Early on in the 2004 supernatural Russian thriller Night Watch, the protagonist, trying to prevent a witch from casting a spell on his unborn child, yells at the top of his lungs in protest. For English-speaking audiences, the subtitles do more than just translate the literal meaning: the words "no" and "stop" with three exclamation points are shown on different parts of the screen in large, moving letters. In another scene, as a swimming character hears a voice in his head causing his ...

The baffling history of mankind is full of obvious turning points and significant events: battles won, treaties signed, rulers elected or deposed, and now, seemingly, planets conquered. Equally important are the great groundswells of popular movements that affect the minds and values of a generation or more, not all of which can be neatly tied to a time and place. Looking back upon the America of the '60s, future historians may well search for the meaning of one such movement. ...

In August 1973, a quiet young courier took a print of Terrence Malick's debut feature Badlands from Los Angeles to Manhattan for submission to the New York Film Festival. After the screening, festival chief Richard Roud said to the messenger, "Would you please tell Mr. Malick that we loved Badlands and want it as our closing-night film?" The unassuming fellow replied, "I'm Mr. Malick." After that, he was harder to find. In his fulfilling but furtive 38 years since Badlands, ...

Sunday night, on the eve of the fifth 9/11 anniversary, docudrama was dynamite in North America. As millions in the U.S. watched the Clinton Administration botch snuffing out al-Qaeda on the first of ABC TV's two-part miniseries The Path to 9/11, hundreds of Canadians crowded into a Paramount multiplex theater to see the Toronto International Film Festival's world premiere of Death of a President, a sober fakeumentary from Britain's Channel 4 that imagines the assassination of the ...

By In 1998, it looked as though the movie world was about to knock Michelle Rodriguez out of the ring. The would-be actress was living with her mother in Jersey City, N.J., and laboring as an extra in movies like Summer of Sam; the thankless, anonymous work was wearing her out. Then she saw an ad in Back Stage for a Latina actress to portray a boxer in a new film. Rodriguez didn't box and had ...

Though it isn't always official, every party has a guest of honor. And on a recent Saturday night at the Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin, I found myself sitting next to him. Tom Quinn is senior vice president and head of acquisitions for Magnolia Pictures and a longtime attendee of the South by Southwest festival, held here every March. For most of its 25-year history, SXSW has been primarily a massive, scruffy gathering of musicians and their fans, and while its ...

Those who knew Canadian folk musician Taylor Mitchell say her passion for her craft was matched by her affinity for nature."When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'please don't, this is their space.' She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own. She was passionate about animals, was an environmentalist and was also planning to volunteer at the Toronto Wildlife Centre in the coming months," ...

An infant falls to his death from a second-story window while his parents are making love. The mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is consumed with grief and guilt. She's hospitalized and sedated for days and weeks before her husband (Willem Dafoe), a therapist, insists she return home. He gets rid of all her medications. He will be her partner and her grief counselor, and he will see her through this, if only she will place her trust in him. Not a ...

The new horror movie "Paranormal Activity" could be filling movie studio marketing departments with fear. Using a campaign of limited showings, social media and word-of-mouth fan buzz, the film has managed to become a breakout hit without the aid of a glitzy marketing campaign -- or even a traditional movie trailer. According to Variety, the very low-budget film (it reportedly cost $11,000), which played in fewer than 200 theaters, raked in $7.1 million over the weekend -- a record for ...

It could be Matt Damon's most weighty role to date. The athletic Bourne star gained 30 pounds, as well as donning a false moustache and prosthetic nose, to look the part for his latest role as salary man whistle-blower, Mark Whitacre, in Steven Soderbergh's comedy "The Informant!" Damon remembers Soderbergh describing the look he hoped Whitacre would have in the film as "doughy." "He just said 'doughy,'" Damon told CNN at the film's North American premiere during ...