Yesterday the Twittersphere (a place where topics are only discussed in rational proportions) was abuzz with the news that Terrence Malick’s long-awaited magnum opus Tree of Life was booed at its Cannes premiere. While the reaction to Malick’s latest will no doubt continue to be at least as divisive and polarized as his previous work has been, for many Malick fans the news of the boos only perpetuated more interest in the film, and for many Malick non-fans the boos signaled an affirmation of what they’ve long-seen as lacking in his work. (Just to clarify, there was also reported applause, counter-applause, and counter-booing at the screening.) Booing at Cannes has a long history, and can even be considered a tradition. It seems that every year some title is booed, and such a event often only creates more buzz around the film. There’s no formula for what happens to a booed film at Cannes: sometimes history proves that the booed film was ahead of its time, sometimes booing either precedes negative critical reactions that follow or reflect the film’s divisiveness during its commercial release. Booed films often win awards. If there is one aspect connecting almost all booed films at Cannes, it’s that the films are challenging. I mean challenging as a descriptor that gives no indication of quality (much like I consider the term “slow”), but films that receive boos at the festival challenge their audiences or the parameters of the medium in one way or another, for better or [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

Kevin Carr takes a look at this week’s movie releases, including A Christmas Carol, The Fourth Kind and The Box.

Kevin and Neil stare at some goats, grumble about not being allowed to open a box, visit the uncanny valley and debate whether Kevin is spoiling the viewing experience for The Fourth Kind.

Warner Bros. has released the long-anticipated first trailer for the next thriller from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly this afternoon. And if you don’t like Cameron Diaz, this one’s for you…

Warner Bros. made news recently when it announced Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was moving from a November 2008 release date to summer of 2009, but that wasn’t the only schedule change they had planned.

We’ve got the sickness, that terrible illness that seems to be plaguing so many Americans these days: laziness. That said, here are the news stories that we just didn’t care enough about to write full articles so far this week.

File this under WTF. According to Empire, Donnie Darko, that celebrated piece of indie film making with one of the strangest plots going, is reportedly getting a sequel.

While I can see some of the visionary imagination that gave us Darko, he’s a complete fish out of water. His satire is entirely misdirected, and the film never gels or even makes sense.

Southland Tales, an apocalyptic fever-dream of a film, is both, or perhaps neither, a failure and a startling success.

Title really says it all I think. But just in case… Variety is reporting that Frank Langella has joined Cameron Diaz in the upcoming film, The Box. The film is Richard Kelly’s follow up to his as yet unreleased, but already critically drubbed Southland Tales.