The first poster for Disney's Into the Woods showcases Meryl Streep up close and personal as the Witch. The movie's set to come out on Christmas, but was plagued earlier this year by reports of mass re-shoots, so I wonder how it's going to turn out. With Rob Marshall directing, it's a bit of a crapshoot, since his only good movie was Chicago, 12 years ago. Since then he's done Nine, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Memoirs of a Geisha. So yeah, not a lot of confidence there.
REVIEW: "Lucy" (2014) Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman. Dir. Luc Besson
Luc Besson's movies for me have always been the definition of a "guilty pleasure." They're usually big, loud, implausible action-packed adventures, often with a kick-ass heroine in a leading role (Natalie Portman in The Professional, Anne Parillaud in La Femme Nikita, Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element). Now we can add Scarlett Johansson's Lucy to that list, although as far as B-movies go, Lucy pushes the limit pretty damn far.
It starts off in Taiwan, with Lucy as a naive college student who's being tricked by a guy she's been partying with for a week into delivering a mysterious metal case into the hands of some Taiwanese gangsters. So far so good, as this early part of the movie plays into the skeazy, underground, semi-exploitative tone that characterized the great trashy films in Besson's resume like The Professional and Nikita. He knows how to play it so that we know this is trash and he knows that it's trash, so we can all relax and experience the thrill that goes with secretly enjoying something that qualifies as pulp material. Where the nuttiness comes into play is the pseudo-intellectual gobbledygook (this is one time where I feel that term is more than appropriate) that takes over the second half of the movie, and it's so insane and at the same time ludicrously detailed, that I can't tell whether Besson really believes what's going on here or not.
See, the film is premised on the myth that humans use only 10% of their brain, so what happens if we were somehow able to channel 100%? A straight-faced Morgan Freeman (I guess there's really no other kind) plays a professor who's spent his entire career developing a theory about this notion (what an amazing waste of a career that is), but since humans actually don't use just 10% of their brain (I hope everyone reading this knows that), we're operating in the realm of total fantasy right off the bat anyway. But okay, Besson wants have fun with this and say "what if," so I'm on board with it. When Lucy hands over the case in the violent exploitation part of the first half, it turns out to be filled with bags of blue powder, and she's kidnapped by the bad guys and forced to become a drug mule, one of the bags inserted into her stomach in order to smuggle the drugs into Europe. Of course, this drug spills inside her body, and turns her into a superhuman, as it opens up her cerebral capacity and she starts to access more and more of her brain powers, becoming nothing less than a combination of Jedi/goddess/witch who can do literally anything, at least before she suffers from the all consuming fate of her powers, meeting a similar end to her operating system character in Her, believe it or not.
Scarlett Johansson is the perfect person to play this role, as she's been labeled as a kind of superwoman in everything she appears in lately (couple this with Her and Under the Skin and it could be a "Scarlett rules the universe" movie marathon night). As soon as Lucy undergoes her transformation she becomes robotic and unemotional, embodying the familiar ScarJo screen presence that she seems to be most comfortable with of late. But even though the movie's never really boring (it's too consistently over the top to be that) it does suffer from an inherent lack of conflict after Lucy becomes all powerful. Apparently these bad guys are still after her as she tracks down the other drug mules (she needs the blue stuff to sustain herself), killing everyone in her path along the way and showing up at Professor Freeman's house for help, but there's just no way that anyone can possibly stop her and so narratively, there's no real suspense to maintain. Despite this it does manage to hold your interest because Besson still wants to wade into the waters of philosophical explanation about the origins of the universe and man's inability, I suppose, to appreciate and contemplate all that we are in this world. Lucy can do this though, however briefly, and there are scenes in this movie that seem to want to rival The Tree of Life as she takes on the dawn of man and literally comes face to face with her namesake, the first Lucy (yes that one).
Some of the scientific explanations are so intricate and yet so ridiculous that you wonder how much intelligence was harnessed simply in coming up with passages of dialogue that mean so little and run so deep. That in itself is mind-boggling in its stupidity and at the same time, refreshingly original. Is this a film that can accurately be called a great bad movie? Maybe so. I can't quite recommend it and yet I sort of admire the audacity it takes to go so out there in such an unapologetic way. Perhaps you should just see it for yourself.
* * 1/2
POSTER: "Interstellar"
Another new poster for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar was released today, as the film inches a little bit closer to release (though there's still a ways to go, it's coming out November 7th). The early buzz on the movie is that it's Nolan's masterpiece, but to be fair, a lot of people said the same thing about Inception. I am looking forward to it though- I just wonder if it will be getting a lot of comparisons to last year's space epic, Gravity.
Matt Damon Returns to the 'Bourne' Universe
Yeah, you read that right. After years of speculation and denials, even ones as recent as a couple of months ago, it's now been confirmed by Deadline that Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, the duo who practically reinvented the action movie for the 2000's, will be returning for the fifth installment of the Bourne franchise, set to come out in July of 2016. This will be their third Bourne collaboration (Doug Liman directed the original film, but Greengrass is the one who defined the series). So what happens to poor Jeremy Renner, who starred in the last Bourne movie, the lackluster Bourne Legacy? Well, he kinda gets kicked to the curb, as Universal has stated that that entry has been delayed indefinitely. Better luck next time, Hawkeye. This is pretty exciting news though, as I admit to being a pretty big fan of the original trilogy. I just hope it wasn't primarily money that prompted these two to return when they claimed they'd never do another- it'd be nice if they could make one that matches up to the quality of the second and third Bourne movies, which remain pretty awesome, even now. I'm thinking Bourne Again for the title- what do you think? Too obvious?
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Eraserhead" (1977)
Now here's a neat choice for those who like something a little twisted and different. Eraserhead is the movie that introduced everyone to the nightmares of one Mr. David Lynch, and to this day remains one of his most creepy, unsettling, purely visceral experiences. No real plot to speak of, just some crisp black and white photography over images of various dreamlike monsters, circus freaks, and alien inhabitants. An unforgettably freakish little movie, which will haunt you for hours after it's over...unless you hate it from beginning to end, which is an entirely plausible reaction. Lynch is always a polarizing experience, but he remains one of a kind, still influential today, as you can see in a movie like Under the Skin. Check this one out if you dare.
Original 1977 Teaser Trailer:
INTERVIEW: Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley
Here's a really good TIFF interview with the two stars of The Imitation Game. It's better than the usual press conferences, because they're both pretty into not just the film, but current events as they relate to the story of Alan Turing. Benedict Cumberbatch was practically accosted by crazy fans at the Q&A after the Toronto premiere of the movie, so here he's able to actually talk about it in more detail. And he and Keira are pretty funny together too.
George Clooney to Receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes
I was okay with Tom Hanks getting the Kennedy Center Honors, because his body of work goes back the early 80's, but this is way too early. George Clooney has been announced as this year's recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille award, which is normally their trophy for lifetime achievement. Yes, Jodie Foster got it last year, but at least she's been working since she was a kid. This just screams like the HFPA's usual attempt to get a big star like Clooney to show up at their party in a year where he doesn't even have a movie out. Lame. Expect him to to be the target of jokes all night about his upcoming wedding. The Globes are on January 11th, 2015.
TRAILER: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1"
Ok, so finally we have the official trailer for the first part of the last installment of the Hunger Games franchise. This one promises an epic battle and shows us Jennifer Lawrence back in stoic mode as the teen hero Katniss. Eh. It looks alright I guess (apart from Donald Sutherland's creepy looking giant head). I can tell you right now there was no need at all to divide this last book into two parts, but I'm sure the kids this is aimed at will eat it up as always.
BOX OFFICE 9/12-9/14: 'No Good Deed' Comes in Strong at #1
It was finally a somewhat more exciting weekend, as the Idris Elba/Taraji P. Henson thriller No Good Deed opened in first place with almost $25 million, slightly above expectations. The film cost just $13 million, so it's already a success, which is good because it received just a "B+" Cinemascore (although the studio should probably be happy about that, considering its Rotten Tomatoes score was in the single digits). It attracted a mostly female audience (over 60%), which has been underserved this summer, but we'll have to see if it has what it takes to hold on (especially with David Fincher's thriller Gone Girl coming up soon).
In second place was Dolphin Tale 2, which came in with $16 million, failing to match the opening weekend of the first movie, but this one did get an "A" from audiences, so it might hold on better than No Good Deed in the next several weeks. Holdovers made up the rest of the top five, with Guardians of the Galaxy, Ninja Turtles, and Let's Be Cops rounding out the pack. Let's Be Cops by the way, has proven to be something of a surprise success, grossing $72 million so far off a less than $20 million opening.
Top 5:
- No Good Deed- $24.5 million
- Dolphin Tale 2- $16.5 million
- Guardians of the Galaxy- $8 million
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- $4.8 million
- Let's Be Cops- $4.3 million
There were also a few new limited release openings this week, the most successful of which was The Drop, the Dennis Lehane crime thriller that happened to be the late James Gandolfini's last starring role. It just missed a slot in the top five, opening with over $4 million in about 800 theaters. The Skeleton Twins, with SNL alums Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, also opened big, with nearly $500k from just 15 screens, while The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them, was a bit disappointing, coming in with mixed reviews and just $77k from 4 theaters. Next week its the YA adaptation The Maze Runner, the Jason Bateman family comedy This is Where I Leave You, and Liam Neeson's latest action thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones. See you then!
'The Imitation Game' Wins the People's Choice Award at Toronto
The Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up today by announcing its winners of the festival prizes, including the coveted People's Choice Award, voted on by the audience. This has become a major Oscar bellwether in recent years, with movies such as The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, Silver Linings Playbook, and last year's 12 Years a Slave winning here first before going on to Oscar glory. This would theoretically place The Imitation Game as the Best Picture frontrunner for the moment (with many more movies to yet to debut of course). In any case, it should solidify the audience appeal of this movie, which started with the adoration out of Telluride and obviously continued at TIFF (where the audience taste tends to match pretty closely with the Academy's). This is going to be a major player, folks.
REVIEW: "Boyhood" (2014) Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette. Dir. Richard Linklater
It was a very bold experiment for Richard Linklater to attempt to make a coming of age film that depicts a child's life from the age of six to eighteen, and to do so while filming a few days every year for twelve years was such an ambitious undertaking that it's a miracle it all turned out the way it did. There are risks involved in embarking on such a project- after all, this was not a documentary but a fiction film, an original screenplay that was going to have to depend on amateur child actors to eventually grow into (hopefully) somewhat believable characters. What if the kids suddenly decided they didn't want to do it anymore? What if another actor had gotten hurt or even died during the shooting of it? The success of a movie like this depends on a lot of things going well that are not in the filmmaker's control, and the fact that this movie turned out so well was a stroke of luck as much as anything else.
The greatest accomplishment of Boyhood is the experiment itself, which successfully documents the passage of time over the course of twelve years in just under three hours, and to be able to see the actors change physically in that time is remarkable to behold, especially the kids. The change from six years old to a teenager is faster and more dramatic than at any other point in a person's life, and it does feel wondrous to watch that take place on screen. The film opens in 2002 as Coldplay's "Yellow" kicks in over the opening credits, placing us back at that point in recent history, as the boy, our protagonist named Mason (Ellar Coltrane), is picked up from school by his frazzled mom Olivia (Patricia Arquette), who's on to him about getting his homework done (and not for the first time, as we'll see at so many points throughout the film- I wonder how often the "do your homework" refrain is uttered in the life of a parent). From that moment on we meet his sister Samantha (played by Richard Linklater's daughter Lorelei) and eventually are introduced to their dad Mason Sr. (Linklater devotee Ethan Hawke), who they see just occasionally since the two parents are split up. We also get the a quick glimpse at the first of Olivia's bad boyfriends, who are a constant source of pain and interruption in the kid's lives.
It's somewhat difficult to describe the film after this, because it meanders through Mason and Samantha's childhood, marking the passage of time through changing haircuts, Iraq War news footage in the background and the rapidly evolving technological advancements of the twenty-first century (from Apple Oregon Trail to tamagotchis to iphones). Sometimes Mason Sr. shows up to take his kids to baseball games, bowling, museums, and every time Ethan Hawke arrives we look forward to seeing him, because even as an absentee dad he's fun and he's funny and Hawke gives such a natural, lived-in performance that we immediately buy him as this somewhat immature, irresponsible but carefree figure that comes and goes from their lives as he pleases, getting the benefit of being the cool dad without having to do any of the actual parenting. That falls to Patricia Arquette, a single mom who has to go back to school to get a better job, raise two kids every day, and has faults of her own, the worst of which is being drawn to alcoholic and abusive men, whom she parades in and out of her children's lives the way so many weak-willed single mothers unfortunately do.
The broken family unit and the bringing up of these two kids in this environment is relatable and heartbreaking and absorbing to watch, as the movie pretty much treats the most banal moments of life as milestones, which of course they are, especially for anyone who shares the memories of the characters, through whichever prism that brings you in most. For me, the most interesting way in was through the parents, as the child actors are very mannered and I'm sorry to say, artificial in many of their line readings, but for the first half of the film that's not much of a problem. Even though it's titled Boyhood, it feels like the exploration of the family as a whole through which we are experiencing the twelve years. Unfortunately about midway through the film, when little Mason becomes a teenager, Linklater feels the need to develop him specifically as a character and give him a personality, and so he suddenly becomes very much the focus of the film, carrying it now entirely on his shoulders as he tries to find out who he is.
And frankly, who he becomes is a rather pretentious, annoying, insufferably pontificating kid who moans on and on to his girlfriend about the evils of life and social media (which is really communicating Linklater's own feelings, as I don't quite buy into any kid who never knew a world without the internet bemoaning the evils of Facebook), and I spent the last hour and a half of the movie waiting impatiently for Hawke and Arquette to come back and take the focus off this whiny brat who'd dispelled all of my sympathy for him from earlier in his life. Even the sister disappears at this point and we're stuck with the kid, who was really the least interesting character in the whole film. It's certainly possible that this is the kind of movie that depends on your own personal identification with the people in question- I personally was far more interested in Hawke, Arquette, and maybe even the sister, so Mason's personal journey through the self-important teen years was simply tedious and unbearable to me. But we must spend so much time with him in this stage (when he was only tangential to the experience as a child) that the movie starts to feel long and so it falls short of greatness and is certainly not Linklater's best work. But it is an effective and ambitious experiment that's well worth seeing, and whether or not you're personally moved may depend on your own life experience and how well it relates to Mason's. I liked and was involved in the first half of his childhood much more so than in the latter half, and for me the kid was easier to take before he developed his unfortunate personality.
* * *
TRAILER #4: "Maps to the Stars"
So yeah, this seems like an excessive amount of trailers for a film that's not even coming out this year, but it looks like that may be the only way we'll ever get to see it. Unfortunately, it was confirmed that Maps to the Stars will only be released in Canada on October 31st, with its distributor Focus World set to possibly release the movie on VOD in 2015- which really sucks, because the movie won Julianne Moore the Best Actress award in Cannes, so I just can't imagine it being so bad that they can't even risk releasing it here. Moore does look terrific in it, but luckily, it was just announced that another movie of hers called Still Alice, an indie about a woman suffering from early onset Alzheimers, was just picked up in Toronto (where she got raves from the critics) and will be released this year, which will very likely place Julianne Moore as the Best Actress frontrunner. That would be long overdue for the four-time nominee, but as usual, it's because the Best Actress field is so barren, while Best Actor is as always, way overcrowded with at least ten great performances vying for five slots. Sad state of affairs indeed.
