Weekend Forecast: Send up the Basterd signal
By Craig Kennedy - August 20th, 2009; 12:01 am
As another summer winds down, there have been a number of terrific limited releases, but it falls to Quentin Tarantino to rescue what has mostly been a disappointing season for mainstream cinema. Can he do it and in the process save the floundering Weinstein Company?
Opening Wide:
- Inglourious Basterds. Reviews out of Cannes for the latest from Quentin Tarantino were decidedly mixed and reviews since seem to be sharply divided between love and hate. I’m trying to keep expectations in check (no small task for one of my more anticipated movies of the year), but after a mostly disappointing summer for wide releases, I’m hoping this WWII exploitation yarn delivers a bit of fun.
- Shorts. Robert Rodriguez seems to be carving a nice niche for himself with family friendly fare. The question is whether this will be more like the well-received Spy Kids or the critically clobbered The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl. It seems a rainbow-colored rock from outer space is imbued with the power to grant the holder any wish. Armed with the power of whim, a bunch suburban kids make a mess of their neighborhood, but it’s nothing compared to what happens when the parents get a hold of the rock. Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, Leslie Mann, James Spader and Kat Dennings star.
- Post Grad. Gilmore Girl and Traveling Pants Sister Alexis Bledel navigates the treacherous and uncertain waters of life after college. I’m guessing the recession doesn’t force her into doing online goth porn so count me out. Michael Keaton and Jane Lynch play her crazy parents and Carol Burnett plays her crazy grandma.
Opening in limited release:
- World’s Greatest Dad. This one has been available for download and OnDemand for at least a couple of weeks and now here it is in theaters. It’s a jet black comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait that got some very admiring reviews at Sundance. Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, a floundering high school poetry teacher who once aspired to be a famous writer, but is now a single dad saddled with The Worst Son Ever. When tragedy strikes, it could be the end of the world for Lance or it could be the ticket to the life he’s always wanted. Be very careful of reviews of this movie. Several assholes have spoiled what sounds to me like a significant mid-movie twist.
- Art & Copy. As a document of popular culture, this look at the advertising industry might be interesting, but I’m not sure how much I really need to know about the people behind some of the most memorable ad campaigns in history. Living in a city awash in billboards and the victim of phone calls from people trying to sell me crap I don’t want both at home and at work, I’ve about had it with the whole friggin’ business of sales. Just Do It? How about Just Bite Me.
- Fifty Dead Men Walking. One of two movies this week involving the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. This one is an action thriller starring Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) as a small-time hood recruited by Ben Kingsley’s intelligence agent to work as a mole inside the IRA.
- The Marc Pease Experience. You might be surprised to learn that there was a comedy coming out this weekend starring Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman directed and co-written by the guy who did Love Liza. That’s because it’s being dumped as one of the leftover bastard stepchildren of the once proud Paramount Vantage, which has gone from the studio that brought you There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men to essential non-existence. When I say dumped, I mean it’s showing in 11 theaters in Phoenix, Tempe, Roseville CA, Denver, Seattle, Eden Prairie MN, Chicago, Tampa, Miami, Valley View OH and Philadelphia. Why? Contractual obligation. If I lived in any of those cities, I’d be working extra hard right now hand crafting a top shelf blurb explaining just what the film is all about, but it’s not so…
- My One and Only. This comedy is supposedly based on the life of George Hamilton. Renee Zellweger plays a woman who ditches her philandering husband (Kevin Bacon) and drags her two sons across country in search of a wealthy man to take care of them all. Chris Noth, Nick Stahl and Steven Weber play potential suitors. When exactly did Renee Zellweger go from likable to liability? She was the worst part of both Leatherheads and Appaloosa.
Opening in New York:
- Five Minutes of Heaven (also On Demand, LA 8/28). Liam Neeson plays a man confronting his past as an Irish Protestant murderer long after peace has been won. Check out the LiC review here. Recommended.
- The Baader Meinhof Complex. The story of the controversial lefty German terrorist group responsible for the deaths of more than 30 people.
- Passing Strange: The Movie. Spike Lee films the acclaimed Broadway musical about a black man who leaves 1970s Los Angeles to find himself in Europe.
- The Headless Woman. Opened Wednesday. A bit of posterage, trailerage and blurbage from a couple days ago here.
Coming to Los Angeles:
- Earth Days. Recommended
This week’s musical sponsor: The Flaming Lips.
Filed under: Weekend Forecast
We’ll be seeing INGLORIOUS BASTERDS this weekend. I personally don’t care if it doesn’t turn out to be a glorious masterpiece.
I’m excited anyway.
I’ve heard quite a bit about ART & COPY. But although we still get innumerable small artsy films and lots of indie stuff, it’s inevitable that many of them never get booked here.
I’ve heard quite a bit about A&C. It does appeal.
A lot of people who end up in the film industry started out in advertising. They’re both in the creative sector. It’s just that one is decidedly more crass and geared towards profit than the other. Considering the movie biz isn’t exactly as pure as the driven snow, I think they’re more closely related than a lot of people give them credit for.
We shall see…
Craig, people have been slagging off on Renee for years now. She’s still a big favourite of mine. You’d think people could ease up on the hate. It’s not like she’s a cold blooded murderer or anything.
I think the tide started to turn when she won the Oscar for COLD MOUNTAIN. I personally had no problem with that.
It’s one of my favourite films of 2003. I thought she was fantastic. I was rooting for her and I’m glad she won. But a lot of people didn’t like the film, hated her performance and found her undeserving.
Guess what? GET OVER IT. She won. End of story…
Perhaps I don’t have any negative feelings towards her because I didn’t see her in a lot of bad movies. Yeah, the Bridget Jones sequel was horrendous. But that wasn’t her fault.
The only other things I’ve seen her in during the last few years have been CINDERELLA MAN and LEATHERHEADS. Sorry, my darling crabcake. But I really thought she was fine in both of those.
I’ve viewed the trailer for MY ONE & ONLY. It has a really intriguing premise and a great cast. Period details are exceptionally extravagant and very accurate.
It may turn out to be a bomb. I’ll reserve judgment until I see some reviews. But her performance looks to be solid at the very least.
*Ahem*
And no musical highlight??? What the hell happened…?
There’s a lot of great-sounding stuff in limited release opening out there this weekend. Good news for me if they all come my way. Looking forward to IG and Thirst this weekend.
Roger Ebert liked Inglorious Basterds. :-)
hmm…dunno what happened with the musical sponsor. I write it and set a future time for it to post and then go to bed. Something weird happened while I was asleep. It’s fixed now.
I was very curious about Art & Copy until it got some middling reviews at Sundance and it started to turn me off. It just isn’t the movie I thought it was.
As for Renee….I don’t hate her personally, but her presence in the last few films I’ve seen her in has been unbearable. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one.
Yes Joel, see Thirst. I hope you like it.
Alison, good news about Ebert, but glancing through the reviews this one has critics more divided than usual.
As Chuck has pointed out however, sometimes it takes people awhile to come around on a QT movie. All of his post Pulp Fiction movies have grown in many people’s estimation over time.
I’m probably repeating myself, but I find Ebert to be without peer in reporting what anyone of all functioning senses can perfectly figure out for themselves (this happened, he plays him, they do this, that was neat, this is a picture about bastards, spelled basterds…)
I find Ebert’s reviewing skills on new releases to be…wanting and as you say, he has a perfunctory quality to his plot recaps and commentary. But when it comes to a movie he’s seen five or fifty times he’s quite eloquent and insightful. However, any good critic should be eloquent and insightful when they’ve seen a movie five or fifty times.
I think a big part of Ebert’s appeal for me is his personality. As my grandmother would say, he’s quite a character.
I’ve already seen THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX on Region 2 DVD, and found it stylistically visceral but lacking in depth. Of course many of us know Edel’s LAS EXIT TO BROOKLYN, his best work, which was a harrowing experience.
The Tarantino is understandably the one to see, and as LIC has been a sponsor for many months, I can certainly hope it is worth the wait.
I am still immersed in the Film Forum’s Brit Noir Festival, which runs till early September, so I’ll have to juggles my itinerary to accomodate the old and the new.
Not sure if I’d say WORLD’S GREATEST DAD has a mid-movie twist, at leas not anything that’s already established in the plot synopsis. Not a huge fan of the film, but I liked the middle section well enough – too bad it blows it all in the end.
I’ve already stated my opinion on INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – definitely minor Tarantino. It’s overlong, wordy, and unfocused, but contains some brilliant sequences. Approach with lowered expectations.
ART & COPY makes for interesting viewing…but it’s instantly forgettable.
THE HEADLESS WOMAN…now there’s a head trip. It’s not easy, but it’s fascinating. Easily recommended.
Time Out NEW YORK, an ultra cynical publication that awards stars like Scrooge gives to the poor, gave THE HEADLESS WOMAN 5/5 this week. Amazing.
I’m down for some Basterds head-splattering fun. Other than that, it’s probably old classic DVDs.
I have a love/hate thing with Zellwegger. Loved her in Chicago, and in the first Bridget Jones and a few other things. Actively disliked her in most things since Chicago. I thought she was the single worst, most sore-thumb thing about Cold Mountain, a movie that got a lot of things wrong. Old Walnut Cheeks would be her hobo name in that film. Bah.
The Flaming Lips make me happy. There from hereabouts, more or less, you know.
I love the Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots CD. I haven’t felt inclined to see a Tarantino film in the theater since Kill Bill Part One but I’m thinking I might pop along and see IB in the next hour – what’s the point of being in a future international time zone if you can’t occasionally take advantage of the fact? And the starkly differing takes on the film have me curious.
I’m hoping to get to IB and Lorna’s Silence. Maybe Soul Power but I’ve heard it’s so-so. Thanks for the tip on Five Minutes being On Demand – maybe I’ll try to track that down as well.
But I have one of my fantasy football drafts on Saturday, and my fellow nerds will know that takes precedence over most things (see: Knocked Up).
I’m definitely not a Zellweger fan, though I still have a soft spot for her in Jerry Maguire.
More fun with the Coens: http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2009/08/19/a-coen-brothers-movie-title-still-retrospective/
And has anybody seen this website? It’s amazing: http://www.annyas.com/screenshots/
It’s crazy how much good stuff is on IFC OnDemand right now: Summer Hours, Flame & Citron and Five Minutes of Heaven. The first two are Top 10s for me.
That title link is great! I gotta get around more on the internet…
Craig, that’s why I don’t buy the “2009 sucks” reasoning, there are plenty of worthwhile movies around. I don’t really care if they are “mainstream” or not, the presence of a good movie is the presence of a good movie.
Totally agree with jenny and sartre. The Flaming Lips are the bomb.
I saw them sing DO YOU REALIZE live when they opened for Beck the first time I saw him. It was just so utterly amazing that it was practically indescribable.
Remember I told you about those shows, Craig? There are some moments in your life that you can never forget.
Thanks for the nostalgia, my precious little crabcake.
I could save this for the next WATERCOOLER. But what the hell…?
About a year ago I had a post here about an adored discount cinema in my home town that I thought was probably going to close. It actually was closed for a while. They held some nonfilm events there last summer.
But it was touch and go for a while.
It finally reopened as a movie theatre some time earlier this year – late winter or early spring. Apparently new management has taken over and there was a rumour that it had been totally renovated. I don’t know anyone that works there. So I was cautiously optimistic with a cynical twist of lime, shall we say.
One of the big chains dumped it (because it was a single screen) in the late 80s. I had actually been there a couple of times as a little kid.
We have a couple of theatres here that are built below ground. This one is. It’s adjacent to a lounge that’s right on top of a mall. You have to take an escalator down to get there. But in the 80s it was a glorious black and white art deco palace. Just beautiful. Right up until the time the chain unloaded it and it went down market.
Like most discount theatres, it really went to hell. It’s an unusual location in a great neighborhood. But inevitably the movies are the attraction. Pretty depressing situation though.
The last time I was there was over a year ago. I went last night.
It looks INCREDIBLE. It’s been repainted, has all new seats and some really great decor. Wonderful ambience. You wouldn’t even recognize it. It really looks like a welcoming, luxurious theatre now instead of the end of the world.
Best of all, IT”S STILL OPEN.
Unreal. Miracles do happen…
That’s wonderful news Miranda, it’s a real treat when an older movie theater is restored to its former glory (and enhanced with new tech).