Youth is a movie that debuted at Cannes to relatively warm reviews, and is now slated to come out in December from Fox Searchlight, so it could be something to watch out for. Almost everyone said that Jane Fonda was the big scene-stealer in this, but Michael Caine is seriously good as well, and beloved veteran actors like these two can always grab some attention for significant parts. The only thing that gives me pause is that it's from Paolo Sorrentino, whose last movie The Great Beauty, I did not like (although it won the Oscar for Foreign Film), but for most critics that would probably only make them look forward to this more. We'll see.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Doors" (1991)
Oliver Stone's The Doors is out in a special blu-ray edition today, and it's a musical biopic that stands out for a few reasons, not least of which was Val Kilmer's totally immersive performance as Doors frontman Jim Morrison (for which I maintain he was robbed of an Oscar nomination). Oliver Stone is prone to excess, and that's a criticism that certainly applies to this movie at times, but this is subject matter for which it might be appropriate, because it has the effect of placing you right in the middle of the late 60's sex, drugs and rock and roll craze, and it feels more authentic, vibrant and alive than any other film I've ever seen that tries to recreate that time period. The incredible soundtrack doesn't hurt it either. It's the reason that the movie holds up and stands apart from the rote, by the numbers rags to riches stories of so many films in this genre.
Trailer:
Maggie Smith to Enter the Oscar Race with 'The Lady in the Van'
I say that of course because she's Dame Maggie Smith, a legend, two-time Oscar winner and six-time nominee, now starring in a film based on the award-winning play, which was also based on a true story. All that, plus it just secured a December U.S. release date from Sony Pictures Classics, which means they think it's definitely something to be reckoned with, or at least she is. Mark this one down on your calendars, folks.
BOX OFFICE 8/21-8/23: 'Compton' Cruises to No. 1 Again; New Releases Falter
Straight Outta Compton had an easy ride to the top spot this weekend, and crossed the $100 million milestone in its second week, along with Trainwreck, which did so after a month in release, making that two more films to hit the $100 million marker for Universal in its amazing year at the box office. Compton pulled in $26 million in an otherwise slow week, as all three of the new releases underperformed, confirming that summer season is officially over, at least at the box office. Sinister 2 and Hitman: Agent 47 both opened below their predecessors, with $10 and $8 million respectively, while American Ultra couldn't even crack the top five, earning just $5.5 million on top of mixed-negative reviews.
Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation held onto second place with another $11 million for the weekend, bringing its new total to $160 million, while The Man From U.N.C.L.E. stayed in the top five despite its weak opening last weekend, dropping 45% for $7 million and a domestic total of $26 million. It will be labeled a failure, since it cost about $75 million to produce (Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill just can't catch a break, can they?). Welcome to the summer doldrums, everyone.
Top 5:
- Straight Outta Compton- $26.8 million
- Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation- $11.7 million
- Sinister 2- $10.6 million
- Hitman: Agent 47- $8.1 million
- The Man From U.N.C.L.E.- $7.4 million
In limited release, Lily Tomlin's Grandma opened strong, for $120k on 4 screens. That's a per theater average of about $30k, which is good news for Tomlin's potential Oscar bid. The movie got strong reviews as well, so if it can be an indie hit and she's willing to campaign for it, I think she stands a great chance at a nomination, which would be her second one ever, if you can believe it, after 1975's supporting nod for Nashville. Next week is bound to be another slow one, with Zac Efron's We Are Friends opening, along with Owen Wilson's No Escape and Margot Robbie in Z for Zachariah. Could Compton be No. 1 for three weeks in a row? Looks like it. See you then.
'The Final Girls' Spoofs '80's Horror Movies
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?
