Browsing all articles by Riley B..
Sequel to the “Netflix-Warner Bros.” Scandal? Redbox Agrees to 28-Day Embargo
Fellow Hollywood Prophets writers Adam Gold and Eric Shenefelt love them some Netflix. I’m more cool to the service, especially after last month’s announcement that the online rental service had essentially agreed not to rent out any new releases from Warner Bros. for a month, starting with The Invention of Lying and Whiteout. Those that reserved [...]
24 Frames: The History of Hollywood Gimmicks (Part 1 of 3)
By the end of the 1950′s, an unprecedented chain of events had radically altered Hollywood’s studio system, breaking down their oligipoly over theater chains and allowing actors and directors to walk free from their contracts. It was then that independent films first gained an audience, with various directors, domestic and foreign, contributing to a lively underground of experimental films. What [...]
Best of the Aughts, In Summary
In December, Hollywood Prophets started a roll-out of our “Very Best of the Aughts” lists, which include several different categories like “Top Foreign” and “Top Independent”. In January, this ended with our Top 25 Films of the Aughts series. Get your netflix queue handy. There’ll definitely be at least one or two films you’ll want [...]
Top 25 Films of the Aughts #2 – “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
As independent film continued its renaissance into the mid-2000′s, a curious trend had emerged. There was a strong resurgence in New Wave production values, such as those pioneered by Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, and their contemporaries. Films made back then were just becoming more self-conscious in tone. Now, filmgoers were experiencing some intense deja vu. Stylistically, [...]
Fate of “The Catcher in the Rye” Movie
I first read the now late J.D. Salinger’s legendary tome on young angst when I myself was 15 years old, as part of my high school English curriculum (ironically enough). “The Catcher in the Rye”, along with its misanthropic protagonist Holden Caulfield, had survived my initial repulsion of required reading and graduated to my extremely underpopulated bookshelf, with [...]
The 7 Best Miramax Films
After 31 years, the premiere independent film label in the U.S. is closing its doors for good, after downsizing its offices and number of films it would have released this year. We’re talking about Miramax, brainchild of the famous Hollywood moguls, the Weinstein Brothers. Disney owned the studio since the early 90′s, even spinning off [...]
Sundance Trailer Watch: Ryan Reynolds Gets “Buried”
As Sundance rages on through the week (and the dearth of hotly-anticipated trailers out there continues), we’d like to quickly spotlight one of the most intriguing films, part of this year’s official selection, as our “Trailer Watch” trailer of the week. The film we have in mind is an experimental work by Rodrigo Cortés with [...]
Top 25 Films of the Aughts #5 – “Children of Men”
When you think of science fiction, what images come to mind? Spaceships, laser swords, time travel, mad computers, or ten-foot tall blue aliens? Starting with H.G. Wells, the genre has taken us to the farthest possible reaches of our imagination, if only to convey an often poignant truth about humanity. Be it distant galaxies, centuries into the future, or [...]
Top 25 Films of the Aughts #7 – “Requiem for a Dream”
There are two films on our Top 25 list that prominently feature drug use, both topically and as a part of their respective plots. The first, which we have gotten to already, was Steven Soderbergh’s critically-acclaimed drama, Traffic. The second film on the subject and now #7 on our Top 25 is Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Aside from [...]
Guerilla Movie Theaters the Future for Indie Cinema?
Can you recall that scene from Bladerunner – a panoramic shot of dystopian 2019 Los Angeles — where neon adverts fly off the walls of billboards and onto the sides of buildings? Well, today, that technology is no longer science fiction. What’s next? Pocket projectors that spam commercials on 30-foot walls? Sure. Everyone knows that right [...]