Big Cinema Dynamite
9/25/2007 4:00:00 PM
The Guardian’s film section has the most consistently entertaining cross-section of guest bloggers of any website out there, and their latest is no exception: music legend Mick Jones, former guitarist for the Clash. Mick is taking some time off from music to act as a judge for the British Raindance Film Festival, as well as presenting a screening of Nic Roeg’s classic Performance. In his first blog entry, he discusses the task of judging and reflects on the Clash’s past as a very "cine-literate" band. — Leonard Pierce
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Filmmaker to Watch: Nacho Vigalondo
9/25/2007 3:00:00 PM
Harry Knowles at AICN recently reviewed Nacho Vigalondo's first feature film, Time Crimes. Vigalondo is one to pay attention too. His superb short film 7:35 de la mañana was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film, though it lost to the well crafted British entry, Wasp. I like Wasp, but 7:35 is better — see for yourself.
After this success, Nacho went on to direct another short film, Choque (Crash) about a guy trying to impress his girlfriend at a bumper car arcade. Another disturbing little romantic comedy with a mad male protaganist — this time trying to show a bunch of Spanish punks who's boss.
There's no US release date for Time Crimes yet, but check out the trailer below. As you can see, it has a very different feel from his short work, and I hope will build on his promise.
— Faisal A. Qureshi
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Haneke: Audiences Were Asking For It
9/25/2007 2:00:00 PM
The New York Times Magazine profiles filmmaker-provocateur Michael Haneke. After some twenty years of courting controversy overseas and on the festival circuit, Haneke had his biggest stateside success with 2006's Cache. Now he's just completed his first Hollywood film, a remake of his 1996 Funny Games, a cinematic essay on the manipulative use of violence and dread disguised as a horror thriller. (The new, English-language version stars Naomi Watts and Tim Roth.) Some of the director's old fans, people who by definition must have fairly strong stomachs, are repulsed at the notion of him collaborating with the enemy. "Of course I’m a critic of the studio system," says Haneke. "But that doesn’t mean that one can’t work within that system. Funny Games was always made with American audiences in mind, since its subject is Hollywood’s attitude toward violence." What about those viewers who themselves experience Haneke's films as an assault? "I’ve been accused of 'raping' the audience in my films, and I admit to that freely — all movies assault the viewer in one way or another. What’s different about my films is this: I’m trying to rape the viewer into independence." — Phil Nugent
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Trailer Roundup
9/25/2007 1:00:00 PM
Iron Man
Ever since Tim Burton's Batman movies, most top-level superhero movies have been at great pains to show that they take comic books seriously — often sacrificing a sense of fun. Judging by this trailer, Iron Man looks to be a first rate entertainment. In films like Elf and Zathura, actor-turned-director Jon Favreau has turned okay material into surprisingly solid entertainments, and I can't wait to see what he does this time around. And that cast — Downey, Howard, Paltrow, Bridges — is both more distinguished and cooler than the casts of most movies of this type. But honestly, do you really need me to get you excited for this? Cue up the Sabbath and brace yourself for a good time.
Southland Tales
Richard Kelly's long-delayed follow-up to his cult Donnie Darko fell victim to some withering buzz at last year's Cannes Film Festival, so multiplex audiences are only now getting a taste of it. Frankly, I'm a little torn about this one — I enjoyed Darko, but after seeing the director's cut, I'm wary of Kelly's stabs at profundity, as the Big Ideas he presented were fairly shallow and became overwhelmed by his flair for dark comedy and hallucinatory imagery. Still, I'm intrigued by Kelly's vision of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles populated largely by jocks, surfer dudes and porn stars. Besides, I've always had a soft spot for movies that fail big. So even if this turns out to be as bad as advertised, you can be I'll be there opening weekend.
I Am Legend
This is the third adaptation of Richard Matheson's postapocalyptic novel, and the first to use the book's original title. Rather than the vampires of Last Man on Earth or the communist hippie druids of The Omega Man, Will Smith does battle here with The Infected, last seen assuming the form of running zombies in 28 Days Later. As expected, this version, directed by Constantine's Francis Lawrence, appears to emphasize flashy visuals over the profound loneliness borne by Matheson's hero, as well as fleshing out some back story that the previous cinematic versions didn't trouble themselves with. Also, apocalypse or no, the image of the empty streets of New York was more awe-inspiring when Cameron Crowe used it in Vanilla Sky, partly because Crowe actually got permission to clear out Times Square rather than relying on expensive CGI. In other words, third time doesn't appear to be the charm.
— Paul Clark
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Run, Fatboy, Run Advance
9/25/2007 12:00:00 PM
On Thursday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center held an advanced screening of David Schwimmer’s directorial debut, Run, Fatboy, Run. Michael Ian Black, veteran of sketch-comedy stalwarts Stella and The State, wrote the script for this light-hearted romantic comedy, starring Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) as an over-the-hill, North London hipster who literally ran out on his pregnant fiancée, the eternally gorgeous Thandie Newton, on their wedding day and now must endure her budding romance with a wealthy American (Hank Azaria) who runs marathons for fun. It's a familiar formula: a lovable loser who just needs a little motivation and a second chance to learn from his mistakes and get back the girl of his dreams. But despite following a stock rom-com blueprint, the film is actually very likable, due in large part to the presence of Pegg, who can make even the most tired gags funny. The supporting cast helps to make the material stronger than you'd expect.
Afterwards, Black, Schwimmer, Newton and Pegg fielded questions from a moderator and the audience. (Black on his inspiration: "I thought to myself, fat guy runs marathon, that sounds like a good idea for a movie.") Schwimmer was exceedingly modest and the only member of the panel answering questions in a serious manner. When he made a reference to "directing our show" he was quickly interrupted by an impish Pegg who asked, "And what show was that?" Ever the casual comedian, Pegg cracked everyone in the room up repeatedly. When asked if he did his own stunts, he quickly replied, "I always do my stunts. It’s in my contract. You get used to it. You toughen up. I mean really, I’m a motherfucking weapon."
When asked how a script and film originally intended to be set in New York got transplanted to London, Schwimmer explained that casting was labored, with studios turning up their noses at Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. As the casting process dragged on, the script was optioned by the U.K. company Material Entertainment and, as Schwimmer puts it, "suddenly I was directing a British comedy." Everyone on stage agreed that it ended up working to the film’s benefit before Black slyly noted, "Paul Giamatti would have been good though. . ."
— Bryan Whitefield
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Morning Deal Report: In Your Satin Tights, Fighting for Your Rights
9/25/2007 11:00:00 AM
 | | I could see it. |
Jessica Biel might play Wonder Woman. You know what's interesting about Jessica Biel? She's really good-looking.
Now this sounds interesting: Recount, a drama about the 2000 Florida election results, will star Kevin Spacey as Al Gore's attorney — and Laura Dern as the wretched Katherine Harris. It also features Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., John Hurt, Denis Leary and Tom Wilkinson — quite a cast. Mine eyes are peeled.
Clint Eastwood may direct The Human Factor, starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.
John McTiernan just got four months in prison for Rollerball hiring private eye Anthony Pellicano to wiretap producer Charles Roven and then lying about it to the FBI.
— Peter Smith
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Movies We Missed: The Human Stain (2003)
9/24/2007 4:00:00 PM
Director Robert Benton's Feast of Love comes out this week. The film's adapted from a novel by Charles Baxter, and made us think back to Benton's last attempt at adaptation, The Human Stain. Benton has had a strange career, from writing the scripts for projects as varied as Bonnie and Clyde, The Ice Harvest and the original Superman to directing genuine stinkers like Billy Bathgate.
Why we missed it:
Watching Anthony Hopkins speechifying had lost a lot of its appeal by this time.
The last attempt at adapting one of Philip Roth's novels was his most famous, Portnoy's Complaint, in 1972. The fact that no one else chose to tackle even one book or story from his vast catalog in the intervening thirty years says a lot.
Why we should have known:
An all-star cast, a capable director, big studio money and a script adapted from a potent story by a heavyweight novelist.
Why we ended up kicking ourselves:
Nicole Kidman's sexy and transformative performance as a janitor who begins an affair with a wealthy and esteemed university professor (Hopkins) proves to be the film's highlight. Whereas the male characters are mostly cut-and-dried, Kidman keeps her motivations in the shadows, and we're never quite sure what conclusions to draw about her character.
Ed Harris does crazy well, and here he's at his most effective as a disturbed, ice-fishing ex-husband who makes no secret about his plans to kill the well-to-do man in his ex-wife's bed.
Why we may have been better off without it:
Hopkins is a strange choice for the lead. He's clearly up to carrying the character's weight, but a lot of the film's success hinges on buying into the idea of him being a black man posing as white. It's not easy.
The film could be called a tasteful melodrama. Where the novel relies heavily on flashbacks and exploration of its character's deceptive past, the movie focuses on the thriller aspect, and talks down to its audience from moral high ground.
— Bryan Whitefield
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The Miller’s Tale: Warner Taps a Genius to Save Their Summer Tentpole
9/24/2007 3:00:00 PM
Ordinarily, the latest breaking news about which hot A-list director has been tapped to direct which hot A-list superhero property would be intoxicating (or infuriating) only to a particular kind of uber-geek, but here’s some reason for the rest of us to get excited: George Miller is going to direct the film version of Justice League of America. And it looks like it’s going to happen this time, because Warner apparently needs a tentpole for 2009, and fast. Some potentially crippling obstacles still remain: Christian Bale doesn’t want to play Batman for them, and Brandon Routh doesn’t want to play Superman, so they’ll have to find some way to not make it look like a more expensive version of that Dumb & Dumber sequel without Jim Carrey or Jeff Daniels. But we digress. . .
This kind of career resurgence has been a long-time coming for Miller, who may well be the most underrated semi-A-lister around. He made a splash last year with his hit Happy Feet, capping it off with a Best Animated Film Oscar. Most film buffs will remember him as the man who made the Mad Max films. Along the way he also produced the first Babe and directed its sequel, Babe: Pig in the City — one of the darkest, awesomest kids' movies ever made, and, not coincidentally, also one of the biggest Hollywood flops of recent years. (We’re pretty sure it took down half the management of Universal Pictures with it.)
But the real reason Miller deserves to be better known is Lorenzo’s Oil. This medical drama starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon could have been a disease-of-the-week tearjerker, but Miller (who was a doctor before he made Mad Max) turned it into an impassioned, electrifying rollercoaster of operatic emotions and expressionist style — it’s one of the greatest masterpieces of the '90s, and almost nobody saw it.
Which brings us to our main point: We always thought Justice League of America was kind of a stupid idea for a comic book, and for a movie. But we thought a Susan Sarandon movie about adrenoleukodystrophy sounded kind of lame, too. And let’s face it, we made fun of dancing penguins all last year until we finally saw Happy Feet. What we’re trying to say is: If anyone can pull this thing off, it’s George Fucking Miller. Good call, Warner. — Bilge Ebiri
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The Little Movie That Could Takes Its Show On The Road
9/24/2007 2:00:00 PM
When you release a film early in the year, you run the risk of people forgetting about you when awards season rolls around. The stars of the ultra-indie surprise hit Once are trying to combat that by bringing the songs from the movie live to a venue near you. Glen Hansard (of the Frames) and Marketa Irglova perform together as The Swell Season and are going on a headlining tour in November. They're currently opening up for Bob Dylan, and Glen Hansard took time out from the tour to blog via his MySpace page about his favorite documentaries, including our recent Movie We Missed, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. When the writers at Screengrab were asked to post our favorite films at half-time of 2007, Once was on just about every list, and we're still hoping that it can find some recognition outside of the blogs and critic lists where it's sure to fare well. — Bryan Whitefield
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Bonus Trailer Roundup: Funny Games (1997) vs. Funny Games (2007)
9/24/2007 1:00:00 PM
Normally, I don’t condone American remakes of great — or even mediocre — European films. But when I heard that Michael Haneke was revisiting his film Funny Games on this side of the pond, I was intrigued. Now that I've seen the trailer, the new version has become even more fascinating, since Haneke appears to have gone out of his way to mimic the look of the original film. First, here’s the trailer for the 1997 film:
And here’s the trailer for the new version:
Spooky. And although the presence of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in a trailer usually means the film will be junk, I believe Haneke knows exactly what he’s doing. Needless to say, I’ll be there opening day, partly just to be there when the people who think they’re watching a garden-variety home-invasion thriller realize they’re dealing with more than they’d bargained for.
— Paul Clark
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