There goes me thinking “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film, would be just another Iraq-themed film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "This movie is not about the Iraq war. It's an action-adventure movie that happens to be set in Iraq," said by the film’s producer Nic Chartier. But then again, almost every war-themed film showing at this year’s Toronto Film Festival is being billed as the same sort of thing – that being not as strongly focused on war itself as opposed to the softer, more human stories that they know audiences would rather see. Whether or not this is just an attempt to make sure these films don’t fall victim to the curse that fell upon the war-themed films of ’07 remains to be seen. [THR via Living in Cinema]
Venice '08: In Competition
“The Hurt Locker” by Kathryn Bigelow
Derek Elley, "War may be hell, but watching war movies can also be hell, especially when they don't get to the point. Often gripping at a straight thriller level, but increasingly weakened by its fuzzy (and hardly original) psychology, Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," centered on an elite U.S. bomb squad in Baghdad, doesn't bring anything new to the table of grunts-in-the-firing-line movies."
Fionnuala Halligan, "The Hurt Locker probably isn't the "great" Iraq film which will finally move audiences into theatres but it does play out like fragments of one...Bigelow crafts here a barrage of individual set pieces of great, often heart-stopping tension, but they don't quite add up as a whole and, towards the end, almost strain against the central impetuous of the film. She captures very well, though, the feel at street level for these comrades-in-arms (Jordan subbed for Iraq) and it is possible this could play well to veterans and their families, kick-starting word-of-mouth."
Nick Vivarelli, "The Iraq war dominated the day at the Venice Film Festival, where the world preem of Kathryn Bigelow's high-adrenaline bomb-squad actioner "The Hurt Locker" gave the Lido a jolt and emerged as the Iraq pic that may break through to American auds."
Shane Danielsen gives it 2 out of 5 stars, "The Hurt Locker is her [Kathryn Bigelow] war movie, and dutifully deploys every stylistic hallmark of the form: the jittery handheld camerawork, with its abrupt, recallibrating zooms and snap-pans; the bleached film stock – even the use of Courier font to signal shifts of locations and times. Yet for all this eager verisimilitude, the film never feels like anything but old-fashioned...Like the men it depicts, The Hurt Locker never rises above its own limitations."
Cat Bauer, "My only complaint is that there was too little of Ralph Fiennes and David Morse, two of my favorite actors."
Richard Corliss gives it a flat out rave calling it a "A Near-Perfect War Film" in his review headline, "The merging of actor and character is one of the big things to love about this movie. The other is that its tone, of steely calm, takes its cue from the character it so acutely observes...Later I may think of a better depiction of the helplessness and heroism attending the U.S. presence in the war on terrorism, but for now I'll say this one's the tops."
Peter Howell, "Just when you think the battle of Iraq war dramas has been fought and lost, along comes one that demands to be seen – if you can handle the raging adrenaline...If you can sit through The Hurt Locker without your heart nearly pounding through your chest, you must be made of granite."
9/06/2008
"The Hurt Locker," Not Just Another War Movie?
“The Wrestler” Wins the Golden Lion, Anne Hathaway Wins Nothing
Talk about a flat festival. This year Venice really amounted to almost nothing, in my humble, outsider’s opinion. I have always thought it to be the most glamorous, perhaps prestigious festival in the world, with the exception of Cannes, which it may very well be, but compared to other years it definitely seems to have made an abnormally small impact. Perhaps Toronto and Telluride clogging up the interwebs didn’t help and that most U.S. bloggers didn’t attend meant that there was less publicity. They are the loudest voices and without them on the scene, we hear a lot less. On the upside, “The Wrestler” and “Rachel Getting Married” got tremendous reviews that will no doubt lead to louder buzz when they are shown at Toronto this year and with any luck, the Oscars too. Other films I have been interested in didn’t do too bad review wise either, including “The Burning Plain,” "Burn After Reading" and “Ponyo on Cliff by the Sea.”According to Reuters, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” which had both Variety and Hollywood Reporter falling head over heals with rare praise and you can watch a clip of it featuring interviews with Aronofsky and Rourke here, won the Golden Lion for Best Film. This isn’t surprising, just great to hear. Alexei German Jr. won the Silver Bear for Best Director for his film "Paper Soldier.” Best Actor went to Silvio Orlando for "Il Papa di Giovanna," I thought it’d go to Mickey Rourke who now seems poised for an Oscar nomination, and Best Actress went to Dominique Blanc for "L'Autre," and I thought that’d go to Anne Hathaway for “Rachel Getting Married.” How could the not give it to her? I guess awarding one non-European film was enough. They’ve given their acting awards to Americans and American films frequently, so votes against Anne because of that make total sense. Whatever, with Toronto well underway, I’m ready to move on.
Scene: 'Wrestler Clips' Hit Online - Mickey Rourke Rewrote All His Dialogue?
It's only a few seconds, but damn is it moving and really gives us a taste of how could Rourke is. Obviously his performances is apparently so good it's generating Oscar buzz, so it's nice to get a small glimpse of something that really gave us goosebumps.
The clips also has an interview with the film's director, Darren Aronofsky, and the film's star, Mickey Rourke. It turns out that Rourke and Aronofsky worked together to re-write the dialogue spoken by Rourke's character. "When Mickey came on, he and I went over the script word for word," Aronofsky said. "Basically every line in the movie he rewrote for his own mouth. Mickey wanted to bring his own interpretation to it." Man, that's crazy. We hope he didn't change too much, some of the lines in the script are pretty killer.
There's also an interview with Mickey Rourke's and much to our surprise, his natural speaking voice isn't as rough as the voice used by the characters in most of his recent films. On another note, I'm not sure what's up with Rourke's Mark David Chapman look. Rourke also talks about how the director basically told him, "you've fucked up your career for 15 years and no one wants to hire you, [so] you're going to have to listen to everything I tell you [and] you're going to have to do everything I say." We're pretty sure he's just kidding around and being self-deprecating about how his promising career was thrown in the toilet for many years (though dudes, he was so fucking good in "Buffalo '66"), but man, it's kind of hard to tell cause he's so bloody straight-faced about it.
Spike Lee And Denzel Making 'Inside Man' Sequel, Crowe In Talks for 'Sherlock Holmes'
During the press tour for Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna," questions arose about the sequel to Lee's most commercially successful film, "Inside Man." The sequel has been in development for some time, which really only means, Universal said, "Hey! "Inside Man" made lots of money for it's budget and it was hella awesome! Let's make another one!" Now, the company is moving forward with the film after having Lee sign on to direct the sequel. "Hotel Rwanda" writer-director, Terry George, will provide the screenplay to the film which will pick up where the two main characters, Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, left off. Lee gave comment. "I want the script to be even better than Russell's, and Russell wrote a really good script," [The Hollywood Reporter]
TIFF Review: Spike Lee's WWII Film 'Miracle At St. Anna' Is No Small Wonder
WWII has been lionized and mythologized countless times over in cinema be it in realistic Ken Burns-like documentaries or gritty narratives/parables from Jean Renoir. John Wayne or Steven Spielberg, but we're not sure if WWII has ever stood in place for what's a essentially a fairy-tale fable.
On paper and in theory, Spike Lee's "Miracle At St. Anna," is too many things at once, a brutal WWII film based on a real-life atrocity, a murder mystery, a race-perspective war film and a magical story of unlikely friendships, brotherhood with a little divine intervention thrown in for good measure.
A random murder takes place. An old African American Postal Service attendant suddenly recognizes his Italian customer, brandishes a German Luger and shoots him dead. The act of violence seems pointless and the man, three months away from retirement seems like an unlikely killer. A young reporter (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and a cynical veteran murder detective (John Turturro) ask, 'why?' And then we're transported....
It's 1944 and a battalion of African Americans (the Buffalo soldiers) are led to the slaughter by their clueless (and predominately Caucasian) lieutenants in Tuscany, Italy. The Germans await in hiding and the black fighters are easy pickings for the krauts (Omar from "The Wire" makes a cameo as a frightened solider that can't cope, the gorgeous Alexandra Maria Lara plays a Fraulein spotting Nazi propaganda over loudspeakers urging the unloved negro soldiers to abandon their imperialistic and racist white leaders). The squadron is blown to smithereens, but four sharp soldiers, one perhaps blessed by a certain good luck statue he is carrying survive and go across enemy lines unseen (a quartet played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and relative newcomer Omar Benson Miller).
Initially separated, Private First Class Sam Train (Benson Miller) comes across a random Italian nine-year-old boy, Angelo, hiding in a barn. He's wounded, dazed, traumatized and spouting nonsense about his friend imaginary friend Arturo (wonderful newcomer Matteo Sciabordi). They can't communicate, but the boy quickly bonds with his "gigante chocolate" friend and won't leave his side much to the chagrin of the other Buffalo soldiers. A spiritual man, Train soon becomes convinced that the boy has the spirit in him and is also eager to keep the seemingly orphaned child at his side.
The quintet travel to a nearby Italian village to give the feverish boy some aide and after some initial confrontations (some of the Italians have never seen a black person in person; there's a war happening and men with guns are always to be treated with suspicion) the group slowly befriends their Eyetalian companions, who are at the mercy of German soldiers who loot their town for food and supplies whenever they're nearby and so inclined.
Meanwhile, the Germans are in the area, trying to sniff out a rogue and renegade group of Italian rebels who have been expertly picking off their men in the area. This elite teams is like the wind, has grown in myth and become a complete thorn in the side of the generals. They must be captured and or killed for pride's sake at the very least.
The Italians and Americans bond via imbibing and dance, bread is broken and a solidarity is built, but it becomes threatened when the renegades return with a captured German soldier who's gone AWOL. We're not sure his worth, but the Kraut generals have put a bounty on his head and recapturing him becomes a priority even larger than the rebels. Meanwhile, the American dunderheaded bosses are looking for some leverage, so they instruct their four soldiers to take the prisoner themselves which adds to the war-time tension. Soon all parties descend on the city in what can only be a explosive showdown. To get into what happens it to reveal too much, but all the threads expertly tether to one another tied by a real-life Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre of innocents that actually happened in Tuscany in 1944.
As mentioned above, there are a lot of disparate tones in the films, there's a brutal slaughter and the gritty realism of WWII action and bullets, there's much comic relief from the Chocolate Giant and his little companion, race tension messaging and a bewitching talismanic quality that comes from the intuition and visions of the young Italian child, but Lee seamlessly meshes them all together. It doesn't hurt that a long (but not exhausting) running time helps develop all the individualistic story lines and character arcs with deep emotional investment.
The films not without a few small problems though. As usual per Lee films, any of the race-issue scenes while probably historically accurate, can't help but feel forced, pedantic and a little contrived. A few such flashbacks just detract from the already long, 2 1/2 hour-plus film and could have been cut (it's actually almost 3 hours at 166 minutes). Spike always serves his films best when he keeps these messages to a minimum and those few usually speak for themselves. Terrance Blanchard's score is also a little overwrought in places and we're not sure his "heroism" themes were the best choices here, but overall these are minor quibbles.
The perhaps far fetched conclusion and its wondrous fairy tale mien may divide some and test the limits of ones cynicism and or engage their optimism, and though some of it is sentimental, it mostly avoids being too treacly. And honestly there wasn't much of a dry eye left in the house.
Lee continues the solid winning streak and full stride he found on "Inside Man," and hopefully audiences will respond to the film. [B+]
9/05/2008
'The Wrestler' To Come Out In December? Plus 'Spidey 4-5' And More....
A sale for Darren Aronofsky's already-lauded, "The Wrestler," is imminent says Anne Thompson. The trick for Wild Bunch is "finding a distrib that can ramp up a release before year's end so that Rourke can qualify for Oscar consideration. A late December limited opening would be likely," says the Variety scribe and her posit makes clear as day sense given all the buzz and premature Oscar talk. [Variety]
We never got a chance to dig deeply into this great looking New York Times article, but it's thesis is: the new conundrum at the Toronto Film Festival is not being noticed, it's actually being seen. That's cause there's so much fucking A-list competition. [NYT]
TIFF Festival Watch: A lot of people aren't loving Ed Harris' "Appaloosa" including Jeffrey Wells and In Contention. [Hollywood Elsewhere/In Contention]
Talk of Steven Soderbergh's epic "Che" biopic being bought by Magnolia Pictures continues. You know at this point it's pretty much a done deal and they're just working out the particulars with a fine tooth comb, but Magnolia says to say the deal is done is "premature." In other words, not signed, sealed and delivered....yet. [NYPost]
Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi are apparently back for "Spider-Man 4 & 5". Evidently both episodes will be shot back to back and it seems that Kirsten Dunst may or may not be back for the 4th and 5th edition. We don't blame her and are kind of shocked Maguire and Raimi are still interested in this territory. Aren't there other films you want to make, other stories to tell and new characters to become? Doesn't this shit get old? Maybe they just drove up a dumptruck full of cash to their houses and gave them an offer they couldn't refuse. Sony is dying to have this cash-cow franchise back up on its feets. We don't see the fuss in this series. Its decent popcorn fare, but at this point it's becoming like dinner theater. [Deadline Hollywood]
Tom Cruise's United Artists has picked up the rights the serial-killer novel "The Monster of Florence," with Mr. Scientology tentatively attached as the star. The book is the real-life story of an Italian journalist investigating a series of unsolved killings. Cruise is all over the map these days in the project he's choosing, seemingly attaching himself to anything with a vague waft of success nearby. [Variety]
There's an ironic cult following around the film, "Buckaroo Banzai," mainly cause it's so bad, but maybe cause it's genius. We can't pretend to say we understand it, but then again, we haven't seen it since we were children. Anyhow, a sequel almost happened says co-creator/writer Earl Mac Rauch and he give the details. [MTV]
Playlist Thought: We've come to realize we pretty much detest when someone says, "XYZ is going to win an Oscar!" when they actually haven't seen the film yet. That's utter nonsense, and yes, that thinking sort of invalidates a lot of sites like the Gold Derby (written by a toolbag) and the very fine site Awards Daily (they do much more than just simple premature Oscar predictions though), but oh well. Nothing personal, it's just that you can't really truly weigh in until you've seen the film. You can say people are raving, but getting into it much more than that is sort of foolish.
Another Playlist Thought: If you used "could be this year's 'Juno'," to describe the potential success via the great buzz on Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," consider yourself an uncreative twit that might want to reconsidering his/her writing gig.
Nic Cage Says Herzog's 'Bad Lieutenant' Is A Reboot
Nicolas Cage, star of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans," has said that the new film is not a remake of the grim 1992 nun-raping extravaganza starring Harvey Keitel. Not only that, it's a "reboot."
“It’s a new version of ‘Bad Lieutenant’ in a whole new place. [Herzog] connects it to Bond - like there was more than one Bond,” Cage told MTV News. “[I play] a whole new character. He’s nothing like Harvey [Keitel’s] character.”
Cage also said,“[The original] movie was a result of Judeo-Christian programming,” Cage said of where the two will most diverge. “This one is much more existential.” The original film is famous for the numerous scenes in which Harvey Keitel shows his shlong. This brings up the question, will Cage also drop trou and give us a look at his "National Treasure?" He refused to comment on the matter. I guess we'll see come 2009.
A League Of Morons Rule The Wickedly Delightful 'Burn After Reading'
We've been dogging the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading" for some time now assuming it was the worst kind of wild, screwball nonsense because of the trailers which we never really, but we can happily say we were wrong. It was neither the madcap silliness we thought it would be, nor was it too off-the-rails.
Yeah, the film is full of chuckleheaded idiots, but that's the whole point and this dark comedy with thriller-like intrigue was, for the most part, tremendously enjoyably, wickedly arch and and deliciously funny.
At a lean 96 minutes, the dexterous film didn't fuck around and really got to the meat of the plot with economic precision and timely beats. There were perhaps an odd 20 minutes around the first quarter that had us slightly bored, but the quicker and more tangled the story became, the funnier and more sleek its model became (a silly romp or not, these guys are Academy Award winners for a reason, they're master architects of structure both in comedic and dramatic contours).
Brad Pitt shined the brightest as the knuckleheaded fitness instructor who along with Frances McDormand finds the memoirs of ousted CIA agent John Malkovich (a McGuffin if there ever was one). His amazing dance routine, Ipod headphone struts and goofy Gatorade-swilling demeanor has us in stitches. Malkovich, his character perennially outraged with the stupidity of the world, was a class act pretentious blowhard and Clooney's paranoid Federal Marshall character provided tons of idiotic laughs as well.
The Coens notoriously don't analyze their own work or put a lot of deep though into the meaning of their films, but if one were going to note what this was about on a broad level, one would have to say its about the league of moronic idiots that is the general populace today, be it CIA chiefs, or lower level civilian boobs. Full points should be given to CIA bosses, J.K. Simmons and David Rasche (particularily awesome); their comedic rapport of bungled intelligence fucking nailed every moment and these scenes had us dying.
Cleverly constructed and never aiming beyond its means, "Burn After Reading," might be slight, and a bit of a lesser afterthought in the Coen Brothers' oeuvre, but it was also immensely enjoyable and quite a good laugh. We were wrong about this one and we're not afraid to admit it. [B+]
'Where The Wild Things Are' Back On Warner's 2009 Release Schedule
Or maybe we're just projecting. Either way, we're glad the release date is back on track.
Matt Damon Will Be Eliot Ness In David Fincher's 'Torso'
David Fincher is usually slow and methodical, but lately, he's been working fast and furious. At least compared to his usual pace. His adaptation of the true crime novel, "Torso," is looking like it's moving forward as Matt Damon has been apparently cast as the lead according to Film School Rejects who say his role in the film is now confirmed.
Damon will play the famous Eliot Ness - "the iconic head of 'The Untouchables' and Cleveland Chief of Police during the brutal Torso Murders." Rumors had been circulating, now it's evidently confirmed. The production may shoot in Cleveland.
TIFF Review: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York
Writers and journos have this bad habit of seeing something before the public and then writing all about it months before the masses have seen it – leaving them confused and or alienated because they have little context to guide them – and then moving on immediately. In a sense we've done this with Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York." We already written a script review and an "experiential" film review, and sort of moved on but here will try and get down to the nuts and bolts and maybe faithful readers will be able to make sense of it all. At least all three pieces should total up for one real big review/overview.
'Synecdoche' is kind of breathtaking and kind of dense at the same time. You've probably read the synopsis about 10 trillion times now. It's about a self-obsessed theater director (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who believes he dying (and kinda is) and embarks on a mission to put on the most ambitious play of his life (or anyone's life for that matter); a huge, sprawling, self-obsessed work that mirrors his life and is built to scale in an enormous warehouse after he is given the MacArthur genius grant (an award with a seemingly bottomless well of funds behind it). It goes on for like 40-years and essentially is an endless, living, breathing "play" or work of art.
Hoffman's marriage is for shit and his wife played by Catherine Keener soon packs up and takes their child and art career to Germany where she becomes a world renowned art superstar. Distraught he goes from bed to bed including his theater receptionist who's always been a flirt (Samantha Morton) to one of his cast members (Michelle Williams) who eventually becomes his wife and bares him another child. The play gets more immense, more ambitious and more dense and soon become a mirror refracting over infinitum and the film is meant to be a deep meditation on the fear of death, losing love and growing old (Tom Noonan plays a stalker who takes on the role of Hoffman in the play because he's been obsessed with him all his life; the role and performance is to die for – too fucking funny).
But having marinated on 'Synecdoche,' for a few weeks now the hazy glow of the experience is sort of gone (we knew we resisted the urge to drop a review for good reason) and while we're not changing our tune, the resonance of the film has sort of dissipated almost like the ephemeral nature of the films oblique ending which is like a drunken, half-awake dream (PS, if you don't already know the equation, experience + resonance = great film, and a missing element of that result can never add up to a perfect film).
When we think back on 'Synedoche,' and want to get nostalgic (if we can use that word here), we think on its script which is dark, but much funnier. There's something about those lines being read by real people weeping that makes them way less absurd and much more deep, real and upsetting. 'Synecdoche' is sad, almost too melancholy in a sad-sack manner. We also sometimes think Kaufman could still use Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry to color up his sort-of flat visual direction. Some fanciful cinematography might have suited the elliptical nature of the film (Kaufman's look is almost a shade of drab).
Without being a Debbie Downer on the film, we really do want it to succeed and find an audience, we think it's really going a lot of younger audiences are going to feel alienated and disappointed with it. It's surely going to be a tough sell. We're not throwing it under the bus, see our original review that was pretty winded by the surreal and heady experience, but it's probably not the best Charlie Kaufman-penned film ever made, either. [B]
Gerard Butler Says No To Any '300' Sequels... Again
Having now moved on to the illustrious world of Guy Ritchie, Frank Darabont films and the likes, Gerard Butler says he won't be back for any "300" green-screen happy sequel even if it is penned by creator Frank Miller this time.
For one his character died at the end of the movie (we just saved you a $4 rental), and secondly he's just not really that interested having been there and done that he told Superhero Hype in Toronto (via Cinematical)."I've heard some backroom chatter, but nothing more, so I don't know if it would be a sequel or a prequel. I don't want say anymore than that, because I really don't know. I haven't read anything. I can't see it myself -- sequel for me absolutely not, but I just mean the idea generally, I'm really not sure which way they would go with that."
Asked directly if he'd be involved with the sequel, Butler said flat out, no, but it sounds like he's been approached, thinks the idea is "interesting," but evidently not interesting enough. "No. They mentioned it, and we’ll leave it at that. It’s a very interesting idea, I have to say."
The geeks gotta be pissed about this one. There was talk the sequel actually being a prequel, where his character would still be alive, but Butler sounds like he's out either way.
'Able Danger': Not The Mind Blowing Neo-Noir It Thinks It Is
Dave Herman’s directorial debut, “Able Danger,” a neo-noir surrounding a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and the dragnet he finds himself in after running into a mysterious woman, is a rookie effort to the core while lacking the essential elements that make successful neo-noirs work.
Seth Rogen Hearts Kevin Smith; Always Wanted To Work With Him
All Seth Rogen really wanted when he came to Hollywood was to make a movie with Kevin Smith (Cue Jason Batemen from Arrested Development, "him?")."I love porn. I watch tons of porn. The Internet speeds have evolved directly with my sexual drive," Rogen told the AP. "I almost did it purely based on the title." Rogen just fell about ten notches in our book.
"I thought of him as a man who never had sex. He doesn't like human fluids, even his own. [Pauses] I don't want to get into too many details, but I even imagined how Chigurh would masturbate," Javier Bardem told the NYTimes. Bardem has pretty much talked non-stop about his character in "No Country For Old Men," usually noting how the terrible haircut he had to sport in the film (which wasn't a wig) prevented him from getting laid for about three months. Now he reminisces about Chigurh's self-love techniques. Maybe the Coen's should do a sequel. Bardem would obviously be game.
"`Swept Away' is exactly the movie I wanted to make. I think people missed the irony of it. It was supposed to be a commentary on political correctness, but sort of Madonna seemed to have gotten in the way. But if you look at it, no one was making anything like that. It was revoltingly honest in its approach toward the masculine and feminine dynamic. I found it very amusing, and I like it as a movie." - Guy Ritchie won't apologize for "Swept Away," no matter how many times you ask him to. [AP]
"Either you get, agree with and derive enormous delight from dry misanthropic humor...or you don't." - Jeffrey Wells' loved the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," but we swear if you've read his reportage closely, he's been dying to love it since he read the script. [Hollywood Elsewhere] Live from Toronto, Wells also disliked "The Brothers Bloom," says the Danny Glover narration from Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness," has been cut, he also gets in a jab at industry people vs. press people at TIFF.
Crime Pays? Guy Ritchie's 'RockNRolla' Getting Solid Reviews Despite Its Lock And Stock Cliches
We really thought Guy Ritchie's "Rock N Rolla," was going to bomb. Our man on the scene Mr. Snruff disliked it and we felt much the same. It was a total, predictable rehash of everything you've seen Ritchie do already, but nowhere near as fresh, entertaining, funny or clever. The crime caper was amusing in spots, but overall pretty forgettable. What's worse the end just serves as a sort-of cliffhanger (not really though) that is supposed to jump off to the sequel that's called, "The Real Rock N Rolla."
At the end we were like, "Wtf? What a gip!" But the film seems to be getting solid reviews from seemingly easily entertained, less discerning critics.
The Associated press writes, "RocknRolla" spins a dense web of heists, betrayals, land schemes and political payoffs," aka, it's "Lock, Stock, & Two Snatch-like Rollas," same shit, different day. Some people like more of the same. First Showing writes, "Guy Ritchie has done it again. RocknRolla is yet another Ritchie classic like we've seen twice before with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." The Hollywood Reporter wildly called it, his “most accessible and enjoyable film yet.”
Even Variety liked it, seemingly content to eat more of the same Marmite or lard on toast (whatever you want to call that disgusting shit that the British eat)."After shipwrecking with 'Swept Away' and misfiring with 'Revolver,' Brit filmmaker Guy Ritchie bounces back to top form with 'RocknRolla,' a cleverly constructed, sensationally stylish and often darkly hilarious seriocomic caper."
There are a few voices of reason that agree with us thankfully. As InContention notes, the U.K. press generally gave the film a frosty reception (it's nice to see them use critical faculties and not just back their homeboy; the Guardian gave it a one-star review), and they personally didn't like the film either, writing rather adroitly, "the whole enterprise, shorn of these initial stylistic tics, steadily falls apart. Ritchie has dialed down his style of story construction since the incomprehensibly convoluted 'Revolver,' but he may have overcompensated — the size of the ensemble notwithstanding, there is really very little storytelling motor here."
Contention does a great job of noting the schisms across the pond, with the U.S. generally delivering positive reviews and the U.K. turning up their noses at the film's redundant and contrived plot maneuvers.
This makes Warner Bros. chief Alan Horn's comments all the more ironic considering he said only a few short weeks ago that the film was "too British" and he was hoping to sell it off to a new studio (though it remains to be seen if widespread American audiences will connect with it the same way, U.S. press did). We think in many ways, the Yanks were just starved for a half-way decent Guy Ritchie film to be honest.
Lastly, we didn't realize Ludacris and Jeremy Piven's characters in the film - two suave music managers - were based on Andre 3000 and Big Boi of Outkast. 3000 obviously worked with Ritchie on an ever more bland and convoluted crime film, "Revolver."
Fifth 'Twilight' Book Leak Drives A Stake in The Series
As we noted earlier, Stephenie Meyer, the author of the tweeny bopper vampire novels from the "Twilight" series is calling it quits after an unfinished draft of "Midnight Sun," book five in the series, leaked online in PDF form. Meyer declared on her website that she is "too sad" to continue work on the book and said she was putting its completion "on hold indefinitely," breaking the hearts of millions of fans. (If they weren't angry enough already.) Meyer said that if she continued now, the protagonist and his family would all be killed by the villain. The soccer-mom author claims that she doesn't want her fans to read the unfinished draft, yet she puts a link to it at the bottom of the statement. She obviously doesn't care too much about her fans, because it isn't the first time the series has been spoiled due to her fault. It's probably a ploy to drum up publicity for the film and the series, which we don't believe is as popular as we are supposed to think it is.
'Inglorious Bastards' Gets A Cinematographer; Keeps Getting Heat From The German Press For Nazi Stereotypes
Quentin Tarantino has once again tapped his "Kill Bill" cinematographer Robert Richardson to be the director of photography on his WWII epic, "Inglorious Bastards." Richardson is known for creating the above-the-head, "halo-glow" look first popularized in the work of Oliver Stone's "JFK," and then abused hence forth by every cinematographer known to man, (while the film's look was amazing, first-time DP, Malik Hassan Sayeed went a little overboard with this technique on Spike Lee's "Clockers" for just one example).
If you remember the big set-piece fight scene in "Kill Bill," you'll probably remember some of the overlit, halo-ish touches that were evident, but a bit more muted this time.
Meanwhile, the German people and press are still in a tizzy over all the supposed Nazi stereotypes in Tarantino's script that has leaked and everyone and their mother has read by now, including pretty much all of Germany. All the Nazi WWII films in production these days (Tom Cruise's "Valkryie," Spike Lee's "Miracle At St. Anna") are really pissing off the Germans who've worked hard to rise above this past the continues to haunt them.
"All the German historians and critics who were left gasping for breath by Tom Cruise and his worthy attempts will be so shocked by 'Inglorious Bastards' that they will savage it on the spot," Tobias Kneibe, film editor of the Suddeutsche Zeitung, wrote.
The newspaper writer apparently likes the script but is worried about the effect it will have on the German people. "The collision between Tarantino-style pop culture with the themes of the Holocaust and Jewish revenge (the 'Bastards' of the film are Jewish-American Nazi hunters) is unprecedented in Germany and its results are completely unpredictable."
What will piss off certain people even more is that the film will likely receive German state financing and automatic tax breaks from the country's DFFF film fund. Not everyone is complaining though and certainly not the German actors pretty happy to be cast in this popcorn-ish flick.
DeNiro Drops Out Of 'Darkness' With Mel Gibson And 'Casino Royale' Director
It only took a week, but Robert Deniro has walked off the set of Martin Campbell's "Edge of Darkness," a drama that was supposed to also star Mel Gibson. Hmmm, two heavy-weights like that on the same set? One an intolerable grump (DeNiro) and one a known bigot and copious imbiber (Gibson). Sounds like oil and water to us. "Sometimes things don't work out; it's called creative differences," a rep for DeNiro told Variety. Translation: "My client couldn't stand any of those fuckers and said, 'Janet, I don't give a fuck about these amateurs, I'm walkin'!"
The "Goodfellas" actor was supposed to play an operative set to clean up the evidence of a murder and Gibson has signed on to play the victim's father, who also happens to be a homicide detective. Campbell was always considered a hack until he won the hearts of fanboys and cineastes alike with his smart touch on the Bond reboot, "Casino Royale." Call us crazy, but we wished DeNiro would have lasted a few more weeks so he and Gibson could have gotten into some on-set scuffles that would have made it into the press. Think of all the stories we could have had of these two working together! Boo...
Denzel Washington And The Hughes Brothers Team-Up For Post-Apocalyptic Drama 'Eli'
Remember the Hughes Brothers, Allen and Albert? They barely remember themselves. The twin-brother filmmaking duo hit Hollywood with an extremely auspicious start directing urban classics like, "Menace II Society," and "Dead Presidents," before getting sidetracked with documentaries that were good, but came and went ("American Pimp") and unfortunate choices far from their wheelhouse (the adaptation of Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper story, "From Hell").
Though Allen recently directed an vignette in the short stories film, "New York, I Love You," the duo haven't made a feature length film since 2001 (the accurately rebuked 'Hell'). According to Variety though, the twins are back and with a vengeance seemingly as they've cast Oscar-winner Denzel Washington into their newest project "Book of Eli." The post-apocalyptic drama will see Washington play a "lone hero in a not-too-distant apocalyptic future who must fight across America to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption."
Maybe it's like the African-American version of Cormac McCarthy! ;) It's about time they're back. Maybe they'll refind their footing.
9/04/2008
'The Wrestler' Already Looking Good Off The Top-Rope (Resisting The Urge To Put Marisa Tomei's Nakedness In Headline, Oh Shit...)
"The Wrestler" has yet to screen at the Venice Film Festival, but press screenings at the Toronto Film Festival have already taken place and the word is good on both Darren Aronofsky's film and the rumored stellar performance that Mickey Rourke apparently put in.
Oscar talk? We always wait til we actually see the film to get involved in that early speculative nonsense. Variety's Todd McCarthy raves with one to the breadbasket."Talk about comebacks. After many years in the wilderness and being considered MIA professionally, Mickey Rourke, just like the washed-up character he plays, attempts a return to the big show in "The Wrestler." Not only does he pull it off, but Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances. An elemental story simply and brilliantly told, Darren Aronofsky's fourth feature is a winner from every possible angle, although it will require deft handling by a smart distributor to overcome public preconceptions about Rourke, the subject matter and the nature of the film."
Note to all the nerdlingers that lost their shit last year. Marisa Tomei is "as naked... as she was in last year's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." Cue geek boners (ok, we must admit, added bonus, she's gorgeous).
The Hollywood Reporter is almost as equally impressed with a few caveats, but lauds the performances:"Although the film teeters on the brink of sentimentality, it never topples into the slush, and this is a tribute to the rigorous direction as well as the astringent performances. Rourke dispenses with all vanity to plumb the depths of this well-meaning but severely damaged man. Tomei delivers one of her most arresting performances, again without any trace of vanity. Wood's part is smaller, but she captures the scalding anger of a woman neglected for most of her life."
Wish we were back in good ol' Toronto right now. We'll suplex you next Tuesday.
Is There Something To All This 'Ghosbusters 3' Talk?
Maybe all this "Ghosbusters" threequel talks is not for naught. First the blogs start throwing around a lot of wishes and hopes from certain people that won't let sleeping dogs lie (Dan Ackroyd, perennially obsessed with a third installment coming to life), and now the trades get involved.
Columbia Pictures has officially asked "The Office" co-exec producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to write a script for a film designed to bring back together the original cast of Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson. These two wrote "Year One," for director Harold Ramis which is a project under the aegis of Judd Apatow. [Variety]
An attempt to make a third installment of the franchise has been in the works or ideas stage seemingly for years, but has never really gotten off the ground. Bill Murray has always seemed super reluctant to get involved too which could really botch this project if he's not on board. If the script isn't great, expect him to piss all over this idea and say, "pass," which would probably anger a lot of people if everyone else was on board, but Murray is the type who wouldn't give a flying fuck, so don't count your chickens until that huge hurdle is passed (and yes, to be clear, no deals will be made with the original cast until the script is ready).
Meanwhile, we would love to hear a compelling argument as to why "Ghostbusters II" even exists. It had a few funny lines, but is otherwise one of the worst sequels from a successful first film since "Back To The Future II." Dear god, do not even get us started on that abomination.
Clueless Yokels In Nevada Get First Look At Tom Cruise's 'Valkyrie'; Oscars Here We Come!
Clueless audiences in Nevada were given a free screening to Tom Cruise's/Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie," but most of them had no clue that they got the first taste of a coveted movie that doesnt' come out for four months. "They liked it," sources said. Whoa, strike up the Oscar derby! "Most people said it was a suspense thriller."
Let's hope it's somewhat thrilling for their sake, we just finished the script and were left duly unimpressed, unintentionally funny bad screen directions aside. Though we must admit, casting Cruise as an unwavering, self-righteous jackass was kind of a subversive stroke of genius. [Defamer]
Michael Moore Finds Inspiration In Radiohead; Puts 'Slacker' Movie Online For Free
Claiming he's been influenced by the music industry tactics of people like Radiohead and Neil Young, filmmaker Michael Moore will put his newest film, "Slacker Uprising" online for free. The doc follows the director's 62-city tour during the 2004 election that tried to rally younger voters out of their political apathy and general laziness. The film will be available for free beginning September 23. To be fair Michael, Radiohead did give you the option to pay nothing, but also charged like $80 for the deluxe version (and In Rainbows was barely worth $8 bucks!) and all Neil did was stream the unlistenable Living With War before its proper release, but ok, fine. "I thought it'd be a nice way to celebrate my 20th year of doing this," Moore said. "And also help get out the vote for November. I've been thinking about what I want to do to help with the election this year." [AP]
Husband and wife acting duo Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly will star in a film based on the life of "On The Origin Of The Species" author Charles Darwin. Bettany will play Charles D and Connelly will play his wife (how convenient! She was also his cousin, eww). [THR]
Mark Millar wants to do three Superman films now that Bryan Singer is seemingly out of the frame. Even Collider, normally sympathetic to geek hero causes says "give us a reason to care." We couldn't agree more. [Collider]
Nic Cage says the setting for a sequel to "Ghost Rider," if it ever happens, could be Europe. We don't recall the Rider burning up the pavement in Champs-Élysées or Las Ramblas for that matter, but maybe Cage and the filmmakers are trying to get the overseas funding. [SplashPage]
Script Review: 'The Wrestler' An Odd Choice For Darren Aronofsky Initially, But Ultimately A Very Human Story Of Identity, Loss And Connection
Since we'll be at the Toronto International Film Festival (we'll be skipping the first few days, goddamn day job), we figured we'd crank out some quick thoughts on the script of "The Wrestler" as written by Robert D. Siegel and directed by Darren Aronofsky, seeing as we'll be viewing it soon enough.
Our first reaction to not only the idea of the "The Wrestler", but the script was, WTF? We were convinced it was going to be a comedy, especially since Siegel's only other credit is "The Onion" movie that went straight to DVD, but rest assured this is anything but and a true drama.
The story chronicles the down and out professional wrestler Randy The Ram Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a former superstar during the 1980s wrestling heyday, who now is haggard and old man approaching his 50s and getting in the ring just to barely make ends meet in the dismal independent wrestling circuit (he's obviously a play off WWF superstar Randy "Macho Man" Savage from the 1980s and the idea of 'what if?'; wonder if they got his life rights)
The interest in wrestling has waned and instead of bright lights and performing in stadiums, The Ram is relegated to playing in small, high school-like gymnasiums to a dedicated, but niche crowd. He's over the hill, pumped full of every sports drug imaginable to escape the years of abuse and damage down to his body and eeks out a living supplemented by working at a grocery store unloading boxes.
Its a pathetic existence in a jalopy van and a trailer trash house. His day are wrestling, getting trashed visiting the strippers, passing out and repeat. Over and over again. But this hard living takes its toll.
But empathy for the character about a quarter of the way in when Randy suffers a mild heart attack in the ring (we're not spoiling anything this is in every basic synopsis), and the wrestler is told by doctors the one thing he's good at, the one thing that bring him meager happiness in his pitiful existence is something he's not allowed to again.It could cost him his life. Its a huge blow to his psyche and self esteem. Not only is the lion suddenly aware he's over the hill, he now has to face his identity on a grand level. What is he in the world if he's not a wrestler? What else is he good for at all?
It a griping and powerful realization that's tough for any aging human, but even moreso for the seemingly invincible sports figure. So if you don't give a flying headbutt fuck about wrestling, don't worry, we don't either and it obviously doesn't matter (we will admit to enjoying that absurd nonsense when we were kids, but carry little nostalgia for it).
But aside from all the dropkicks and suplexes (and there aren't really that many of them). Its really a story about identity and dignity, something the wrestler is struggling to find and totally lost in the latter case. Its also about the intoxicating addiction to glory, and being loved, adored and respected, something the wrestler never had in real life. Estranged from his family early on, this very human need was fulfilled by the wrestling audiences, the press and the groupies. He was once a sports rock star. Now he's a former shadow of himself; like one of the bad dye=jobbed aging rockers still dressed in ill-fitting leather. The one that never wants Motley Crue to ever die.
The wrestler has already tried to make some gestures and inroads with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), but years of neglect, abandonment and making the wrestling career #1 have poisoned the relationship, but when Randy realizes the only role left to play is a father he reaches out again to mend old fences. Its a hard going road as she's bitter and clings to years of resent.
At the same time Randy starts to gently reach out to his friend (Marisa Tomei), a stripper at a local club he frequents. She super tentative and doesn't want to cross that client/stripper divide, but Randy is both sullen, in need of help and endlessly charming; years of wooing wrestling fans and learning to charm audiences have left him rather slyly endearing when he's feeling up to the task.As he's trying to sort what it means to be in normal life, hanging out with his daughter, convincing Marisa to birthday shop with him and overcoming the initial humiliation of having to work behind a deli counter with a white smock and hat, things get complicated when the allure of a 20 year old, lucrative rematch is hard to defer.
Every time the obstacles of everyday life embarrass him, his progress takes two steps back emotionally and he hears the call of the ring and the fans, no matter how faint they may be.
The character is akin to Morgan Freeman's "Shawshank Redemption" character after being freed from a lifelong incarceration. Randy's been at wrestling for so long its become a prison; the real world is a scary place and familiarity and comfortable ground is what he desperately wants.
The last act becomes the ultimate challenge: acclimate to civilian life or return to the ring to reclaim one major last glory - and maybe lose his life in the process. Now all of this is in the synopsis again, so don't worry.
It's a interesting story when you think about it deeply like we just did, but honestly, the screenplay didn't grab us until about half-way through and we still thought the project was a little odd for Aronofsky, who usually plays with much higher-concept themes and realities. Once the human and vulnerable side of Robinson are revealed though, that's when the story really starts to cook with grease.
One things for sure, the fact that the film has been taken in at Venice, Toronto and the New York film festival bodes well for the quality of the film and the script is very solid, but overall nothing overtly spectacular, so hopefully this means they nailed every scene and maybe even transcended what was on the page which is a very rare treat.
Our hunch is Aronofsky leaves most of his cinematic bells and whistles ricks at home and presents the story rather plainly aside from the kinetic, flashbulb bursts we're likely going to see in the wrestling ring.
There's some great scenes in the script: the tension with Randy trying to win his daughter's affections tend to be winning and when his relationship with the stripper begins to blossom, you can't help but smile and root for the guy. One of our favorite moments comes in a making the best of a situation deli counter scene where Robinson has to swallow his pride and interact with customers. Usually he loathes the job, but feeling somewhat hopeful, he decides to have fun with the gig and proceeds to charm their pants off his female mom customer utilizing his wrestling like swagger. The scene is terrifically written and incredibly honest.
We can't wait to see it.
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