Don't go see Timbuktu expecting revival of Kismet. Abderrahmane Sissako's latest film offers a somewhat more subdued portrait of Mali's spiritual and intellectual capital, one where music is banned. So are soccer, cigarettes, laughter and unveiled women, among other prohibitions being slapped on local citizens in 2012, as mujahideen spread their brand of Sharia to the West African nation's northern tier. We first meet these zealots barreling across the desert in a pick...

Tom Cross surely has a sore neck since hearing the news: his work on Damien Chazelle's Whiplash has earned the picture one of its five Oscar bids -- in his case for "Best Film Editing." It's the Los Angeles-based editor's first Academy nomination. Back in the fall I spoke with Cross about cutting the scrappy music-themed indie. Here's the full story: http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/997/film_editor_tom_cross_brings_on_whiplash ...

On a recent wintry night, the 13th snow storm of the season froze the Film Society of Lincoln Center's plans to host Alfonso Cuarón in a conversation about his new film Gravity. The acclaimed Mexican director, whose lift-off to New York was aborted, was instead astral-projected by video Skype. Cuarón is perhaps best known to American audiences for his screen adaptation of the children's book A Little Princess; his Mexican road comedy Y Tu Mamá También; ...