Jul 28, 2010 By Mike Hilleary

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is most certainly worth fighting over. The actress had a breakthrough year in 2007, appearing as John McClane's daughter-in-distress in Live Free or Die Hard and starring in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse segment Death Proof. It was the latter performance that caught the attention of director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). In Wright's upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the anticipated film adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's acclaimed graphic novel series, Winstead plays Ramona Flowers, a girl with a lot of baggage when it comes to dating— seven exes that the story's titular hero must fight against to win her heart. On a break from shooting scenes for the upcoming prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic The Thing, Winstead spoke with Under the Radar about screaming and scary movies, evil exes, and what it's like to work with Michael Cera and Edgar Wright. More

Jul 16, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

When Irish writer/director Lance Daly talks about the production of his splendid third feature Kisses, he uses terms such as "magic" and "blind faith." This is not to suggest, however, that he was whimsical in his approach to making the film. Daly was confident enough in his carefully written script, about a boy and a girl who run away from home on Christmas, that he allowed himself to take risks that would lend Kisses both authenticity and a youthful air of enchantment. More

Jun 25, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

In her most recent films, 19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence has portrayed resilient, mature-minded teens who, by default, have assumed the mother role in their respective families. In Winter's Bone, which won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Lawrence plays Ree Dolly, an impoverished 17-year-old living in the Missouri Ozarks who is hellbent on keeping her preteen brother and sister out of the hands of unreliable surrogate parents. Though Lawrence is the youngest in her family, she admits that her maternal instincts are evident in real life. "I've always been a babysitter and a nanny," she says. "All my friends call me mom." More

May 28, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

Grégoire Canvel, the lead character in French writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve's second film, The Father of My Children, is based on Humbert Balsan, the French film producer who was chairman of the European Film Academy when he hanged himself in 2005. Balsan intended to produce Hansen-Løve's first feature, All Is Forgiven, but his death left the film in limbo until it was completed with other producers in 2007. It's no accident that The Father of My Children shares a kinship with Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours, which was released to critical acclaim in the States last year. Hansen-Løve, 29, is the fiancé of Assayas, who hired her for her first film work—as an actress—when she was 16 years old. More

Mar 26, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

Danish director Niels Arden Oplev didn't seem like an obvious choice to direct The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the screen version of the first book in Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson's immensely popular Millennium trilogy. Oplev's previous film, Worlds Apart, was an intimate family drama about a teenage girl confronting the doctrines of her religious denomination, Jehovah's Witnesses. Oplev initially declined producer Sören Staermose's overtures to direct the much-anticipated film adaptation, but Staermose's persistence paid off. Prior to its release in the U.S. and UK, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo grossed over $100 million worldwide, easily becoming Sweden's most successful film. More

Feb 11, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

In making North Face (Nordwand), an adventure film about alpinists ascending the most dangerous rock face in the Alps, German writer/director Philipp Stölzl and cinematographer Kolja Brandt disregarded such Hollywood films as Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit and aimed instead for the authenticity of the documentary/reenactment film Touching the Void. More

Jan 13, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

In the British film In the Loop, out this week on DVD and Blu-ray, Scottish actor Peter Capaldi plays Malcolm Tucker, an intimidating, acid-tongued communications chief to the Prime Minister. When a flaky government minister claims during a radio interview that war with the Middle East is "unforeseeable," Tucker runs rampant amid the crisis, cussing out various government types while trying to administer damage control. "You should feel sorry for my mother," says Capaldi, "because she gets to come to the premiere of the movie with her son in it and sees him up on screen talking about lubricated horse cocks." More

Jan 08, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

In Wonderful World, Matthew Broderick plays Ben Singer, a former children's folk singer whose staunch idealism has led him down a dark path to disappointment and despondency. More

Dec 22, 2009 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

If Bad Blake, the haggard country singer played by Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, appears to resemble Kris Kristofferson with his wavy hair and gray beard, it's no coincidence. "Kris and I are buddies," Bridges acknowledges. "We did a movie 30 years ago, Heaven's Gate." Yet, despite Bridges' physical resemblance to Kristofferson in Crazy Heart, it's songwriter/guitarist Stephen Bruton, a longtime member of Kristofferson's band, whom Bridges says was the biggest influence on his character. More