Trailer for David O'Russell's THE FIGHTER!

I really like David O'Russell. I HEART THE HUCKABEES and THREE KINGS are both excellent films. The guy directs with enthusiasm that is evident in his films. Now, Darren Aronofsky was originally attached to direct this but dropped out to direct BLACK SWAN (which I'm glad he did), but I feel we will get a completely different movie that Aronofsky would have made. This looks like a great throwback to some great sports movies of the 80's. I love Wahlberg's and Bale's looks in this, and Amy Adams doesn't hurt the eyes either.

HERE YOU HAVE IT!



or here...

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/thefighter/

Here Is Some Incredible Video My Telluride Friend Giancarlo Iannotta Shot At The Festival!

I haven't been able to describe the beauty and wonder that was the Telluride Film Festival. Here is an incredibly beautiful video from a fellow Symposium attendee Giancarlo Iannotta. Nothing can describe the experience better.


#50: Telluride Film Festival from Giancarlo Iannotta on Vimeo.

Looking Ahead: September and October Preview!

This year was a little odd with a lot of mediocrity and a few excellent films.  Now looking through the rest of the year, there are a few films that can offer redemption just before the awards season. 

I'M STILL HERE dir. Casey Affleck starring Joaquin Pheonix (9.16.2010)


This could be genius.  Pheonix has been an enigmatic figure in Hollywood for a couple years now.  From his retirement to his hip hop exploits to his hilarious appearance on Letterman, no one knows what is up with this guy...except Joaquin.  If he really is this insanely eccentric dude than I want to watch this documentary, but he could be putting on an act.  If he is putting on an act worthy of the great Andy Kauffman than I want to see this mockumentary.  Either way this should be good.

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS dir. Oliver Stone starring Michael Douglas and Shia Lebouf




I honestly don't know how to feel about this one.  Oliver Stone is a very good filmmaker who has made some amazing films (the original WALL STREET, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, JFK, and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY) as well as a few that I do not care for (W, ALEXANDER, and NATURAL BORN KILLERS).  In my opinion, the original WALL STREET is Stone's best film.  It is a wonderful character study on the influences of greed.  Now he releases a sequel.  My favorite part about the original is the performance of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, and I assume I will like his performance in this film as well.  I do not have anything against Shia Lebouf at all.  I feel he is a good young actor who will be around for a long time and be great in many things, but how will everything mesh in this film?  Releasing another Wall Street film in these economic times sounds like it sense, but there are a few issues I have with it.  First of all, I want to look at a good film released recently, THE INTERNATIONAL.  This was a good movie with good performances, it was exciting, and it was very good looking, but it failed...bad.  My theory is that audiences do not want to see a movie about people getting robbed by banks.  Now apply that theory to WALL STREET, a film that gets a sequel 23 years later, and failure could be on the horizon.

NEVER LET ME GO dir. Mark Romanek starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Keira Knightley





This will be the film that will make me the most angry.  I have already seen this when it premiered at Telluride.  Its not good.  Its loaded with melodrama, mediocre acting, directionless directing, and a horribly sappy score.  The only redeeming feature is the beautiful cinematography.  I planned on writing a review for this, but every time I started I got too angry.  Lots of people will love this for its Britishness, its moodiness, and for its cast.  See it if you like, but hopefully you won't be so jaded.

THE TOWN dir. Ben Affleck starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner





The biggest movie of September is the newest directorial pursuit from Ben Affleck (GONE BABY GONE).  This has everything you want in an early fall blockbuster; the big name cast, the academy buzz, and a great complex story.  Everyone always talks about the films of the summer as the great ones, well films like this occupy the fall, and I prefer them.  This looks exciting and complex enough to be one of the best of the year.

JACK GOES BOATING dir. Philip Seymour Hoffman starring Philip Seymour Hoffman 




I absolutey love Philip Seymour Hoffman.  He is so watchable and likeable, and when I heard he was directing a film I got mixed feelings because he is such a good actor I wasn't sure if he was wasting his time directing.  Not many actors become great directors (except maybe Clint Eastwood), but JACK GOES BOATING looks great.  It has the sweetness that Philip brings with nearly every role.  It looks like this could contend with THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT for the best indie drama of the year for me.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK dir. David Fincher starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake




Ok...we have all heard about this.  This is the new David Fincher film about Facebook starring Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, the new Spider-man, and Justin Timberlake.  What makes me so excited about this?  David Fincher rarely makes a bad film.  The guy has a nose for projects that allow him to do amazing things with.  I love Jesse Eisenberg as well.  Many people have been trying to compare him to Michael Cera, but i believe Eisenberg has much more range and is much more enjoyable to watch.  A lot of people are hoping for this to fail, but I don't see how.  This could be amazing.

LET ME IN dir. Matt Reeves starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, and Richard Jenkins





I am very excited about this movie.  This is the american remake of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, an incredible film about a young vampire.  With the saturation of vampires in pulp culture lately another vampire movie does not sound like something the public needs, but this should be a great twist on the phenomenon.  Chloe Moretz (KICK-ASS) plays a young vampire who befriends a young human.  I can't give too much away, but this should be a wonderfully scary film.  The question is Matt Reeves (CLOVERFIELD).  Can the director of a JJ Abrams led "found footage" horror film allow LET ME IN to be the deeply nuanced horror film it needs to be?

HEREAFTER dir. Clint Eastwood starring Matt Damon and Bryce Dallas Howard






I am always excited when I see Clint Eastwood is releasing another movie, which has been a frequent accurance.  This one looks to be exceptional to say the least.  Its a supernatural about how differently three people deal with death.  Eastwood is such a nuanced director and is able to tell a story with such subtlety that the plot does not worry me.  I'm sure it will be deeply contemplative, look beautiful, and wonderully acted.  When that is expected of you as a filmmaker you know you are good.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER dir. Woody Allen starring Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas, and Naomi Watts

 





I don't know too much about this movie aside from what I've seen in the trailer, but from what Woody Allen did with VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA I am pretty excited about this.  It has a wonderful cast, a priveledge of being Woody Allen, with Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Frida Pinto, and Gemma Jones.  Anthony Hopkins could really knock it out of the park with a Woody Allen script, and he really needs to.  Lately it seems that Hopkins has just been collecting pay checks with his roles, but this could be different.

LEAVES OF GRASS dir. Tim Blake Nelson starring Edward Norton

 



This looks like a film that I could really like. Tim Blake Nelson directs Edward Norton and lets him have fun. Norton plays an Ivy League professor who is lured back to his Oklahoma hometown where his twin brother, a pot grower also played by Norton, tries to convince him to help him take down a local drug lord. I don't know if there will be any Oscar buzz surrounding this movie, but it could be one of those fall gems that make for a great viewing experience.

Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman to make a Dark Tower Trilogy...and a TV Series? At the same time?

So for as long as I can remember people have been wanting to adapt Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  Every one from Steven Spielberg to JJ Abrams have been rumored to direct.  Well today the rumors can end because Ron Howard will direct, with Akiva Goldsmand to write, a trilogy of films.  Then, to work along side the films, they will produce a television series as well!  The massive epic of King's Dark Tower will get the room needed to for the story to be fully fleshed out, but can it work?

Can director Ron Howard (Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) and writer Akiva Goldman (I Am Legend, Batman & Robin, I Robot, Da Vinci Code) do the source material justice.  Ron Howard has made some incredible dramas, but I don't know if he can direct a sprawling fantasy/horror epic, but he is a capable director.  He doesn't have a unique style.  I honestly feel that someone like Alphonso Cuaron (Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban) or Franks Darabont (The Mist, Shawshank Redemption) would have been ideal, but I'm glad we are not getting some shmuck.  The problem comes from Goldsman.  Goldsman has never been able to write a great script.  He has done a decent job throughout his career with dramas as well, often partnering with Howard, but his action and epic scripts have never been something to marvel at. Above all else, they are both safe choices.  Rom Howard has never been able to direct with style and is not a visionary by any means.  So many of his "great" films could have been outdone by someone else.  Apollo 13 is great, but what would it have been by someone more stylistically inclined, like Steven Spielberg or David Fincher.  Could it have been better? 
What does make me happy is the credit Howard gives to Peter Jackson for the Lord of the Rings trilogy:

“What Peter did was a feat, cinematic history,” Howard said. “The approach we’re taking also stands on its own, but it’s driven by the material. I love both, and like what’s going on in TV. With this story, if you dedicated to one medium or another, there’s the horrible risk of cheating material. The scope and scale call for a big screen budget. But if you committed only to films, you’d deny the audience the intimacy and nuance of some of these characters and a lot of cool twists and turns that make for jaw-dropping, compelling television. We’ve put some real time and deep thought into this, and a lot of conversations and analysis from a business standpoint, to get people to believe in this and take this leap with us. I hope audiences respond to it in a way that compels us to keep going after the first year or two of work. It’s fresh territory for me, as a filmmaker.” (Ron Howard on The Dark Tower.  MTV)

What intrigues me most the concept of the tevevision show.  If it is shown on network television during primetime (ala Lost) it will work well.  People will have to not feel alienated from the films.  If the story of the films continues on Showtime or HBO, most people without premium cable will not see the films.  The issue with network television is the content.  I have read the series and it is not appropriate for a family friendly station.  Maybe a happy medium can be reached with a TNT, but I don't feel that a basic cable station will allow for the exposure it would need.

The good news is that Stephen King's going to be adapted into an epic trilogy and a television show companion piece by professionals.  Hopefully it is all that I have hoped for!

Telluride Review: BLACK SWAN! Aronofsky! Portman!

Much of my swooning over some of the Telluride Film Festival films is warranted. I swear. I admit that my reviews are often victims to my own excitement and love for the movies, but I will not recommend a movie that I truly do not enjoy. I also want to say that a bad review for a moderately hyped movie is coming soon, but this is not it. This is for a screwed up, scary as hell, masterpiece that is Darren Aronofsky’s BLACK SWAN.

Ever since I saw Aronofsky’s first film PI I knew that he had a horror film in him. There is something about the way interprets human obsession that can be pretty creepy. Exploring the subject of obsession has been a common thematic element throughout his films with mathematical theories, professional wrestling, eternal love, and drug addiction being the vehicles to do so. BLACK SWAN is a loose companion piece to THE WRESTLER, but it is a whole other animal. BLACK SWAN is also about obsession with glory and success, like THE WRESTLER, but it is clearly a horror film. Influences appear from Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY and REPLUSION as well as THE RED SHOES. Forget all of this “psychological thriller” nonsense; BLACK SWAN is a balls-to-the-wall horror film that scares and repulses like the best of them.
Now I’m not doing much justice to this film by giving it a genre label. Horror films have a certain stigma attached to them. They are typically campy, poorly acted, and have low production values, but when a respected and renowned filmmaker, like Darren Aronofsky, makes a horror film none of those stigmas apply. This is anything but campy. It’s absolutely beautiful. From the opening prologue (one of my favorites scenes in any horror film) to the climactic shot are gorgeously crafted and shot with the best eye ever to film horror. In the prologue (meaning absolute opening scene folks so I’m not ruining anything) Natalie Portman dances with the giant, black man-bird, from the trailer, in such beautifully choreographed staging filled with macabre that leaves you awe-stricken and on edge throughout the rest of the film. Paired with all of the beauty and mature acting is a score that films perfectly. The entire score is a rendition of Swan Lake. I was already aware of the creepy and powerful orchestral score for the ballet, but when a creepy, powerful, and nostalgically familiar score is placed over a film like this it becomes so incredibly effective.

What has Natalie Portman done for me lately? Well…not anything great actually. She did well as the bald girl in V FOR VENDETTA and then tragically awful turn in the Star Wars prequels. In BLACK SWAN, she is a master class. Portman plays Nina, an up and coming ballet dancer who is working for a behind-the-times ballet company headed by Thomas Leroy (Vincent Castle). Thomas’s intentions for the winter program are to strip down, as well as stylistically adjust, some ballet classics. In order to bring forth these changes Leroy needs to hire a new lead for his version of Swan Lake. Out goes the great Beth Macintyre, played wonderfully by Winona Ryder, and in comes Nina (Portman). Things take a turn for the weird when new dancer Lilly enters the picture as this new breed of badass dancer played by Mila Kunis.

Basically Vincent Castle, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and, last but not least, Barbara Hershey (playing Nina’s mom with all the ferocious obsession reminding us of Mommy Dearest) provide a solid cast to populate this world of dance. If this were a straight-laced film about ballet it would have been good enough, but Aronofsky cannot do it straight. Nina becomes obsessed with her role as the Swan Queen, but Thomas wants both the role of the White Swan and the Black Swan (the evil twin) to be played by Nina. He scolds Nina repeatedly (and if scolding means trying to seduce as well that it works here too) for not being seductive enough for the role of the Black Swan. He says the Black Swan needs to be about lust and sultriness, not about precision and beauty, which Nina does fine. Then the pressure and the cruelty of Nina’s mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) start to wear on Nina as the threat of Lilly starts to threaten her. Next comes the odd creatures, displaced time, strange dreams, and questionable hallucinations that start to plague Nina. Ugly scratches start to form on her back and she starts to deteriorate physically. I refuse to go any further because what ensues is one of the most wonderfully screwed up psychological horror films I have ever seen.

Darren Aronofsky is a genius, and as well as one of my favorite living filmmakers. I have loved, or an at least enjoyed…ahem THE FOUNTAIN, every one of his films. His well paced style and visual acuteness blend to create magic more often than not. And when these abilities are applied to horror they create a nightmare world that will be forged in your memory for some time. It’s very soon to say, but I feel this could be my favorite of Aronofsky’s, and maybe my favorite film of the year. I have been wracking my brain trying to find some negatives to include, but I have come up short. BLACK SWAN is a quick and brilliant masterpiece of psychological horror. Could this be the first time since SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that a horror film can earn some from the academy?

See it and love it.

TELLURIDE REVIEW- 127 HOURS!!!

On my second day of the film festival I decided to break the rules a little and veer from my schedule of films and see one of the major premiers of the festival, 127 HOURS. I absolutely love Danny Boyle and almost all of his films, with the exception of THE BEACH…sorry. Most of Boyle’s films are filmed and edited with such kinetic style that any subject can be made exciting; from a lumbering space shuttle to the cities of India, each of films are stamped with that Danny Boyle seal of excitement. Danny was the foundation for what made this film, the rest was up to James Franco, and he delivered.

James Franco is one of the most exciting actors making movies today. He has the looks of a star, the charisma, and the acting chops to make him a force. He has come a long way since Spider-man and has grown into a full-fledged actor. While introducing his new film, Danny Boyle compared James Franco to Spencer Tracy. Now that might seem like a tough mold to be modeled after, but it is not too far from the truth. James Franco is a rare actor that can carry a movie and provide everything from humor to tears, and he does it so well.

Now onto the movie. 127 HOURS is the story of Aron Ralston, an adrenaline junkie who finds his thrills in the mountains and caves of the American west, and his tragic accident in those caves. This is a true story with complete and total support from the real Aron Ralston, who wrote the book, and I met and talked to and hugged. In the film, Ralston falls into a crack in a cave and gets his forearm and hand wedged in between a massive chalk rock and the cave wall. What results is 127 hours of tragedy through pain, suffering, and madness. In case you are not familiar with the story of Aron Ralston I do not want to give too much away, but what results is graphic and upsetting.

James Franco is on screen throughout the entire 1:45 runtime. Boyle made a joke during the introduction that if you are not a Franco fan then leave the theater, but after this performance no one ca deny his abilities. This role was incredibly demanding. Franco had to carry a feature length film in basically the same set, which consisted of only a few feet, and he did. Franco proved that he belongs amongst some of the best actors alive today with this role. The torture and despair that Ralston feels are balanced with a sense of hope and bits of humor that Franco executes so well.

The direction deserves attention as well. People need to realize that, with this film, Boyle accomplished making a brilliant film with basically one actor and one very confined set. Another accomplishment was the lack of melodrama. The movie did not feel like your typical man vs wild film. It was fast, energetic and exciting. Stylistically, 127 HOURS is a Danny Boyle film. The pace, the edits, the music, the camera angles…everything is Boyle. One gamble he takes stylistically is with his use of western motifs throughout. Being the Sergio Leone fan that I am, Boyle borrowed aspects of western filmmaking the Leone often used and possibly invented, like the tilted close-ups in tune with music. He even got James Franco into the mood as well when Franco creates some incredible stares.

A lot of time is spent in the mind of Ralston, especially the further he is driven into madness, and this is accomplished by Boyle’s genius montage and dream sequences that allow you into the mind and history of this character. Another step into the mind of the Ralston occurs when his water supply starts to diminish. Boyle utilizes one of the oldest cinematic tools by taking what he accomplished in TRAINSPOTTING, with the drug scenes, and recognizing them in the form of dehydration and want for water. In one particular scene Ralston’s mind flashes through the massive desert, over hills and caves, into the bed of his truck, that is holding bottled of Gatorade. This technique of mind wandering is used in many scenes, and it is successful in its ability to create an exciting, fast paced tone for, what could have been, a slow and contemplative movie.

Boyle also takes advantage of an old partner for the score. He enlisted the genius of A.R. Rahman for the second time in two films to create a score and soundtrack. When his name first appeared on the screen, I was a bit worried. While I love the soundtrack to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Rahman’s Middle Eastern-influenced style is not conducive to a film like 127 HOURS, but I was left surprised. The fast, percussive nature of his style is still very present, but it is accompanied with little themes of Americana. Almost unnoticeable bits of fiddle and acoustic guitar lay over the electronic beats of the soundtrack wonderfully. This style of music is very affective due to Ralston’s hyperactive, adrenaline loving attitude and lifestyle. Rahman has outdone himself again.

127 HOURS is an excellent film. This film will be given much consideration in the upcoming awards season. It is shot beautifully with Boyle’s incredible sense of color and contrast, acted wonderfully, and directed perfectly. Boyle and Franco are delightful when paired together, and I hope they work together more often.



Definitely see this movie. It is excellent.