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Time Out
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Killer Films looks back on 30 years of indie classics for an upcoming Metrograph series.
Only a handful of production companies inspire audience cheers when their name pops up in a movie's credits. (Leo the Lion's MGM roar comes to mind, but maybe that's just fight or flight.) But you know when Killer Films' rabbit hops onto the screen with its dartboard-target body that you're about to get your indie world rocked. Recent hits like Materialists and May December are proof of this, but longtime fans of Todd Haynes and off-beat classics like Party Monster, Vox Lux and Kids can trace a long lineage of singular cinematic visions to the New York-based company, headed by producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler. This August, Killer Films celebrates 30 years of movie magic with a two-week series at the downtown arthouse Metrograph, with several in-person intros and filmmaker Q&As. Five of the seven films will screen in 35mm, including Todd Haynes' I'm Still Here and Far From Heaven, Cindy Sherman's (only film!) Office Killer, Mark Romanek's One Hour Photo and John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Janicza Bravo's Twitter-world masterpiece Zola and Todd Solondz's controversial Happiness will be shown in digital format. (You can find a full schedule of screenings and special events on Metrograph's website.) The history of Killer is inextricably linked to Haynes' groundbreaking career: his first feature, Poison, was the company's first production. Though it helped establish the emerging New Queer Cinema subgenre that brought us Gregg Araki, Cheryl Dunye and Gus Van Sant, the gloriously weird, unpinnable anthology based on the explicitly gay writings of Jean Genet is hardly anyone's idea of a solid first venture for a fledgling company. So how did that get made? 'I'll tell you exactly how,' said Vachon in an exclusive interview. 'It was a film that could be marketed to a very underserved audience, and that audience showed up for it and the movie was profitable. In fact, it broke records at the Angelika that went unbroken for a strangely long time, considering a lot of the queer audiences that went to see it came out scratching their heads, saying, I just wanted to see some boys kissing, what was that?, because it was a very experimental film. But a lot of them came out having had an experience that really changed them, and it changed how they saw movies for the rest of their lives.' Their success, Vachon believes, was due in part to a lack of options for queer media in the '90s. 'In those days, it almost felt like we were all in the same goldfish bowl,' she said, recalling how she'd promote Hedwig by personally handing out leaflets at local gay bars, or on a themed float at that year's Pride parade. ('That foam headdress was just such a great prop, it lent itself to a communal experience,' Koffler chuckled.) But Koffler also added that the audience loyalty they felt had an extra degree of intention: 'This was a time when there was no streaming or TV, and more movie theaters and ways to go to the cinema and see stuff.' Everyone who went to see a Killer film, wanted to see a Killer film. Still, it wasn't until 1999's Boys Don't Cry that Koffler thinks Hollywood stopped thinking of their company as that 'stinky little office in downtown New York.' Kimberly Peirce's biodrama about the murder of a trans man brought the company overnight success, and their first Oscar glories. (Hilary Swank won for Best Actress, Chloe Sevigny was nominated for Best Supporting.) Though she was hesitant about singing their 30th anniversary from the rooftops, as Vachon said she was game to do, Koffler feels a sage peace about their role in the industry. 'The business has changed so many times, in so many ways over the past thirty years, and we really do know what we're doing at this point,' she told me. 'So if anyone's gonna get to keep making things, I feel like we have a pretty good shot. We don't have a crystal ball, but we at least know how to figure out the path.' Below, Vachon and Koffler run down the history of Killer Films through a few of the movies screening at Metrograph. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Office Killer (1997) Koffler: [Producers] Ted Hope and James Schamus had cooked up a division for their company, Good Machine, called Good Fear, which was intended to make low-budget, artful horror films. But I think ours ended up being the only one… Vachon: I'd met Cindy a time or two through my partner, Marlene McCarty, when they were both represented by the same gallery, Metro Pictures. We managed to get to her pretty easily and just sat down with her and were like, 'What do you think?' Koffler: There's a kind of macabre cinematic vibe to her photographs, so it felt like a natural proposition to translate that into her tone and style in movies. Time Out: I've noticed its reputation has increased over the years versus the reception then. Koffler: I mean, we love that movie. There's something campy and out-there about it that we felt was of a piece with a sort of artifice, and some of the lines crack us up. 'Did you send me something by fax modem?' We quote that a lot. Time Out: Did you try to pull her back in for another movie after that? Vachone: I think she had a good experience, though you'd have to ask her. It was a good crew, a great cast and people were really happy to be there. It just felt like one of those movies where we were getting what the director wanted. The reviews were not good, and I think people came after her with knives out because she'd 'jumped out of her lane,' but she was sort of like, 'Whatever, I got my other thing, too.' And if she ever wanted to do another movie, I hope she'd come to us, but she may have felt like she did what she wanted to do with this one. Happiness (1998) Vachon: There was a lot of controversy in the press around its 'pedophile loving content' – I say sarcastically – and Good Machine took the movie over when October (which then morphed into USA Films, which then morphed into Focus Features) was owned by Universal, and they suddenly were longer able to distribute it. Time Out: Would you run into these sudden drops from distributors often? Vachon: I don't know the last time that's happened. I mean, we came under criticism for Swoon because it was at the height of the AIDS crisis and it was considered not a positive image. We got picked on by Stonewall veterans for Stonewall and then they all came to the after-party. And Kids had a journey as well. Time Out: I'm so fascinated by works that were pilloried by parts of the community in their time for 'negative representation.' This sounds so corny, but where did you find the strength to say, This is an artistic statement worth putting out there and hopefully, eventually we'll be vindicated? Vachon: You weren't pilloried the way you are now on social media. I think we just had a very strong sense of the stories we wanted to tell and we were like, Well, what's going to happen? It was definitely, in the AIDS era, an issue. Tom and Todd and I, back in those days, talked a lot about the fact that we weren't part of a community that had one positive image. But, like, what was that? A 40-year-old doctor who goes to the Pines every weekend? Honestly, what is that? Something we talked about on Swoon, for example, was that one of the leads, who was straight, was asked a lot how he felt playing a gay character. And he was like, W hy aren't you asking me how it feels to play a child murderer? Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) Time Out: I'm realizing Killer hasn't done any other stage adaptations other than this. Koffler: I guess our source material usually comes through the writers, directors, actors who bring us projects that inspire them. It's not like we've steered away from it. But this was such a unique underground phenomenon that felt very in sync with the kind of story we wanted to tell. Time Out: Was John Cameron Mitchell in your orbit at the time? Vachon: He'd actually auditioned for I Shot Andy Warhol to play Warhol. Jared Harris did an extraordinary job, but so did John. I think he and Todd [Haynes] and Tom [Kalin, the film's producer] were friends while he was developing the Hedwig character at various nightclubs. So, we were hearing about it. One Hour Photo (2002) Koffler: Mark wrote that script and sent it to us, saying he wanted us to produce it. Even though it wasn't his first feature, he really felt like this was somehow the restart of his intention to make movies, and we just figured it out. Searchlight [the distribution company] saw it as a thriller, and could be marketed like that, but creatively, Mark was really going for a dark character study and he rode that line really beautifully and made the exact film he wanted. It struck a chord, and it was our first movie that did some real box office. Vachon: Yeah, it was number three one weekend. Time Out: Were you interested in casting Robin Williams against type in this role? Koffler: My memory is that Mark had a vision that he felt Robin was gifted and was that character: the right age, and an affable, approachable, kind-hearted seeming character. A lot of comedians have that dark current of something sad, and Robin actually did have that underneath. Mark saw that. It wasn't stunt-casting the way we might think of it today, I don't remember it like that. Vachon: It was at a time when Robin was trying to shift into different types of movies and roles. If I remember correctly, his folks called us and said, 'I don't know if you're open to this, but…' We went, huh, and Mark really felt that it was something that he could work with. Zola (2020) Time Out: You've recently been in partnership with A24, do you feel a kindred downtown New York sensibility with them? Koffler: They're obviously committed to the theatrical experience and very attracted to strong, original storytelling. It was just inevitable that we'd overlap in films that they'd be right to distribute and finance. And they're in New York, so it does feel like there's an affinity. Thankfully, there's a lot of great distributors, and our movies are right for some and not for others, but it's been great to get to know those guys because we've now done five films with them. Time Out: How do you feel about maintaining an indie sensibility as you 'level up' in terms of reach? Vachon: It's always hard, especially these days, to say what exactly makes a movie an indie film? Our movies get their financing in all kinds of ways, often with a studio element, sometimes with a foreign sales element, an incentive, a bank loan, what have you. But if you sell a movie like May December to Netflix after you've made it, is it a Netflix movie, or what is it? So I resist those terms a little bit. I guess at the end of the day, is an independent film simply defined by it being the result of a reasonably singular vision, or is it completely about the financing? I did an interview years ago for The New York Times Magazine with Larry Gordon, the big deal Hollywood producer, where we kind of interviewed each other. He had just done Waterworld, and I think before we even began the interview, he said, And it's a little, like, it kinda is.
Metro
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Time Flies review - the life and death of a bluebottle
An inspired new indie game casts you as a hapless house fly, attempting to complete its bucket list before it succumbs to the inevitable. Swiss developer Playables isn't exactly a household name, but you may have come across their 2019 art piece-meets-mobile game Kids, in which you herded hundreds of tiny stick men into a hole, then assisted them along what appeared to be a long alimentary canal. It's a studio that specialises in creating interactive toys that inhabit the strange cusp between video games and non-interactive art. A number of their titles have a stark, hand drawn black and white aesthetic, which is also the case for Time Flies – a game built around strict principles of minimalism. Its control scheme uses only the left stick, which is enough to let you fly, land, and interact with the game's beautiful, yet decidedly minimal props and sets. Starting with a house fly on a flat surface, you nudge the stick left and right to walk, or push it upwards to take to the air, which also starts a timer. In an interesting twist that, true to form, the developer neither addresses nor explains, your fly has a lifetime that's equivalent to a specific country's life expectancy, converting years to seconds. That means a United Kingdom-dwelling fly starts with 80.1 seconds to live. That's longer than a US fly, or one from the Democratic Republic of Congo, but shorter than a South Korean or Japanese fly. It turns out to be useful having a longer life, because in each scenario you undertake, your fly has a bucket list. While your time ticks down in the top corner of the screen, your job is to explore, discovering what you can interact with, and what everything does. Flying near items that help with your objectives pauses the timer, giving you unfettered moments to experiment and try out ideas, before resuming again when you leave their immediate airspace. The process is a little less straightforward than it sounds, because bucket list entries are cryptic at best. For example, the second level includes: Build a home, Paint a masterpiece, Start a revolution, and Bring people together, on its 10 item list, which is quite a collection of tall orders to complete in under a minute and a half. Usefully, each level also includes ways to extend your time, which we wouldn't be churlish enough to spoil here. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Broadly, Time Flies is divided into two asymmetric parts. In the first, you explore the set of rooms you're trapped in, finding things to do. Once you've discovered something you can interact with, you then need to work out what to do with it to cross off a bucket list activity. Once you've done that you'll need to continue exploring until you've found all 10 items, before figuring out which order to do them in for maximum time efficiency. The second part of the game is an effective speed run, where you string all the activities together in a single life. All bucket lists include a goal specifying how your fly would like to die, so those will always be the final thing to strike off, and the order you take everything else is governed by its position in each room, and how those rooms connect to one another. As well as the bucket list, there are jigsaw pieces hidden around each level. Some are easier to find than others, but all manage to highlight the diverse range of secret places Playables has managed to work into levels that on first impression look almost impossibly simple. The tension between the line drawn world with its single joystick interactions, and the need to conceal things within, makes for some fascinating subtlety in level design. More Trending It's not all about subtlety though, as you can also expect a few buttocks and the censored genitalia of Michelangelo's David, which presumably why the pearl-clutchers at PEGI decided it should be rated 16. The game also squeezes in witty little tableaus to stumble upon, along with art and pop cultural references, and even more esoteric props. It's also worth mentioning how well Time Flies mediates between its 2D side-scrolling gameplay and the line drawn 3D world on screen. Your single joystick motion proves to be intuitive and accurate, even when deciding whether to fly through a room or ascend a flight of stairs in the background. It's impressive stuff, that belies its outward simplicity. Still, there's a lot less game here than console players will be used to. While it lasts, it's interesting and unusual, with impressive intrinsic rewards just messing about with its puzzles, before you get to the slightly more stressful speed run phase. It's a captivating piece of game design though and a world away from the current glut of overlong sequels and remakes. In Short: A short, surreal roguelike puzzler that proves a video game doesn't have to be 60 hours long or feature photorealistic graphics to be entertaining and thought-provoking. Pros: Witty, offbeat experience that continually confounds expectations. Intuitive single stick control works well and it manages to hide multiple secrets in its seemingly simplistic line drawn rooms. Cons: Exploration and experimentation are more fun than the speed runs. A short game with no real replay value. Score: 7/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PCPrice: £11.99Publisher: PanicDeveloper: PlayablesRelease Date: 31st July 2025 Age Rating: 16 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Another new Switch 2 game leaks ahead of Nintendo Direct reveal MORE: Battlefield 6 release date, open beta, and trailer all leak ahead of reveal MORE: The best-selling game of 2025 outsold by Devil May Cry games from decades ago
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Australia puts YouTube on list of banned social media for children under 16; How it will work, platforms included, and penalties
Live Events What platforms are affected? How will age verification work? Enforcement and penalties What's not included? (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The Albanese government has announced that YouTube will be included in its new social media ban for users under the age of 16, a decision placing Australia at the global forefront of digital child initial decision was to exempt the platform, but it changed following a formal recommendation from eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who cited a national survey of 2,600 minors showing that nearly 40 percent of children reported exposure to harmful content on YouTube, more than any other YouTube content will still be viewable without an account, users under 16 will be unable to comment, upload videos, or access age-restricted Kids app remains sweeping policy described by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as 'world-leading' aims to reduce mental health harms by delaying children's exposure to addictive algorithms, cyberbullying, and graphic or inappropriate content.'Social media is doing social harm to our children, and I want Australian parents to know that we have their backs,' Albanese said during a joint announcement with Communications Minister Anika Wells on Wednesday(July 30).The ban will apply to major platforms including Facebook Instagram , Snapchat, TikTok , Reddit, X, and now, YouTube, which was originally slated for remains one of the most contentious aspects of the law. Under the legislation, platforms may request users provide a government-issued ID, but cannot require it as the only form of age verification. Instead, they must implement 'reasonable alternatives.'Trials of AI-driven age estimation tools, such as facial scans and voice analysis, have shown inconsistent results. In some government tests, 15-year-olds were mistakenly classified as adults in their final report on age-checking technology is expected later this year and will guide compliance that fail to comply may face fines of up to AUD 49.5 million (USD ~$33 million). The burden of enforcement lies with social media companies, not users or families. Children who bypass restrictions will not be penalized. Existing underage accounts must also be apps such as WhatsApp and educational platforms like Google Classroom are excluded. The government also clarified that online games are not covered under the new rules, citing fewer social harms compared to social media.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Extreme heat forces summer camps to move some programming indoors
Summer camps are doing their best to keep kids cool, and entertained, as the temperature rises. CTV's Alexandra Holyk finds out how.
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Kea Kids News: Which one of these kids is NZ's next billionaire?
Reporter Zoe is at the Kids Only Market, where budding entrepreneurs are making cool things and selling their gently used items to make some serious bucks. Video / KKN
