Artsweek

February 12, 2009

SBIFF ’09: Festival Honors Five Virtuosic Actors

By Steven Morris

Last Wednesday evening, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival honored five actors for being standout performers in 2008. The award was created last year to "recognize a select group of actors who have distinguish...

February 12, 2009

SBIFF ’09: “Ink” Is Stained With Promise **

By Hunter M. Daniels

"Ink" is a frustrating movie. It is generally idiotic but has brief moments of genius, totally half-baked but kind of fascinating, a cheap knockoff of other films but also surprisingly filled with ingenuity. Unfortunatel...

February 12, 2009

SBIFF ’09: Twisted Pleasure *

By Hunter M. Daniels

As a rule of thumb, anyone who claims to do something in order to "protect the children" is more than likely ethically bankrupt and morally repugnant. I really should have known better than to go see "Follow the Prophet,...

February 5, 2009

The Curious Case of David Fincher

By Virginia Yapp

"You kind of wonder if I should [have] been in therapy more regularly," director David Fincher cracked to an appreciative audience Friday night at the Arlington Theatre after seeing a couple clips from his filmography ru...

February 5, 2009

Clint Eastwood Has Still Got It, Baby

By Artsweek Editor

You almost begin to feel like cattle as a journalist covering red carpet events at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. You're sent through the chute with your fellow journalists and paparazzi and then made to stan...

February 5, 2009

Rourke Keeps It Real While Accepting the Riviera Award

By Amy Silverstein

After a long wait by the Arlington Theatre red carpet last Saturday, I finally stood face-to-face with actor Mickey Rourke, who is currently enjoying a career comeback this year with his Oscar-nominated performance in &#...

February 5, 2009

Down and Out in L.A.

By Staff

Rating: ***

February 5, 2009

By Reason of Insanity

By Staff

Rating: ***

January 29, 2009

Rolling Down the Red Carpet

By Amy Silverstein

"Did you talk to Jeff?" director Rod Lurie asked me on the opening night of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, referring to Jeff Bridges, a.k.a. "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski," who also played the preside...

January 29, 2009

Penelope Cruz Takes Acting Honors

By Aaron Harms

Crowds at the Arlington Theatre were bustling with anticipation as they awaited the arrival of Penelope Cruz, the 2009 award recipient for Outstanding Performer of the Year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festiva...

January 29, 2009

Winslet Honored With Montecito Award

By Steven Morris

Six-time Oscar-nominated British beauty and talented actress Kate Winslet has come back to Santa Barbara for this year's 24th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival to receive the Montecito Award. This award is...

January 29, 2009

Festival Free Flow

By Amy Silverstein

In an earlier draft of Andrew Stanton's "WALL-E" script, the humans of the future were "big, green gelatinous blobs" who had lost the ability to read or speak, so that "the whole movie was basically in non-English." Not ...

January 29, 2009

STUDENT CINEMA SPOTLIGHT: “Clams With Green Onions”

By Sara Weitz

One of the best things about the festival is that is often screens work by local filmmakers and UCSB students and alumni. One such film that ran at this year's festival is "Clams With Green Onions," a film produced as a ...

January 29, 2009

Tears of Joy *****

By Artsweek Editor

The first thing that will strike you about listening to The Crying Light, the latest release from Antony and the Johnsons, is the almost ridiculously heartbreaking beauty of the whole affair. Antony Hegarty's voice falls...

January 29, 2009

Fresh Blood ****

By Robyn Li

The Allmusic Guide compares him to Marvin Gaye; the UK music zine Drowned in Sound calls it a "fine appendix to the ... story so far;" even Pitchfork gives it a lofty 7.9 out of 10. This might just be the album of the se...

January 8, 2009

What Was Great in ’08

By Artsweek Staff

This year, Artsweek staff, like the rest of the U.S., and indeed, most of the world (besides China, perhaps), was not immune to the superpowers of Batman.