James Marsh

Sundance 2012: SHADOW DANCER Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 29th, 2012 at 2:11 pm

It’s great when movies are a slow burn, but to qualify for that description there needs to be at least some heat.  James Marsh‘s Shadow Dancer moves at a glacial pace and barely does anything to build tension.  There’s hardly any urgency and no interest in the intrigue.  A compelling lead performance is essential to making a film like this working, but actress Andrea Riseborough meanders through her role and fails to convey any deeper emotions or conflict.  Some movies can be effective “anti-thrillers” where they play against expectations and still manage to generate drama.  Shadow Dancer just seems to be against thrills.

Michel Hazanavicius Wins Feature Film Directors Guild Award for THE ARTIST

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 29th, 2012 at 10:28 am

The Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year will go to The Artist. It’s over. Call off the dogs. The little silent film that could will be crowned the winner at next month’s ceremony. After riding a pretty solid frontrunner status throughout the past two months, the film has now picked up two of the most important Oscar precursor awards: the Producers Guild Award and the Directors Guild Award. Michel Hazanavicius was given the Best Feature Film director award at last night’s DGA ceremony, besting the likes of Hugo’s Martin Scorsese and The Descendants’ Alexander Payne.

The writing has been on the wall for a while now, but with the PGA and DGA in hand, there’s virtually zero chance of anything upsetting The Artist for Best Picture. I’m not saying Hazanavicius isn’t deserving of the DGA, as his crafting of the silent pic is certainly commendable (though I’m partial to Scorsese’s work on Hugo), I’m just pointing out that we’re most likely in for an incredibly predictable ceremony come next month. Hit the jump to see the full list of DGA winners in both film and television. The 84th Academy Awards will be held February 26th.

Directors Guild Award Documentary Nominees Announced; includes PROJECT NIM, THE INTERRUPTERS, and Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison Doc

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 12th, 2012 at 1:07 pm

On the heels of announcing their nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011, the Directors Guild of America have announced their nominations for Best Documentary Director.  The nominees are Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky for Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Steve James for The Interrupters, James Marsh for Project Nim, Richard Press for Bill Cunningham New York, and Martin Scorsese for George Harrison: Living in the Material World.  Scorsese also picked up DGA nomination this year for Hugo, which brings his total number of nominations to ten.  He previously won for The Departed.

While I’m rooting for Project Nim, this is a fine collection of nominees.  It’s much better than the Academy’s short list, which only includes Project Nim, Paradise Lost 3, and Bill Cunningham New York.  The winner of the DGA’s 2011 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary will be announced January 28th.

PROJECT NIM Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 8th, 2011 at 6:30 am

[This review is a re-post of the review I posted at Sundance.  I'm re-posting it because Project Nim opens in theaters today and it's one of the best films I've seen all year.]

What separates men from beasts?  What at first seems like an easy question yields no obvious answer in the captivating and fascinating documentary, Project Nim.  Nim was a chimpanzee who was ripped away from his mother in the early 1970s and put into an experiment to see if he could communicate with sign language provided if he was raised and treated like a human child.  What was already a tricky proposition became almost impossible when combined with the bizarre and dubious cast of characters who surrounded the young chimp.  Through magnificent use of re-enactments, interviews, and powerful archive footage, Project Nim is a film that not only has you turning over questions on the nature of humanity, but it also inspires laughter, shock, revulsion, and heartbreak in seeing how Nim swings between dangerous animal and lovable companion.

Wild Bunch and Paramount Team-Up for SHADOW DANCER Starring Clive Owen; Plus First Synopsis for Film Emerges

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: May 5th, 2011 at 3:57 pm

Last month, we brought you news of Clive Owen teaming up with Andrea Riseborough (Never Let Me Go) and director James Marsh (Man on Wire) in an IRA spy-thriller, then titled, Shadow Dancer. Actually, it’s still titled Shadow Dancer, but we have further updates as well. In a press release sent our way, BBC Films announced that Paramount Pictures will be handling distribution in the UK while Wild Bunch tackles international sales.

Briefly, Shadow Dancer stars Owen as an MI5 agent and Riseborough as a member of the Irish Republican Army in Dublin during the 1990s. James Marsh will direct from a script written by Tom Bradby, who also wrote the novel of the same name. The film also stars Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and will begin filming in Dublin this May. Hit the jump to check out the film’s synopsis in the full press release.

Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough to Star in IRA Thriller from MAN ON WIRE Director James Marsh

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 6th, 2011 at 3:09 pm

Director James Marsh may have earned an Oscar for his documentary Man on Wire, but he’s no stranger to narrative features.  He previously directed The King starring Gael Garcia Bernal and the crime drama Red Riding 1980.  Vulture now reports that he’s got another fiction film up his sleeve and that Clive Owen is attached to star.  Marsh tells Vulture that his new film “is much more like Red Riding, it’s a genre film, it’s a thriller.”

The untitled project (formerly titled Shadow Dancer) is set in Northern Ireland during the early 1990s and will co-star Andrea Riseborough (Never Let Me Go) as a former IRA terrorist turned informer.  The film also stars Aidan Gillen (The Wire) Gillian Anderson (The X-Files).  Shooting on the low-budget film is set to begin this May in Dublin.

Sundance 2011: PROJECT NIM Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 20th, 2011 at 11:45 pm

What separates men from beasts?  What at first seems like an easy question yields no obvious answer in the captivating and fascinating documentary, Project Nim.  Nim was a chimpanzee who was ripped away from his mother in the early 1970s and put into an experiment to see if he could communicate with sign language provided if he was raised and treated like a human child.  What was already a tricky proposition became almost impossible when combined with the bizarre and dubious cast of characters who surrounded the young chimp.  Through magnificent use of re-enactments, interviews, and powerful archive footage, Project Nim is a film that not only has you turning over questions on the nature of humanity, but it also inspires laughter, shock, revulsion, and heartbreak in seeing how Nim swings between dangerous animal and lovable companion.

MAN ON WIRE Director James Marsh Presses Play on THE VATICAN TAPES

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 9th, 2009 at 9:22 am

After wrapping up on “Red Riding: 1980″, James Marsh, the Oscar-winning director of “Man on Wire”, will move straight to the supernatural thriller “The Vatican Tapes”.  According to THR, the film centers on a series of events that unfold after a tape gets leaked from the Vatican displaying an exorcism that goes wrong.  It sounds like a solid premise and even though I haven’t seen his 2005 film, “The King” starring Gael Garcia Bernal, I’m excited to find out how Marsh will handle non-documentary films.

But back to “The Vatican Tapes”, I have a question: has there ever been an exorcism gone right?  Like the priests finish exorcising the demon, the little girl smiles, the priests high-five, and then everyone goes out for ice cream?  Wouldn’t the Catholic Church film a successful exorcism, post it on YouTube, and then say, “Let’s see your Protestantism do that, fuckers!” (Of course, they wouldn’t write it out like that; it would be in Latin).

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