Awesome Movies

It’s no coincidence that Christopher Nolan hosted Heat‘s 20th anniversary retrospective – he’s a huge fan of fellow director Michael Mann. Glass Distortion compared scenes from Heat and Mann’s other films with ones from The Dark Knight to show Mann’s influence on Nolan.

“Is it you… or is just me?” Kristen Stewart turns in a critically-acclaimed performance in this psychological thriller. Stewart plays a personal shopper for celebrities who’s waiting for a sign from her recently deceased twin brother.

A film inspired by the true story of Percy Fawcett, a British explorer who journeyed deep into the Amazon in search of a lost civilization that he was convinced was way more advanced that his contemporaries would believe. Coincidentally, the film is from Amazon Studios.

In films, the camera’s task if often simple: show us where to look. But filmmakers can also use the camera’s movement to amplify a scene, or even to become the main element of a shot. CineFix looks at a few great examples in their latest video.

With the 2017 Academy Awards just a few weeks away, Burger Fiction enumerated the films that have won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, from 1927’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans to 2015’s The Revenant. Check out the full list here.

“Finally, here we have my secret room. Every good-looking mysterious billionaire bachelor has one.” Bruce Wayne and Bruce Wayne…’s roommate Batman give a quick tour of their house. We want to see Arthur Curry’s house next. Or Edward Nygma’s.

(PG-13: Language) “I write people talking in rooms.” Lessons from the Screenplay dissects The Social Network to highlight some of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s strengths, and how he and director David Fincher worked together to keep the dialogue-heavy movie engaging.

Director M. Night Shyamalan both raised and ruined his reputation with movies that have twist endings. The Film Theorists’ Frame By Frame looks at three of Shyamalan’s movies to see what he got right, and why it would seem that he forgot those rules down the road.

Gemma Arterton stars in this comedy adaptation of Lissa Evans’ Their Finest Hour and a Half. Set in London during World War II, it’s about a seemingly unqualified film crew led by a female copywriter tasked to create a morale-boosting film about the Miracle of Dunkirk.

A young and promising street artist is being pressured by his father to take over their car shop. His volatile older brother offers him a way to get back at their dad. Lowriders drapes a family drama over the backdrop of car-crazy and multi-ethnic East Los Angeles.

(PG-13) “Soon the Watchmen start getting watched too hard, prompting the emo one to start a Livejournal.” Wisecrack’s alien film critic provides a lighthearted summary of Watchmen and Ozymandias, Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan’s brands of morality.

Did you know that in The Hurt Locker, Jeremy Renner didn’t have stunt doubles for his bomb suit scenes because of the way he walked? Or that he was allowed to use a real smoke grenade because he lied that he knew how to handle it? All that and more in CineFix’s video.

Arthur shadowboxes, seemingly makes a GoPro commercial and fights building-sized creatures in our latest peek at Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. We don’t know what’s going on, but we want to see more. Mission accomplished, teaser.

The Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang continues his demon-slaying with frenemies Water Buffalo, Pig Demon and Monkey King in tow. Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back is the sequel to writer and director Stephen Chow’s 2013 hit.

“People are just gonna keep killing themselves.” This Netflix sci-fi drama is set in a world where a scientist has presented proof that the afterlife exists, and people start committing suicide in droves. Starring Robert Redford, Jason Segel and Rooney Mara. Drops 3/31/17.

From Timecrimes and Extraterrestrial writer and director Nacho Vigalondo comes a comedy kaiju film. Anne Hathaway stars as a drunk who finds out that the giant monster that suddenly appeared in South Korea mimics her every move.

Screen Junkies takes on one of the longest, yet most beloved movie commercials of all time – the one that had MJ casually endorsing performance-enhancing drugs, introduced a sexy bunny to kids, and doesn’t take place in outer space but is called Space Jam.

(PG-13: Language) The first trailer for the Wolverine movie Logan focused on its dramatic aspects. This one shows us the lighter and more action-packed sequences from Prof. X, Wolvie and X-23’s road trip. Please let this be good.

In 1977, William Forsche recorded the sound of himself, his mom and other moviegoers reacting to the destruction of the Death Star in the Star Wars: A New Hope. YouTuber Homer Thompson synced the sound with the scene. What a time to be alive.

After exploring the best movie openings and endings, CineFix turns its attention to the ways in which filmmakers effectively coordinate palettes of costumes, scenery, lighting, and color grading in their films. Frankly, Wes Anderson could have an episode all to himself.

(PG-13) Frame by Frame pays homage to filmmaker Bob Clark and his 1974 cult classic Black Christmas. Way ahead of its time, the film featured the main components of slasher films, including titillation, the holiday setting, the anonymous killer and even the phone gag.

Bill Milner, Maisie Williams, Rory Kinnear, and Miranda Richardson star in this Netflix original film about a boy who finds himself with strange powers after being attacked by thugs, and bits of his smartphone end up wedged in his brain. Based on the book by Kevin Brooks.

In live action films, editors come in after (most of) the footage has been shot. But in general, it takes way longer to create additional animated sequences. So instead, animated film editors work before anything is “shot”, helping to polish the screenplay and storyboards.