Jennifer Lawrence in Vogue

The rise of Jennifer Lawrence has been really huge, really fast. The girl came out with an Oscar nomination at 20 for the little seen (but really good) WInter's Bone and then used that as a boost to jump into franchise movies in a hurry with The Hunger Games and X-Men: First Class. Silver Linings Playbook came out in the same year as Hunger Games and bam, she's got her first Best Actress Oscar at 22 years old. It's been a pretty dramatic rise for her, and I think she's going to be around for a long time because she's a good screen presence (unlike say, Kristen Stewart), and there's 3 more Hunger Games movies coming out in the next few years alone. So I like her a lot and she gets a great photo spread in Vogue, but already she's committing my biggest pet peeve about famous people- and that's complaining about being famous. Come on, are you kidding? Already?

"All of a sudden the entire world feels entitled to know everything about me, including what I'm doing on my weekends when I'm spending time with my nephew.'"

Then there's this:

"What really gets to her is when people say, 'You have to make peace with it.' 'I am just not OK with it,' she says. 'It's as simple as that. I am just a normal girl and a human being, and I haven't been in this long enough to feel like this is my new normal. I'm not going to find peace with it.'" 

The only thing that bugs me about that is how much I don't buy it. It was incredibly obvious that this girl wanted to be famous. You don't go aggressively chasing after franchise movies after making a well-reviewed indie film if that's not what you want (especially The Hunger Games, which everyone knew was going to be huge no matter who was cast in that role). You don't make sure you're the first person on the red carpet at the Oscars for Winter's Bone in a dress that guarantees you're unrecognizable from that film if you're not trying to get attention (see below). And you don't, in the very same interview where you moan about the plight of being famous, also say this:

"'But I always knew,'- here she lowers her voice- 'that I was going to be famous. I honest to God don't know how else to describe it. I used to lie in bed and wonder, Am I going to be a local TV person? Am I going to be a motivational speaker? It wasn't a vision. But as it's kind of happening, you have this buried understanding: Of course.'"

Right. So, given that she's 23, this longing to be famous took place in the last decade, where not a single person in their twenties grew up not knowing what it is to be famous, in this era of reality TV and TMZ and the internet and all the rest of it. She knew. And now she's one of the youngest Oscar winners ever and has probably got herself and her entire family set for the the rest of their lives, so take it easy on the whining, ok Jennifer? You're a good actress who got famous from movies, as opposed to scandals and reality TV, with a long career ahead of you- I'd say you've pretty much got it made.

TRAILER: "Prisoners"

It was surprising after seeing the trailer, but this movie opened to very good reviews in Telluride yesterday, with many comparing it to dark thrillers like Seven and Mystic River, and calling it the best performance of Hugh Jackman's career. From French Canadian director Denis Villenueve, whose Incendies was nominated for Best Foreign Film two years ago, this comes out Sep 20th.

More From Telluride: Premieres of 'Labor Day' and '12 Years a Slave'

A couple of films have touched down in Telluride over the last two days, including Jason Reitman's Labor Day, starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard. Early reactions are mixed-positive, describing the film as a tearjerker melodrama with good performances, and a departure in tone for Reitman, usually known for snarky comedies like Juno and Thank You For Smoking. Oscar chances are unclear on this one, so we'll have to wait for the official release and reviews to know more, but its best bet seems to be Kate Winslet at the moment. The movie comes out Dec 25th (oddly, there's no trailer for this yet).

"To the extent that Adele's hunger for affection resonates with audiences, what emerges is a powerful- if implausible- romance." (Variety) 

"A full-immersion exercise in the old-fashioned women's weepie that skews far closer to Nicholas Sparks' brand of contrivance than Diablo Cody territory." (The Playlist) 

"As consistently assured a piece of film-making as any we've seen from Reitman." (HitFix) 

Faring better was Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, which premiered to stunning reviews and a standing ovation. Claims are that it portrays slavery as never before, with unrelenting brutality and emotion from the performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender. Some compare it to a horror film that refuses to let you turn away from its sights. Oscar nominations seem assured, but I'm wary about the violence, which sounds pretty harsh. This is not brutality leavened with comedy ala Django Unchained, or a feelgood movie in any sense (If you've seen Shame you know this guy can be bleak). I have a feeling that will limit its box office and Oscar potential, but the movie will be a surefire contender with nominations in Picture, Director, and below-the-line categories, with Ejiofor sounding like a lock for Best Actor.

"Had Steve McQueen not already christened his previous picture thus, 'Shame' would have been the perfect one-word title to capture the gut-wrenching impact of his third and most essential feature, '12 Years a Slave.'" (Variety) 

"More than a powerful elegy, '12 Years a Slave' is a mesmerizing triumph of art and polemics: McQueen turns a topic rendered distant by history into an experience that, short of living through the terrible era it depicts, makes you feel as if you've been there...Ejiofor is a lock for Best Performance in the Oscar race, as is McQueen and his movie." (Indiewire) 

"McQueen has no fear of depicting the true savagery thrust upon American slaves by their owners. He won't flinch in holding on the image, even if it's graphically disturbing. Slavery was an inhumane evil that McQueen refuses to turn away from." (HitFix) 

Here's the trailer for the movie once again. It comes out Oct 18th:

Movie of the Day: "The Butler" (2013)

Ok, so I know I just reviewed the movie recently and of course it's still in theaters, but it is an entirely appropriate film to be the last entry in our civil rights series this week. As most know by now, the story spans the decades of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950's through the 1980's, and then all the way to present day and what it means for Forest Whitaker's butler character to see a black man elected President of the United States. You'd really have to be made of stone not to be moved by that moment after watching this man's entire life go by on screen, so convincingly portrayed by Whitaker. It's a historical tearjerker, and a look at the civil rights struggle from the black perspective, and that makes it a very unique and important movie to cap off our week long commemoration of the March on Washington.

Trailer: 

"Getaway" is a Trainwreck with Critics

Aha- it looks like we have a candidate for the worst movie of the year in Getaway, the Ethan Hawke/Selena Gomez car chase movie. It's sitting at a dismal 2% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (that's one, count it, ONE positive review) and boy the knives are out for this one, with some absolute gems being hurled at it by the critics: 

"You've probably seen this movie before, watching a child play with his toy Hot Wheels cars after eating multiple bowls of sugary breakfast cereal." (San Francisco Chronicle) 

"'Getaway' could have been an excellent two-minute film." (Washington Post) 

"'Getaway is so bad that what's most surprising about it is that Nicolas Cage didn't manage to star in it." (New York Post) 

"It doesn't have a plot, really. It's more of an outline of a first draft of a notion." (Minneapolis Star Tribune) 

"Maybe the title isn't a title, but an instruction: 'Getaway,' away from this movie, and fast."  (Arizona Republic)

"The only participant to emerge with its reputation intact- though not its paint job- is the Shelby Mustang muscle car, which also delivers the film's most nuanced and psychologically complex performance." (The Atlantic) 

Movie of the Day: "Mississippi Burning" (1988)

Today's civil rights movie is the multiple Oscar nominee from 1988, starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents who are investigating the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. It was loosely based on the real life event that took place in the 60's, and was controversial upon the time of its release for some fictionalization of those events, and the fact that most of the black characters in the film were portrayed as passive victims- it was one of those civil rights movies purely from the white person's perspective. But despite the valid criticisms, the movie is an effective thriller with some really good acting from Gene Hackman and Frances McDormand as a woman who's beaten by her Klan member husband. There's nothing like Gene Hackman going Dirty Harry on the KKK.

Original Trailer from 1988: 

James Spader to be the Villain in 'Avengers 2'

James Spader has been cast as Ultron, the evil android in The Avengers 2, set to come out May 1, 2015. Joss Whedon is back to write and direct of course, but it's not known if Spader's just going to be the voice for the robot or if he'll actually be doing the performing, motion-capture style. Spader can be a pretty great bad guy (my favorite of his is still Steph from Pretty in PInk), so it'll be fun to see what he can come up with for this.

Gravity Gets Rave Reviews at Venice

Before Gravity plays at Telluride this Saturday it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last night, and the reaction has been pretty ecstatic, to say the least. I think we're looking at a sure thing Oscar player right now in all the major categories- Picture, Director, probably even Actress, as Sandra Bullock is getting the best reviews of her career. A sampling from some of the critics: 

"Suspending viewers alongside Bullock for a taut, transporting 91 minutes (with George Clooney in a sly supporting turn), the director's long overdue follow-up to Children of Men is at once a nervy experiment in blockbuster minimalism and a film of robust movie-movie thrills, restoring a sense of wonder, terror, and possibility to the bigscreen that should inspire awe among critics and audiences worldwide." (Variety) 

"At once the most realistic and beautifully choreographed film ever set in space, Gravity is a thrillingly realized survival story spiked with interludes of breath-catching tension and startling surprise." (Hollywood Reporter)

"Cuaron shows things that cannot be, but miraculously, are, in the fearful, beautiful reality of the space world above our world. If the film past is dead, Gravity shows us the glory of cinema's future. It thrills on so many levels." (Time)

And for Bullock herself:

"...she's steely, vulnerable, occasionally funny and just about the best she's ever been in a dramatic role." (The Playlist) 

"(Bullock) puts her impressively restrained performance to the fore just when the film needs her to, without straying from the character's slightly dour vulnerability or succumbing to focus-pulling bravado;..." (HitFix) 

"Bullock is aces in by far the best film she's ever been in." (Hollywood Reporter) 

Picture of the Day: The Crowd on the Mall 1963

Movie of the Day: "In the Heat of the Night" (1967)

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Dr. King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech was shared across the land. Celebrating the occasion with our continuing series of civil rights films, today's entry sees another 60's icon, Sidney Poitier, take center stage in this Best Picture winner from 1967, about a Philadelphia cop who helps a Southern sheriff solve a murder in the South. Sidney Poitier was the first African-American movie star whose appeal stretched across audiences black and white. As a noble, moral and upright hero who was sometimes criticized for being too perfect in his roles, he helped to change the perception of African-Americans by playing positive characters with dignity, when they had rarely been portrayed as such on screen before. His presence is still incredibly powerful, as you can look back and see how dynamic his charisma and appeal was, especially when he appeared next to other screen icons, like Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner or Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones.

Original Trailer from 1967: 

Telluride Film Festival Lineup

The Telluride Film Fest starts today and goes through Saturday, and as per usual they just revealed their lineup on the opening day. This is where Argo premiered last year and recent Oscar winners The Artist and The King's Speech also made their U.S. debuts in Telluride.  

Oscar contenders set to hit the Festival: 

• Gravity; dir. Alfonso Cuaron; starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney
• Labor Day; dir. Jason Reitman; Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin
• Inside Llewyn Davis; dir. Joel and Ethan Coen; Oscar Isaacs and Carey Mulligan
• All is Lost; dir. J.C. Chandor; Robert Redford
• The Past; dir. Asghar Farhadi; Berenice Bejo
• Nebraska; dir. Alexander Payne; Bruce Dern and Will Forte

I can't wait to hear the reaction for Gravity, my number one most anticipated movie this fall by far. I'll be posting the early reactions and reviews as they come in.

REVIEW: Mud (2013) Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan. Dir. Jeff Nichols

Writer-director Jeff Nichols' third feature, Mud, is a movie that boasts some outstanding cinematography and some fine acting, but the overall experience of the film is, I'm sorry to say, unsatisfying, thanks to a muddled screenplay that lacks focus and never quite knows what it wants to be about.

Set on a riverboat house in the Arkansas swamplands, two boys named Ellis and Neckbone go searching for an abandoned boat they found stuck in a tree, presumably after a flood has taken place. When they find their boat it bears traces of evidence that someone has been living in it, and that someone turns out to be Mud, played by Matthew McConaughey, a fugitive on the run from bounty hunters and the law after having murdered a man. The boys, especially Ellis, grow enamored of him and Mud recruits them to help him fix up the boat for use, so that he can whisk away his girlfriend Juniper (Reese Whitherspoon), whom he's come there to find. This is clearly a Boo Radley inspired situation, but I only wish Mud were that interesting. The character as written is rather uncomplicated and dull, and on the screen is sold purely on the basis of McConaughey's usual charisma. Which is there in spades, and I don't mean to diminish him as he continues his career comeback by turning in one serious performance after another in interesting, smaller films for the past two years, but Mud's troubled relationship with his girlfriend is only vaguely touched on and never given closure, which is something you can say about several of the plot threads in this movie.

Of the two boys participating in Mud's home project, Ellis is the protagonist, and he's played very well by the appealing Tye Sheridan. He comes from a home where his parents are splitting up and he's feeling disillusioned about love, so he tries to find it elsewhere by helping to reunite Mud and Juniper, and trying to find a girlfriend for himself. The girlfriend story is something that's introduced and then tossed aside, while the parent's marriage is similarly focused on for singular moments but not addressed in any meaningful way. The script meanders between a series of only vaguely connected scenes without pulling the various threads together so that there's an impact to what we've been watching for two hours- and the violent climax near the finale feels particularly tacked on and out of place, as though Nichols didn't quite know how the film should end, and thought that missing impact might as well be an action scene. There's also another abrupt moment near the ending that endangers Ellis's life in a sequence that to me was very nearly completely ripped off from The Coen's True Grit a couple of years ago, and the mimicry robs that scene of its dramatic impact as well.

It's a shame that the story never comes together tightly, because all of the performances are excellent in the film, from the two young boys to McConaughey, to the parents played by Sarah Paulsen and Ray McKinnon, and even Reese Whitherspoon as Juniper, despite her character being the most elusive. But none of these people are ever explored in depth and just when we seem on the verge of getting to know them, Ellis wanders off into another disparate scene, taking the opportunity away from us. I should mention that the film is gorgeously photographed, and the locations (in Nichols' home state of Arkansas) are astounding to look at, placing us in an atmospheric South that feels vividly alive. Unfortunately I can't say the same about the people in it.

* *