, and the Oscar-winning actor trusted him to avoid Latin-lover stereotypes by adding layers to his character.

Ben Stiller doesn't bungle in the jungle with Tropic Thunder

By Ian Caddell

The actor, cowriter, and director admits cast members might have felt he was a bit of a tyrant, but as an actor he has always appreciated directors who are in charge of the operation.

Rumer Willis gets her geek on in The House Bunny

By Ian Caddell

The daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis says that she could relate to the dorky character she plays who finds it hard to fit in more than the glamorous world from which she hails.

From Bollywood to Amal, it’s all about acting to Seema Biswas

By Mark Leiren-Young

One of Bollywood's biggest stars is fast becoming a fixture in Canadian films too, and her role in a modern-day fairy tale about a rickshaw driver and a billionaire should help cement that.

Film Noir series deals double crossin' fun

By Jennifer Van Evra

Maybe sunshine is overrated. Maybe deep down, beach-loving Vancouverites pine for the long, gloomy nights, when daylight brings only a slightly less oppressive shade of grey, and the rain-slicked concrete perfectly matches the colourless sky.

Jay Baruchel gives Tropic Thunder his "A" game

By Ian Caddell

The Ottawa-born, Montreal-raised actor costars with high-profile names such as Ben Stiller and Jack Black in Tropic Thunder, but all he really wants to do is make Canadian films.

Seth Rogen keeps rolling as a stoner in Pineapple Express

By Ian Caddell

The Vancouver native stars in the weed action movie he cowrote and admits to having smoked a few joints in his time, but he isn’t too concerned about being typecast, instead preferring to keep it loose on set.