Weekend Forecast: 11/13/08
By Craig Kennedy - November 13th, 2008; 12:01 am
Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve in the LiC pick of the week:
Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale
Kind of a strange lineup this week with only one new wide release, a few limited releases and a handful of movies opening in New York only. Nevertheless, there is some great and potentially great stuff here. I highly recommend Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale which opens in limited release. Also, if you live in New York, give Eden a try. Meanwhile, here’s what’s opening wide:
- Quantum of Solace. Picking up where Casino Royale left off, the latest entry in the revitalized James Bond franchise finds the super spy bent on revenge for the murder of his love. Mathieu Amalric (here in the first of two movies released this week) plays the bad guy who is most likely behind some plot for world domination because that’s how these things work. The Bond series effectively ran out of gas and came to a lurching halt in 1987 with The Living Daylights, not coincidentally the same year my childhood came to an end and I graduated from high school. The 1989 follow-up, Licence to Kill, was a desultory mess and it officially ended my interest in James Bond though I caught the Brosnan Bonds on DVD out of habit. These were slick and spirited but ultimately they all kind of bled together in title and plot and I can’t tell one from another. When Casino Royale was first announced I didn’t much care, but then I caught the first teaser trailer, the one that was partly in black and white. My interest was piqued. The movie itself wasn’t perfect, but it was the first Bond that left me excited about seeing the next one since I was a kid and here it is. I hope Quantum of Solace uses Casino Royale as a springboard into further goodness and isn’t just a return to old bad habits.
Opening in Limited Release:
- A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noel). Arnaud Desplechin breathes new life into the dysfunctional family holiday reunion story with this delightful French comedy drama starring beautiful Catherine Deneuve alongside Mathieu Amalric as an estranged mother and son. A gleeful mix of styles and tones, a dollop of Shakespeare and a soupcon of Nouvelle Vague combine to make one of my favorite movies of the year. Stay tuned for the full LiC review and an interview with Mr. Desplechin. Highly Recommended.
- Slumdog Millionaire (opened Wed.) Danny Boyle didn’t impress many people with his most recent effort Sunshine, but I liked it. Yes, even the ending. Here the director of Trainspotting returns to earth with a true story about a poor street kid from Mumbai who wins top prize on a million dollar game show. The story doesn’t do much for me, but I’ve still got a reserve of respect for Boyle and Slumdog has been lighting up the festival circuit since it premiered at Telluride in August. Count me in.
Opening in New York:
- Eden (LA 11/21). This Irish drama about a disintegrating marriage is unique in that it lets you think you know how it’s going to play out but it continually defeats expectations. Another great thing is that there is no bad guy to the story. Husband and wife are decent but flawed people trying to navigate difficult times yet both are driven to the precipice of decisions that could destroy their family. Once again, stay tuned for a full LiC review and interviews with director Declan Recks, writer Eugene O’Brien and star Eileen Walsh. Highly recommended.
- The Dukes. Actor Robert Davi directs himself, Chaz Palminteri and Peter Bogdanovich in this comedy drama about the members of a former Doo Wop group who get involved in a caper to pay for their own club where they can headline as a nostalgia act. Sounds kind of like a Doo Wop flavored Going in Style without George Burns, Art Carney or Lee Strasberg. I’m all for movies aimed at an older, underserved audience…but that doesn’t mean I’ll run out and see it.
- House of the Sleeping Beauties. Based on a novella by Yasunari Kawabata, this creepy sounding German thriller is about a place where lonely widowed men can go and sleep next to beautiful young women. The women move and dream, but they never wake up. Maximilian Schell frequents the house but becomes suspicious when he sees a corpse being smuggled out of the building. Beautiful young women who never wake up were never a cause for concern…?
- How About You. Based on a short story by Maeve Binchy, this comedy drama stars new LiC crush Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited and The Duchess) as a young woman who finds herself in charge of a retirement home for the holidays. Vanessa Redgrave plays a former screen siren while Imelda Staunton and Brenda Fricker play two spinsters. I like the cast but alarm bells are going off over this one. It’s got that “Hey everybody — look at the kooky oldsters bein’ naughty and stuff!” vibe coming off it like nobody’s business. Also, the damn lyrics to the song are stuck in my head now even if they don’t have anything to do with the movie. “I love New York in June…”
- We Are Wizards. A documentary look at some of the people who have gone batshit crazy for Harry Potter. Did you know there’s a whole Wizard Rock scene with bands like Harry and the Potters? Listen, I write about movies on the Internet so I guess I have no business judging how people spend their free time.
Opening in LA:
- Pray the Devil Back to Hell. The documentary about the women’s movement to bring peace to Liberia makes its way to Los Angeles. Read the LiC review here. Recommended.
This edition of the Weekend Forecast was sponsored by The Muppets:
Filed under: Weekend Forecast
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- Trailer: A Christmas Tale
Best Muppet skit ever.
3 films up there I am dying to see (Slumdog, Christmas Tale, Eden (based only on your impression of it)) and one that I could see this weekend but instead I will wait until next weekend, that being Quantum of Solace. Not a bad set of releases at all, much better than what you guys got last weekend.
I will be seeing House of the Sleeping Beauties as soon too.
Oh, how I love my Muppets. Allison’s right, that one’s classic and I never get tired of it. I’m going to have Manamana in my head all day now. But that’s not exactly unusual. : )
I think we’ll probably wait a weekend to see Bond, but will likely finally trek back to the theater to see something or other.
We just found out that Religulous has been playing here secretly for a couple of weeks–they just didn’t want to advertise it for fear of the backlash and probably boycotts. Smart move, honestly. I’ll probably wait and see that one on DVD, anyway.
Someday, when they wind their way here, I’m very eager to see Slumdog, A Christmas Tale (maybe by Easter?) and Eden (Netflix, I’m sure).
Question: is Rachel Getting Married likely to get a real wide release? We may have an opportunity to squeeze it into the schedule this weekend when we’re in the “big” city, but would prefer to see it here if there’s any chance it will come here in the next month or two. I figure if it gets Oscar noms, it’s likely to go wider, but before then?
Oh, and Evan, I happened across your review of RGM in Tulsa Today last night. Pretty cool.
At this point it looks like the number of theaters RGM is playing in is shrinking rather than growing.
Wow, crazy weekend here. I’m happy I even get a chance to see these movies in a theater, but having to choose between my selections this week is killing me, especially since my weekend is already busy.
I’m just going to skip Quantum of Solace. It will be playing for weeks. I’m also likely to skip Synecdoche, New York, which is opening here and I really want to see it but I have faith it will last until Thanksgiving, if not longer.
Let the Right One In is opening for a two week art house run and I really want to see that, but I just noticed that Fear(s) of the Dark, Dear Zachary, and Ashes of Time Redux are all playing the indie Hollywood theater. The Hollywood isn’t a standard rep and doesn’t post a complete schedule. Some movies will play there for weeks, some for only a single weekend.
I’m shooting for Dear Zachary and Fear(s) of the Dark with a chaser of Let the Right One In if I can swing it on the other side of town. Bond and Kaufman will have to wait. I’m hoping Ashes of Time lasts an extra week.
Damn. Again, I’m not complaining, I just had no idea everything would show up the same weekend.
a little frustrating you can go weeks with nothing and then all the sudden you have more than you can choose from.
Jeez, Joel, that’s a weekend to remember!
I only get Fear(s) of the Dark and QoS, which I’ll actually see tonight. A friend of mine scored tickets to some private Bond party and screening. I’m dying to see this movie but hesitant that it will too much resemble the Bourne Ultimatum, not only in action but also in plot.
It’s weird, I think a real generational Bond gap is developing. I’m seeing all kinds of bloggers talk about how they hate Bond or they don’t know what the big deal is and all of the old ones are stupid. It’s like they think the series starts and ends with the slick action of Casino Royale. Too bad for them. And how can you find Austin Powers, for example, funny at all if you haven’t seen at least the first five movies in the series?
So anyway, I hope this is a return to form, Craig, like you. As it is I’d still rather watch an older Bond than CR, but at least CR was a healthy jolt after the last three Brosnan movies.
Do you guys know about the new Muppet movie, written by Jason Segal no less?
Kind of cool how JB finds Evan’s review offline and can say that she knows him through LiC!
After two weekends in a row of having nothing worth getting excited about, I’ll take what I can get. At least I can plan my next few weekends of movie watching.
No, wait. I got to see The Pool a couple weekends ago. That was worth seeing. Anyway, you get my meaning.
the Segal Muppet movie has sort of been on the periphery of my radar. I’m not sure how to feel about it.
I guess the Bond Gap doesn’t surprise me too much because even when I was a kid there was a divide between the Moore lovers and the Connery lovers.
I suppose I can see why people of a certain age wouldn’t appreciate the old movies because they don’t do anything that a modern action audience expects. They rely more on style than on action.
I’m facing a dilemma not unlike Joel’s, except Ashes of Time Redux came here three weeks ago. Oh, and another difference? I think I’ll more or less have to drive across the bay and go into Berkeley to do a double-shot of Rachel Getting Married and Synecdoche, New York and see the Swedish vampire film in San Rafael, as it is available at the arthouse there. This is surreal; Rachel Getting Married in particular has one of the weakest theatrical releases I can yet remember. It’s only in one–ONE–arthouse theatre in all of Marin County, and because of the bad economy that arthouse theatre recently began showing films exclusively from about 6:00 PM onwards, which usually doesn’t work for me. Then there’s Quantum of Solace, which I’ll probably see sometime on, say, Sunday or something, I don’t know.
I know this is a week late, Craig, but I just saw you ask me what I think of Ashes of Time in Wong Kar Wai’s canon. I consider it one of his masterpieces (of which he has at least a few), and though the setting and plot are markedly different in the Wong filmography. I think the Redux version is a tighter, more focused picture–it’s certainly shorter at only 93 minutes, I believe. I believe this made the plot more understandable than it was before. Wong also added digital enhancements to the lighting, with digital tinting, and there is actually less swordplay and derring-do in the redux version. One memorable scene excised here is of the Blind Swordsman slaying numerous bandits. Wong doubtless considered it superfluous, and in a way it was, but it was a good scene nevertheless.
Some have speculated that Wong’s heart was never completely “in” this project, though I don’t agree with this particular supposition. It is true that Wong seemed to think the film was a toilsome burden first and foremost, making Chungking Express, a simple (but beautiful) film while still editing what he thought was a nearly incomprehensible mess in his wuxia film. It is true that Wong commissioned a parody of the same plot, from the Louis Cha novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes, called The Eagle Shooting Horses, with the same cast.
What emerges especially in this sumptuous and ravishing film, however, in its most elliptical third act, is a continuation of Wong’s themes leading to this film (from as early as his 1988 directorial debut, As Tears Go By, which is admittedly first and foremost a Mean Streets-influenced crime melodrama), with his second feature Days of Being Wild kind of the proper, and more thorough launching point of the themes that surface in Ashes of Time, those being the oft-repeated, time, memory, love, etceteras…
Craig, we all remember how much you loved My Blueberry Nights (and I enjoyed it, too, and look forward to revisiting it). However, I can’t remember, was that your very first Wong film? I seem to recall us discussing how wildly different interpretations the film summoned from first-time Wong film-viewers, and, atop that, the perspectives of those more used to Wong’s filmmaking. It was, for a while, like four-way chess… Also, I remember Rex Reed being a jackass and writing a horrible review, but that is a weekly occurrence, at least.
Thanks for articulating that Alexander. To answer your question, I’d seen Chungking Express and Mood For Love several times before MBN. Ashes of Time Redux was my 4th.
Ah, okay. I was fairly sure you had seen other films by Wong before.
You certainly do have the right ones lined up there Alexander, and another great essay (on Wong).
I saw SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE last night and am preparing to write the first five-star review of this year (for me) Craig, I was thinking the same thing as you about Boyle going in, but this is new material and some viseral, pulsating and inspired filmaking that uses music and choreography to great effect. But there’s so much more. I’ll bide my time.
I will be seeing the Despletchan film (A CHRISTMAS TALE) on Saturday night (I look forward to Craig’s positive review) as I had KINGS AND QUEEN among the best films of its release year.
I also want to see EDEN, and may see DEAR ZACHARY later tonite if things work out.
Don’t get me started on RGM’s release. I’ve been railing about it for weeks. It ought to be in about 1,000 theaters right now. Actually, it should have been in that many two weeks, tops, after its initial release. Instead, until last week, it was in fewer theaters than the Canadian film Passchendaele. Terrible.
Part of it might be that Sony PIctures Classics has bitten off more than it can chew. They’ve had a bunch of releases in the past month and a half. They’ve been running my local rep ragged.
By the way, I didn’;t care for Slumdog Millionaire. But what’s new? I don’t like anything anymore.
You liked RGM, KB. And yeah, the release of it seems crazy. Perhaps they’re gambling on a few Oscar noms and plan a wider release at that time.
Look forward to your thoughts on Slumdog Sam. It’ll be a few days before I catch it myself.
Yes, RGM may get the same treatment as Little Children, which got a very limited release, was pulled from theaters, then given a wider release when it garnered a couple Oscar noms and critics started yapping their pie holes about it.
I don’t know. Trying to grasp the formula studios use to determine release calenders for these smaller, awards-worthy movies is very frustrating.
It’s hard to believe sometimes that the studios actually have the best interests of the film in mind, yet that would be crazy.
I actually did see four films this week that I liked. And we’ve got Milk to go tomorrow. It could be a record.
One thing about the RGM release … I wonder how much of it, if any, has to do with the Oscar race and Sony being diplomatic and not wanting to be seen as favoring any of its three Best Actress candidates (Hathaway, Thomas and Leo).
I caught Ashes of Time Redux. I had not seen the original. It struck me as the clearest of all of Wong’s films as far as his themes. If I were asked which film to start people on Wong, that would be my choice. It struck me as very similar to My Blueberry Nights.
Ashes largely defeated me. I was never able to get into that happy Wong receptive zone. I blame the viewer and not the filmmaker and I’ll give it another try one of these days.