Either way, director Matt Reeves can't win. If his remake of Tomas Alfredson's "Let The Right One In" is terrible, the film and director will be held up as yet another example of a remake that fails to adhere to the qualities of the original. However, if his remake is a success because it accurately duplicates the very elements that made the original so beloved, it begs the question of why audiences should watch the American version when it was done right the first time. Certainly when the credits "Written For The Screen And Directed By Matt Reeves" come up at the end of "Let Me In" the question will be debated, but there will be no doubt on this point: Matt Reeves' "Let Me In" is not only faithful, it's just as moving and powerful as the original Tomas Alfredson film.
For those of you not familiar with the story, it follows young Abby (Chloe Moretz) who along with her father (Richard Jenkins), have just moved into a residential block of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Their neighbor is Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee), whose is in the midst of some personal issues; his parents are divorcing and he is being viciously bullied at school. Soon, Abby and Owen strike up a friendship that grows into something more, but hits a speed bump by a very peculiar problem: Abby is a vampire.
We'll stop the story details here for the readers who haven't seen "Let The Right One In," lest we be accused of dropping spoilers, but for those of you who already know the plot, rest assured that aside from some slight tweaks (including a much more prominently felt 1980s setting; Ms. Pac-Man! David Bowie's "Let's Dance"!) pretty much everything is exactly the same in Reeves' film to the point that at times, it seems like a shot by shot remake (particularly the climatic sequence and closing scene). But we'll be damned if Reeves still doesn't keep things, for the most part, engaging and more notably, as deeply felt as Alfredson's film.
The success of the film is due in large part to landing two of the best young actors working today for the lead roles -- Chloe Moretz and Kodi-Smit McPhee. The parts require an intangible enigmatic and vulnerable quality that both bring strongly to the table. As we discussed with a colleague, there may be a point in time when we look back at "Let Me In" and marvel that it starred these two actors on the cusp of a great career. But while only history will bear that out (or not), they are in fine form here. And with a cast rounded out by solid vets like Elias Koteas and Jenkins, it's a pleasure to watch the actors retell this story, even if at times things slightly drag as we wait for the film to move to the next major plot point (a problem those unfamiliar with the story will not have to worry about).
9/11/2010
TIFF '10 Review: 'Let Me In' Is The Rare Remake That Is Worthy Of The Original
TIFF '10 Review: '127 Hours' Is A Thrilling, Life-Affirming Survival Tale & One Of The Best Films Of The Year
Lean, efficient, despairing, thrilling and ultimately life affirming, "127 Hours" might just be the film Danny Boyle has been waiting to make for his entire career. Riding into TIFF on an incredible wave of buzz, Boyle takes the true life story of Aron Ralston's unbelievable and wrenching tale of survival and alchemically turns it into a wide reaching, highly approachable and relentlessly entertaining film.
The premise is simple, and for anyone even remotely following the project, widely known. In 2003 Aron Ralston (James Franco) fell into a crevice while canyoneering in Utah's Blue John Canyon, with his arm trapped under a boulder. He tries desperately to chip away at the rock using a scissor/knife tool he has; creates a pulley system using his ropes to try and lift the boulder off before he faces the hard reality that -- with no one aware of where he is -- he will need to cut his own arm off in order to get out of there and have a chance to save his life. And he does. Yes, it's a one setting story with a "happy" ending most audiences will know upon buying tickets, but Boyle utilizes a number of devices that open up the story narratively and thematically while adding dramatic tension to a situation that is already nerve-wrackingly fraught.
Working with two cinematographers, Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle, Boyle spends the opening ten or so pre-title minutes with Ralston running wild through the canyons and vast space of Utah. Joined by two fellow outdoorswomen (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn who get most of their screentime in this opening segment), they climb, tumble and swim in the remote and utterly gorgeous outdoors. With hands running against canyon walls aged by eons of wind and rain, with no buildings or people for miles and a seemingly endless sky, Boyle gives viewers a chance to be awed and humbled at the beauty and size of the land; we immediately get a sense of what makes canyoneering somewhat of a drug for Ralston and what pushes him to explore it in all its glory.
Among the other tools in Boyle's storytelling arsenal is switching between third and first person point-of-view; we are plunged directly in what Ralston senses and feels. But most effective of all is the video diary that Ralston keeps in preparation for his death. Sensing his predicament, he begins to keep a log of his situation, says goodbye to his parents and siblings and keeps his sanity intact by speaking directly to the camera. And Boyle uses these installments to flashback to memories, moments and even fantasies in Ralston's life. But these are brief. As his health and mental stability diminish, these moments are shortened and quickly cut as we're brought rushing back to the reality of the situation. In one particularly notable sequence, Boyle juggles with a screen split in three with reality, the present and fantasy all overlapping; it's a great feat made even more admirable in that none of this ever feels gimmicky or forced. Credit is surely due to editor Jon Harris who cut and threads this material together with ease, with a pace that, from the first frame, is utterly breathless; the film's 90-odd minutes simply race by.
TIFF '10 Review: 'Everything Must Go' Is A Tender & Winning Indie Drama With Will Ferrell At His Low-Key Best
Will Ferrell once again tries his hand at drama, trading in broad laughs for a low-key turn in the surprisingly tender and winning "Everything Must Go." Written and directed by Dan Rush, the film may be Ferrell making his most convincing case yet that his well of talent runs far deeper than his more well known (and yes, hilarious) work.
Nick Halsey (Ferrell) is not having a good day. Even though he's one of the top salesman and a regional vice president at an office supply company, his numerous sick days and an escalating number of incidents due to his alcoholism have gotten him fired. When he gets home things go from bad to worse. He discovers his wife Catherine has left him, changed all the locks and put his belongings on the front lawn. His credit cards are canceled, his cell phone service cut and he loses use of the company car. Unsure of what to do next and how to win his wife back, Nick settles on his front lawn, arranging his belongings into a makeshift home of sorts, much to the chagrin of his neighbors and in violation of the law.
Helping him stay clear of jail is his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor (Michael Pena), a local homicide detective. He tells Nick that legally, he can hold a yard sale for five consecutive days before he will have to either leave or be arrested. Nick doesn't want to sell his stuff, but reluctantly begins to let things go with a neighborhood kid, Kenny (Christopher Wallace, and yes, the son of Biggie Smalls) helping him out. Also keeping an eye on him is the new neighbor Samantha (Rebecca Hall), and over the next few days, Nick will both literally and figuratively get rid of his baggage.
Sofia Coppola's 'Somewhere' Is The Surprise Big Winner In Venice
Despite being described as understated, familiar, enjoyable, but perhaps too low-key to be much of an awards darling by critics who have already seen the film, Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere" won the Golden Lion Best Picture prize at the Venice Film Festival today.
The jury's president Quentin Tarantino, who once dated Coppola back in the late '90s and obviously has no hard feelings said the decision was unanimous among the tribunal. “This was a film that enchanted us from our first screening,” Tarantino said during the award ceremony, according to The San Francisco Chronicle via Indiewire. “Yet from that first enchanting screening, it grew and grew and grew in both our hearts, in our analysis, in our minds, and in our affections.” Vincent Gallo won the Best Actor for his lead turn in Jerzy Skolimowsky's Taliban drama "Essential Killing" (his second feature after an 18 year absence from behind the camera) and the picture itself won the Special Jury Prize. Believe it or not, Mila Kunis from "Black Swan" won an acting award for Best Young Actress. She's come a long way from "That '70s Show." Natalie Portman's lead role in that film was expected to be the winner of the Best Actress prize, but instead it went to Ariane Labed for “Attenberg.” "Black Swan" was otherwise shut out; Darren Aronofksy's "The Wrestler" took the top award in 2008.
The complete winner list below the jump
Original 'Dragon Tattoo' Girl Noomi Rapace Scores 'Sherlock Holmes 2' Lead Female Role
Looks like those high-profile Hollywood meetings Noomi Rapace took a few weeks ago have panned out. She's already reportedly lining up a gig alongside Jeremy Renner in "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" from director Tommy Wirkola (whose Nazi zombie horror comedy "Dead Snow," turned heads in 2009) and now she's landed another coveted gig.
The on-the-rise Swedish actress and original 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,' has landed the lead female role in Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes 2" opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Rapace was said to be taking meetings for a role in this film as well as many others (one potentially being "Mission Impossible 4"), but it appears talks with the British director and the sequel's producers went well.
According to THR, the production is still scheduled to shoot later this year. The logline is being kept under wraps, but Rapace is rumored to play a French gypsy, which makes sense since we already heard "Sherlock Holmes 2" will take the detectives across Europe. There's no word whether that role will be romantic in nature and the trade doesn't mention Rachel McAdams, but says "most of the original team is returning."
Further plot details are unknown though Holmes will face his nemesis Moriarty and his brother Mycroft will also make an appearance. Daniel Day-Lewis has been rumored for the role of Moriarty for some time now and we'll admit, we pissed our pants laughing when we first heard that and assumed there was no way in hell it was ever going to happen, but recent intel that has come our way suggests that DD-L taking the role is very possible. Keep an eye out to see whether it comes together.
Let's not forget, "Sherlock Holmes 2" is supposed to shoot in 3D and is already set for a December 16, 2011 release.
'TIFF 10 Review: 'Guest' Is A Scrapbook of People & Places That Subtly Tries To Unlock The Secrets Of The Human Condition
Spanish filmmaker Jose Luis Guerin is a watcher. In his previous film, the extraordinary (and criminally underrated) "In the City of Sylvia," his male protagonist spends near the entire duration observing women with a longing gaze, first at a cafe where he sketches their gorgeous faces on his notepad, then throughout a breathless slow-motion chase down winding, Escher-like alleyways, in pursuit of one woman he may or may not know. Guerin's latest, "Guest," is something of an offshoot of his last one, and it's a documentary that's as much a fiction as his narratives are nonfiction.
It follows Guerin as he tours the festival circuit for a period of one year, but before you go accusing the filmmaker of "Slacker Uprising" levels of narcissistic self-promotion, understand that he himself never appears on screen, and that while we do get a glimpse inside the Venice Film Festival (both in 2007 and 2008, the first being 'Sylvia's' premiere, the second serving as "Guest's" proper bookend, replete with cameos from Chantal Akerman and Abbas Kiarostami), the bulk of the film instead chooses to keep Guerin behind the camera. The filmmaker roves through the streets of various Latin American countries, interviewing the people he finds there—or, more accurately, offering them a forum for their stories, however long-winded and sometimes incomprehensible they may be. In the process, Guerin engages with socio-political and religious tensions, as well as more elusive truths about cultural identity.
9/10/2010
TIFF '10 Review: 'It's Kind Of A Funny Story' Is Kind Of A Disappointment
Best known for their humanist dramas "Half Nelson" and "Sugar," the directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck take their first stab at the mainstream with an adaptation of Ned Vizzini's novel, "It's Kind Of A Funny Story," and despite a first-rate cast, the film meets its early comparisons to "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Breakfast Club" with a bare minimum of inspiration.
When we first meet Craig (Keir Gilchrist) he's in the emergency room at the hospital having brought himself there after contemplating suicide; and it's not been the first time he's had these thoughts. He meets with Dr. Mahmoud (Aasif Mandvi) and after telling him of his woes — which honestly don't sound that far beyond what your average teenager goes through — the doctor advises him to go home and offers outpatient support. But after some pleading, Dr. Mahmoud agrees to admit Craig to the hospital and assigns him to the mental ward. Once Craig realizes that he will be forced to stay there for a minimum of five days for observation he has doubts, but his parents (Lauren Graham and Jim Gaffigan) think it'll be good for him as they've been dealing with his various symptoms of depression for a while, so he reluctantly agrees.
TIFF '10 Review: 'Never Let Me Go' Pleases The Eye, But Misses The Heart
Just a warning: we're going to talk about the 'big secret' of the film right from the start because firstly, it's fully revealed about half an hour in, and secondly, while it informs the world the characters inhabit it's not the primary dramatic arc of the film. So if you'd rather go in fresh, you'd probably best stop here, but for the rest of you, read on.
Mark Romanek's third feature, eight long years after "One Hour Photo" (and shortly after his aborted attempt to make "The Wolf Man") finds the director adapting Kazuo Ishiguro's celebrated novel "Never Let Me Go." The story is largely set in an adjusted 1980s, a couple of decades after medical science has discovered a way to farm fully functioning human beings to be used later as organ donors for the rest of society, extending life expentancy to over 100 years by allowing diseased vital organs to be replaced. We open at Hailsham, a boarding school where these future donors are raised and educated in a seemingly idyllic setting that is designed to ensure their bodies remain healthy. It's here we meet the younger versions of whipsmart and sensitive Kathy, emotional and vulnerable Tommy and the confident but uncertain Ruth (all played excellently by child actors Izzy Meikle-Small, Charlie Rowe and Ella Purnell). While Kathy and Ruth are friends, it's Tommy who both forges the group together and then wedges them apart. The initial budding romance by between Kathy and Tommy is eventually smothered and severed by the more forward advances of Ruth, and by the time the three are young adults and ready to leave the hallowed grounds of Hailsham, Tommy and Ruth are in a fully committed relationship.
First Trailer For Clint Eastwood's Spiritual Drama 'Hereafter'
With its release a mere month and a half away and its contained premiere (just one screening) at TIFF just around the corner, Warner Bros. have finally unveiled the first trailer for Clint Eastwood latest effort -- a self-described spiritual "chick flick" in "Hereafter" -- possibly in response to recent murmurs that the studio may be trying to hide a stinker.
Tackling the subject of existence and life after death, the film is a three-pronged story centering on a reluctant psychic (Matt Damon, reuniting with Eastwood after "Invictus") in San Francisco who has difficulty connecting with his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), a French television reporter (Cecilia de France) torn by her experiences in the 2004 Tsunami and a young boy affected by the accidental death of his twin brother (unknowns Frankie & George McClaren).
The trailer seems to paint Damon as the core of the story and, even though Eastwood recently revealed the actor shares his screen time equally with the three other leads but of course. He's the only real star.
However his character is the center point as the stories converge and the characters are united by their own unique experiences with death and the afterlife. There also looks to be a significant and surprisingly believable use of SFX for de France's plotline, which is definitely something different for Eastwood, but we do hold slight worries about the two unknowns British kids especially if they've got to hold a third of the film. Oh, and Sia's "Lullaby" kicking off the trailer? Surely says something about the tone of the pic too.
Jay Mohr, Lyndsey Marshal and Richard Kind also co-star in the Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon") scripted tale which hits theaters October 22nd, a week before Halloween, but not before screening at TIFF and closing the NYFF. [Apple]
First Look Photos: Robert Redford's Civil War Drama 'The Conspirator'
We've seen one official production still from TIFF and here's a multitude of new photos from Robert Redford's "The Conspirator."
The picture is a Civil War-era drama starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright plus a superb supporting cast that includes Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Tom Wilkinson, Alexis Bledel, Justin Long, Toby Kebbell (as John Wilkes Booth), Danny Huston, Johnny Simmons, Colm Meaney and Stephen Root. We already showed you some set photos earlier this year, and revealed some more unofficial production stills and reviewed the script too.
We noticed allegorical post-9/11 allusions in the script (they're fairly palpable, let's face it) and according to the L.A. Times who has already seen the film, those analogies are intact onscreen which is good to hear.
You can read the extended synopsis here, but we can tell you that it's a period drama (obviously) based on true events following the assassination of President Lincoln and centers on the story of Mary Surratt, an alleged accomplice and conspirator of Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Robin Wright plays Surratt, the lone female charged as a co-conspirator, who, when the nation turns against her, is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer (James McAvoy) to uncover the truth and save her life. Evan Rachel Wood plays Surratt's daughter, Tom Wilkinson plays a former attorney general who, as U.S. Senator, is McAvoy's mentor, and Kevin Kline and Danny Huston play Lincoln’s Secretary of War and the prosecuting attorney respectively (in smaller roles, Bledel plays McAvoy's fiancee and Long plays an injured Civil War friend). It's strange to think that right now, this film has no U.S. distribution, but that could change pretty quickly (then again, you'd think it would have been snatched up by now). Either way, there's a great and lengthy article in the L.A. Times about Redford taking the film to TIFF independently (there's also one in the NYTimes, so perhaps Redford's chances are very good as the media is certainly rooting for him).
The film makes its its world premiere tomorrow (ironically, September 11) at the Toronto International Film Festival. More photos of the cast including Long, Kline, Bledel and more after the jump.
Weinstein Company Makes First Toronto Purchase, 'Sarah's Keys' Starring Kristin Scott Thomas
Following fresh off the heels of the announcement that The Weinstein Company will be holding the U.S. premiere for Sam Taylor's John Lennon biopic "Nowhere Boy" at the New York repertory theater Film Forum, comes news that TWC has made the first acquisition of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Deadline reports TWC has purchased all U.S. rights to "Sarah's Key." The French Film directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner stars Kristin Scott Thomas (who also stars in "Nowhere Boy") and is based on the New York Times best-selling book by French journalist and literary critic Tatiana De Rosnay, which has been translated into 15 languages and published in 22 countries.
In the film, Scott Thomas plays Julia Armond, an American by birth living in Paris and writing for an American magazine. If anyone can pull this off it's Scott Thomas who has been exquisite in both English- and French-speaking roles (see the breathtaking, "I Loved You So Long").
Julia is assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél d'Hiv roundups, the 1942 Paris deportation of thousands of Jewish families to Auschwitz. While working on her story, Julia soon learns that the apartment she and her husband plan to move into was acquired by her husband's family when its Jewish occupants were deported 60 years before. Julia resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants. The film then intertwines this present plot line with the past story of the 1942 occupants of the apartment and their struggles during the Holocaust.
The film will likely open in the U.S. sometime next year.
Quelle Horreur! Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s ‘Midnight In Paris’ Role Reshot By Lea Seydoux?
Can it be possible that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy actually has feet of clay? This writer hopes not, having always found in her a really relatable role model -- I mean, if a supermodel can rise from her lowly beginnings as heiress to a tire manufacturing fortune, daughter of a concert pianist and either an industrialist/composer or a Brazilian grocery magnate/classical guitarist, to become a singer/songwriter, actress, and, oh yes, the First Lady of France, then surely, so can we all.
Ok, so maybe she is like a creature from another planet where everything is always amazing, which makes it all the more remarkable that despite all that, we still kinda liked her. So we take little joy in reporting the Daily Mail rumor, via MovieWeb, that comely French rising star Lea Seydoux has reshot all of Bruni-Sarkozy’s scenes for Woody Allen’s currently filming “Midnight in Paris.” Snarkily reporting that the alluring Italian-born hyphenate has been "humiliated" and “caused widespread amusement in July when she took dozens of takes to perform a few simple dramatic tasks during filming,” the Daily Mail goes on to repeatedly stress how much younger her possible replacement Seydoux is, and even bizarrely asserts that “while Miss Bruni may still make a few seconds of the final cut, the fresh-faced Seydoux would be a far bigger box office draw.” Hm, really? All this serves to do is remind us how much we dislike the Daily Mail.
‘Twilight: Eclipse’ Re-Released For Bella Swan’s Birthday. No, Really.
Absolutely raging that you only got to see “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” 14 times in the theater before those stupid managers or, like distributors or whatever, replaced it with some stupid other movie that totally didn’t have R-Patz in it even a little bit? I know I am! But finally one of the gross old dudes in charge of this sort of thing has gotten over his EPIC FAIL and read one of my texts (prbly tk hm 4eva! ROTFLMAO!). Deadline reports 'Eclipse' is being re-released this weekend, so me and all my BFFs can celebrate Bella Swan’s birthday (Sept. 13th) by hating on Kristen Stewart and thinking how much better we would have been in the role.
Yes, the film, which honestly feels like it only left theaters yesterday, is coming back to 1,187 screens nationwide for this auspicious weekend destined soon to be declared a national holiday. In fact, this period has a double significance as not only is it Bella’s real birthday, but her “vampire birthday” (is that a spoiler? Does anyone care?) is September 10th - OMG! That’s today! Soooo weird.
Why 8 Years Between Films? Mark Romanek Explains His "Good Luck/Bad Luck" Years & Why It Was Best He Left 'The Wolf Man'
Our EIC noted a few years back when Mark Romanek joined the illustrious Director's Label Series alongside nu-cinema upstarts Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham that the music video director had won a "whopping 20 Moonmen, plus the only MTV Video Vanguard Award ever given to a director independent of any specific artist." Not even David Fincher and Paul Hunter who made their names on iconic music videos before they transferred over to feature filmmaking could boast those stats and yet, in most cinephile circles, Romanek isn't quite as well known or revered as Fincher, Jonze and Gondry.
Part of the reason is output. Between 2002's "One Hour Photo" and 2010's already critically acclaimed "Never Let Me Go" (review later today), Romanek has made zero feature films. Essentially, there's been an eight year gap. What happened? One could say the industry happened to him. Romanek almost did a film with Tom Hanks and then almost helmed a very recent one with Benicio del Toro ("The Wolf Man"). And in a very recent interview with /Film from Telluride, he essentially explained all his industry bad luck rather succinctly, yet without any shortcuts. It's an interesting read if you, like us, enjoy his work, are expecting (hoping?) that "Never Let Me Go" finally fulfills the promise of his visually stunning music video work (we're one of the "genre"-based sites that didn't seem to really care for "One Hour Photo"), and or are wondering where he's been all this time. Read on to see what happened.
TIFF '10 Review: 'You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger' Is Classic, If Familiar, Woody Allen
When trying to describe the new Woody Allen movie, you inevitably end up comparing it to an older Woody Allen movie. "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" resembles a number of the nervous auteur's previous films, both in its aesthetic choices and in its deeper philosophical prodding. Thankfully, 'Stranger' fills you with mostly happy memories and sidesteps the locked-in-a-drawer-for-30-years mothball mustiness of last year's so-so "Whatever Works."
In typical Allen fashion, the movie is drawn by a series of relationships -- relationships that are confused and complicated and hopelessly screwed up. The central turmoil is between Roy (Josh Brolin), a once-promising novelist that has fallen into mediocrity and Sally (Naomi Watts), a woman who desperately wants a career and a child and is exasperated by Roy's unwillingness to support either. Roy starts to daydream about the lovely girl in red who lives in the apartment across the way (Freida Pinto) while Sally has similar fantasies about her boss (Antonio Banderas). Sally's father Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) has just gotten a divorce from her mother Helena (Gemma Jones) and responds by embracing his newfound bachelorhood and promptly getting engaged to young tart Charmaine (Lucy Punch). Helena responds by going to a psychic, who gives her advice on all of the people in her life, including her daughter and son-in-law.
TIFF '10: 'Easy A' Is The Clever & Funny Teen Comedy We Were All Hoping For
There is nothing better than a perfectly guilt free teen comedy that begs to be watched on repeat, and "Easy A" lives up to the early buzz, and is definitely one we won't mind watching again soon. With a perfect cast, literate and witty dialogue coupled with a protagonist that you can't help but fall in love with, this modernized retelling of "The Scarlet Letter" is easily one of the best teen comedies to be released in the past ten years. But it is not perfect, and its flaws are sadly too big to secure it's place in the "Clueless"/"Mean Girls" Hall of Fame. While its flaws might be too major to ignore, the film is smart and successful with its dialogue, performances and firm grasp on the hell that is dealing with adolescence in high school.
"Easy A" would make anyone want to become the President of an Emma Stone fan club. She's perfect as Olive Penderghast, a non-nerd yet inconsequential whip smart high schooler, who creates a completely false image of herself when "confessing" to her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) in a ladies bathroom at school, that she lost her virginity with a college freshman. Gasp! Her story is overheard by the school's version of Sarah Palin, Marianne, hysterically played by Amanda Bynes, and within minutes she is THE topic of conversation at Ojai High School. Olive goes from being unknown to infamous in mere minutes, thanks to the virtual highways that have corroded the once beautiful art of rumors in schools nowadays. But does she want to be known for this? This is the problem that Olive battles throughout the film, which isn't completely out of left field for a teen girl. And we watch her progression into high school infamy and alleged promiscuity as she recounts the tale via her v-log, which seems to be the only place where she is comfortable unleashing the truth about herself.
'Ong Bak 3' Nabs U.S. Release & A New-Ish Trailer
"Ong Bak 3" has found a U.S. distributor, and no big suprise, its Magnet Releasing who is looking to release the the Asian-action flick in January 2011. Directed by Tony Jaa, the third installment of the"Ong Bak" series will also be its final product. Audiences may remember the cliffhanger ending of "Ong Bak 2" which was released in the U.S. late last year where the series met quite a supernatural plotline.
If there's any word to describe this trilogy, it's "bad-ass" and perhaps a little silly. As seen from the trailer, the third installment picks up with just as much adrenaline and crazy as the previous two fed to viewers. Even without the English subtitles, the "Ong Bak 3" trailer is wicked cool, stock full of one crazy martial arts stunt after another.
The plot appears to be even more supernatural than the sequel to the first film of the series. Our protagonist is involved in some sort of voodoo act throughout the beginning of the trailer and then shit really goes down with elephants and some crazy bug-eyed stares. But who really cares about the plot, you just want to see those crazy stunts, no? Check out the trailer for yourself below.
Scott Speedman, Lily Cole & Sarah Bolger Join Mary Harron's Lesbian Vampire Flick, 'The Moth Diaries'
After a five year vacation from cinema (ten if you don't count "The Notorious Bettie Page," which no one will judge you for), indie filmmaker Mary Harron ("American Psycho") is finally set to return for "The Moth Diaries," a gothic-horror based on the debut novel by Rachel Klein. The cast has just been announced: Scott Speedman ("The Strangers"), Lily Cole ("The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"), Sarah Gadon ("Charlie Bartlett") and Sarah Bolger (the little lead girl from "In America" all grown up). Bolger will play the main student, with Gadon and Cole playing the two colleagues that capture her interest. Speedman is a professor Bolger's character has the hots for.
The book follows a sixteen-year-old girl at an exclusive boarding school and her obsession with her roommate, Lucy, and a new classmate named Ernessa. The mystery behind this new student, such as why she has a moody aura about her and has pale skin, is all recounted in the narrator's diary, which shapes the structure and POV of the story. The mystery only deepens when the inexplicable relationship between Lucy and Ernessa develops, Lucy begins looking and acting more like her friend, and fear spreads throughout the boarding school.To put it simply, we have another vampire movie on our hands.Ugh. We would love to get behind Harron on this one, but the subject matter has been creatively bankrupt for a long time now and it really doesn't seem like the source material will be taking this to new or even interesting levels. In fact, in an interview with ScreenDaily, Harron seems a little too excited about such mediocre material: "This is a chillingly atmospheric horror story with real emotional depth. I’ve tried to stay true to Rachel Klein’s novel in the way it re-works and updates the Gothic tradition and the whole notion of girl-on-girl vampires." Lesbian vampires honestly aren't as emotionally deep as filmmakers seem to think.
TIFF '10 Review: 'Black Swan' Is The Grandest Ballet Of Darren Aronofsky's Career
As "Black Swan" has begun its festival rollout, Darren Aronofsky has said the film is a companion piece to "The Wrestler" and it's easy to see why. Where that film documented an athlete at the end of his career, body battered but spirit intact, here Aronofsky flips the equation, with a dancer in the best shape of her life and with the future in front of her who, in the chase for perfection, begins to mentally unravel.
Nina (Natalie Portman) is part of a coterie of ballet dancers who make up the Lincoln Center troupe. Beth (Winona Ryder), the theater's longtime star is on her way out and with a new show mounting, director and choreographer Thomas (Vincent Cassel) is looking for a new dancer to lead his new production, a stripped down version of "Swan Lake."
In Theaters: 'Resident Evil: Afterlife,' 'I'm Still Here,' 'Heartbreaker' & 'The Romantics'
With the film industry-at-large firmly focused on the Great White North and the first festival of the fall season-- the Toronto International Film Festival-- thoughts drift to new trailers and one-sheets coming out from those highly anticipated awards-seeking heavy hitters, not on the dismal pickins at the multiplex this weekend. Maybe TIFF weekend will become like the Februaries and Augusts of years past... a dumping ground for subpar movies. We suggest you check out "The American" (which we kind of loved) or "Machete" from last weekend (which, well, some of us loved...), or spend the weekend glued to your computer, constantly refreshing TrailerAddict. However, there's some interesting art house fare in limited release, such as the Casey Affleck directed mock?umentary "I'm Still Here" about his bro-in-law Joaquin Phoenix's rap career, as well some foreign films from favorite directors, and new festival films seeing release, so if one of these movies hits your city this weekend, now may be the time to check it out.
In the only new wide release this weekend, Milla Jovovich returns for a fourth round of post-apocalyptic, futuristic undead ass kicking (and constantly wielding two guns, because she looks pretty awesome doing it) in "Resident Evil: Afterlife," directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed the first "Resident Evil" flick, as well as "Mortal Kombat," "Event Horizon," "Death Race," and "Alien vs. Predator," so make of that what you will (seriously, that guy's credit list could either make him your cinematic hero or nemesis). The flick also stars C-List thesps/pretty people, Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller and some other actors we've never heard of. They didn't screen for critics, no surprises there. Anywho, no judgments, we all need a little mindless action-y, explosion-y zombie-thing killing every now and again, eh? Temper the taste of all that Serious Art Cinema. Rotten Tomatoes: 8%
Mark Millar Spews More About Probably-Never-Happening 'Kick-Ass' Sequel
Remember that time we reported a story about Mark Millar talking about sequels to "Kick-Ass"? And then we reported yet another story where Millar talked even more about possible sequels? Guess, what. We're doing it again. Because we're total fucking gluttons for punishment and adore slamming our heads against desks in aggravation (plus at this point, we must just be sick). Empire sat down with Millar and he had a few things to say about the possible sequel:
"It’s gangs going all over New York filming atrocities on their cell phones and putting them on the Internet, trying to outdo each other, all at the behest of Red Mist. My idea for Red Mist was to introduce a super villain that made Heath Ledger’s Joker look like Cesar Romero’s Joker. He’s basically Charles Manson as a super villain." We'll sure he'll handle that in his usually mannered and tasteful way.
Harmony Korine Seeks Audience Funding For Next Film Through Rotterdam Festival
Indie auteur Harmony Korine has never been one to follow standards, both in his films' contents and in their distribution. Most recently, his wonderfully bizarre "Trash Humpers" received limited distribution through the Drag City record label, rather than any conventional film distributor.
In a move that may remind some of Kevin Smith's plan to get his fans to fund his horror movie "Red State," indieWIRE reports that Korine has teamed up with the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Cinema Reloaded program to produce a film that will reportedly be entirely financed by audiences for online distribution.
Korine joins filmmakers Ho Yuhang ("15Malaysia") and Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds") in the program, with Yuhang and Dos Santos looking to raise 15,000 Euros and Korine looking to double that figure. Though there is a 5 Euro minimum to become a donor, if you want to get credited and see the film early via VOD online, you'll have to shell out 25 Euros (about $32 American dollars) to Korine's production. The films will also see conventional premieres at the International Film Festival Rotterdam proper. Each film's progress will be documented on a Cinema Reloaded blog over at indieWIRE.
'Country Strong' Trailer Featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund & Leighton Meester Will Have You Sputtering "Y'all" All Day
A trailer for the country music drama "Country Strong" has been released, and the only surprising part of the whole thing is how much more country you thought it would be. Gwyneth Paltrow shows off an accent almost as obnoxious and exaggerated as Kyra Sedgwick's accent in "The Closer," if you can believe it. There was quite a bit of ambiguity surrounding the film based on the few photos that have been released, but we hope you didn't get your hopes up. The trailer is the story you've heard in almost every country song. It involves women, love and booze.
Paltrow stars as a run-down country music artist who tries to get back into the biz after experiencing a short stint in rehab for drunk and disorderly conduct. She's joined by Tim McGraw who plays Paltrow's love interest. Garrett Hedlund ("Tron") and Leighton Meester (CW's "Gossip Girl") also join the cast as two country music artists.
Action Godhead John McTiernan To Direct Action-Thriller 'Shrapnel'
John McTiernan is a deity in some circles. The action auteur gave us the original "Predator," "Die Hard," "The Hunt for Red October" and to lesser acclaim, but still beloved by some action-heads, "Die Hard with a Vengeance," and "Last Action Hero."
The years have not been kind to the director though, other than the respectable, "The Thomas Crown Affair" remake, the filmmaker delivered forgettable works like "Rollerball," "Basic" and the 1999 picture, "The 13th Warrior," from which McTiernan was fired and writer Michael Crichton later replaced (he had a film called "Run" with Thomas Jane announced in 2007, but it never got off the ground).
McTiernan hasn't made a picture since 2003 and that's partly because the director was involved and criminally convicted in the infamous Anthony Pellicano/Hollywood wiretapping scandal of 2006. The director was initially sentenced to four months in jail and given a $115,000 fine for lying to investigators probing the case, but in 2009, the courts vacated his sentence arguing he could withdraw his guilty plea. That stroke of luck didn't last long as McTiernan eventually plead guilty again in July of this year, oof.
TIFF '10 Review: 'Inside Job' Is A Dense, Furious & Scathing Investigation Into The Financial Crisis
You're gonna need a stiff drink after this one. With the same exacting research and vigor director Charles Ferguson brought to his first feature "No End In Sight," he returns with his sophomore effort "Inside Job" a supremely eye-opening and exhaustive (if sometimes exhausting) look at the U.S. financial crisis.
Narrated by Matt Damon, and broken up into five parts, Ferguson interviews nearly every important figure, researcher, economist and political leader -- both at home and abroad -- who was impacted by a financial system that prior to the collapse was simply running wild.
In Part I: How We Got Here, the film clearly illustrates how the post-Depression era of strict financial regulation was slowly stripped away leading to the increasingly volatile industry of today. Part II: The Bubble reveals how the inaction at the highest levels of government coupled with a weakened SEC and influence from banking leaders within the political sphere continued a culture of risky transactions and excessive lifestyles that only served to continue to the buildup to what would be an incredible fall.
Part III: The Crisis, and Part IV: Accountability detail that starting from the Bear Stearns bankruptcy the issue continued to be ignored, misunderstood and played down while those at the highest levels continued to reap benefits. And perhaps most depressingly, the film closes with Part V: Where We Are Now showing that under Barack Obama the status quo of undue industry influence and unchecked policies continue to reign.
David Cronenberg Talks 'A Dangerous Method,' Hints At Madness And Hysteria From Keira Knightley?
Attending a recent fan exhibition in Toronto, director David Cronenberg has taken to discussing his recently-wrapped tale about the forefathers of psychoanalysis in "A Dangerous Method."
"It's called 'The Dangerous Method,'" Cronenberg explained at FanExpo; also note the potential title change. "It's based on a play by Christopher Hampton called 'The Talking Cure' and it's about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and the birth of psychoanalysis at the turn of the century. It begins in 1904 and ends in 1912."
"The three main characters are Freud, Jung and a woman named Sabina Spielrein who was not very well known until the '70s when people discovered a cache of letters that were discovered in Geneva, in Switzerland. To the surprise of many people who had never heard of her and maybe seen one or two pieces that she had published in psychoanalytical journals, she was a huge influence on Freud and Jung. She started off as a patient of Jung -- she was crazy."
Jane Campion To Shoot TV Murder Mystery Mini-Series 'Top Of The Lake' Next Year
As we reported earlier this year, veteran Kiwi helmer Jane Campion is set to follow up her fine work on 2009's underrated "Bright Star" with a six hour television mini-series that will reunite her with her "Sweetie" writer Gerard Lee.
Little word had been heard from the project since then, however, and the project has now been unveiled by British-Australian shingle See-Saw Films on the eve of TIFF, where the company's Oscar front-runner "The King's Speech" is screening.
"Top Of The Lake," as it has been titled, is reported to be a murder mystery set in Campion's native New Zealand which is further described as "a small-town tale of a detective brought in to solve the case of a 12-year-old who gets pregnant and disappears." So perhaps a neo-noir through the eyes of Campion? Sounds fantastic.
Joaquin Phoenix Attached To Fetishist Film, 'Big Shoe'; Almost Joined Jonah Hill's 'The Sitter' & Projects With Sean Penn & Jeremy Renner
Right on cue. Joaquin Phoenix makes a splash with his documentary/ elaborate hoax, "I'm Still Here," and bam, the trades get wind of several projects the actor has been circling (though the doc is a year old and why anyone thinks JP is still pursuing a hip-hop career is beyond us).
Quelle coincidence? However one must note, almost every project Phoenix was interested and or had agreed to enter discussions with has fallen apart. The most intriguing, at least to us, was the idea of Joaquin joining David Gordon Green's "The Sitter" as a drug dealer in pursuit of Jonah Hill, who has accidentally lost his bag of cocaine, thanks to the devilish kids he's forced to babysit. Vanquish the thought. While hilarity would have surely ensued -- especially with the prospect of Phoenix playing it straight -- it's not happening for reasons that are unclear. Casting is quickly ramping up on that one though as Ari Graynor just joined the cast recently.
Next was a possible team up with Sean Penn in the picture, "Genius"; Phoenix was entertaining the idea of playing the then-young famous novelist Thomas Wolfe to Penn's legendary literary editor role Max Perkins. The role for Phoenix would likely have been an Oscar contender, and it smells like acting fireworks to us, but it didn't happen.
Another potentially incredible prospect also fell through. Before John Cusack took the role of Edgar Allan Poe in James McTeigue's "The Raven," the once- aspiring rapper/musician was circling the part with Jeremy Renner as the detective on his trail. Renner left for "Mission Impossible 4" (Jeremy, really?), and then Phoenix lost interest. Of all the aforementioned parts, apparently "The Raven" was the closest one to becoming a reality so we can thank Renner's tentpole proclivities/curiosity for that one.
Eddie Redmayne To Star In Simon Curtis' 'My Week With Marilyn' Starring Michelle Williams
Rising British actor Eddie Redmayne has scored a leading role in Simon Curtis' "My Week With Marilyn," based on the diary of an employee of Laurence Olivier during their time together shooting "The Prince And The Showgirl" in London.
Redmayne will play said employee, Colin Clark, the son of celebrated art historian Lord Clark and younger brother of politician Alan Clark who looked after the iconic blond bombshell. A diary he kept during that time period was only published in 2002 with the story reported to chronicle the actress' clashing with veteran thespian Olivier during the production.
The casting marks a stark rise for the actor who has gone from being a relative unknown to being strongly linked to the leading role in Steven Spielberg's "War Horse," cast in Kathryn Bigelow's HBO pilot "The Miraculous Year" and now acting alongside Williams, Kenneth Branagh who'll play Olivier and Judi Dench who'll portray actress Sybil Thorndike, a fellow cast member on "The Prince And The Showgirl."
Production on "My Week With Marilyn" begins in 10 days time with Dench's scenes to take precedence to work around her schedule with John Madden's "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."
*The above image of Williams, by the way, is from the recent Venice Film Festival and is likely the look she has worked on for this particular project.
First Look Clip: Mickey Rourke & Megan Fox In Mitch Glazer's 'Passion Play'
Here's a first look clip of Mitch Glazer's upcoming fantastical-tinged '50s-set drama "Passion Play" starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray.
The film centers on a down-and-out trumpet player (Rourke) who seeks redemption through an angel (a winged circus freak played by Fox) in Los Angeles. Rourke has talked Fox up a fair bit during production, even casting aside all his previous female co-stars calling Fox "probably the best young actress I’ve ever worked with" -- but he's always been one to shoot his mouth off, no?
Also co-starring are the likes of Rhys Ifans, Kelly Lynch, Rory Cochrane, and Bud Cort but it's pretty hard to gauge where the film stands, we think. While it does feature riches of talent in Rourke and Murray, the two are actually friends of Glazer from their heyday in the '80s and may very well have come on board more out of friendship than any quality material. At the very least, it does look like Glazer has some nice looking photography happening in this clip of Rourke participating in some sort of $2 peep scheme to look at a winged Fox -- the actress that is.
"Passion Play" premieres at TIFF where it hopes to find a distributor. With a cast like that, it would have to be pretty mediocre to not find some kind of buyer. [ET]
Gael Garcia Bernal & Diego Luna Join Matt Piedmont's Spanish Language Comedy 'Casa De Mi Padre' Starring Will Ferrell
Mexican duo and "Y Tu Mama Tambien" co-stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are set to reunite for Matt Piedmont's forthcoming Spanish language comedy "Casa de mi padre" -- translated as "House Of My Father" -- which is already set to star Will Ferrell.
Details on the project are being kept firmly under wraps but the collaboration of the aforementioned trio is enough to build our hopes up, even if helmer Piedmont has the dubious honor of being labeled a regular David Spade collaborator.
As it stands, the film is simply being billed as an "overly dramatic telenovela," hopefully to comedic effect, with Ferrell in the lead role, Garcia Bernal as a family friend, Luna as the brother, Genesis Rodriguez ("Entourage") as Ferrell's love interest, with Pedro Armendariz Jr., Hector Jimenez ("Nacho Libre") and Adrian Martinez ("It's Kind of A Funny Story") rounding out the cast. Last we heard the film would be shot entirely in Spanish with subtitles for those of you not fluent in the language.
Affinity International will be handling the international sales of the project which has the likes of Adam McKay, Kevin Messick and Jessica Elbaum producing in association with NALA Films' Emilio Diez Barroso and Darlene Caamano Loquet. No word yet on when production will begin. Hasta la proxima. [THR]
9/09/2010
Pixar Making 'Dr. Strange' Movie? Don't Bet On It
Over at Bad Librarianship (via Cinemablend), cartoonish Brendan McCarthy was talking up his recent "Spider-Man: Fever" miniseries, which hits stores this week as a trade paperback (it's seriously brilliant - everyone should buy ten copies), and let slip that Pixar might be working on its first superhero movie, post-Marvel acquisition.
"I was over in Hollywood earlier this year mooching about," the writer-artist said, "and I had a meeting at Disney and the conversation drifted around to Pixar animating a Dr. Strange movie."
While this is certainly an intriguing tidbit -- the flawless Pixar bunch taking on the Marvel Universe's Sorcerer Supreme -- but we wouldn't bet money on it happening just yet. We know that once Marvel was absorbed by the mouse, there were many at Pixar that were very excited. And we know that a Dr. Strange movie is in the works. But the line between Disney and Pixar is blurring with each passing day, with chief Pixar people operating in the highest creative positions available at Disney proper, and we wouldn't be surprised if Pixar was just advising the movie on a creative level, as it had recently with the forthcoming Muppet movie and "Tron Legacy."
But, if for some reason, Pixar does do an animated Dr. Strange movie, which, we can all agree, would be pretty fucking cool, it'd be great if McCarthy was involved. His swirling, trippy Day Glo pages for "Spider-Man: Fever" were absolutely enchanting. And we hate to use this pun but, of course, stranger things have happened.
Review: French Hit 'Heartbreaker' Is Amour, American Style & A Fresh Take On The Rom Com Genre
But originality isn’t what made “Heartbreaker” a hit overseas and what will likely please the smaller American audience daring enough to endure subtitles. Au contraire, writer/director Pascal Chaumeil’s whimsical comedy is completely formulaic, but it’s also silly good fun, effortlessly trotting along at a brisk pace from start to finish. Thanks in large part to its likable star, “Heartbreaker” proves there’s nothing wrong with formula as long as you have all the other components soundly in place.
Duris stars as Alex, a con-man with a heart of gold who uses his numerous skills not to rob banks, but to steal hearts. With his sister Mélanie (Julie Ferrier) and her husband Marc (François Damiens), on his team, he gets paid by concerned family and friends to break up unhappy couples. He romances women away from their unsuitable matches and gently lets them down so they can fall for another man. He's a pro who uses elaborate ruses, costumes and technology to make sure that he always gets, and then promptly loses the girl.
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