One of the last remaining pioneers of cinema's French New Wave passed away at the age of 87 today. Like his contemporaries and friends Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette was a film critic turned director in the 1960's and made 28 feature films, most notably Paris Belongs to Us and Celine and Julie Go Boating. A film critic for the famed Cahiers du Cinema, he served as its editor from 1962-67.
Trailer for 1974's Celine and Julie Go Boating:
This looks very cool, and we should take a moment to appreciate the fact that Laika Studios has dedicated itself to being the only company still in the business of producing stop-motion animated features against the onslaught of boring CGI domination. I don't know about everybody else, but CG has proven itself to have limits to its visual creativity in ways that 2D and stop-motion do not. The features Laika has produced so far- Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls, have all been more interesting and in unconventional ways than most animated films that flood the marketplace every year, so kudos to them.
I still think this movie looks really, really stupid- more a copy of recent crap like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter than anything creatively inspired by a graphic novel. But I guess we'll find out soon enough. They don't bother to put any kind of a hook in these trailers besides girls in 19th century garb slicing up zombies either- no clever lines, satire or anything. Lame.
The latest trailer for this CG mess combines several of the most recent TV spots, and this is all you want to see of those, trust me. Every new piece of footage revealed from this thing makes it look worse. Superman is a scowling bully, Batman is wildly overacted with an even more ridiculous growl than he had in his last iteration (I thought no one's Batman voice could be worse than Christian Bale's), and Jesse Eisenberg? Again, the less said about him the better. The reviews on this one are going to be very interesting, if nothing else. Something tells me people who sat through Man of Steel aren't going to go in looking to give Zack Snyder a pass this time.
John Carney, director of Once and Begin Again, premiered this coming of age film at Sundance just the other day, and the crowd went wild for it. Apparently another heartwarming, crowd-pleasing, original musical filled with new music, this time inspired by 1980's rock. I'm so there. Carney reminds me of Cameron Crowe when he was at his peak- the kind of guy who can make sentimental, feel good films with warm characters you want to spend time with, and never leave their universes. The kind of sentiment that hits the sweet spot by falling just shy of cheesiness- in other words, my kind of movie.
As winter storm Jonas pummeled the east coast this weekend and shut down theaters, The Revenant creeped up to No. 1 for the first time since its release, pulling in 16 million and 119 million total. This is, needless to say, the highest grossing Inarritu movie ever and his first to hit the top spot at the box office, no doubt fueled by the 12 Oscar nominations it hauled in a couple weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Ride Along 2 suffered a steep drop and fell to third, earning 12 million for a 59 million domestic total and paving the way for Star Wars to retake second place. TFA earned another 14 million, adding to its now 879 million total as it is now the fourth biggest international grossing movie of all time, surpassing Jurassic World earlier this week. Worldwide, it's still behind Titanic and Avatar- we'll have to see if it can topple Titanic or not, with Avatar's total seemingly out of reach. The rest of the top five was filled by new releases that did not impress, with Dirty Grandpa and the horror movie The Boy sneaking in with fairly lame debuts for both. Chloe Moretz's YA adaptation The 5th Wave did not make the top five, ensuring this one will not become a franchise.
Top 5:
We're pretty much in the dog days of January, with nothing coming out in limited release lately and the film festival crowds gathering in Sundance this week with a slate of potential Oscar contenders for next year's awards season being screened. In light of that, there's not much to talk about, with nothing of note coming out until the Coen Brothers Hail, Caesar on February 5th, followed by Deadpool and Zoolander 2 on the 12th. Until then, we slog through. Stay warm everybody.
Well, we had another shocker here, guys. The year after Birdman stunned everyone by upsetting at the PGA and going on to win the Oscar, now The Big Short takes out the competition and solidifies itself as the Best Picture contender to beat. In fact, I'll go ahead and tell you right now that I trust the PGA winner over every other predictor when it comes to Best Picture, simply because it's matched up the last 7 years in a row. And the Producers Guild uses the same exact ballot that the Academy does and have roughly about the same number of members in its organization- that's why it's been so reliable in recent years. And the truth is it shouldn't be that surprising, considering how well this movie has performed with all the guilds, hitting everywhere it needed to, including in the Oscar nominations. It's clearly the industry's favorite. We've got some more guilds to weigh in, including SAG next weekend, and DGA in a few weeks, but right now I'm saying it's Big Short for Picture and Adam McKay for director. Your best bet is always to stick with the guilds overall, and if it comes down to it, the PGA in particular, and it has now spoken.
2015 PGA WINNERS:
Okay, this looks hilarious. The brilliant Comedy Central duo make their movie debut with Keanu, and I'm so there. These guys are awesome.
This early look at the 2017 Wonder Woman movie showcases what looks to me like Zack Snyder's typical washed out, slo-mo action, videogame crap in the vein of 300 and everything he's done since. He's not even directing this one, but his signature "style" is all over it. How did a guy like that manage to get his hands on creative control of the DC universe? This is why all the movies with my favorite heroes (I prefer DC guys to Marvel in general), are going to suck so hard. What a shame. If I sound like I'm not giving it a chance, it's because I sat through Man of Steel twice and lived to regret it.
Boy, someone wants to rip off Guardians of the Galaxy, don't they? In the trailer at least. This one takes a totally different tone than the first, super serious teaser did, and it doesn't look half as bad as Batman v Superman- although what could? Not sure though. I think more than half the effect is "Bohemian Rhapsody" playing throughout it. And they're not teasing Batman, who is supposed to show up in this movie, as played by Ben Affleck.
I wasn't a big fan of the first Neighbors movie, and frankly, this one looks even dumber. But it was a big hit, so maybe this one will continue the series- I'm starting to wonder if Chloe Moretz really has it in her to be a successful actress as an adult though. The best thing she's ever done is still Kick Ass.
I'm not sure how many fans there were of this movie, but apparently it's now become a cinematic universe of its own. Yay? I gotta admit, I never saw the first one.
The Movie Seasons
Use this site for movie and television recommendations throughout the year- we have picks for the changing seasons, holidays, and moods, along with new releases and recaps of the best shows on TV
