" Cheap jokes like a trick’s red-faced discovery of a dildo in her bedroom betray not only Labrune’s middlebrow idea of transgression, but also patronizes, and tries to cage, Huppert’s evasive identity as an actress. Huppert’s natural, ineradicable inscrutability, her refusal to emotionally simplify a single moment, is at odds with the script’s broad character arc and final semi-catharsis."

"Peretz’s latest isn’t trying to be an acerbic statement about the miasma of American livelihood a la Alexander Payne or Todd Solondz, but is rather a sweet-toothed interlude that chugs along on some top notch comedic performances."

"British producer-director team the Boulting Brothers made a masterly, faithful film adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel ‘Brighton Rock’ in 1947; apropos of our morbidly redundant times, we now get first-time director Rowan Joffe’s faithless counterpoint. Overstuffed and overblown, Joffe’s version crucially misreads and ineptly revises Greene’s scintillating story about the competing forces of evil and grace in the materialist 20th century world, represented by England’s seedy seaside resort town of Brighton."

" Tiny stretches of credibility – that could have easily been forgiven once or twice – begin to enlarge and ultimately dominate the proceedings. By the time all is said and done, the film, much like its taciturn protagonist, withers into a fine powder of blowing snow. And audiences are left to quietly wonder just what veteran director Jerzy Skolimnowski was hoping to achieve."

The New York Film Festival today added a full roster of documentaries, special screenings and events to the schedule of its 49th annual edition, highlighted by the world premiere of ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,’ the latest doc by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky on the saga of the falsely incarcerated West Memphis Three, with a new ending added in the wake of their recent release from prison after 18 years.

Among the noteworthy mentions that are headed to Venice, they've got a must-see three in Tomáš Lunák's Alois Nebel, Susan Youssef's Habibi and Ruslan Pak's Hanaan. From Cannes Directors' Fortnight section they've nabbed Karl Markovics' Breathing, Rúnar Rúnarsson's Volcano, Rebecca Daly's The Other Side of Sleep and they've got the Camera D'Or winner Las Acacias which played in the Critics' Week.

Even when you include Gus Van Sant's Restless, there are no surprises this morning with the names mentioned in the Masters programme finally released today. From Cannes, Aki Kaurismäki, the Dardennes, Bruno Dumont, Robert Guédiguian and a must-see masterwork from Nuri Bilge Ceylan make the cut, while from the upcoming Venice film festival we'll be heavily inclined to see Chantal Akerman's Almayer's Folly and Alexander Sokurov wrap up his trilogy of films about 20th-century rulers with Faust.

Guatemalan Handshake and Catechism Cataclysm helmer Todd Rohal's Sundance workshopped screenplay has received the greenlight. According to Deadline, production on the to be retitled Scoutmasters commences this week with Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt toplining the dark comedy with a supporting cast rounded out by Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street), Maura Tierney (television's ER) and Patrice O'Neal with the hope that the production squeezes in a part for Robert Longstreet.

"One is never immersed in the jungle or completely lost in the swoon of emotion or first-person experience. Sayles wants you awake; it’s not a dream, it’s a conversation. As with all good conversation, dialogue is the key, and it’s Sayles’ forte: tough, colloquial, randy, smart, smart-ass. He swings naturally from the good-naturedly profane to the bluntly poetic."

I Am Love has opened some huge doors for Italian helmer Luca Guadagnino. Currently keepoing busy with docu films Inconscio italiano (showing at Venice this month) and Bertolucci on Bertolucci (docu due out next year), he has been developing Auntie Mame and Corsica 72 as his potential feature film projects - but now it's a remake of Jacques Deray's “The Swimming Pool" - the 1969 pic starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and a very young Jane Birkin that looks to be his next.

"The movie works awfully hard to arrive at an empty and obvious allegory, and Ford’s desire to resolve his story in a neat, shiny package feels like glib manipulation. To top it off, Griff the Invisible breaks one of the cardinal rules of scripting: its assortment of odd characters gets less interesting the more we learn about them."

The New York Film Festival revealed today that its Closing Night Gala film will be Alexander Payne’s ‘The Descendants,’ which reviewers have described as an adroit dramedy starring George Clooney about a man who takes his daughters on a road trip to find his wife’s lover.

Currently in that star child actress moving onto more adult roles phase of her career, Abigail Breslin is moving closer to the direction of acting peers such as the Fannings by taking on some tougher, less flattering indie drama roles. After signing up for Hilary Brougher's Innocence, the actress will now topline The Class Project, playing one of two teen sisters turned murders.

While several countries are still deliberating which film will represent them for the upcoming Foreign Films category at the Oscars, the Romanian National Center for Cinematography have announced their pic in Marian Crisan's Morgen.

"The Last Circus, a bizarre horror comedy lobbed over a network of historical symbolism, not unlike the works of Carlos Saura or Guillermo Del Toro, happens to be one of the strangest and original pieces of cinema one could hope to see this year. Subtlety is still not a word to describe this film, but it features some elusive implications and images that are eerie and unforgettable."

Due to time constraints and reader importance, it's the section I regrettably avoid during the film festival, but that'll likely not be the case in 2011 as Wavelengths 4 features the latest work from our very own Blake Williams. His Coorow-Latham Road falls under the programme heading of "expanding spatial possibility through a consideration of inner and outer spaces, of varying cartographies and aesthetic patterns." Among the heavyweights in Andréa Picard's Wavelengths, we have Apichatpong Joe's latest and it might feel like 2010 again, but James Benning and Thom Anderson are returning to the programme (note: Anderson is one of the smokers in Benning's Twenty Cigarettes).

With a total of 50+1 films from around the world, the Contemporary World Cinema programme could very well be a film festival in its own right. Once again loaded in Cannes North American premieres from, the section also includes world preem titles: Xiaolu Guo's UFO in her Eyes, Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister (starring Emily Blunt see pic above), Nacho Vigalondo's Extraterrestrial and Christophe Van Rompaey's Lena. Among Cannes titles we can vouch for, which will play out in the section and happen to tell us that this world is not healthy state of affairs we have Andrey Zvyagintsev's brilliant Elena, Gerardo Naranjo's Miss Bala , and Markus Schleinzer' Michael.

We here at IONCINEMA.com like to think of the offerings in TIFF's Visions programme as the lieu where we find solace in cinema. Curators have grabbed envelope pushing items from Berlin in Dreileben (Three Lives) Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler, items we caught in Cannes from auteurs Bertrand Bonello, Alejandro Landes, Ruben Östlund and Vimukthi Jayasundara, Locarno's The Loneliest Planet (Loktev) and Venice items such as one of our most anticipated must see films of the year in Alps (see first look above) and Venice's Orizzonti section selected Swirl (Helvecio Marins Jr. and Clarissa Campolina), Kotoko (Shinya Tsukamoto) and Amir Naderi's Cut.

It's official. The cruelest bunch on the film festival circuit are the programmers from TIFF. Once again they make choosing what films to cover during a film festival a painstaking process. A sizeable chunk of films among the just announced Gala and Special Presentations reflect ongoing trends, heavy on world premieres of Brit offerings, red carpet bling items that will be receiving a theatrical release with weeks of the T.O premiere, and a satisfying mix of Cannes items that are definitely worth re-watching and Venice items that have been circled as must see coverage items for the IONCINEMA.com team.

Mark Urman's discount and highly selective distributor Paladin have netted what could easily be a bonafide hit in Boy. Despite mixed reviews, Taika Waititi's sophomore film (it didn't make our must see cut when it premiered in Park City) could be a healthy alternative if considered for year-end showings.