Exclusive Clip: Fiona Richmond ‘Road Tests’ Some Men in Michael Winterbottom’s ‘The Look of Love’

Looks like Carrie Bradshaw has a little British competition, and her name is Fiona Richmond.

In “The Look of Love,” an upcoming British biopic centered around Paul Raymond, a publisher who opened the U.K.’s first strip club, Raymond (Steve Coogan) is hoping to spice up his adult men’s magazine with a new sex column. But the question is: What woman has the nerve and gumption to detail her sexcapades in print (or “road test” men, as he aptly puts it)? Like an angel answering Raymond’s prayers, Miss Richmond (Tamsin Egerton) waltzes into his life ready to take on the task (and take off her clothes).

In this exclusive clip, check out Richmond’s first meeting with Raymond and his associate, where she locks down the job by turning up the heat with some R-rated dirty talk. In fact, the talk is so hot, Raymond asks Richmond to strip down in the middle of the club. Spicy!

“The Look of Love” is slated for a limited U.S. release this Friday, July 5.

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Tags: Biopic, Look of Love, Paul Raymond, Steve Coogan, Tasmin Egerton

Exclusive Photos from ‘The Act of Killing’

Critics are encouraged not to speak in hyperbole, but to call Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” one of the most astonishing films ever made seems like less of an opinion than it does a statement of fact. Such a claim isn’t even necessarily a testament to the quality of Oppenheimer’s new documentary (which is a must-see) so much as it speaks to movie’s unbelievable premise, the horrors it chronicles and the participation it coerced from the perpetrators. Executive produced by documentary legends Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, “The Act of Killing” introduces us to Anwar Congo and his friends, a gaggle of aging but curiously charismatic Indonesian men who just so happen to be some of the most prolific mass-murderers in recorded history. Small-time gangsters who were promoted to death squad captains during the Communist purge that disfigured Indonesia in 1965, these men oversaw the executions of more than 500,000 people, with Anwar Congo himself personally responsible for murdering more than 1,000 of those victims (his favorite method being to strangle them with wire).

And why, you may ask, are Anwar and his cronies allowed to walk the streets, still commanding fear from the locals? Because their side won. Because they’re seen as heroes, and seem to believe their legend. Oppenheimer, privy to how proud these men were for their crimes against humanity, began to suspect that such vanity was merely a defense mechanism, as though these mass-murderers had glommed on to the triumphant narrative that sustained their nation and used it as a means of distancing themselves from their own conscience. As “The Act of Killing” begins, Oppenheimer invites Anwar and his buddies into a revelatory meta-construct, encouraging them to make a film of their exploits, mining the fun genre elements of the gangster movies they once loved to re-imagine their proudest (read: most heinous) moments. And, like the old saying goes, it’s all fun and games until someone is forced to confront the fact that they were responsible for genocide.

An astonishing portrait of personal memory and cultural denial, “The Act of Killing” is one of the year’s hardest films to watch, but perhaps the most incredible to see. Drafthouse Films has provided us with these exclusive stills from the movie, which reveal the film within the film, illustrating the process by which Anwar and co slipped into their former roles.

“The Act of Killing” will be in theaters on July 19.

Categories: Photos

Tags: Documentary, Drafthouse films, Errol Morris, Exclusive Photos, Indonesia, Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing, Werner herzog

Exclusive Clip: ‘He’s Way More Famous Than You’

If you starred in one of the decade’s great American indies, you’d probably expect the film industry to ask you to stick around for a little while, right? Well, apparently things don’t always shake out that way. In 2005, Noah Baumbach’s low-fi masterpiece “The Squid and the Whale” was the talk of the town, a fixture on year-end top ten lists that re-ignited the director’s career and launched Jesse Eisenberg towards stardom. Hell, it even made The Museum of Natural History seem cool, again. But what ever happened to Halley Feiffer, the girl who played Eisenberg’s girlfriend, Sophie Greenberg? History doesn’t seem to have been kind to her. Despite playing a pivotal role in the film, she’s not even mentioned on the film’s Wikipedia page.

Well, in real life (which I guess is what counts?), Feiffer seems to have done okay for herself, continuing to work in film and tv while also starring in a bunch of Off-Broadway productions. But her new comedy, “He’s Way More Famous Than You,” peeks into the looking glass and imagines a world where things didn’t go quite so well. Playing a role that she co-wrote and kind of lived, the movie finds Feiffer re-imagining herself as a hot mess, a fading indie starlet whose lust for fame is only matched by her need for another drink. An industry satire filled with familiar faces and intensely painful cringe-comedy (aka the best kind of cringe-comedy), “He’s Way More Famous Than You” is a hilarious look at what happens to the Sundance Kid after the credits roll.

Here’s an exclusive clip from the film, includes what might be movie history’s most intense reference to “The Outsiders.”

“He’s Way More Famous Than You” opens in limited release on May 10.

Check out the official synopsis:

When once-up-and-coming indie film starlet Halley Feiffer loses her boyfriend, her agent and her career in one fell swoop she finally realizes that something has got to change…she has to become WAY MORE FAMOUS! Armed with a stolen script and two pitchers of sangria, Halley enlists the help of her brother Ryan and his boyfriend to make a movie, starring herself (of course), and any A-list celebrity she can land. She will stop at nothing, even if it means hurting the only people who truly care about her.

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Tags: Exclusive Clip, Halley Feiffer, He's Way More Famous Than You

Exclusive Clip: ‘Shadow Dancer’

For a while there, it was starting to look as though American audiences would never have an opportunity to see James Marsh’s “Shadow Dancer,” despite the fact that the film tore up the festival trail after premiering at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. Film.com’s very own William Goss raved about “Shadow Dancer” from the snowy hills of Park City, writing that Marsh – who made a name for himself with the enormously successful documentaries “Man on Wire” and “Project Nim” – has delivered a superbly suspenseful thriller with his latest foray into the world of narrative filmmaking.

Fortunately for us, “Shadow Dancer” is finally seeing the light of day on our shores, premiering on iTunes earlier today and slated to hit theaters on May 31st.

Starring Clive Owen and “Oblivion”‘s Andrea Riseborough, “Shadow Dancer” is one of the more exciting films of the spring. We’re pleased to present an exclusive clip from the movie, a tense and frothy interrogation scene that should give you a pretty good idea as to what you’re in for with this one. Check it out, and read the film’s synopsis below.

Single mother Collette McVeigh is a Republican living in Belfast with her mother and hardliner IRA brothers. When she is arrested for her part in an aborted IRA bomb plot in London, an MI5 officer (Mac) offers her a choice: lose everything and go to prison for 25 years or return to Belfast to spy on her own family. With her son’s life in her hands, Collette chooses to place her trust in Mac and return home, but when her brothers’ secret operation  is ambushed, suspicions of an informant are raised and Collette finds both herself and her family in grave danger.

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Tags: Exclusive Clip, James marsh, Shadow dancer

Exclusive Clip: ‘Lily’ (2013 Tribeca Film Festival)

We’re only about halfway through this year’s edition of The Tribeca Film Festival, but I have a hard time believing that anything is gonna displace Matt Creed’s debut feature as my favorite premiere of the fest. “Lily” is a beautifully rendered portrait of a young woman preparing to take the next step as she finishes treatment for breast cancer, a film that’s tiny but true, as precise as it is universally relatable. Indebted to the free-flowing spirit of John Cassavetes and inspired by lead actress Amy Grantham’s fight with cancer, “Lily” is the kind of movie that proves – among other things – that there’s hope for indie film beyond the likes of Sundance and SXSW, and that Tribeca is full of buried treasure if you know where to look.

I recently chatted with Matt and Amy about how “Lily” came to be, and we’ll have that interview up on the site in the next little bit, but for now we’re super pleased to present an exclusive clip from the film. It might seem like a strange excerpt, but this bit of footage nicely articulates the two worlds that Lily is forced to navigate between.

“Lily” will screen two more times at TFF, and will play at other festivals over the coming months.

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Tags: Exclusive Clip, Lily, Tribeca Film Festival 2013

Exclusive Trailer: ‘Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters’

Film.com and MTV are happy to give you an exclusive look at the first trailer for “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” and boy, do these kids want this blanket something fierce.

In the sequel to 2010's “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,”  Percy (Logan Lerman) and all his demigod friends are back. After rescuing Zeus’ all-powerful lightning bolt in the series’ first installment, Percy and Co. (including Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Douglas Smith and more, including “The Host”‘s Jake Abel as scowly demigod Luke) must recover a golden fleece, which will save their home, Camp Half-Blood, from the Bad Guys (and, one assumes, the shivers).

Check out the trailer, above, for all kinds of cool effects (fire! Swords! Intrigue! Adventure!), friendly teen competition (looks like Leven Rambin, as Clarisse La Rue, gives our favorite wallflower demigod a run for his money) and, of course, a desperate search for fleece.

“Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” is set for release on August 16, 2013.

Categories: Trailers

Tags: Exclusive, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, Trailer

Exclusive Clip: ‘Reality’

One of the breakout hits at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Matteo Garrone’s “Reality” is now — thanks to Oscilloscope – one of the most exciting films of the season (spring, late winter, whatever you want to call it). Following up his grim crime masterpiece “Gomorrah” with an ostensibly lighter story about a fishmonger who desperately wants to be on the Italian version of “Big Brother,” Garrone’s “Reality” is ultimately no less disturbing than any of our own.

After being invited to audition for the “Big Brother” producers at Cinecittá Studios in Rome, the affable Lucíano (Aniello Arena) quickly becomes consumed by his obsession with landing a spot on the show. Before long, Lucíano becomes convinced that every stranger he encounters is a stealth agent from the production, sent to spy on him in order to determine if he’s fit to be cast. What begins as an innocent gamble for a better life soon devolves into a rabbit hole of paranoia and broken dreams, Garrone twisting this potentially conventional story into a moving portrait of a society that has conferred fame as its new religion, no matter the cost.

Also check out: Our Cannes Review of “Reality”

Oscilloscope has provided us with this telling clip from the film, in which Lucíano thinks he’s receiving the big call that will change his life. But his life, we’ll soon learn, can be a little cruel.

“Reality” opens in NYC on March 15, LA on March 22, and will then expand across the country.

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Tags: Cannes, Exclusive Clip, Matteo Garrone, Oscilliscope, Reality

Exclusive Clip: Behind the Scenes of ‘Day of the Falcon’

Upcoming epic “Day of the Falcon” has a little bit of everything: Antonio Banderas and Freida Pinto, honor, greed, betrayal and romance, director Jean-Jacques Annaud (Enemy at the Gates) and more.

As far as we can tell, it’s only missing a falcon.

Check out this exclusive behind-the-scenes clip of the movie, which hits premium VOD today and theaters on March 1.

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Tags: Antonio banderas, Day of the Falcon

Exclusive Photo: Ralph Macchio in ‘He’s Way More Famous Than You’

The Karate Kid: excellent for crane poses, triumphant displays of underdog victory … and revitalizing a sagging acting career? That’s the theory of Halley Feiffer in “He’s Way More Famous Than You,” an indie comedy in which seducing Ralph Macchio is just one of Feiffer’s schemes for making it big in Hollywood.

Check out this exclusive pic from the set of “He’s Way More Famous,” showing Macchio and a nude-body-stockinged Feiffer. The film, which premieres January 20 at the Slamdance Film Festival, also stars Natasha Lyonne and Jesse Eisenberg.

Categories: Features

Tags: He's Way More Famous Than You, ralph macchio

Exclusive: ‘Paradise Lost’ Trilogy Clip

If you’re not familiar with the incredible story of the West Memphis 3, get ready to have your socks rocked.

In 1993, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were sent down to West Memphis, Ark., to cover the trials of Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, three young men who were accused of the gruesome murders of three young boys. What they found was almost as shocking as the murders themselves — three young men railroaded by a shoddy investigation and local investigators suspicious of their black clothes and non-conformist ways.

The filmmakers unwittingly became a part of the story while filming the first doc, “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills,” and the second and third (“Revelations” and “Purgatory,” respectively) revealed even more damning evidence of the mishandled cases. These documentaries follow the incredible story of the West Memphis 3 and their eventual release.

Check out this exclusive clip from the third documentary, which is a snippet of an interview with Jason Baldwin after their release.

The trilogy is now available on DVD.

Categories: Trailers

Tags: Bruce Sinofsky, Damien Echols, Exclusive, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley, Joe Berlinger, Paradise Lost, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, trailer, West Memphis 3, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory