Title: A Separation Directed By: Asghar Farhadi Written By: Asghar Farhadi Cast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi, Babak Karimi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Kimia Hosseini, Merila Zarei Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/27/11 Opens: December 30, 2011 This Iranian film may be as talky as anything by the French, but instead of dealing like them with romantic love and lust and the jealousies created thereby, writer-director Asghar Farhadi goes deeply into the broad questions of loyalty, justice, social class, religion, and nuances of behavior that make us root first for one citizen, then for the other, finally leaving us to make our own decisions as…

Fantastic Fest 2011 has been another success, and to cap off the event, the winners of the Fantastic Fest Awards have been announced! They are as follows: AUDIENCE AWARD (Presented by Maxwell Locke and Ritter) “A Boy And His Samurai” (Yoshihiro Nakamura) Runners Up: “You’re Next,” “Juan Of The Dead” AMD AND DELL “NEXT WAVE” SPOTLIGHT COMPETITION Best Picture – “Bullhead” Best Director – Michael R. Roskam (“Bullhead”) Best Screenplay – Josh MacDonald (“The Corridor”) Best Actor – Matthias Schoenaerts (“Bullhead”) Best Actress – Jessica Cole (“Aardvark”) Special Jury Award for Boldness Of Vision: “Beyond The Black Rainbow” HORROR FEATURES Best Picture – “You’re Next” Best Director – Adam Wingard…

ABC hit a home run with splashy 1960s show “Pan Am,” the show about the airline’s stewardesses and their jet-set lives. You might be taking part in “Pan Am”‘s Twitter contest, but another way to get a “Pan Am” bag is through Pan Am itself. The historic airline company has a website where they sell all sorts of bags, luggage and other accessories including passport covers, cufflinks and other products, all with the retro Pan Am logo. All of the bags are amazing, but if you really want to get one closest to the ones shown on “Pan Am,” try the “Pan Am Explorer,” (currently unavailable) which is good for…

Everyone’s eyes were on the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, the doctor who was in charge of Michael Jackson during the days and months leading up to his death, particularly June 25, the day of Jackson’s death by drug overdose. Even though everyone expected the trial to be all-consuming, no one expected to hear Michael Jackson’s voice. The prosecution played a recording of Michael Jackson, made by Murray on is iPhone. The recording showed Michael in an inebriated or drugged state, severely slurring his words when describing what he wanted people to remember about his “This Is It” tour as well as one thing he wanted to do with his…

Title: Real Steel Directed by: Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, The Hardy Men) Starring: Hugh Jackman (The Wolverine, Butter), Kevin Durand (I Am Number Four, Robin Hood), Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hurt Locker) and Hope Davis (The Weather Man, About Schmidt) First off no, this is not Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie. Granted that was the first thought that crept into my head after “Real Steel” was announced but it’s more than that. Honestly this movie fell into the small portion of upcoming films that I wasn’t looking forward to. Sure it had Hugh Jackman, who will forever be known as the Wolverine…

Title: Carnage Director: Roman Polanski The newest film from controversial filmmaker Roman Polanski is set to open this year’s New York Film Festival. And rightfully so, the New York Film Festival usually looks for high profile films to kick off the two week festival of Hollywood fare and Art House cinema. Last year, David Fincher’s “The Social Network” opened the festival to the delight of moviegoers and critics alike, also kicking off the fall Awards Season. This year, it’s Polanski’s turn. With “Carnage,” we see something we usually don’t see from this filmmaker, a comedy but moreover, a comedy of manners (of sorts). “Carnage” starts harmlessly enough, cast and crew…

If you’re highly intrigued by the revamp of “Footloose,” you might be excited to know that you could see it before its official release date! Paramount is allowing people in 26 select cities across America and Canada to watch the film Friday, September 30 at 6 p.m. PT, 7 p.m. CT and 8 p.m. ET, two weeks ahead of the official October 14 release date. Fans attending the event, being called “Footloose Friday,” can tweet their opinions about the film by using the hashtag #Footloose. The cities and theaters showing the film early are: Atlanta (Regal Town Center) Boston (Regal Fenway) Chicago (Regal Webster Place) Cleveland (Regal Crocker Park) Dallas…

We know we complain about technology a lot and its negative effect on the music world, but this latest news will avoid the pessimism. Thanks to the technological advances of the 21st Century, we can relive the magical summer of July 18, 1978 when The Rolling Stones played in Fort Worth, Texas. The multi-platinum rock ‘n roll band will allow fans to see the concert on a one-night in-theater event on October 18th at 7:30pm (local time). The concert footage, titled “The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas” was digitally remastered to HD with Cinema Surround Sound and includes a mixture of classic stones hits, such as “Brown Sugar”,…

Title: Sarah Palin: You Betcha! Directors: Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill A small pleasure, at least, that Sarah Palin’s rise to national prominence has come about in this modern day and age, for were it much earlier the amount of ink spilled and trees razed would have had a much more measurable and even greater detrimental environmental impact. As is, the erstwhile Alaskan governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee already seems to exert a death-grip on the nation’s psyche, even with her hazily defined motivations, ambiguous ambitions and well-practiced fence-sitting. Palin is many things to many people, and very few of them without much passion or depth of feeling. For his…

Title: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Directed By: Eli Craig Starring: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss, Chelan Simmons, Brandon Jay McLaren, Christie Laing, Travis Nelson, Alex Arsenault, Adam Beauchesne In an industry with a tendency to use, reuse and then reuse yet again, a film that defies typical tactics is particularly exciting. In the case of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, we don’t just get a piece that attempts to purport something new; we get something that takes a common horror movie element, pumps it full of absurdity, blood and even some heart, shakes it up and then hands over the result – a charming spoof that’s…