At first glance, this movie looks kinda fun, as it pulls a reverse Purple Rose of Cairo as this group of teens steps into the screen of an old horror movie, but with all the meta "this is when this happens and now we have to do this" according to the standard tropes of slasher movies, isn't exactly what the Scream movies did? So it's not that original, but apparently it played well at SXSW this spring. I always like to see some of my favorite TV alums in something- here it's Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleditch and Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat. It's coming out in October, for Halloween.
Movie of the Day: "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984)
It's time for our last summer vacation movie of the day, everyone, as August winds down and fall is getting closer and closer. Today I choose the third and final film in the original Muppet trilogy, the real one as I like to think of it, because Jim Henson was still around and involved when these were being made. In this, the Muppets graduate college (don't ask) and travel to New York to put on a Broadway show. Kermit and Miss Piggy end up spending the whole summer there as the rest of the Muppets go their separate ways, but one of my favorite things about this one is the big musical finale onstage, which culminates in the long awaited wedding of pig and frog, as the two lead Muppets finally get hitched (and will then spend the rest of their existence arguing about whether it actually happened, but since this was the original Kermit and Piggy, played by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, I'm here to say that it was definitely, 100% real). It's an adorable ending and a salute to the last movie with Henson himself as Kermit, which kind of marked the end of an era, although the Muppets would continue to pop up in films, TV and specials of course. Still, if this had been the last we ever saw of them, it was a pitch perfect note to end on.
Original VHS Trailer:
Movie of the Day: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008)
Today's summer vacation movie is this Woody Allen film starring Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson as two women on vacation in Spain. But the reason to see this movie has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the supporting characters. Basically ScarJo meets and is seduced by Javier Bardem, who comes with a crazy estranged wife in Penelope Cruz (who won an Oscar for the role), and the trio embarks on a threesome while Hall longs for Bardem from the sidelines. But the relationship and scenes between Bardem and Cruz make the entire movie, and you wish that the whole film had been about the two of them and their nutty, destructive relationship. They perform most of their scenes together in Spanish and they manage to make the often stilted dialogue in the later Woody Allen ouvre come alive in feisty, convincing bursts of passion and energy. The two of them, plus the scenery is what makes this film worth seeing as a minor, later entry in the Allen canon.
Trailer:
Star Wars Spinoff 'Rogue One' Cast Picture
The Star Wars universe is expanding very quickly. At D23 it was announced that entire Star Wars parks are being added to both Disneyland and Disney World, and the spinoffs are set to start coming out soon, starting with this one, which is titled Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and set to be released December 16th, 2016. Godzilla's Gareth Edwards is directing, with The Theory of Everything's Felicity Jones starring (as you can see), but I'm more curious as to how a movie like this will actually perform, whether spinoffs will be anywhere near as popular as the nostalgia fueled Star Wars continuity movies. I'll guess we'll find out, but a movie like this is bound to be much more of its own thing than the JJ Abrams one coming out this Christmas.
REVIEW: "While We're Young" (2015) Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts. Dir. Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach has been on something of a roll lately, and I can't help but feel that it's tied to his lightening up. From his breakthough film The Squid and the Whale, through 2010's Greenberg, he was known for a dark, mean, somewhat menacing tone that ran through his films, infusing them with a sort of nasty, vicious, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf-inspired dialogue, which often affords its own devious yet downtrodden pleasures. But then he met his current muse and girlfriend Greta Gerwig, with whom he co-wrote Frances Ha and the upcoming Mistress America, larks filled with a breezy, funny, almost screwball sensibility, and now he comes out with While We're Young, an obviously personal rumination on generational differences that has some of the funniest, laugh out loud scenes of the year in it.
His Greenberg star Ben Stiller is back starring as Josh, a fortysomething documentarian who made one film and then never quite lived up to his potential, obsessed with the process of getting it right and too distracted by the lethargy of life to really finish it, always suffering under the shadow of his father-in-law, Charles Grodin, a filmmaker from a 60's generation who takes smug pride in his films finding the real life truth in cinema. Josh and his wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) love each other but are in kind of a rut, struggling with the weight of unmet expectations, since Cornelia has suffered several miscarriages and the two have resigned themselves to a life without kids while having to watch their busy, middle-aged friends all coping with the new baby lifestyle. So when a mid-twentysomething couple suddenly comes into their lives via auditing one of Josh's film classes at his university, their energy, vitality and fresh perspective rejuvenates Josh and Cornelia's desire to live in the moment, instead of dwelling on their present circumstances.
The younger couple is played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, with Driver as Jamie, a wannabe documentary filmmaker himself, who presents himself as worshipful of Josh and a fan of his work, wanting the older man to imbue him with the knowledge of how to make great films to get started on his own career. The ego boost is too attractive for Josh to resist, but as the two spend more and more time together, Jamie's faux hipster douchiness reveals itself for what it really is, as intergenerational warfare proceeds at an increasingly rapidfire pace. Baumbach's script is filled with clever witticisms and observations that feel true, not so much as a blanket statement on millennials or Gen X-ers, but more as the specific natures of these characters brought about by their interactions and battles over their ideas of filmmaking and culture. Yet by being true to these characters, the revelations feel enlightened and real, with interesting points wrought from the conclusions the story comes to. For example, the natural alliance that springs forth between the millennial and baby boomer generation in their propensity for narcissism and willingness to manipulate the truth for their own benefit can't help but feel pretty accurate, leaving poor Josh out in the cold as the whiny, forever downtrodden loser who can't get his own life together enough to make a success out of it but feels plenty put upon by others to complain anyway.
This is a movie that makes you think about all these things while also making you laugh at the same time, as some lines and dialogue sparkle in such a way as to remind you of peak Woody Allen, back when he had his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. It's Allen as if he actually understood the world of today, where fortysomethings are just as tuned into the Internet and their phones as everybody else, but just happen to remember a world and a time when people weren't. The female characters in the movie get a bit of the short shrift, but given that it's clearly Baumbach's story and point of view, I can't fault it too much for staying with Josh's perspective on the world as it affects him. I really like this new, still witty yet relaxed and honest Baumbach- I can't wait to see what he does next.
* * * 1/2
Movie of the Day: "Before Sunrise" (1995)
Our next people on vacation are Jesse and Celine, in the first day and night they ever spent together. This is still my favorite of Richard Linklater's Before trilogy (maybe it'll continue going every nine years forever), and that's probably because it's the sweetest and most romantic. The most idealized, you could also say, but I guess it's like that for every couple when they first meet, especially in their mid-twenties, as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were here. But sigh, it's so romantic. The two of them meet on a train while on vacation in Europe, and impulsively decide to get off the train in Vienna and spend the day walking around and talking about everything they can. The interesting thing about this trilogy is that it deepens as you watch Jesse and Celine reunite when they're ten years older, and then another ten years older, but this first one still works absolutely perfectly on its own as the fairy tale romance every person who harbors the slightest hope to fall in love at first sight might hold deep within themselves. This is the most you'll ever love these two, even as you see them grow older and wiser.
Trailer:
Matt Damon Fights For Survival in New Trailer for 'The Martian'
As I said recently, the more I see of this, the more I think it's going to be really good. Both Matt Damon and Ridley Scott's best movie in a long time. It's obviously trying to break out as the Gravity/Interstellar of this year, and with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence's sci-fi Passengers coming out next year, it looks like fall has suddenly become to go-to season for the annual space movie. That's a bit of an odd trend I guess, but with this one based on the best-selling novel, I have a feeling it's going to be a big hit. Plus, it just looks downright exciting. The Martian comes out October 2nd.
'The Witch' Unleashes Horror On a Puritan Family
Finally! I've been hearing about this movie since it debuted at the Sundance film festival in January and won the best director prize, and now there's an actual trailer ahead of its showing at TIFF in a couple weeks. Sundance has become the place for original, genuinely scary horror movies in the last two years (The Babadook, It Follows), and this is another one that got rave reviews from the critics, who labeled it the most terrifying one yet. Set in 1635, a Puritan family is terrorized by a mysterious presence in the woods and it looks pretty damn frightening. I just wonder why A24 is saving it for next year and not releasing it in time for Halloween. Doesn't it seem like the perfect time for genuine horror movies is in October?
Movie of the Day: "Almost Famous" (2000)
Our next summer vacation movie is Almost Famous, one of my favorite movies and undoubtedly Cameron Crowe's best. In this one, Patrick Fugit plays 15-year-old William, a stand-in for Crowe himself, who was hired by Rolling Stone magazine in 1973 to go on tour with Led Zeppelin for the summer (standing in for them in the film is the fictional Stillwater) so he could write the cover story on the band. William's experiences of falling for the group and all the ways their fame, fortune and excess turns everyone around them into groupies is honest, funny, heartbreaking and feel-good all at the same time. At his peak, Crowe was always a writer who could make you cry, feel and laugh simultaneously, and he gets great, natural and authentic performances here from Kate Hudson (probably the only good movie she ever made), Billy Crudup (also his best role) and Frances McDormand as William's scene-stealing, neurotic mother. I've seen it a hundred times, but I could always watch it over and over for a million different reasons, not least of which is the music and recreation of the early 70's rock scene. It rings true because for Crowe it was, and it was something he could never forget.
Trailer:
James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe Star in a New Take on 'Frankenstein'
Wigs galore in this new, comedic and somewhat campy adaptation of the Frankenstein novel, as James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe intro the trailer here for the film coming out on November 25th. Unfortunately it kinda reminds me of that movie Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman- sometimes the contemporary "spin" on these stories doesn't work out so great. All the action stuff in the last part of this trailer doesn't really bode well either, but we'll see.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981)
A year before her iconic Sophie's Choice performance, Meryl Streep was nominated for this film, a movie she was just as good in, and in a way I consider to be her quintessential performance. It's because she got to play two parts, the character in a period drama racked by torment with all the theatricality and mannered accents Streep is known for, and the present day actress playing that part, who's also having an affair with her co-star Jeremy Irons. In that role she's subtle, natural and laid-back, the opposite of the character she's playing in the film within the film. For that reason this is Meryl Streep in all the ways you know her, all on the screen at one time. This is more of a movie about acting than the story based on the actual novel, and that makes it kind of a strange film overall, different than what you'd expect. But it's worth checking out for Meryl, as it could have easily been her first Best Actress award, but of course that was coming right after this.
Original 1981 Trailer:
Movie of the Day: "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" (1953)
Our Movie of the Day series is back this week for a final batch of summer travels, as August is rapidly winding down and fall approaches. But before that happens it's time to spend one last week with people on summer vacation, which means, traveling in the summer in a place that is not their home. That might be a weirdly specific theme, but I think it's appropriate for these final days when it's the last chance for any kind of vacation. The choice today is the French film Mr. Hulot's Holiday (the American title), in which Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati, who also directed) goes to the beach and causes relatively harmless havoc to the vacationers around him. This movie was made almost entirely without dialogue, so the fact that it's French is really incidental- Tati was kind of a throwback to the silent comedians and his style of humor replicated some of them, while also being entirely his own (his emotionless style probably mimics Buster Keaton most). This will probably be kind of an oddity to some people, but it grows on you as you watch it- the subtle, not overt slapstick isn't really Chaplin-esque, but Mr. Hulot's distinct, somewhat charmless charm becomes its own unique persona as the film goes along. It's worth checking out.
Original Trailer:
