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Could the Anchorfan Pass be Hollywood’s newest business model?

Paramount and the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater chain today announced the “Anchorfan Pass,” a $15 ticket that will allow patrons to see “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” an unlimited number of times at any Drafthouse location beginning on January 1. It’s a nifty promotional idea for a film that is sure to have many repeat […]

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AFI Fest 2013

AFI Fest 2013: “The Unknown Known,” “The Past,” “Our Sunhi,” & “The Green Inferno”

On my final night attending this year’s AFI Fest, I hustled across the Chinese multiplex lobby from a screening of Hong Sang-soo’s “Our Sunhi” to another of “Borgman,” the reportedly highly disturbing Dutch film that made waves at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. I was too late to secure anything better than a second-row seat,

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AFI Fest 2013: “The Marriage of Maria Braun” (1979)

When a film festival includes previously released films on its schedule, especially older films, they are usually great achievements in cinematic history or straight-up crowd-pleasers. AFI did a gala presentation of “Mary Poppins” this year to coincide with its Opening Night Film, “Saving Mr. Banks,” the New York Film Festival debuted a restoration of “The

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AFI Fest 2013: “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974)

Agnès Varda, Grand Dame of the film world, descended upon AFI Fest 2013 as Guest Artistic Director. In this role, she chose several canonical films to be screened with her own personal introductions. For Sunday morning she picked John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), a kinetic and disturbing film that Varda, appearing in

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AFI Fest 2013: “The Wind Rises” & “Vic + Flo Saw a Bear”

Another year, another AFI Fest. It’s hard to believe I’ve been attending this Los Angeles institution for seven years now, but there’s nothing I look forward to more each November. And while I’m no longer able to see the ludicrous number of movies I once was—back in 2007 and 2008, I ignored my undergraduate obligations

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MFF Interview: A Conversation with Maryam Sepehri

Iranian filmmaker Maryam Sepehri (left) won an award at the 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival for “Habibeh,” a documentary about painter Habibeh Bedayat (right). In the dead of night she labors, trance-like, over a canvas. By the end of “Habibeh,” viewers will comprehend all of the thorny reasons why this fascinating woman—a painter, mother, teacher, and

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MFF Review: “Closed Curtain”

Many movies at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, which closed October 10, were epic in scope, but the very best film, “Closed Curtain,” tapered into smaller and smaller space until filmgoers were locked inside the mind of a single individual—the director, Jafar Panahi. After releasing five allegories critical of his home country of Iran, Panahi

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