On the films of Jonas Trueba — a young Spanish filmmaker transcending his last name by prying at the fourth wall of cinema

His middle name is Groucho but his comedy is far from the Marx legacy that influenced his father, Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba, and though some aspects of his films recall the French New Wave, do not call his style retro. Jonás Groucho Trueba’s films have modern concerns about love in a modern age. He also uses cinema techniques that push the against the medium’s boundaries to represent his themes with an equally fresh perspective.

Director Lucile Hadzihalilovic talks about the pleasures of surreal film narrative and why it took 10 years to make Evolution

Tonight, Evolution, the sci-fi/horror hybrid by French writer/director Lucile Hadzihalilovic will have its Florida premiere at the Second Annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival (Our review: Evolution skips clear narrative to create waking nightmare of body horror — a Popcorn Frights film review). Earlier this week, The Miami New Times published an interview I conducted with the filmmaker (read it here), but so much had to be trimmed out, like why did it take Hadzihalilovic 10 years to follow-up Innocence? We also spoke about the film’s strange, surreal tone and why a straight narrative doesn’t always make for the best horror movie.

Posies’ Ken Stringfellow talks keeping busy and big — but tough — year with his old band

When we caught up with singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist Ken Stringfellow he was as occupied as you might expect … even in a foreign land like Helsinki, Finland. Touring through town as part of the Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg tour, filling the spotlight for the late Joey Ramone, Stringfellow — who has also been a member of REM and Big Star, not to mention having founded the still active alternative rock band The Posies — also had time to visit a studio and record with a Finnish band.

Presenting Princess Shaw star and director talk connecting via Internet and criticism leveled against film

She hugs strangers and loves to declare “Cool sauce!” punctuating the quirky saying with operatic singing of “rock sauuuce!” Samantha Montgomery, known to her YouTube subscribers as Princess Shaw, has positive energy to spare. A recent documentary about her, Presenting Princess Shaw, which we reviewed last week (Presenting Princess Shaw reveals value of success in music without the money — a film review), reveals she didn’t come to her positivity lightly.

From movies to film slides, Obsolete Media Miami offers a treasure trove for the old media fan

The past, nostalgia, memories and history are all very distinctive things, but embodying it all is Obsolete Media Miami. Called OMM for short, the space houses a variety of once mainstream mediums, from film to VHS cassettes, now deemed “obsolete.” Its home is located on the second floor of a building in Miami’s Design District, up a stairwell that smells like an old high school. The vintage scent befits a place like OMM, which also features equipment that was once ubiquitous in high school AV rooms, like 16mm projectors (pictured above) and slide projectors.

Miami solo musician Xela Zaid evolves as he searches for raw essentialism of music on latest album — a vinyl release

Local gem Xela Zaid has long been one of the most innovative musicians working the Miami music scene, from his early career as a singer-songwriter using unique tunings on an acoustic guitar with a microphone shoved into its sound hole to his current experimentation with peddles, radio and abstract noise.

Yorgos Lanthimos, director of The Lobster, talks finding filmmaking freedom in England and two new projects

Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, probably one of the most distinctive voices in that already distinctive cinema scene that Greece has produced in recent years, did something special to preserve his idiosyncratic voice when he switched to making films in English. He moved to England. Often, you hear about foreign filmmakers, especially Oscar-nominated ones, like Lanthimos, wooed by Hollywood to make their English language debut. But, when we spoke, he made it clear that’s not what he wanted to do with his career. We spoke while he was in Los Angeles … for a brief press tour.