‘Fremont’ Review: An Afghan Insomniac Tries To Find Purpose In A Refreshingly Unique & Jarmuschian-Esque Indie Dramedy [Sundance]

EXCLUSIVE: Impossible Dream Entertainment and Double G Films have set a stacked cast for their dramatic comedy Lost & Found in Cleveland, marking the feature debut of writer-directors Marisa Guterman and Keith Gerchak. Leads for the film, currently in production in Cleveland, include Emmy and Golden Globe winner Martin Sheen (Grace and Frankie), Golden Globe nominee Dennis Haysbert (Far from Heaven), Oscar nominee June Squibb (Nebraska), Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (Nebraska), Independent Spirit Award winner Yvette Yates Redick (Inherent Vice) and Tony Award winner Santino Fontana (Broadway’s Tootsie).

For All Quiet on the Western Front, director Edward Berger wanted the film to be created from a German perspective. He tasked composer Volker Bertelmann with the job of creating a score he’s never done before, giving him few insights into what he wanted for the final cut. Based on the 1928 novel of the same name, the film follows Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), a young German soldier who experiences the horrific reality of serving on the front line. Bertelmann wanted to use instruments connected to that time period, so he used a refurbished harmonium passed down from his grandmother.

Former Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears has announced that he will release a new solo album this summer, titled ‘Last Man Dancing’. Guests on the record include Kylie Minogue, Jane Fonda and Iggy Pop.

Not to be too dismissive or glib, but filmmaker Paul Weitz (“About A Boy,” “In Good Company”) has seemed to find a new lane in recent years. Could you call that lane the “grandma lane” without seeming like a superficial dick? Hear me out, though, because Weitz, who made the film “Grandma” with Lily Tomlin in 2017—which is very good btw!— has been working with her a lot, and several narratives center on women in the ’60s and ’70s.

One of the most delightfully warming and comically offbeat films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Babak Jalali’s “Fremont” tells the story of Donya, a former Afghan translator for the U.S. government who’s felt adrift in the titular California city since resettling there to evade the Taliban.  READ MORE: ‘Fremont’ Review: An Afghan Insomniac Tries To Find Purpose In A Refreshingly Unique & Jarmuschian-Esque Indie Dramedy [Sundance] Living in an apartment complex alongside other Afghan immigrants, working at a Chinese-American fortune cookie factory in San Francisco, and spending evenings alone at a local restaurant that plays Afghan soap operas, Donya — portrayed, in a captivating debut performance, by real-life Afghan refugee Anaita Wali Zada —longs for companionship.

EXCLUSIVE: Hercules Film Fund and Rhea Films have closed a deal to finance and produce a feature-length version of Power Signal — the sci-fi short from Oscar Boyson that had its world premiere in Sundance’s Midnight Shorts section last Friday.

Jane Fonda’s starring turn in 1968’s Barbarella helped catapult her to worldwide acclaim — but she’s not thinking about passing the mantle onto Sydney Sweeney, who is set to lead the upcoming remake.

Roger Ebert once wrote, “just because something is not done anymore doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing,” when describing Norman Jewison’s irrepressible romantic comedy “Only You.” This same sentiment can be applied to Angus MacLachlan’s latest family dramedy, “A Little Prayer,” a welcome throwback to adult-oriented movie fare of yore like “On Golden Pond,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” or “Passion Fish.

If Jordan Firstman did not exist, it would be necessary for Sebastián Silva to invent him. “Discomfort rooted in class friction” and “the perverse amusement of watching people be annoying” rank high on the list of stalwart indie filmmaker Silva’s favorite recurring themes, and no modern type marries the two quite as handily as the social media influencer that plague of shamelessly promotional non-celebrities who adopt the entitled mindset of fame long before breaking into the industry sector accommodating it.

The "Once" and "Sing Street" filmmaker is back with another testimonial to the transformative power of popular music.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Alice Englert’s “Bad Behaviour” is a dirty bomb of a movie, and it almost seems intentionally devised to keep the viewer off-balance. What at first appears a rather obvious send-up of self-help culture turns into a take-no-prisoners assault on narrative expectations and norms, all the while painting a pointed portrait of a truly complicated protagonist, the kind of character whose motivations and intentions are so slippery, you can barely make up your mind about her before she gives you a reason to change it again.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Alice Englert’s “Bad Behaviour” is a dirty bomb of a movie, and it almost seems intentionally devised to keep the viewer off-balance. What at first appears a rather obvious send-up of self-help culture turns into a take-no-prisoners assault on narrative expectations and norms, all the while painting a pointed portrait of a truly complicated protagonist, the kind of character whose motivations and intentions are so slippery, you can barely make up your mind about her before she gives you a reason to change it again.

The thorny, complicated history between the United States and Iran is infinitely more complex for those of the Persian diaspora living in America. It’s this nuanced tension trickling down to identity — between being too much this and not enough that in either homeland — that writer-director-producer Maryam Keshavarz (“Circumstance”) explores in her third film, “The Persian Version,” a decades and generation-spanning dramedy.