October is here, everyone! In honor of horror movie month I'm presenting the list of ten "Creature Features" to kick back with until Halloween arrives. These are some of my favorite horror movies (and horror movie comedies) and they include picks like Shaun of the Dead, the original James Whale Frankenstein classics, The Exorcist and the cult hit An American Werewolf in London (above), among many others. The theme was monsters of course, be it a mad made, undead, terrorizing birds, Satan himself or what have you. The list also now includes all the original trailers or scenes from the films in the case of availability issues. So head over to the Movies for Every Month page to read October's description and click here for the full list of ten great monsters of the cinema. Happy Halloween!
TRAILER #2: "The Imitation Game"
A new UK trailer for The Imitation Game shows a lot of the same clips from the first one, but there are some new bits in there too. It's being touted as a strong Oscar contender since its very popular showing in Telluride and then winning the People's Choice Award at Toronto, and Benedict Cumberbatch is in a very good place to be nominated for Best Actor, maybe even contending for the win. The movie comes out Nov. 21st, so look out for it.
TEASER: "Inside Out"
It's been quite a while since Pixar has come out with a real classic, on par with its winning streak from Finding Nemo through Toy Story 3, which I would argue was its last great one. I suppose some people liked Brave, but the truth is, apart from the stunning visuals, that movie wasn't nearly as good as their previous entries, and since then they've been doing sequels like Monsters University and Cars 2, with a Nemo one on the way. But this just may be a return to the creative innovation of the glory years, or at least on paper it has the potential. A young girl has arguing emotions that live inside her head, a risky concept, but with Pete Doctor directing (he last directed Up) and a screenplay from Toy Story 3's Michael Arndt, I might actually be excited about a Pixar movie again. Not a whole lot to see from this teaser (it draws heavily on clips from past hits), but the movie's coming out next June.
REVIEW: "Ida" (2014) Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza. Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida, one of the best movies of the year, takes its cue and a lot of its look from the European films of the 1950's and 60's- filmed in a stark and beautiful black and white (and in the old-fashioned 4:3 aspect ratio) and with a minimalist acting style, it recalls the best of directors like Robert Bresson and Ingmar Bergman. But the story is all its own, and entirely focused on the inner lives of two women, which helps it to stand apart from many of the movies that are coming out this year, and every year, which so often focus on the journey, inner or otherwise, of a male protagonist.
Pawlikowski though, is interested in something else, which is the life the young woman in question, Ida, played by amateur actress Agata Trzebuchowska. She's maybe twenty years old, and was brought up in a convent since birth, never having set foot outside the hallowed walls of the church, with its formidable nuns roaming the hallways. She was an orphan who doesn't know who she is or where she came from, and is suddenly confronted by the appearance of her only living relative, an aunt named Wanda Gruz, played by Agata Kulesza. Ida must see this relative for two days before taking her vows, and though she doesn't want to, she follows her orders and goes to visit this older woman, her mother's sister, who is unfriendly and at first harsh towards her, but is rather quickly exposed as a person who's been suffering from grief, guilt and the pain of a traumatic past involving the mystery of Ida's parents.
It's Poland in the early to mid 1960's, and many, especially Jews, are still reeling from the horrors inflicted on the population during WWII. As Wanda takes Ida under her wing, she resolves to give her some kind of identity and resolution (Ida didn't even know she was Jewish) and the two embark on a quest to find out what happened to her parents and where they are buried. In a sense, this is partly a coming of age story, as Ida observes the outside world for the first time and comes into contact with people and activities she's never before been let in on. But her reactions to these observances remain oblique, and Ida herself is a largely inscrutable character whose inner thoughts we are never allowed to penetrate. Trzebuchowska has a strikingly unique and mournful face, which Pawlekowski focuses on in closeups, and although her eyes are always alert and focused, she herself remains an intriguing cypher, as we are left to wonder what she's thinking and feeling at any given moment, even in the later parts of the film, where a series of startlingly drastic decisions give us a hint as to her thought processes, but only just, before she pulls back into her own isolation.
Ida's aunt is just the opposite, a hard drinker and former Communist party member with a terribly bleak past, and we are let in on her history, her regrets, and her personal devastation so as to feel unsurprised by her own sudden and impactful decision later in the film. The journey and the bond that these two women make in their short but meaningful two days together is powerfully felt, even within the style that Pawlekowski chooses to film, which employs the subtle, understated, Bresson-style of acting where looks and actions are quiet, yet beautifully wrought and rendered quite effective. The film is something of a throwback to the 50's and 60's style of New Wave filmmaking, yet the story is harrowing and the mystery not just of Ida's parents, but Ida herself remains a compelling and fascinating subject. This is Poland's Oscar submission in the Best Foreign Language Film race this year, and though it's not the sentimental, overly emotional kind of film that often wins in the category, the beauty of the filmmaking and the powerful simplicity of the story (which comes in at just 80 minutes) could easily make an impact on the voters. Seek it out if you can- this movie should not be overlooked.
* * * *
TRAILER #2: "The Theory of Everything"
A lot of new trailers today, and here's a second for one of the Toronto Film Festival favorites, about Stephen Hawking's relationship with his wife Jane. I know people seemed to like this movie a lot at Toronto, but I'm still wary about the sentimental tone of these trailers. Obviously Eddie Redmayne looks like he turned in a great performance as Hawking, but I just can't get too invested in a marriage that ended the way theirs did in real life. I'm in wait and see mode on this one, which is coming out in the U.S. on Nov 7th.
TRAILER #2: "Exodus: Gods and Kings"
So, now we get a longer look at Ridley Scott's Exodus, and I gotta say...not liking what I'm seeing. First of all, the makeup on Joel Edgarton looks ridiculous and I'm probably not going to be able to get past that while watching it. Second, screaming your dialogue is not acting to me (as Angelina Jolie showed in Maleficent), and there's an awful lot of that going on in this trailer. Christian Bale doesn't look that great in the part of Moses, and finally, it just looks like the showing off of a ton of CGI, which is frankly, not that impressive when you look at old movies like The Ten Commandments and see that they had to actually use a cast of thousands of extras to get this done. At least back then what was on the screen was really there. So yeah, looks like a misfire to me, and Ridley Scott's had quite a few of those lately, so I wouldn't be surprised if this one doesn't measure up.
TRAILER #3: "Interstellar"
Another new and presumably final trailer for Christopher Nolan's space epic Interstellar shows more of the actual space stuff, which is really the part I'm most looking forward to. I'm not a huge fan of his in particular, mostly because his human characters never seem very human to me, always talking in dialogue that sounds overly written and borderline speechifying, so that we are bludgeoned in the face with whatever the movie's "about." I assume that will be the case with this one too, but the part where they take off for space looks pretty awesome, and in IMAX, where it's debuting early, I'm sure it's going to leave quite an impact. Interstellar's coming out Nov 7th.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Elmer Gantry" (1960)
The movie that Burt Lancaster won Best Actor for, and he's a bombastic ball of energy who tears up the screen with his sleaziness in this film based on the 1927 novel. He stars as a traveling salesman who turns his talents to preaching evangelism when he stumbles across a revival meeting and immediately becomes infatuated with Jean Simmons, the lady in charge of the troupe. Lancaster's having a great time preaching hellfire to all who'll listen, a kind of early Billy Graham or Ted Haggard. It's a hugely entertaining and eerily prophetic movie that most people probably haven't seen, so you should seek it out.
Original 1960 Trailer:
TRAILER: "Inherent Vice"
Finally! The long-awaited trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice (which is premiering this Saturday at the New York Film Festival) has finally dropped, giving us the first look at what the eclectic, sometimes oddball director has up his sleeve for this one. It looks wacky alright, as though it wants to be something like The Big Lebowski, in my opinion. Can't wait.
BOX OFFICE 9/26-9/28: 'The Equalizer' Dominates the Box Office
Denzel Washington's revenge thriller The Equalizer took first place this weekend with a strong $35 million debut. Reviews were mixed on the movie, but word of mouth looks to be good, since it came in with an "A-" Cinemascore and played well with both men and women (audiences were split equally). That Denzel, he can draw in just about anybody. It was the third best opening of his career and frequent collaborator director Antoine Fuqua's best. In second place was last week's The Maze Runner, which fell about 50% and came in just ahead of the other new release this week, Laika Studio's The Boxtrolls. The family audience movie did very well actually, despite divisive reviews, and it's the best opening yet for the studio, which was behind other stop-motion animated features Coraline and ParaNorman.
Holdovers made up the rest of the top five, with This is Where I Leave You coming in fourth, falling just 39%, and Dolphin Tale 2 in fifth, which made another $4.8 million. Liam Neeson's A Walk Among the Tombstones did not fare well in its second week, plunging a hefty 67% for a $20 million total so far.
Top 5:
- The Equalizer- $35 million
- The Maze Runner- $17.5 million
- The Boxtrolls- $17 million
- This is Where I Leave You- $7 million
- Dolphin Tale 2- $4.8 million
In limited release, the indie film Pride did well, earning over $84k from 6 locations and receiving an "A" Cinemascore, so look for that to expand and probably get some good word of mouth as it does. Next week it's David Fincher's Gone Girl versus Annabelle, the prequel to last year's horror hit The Conjuring. I have a feeling Annabelle's going to take the crown, but hopefully there's an adult audience out there that's ready for a more prestige thriller, since it's been getting great reviews out of the New York Film Festival this week. See you then!
Movie of the Day: "Good Will Hunting" (1997)
Our last Fall movie this week is another "Robin Williams as mentor/father figure" choice, which is the movie he did win his Oscar for, and the film that gave us the dynamic duo of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The two of them famously wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for this film, which featured Matt Damon as Will, the troubled kid from the south side of Boston, who just happens to be a naturally gifted mathematics whiz and could do literally anything he wanted with that talent, if he could just get out of his own way. It's a familiar story (I admit, there were a lot of those this week), but beautifully and subtly rendered by the minimalist Gus Van Sant, and featuring some great performances, especially from the supporting cast, including Minnie Driver and Affleck, but most of all Williams as the counselor who helps Will to get over his traumatic past. It was a deserved win that year, which doesn't always happen.
Original 1997 Trailer:
TRAILER #2: "Mommy"
I thought I'd draw some more attention to Xavier Dolan's Cannes Jury Prize winner Mommy, which has now secured an official U.S. release date in early January, and has also been officially submitted by Canada as their Foreign Language Film entry in this year's Oscar race. From the reviews, it may be a little too wild and campy for the normally conservative Academy, but I can't wait to see it. Here's the new U.S. trailer:
