The year 2012 brought us many pop culture trends, but perhaps none quite as big as The Hunger Games. The francise inspired everything from cultural criticism to DIY hair tutorial videos. Oh, and it gave us Katniss Everdeen, one of our top 10 fearless female film archers (say that ten times fast). Seriously, the fact that we'll never able to hang out with Katniss (you know, because she's, uh, not real) sorta breaks our heart. Yes, it’s safe to say we’re very...

IFC is on a roll. They just keep announcing exciting movie premieres and fun Q&A sessions with independent film’s greatest minds. This time, it’s director Jonathan Demme’s film festival veteran documentary: I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad, and the Beautiful. The film will debut on September 13 at the NYC IFC Center followed by a Q&A with Demme. I’m Carolyn Parker follows one New Orleans native in her journey to rebuild her home after Hurricane Katrina. Carolyn Parker was the last to leave her neighborhood during...

Comedian Mike Birbiglia sure knows how to make people want to see a movie: by telling them they’re going to hate it.  Oh wait, he actually just went “over board” and you’ll probably love his new comedy Sleepwalk With Me. The "heartfelt comedy" will be especially great if it has half the wit and charisma of the Vulture exclusive short that debuted today. Our current Boy Du Jour, Birbiglia, and his co-writer Ira Glass (from This American Life)  know how hard it is to take an indie film...

Picked as the opening night film for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Hello I Must Be Going stars Melanie Lynskey as Amy, a 35-year-old who moves back into her parents’ suburban home seeking refuge following her divorce and begins an affair with 19-year-old actor, Jeremy (Christopher Abbott). Writer Sarah Koskoff says the film is a story she’s wanted to tell for a long time, a story “about somebody who’s always in the background of her own life....

Director Craig Zobel’s newest film, “Compliance," explores why humans are so likely to do what they’re told, especially if they've got an authority figure calling the shots. Based on true events, the film takes place at a fictional fast food restaurant, ChickWich. Its manager (played by Ann Dowd) receives a call from a man identifying himself as a police officer, who claims that one of the restaurant's employees (played by Dreama Walker) stole money from a customer. The man on the phone proceeds to...

Thought you were over things that go bump in the night? Think again. Director Nick Murphy’s film, The Awakening, had me clutching my poor, unsuspecting friend’s shoulder and involuntarily (but loudly) exclaiming obscenities in the movie theatre. Set in 1921 England after the loss and grief of WWI, the film follows ghost hunter and skeptic Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) as she takes on her most difficult case yet. Author of the popular book “Seeing Through Ghosts,” Florence is best known for her intelligence and wit as...

With all of the political and economic issues going on in America, it’s hard to remember that there are much bigger things going on out there. There are countries trapped in violent civil wars, drugs trafficking and people are dying every day.   This is where We Women Warriors comes into play. It opens our eyes (and hearts) to the truly dangerous issues going on in Colombia. There’s a civil conflict between three groups, the actual Colombian government, paramilitary groups and guerilla fighters. We Women Warriors isn’t...

It's the summer for international sports, but how about international filmmaking? I had the pleasure of attending this year's Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, an international genre film experience that is now in its sixteenth year, running from July 19 to August 9th. While the festival screens 160 films, ranging from anime to horror to exploitation, and more, I still had to sift through the collection to find my lady directors. There were only a few (sigh), but the ones I managed to find--as...

It didn't help that I saw the ironically titled Celeste and Jesse Forever post break-up, so consider that a warning. If the humor hadn't consisted of jacking off with a piece of baby corn and a gay Elijah Wood, I would have desperately sought out the theater's nearest exit to escape the sweaty interior of the on-screen friendship. Thank goddess some people are just as perverted as I am. Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) are a couple in the process of a divorce that...

Alison Klayman is 27 years old. She's graduated from Brown University, written for NPR, moved to China and made a feature length documentary. Oh, and she won the Sundance Special Jury Prize this past January. I, for one, feel like a slacker compared to the multi-hyphenated journalist.  Klayman's award winning film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry hit theaters last week on July 27 via IFC Films. The 27-year-old spent years with her subject  Weiwei, 54, trying to get the full story on one of China's most controversial...