A24 has picked up the first of what will presumably be many Amy Winehouse documentaries in the years to come, and it's a very haunting teaser that showcases the tragic singer's fate as she succumbed to her addiction at the age of 27 (joining Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain in the "forever 27" club), just as she was rising to fame with her unique sound. It's set for a July release date.
REVIEW: "Song of the Sea" (2014) Dir. Tomm Moore
Tomm Moore, the Irish writer-director of 2009's stunning animated feature, The Secret of Kells, has hit it out of the park once again with his follow up, Song of the Sea, which is a gorgeous, meticulous, enchanting story that wrings such strong emotions that you'd have to be made of stone not to respond with some semblance of tears (I bawled like a baby). It's a wonderful story of magic, family and Irish mythology (like Kells was), that would be absolutely perfect for kids, especially those who've gotten used to seeing the same old corporate, CGI family schlock for well over a decade now.
Song of the Sea takes place in present day Ireland with a family who's been through a tragedy. Ben, the nine-year-old the film centers on, has grown up in a lighthouse with his dad and little sister, who was born on the same day his mother mysteriously disappeared and was presumed drowned. Now he and his sister Saoirse, who's six years old but still won't speak, have to come to grips with the true origins of their mother, who turns out to have been a Selkie, one of the magical creatures in Irish folklore- seals in the water, but humans on dry land. Saoirse has more in common with her mother than anyone thinks, and Ben must overcome his resentment towards her for their mother's death in order to help save her life as they make the journey together towards those who can help her.
This film is rendered with enormous sensitivity and appreciation for the characters, as the movie is just as much about repairing the bonds between family members after grief has struck them unable to communicate (Ben and Saoirse's father is also recovering from the loss of his wife and the shattering of his own happiness), as it is about encountering a plentiful stable of mythological characters the Selkie's song will bring forth- we see stone trolls come alive, and various magical creatures from the so-called "fairy" stories Ben's mother had told him before she died. Every sequence on the kids' adventure is awe-inspiring in terms of visual imagery- flat, still, and wildly colorful illustrations like something out of a children's storybook that resemble nothing being done in American animation today. Like last year's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, it shows you how much more 2D has the power to capture your visual imagination, because it can actually differ drastically in terms of style compared to the limits of CGI.
The quiet emotion of the story fills your heart in Song of the Sea's powerful final moments- there's not one wrong note throughout the entire runtime of this wonderful film, including the blissful score that will have a hard time leaving your head when it's all over. This is undoubtedly one of the best movies of 2014, and Tomm Moore is one of the true discoveries in animation over the last decade. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
* * * *
TRAILER: "The Gift"
Australian actor Joel Edgerton (you might recognize him from Zero Dark Thirty and The Great Gatsby), is making his directorial debut with this psychological thriller, which he also wrote and produced, starring himself, Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall. It looks like another variation on the Single White Female formula, about a psycho stalker who used to know Bateman- but hopefully the trailer just hides any extra twists. It comes out July 31st.
TRAILER #2: "Straight Outta Compton"
The new trailer for F. Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton makes it look pretty good actually- maybe this late August release will be a hit with a big audience that still loves and remembers N.W.A. Given the amount of influence the group had, I could definitely see it breaking through.
TRAILER: "The 33"
Okay, so, a couple of things about this trailer. You remember the 2010 story of the Chilean miners who were rescued after thirty-three days underground, right? Of course you do, and that story was so amazing it begged for a movie, and one that would be really hard to fuck up, but for this Chilean film to tell it with all the actors speaking English is odd, to say the least. I mean, come on, really? Also, Lou Diamond Phillips is Filipino, and Gabriel Byrne is Irish. Not hispanic. How hard would it be to tell this story with a whole cast of actual hispanic actors? I'm not saying everyone has to be from Chile, but seriously.
Happy April Fool's Day!
In honor of April Fools, I'm doing a whole month of laugh out loud comedies here on The Movie Seasons- in the April movie page there are ten of my favorite comedies of all time, including A Fish Called Wanda, Groundhog Day, Office Space, Monthy Python and the Holy Grail and His Girl Friday, just to name a few. Head on over to our Movies for Every Month page to see the full description for April, and then click here for the full list of ten movies and trailers to laugh with all month long. Happy April Fools everyone!
TEASER: "Masterminds"
To me, Zach Galifianakis works best in small doses, but here he is starring in this new comedy with Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis based on the 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. I don't know...this one looks like a miss to me, but you never know with comedy trailers in particular.
REVIEW: "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" (2015) Dir. Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney's new documentary doesn't exactly blow the lid off Scientology, about which rumors, ever crazier, have been swirling for years. And the book by Lawrence Wright that it's based on, which was published in 2013, was able to delve more deeply into the many, many reports of physical abuse, financial scams and bizarre practices that characterize the more extreme aspects of the religion. But there's something to seeing the actual footage of the Nazi-esque Scientology rallies, and hearing direct accounts from eight former members of the Church over the course of this two hour expose, that really makes your jaw drop when you realize that seemingly rational people can allow themselves to be so taken in by what's become the most widely recognized cult in the world.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, is a gripping, thoroughly engrossing takedown that hooks you in the first hour with its biography of founder L. Ron Hubbard, exposed as nothing less than a mentally ill fraud, who came up with the idea of starting a new religion, because "that's how you make money," and took nearly all the tenets of it from the science fiction pulp novels he wrote in the 1930's and 40's. As his mental state deteriorated, he gained followers who treated him like a god, and he responded as one, by gathering his members together and testing how far they were willing to go for him. It's clear from the start that nearly every move Hubbard made declaring his made up beliefs a religion was so he could evade federal taxes and hoard the money he was making from his willing devotees- but it's also clear that this man was violent, unstable and desperately in need of mental help, which he tried and failed to procure from real psychologists in the late 1940's.
As the story unfolds, the second hour of the documentary details the progression of the church in the wake of Hubbard's death in the 1980's, when one of his lifelong followers, David Miscavige, then in his 30's, voluntarily stepped up to take his place, and made it his life's mission to wage war on the IRS and get Scientology declared an official religion and a tax exempt organization. Unbelievably, the IRS backed down in the early 90's in the face of bad PR from the thousands of lawsuits by Scientology members threatening to expose the agency's own mistakes, and the church was granted tax exempt status and forgiven its billion dollar debt. In the decades since, abuse has only run more and more rampant by the leaders against their own members, especially those involved in the upper levels of the organization (you know, the levels after you've forked over enough cash to be allowed in on the secret alien origins of the universe and Xenu, the Galactic Overlord).
The revelations by traumatized ex-members are gobsmacking, especially accusations involving child abuse, slave labor, and "the Hole," a prison camp set up by Miscavige where he contains people for months or even years, so that he can personally physically assault and torture the willing participants (this is the detail that proved to be the last straw for three of his colleagues in the higher ranks, who jumped ship in in the mid-00's in order to tell their stories, after membership and association with Miscavige going back to their childhoods). Finally, the celebrity gossip involved is also too riveting to look away from, such as reports from John Travolta's former handler that he's been blackmailed by the church into staying a member due to the years of personal information they've collected on him through "auditing" sessions, and the now well known but no less disturbing accounts of Tom Cruise as the biggest Scientology star, who thinks he's best friends with Miscavige himself and seems to have been utterly sucked in by the church's fawning adulation and worship of him as another god in their organization. It's even confirmed by the former higher ups that the church was directly responsible for breaking up his marriage to Nicole Kidman (a non-Scientologist perceived as a threat) and turning their children against their own mother in extensive further auditing at Mscavige's personal orders.
This is quite a damning expose, and portrays the cult as essentially a multibillion dollar real estate scam that rakes millions of dollars from its members in return for sycophantic worship of the more "important" celebrities, and physical abuse of the underlings and their children. You come away from it partly wanting to learn more (this could easily have been a miniseries) and also hoping that David Miscavige will now be unable to maintain the level of corruption absolute power has yielded within him. In order for that to happen, more and more will have to speak out, despite extreme and terrifying continual harassment by the church against former members and critics. If that continues to be the case, perhaps the IRS will reverse its position on the status of the church, as investigation into the cult will undoubtedly produce evidence of fraudulent business practices and abuses far beyond the parameters of other "religions." For now we can only feel sorry for those desperate enough to get taken in by this charade, many of whom have lost years of their lives to it.
* * * 1/2
TRAILER #2: "Spy"
The new trailer for Spy shows Melissa McCarthy at her best, and I'm officially really excited for this now that it got very positive reviews out of its premiere at the SXSW film festival a few weeks ago. McCarthy to me is hilarious, but she's not always served well by some of her choices (Tammy, Identity Thief). But this is Paul Feig, who directed both Bridesmaids and The Heat, and seems to always get the very best out of her, so I'm happy about the early buzz that it's her best movie. It comes out June 5th.
TRAILER #2: "Mad Max: Fury Road"
Wow! Now that's a trailer. Set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival just days ahead of its U.S. release, the new Mad Max movie looks like a non-stop adrenaline ride, but in a good way. Hopefully it'll be able to rival what was for me anyway, the only great movie in the original trilogy, 1981's The Road Warrior (which really was one of the great action movies of all time). Can't wait to see this.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Imitation Game" (2014)
Out on blu-ray today is the better of last year's dueling British biopics, the one about mathematician Alan Turing that starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. Nominated for 8 Oscars, including Picture, Director and for its two stars, and winning Best Adapted Screenplay, this was set during WWII and documented the breaking of the Enigma Code by a group of Bletchley Park scientists, including Turing and his fellow outsider Joan Clarke. Seamlessly weaving back and forth between time periods, the movie mixed genres to be a sort of historical thriller, and the performances were terrific from the entire ensemble cast. A very entertaining and engrossing drama that sheds light on a little known period in history, and a man whose monumental contributions had been all but ignored by his own country.
Trailer:
TV SPOTS: "Tomorrowland" & "Jurassic World"
Some new promos for a couple of the big summer movies coming out this year that everyone's looking forward to. Personally, I think Tomorrowland looks more promising than Jurassic World- the Jurassic Park series seems to have been a one-off in terms of you know, a movie people actually liked. I think once you've seen one movie with dinosaurs terrorizing humans, the novelty is basically gone forever. Especially when the special effects from the 90's somehow look better than the ones they're using now- seriously, what's that about?
And here's the one for Tomorrowland. We get a look at Hugh Laurie in sci-fi action here:
