Among this year's crop of true indie success stories -- this summer's Another Earth and Attack the Block among them -- is Bellflower, a film described as "a love story with apocalyptic stakes." Sweet and inventive -- then brutal and utterly devastating -- the debut feature from writer-director-star Evan Glodell was borne of over three years of sacrifice and dedication, DIY in spirit and in practice (as Glodell's homemade flamethrowers, groundbreaking camera rigs, and the tricked out car dubbed Medusa attest). So how did this $17,000 micro-budgeted labor of love (and pain) wind up with a distribution deal and some of the buzziest word-of-mouth of the season?
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J.K. Simmons has appeared in countless films and television shows, but the Michigan-born actor, 56, is only now making his debut as a leading man. In Jim Kohlberg's The Music Never Stopped (available on DVD this week), Simmons plays a hard-nosed father dealing with an estranged son (Lou Taylor Pucci) who suffers a brain tumor that keeps him from forming new memories. The only way the pair can connect is through the very rock music -- an impressive soundtrack for the micro-budgeted indie that includes Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles -- the father despises. Like Almost Famous, The Music Never Stopped is a delicately written and acted movie loosely based on true events that profiles heartbreaking human moments around a powerhouse set list... only on a much more intimate scale.
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Not counting her miniscule blond counterpart Smurfette, Jayma Mays is the female lead in what may yet turn out to be the past weekend's number one film. And yet, as a phenomenon, the movie adaptation of The Smurfs pales in the long shadow of Mays's other gig: As the germophobic guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury on the megahit series Glee. Talk about hitting a Daily Double.
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Now that his feature film debut as a hoodlum-turned-savior in Attack the Block is finally hitting theaters stateside, 19-year-old John Boyega is savoring his big moment. As Moses, the hardened teen anti-hero of Joe Cornish's British alien invasion romp, Boyega leads a gang of misfit delinquents into battle against a horde of vicious E.T.s to defend a South London council block. Off-screen, the charismatic up-and-comer has a new territory in his sights: Hollywood.
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Eight years after Andrew Bujalski's shoestring-budget feature debut Funny Ha Ha emerged to significant critical acclaim (no less than The New York Times declared it one of the most influential films of the decade, due in large part to Bujalski's follow-up Mutual Appreciation and the Mumblecore movement that sprung up around it), the filmmaker is back in development mode with his shoestring-budget fourth feature, Computer Chess. And this time around, you can help.
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The last seven days have been almost insanely kind to Dominic Cooper: Just a week ago, the 33-year-old British actor appeared as Howard Stark in the high-performing Marvel offering Captain America: The First Avenger. In the time since, Cooper has been lavished with praise for his stunning dual role in The Devil's Double -- and deservedly so.
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Of all the characters who share the same Montreal apartment building in Jacob Tierney's dark crime comedy Good Neighbors, Scott Speedman plays the absolute worst. His Spencer is an acrimonious widower/invalid who toys with his neighbors (played by Emily Hampshire and Jay Baruchel) for sport while hiding a twisted nocturnal alter ego as a serial killer terrorizes the nearby area. If you need evidence that Speedman -- still best known for his work on Felicity and the Underworld series -- has graduated from playing the sensitive, brooding, NYU student type, you'll certainly find it here.
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When word hit that Kevin Smith was aiming for the Oscars with a qualifying theatrical run for his divisive film, Red State, critics split over his perceived goals and, more specifically, the financial terms of his week-long engagement at L.A.'s beloved, family-run New Beverly Cinema. Reached for comment, Smith explained his award season intent and why he's charging $20 for a screening and Q&A at a theater where you can get a double feature for $7 every night, often with an amazing Q&A for free.
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When the British sci-fi action pic Attack the Block opens this week in limited release, courtesy of Screen Gems, it will mark the completion of the long journey that comedian, screenwriter (Ant-Man, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn), and first-time director Joe Cornish has made with his alien invasion passion project. So how did a South London-set hood actioner fronted by a cast of teenage unknowns manage to become one of the buzziest, fan-beloved films of the year?
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Nearly a quarter century of The Simpsons alone have made Hank Azaria one of the more inveterate voice actors in the industry. But what's the flesh-and-blood Azaria -- no slouch himself onscreen over the years -- to do when playing a cartoon come to life? That's one of the dynamics factoring into this week's live-action/CGI adaptation of The Smurfs, featuring Azaria as the tiny blue title creatures' arch-nemesis Gargamel.
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There are few actors who have earned as much geek cred and devoted followings as Sir Patrick Stewart, and certainly none others who were also performing Shakespeare on stage in the U.K. the night before flying across the world to greet fans at Comic-Con. (If only one could achieve warp speed on commercial airlines these days, international travel would be much easier.) So, of course, Movieline jumped at the chance for a few minutes in heaven with the erstwhile Captain Picard; what more perfect a Comic-Con experience could there be?
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It's fitting that Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon have supporting roles in Crazy, Stupid, Love. (out Friday). After all, Tomei could have her own Six Degrees-like board game, having worked with everyone from Lisa Bonet to Joe Pesci to Sissy Spacek to Mickey Rourke throughout a variety of genres. In Crazy, Stupid, Love., she adds a cavalcade of likable performers to her roster of former co-stars (Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore and Steve Carell), and reconfirms to everyone that adult comedy is what she does best. If only Hollywood would actually make them.
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Marvel Studios founder (and former toy inventor) Avi Arad has built an empire out of the superhero business, having produced everything from the Blade films to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Iron Man, and Spider-Man films and the upcoming Andrew Garfield-starring reboot, not to mention the 2012 superhero superfilm The Avengers. Needless to say, there was a ton to discuss and not nearly enough time when Movieline caught up with Arad at Comic-Con right before Sony's Hall H panel for The Amazing Spider-Man.
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David Robert Mitchell's Myth of the American Sleepover is the anti-teen movie teen movie. It's American Graffiti by way of mumblecore; it's Kids by way of Norman Rockwell. The film follows a group of moderately well-behaved teens on the last night of summer, and features enough awkward inter-sex interactions to fill up a battalion of big studio teen comedies. The one difference? The cast is filled with many new performers and -- at the time of filming in 2008 -- actually teenagers. Like Claire Sloma.
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Meeting Rose McGowan over the weekend at Comic-Con, she instinctively offered her left hand first. Having injured her other arm weeks ago in the goriest window-related accident I've ever heard, she'd flown into San Diego to promote this summer's Conan the Barbarian, touted as one of the bloodiest action pics of the year. But to hear her tell it, Conan the Barbarian's got nothing on McGowan's last few years when it comes to struggle and pain -- and yet, she credits the summer swords 'n' sorcery pic with changing her mind about quitting Hollywood.
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