TIFF Image: Bjorn Limbor in Ondi Timoner’s Cool It
Before it even premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ondi Timoner’s Cool It has been picked up for distribution by Roadside Attractions. The doc takes a look at controversial anti-global warming scientist Bjorn Limborg.
Timoner (DIG!, We Live in Public) is a two-time Sundance Documentary Jury Prize winner.
Thank god August is over. The calendar and weather may still say summer, but with today’s arrival of George Clooney in The American, Movie Fall has begun and not a minute too soon.
In order of interest, here’s the Top 10 followed by an additional 34 in release order:
True Grit (12/25). Joel and Ethan Coen adapt Charles Portis’ novel for the big screen. You had me at “Joel and Ethan Coen,” but add “Western” and “Jeff Bridges” and “Matt Damon” and “Josh Brolin” and it’s no wonder this is my most anticipated movie of 2010 period. Some folks seem to be questioning the wisdom of the Coens remaking a beloved film. Indeed, righty dingbats who get attention by spotting pinkos behind every lamppost in Hollywood are trying to make a fuss about Jeff Bridges playing the role that won John Wayne his token Oscar, but all of these people are overlooking a key fact: the Coens aren’t remaking the movie, they’re doing their own adaptation of Portis’ novel which will likely be quite different. Besides, the Oscar notwithstanding, Rooster Cogburn isn’t even Wayne’s best performance.
The Tree of Life (Unknown). It’s been suggested in some quarters that we won’t see the latest from Terrence Malick until 2011. With the uncertainty surrounding the film’s distributor and Malick’s tendency to work at his own pace (film festivals and deadlines be damned), I won’t be surprised if that’s the case, but if I were a betting man (and I am), I’d gamble that The Tree of Life will follow a similar pattern to Malick’s last film, The New World. It’ll skip the festival circuit altogether, get a limited Oscar qualifying release in NY and LA in December and then go wider in January, perhaps with a different edit altogether. Maybe. My guess is as good or bad as anyone but Malick’s at this point. So what’s The Tree of Life all about? I don’t know. I’ve kept myself in a complete information black out. I understand Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are in it. That’s more than I need to know.
Carlos (10/15). Olivier Assayas, the director of my favorite film of 2009 (Summer Hours) takes on Carlos the Jackal in this multipart, multi-platform epic.
Somewhere (12/22). Bloggers with headlines to write and pageviews to pump would have you believe there’s something wrong with Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere because it’s playing Venice and not Toronto. My feeling is that Coppola lives in Europe and she just had a baby. Venice is in her backyard, while Toronto is a lot more inconvenient. End of non-story. It’s also possible it will turn up at the more selective Telluride a day or two after it makes its September 3rd world premiere in Venice. Anyway, I’m a fan of even Coppola’s grossly underrated Marie Antoinette so this story of an LA-based party boy actor (Stephen Dorff) whose life is shaken up by the arrival of his young daughter (Elle Fanning) is pretty much a slam dunk. The teaser trailer and poster mostly left me cold, but I say “marketing shmarketing.”
Black Swan (12/1). Another slam dunk that I’ve managed to know very little about. Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, dueling ballerinas. I still haven’t watched the trailer. Don’t want to know.
Enter the Void (9/24). Count me a reluctant fan of Gaspar Noe’s controversial Irreversible which I finally sat down to watch a few months ago. It was stomach churning and gimmicky, but there was a reason for both. I’m not sure if the director’s latest account of a dying, drug-addled American in Tokyo will be watchable or not, but I’m sure it’ll be something. At the very least it’ll be ambitious and these days that’s no small thing.
The Company Men (10/22). A movie for our times. John (ER) Wells’ tale of a group of downsized white collar workers thematically sounds a little like Up in the Air if it had been directed by an adult who actually had a soul and had lived a life… as opposed to glib Jason Reitman. Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, Rosemary DeWitt and Kevin Costner Star. Once again, I kind of hated the trailer, but I’m choosing to ignore it.
The Social Network (10/1). I’m still not sure what to make of this one. I’m a fan of director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin. The cast including Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield is solid, but I’m having a really hard time caring about the backstory of the founding of Facebook. I know I’m in a tiny tiny minority here, but the trailer didn’t do anything to change my mind. Still, Scott Foundas’ early rave helps assuage most of my concerns. We’ll see.
The Fighter (12/10). It’s hard to believe controversial-yet-talented filmmaker David O. Russell hasn’t had a film in theaters since 2004′s terrific I Heart Huckabees. With Nailed still on the shelf, Russell picked up this Aronofsky cast-off, a true story about a lightweight world boxing champion whose brother was once an acclaimed fighter himself before falling into a life of crime and prison. Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale star.
TRON: Legacy (12/17). This is the only likely blockbuster in my Top 10 and truth be told I’m pretty skeptical about it. The original film wasn’t that great, but when I was a kid I thought it was pretty fantastic. I like the idea of young Jeff Bridges vs. old Jeff Bridges, but I wish even a tiny fragment of the melody of Wendy Carlos’ Tron Scherzo had been used somewhere in the marketing materials to give me that nostalgic kick.
The feature directorial debut of Shawn Ku, Beautiful Boy tells the story of the aftermath of a school mass shooting from the perspective of the shooter’s parents Maria Bello and Michael Sheen, a couple whose marriage was already on the rocks.
I stayed out of the multiplex this weekend, but I’ve been keeping up with movies behind the scenes. Movie Summer is officially over and already there are some good indie and foreign films on the immediate horizon I can vouch for. You’ll want to keep an eye out for A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, Zhang Yimou’s remake of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Blood Simple (9/3); Sean Baker’s fantastic Prince of Broadway (9/3); The Romantics (9/10) and Catfish (9/17).
In anticipation of Oliver Stone’s upcoming sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I rewatched the original and I have to say it hasn’t held up all that well. It’s simplistic message that greed is not good is as true as ever, but I’m wondering why we need to revisit it other than for a chance for Stone to recapture some of his long lost glory. The current economic mess we find ourselves in only proves that the game board changes, but the same players end up with all the money. Anyway, every time I see the trailer in theaters it gets a very enthusiastic reaction so clearly there’s excitement out there for the continuing adventures of Gordon Gekko.
In other news, for the first time I’m catching up to Lars Von Trier’s creepy Danish miniseries The Kingdom which originally aired in the mid ’90s and is now available for streaming on Netflix. It reminds me of Twin Peaks in a lot of good ways, but it’s also uniquely Von Trier. Good stuff. You should check it out especially if you’re a fan of the director.
It’s official. I’m really happy relying on Twitter to stream interesting news items whenever they crop up. It’s faster and there aren’t many developments that need more than 140 characters and a link to pass along. Those that I have a strong opinion about or need more long winded explanations can still get a blog post, but 99% percent of this stuff is interesting in the moment and then instantly forgettable. Perfect Tweet fodder.
The question is, are these weekly roundups worthwhile at all? It stands to reason if you’re interested in this info you at least keep an eye on the Twitter sidebar to the right and if you’re not you don’t. Either you already know all this stuff or you don’t care. Right?
Let me know either way. It takes a long time to compile and reword this stuff so I could easily skip it altogether.
Passings:
Satoshi Kon, director of anime including the terrific Paprika. October 12, 1963 – August 24, 2010 (Mania)
Production News:
We had a double helping of scant, almost entirely useless Terrence Malick news this week, but with a guy as secretive as this, one takes what one can get and one makes the most of it. On Tuesday it was announced a casting call would be held Saturday and Sunday for actors and extras for a film to be shot in Malick’s hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma (Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise) and then just this morning it was reported that Malick’s producer held a forum in Bartlesville on Friday to discuss filming beginning in the area in September, though no one would admit it’s the Malick film. Additionally, the Oklahoma Film and Music Office website solicited resumes from local crew for a shoot to begin in September. The resumes were to be sent to Redbud Pictures, LLC, a company formed in April with Malick listed as the manager (Tulsa World). Naturally everyone assumes this all has something to do with Malick’s untitled romantic drama announced at Berlinale with Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko attached to which Ben Affleck and Rachel Weisz recently signed on. Yeah, I know. It isn’t much, but there it is.
Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom), Dash Mihok and Liana Liberato (Trust) have joined Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman in Joel Schumacher’s guaranteed to suck thriller Trespass. (Variety)
John Cusack asked his Twitter followers for “poe-gold” as he prepares to play the poet in a film version of The Raven widely assumed to be James McTeigue’s upcoming adaptation that IMDB currently says will star Ewan McGregor and Jeremy Renner.
Vincent Cassel is legendary French gangsterJacques Mesrine
in Mesrine: Killer Instinct, LiC’s pick of the week
September can’t come fast enough. Things are so bad, James Cameron is hauling Avatar back into 3D theaters with 8 extra minutes to make some more money. Otherwise, there are some nuggets of goodness in limited release, especially Mesrine: Killer Instinct. Also, the terrific Get Low starring Robert Duvall and Bill Murray makes a significant expansion. Oscar completists will also want to catch Peru’s The Milk of Sorrow. Other than that, you’re on your own.
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (*** 1/2). Jacques Mesrine was a legendary gangster in France in the 60s and 70s known for his numerous prison escapes. Killer Instinct is part one of his epic story. Part two, Public Enemy #1, opens next week. This is pretty standard crime biopic fare (for better or for worse depending on where you stand on the genre), but it’s elevated by Vincent Cassel’s powerful performance in the lead. Here’s an actor who is fully committed to his character even if Mesrine is frequently difficult if not impossible to root for. There is also ’70s period flare to spare and a chilling Gerard Depardieu performance. I saw both parts together and it got a little repetitive after a while, yet it was always compelling. It might be easier to swallow broken into two parts. (Limited)
The Milk of Sorrow (*** 1/2). A foreign language Oscar nominee, this haunting but glacially paced allegory about how the trauma of one generation is passed down to the next tells the story of a young Peruvian woman born of a rape during her country’s troubled past. When her mother dies, she wants to carry the body back to her own village, but fearing that she too will be raped, she inserts a potato into her vagina where it takes root and causes assorted problems. Milk of Sorrow is actually not as odd as it sounds, but it is very slow and it can be a tough sit waiting for the eventual beautiful pay off at the end. This kind of thing is catnip to some and torture to others. You know which one you are. (NY)
Yahoo has the US trailer for Stephen Frears’ adaptation of Posy Simmonds’ comic Tamara Drewe starring Gemma Arterton in the title role. It’s an improvement over the dreadful UK version that came out in July though the film still looks pretty lightweight. That’s not an inherently bad thing, but what ever happened to the director who did Dangerous Liaisons?
Tamara Drewe leaves her small town as an ugly duckling and returns from London a hottie in short-shorts with a rock star boyfriend. Sparks fly with an old flame.
Stephen Dorff and Michelle Monaghan make nice for the camera, but there’s clearly a lot of tension between them just below the surface in this clip from Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere.
Dorff plays a party-boy actor who gets thrown a curve ball when his daughter (Elle Fanning) shows up at his hotel room door.
Somewhere will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September and it opens in the United States on December 22.
(I’ve been asked by the Spanish rights holder for Julia’s Eyes not to show the trailer so I took it down. Don’t let that stop you from heading over and watching it for yourself however.)
It’s got 30 seconds of ads before it starts, but it’s better than the version splashed with an obnoxious watermark. YouTube has a higher quality version, but it’s not subtitled. I’ll post a better version if I happen across one. Until then, take your pick (here’s one at Trailer Addict with no watermark and no ad)
Guillermo del Toro produces and Guillem Morales directs Julia’s Eyes with both the star (Belén Rueda) and cinematographer (Óscar Faura) of The Orphanage in tow. The film will be playing at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
Here’s the festival blurb:
Julia, a woman suffering from a degenerative eye disease, finds her blind twin sister Sara hanged in the basement of her house. Julia decides to investigate what she feels is a murder case, entering a dark world that seems to hide a mysterious presence. As Julia begins to uncover the terrifying truth about her sister’s death, her sight deteriorates further, until a series of unexplained deaths and disappearances cross her path. The film stars Belén Rueda and Lluis Homar.
I’m sure these details have been floating around for some time (I’m slow with the DVD thing), but they just landed in my inbox and I thought I’d pass them along to you.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now will be coming to Blu-ray for the first time on October 19 in both 2-disc and 3-disc versions.
Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Now Redux – presented in 1080P High Definition
Widescreen, in their original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratios and new 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
NEW “A Conversation with Martin Sheen and Francis Ford Coppola”
NEW “An Interview with John Milius” interview by Francis Ford Coppola
NEW “Fred Roos: Casting Apocalypse” featurette
NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN Complete Francis Ford Coppola interview with Roger Ebert at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival
NEW TO THIS EDITION Original 1938 Mercury Theatre Radio Reading of “Heart of Darkness” featuring Orson Welles
Monkey Sampan “lost scene”
Additional Scenes
“Destruction of the Kurtz Compound” end credits with audio commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
“The Hollow Men,” video of Marlon Brando reading T.S. Eliot’s poem
I only mention this because an unrated film is getting a fairly wide release – “the widest release of an unrated genre film in more than 25 years” according to the press release. It’s only too bad that film is Hatchet II, a sequel to one of the worst movies of 2007.
Of course, it’s just an attention grabbing horror gimmick, but any blow against MPAA tyranny is a blow worth making and I hope this strategy works for the filmmakers.
Hatchet II will be released in the top 20 markets through AMC Theatres’ AMC Independent program on October 1.
Here’s a quote from the press release from director Adam Green:
“Having a movie as graphically over the top as HATCHET II come out in major theatres unrated is an absolute dream come true — not only for the genre fans but for the entire make-up effects crew who normally have to watch their amazing achievements get sliced and diced for theatrical release. This is an important event for the horror genre and I hope the real horror fans support HATCHET II and help change the way genre films are released theatrically from this day forward. Kudos to Dark Sky Films and AMC theaters for truly honoring the spirit of old school American horror and doing this right. Gorehounds won’t know what hit them!”
Here’s a Martin Scorsese directed commercial for Bleu de Chanel set to one of my favorite early Rolling Stones barn burners: a cover of the simple yet driving She Said Yeah. A bit of punk before there was punk.
Ray is a likable if mild mannered construction contractor who enters into an affair with Carla, a hairdresser who lives next door. It turns out her husband is a low-level mobster andthere’s a big bag of money hidden in the house.
Seeing their chance at freedom, Ray and Carla hatch a plan to steal the money and cover their crime with arson. Of course, if you’ve ever seen a noir thriller, you know nothing ever goes as planned. There are always loose ends and slip-ups and they always come back to haunt you. When a blackmail note arrives, they know there’s a loose and somewhere…
Stuntman turned director Nash Edgerton’s Aussie film noir The Square made a bit of a criticalsplash when it hit US theaters earlier this year and rightfully so. It was an entertainingly self-assured first-time effort. You may have missed it in theaters – it peaked in 24 locations over the 3 month course of its theatrical run – but it came out on DVD and Blu-ray yesterday and, to celebrate, LiC is giving away one free copy (standard def) to one US resident. Sorry to exclude international readers once again, but those are the wishes of the folks providing the DVD.
There are two ways to win:
If you’re on Twitter, simply retweet this contest tweet from LiC or
Send an email to: win (at) livingincinema.com with the words “Square DVD” in the subject line
I’ll randomly pick a winner from among the emails and retweets. The winner will be asked to provide a valid shipping address and that’s that! Could it be any easier? I think not. Hurry up though. The contest ends tomorrow afternoon at 4pm Pacific time.
This trailer seems to be saying “Sure it’s about that dude who got his arm stuck under a boulder, but don’t worry. It’s directed by that guy who did the Slumdog movie you liked so much and that won all those awards. Remember? Sure you do!”
Did it work?
127 Hours will make it’s premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. It opens November 5.
David Lynch was among the first Fellows of AFI’s Center For Advanced Film Studies. It’s where he got the classic Eraserhead off the ground. So it seems especially appropriate that he’s been chosen as the first Guest Artistic Director of AFI Fest 2010. Lynch designed the festival’s official image (above) and he’ll program films “that influence and inspire him.
AFI Fest will return to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Mann Chinese 6 from November 4 – 11. Once again this year, tickets to all screenings will be made available to the public for the low low price of FREE.
I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World again over the weekend. I rarely do that – there are too many movies and too little time – but I’ve already seen most of the must-sees and Pilgrim is simply worth another shot. If anything it’s even better the 2nd time. The fun, vibrant energy doesn’t get old and if anything, the underlying message about a shallow, narcissistic 20-something learning to be a real man (and not in the Expendables sense) resonates even more strongly.
It’s disappointing to see it follow up its dismal box office debut with a steepish drop in its second weekend (-52.6% estimated), but I think it was always destined to be an expensive niche film. C’est la vie.
And then there is the dismal Piranha 3D… many critics surprisingly gave this one a free pass, but audiences rightly ignored them. Bloody? Yeah, but also bloody boring. Anyway, I’ve said enough about it already. Moving on.
It’s a short Watercooler on my end this week. That’s all I’ve got. It’s your turn.
or 
at Amazon.
and 
versions.
Ray is a likable if mild mannered construction contractor who enters into an affair with Carla, a hairdresser who lives next door. It turns out her husband is a low-level mobster andthere’s a big bag of money hidden in the house.
