Xan Cassavetes didn't set out to make a vampire film. In fact, though her newest film is called Kiss of the Damned, opening today (5/3/13), she's still not convinced she has.

Actor Seymour Cassel is on the phone and, when asked what he's been doing, says, "Well, I'm looking for work."

They take a very specific couple and make them universal. It could be a primer on what couple's therapy is about, how it works and how the results won't always be life-changing breakthroughs -- at least not right away.

Subtlety is the gear that cranks Return's engine; while plenty of films about an Iraq War vet losing their shit upon coming home could amp the histrionics to 11, Johnson's film manages to keep itself planted firmly in the realm of naturalism.

We're sad to report that actor Ben Gazzara died on February 3rd at age 81, succumbing to pancreatic cancer. Over his nearly-sixty year career, Gazzara specialized in portraying tough guys with an intellect, usually undergoing a crisis of conscience.

According to Joe Jackson, performing is the best part of the "madness" that he's involved in. It's better than being in the studio or anything else.

In the artistically vibrant NYC of the 50s, Cassel was an acting student with the famed Stella Adler when he encountered Cassavetes, just six years his senior, a man who'd go on to redefine what independent film could achieve and be.

I look at the new action movies coming out, and I have to wonder: Where's our new Lee Marvin? The manly man, the bad guy turned good guy, the guy who's so ugly he's almost beautiful, the guy who takes no prisoners?