One of the most depressing films I’ve ever seen, Michael Haneke’s uncompromising, unglamorous look at the end of a long and fulfilling relationship is also one of the most haunting movies I’ve seen in a really long time. Despite its title, Amour is at least as much about the indignity of death as it is the perseverance of love and the delicate persistence of life in the face of one’s own mortality. It’s a wrenching, deeply moving portrait of the end of a life-long love affair that is remarkable not only for its depth but also that the couple, Georges and Anne, have had a rather charmed life together. So it seems especially cruel that fate takes Anne not in a tragedy or in any kind of bittersweet passing but in the slow devastation of stroke. Starring titans of French cinema Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, and co-starring Isabelle Huppert as their daughter, Amour is a painfully raw and honest examination of life and death, framed by Haneke’s spare and unsparing lens. Read more »
With only one month to go before the uber-competitive summer season starts, April is bit softer as the studios wind down from March and gear up for May. There are a handful of releases that could hit in a big way but mostly, it’s middle of the road fare all the way, nothing super ambitious going on. Except for The Pirates! Band of Misfits because stop-motion animation is always ambitious.
April 6
American Reunion
In 1999 American Pie launched its young cast of mostly-unknowns to stardom. Thirteen years later, almost all of them are in need of a totally unnecessary and unwanted sequel in hopes of boosting their flagging careers. (I say “almost” because Alyson Hannigan has had a pretty nice career in television over the last decade.) I thought the first American Pie was funny when I was seventeen, but by the time the third movie in the franchise, American Wedding, came out in 2003, I was over it. And I have zero interest in this money-grabbing four-quel. If you’re looking for funny this weekend, see 21 Jump Street, if you haven’t already. And if you have, check out Goon, which stars Seann “Stifler” William Scott and is getting decent reviews.
ATM
This is one of those “people trapped in a confined space, waiting to die” horror movies. I’m not really into those, because the gimmick of the space usually overtakes actual storytelling (see also: Buried, Open Water). It’s about three people who get trapped by a murderous person in a little ATM lobby. Reviews have not been overwhelming.
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Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
Documentarian Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) is back with his look at the annual nerd-stravaganza: Comic-Con. A Fan’s Hope has gotten good reviews thus far, with most people appreciating Spurlock’s change in perspective as he spends most of his time behind the camera, instead of inserting himself into the narrative as a participant, his usual MO. Comic-Con makes for some pretty wild people watching, so this should be a fascinating look at nerd culture at its zenith.
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Damsels in Distress
Much-admired writer/director Whit Stillman hasn’t made a movie since 1998’s The Last Days of Disco. He returns now with Damsels in Distress, a story about a group of girls at college determined to save everyone from themselves. I’ve heard mixed things about this movie. Reviews have been generally positive, but talking to people who’ve seen it, no one seems to enjoy watching it. I wonder if the reviews owe more to general affection and nostalgia for Stillman, who has made several excellent films in the past (Barcelona and Metropolitan, as well as the superb Disco), than whatever is actually going on with Damsels. Starring indie doll Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Megalyn Echikunwoke (House of Lies), newcomer Carrie MacLemore and Analeigh Tipton (Crazy Stupid Love).
LA/NYC
Detention
It is inevitable that after a young actor gets some attention in a big movie, their next movie is some crap horror flick that has probably been sitting on the shelf, waiting for someone in the cast to get famous enough to justify the expense of releasing it. Detention is that movie for Josh Hutcherson. Fresh off The Hunger Games, here is a crap horror flick about kids stuck in detention trying to escape a killer called Cinderhella. CINDERHELLA. Dane Cook is in this movie, too, which guarantees it will suck. His movie career has been less than stellar.
The Hunter
Willem Defoe stars as Martin, a professional hunter who is hired to hunt the last Tasmanian tiger. In reality, the Tasmanian tiger is extinct, but the premise of the film is that there is one left in the wild and a biotech company wants it (presumably for cloning and/or to mount death-lasers on its head), and so Martin is sent to capture it. As he tracks the tiger through backwoods Tasmania (my Australian ex used to joke about Tasmania like Americans do Alabama—is this accurate, Aussies, or was he being a dick?), Martin meets a cast of predictably backwards people. Again, the reviews have been pretty strong for The Hunter, but no one I’ve talked to likes it. It sounds like Defoe gives a great performance in an otherwise weak movie, and I wonder if it’s a case of praise for Defoe is covering up complaints about everything else.
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Titanic 3D
The moment I knew I wanted to do something to do with movies as my livelihood: Age 14, sitting in the theater watching every person I’d ever met lose their shit over Titanic while I sat there, going, “But this movie is TERRIBLE!” and realizing that I was going to have to do something about the situation if such a hackneyed, derivative movie could not only get made, but be such a massive hit. I did not like Titanic in 1997 and I haven’t liked it any time I’ve been subjected to it since then. If you feel like hearing my list o’reasons it’s one of the most overrated movies in history, let me know. Otherwise, just know that every time someone says “I like Titanic” I hear “I’m a sucker, please sell me a bridge”.
We Have a Pope
Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti (The Son’s Room, The Caiman) is very popular on the international scene. His latest is We Have a Pope, which follows Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli, Restless), the newly-elected pope who, incapacitated by fear, is unable to take office. So the Vatican appoints a therapist (Moretti) to try and help coax the pope out so he can officially be announced. Reviews have been mixed, but I find Moretti’s films are usually worth checking out. His perspective is never expected and his movies almost always feel quite fresh and interesting. Also, Piccoli is one of France’s greatest actors, so there’s that.
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April 13
The Cabin in the Woods
It’s the merger of two very dedicated fan bases—horror nerds and Joss Whedon fanboys. They’ve been waiting ages for the Whedon produced and written Cabin in the Woods. I know nothing about this movie, as anyone who has been exposed to it repeatedly emphasizes that you shouldn’t even watch the trailer for fear of having whatever the twist is spoiled. I’ve posted the trailer below—whether you watch it or not is between you and your tolerance for spoilers.
Here
This bounced around festivals last year and is now getting a limited release. Starring Ben Foster (The Messenger), Here is about a cartographer who falls in love with a photographer while doing a new survey of Armenia. It looks pretty sad and depressing, but even when the movies aren’t that great, Foster is always worth watching.
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The Lady
Director Luc Besson made a big impression with The Professional in 1994, but ever since then, he’s made a string of bad action movies and has run down his reputation in the process (although I do enjoy The Fifth Element as a trainwreck). He takes a stab at redemption with The Lady, which got decent reviews on last year’s festival circuit, and won star Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) generous praise for her portrayal of Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi. As a fan of Yeoh, I’ll see this eventually, but I’m not going to lie. I find Besson, as a director, to be pretty off-putting and I’m not really into his films.
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Lockout
I had the BIGGEST crush on Guy Pearce when Memento came in 2000. I’m so glad he’s back and healthy and we can enjoy him once again. This movie looks terrible—it’s about a prison in space that is overtaken by the inmates threatening to crash it on earth—and I’m sure it will be eye-roll inducing. But it’s Guy Pearce. I love him! I totally want to see this and I hope it sucks in the good way (you know, the fun, bad-action-movie-is-good way), and not in the bad way (the bad-action-movie-makes-me-want-to-set-the-theater-on-fire way).
The Three Stooges
I’ve never been a fan of the Three Stooges, so please feel free to explain to me why this movie is so offensive to people who are. Sure, it looks extremely silly and is second-hand embarrassing, but the Three Stooges were extremely silly and second-hand embarrassing. Obviously, I’m missing something because I don’t get why Stooges fans are so up in arms about this. I mean, it looks terrible, but the Three Stooges are kind of terrible, so… The expectations are so low and early word is so bad that the general consensus in the industry is that this movie, which is not a biopic but is meant to be a recreation of the Three Stooges style of comedy, will kill the actual Stooges biopic project by association. And that is a shame because the Stooges biopic is quite dark and interesting and could maybe, finally, explain to me what I am just not getting about the Three Stooges.
Darling Companion
Lawrence Kasdan is a good filmmaker with a pretty bizarre resume, from The Big Chill to Wyatt Earp to French Kiss. This is his first film since 2003’s Dreamcatcher and it looks halfway decent at least. Diane Keaton stars as Beth, an empty-nester struggling with a disinterested husband (Kevin Kline). Beth rescues a dog and it becomes her constant companion, until her husband loses it after their daughter’s wedding. Beth enlists wedding guests to help find the dog, hijinks ensue. It doesn’t look groundbreaking, but it’s got a good cast and an identifiable premise—loneliness, companionship, rediscovery of love. That should be enough for a steady expansion that will see Darling Companion carry into summer as counter-programming to the popcorn fare. Also starring Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Dianne Wiest, Sam Shepard and Richard Jenkins.
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The Lucky One
Zac Efron + Nicholas Sparks + inevitable Sparksian ending where someone dies in a maudlin fashion = zero interest on my part.
Marley
A documentary about Bob Marley from the director of The Last King of Scotland. Pretty straightforward, should be worth it to Marley fans.
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The Moth Diaries
Sarah Bolger (The Tudors), Sarah Gadon (A Dangerous Method) and model Lily Cole star in this horror movie about catty girls at boarding school. Scott Speedman is their teacher—I assume at least one of them has sex with him at some point. This does not look good. I’d recommend renting Cracks instead.
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Think Like a Man
Based on Steve Harvey’s relationship book and starring Taraji Henson, Romany Malco (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Chris Brown—wait. Chris Brown? Pass.
To the Arctic 3D
Meryl Streep narrates this documentary that follows a mother polar bear and her two cubs through the Arctic. It’s Warner Brothers’ answer to Disney’s annual Earth Day nature-doc, and I’m sure it will pull plenty of heartstrings. Assuming you have heartstrings to be pulled and not, you know, scorpion tails and thistles like me.
April 27
Bernie
Writer/director Richard Linklater defined Generation X on film in the 1990’s with movies like Slacker, Dazed & Confused and Before Sunrise (I know Dazed was set in the 1970’s but the parallels are there), and then he made The School of Rock with Jack Black and lost my unconditional love forever, though A Scanner Darkly did kind of put him back in my good graces. Bernie looks to be another step in the right direction for Linklater, even if he is re-teaming with Black. Given the right material, Black can be an effective actor, and Bernie might be the right balance of black comedy and outright weirdness to tap into Black’s inner actor. Based on an actual murder in 1990’s Texas, Bernie is about a mortician (Black) who becomes friends with the least popular person in town, the bitter widow Marjorie. Eventually Bernie kills Marjorie but she was so unpopular in town that the prosecuting attorney (Matthew McConaughey) finds it difficult to charge Bernie. As far as creepy crime movies with weird murders go, this is more intriguing than The Raven.
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The Five Year Engagement
Jason Segel and his creative partner, Nicholas Stoller (The Muppets, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) re-team for The Five Year Engagement, another of their skewed-perspective rom-coms. I’ve been a big fan of the Segel/Stoller movies to this point, so I’m hopeful that Engagement keeps the tradition alive. Segel is joined on screen by Emily Blunt and they play a couple that, for various reasons, ends up with a long engagement. I like the idea of a rom-com dealing with what happens when the perfect couple of the love story suffers a disaster-strewn ever after, but something about Engagement has not been landing with me. The trailer doesn’t look especially funny and the chemistry between Segel and Blunt seems a little flat. It almost feels like Stoller and Segel had to make this movie to fulfill a contract requirement. I hope I’m wrong, though. I hope it’s funny and worthy of the pedigree that brought us The Muppets and Sarah Marshall.
Girl in Progress
This movie stars Eva Mendes, who is Bitch-Enemy #1 right now thanks to her ongoing relationship with Ryan Gosling. So I imagine if you do go see it, it will be to make fun of Eva and tell each other how fat she looks and how their relationship must be fake because The Gos would never like a bitch like her. Because otherwise, this movie doesn’t look any good and I can’t imagine why you’d be seeing it.
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Headhunters
Norway has been turning out some very intriguing and visually interesting films lately, and Headhunters is another entry in the “what is going on in Norway because they’re making some sweet ass films all of a sudden” category. It’s a crime thriller about an art thief attempting to acquire a painting from an ex-mercenary. It was a surprise hit at several North American festivals last year, including blow out reviews from TIFF. I am definitely making time for this one.
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The Pirates! Band of Misfits
I CAN’T WAIT THIS WILL BE THE BEST MOVIE EVER.
Seriously, though, I adore the book series by English author Gideon Defoe. They’re short, charming and funny—it’s a bit like reading Monty Python—and an Aardman Animations stop-motion cartoon is a perfect match to the silly, campy tone of the books. And the vocal work is stellar—Hugh Grant is virtually undetectable as the Pirate Captain and Salma Hayek, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman (Sherlock, The Office), Brendan Gleeson (The Guard, Harry Potter) and David Tennant (Dr. Who) all do excellent work. I’ve gotten a glimpse and as both a huge fan of the books and an exacting film-goer, I am really enthusiastic about this movie’s potential.
The Raven
I should be into this movie. I love Edgar Allen Poe, and I like creepy movies about murder. The Raven stars John Cusack as Poe in his final days, in an alternate-reality in which a serial murderer is recreating all Poe’s fictional murders in real life, and Poe teams up with a Baltimore detective (Luke Evans, Immortals) to solve the crimes. The trailer is moody and dark and a little weird and basically has a ribbon and a tag that says, “Sarah, this movie is just for you.” And yet, I am unmoved. I don’t know if it’s Cusack, who looks a bit zombified here, or if it’s the lack of cleverness, but I’m not really feeling The Raven.
Safe
I liked The Transporter, and I enjoyed Jason Statham in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as well as The Italian Job (whatever, that’s a guilty pleasure movie for me), but the other side of Statham are these incredibly stupid Transporter knock-offs like Crank and Safe. He’s got to protect some girl and get her to some place and he’ll kill a bunch of people in increasingly not-possible ways throughout the film. That’s all there is, really.
Sound of My Voice
Co-written by and starring indie darling Brit Marling (Another Earth), Sound of My Voice is about a journalist (Christopher Denham, Shutter Island) and his girlfriend getting sucked into the cult he’s investigating. It was popular at Sundance 2011, but a lot of the complaints I’ve heard center around the unevenness of the story, since it was originally conceived as short webisodes and was later turned into a feature film. The inherent nature of a webisode isn’t exactly feature-friendly, which is why Joss Whedon hasn’t tried to turn Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog into a movie. Points to Marling & Co. for trying, but this looks like a rental to me.
It’s getting to be that time of year. We’re two months out from the first of the summer movie releases, and the fall/winter award bait is starting to surface, so trailers are coming hot and heavy. It feels like a nice time to take a look at what’s garnering buzz recently in the ole trailer park. Here are a few new trailers that have everyone talking.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
You have to give Fox a lot of credit for setting up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter with a big, gutsy marketing campaign. This is probably the riskiest of the major releases in summer 2012, and Fox is acting like they have a sure-fire hit on their hands. The book is a best seller, which doesn’t hurt, but the overall concept is quite esoteric and sometimes what works in a book doesn’t work on film. However, judging solely from the trailer, it looks like director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) has nailed the tone of the book and turned it into something dark and cool. This is a summer that looks ripe for an upset at the box office (I mean, not against The Dark Knight Rises, nothing and no one is taking that down as #1), and I kind of think Abraham Lincoln might be a surprise blockbuster.
Battleship
This looks so dumb, right? Like, so, soooooo dumb. But yet…it also looks fun. Fun in the way that only super dumb summer movies can be. The new Battleship trailer took me by surprise because it actually made me want to see this silly movie. Based on the shockingly warm reception to the new trailer, Universal has raised their projections and it looks like they might really have a Transformers-level hit on their hands. Of course, I’m notoriously awful at box office predictions, so maybe I should apologize to Universal right now for tanking their chances.
I think the most important question I have after seeing this trailer is whether or not Taylor Kitsch takes his shirt off.
Dark Shadows
I understand that many of you (most of you?) are sick to death of Johnny Depp and his weird characters with all the makeup and the costumes and why can’t he just be normal, for once? Ditto for Tim Burton and his eccentric, creepy films. I get that, but here’s my question to you: When has Johnny Depp ever been the normal guy? When has Tim Burton ever made a straightforward film? The closest Burton got to the mainstream was Big Fish, and even that relied heavily on magical realism. As for Depp, it would be, what, Chocolat? I’m just saying these are two guys who make their living on weird and obscure. I understand if you’re just tired of it, in general, but let’s not act like they were ever normal.
This movie might be a huge mess. The tone of the trailer is inconsistent. Between the title and the plot—Depp plays a cursed vampire trying to reclaim his home and restore his lost love—I think people were expecting a rather serious, dark movie. Instead what we’ve got is something that looks quite campy and silly and retro (it’s based on a 1960’s soap opera). But through the clutter there are glimpses of something sharp and darkly comic, which is precisely the combination that defines Beetlejuice, Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd—three of Burton’s best films. Probably Dark Shadows is a disaster waiting to happen, what with the Burton/Depp fatigue and all, but when they’re given free rein to indulge the oddest of their impulses, Burton/Depp can really deliver. It’ll be interesting to see which side Dark Shadows comes down on.
On the Road
Walter Salles took his sweet time putting together this adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic beat novel, and from the first trailer, it definitely looks worth the wait. I’m especially into Viggo Mortensen as Old Bull Lee (the William Burroughs stand-in) and the jazzy score fragments. I’m on the record worrying about the adaptability of On the Road, but as I said originally, if anyone could make sense of a difficult, syncopated text like Kerouac’s, it would Salles. It would appear he has succeeded in at least crafting something interesting-looking with On the Road.
By virtue of being Salles’ first feature film in four years—and his first English-language film in seven—On the Road is getting a huge amount of attention. Of course it’s Kerouac, of course the cast is stocked with talent including Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Mortensen, Amy Adams and Kirsten Dunst, but the real star in any Walter Salles film is Walter Salles. He trumps everything else. And chill before you yell at me for forsaking my girl KStew. I’m excited for her to be in this, but that’s the deal you accept when you go into a Walter Salles film. It’s like working with Terrence Malick or Christopher Nolan or Woody Allen—the actor is not the most important piece, the director and his vision are. I expect to see this on the Croisette at Cannes, and later, in serious contention for award season. Because it’s Walter Salles. And that’s all that matters.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Because once again, this is a super funny movie that everyone should go see.
Prometheus
I’m trying to get into this, I really am, because I like everyone involved—The Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce—but I’m not that into sci-fi in general and I have no strong attachment to the original Alien, specifically. But I get that I’m in the minority in my disinterest and the way things stand now, this looks like the clearest challenger to The Dark Knight Rises’ assumed #1 position as top of the box office for the summer. I do think Prometheus will be big, I’m just not particularly interested in it myself.
Snow White and the Huntsman
Universal has had a hard run the last few years, but between Battleship and this, summer 2012 is shaping up nicely for them. The new trailer was just released (along with a five minute feature reel, which you can see here) and it looks GREAT. Commercials director Rupert Sanders is making his feature film debut and he looks like the genuine article. Even in two minute increments, the visuals look amazing. When the first trailer for the cutely nick-named SWATH debuted last fall, everyone was all, “OMG, Kristen Stewart is barely in it!” and I was like, “Chill, they’re going to release a Snow-centric trailer later.” And here it is, the Snow-centric trailer. I like how they’re setting up the idea that Snow’s power and beauty derives from her innate goodness—I prefer that to a straight up “I’m prettier than you” bitch off. I recently re-read the Grimm Snow White and it’s all about the destructive nature of vanity, so I really hope they play that angle in SWATH. So far, it looks like that’s where they’re headed. I’m into it.
I am the WORST. Totally forgot to do this for February. But that’s probably best since it just would have been me trying to find different ways to say “This movie sucks ass” for two thousand words. Anyway, we’re on to March now, and the movies are taking a dramatic upturn for the better. This year, March is something of a “little summer” season, with a couple of potential blockbusters, and one movie I am dying to see…which is actually coming out in April.
March 2
Being Flynn
I really liked About a Boy a lot, but ever since then, the Weitz brothers (Chris and Paul, respectively) have been more miss than hit. Chris (of Golden Compass and Twilight: New Moon fame) redeemed himself with last year’s sensitive, moving A Better Life. Now it’s Paul’s turn to make up some of the ground lost by Little Fockers. Being Flynn is Weitz’s own adaptation of writer Nick Flynn’s memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (really too bad they couldn’t keep that title), about Flynn’s relationship with his absentee father. Jonathan Flynn, a delusional wreck of a man, is highly unlikeable and it’s to Weitz’s credit that the movie makes no effort to redeem him. Robert De Niro turns his finest performance in years as Jonathan, and Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) acquits himself well as Nick Flynn. (Olivia Thirlby of Juno fame also stands out.) However, the movie falls victim to a case of gimmickitis, a recurring affliction with the Weitzes. It’s not a bad movie—the acting is worth a look—but it suffers from too many filmmaker’s tricks.
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Boy
New Zealand writer/director Taiki Waititi follows up 2007’s Eagle vs. Shark—an excellent if incredibly awkward movie—with Boy, the story of a kid whose estranged father returns to dig up some money. Waititi is a veteran of Flight of the Conchords, and that same oddball aesthetic shows up in his films. I probably won’t get to this in theaters, but as a big fan of Eagle vs. Shark and Conchords, I will definitely be seeing this at some point. But be warned—if awkward isn’t your thing, best steer clear. Waititi regularly pushes awkward to the furthest extremes of “intensely uncomfortable”.
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Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
I was never much of a Dr. Seuss reader when I was a kid. The picture books I remember reading as a small child are Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies, an illustrated collection of Greek mythology and an the illustrated works of Edgar Allen Poe—which probably explains a lot about me, come to think of it. I’m not sure I even owned a Dr. Seuss book growing up. I do remember reading The Lorax at some point, though. It’s Seuss’s allegory for environmental responsibility and the thing that interests me most about this movie is how Fox News will inevitably turn it into a lefty conspiracy against down-home American values. I mean, if they can make the Muppets into a Commie conspiracy, then surely they can turn Seuss into a call to environmental terrorism or something.
Project X
A found-footage party movie was inevitable. Produced by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips, Project X looks to be appealing to the same booze-and-bros humor as his previous movies. This certainly isn’t high-art filmmaking, but I liked the first Hangover and I LOVE Old School, so I’m willing to give the cheap younger cousin of those movies a shot. Also, this is the only movie coming out this weekend that even remotely interests me, so it wins by default.
Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
If you’re a Tim & Eric fan, this movie is for you. If not, it won’t make any sense and you’ll hate it. Red band trailer warning.
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March 9
Attenberg
The last time I tried out a Greek movie, I scored with 4 Black Suits. Attenberg was this year’s Oscar submission from Greece, and it’s a darker, more serious effort than Suits was. Attenberg tells the story of Marina (Ariane Labed), a young woman who has spent her life in the soulless architectural development designed by her father. Her dad is now dying, as is the community of the apartment building, and Marina has a hard time connecting to other people. I’m willing to give this a shot, but the extremely limited release means waiting for Netflix availability.
NYC only
Bully
Formerly titled The Bully Project, Bully takes a look at the troubling and ever-growing awareness of childhood bullying. Bully posits to take a serious look at the ramifications of school bullying, particularly focusing on an anti-bullying campaign spearheaded by the parents who children were victimized by bullying. Kids have always been horrible, awful people but now they can spread their particular brand of assholery faster and further than ever before, which is taking bullying to new heights. It’s a disturbing trend and for once I don’t think The Weinstein Company is engaged in a ratings fight over nothing—kids need to be able to see this movie in the hopes that it prevents a few of them from turning into full-blown praying manti, devouring the carcasses of their peers for sport. This is the kind of topical, who-would-argue-against-it documentary guaranteed to engage audiences, not unlike Bowling for Columbine.
The Decoy Bride
OMG SCOTTISH PEOPLE. I will see anything with Scottish people in it, because I want to be Scottish so, so bad. The accent! The mountains! The rain! The men in kilts! KILTS! Scotland has always struck me as such a beautiful, mysterious place. It’s my #1 Place To Visit. The Decoy Bride is about a Hollywood actress attempting to get married in a remote Scottish village. In order to throw off the paparazzi, she engages the services of a local girl to act as her decoy. Starring Kelly McDonald (Boardwalk Empire, Nanny McPhee), Alice Eve (Entourage, She’s Out of My League) and David Tennant (Dr. Who).
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Footnote
Joseph Cedar’s 2011 festival standout, and Academy Award nominee, Footnote is about a pair of professors whose relationship is complicated by the fact that they’re also father and son. Cedar is one of Israel’s best and most thoughtful filmmakers and Footnote is a strong effort. It’s definitely worth a shot, especially if you’re into foreign films. I actually saw it as a double-header with the Iranian film A Separation, and I found that they made an interesting, thought-provoking pair.
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Friends with Kids
I just saw this one. Written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein), who is best known these days as Jon Hamm’s partner, Friends with Kids starts out pretty funny then takes a turn for the dark and depressing. Westfeldt stars as Julie, a woman of a certain age who fears losing out on her chance to have kids because she hasn’t met her “person” yet. Enter her best friend, Jason (Adam Scott, Party Down and Parks & Rec), who would like to have a kid without it ruining a romantic relationship, as he sees his married friends suffering with babies. Their solution is to have a kid and share custody, but not enter into a romantic relationship, thus having a child with none of the “negative side effects”. Westfeldt is a sharp writer—there is an epically uncomfortable and disastrous dinner party scene that makes the whole movie worthwhile—but the story struggles to find its tone and pace. It’s far from a total loss, though, featuring a nice performance from Scott and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) steals every scene he’s in to great effect. Red band trailer warning.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
This documentary about a legendary sushi chef, Jiro Ono, and his Tokyo sushi restaurant, has scored some excellent early reviews. This is the kind of crowd-pleasing doc that usually goes pretty far with American audiences—father/son story, charming elderly person, artistic yet accessible tone—and I expect to see this do pretty well throughout the year.
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John Carter
This movie reminds me strongly of Prince of Persia: A mega-budget potential franchise starring a guy who seems tailor-made for action stardom but might not have the masses on his side, adapted from obscure source material that has been doomed by a catastrophically bad marketing campaign from a Disney divided by internal power struggles. Pixar alum Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo) makes his live-action debut with John Carter, adapted from Edgar Rice Burrough’s pulp stories of the early 20th century. Starring Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) and costing upwards of THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS (Stanton says he stuck to his $175 million budget but he also won’t cop to how much the extensive reshoots cost, which means the rumors are probably true and his costs got out of control), this is a high-risk situation for all involved. Reviews so far are mixed and as much as I like Kitsch, this looks borderline disastrous to me.
Playback
So Christian Slater’s career has come to this: starring in a B horror film starring no one I’ve ever heard of. Remember when he was a big deal? Remember Heathers? And now…this. Oh Christian, what happened?
Cocaine is a helluva drug.
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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
OMG MORE SCOTTISH PEOPLE. Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat and Dear John—WTF) directs actual Scottish person Ewan McGregor in this story about a sheikh who wants to import the sport of salmon fishing to his arid desert country. McGregor stars as Dr. Jones, the fisheries expert hired to direct the project. It looks sweet and well-meaning, but Hallstrom hasn’t felt on his game in a long, long time, so I’m always a little nervous going into his movies these days. Kristin Scott Thomas and Emily Blunt also star.
Seeking Justice
Tell me that Nicolas Cage and January Jones star in a revenge-thriller and I am distinctly uninterested. Tell me that Harrold Perrineau (Oz) also stars and I’m mildly intrigued. Add that Guy Pearce is in it, too, and I’m begrudgingly willing to Netflix this.
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Silent House
Elizabeth Olsen continues building her reputation as the “good” Olsen in this gimmicky horror film about a home invasion/possible psychotic break. I’m not terribly interested, but Olsen was very effective at evoking terror and a sense of a disturbed mind in Martha Marcy May Marlene, so I may get to it eventually. Not feeling like an immediate must-see, though.
A Thousand Words
Eddie Murphy has no interest in being funny. Therefore, I have no interest in giving him my money.
March 16
21 Jump Street
The first round of test screenings before Christmas created some very strong buzz, and having now seen this movie, I can attest that the buzz was right—this is a VERY funny movie. Stars Jonah Hill (who also co-wrote the script) and Channing Tatum have great comic chemistry, and I was laughing so much I missed about half of the jokes. I’m going to have to see it again in order to get the full effect. This is the kind of movie that justifies the argument for remakes—it takes a cheesy, outmoded ’80’s premise and turns it into something worthwhile. Definitely recommend this one if you’re looking to laugh for 90 minutes straight. Red band trailer warning.
Butter
Jennifer Garner stars in an indie-comedy about small-town American politics and competitive butter carving. Yeah…no thanks.
Casa de mi Padre
Will Ferrell is in a mood. He’s off in the corner, entertaining himself. I’m not sure he’s out to accomplish anything with this movie other than to see if he could get it made in the first place. Casa de mi Padre is a Spanish-language comedy about a Mexican rancher (Ferrell) whose younger brother (Diego Luna, Milk,Y Tu Mama Tambien) returns home boasting of success in the business world and pledging to settle the family’s debts at the ranch. But then it turns out the brother is involved with a drug cartel and the boss (Gael Garcia Bernal, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mama Tambien) comes to the ranch to settle a score. It looks whacky and funny and off-beat, and it’s nice to see Ferrell trying some oddball stuff.
Limited
Detachment
Remember when Adrien Brody was a thing? I will always have some affection for him because he threw down that incredible performance in The Pianist, and also stars in one of my favorite weird movies, Dummy. But he’s exhausted all other good will with me. And this story about a disaffected substitute teacher just makes me want to watch Half Nelson. Pass. (But not on Half Nelson, that’s a really good movie.)
Limited
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
I caught this last year at the Chicago International Film Festival. Here’s my review. It’s worthwhile, especially if you’re a Jason Segel fan.
Limited
March 23
4:44 Last Day on Earth
This is another of those “the world is ending and we all know it so here’s how we’re spending our time” movies. Melancholia pretty much killed this sub-genre for me, since I hated it with the fire of a thousand suns and it made me wish for a planet to smash into me and make watching it any longer impossible, and 4:44 doesn’t look like enough to redeem the premise in me eyes. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, however…maybe. Starring Willem Defoe, Natasha Lyonne (this whole post is brought to you by 2002, apparently), and that awesomely awful drunk mess, Paz de la Huerta.
Limited
Brake
A bit of torture porn masquerading as a thriller starring Stephen Dorff as an agent held hostage in the boot of a car and tortured for information. Flashbacks to Buried, which was bad, are not helping sell this movie to me.
Limited
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins’ popular YA series brings the first installment to the big screen with Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class, Winter’s Bone) as tough-as-nails heroine Katniss Everdeen. Expectations are exceedingly high for this burgeoning franchise, and the trailer suggests a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. I’m looking forward to this—Katniss is an excellent character and Lawrence is perfectly cast. I’m a bit nervous about her partner in the “Hunger Games”, a televised blood sport of the future in which children fight to the death, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, The Kids Are All Right). I like Hutcherson on principle—he’s a talented young actor—and I don’t dislike how he looks in the role, but he has no discernible chemistry with Lawrence. I am stunningly not interested in this young cast, which could be a problem for the franchise.
The Kid with the Bike
I also saw this one at CIFF last year, and I HATED it. Ugh. Cecile de France is good, though.
NYC only
Musical Chairs
This is the classic story of an uptown girl and her downtown boy in which all their socio-economic challenges are overcome through the powers of dance. Except she’s in a wheelchair. With the exception of Center Stage, which is delightfully terrible, I’m not into dance movies. I will give Musical Chairs credit, though, for being a dance movie about a girl in a wheelchair and having the brass to call it MUSICAL CHAIRS.
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The Trouble with Bliss
Michael C. Hall (Dexter) stars as a dude who starts dating a high school classmate’s daughter. His unravels according, to supposedly comical effect. I have never liked Michael C. Hall in a movie. Ever. Gamer? ARE YOU SHITTING ME? That wasn’t even a real movie.
Limited
March 30
The Deep Blue Sea
English playwright Terence Rattigan was very popular in post-war Britain, then fell out of favor, and is now enjoying a posthumous revival. The Deep Blue Sea is one of his most notable works, telling the story of Hester Collyer, the wife of a prominent high court judge, who leaves her husband for her younger, dashing RAF pilot lover. Except her lover ends up abandoning her, she tries to kill herself, and everything goes to shit. Hester is the heart of the story, but the relationship that truly defines it is with neither her husband nor her lover, but with Mr. Miller, also a social outcast. The casting in this movie seems spot-on, with Rachel Weisz stepping in as Hester, Tom Hiddleston (War Horse, Thor) as her lover, Simon Russell Beale (My Week with Marilyn) as her husband, and Karl Johnson (Hot Fuzz) as Mr. Miller. Sure to be depressing as all get-out, but I’ll see Weisz in almost anything. Except Dream House, because Jesus, that looks like a piece of shit movie.
Limited
Goon
Written by Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon, Tropic Thunder) and Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen’s writing partner, Goon is a comedy in the vein of Slapshot. Seann William Scott (Stifler for life) stars as a semi-pro hockey enforcer—the guy who beats people up—whose team is trying to win the championship. It’s standard sports-movie stuff, but the cast is top-notch (Baruchel, Allison Pill, Liev Schrieber, Kim Coates and Eugene Levy also star) and Baruchel and Goldberg are both solid writers. I’m a fan of Slapshot, so this looks funny to me, but I’m not sure how it plays to wider audiences.
Limited
Intruders
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) directs this horror movie about a faceless person who stalks children’s nightmares. Frankly, The Woman in Black kind of traumatized me and I’m not ready for another children-in-peril horror movie just yet, though the presence of Clive Owen guarantees I’ll see this at some point. In broad daylight. With all the lights turned on.
The Island President
Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, brought democracy to his country. Then he had to fight the ocean to prevent it from subsuming his island country. This is a documentary about those things.
NYC only
Mirror, Mirror
Tarsem Singh’s take on Snow White, starring Julia Roberts as the evil queen and Lily Collins (Abduction) as Snow, should be a wildly intriguing proposition. Tarsem’s unique visual style + one of the Grimm’s goriest and darkest fairy tales SHOULD = amazing, but Mirror, Mirror looks unutterably stupid. Sure, the colors are bright and the costumes are whacky, but after the disappointing Immortals, I’m not sure Tarsem hasn’t lost his mind and/or touch. And this trailer is so shitty I have little hope for the movie itself. But the marketing has been targeted squarely at young children and that might pay off with average-to-decent box office for the struggling Relativity. They rushed this into production just to fuck with Universal’s own Snow White makeover, Snow White and the Huntsman, and the only way to justify that bit of juvenilia is to get some money out of Mirror, Mirror. I don’t think it’ll be a huge draw, especially since it’s competing against The Pirates! for the small child dollar, but it’s probably just enough to not crash and burn.
I’m super embarrassed for Armie Hammer, though. Aren’t you?
The Raid: Redemption
This movie has all the film geeks aflutter. It’s an Indonesian action movie about a SWAT team trapped in a tenement block and trying to outgun/outrun a mobster and his thugs. I’ve heard nothing but good about this, yet it leaves me cold. Red band trailer warning.
Limited
Wrath of the Titans
Clash of the Titans was awful. Like really, really bad. I have no hope for the sequel, the ever so cleverly named Wrath of the Titans, and I refuse to see it, having already sat through one of these monstrosities. Sitting through two is like volunteering for torture.
Originally I thought that the top five grosses of the summer would belong to Transformers 3, Harry Potter 7-2, The Hangover Part II, Cars 2 and Super 8. However, Cars 2 and Super 8 have not met my expectations ($250 million + for Cars 2 and $220 million for Super 8), so I am reconsidering my list. I’m sticking with my top three and changing out the final two. It crushes me to do this, because the movie sucked so bad, but I’m going to have to put Pirates of the Caribbean: Arr give me your money on the list. It’s already made more than $237 million. I’m so depressed right now.
The updated Top Five:
Transformers 3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2
The Hangover Part II
Pirates of the Caribbean: Arr give me your money
Captain America: The First Avenger
As you can see, I’m sticking with my prediction that TF3 will out-gross HP 7-2. Again, this has ZERO to do with quality or which movie I liked more. It’s purely to do with past trends. Transformers has out-performed HP in the US twice and while HP 7-2 broke several records on opening weekend, typically the Harry Potter movies are frontloaded and everyone runs out to see it on opening weekend, which means weeks 2 and 3 take huge hits. I expect both weeks to see 60-70% reductions. Basically, opening weekend is going to be almost half of the total gross, which means HP 7-2 has an earning potential up to $340 million. It’ll probably tap out closer to $320 million. TF3, meanwhile, is already over $300 million and is on pace for a finish closer to $330 million. It’ll be close between them.
The Walking Dead season 2 sneak peek
During the Breaking Bad season premiere (which…has this show jumped the shark?) AMC aired a one minute sneak peek of season 2 of The Walking Dead. The clip doesn’t reveal anything about plot but it does capture the tense, claustrophobic tone of the show. I can’t wait for season 2 and 13 whole episodes. Why isn’t it October already? Watch Officer Rick brain a couple zombies with a rock:
Also, this clip is very sweaty. We may have to change Rick Grimes’ nickname from “Officer Rick” to “Grimy Grimes”.
Speaking of teasers…
There’s one for The Dark Knight Rises now. I thought it was very anti-climactic. It’s two-thirds clips from the previous movies, intertitle and title cards. There’s a little speechifying by an injured Commissioner Gordon and the most interesting bit is the two seconds that shows Batman squaring off with Bane (Tom Hardy). The key art design bugs me, too. The disintegrating buildings are very Inception. Am I worried about The Dark Knight Rises? No. Why? Because all this tells me is that Warner Brothers was more interested in sticking a teaser in front of one of the biggest movies of the year than Christopher Nolan was interested in cutting an actual trailer. The movie will be fine and once Nolan is done filming and actually has time to focus on marketing decisions I’m sure the trailers will get a lot better.
I got to see Attack the Block, the debut film from writer/director Joe Cornish (co-writer of The Adventures of Tin-Tin). I’ve heard a lot of hype for this movie following its premiere at SXSW and it totally lived up to it. In the vein of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, though darker in tone and sharper in theme, Attack the Block is a bit like Super 8—an on-purpose 1980’s throwback, this time reminiscent of Gremlins or Critters. You won’t recognize the cast, except for Nick Frost, but the young’uns, most of whom were first-timers in this movie, are impressive. Lead by John Boyega as Moses and Alex Esmail as Pest, the story centers on a group of London-projects thugs who must fend off an alien invasion while also avoiding the police and gangsters. It’s funny, tense and violent in turns. I loved it and it’s getting very little marketing from Screen Gems so it’ll live or die on word of mouth. It opens in limited release on July 29. Find it. It’s worth it.
NSFW
The Pirates! are coming
Have you read Gideon Defoe’s The Pirates! series? No? WHY NOT? They’re pocket-sized books of hilarity and pirates with luxurious beards or scarves. I adore Defoe’s books and my collection is almost always leant out to someone. The first movie is coming next year, IN SEPTEMBER, which is intolerable. I can’t wait that long! The trailer is out, and it’s awesome. There’s a pointless name change for the US release—the UK is getting it as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, which is the book’s title, but the US is getting it as The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Pointless but the movie looks GREAT. Done in stop-motion animation by Aardman Studios (they make Wallace & Gromit), the design fits the book perfectly. The vocal talent is lead by Hugh Grant as the Pirate Captain and his voice over in the trailer is phenomenal. CANNOT. WAIT.
persistence of life in the face of one’s own mortality. It’s a wrenching, deeply moving portrait of the end of a life-long love affair that is remarkable not only for its depth but also that the couple, Georges and Anne, have had a rather charmed life together. So it seems especially cruel that fate takes Anne not in a tragedy or in any kind of bittersweet passing but in the slow devastation of stroke. Starring titans of French cinema Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, and co-starring Isabelle Huppert as their daughter, Amour is a painfully raw and honest examination of life and death, framed by Haneke’s spare and unsparing lens. Read more »
