New posters for Spike Lee's Oldboy are out today, via EW. My favorite's the second one. The film comes out Nov 27th.
FEATURETTE #2: "12 Years a Slave"
A new featurette behind the scenes of the Oscar frontrunner, this time with the cast and crew focused on Chiwetel Ejiofor as the lead character, Solomon Northup. The film is based on Northup's autobiography that recounts his being kidnapped as a free man in the 1840's and then sold into slavery. It's coming out in limited release Oct 18th, then nationwide Nov 1st.
REVIEW: "The Conjuring" (2013) Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga. Dir. James Wan
On the level of pure horror, I can't deny that the The Conjuring is effective- this movie keeps you in a state anxious anticipation throughout its entire running time, and the level of pure terror it inflicted upon me was by far more stressful than anything I've seen in a long, long time. And yet, there are so many elements of this movie that are derivative of countless other horror films, that it lacks for even one single original idea, and exists by itself as a stylistic exercise (if a very effective one) from director James Wan.
The plot starts out with The Amityville Horror- in a supposedly true incident from the 1970's, a family of seven moves into an old, mysterious, creaking house, where they are promptly terrorized by unknown forces. In a nod to Poltergeist, two paranormal investigators (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are summoned to investigate the disturbances and move in with the family to record what's happening, in order to get permission for an exorcism from the catholic church (you can guess what that's from). The ghosts haunting the premises show up in shocking jolts, with a couple of scenes lifted directly out of The Sixth Sense, and the house is so haunted that birds swarm around it, killing themselves by flying directly into the walls (that was a real stretch to get The Birds in there).
Every single element and almost every scene in this movie is derived from another horror film. You can read the whole thing as a tribute to other movies in a Tarantino-esque manner (unsurprisingly, this is one of his own top ten films of the year so far), and I'm sure that's meant to be the case, and yet I cannot deny that Wan fashions the frights and shocks effectively and paced throughout the film, never letting up for one minute and giving audiences, especially horror buffs, exactly what it is that they came for. It's really not a film for the weak of heart. Even his filmmaking style is a tribute to 70's B-movies, with an opening credit sequence styled directly out of a 70's film and the silly dialogue and kind of ludicrous plot left on the surface level only, right down to the direct endorsement of the catholic religion as the only protector against all evil. The performances are all good, especially Lili Taylor as the mother of the family, who becomes possessed by a demonic spirit, but the exorcism scene in particular bordered on camp after just a few minutes, and the first half hour or so was filled with way too many of those horror movie "false starts," where you think something's going to happen and doesn't (I hate it when that's overdone in these movies, and for me it was here).
So, all in all, mixed feelings from me on this one. It does what it's supposed to and yet with so many direct lifts from other movies I feel it's at fault for not bringing at least something new to the table. Are we at the point now where there's nothing original left to do in a horror movie, has it all been seen and done at this point? The Conjuring wants to be a 70's B-movie at heart and for that purpose it reaches, but not exceeds, its goal.
* * 1/2
TRAILER #2: "American Hustle"
The new trailer for American Hustle shows more of the movie this time. Still set for release on Christmas Day, it's expected to be another big Oscar contender for David O. Russell, which, if it happens would make it his third Best Picture nominee in a row.
POSTER: "Inside Llewyn Davis"
The final poster for the Coen Brother's new movie is my favorite one:
REVIEW: "The Heat" (2013) Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy. Dir. Paul Feig
Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy make a hilarious pair in The Heat, which works best when it's playing up their chemistry and excellent comedic rhythm, which thankfully it does for pretty much the majority of the nearly 2 hour running time.
The Heat is a buddy-cop movie with the novelty coming from two women as the leads, and amazingly enough, this is the first time this has ever been attempted (especially surprising given how often this genre has been done, re-done and spoofed over the years since the 80's Lethal Weapon series perfected it). Sandra Bullock is the uptight, by-the-book FBI agent sent to Boston to help take down a major drug dealer and Melissa McCarthy is the crazy, profanity-laced nut on the local police force she encounters and is forced to team up with. There's not much of a plot here, this is really just an exercise in comedic improv and a chance for the two stars to riff off each other and make us laugh with their verbal exchanges and dialogue (and Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold comes up with some good lines), so in a movie like this the two actors better click.
And thankfully, they do in spades- there's a magic from the start between them, and they're clearly having a good time filming this, as I imagine much of McCarthy's verbal riffs are improvised and could go on for hours. While not exactly a revelation here, after her Oscar nomination for Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy proves herself a kind of comedic tornado from the minute she arrives on screen. Dominating every scene with a verbal wit and physicality that reminded me at times of the late Chris Farley, she's a force to be reckoned with and completely hilarious as one insane, profanity-laced jab after another escapes from her mouth with ease. Bullock is generous enough to stand back and give her the movie, but even as the straight man she's enough of a pro herself to know what it takes to be funny playing off of someone and the chemistry and rhythm between them is perfect in their extended, banter-ridden dialogue scenes.
They're so great together that they carry the movie through any cliched, by the numbers drug dealer plot, but luckily enough, director Paul Feig knows this movie is all about them and doesn't even bother to get too caught up in any real plot details. That can also serve to make the movie feel a little too lightweight and insubstantial (like an SNL skit stretched to feature length), but it never gets repetitive and is really worth seeing just for the two of them, who make such a unique and memorable comedic duo that it almost makes me want a sequel just to see them again. They make it seem effortless, and Melissa McCarthy is a total star.
* * *
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Stalag 17" (1953)
The great Billy Wilder is one of my top five favorite directors of all time, and this movie one of his best and possibly most underrated. Willam Holden won a Best Actor Oscar for this story about a group of Americans in a German POW camp in WWII, who come to suspect one of the guys in the camp is an informant. It's one of the great prison break movies and Otto Preminger, most known as a director in the 50's and 60's, here turns in a terrific acting performance as the Commandant. Definitely check this one out.
Original trailer from 1953:
TRAILER: "The Armstrong Lie"
Documentarian Alex Gibney, the director of movies such as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, has a new film out that chronicles the lies perpetrated by Lance Armstrong over his steroid use in the course of his career. Even just looking at this trailer makes it hard to see how you could ever believe anything he says as you observe how easy it was for him to lie to everyone. The movie's out this month in limited release and has already gotten some great reviews.
'Walter Mitty' Gets Divisive Reviews in New York
The premiere of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty at the New York Film Festival on Saturday met with what looks to be the year's most polarizing response from the critics. Ben Stiller's fantasy, based on the James Thurber story about an uninteresting man who imagines himself in fantastical situations to impress the woman of his desire (Kristen Wiig in this movie), was labeled by many as simply not a festival movie, and should have waited to debut on its scheduled wide release date, which is Christmas Day. From all the mixed response (some championed its sentimentality while others pretty much despised it), there's no way to tell what the ultimate critical consensus will be in December. But its Oscar chances look fairly dismal at this stage, unless the movie manages to become a massive success with the public, which is always possible.
"Rather than channeling James Thurber's satirical tone, Stiller plays it mostly earnest, spinning what feels like a feature-length 'Just Do It' ad for restless middle-aged auds, on whom its reasonably commercial prospects depend." (Variety)
"The film's pleasures may be too minor key and its pace too meandering to conquer the mainstream. But audiences willing to tune in to its blend of surreal fantasy, droll comedy and poignancy may be rewarded." (Hollywood Reporter)
"Unfortunately, this 'Mitty' tries too hard, and as a result his many adventures- both real and imagined- are neither intriguing nor amusing." (The Wrap)
"Ben Stiller's aesthetics blend overly manicured imagery with soaring rock songs that underline every emotion, lest the film's corporate logo-driven message-making didn't get the point across clearly enough." (Slant)
"'Walter Mitty' employs hackneyed and mawkish methods to achieve a false sense of joyfulness." (The Playlist)
TRAILER #3: "Inside Llewyn Davis"
The best trailer yet for the new Coen Brothers movie, which I can't wait to see. It's already been lauded by critics since its debut in Cannes, but still isn't set to come out until Dec 6th. Sigh. Also getting a lot of attention, unsurprisingly, is the music, which was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who previously worked on the soundtrack to O, Brother Where Art Thou? with the Coens. The soundtrack for this movie is due out Nov 6th.
TRAILER #2: "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
New trailer for the Ben Stiller fantasy, this time with dialogue. The movie premiered to wildly polarizing responses on Saturday at the New York Film Festival, bordering on negative even (more on that later), but despite that could still do well with the family audience when it comes out on Christmas Day.
REVIEW: "Gravity" (2013) Sandra Bullock, George Clooney. Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Believe the hype. Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity is a stunning achievement, guaranteed to leave you breathless as you walk out of the theater, and running back to see it again. It's not often you see a film that leaves you gobsmacked, wondering how did they even do that? But this is a film that qualifies more as a full on experience, and demands to be seen in a theater, preferably on the biggest screen possible.
Sandra Bullock stars as Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer on her first space mission, with George Clooney as veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski on his last, and the first time we see them they're floating miles above the earth, working repairs on the Hubble Telescope. The film drops you right into the experience as we feel instantly that we're floating along with them, in awe and completely enveloped by the CG effects that never for one moment feel less than perfectly real. It's only a few minutes before disaster strikes however, when debris from an exploding Russian satellite comes hurling into their path and setting them on an emergency course to survive in any way that they can.
It's a simple plot really, like an old-fashioned disaster movie set in space, but with just two characters in an environment that most of us will never see, and have never seen on screen with this kind of effect. In that respect, the casting is crucial, and taking a page from Hitchcock's playbook, Cuaron cast two big movie stars that we already know and immediately connect with, which is a brilliant move in a movie that's set in a place so foreign to us. I don't think it would have worked as well with unknown actors, and both Bullock and Clooney are aces in this. George Clooney basically plays himself in space but it's never been more reassuring to see someone we know in a position of authority on this dangerous thrill ride, and Sandra Bullock really steps up and delivers the best performance of her career by far. The movie is carried entirely by her more than Clooney, and she evokes our sympathy, terror, and emotional identification as she undertakes what's really the story of her personal evolution in this harrowing journey, experiencing every emotion under the sun (pun intended) in her fight to survive. Not to mention how unique and notable it is that a woman can be the hero in this kind of adventure (not since Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in Alien have we seen it), and she doesn't even have to act like a man in order to elicit the audience's involvement in her situation. It's a great performance, and I'd never thought I'd say this a few years ago, but by this time next year Sandra Bulllock may have two Oscars under her belt.
Of course, even with the great acting, Alfonso Cuaron is the true star of this film, and the feat of direction here is nothing short of astonishing. The effects are seamlessly edited, with long tracking shots showing all angles of the action at all times and placing us in a "you are there" state of being never before felt in a motion picture that amounts to science fiction. The cinematography is breathtaking (with the great Emmanuel Lubezki set to finally win his long overdue Oscar for this I'm sure), and the technical achievement at all levels, from the score to the sound effects, is really quite something to behold. The great thing about Cuaron's filmography (Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien, A Little Princess) is that as much of an effects master as he is, he never loses the emotional component at the heart of his character's journeys, and as a result you care more about Ryan Stone's personal triumph than you do, say, any of the big blue people in Avatar.
It's an astounding cinematic achievement, the best movie of the year and at a lean 90 minutes, begs to be seen on a big screen again and again. I think I'll go back this week.
* * * *
