the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies.

Following the death of their mother Nawal, twins Jeanne and Simon find themselves dealing with dark family secrets bubbling to the surface. Nawal’s will includes two instructions for her children, to find both their father and their long-lost sibling. While Simon dismisses this last request as another manipulation from an emotionally-distant mother, Jeanne embarks on an epic journey to trace her family’s history and perhaps change its future.

At time of recording, it was ranked 110th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 23rd October 2021.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Incendies at The Internet Movie Database.
• The IMDB Top 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
• Deshawn Thomas at /film looks back at the troubled production of James Cameron’s Piranha 2: The Spawning, November 2021.
• Michael Gursky at MovieWeb looks back at Joe Dante’s Piranha, August 2021.
• Denis Villeneuve talks to Little White Lies about his life and career, October 2021.
• Paul Ridd at The British Film Institute takes a look back at Denis Villeneuve’s “calling-card” feature, Polytechnique, December 2020.
• Lyn Gardner reviews the stage play Scorched for The Guardian, September 2010.
• Denis Villeneuve talks to Sight & Sound about adapting Scorched into Incendies, January 2015.
• Denis Villeneuve talks to The Los Angeles Times about making Incendies, April 2011.
• Denis Villeneuve talks to Behind the Lens about the adaptational choices that he made in bringing Incendies to the screen, 2011.
• Lucas Oakeley at Little White Lies takes a look back at Incendies, and attempts to situate the movie in its historical context, September 2020.
• Denis Villeneuve talks to The Washington Post about adapting Incendies as an abstract meditation on conflict in the Middle East, May 2011.
• Maureen Clare Murphy at Electronic Intifada reflects on how Incendies draws specifically from the Lebanese Civil War, May 2011.
• Larry Rohter at The New York Times looks at how foreign films tackled the tensions between east and west that Hollywood largely ignored, March 2011.
• Steven Zeitchik at The Los Angeles Times discusses the grittiness and harshness of the foreign film nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards, February 2011.
• The Associated Press looks at how the Oscars “snubbed” Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, January 2008.
• Steven Pond at The Wrap looks at how the failure to nominate Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days radically changed the Academy Awards, January 2013.
• Carolyn Giardina at Reuters looks at how the Academy Awards “snubbed” both 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Persepolis, January 2008.
• Helen Faradji at CBC argues that Denis Villeneuve helped to bring Québécois cinema to the larger world, August 2017.
• Roger Ebert reviews Incendies for The Chicago-Sun Times, April 2011.
• The Canadian Press reports on Roger Ebert picking Incendies as his favourite for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, February 2011.
• Jason Diamond at Vulture gets tied up in defending Adam Sandler, March 2012.
• Jenn Selby at The Independent looks at how the Sony hack impacted Adam Sandler, December 2014.
• Juan de Onis at The New York Times reports on the Lebanon bus massacre, April 1975.
• Steven Zeitchik at The Los Angeles Times reports on Arrival as an exploration of the idea of language, November 2016.
• Scott Mendelson at Forbes looks back at how Blade Runner 2049 bombed, October 2017.
• Josh Dickey at The Wrap reports on Sony’s purchase of Incendies at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 2010.
• Josh Dickey at The Wrap reports on IFC picking up the rights to James Gunn’s Super at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 2010.
• Steven Zeitchik at The Los Angeles Times reports on the deal-making at that year’s Toronto International Film Festival, September 2010.
• This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin, August 1971.
• Patrick Honner at Quanta Magazine discusses the Collatz Conjecture, September 2020.
• David Edelstein at NPR discusses the ending of Incendies, April 2011.
• Tasha Robinson reviews Incendies at The A.V. Club, April 2011.
• Nathan Rabin at The Dissolve discusses Incendies, October 2014.
• David Ehrlich reviews Incendies at Reverse Shot, April 2011.
• Ty Burr reviews Incendies at The Boston Globe, May 2011.
• Noel Murray at The A.V. Club discusses the rise of nitpicking and plot holes as film criticism, August 2012.
• Malcolm Brabant at PBS reports on attempts at truth and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, June 2021.
• Denis Villeneuve talks to Anthem about his choices in making Incendies, October 2015.
• Richard Fitzpatrick at The Irish Examiner looks back on the Irish tradition of keening, August 2016.
• Emily VanDerWerff at Vox discusses the superhero genre’s obsession with 9/11, September 2016.
• Bilal Qureshi at NPR reports on Dune as a definitive post-9/11 epic, October 2021.
• Darren Mooney at The Escapist looks back at Sicario as a definitive war on terror movie, September 2020.
• Emma Smith at Shakespeare and Beyond looks back on the reputation of The Tempest as Shakespeare’s last play, March 2020.
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