Movie of the Day: "Rudy" (1993)

Today's fall movie is Rudy, a great fall choice and football choice, which is perfect timing as football season kicks off. Sean Astin is the idealistic Rudy, whose one big dream in life is to play for the football team at Notre Dame, even though he's too small and he can't get into the school anyway. But he won't take no for an answer and he wants it so badly he's willing to do literally anything, including attending the junior college in a long shot attempt to transfer and making friends with the stadium groundskeeper just so he can look at the field at night. Rudy eventually does realize his dream, and the movie earns its sentimentality through Astin's absolute and heartfelt determination to achieve his goal. This is also one of those films where the score was far better than the movie itself, and you'll probably recognize the Rudy "theme" the minute you hear it, and be stunned to find out this was the film it came from.

Original 1993 Trailer:

Early Reviews Rave 'Gone Girl'

David Fincher's Gone Girl is premiering at the New York Film Festival on Friday night, but antsy critics were desperate to be first out of the gate, and so we've already gotten the early word from many of them on the film's quality. It looks like it's another winner for the director, with most praising it very highly, some raves, while others say it's at the very least a gripping, suspenseful thriller with great performances. Unexpectedly, Ben Affleck seems to be the actor receiving the most props, although I wonder if that is just due to the surprise factor, since he's never been particularly praised for his acting. Rosamund Pike looks to be a strong Best Actress contender for the villainous role of Amy Dunne, while the movie itself could be headed in Oscar's direction as well (at least for now- the Academy's never been particularly warm to thrillers, even good ones, so a big box office haul would be a plus as far as its awards prospects are concerned).

"Director David Fincher and stars Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck are at the top of their game in this mesmerizing adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel." (Variety)

"Above all, it's a delicious exercise in audience-baiting: what begins as a he-said, she-said story of mounting, murderous suspense, lurches at its fulcrum into the kind of hot mess Brian DePalma might have cooked up 20 years ago in his attic." (Daily Telegraph)

"The movie is phenomenally gripping- although it does leave you queasy, uncertain what to take away on the subject of men, women marriage, and the possibility of intimacy from the example of such prodigiously messed-up people." (New York Magazine)

"A sharply made, perfectly cast and unfailingly absorbing melodrama." (Hollywood Reporter)

TRAILER #2: "Laggies"

A second trailer for Keira Knightley's Laggies, which is curiously re-titled Say When in the UK. It's coming out here on October 24th, but when it played in Toronto this month it got quite a bit of praise for Keira's performance (despite what looks to me like a jarring American accent), with many saying it's the best she's ever been. I guess we'll see soon. It also stars Sam Rockwell and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Movie of the Day: "Dead Poets Society" (1989)

Our next Fall movie (which by the way starts today- Happy Autumn everyone!) is one of the most beloved "inspirational teacher" dramas of all time, and was likely watched by a lot of people just recently, in the wake of Robin Williams' death. One of his most celebrated films as well, for which he landed his second Oscar nomination as John Keating, the unorthodox teacher at an all boys boarding school who inspires in his students a passion for poetry and life in general. The movie was directed with sensitivity by Peter Weir, but it's a pretty formulaic story- which can sometimes work wonders with the right actors, as it does here. That "O Captain, My Captain" ending gets you every time, even when you knew it was coming on the first viewing. Sometimes a good old-fashioned tearjerker can be just what the doctor ordered.

Original 1989 Trailer:

TRAILER: "The Tale of Princess Kaguya"

This new animated film is the latest from Studio Ghibli and it might definitely be something to watch out for when it comes to Best Animated Feature next year. It already opened in Japan this summer, and now the American dub is being released on October 17th. I hate it when these things are dubbed, but for now this is all that's scheduled to come out this year- hopefully the subtitled version will make an appearance later on as well. For now, here's the celebrity studded U.S. trailer:

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Innocents" (1961)

An excellent little known horror movie from the 1960's is available on blu-ray today, and I urge everyone to pick this one up if you haven't seen it. Deborah Kerr stars as an English governess hired to look after two little kids on a mysterious estate where something tragic happened years ago, and the souls of the dead are now haunting the children. She thinks it's up to her to save them, but she's not immune to the terror herself. This is a genuinely scary, disturbing movie, especially for the time in which it was made, and the amazing thing is that it still has the power to unsettle you, even today. It's one of the best and most effective ghost stories ever told on film.

Original 1961 Trailer:

Movie of the Day: "Election" (1999)

Our Movie of the Day series is back this week for some of the best fall movie entries, which is fitting seeing as tomorrow is the official first day of autumn. First up is a rather timely one, with a mid-term election just around the corner, and it's a hilariously dark comedy that introduced us to Alexander Payne (still one of his best movies) and gave Reese Witherspoon one of her very best, most perfectly suited parts. Tracy Flick is the high maintenance "over-achieving" high school student from hell, who destroys the career of a teacher, causing Matthew Broderick as said teacher's best friend, to seek revenge upon her in any way he can, using the school's popular jock (Chris Klein) to do it. What follows is the messy politics of a student council election that ruins everyone involved, but it's so sharp, clever and uncompromising in its satire that it remains one of the best movies of the 1990's, even today. Check it out.

Original 1999 Trailer:

RED BAND TRAILER: "The Interview"

Seth Rogen and James Franco's Christmas Day release The Interview looks pretty damn funny in this new red band trailer that actually shows us more of the movie. I loved This is the End but wasn't a huge fan of Neighbors, so hopefully this one delivers. Rumor has it the studio wants to make cuts after the outcry from Kim Jong-Un himself about this but I hope they make not one single change, as it would pretty much defeat the purpose of the movie, don't you think?

BOX OFFICE 9/19-9/21: 'Maze Runner' Tops with $32 Million

The latest YA adaptation The Maze Runner had a very successful debut this week with $32 million from Friday to Sunday, above expectations for a male-centered YA novel that drew comparisons to Lord of the Flies. Even with that boy-oriented story though, girls still made up the majority of the audience for this movie, as it drew a crowd that was 51% females under 25. It got an "A-" Cinemascore from that crowd, and so that's good news for the film going forward, as it should more or less have next weekend to itself as well.

Last week's surprise winner No Good Deed fell 58% to fourth place, earning just $10 million in its second week, while the other new releases were mostly disappointing. Liam Neeson's A Walk Among the Tombstones came in second, but with just $13 million, much lower than the recent Neeson action vehicles, while the Jason Bateman family dramedy This is Where I Leave You was third with $11 million. Dolphin Tale 2 rounded out the top five for the weekend.

Top 5:

The Maze Runner- $32.5 million
A Walk Among the Tombstones- $13.1 million
This is Where I Leave You- $11.9 million
No Good Deed- $10.2 million
Dolphin Tale 2- $9 million

Even the indie movies disappointed this week, with Weinstein Co.'s Tracks opening on 4 screens to just $21k, and Kevin Smith's practically unadvertized movie Tusk came in with $886k in just 600 theaters. The Drop added $2 million from an additional 400 screens, bringing its total to $7 million for the crime drama starring James Gandolfini. Next up it's Denzel Washington's The Equalizer, along with the new animated release from Laika Studios, The Boxtrolls. See you then!

POSTER: "The Imitation Game"

Benedict Cumberbatch faces the world's first computer in the poster for The Imitation Game, coming out Nov 21st:

REVIEW: "Tracks" (2014) Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver. Dir. John Curran

In 1977 a woman named Robyn Davidson decided to trek more than 6,000 miles across the Australian desert. A massive undertaking to be sure, and she brought along just four camels and a dog as company. Her ensuing adventure was turned into a magazine article and eventually a bestselling memoir, and now director John Curran has put the story on film, starring Mia Wasikowska in the lead role.

It's a good movie, accurately and deliberately tracing the steps Robyn took as she set out on this journey, and Wasikowska continues her streak of playing understated, cold, internal characters, as Robyn was not exactly a people person (she seems to vastly prefer the company of animals) and seems to want more than anything to get away from the people and life that surrounds her as she goes on this epic voyage. The movie is partly a character study, but doesn't dwell very deeply on Robyn's internal stresses and mostly sticks to the story as written. It's a very straightforward narrative (Robyn decides she wants to go, works for the money, saddles up the camels and takes off) and to be honest, the actual journey itself seemed to be mostly uneventful. When Robyn treks into the desert alone she is always on the verge of heading into territory rumored to be dangerous, but she always makes it through seemingly without incident. There's a risk here of treading on dull ground, as you probably read that sentence and thought, well what's the point, then? Since the movie isn't meditative enough to ever qualify as a deep, penetrating character study of Robyn's psyche as she evolved over this trip (she doesn't really seem to do much evolving), then the question becomes, is the trip entertaining enough on its own to sustain a whole film about it? I'd say yes, but just barely.

The Australian desert landscapes are gorgeous, and the scope of the trip is intimidating enough to keep you in a state of prolonged suspense, even though you know she does eventually make it to the finish line. And crucially, there is another character in the movie that we spend a significant amount of time with, a photographer for National Geographic (who sponsored Robyn's trip) played by Adam Driver, who meets up with Robyn once a month to take pictures to be published with the eventual article. Driver has a natural charismatic and unique aura that ultimately wears down Robyn's defenses, and we look forward to seeing him as he makes his periodic appearances throughout the film. Robyn herself is so prickly and cold that she might be too unpleasant to spend the entire film with if it wasn't for his occasional goofy and inviting presence. Wasikowska has so far proven to be an actress with interesting taste, although I'm not quite sure if she's got the chops to be a chameleon in the vein of Meryl Streep or Jessica Chastain. She specializes in subtlety and understatement, but in the roles she's taken on so far, she's tended to strike the same note in every one of them- which has worked for the individual films, but with this one riding almost entirely on her performance, there's an element of flatness that is conveyed at times.

Still, Tracks is good movie, and despite its relative uneventfulness, the fact of a twentysomething woman crossing a mass desert alone is a monumental achievement that begs admiration from anyone who hears about it. Not every person can or would want to do such a thing, and as a testament of personal strength, it stands as an existential victory for Robyn, both as a woman and a damaged individual struggling to overcome grievances in her past (which is only touched on in the movie, but nonetheless serves as a primary factor for those looking to suss out her motivations). It's a trip worth taking.

* * *

TRAILER: "Big Eyes"

Here we go with the full length trailer for Tim Burton's Big Eyes, coming out on Christmas Day. It actually looks better than I was expecting, although Christoph Waltz is starting to get on my nerves a little bit with his same old schtick in every movie (he looks like another scene stealer here, but after Django Unchained I'm starting to think he plays the same guy in everything). Amy Adams does look great as always though, and I bet it is going to be Oscar nomination #6 for her, which is crazy. Maybe it's turning into a good year for actresses after all.