Movie of the Day: "Rear Window" (1954)

Our Movie of the Day series this month, in celebration of spooky stuff for Halloween is a weeklong tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense. He's made so many masterpieces, and I only recommended one in our Halloween picks for October, so this is a chance to salute more of the master's work. Rear Window is up first, my favorite Hitchcock movie, and it hasn't aged a bit. It speaks to the inner voyeur in all of us, playing on the eye of the movie theater crowd itself, and with a classic performance from the great Jimmy Stewart, if you haven't seen this one yet, now's the time. Also with Grace Kelly, the first icy blonde of Hitchcock's obsession, it still has the power to genuinely scare in its final moments.

Trailer: 

BOX OFFICE 10/11-10/13: 'Gravity' Holds Strong, 'Captain Phillips' Scores Big

It was a great weekend for the top three films at the box office, with Gravity continuing to hit record breaking numbers and Tom Hanks earning his first big hit in years, as adult audiences are flocking to the theaters for awards bait films.  

Gravity fell just 21%, pulling in another $44 million for the biggest non-holiday hold of any movie that's ever opened to over $55 million in the first weekend. The movie performed like a summer blockbuster over the weekdays, so the word of mouth is outstanding and it's still got a long way to go. $250 million total is all but assured, the question is if it can get to $300 million with all the Oscar buzz. That's an incredible hold by the way for an action movie starring a 49 year old woman of all people- and that's not snark, that's genuinely impressive and extremely rare. Sandra Bullock continues to rule the box office after The Heat became the biggest comedy of the year, and all this on the heels of her smash hits The Proposal and The Blind Side in just 2009. After breaking through 19 years ago in Speed, who'd have thought at her age she'd be the biggest female movie star in the world? It's pretty cool, I have to say.

Meanwhile Captain Phillips pulled in $26 million and earned an "A" Cinemascore (better than Gravity's A-), so this film will have legs as well. The Tom Hanks real life inspired piracy drama reached an audience 52% male, 48% female, and 62% over age 35. It's his first hit since Angels and Demons 5 years ago and is looking to cross Argo's total of $130 million by the end of its run (it will). In third was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, which is hanging in there with $14 million this weekend and $78 million total, set to surpass the original for sure, and Machete Kills bombed with just under $4 million as the other wide release.

Top 5: 

1. Gravity- $44.2 million
2. Captain Phillips- $26 million
3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2- $14.2 million
4. Runner Runner- $3.7 million
5. Machete Kills- $3.7 million

Next week, in wide release there's the Carrie remake, Escape Plan and The Fifth Estate, and in limited release, the dramas 12 Years a Slave and All is Lost with Robert Redford.

'Her' Closes out the New York Film Festival to Ecstatic Praise

Spike Jonze, the wildly imaginative director of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are, seems to have launched another winner, as Her premiered to very enthusiastic reaction at New York today. The Joaquin Phoenix-starring drama about a lonely man in the near future who falls in love with his operating system (Scarlett Johansson in a highly praised pure voiceover performance), is being described as a highly romantic, contemporary story about the interactions we have with others in the age of technology. I can't wait to see this- it's coming out in limited release in December, but set to expand wide January 10th. It may not be a big Oscar player though, as its quirkiness and select appeal will probably limit it to screenplay and original song consideration only. But it's set to be a critics' darling based on this early word.

"What begins like an adolescent dream soon blossoms into Jonze's richest and most emotionally mature work to date, burrowing deep into the give and take of relationships, and that eternal dilemma, shared by both man and machine: the struggle to know one's own true self." (Variety)

"It's sincere in how it approaches loneliness and the compulsion to overcome it, and it asks the question of whether technology fosters distance from others, helps surmount it, or both." (Hollywood Reporter)

"Deeply perceptive and attuned to the risks, fears, surprises, and wonders of intimacy, 'Her' is a vulnerable, earnest movie that strikes no false notes, never feels manipulative, and earns the sadness and reflection it evokes in its audience." (The Playlist) 

"'Her' is a screwball surrealist comedy that asks us to laugh at an unconventional romance while also disarming us with the realization that its fantasy scenario isn't too far from out present reality." (Slant)

Here's the trailer again:

TRAILER: "The Invisible Woman"

This Ralph Fiennes directed period drama tells the story of Charles Dickens and his secret mistress Nelly Ternan, played by Felicity Jones. The movie got some good reviews at the Toronto Film Festival and is coming out in limited release on Christmas Day.

REVIEW: "Much Ado About Nothing" (2013) Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker. Dir. Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing is a minor pleasure for Shakespeare fans, and that would be extremely minor indeed. I was hoping to love this film, but I came out of it a bit disappointed, as it mostly felt like a very small, almost amateurish table reading of the play.

Whedon has been known to have his friends over to his house to participate in readings of Shakespeare from time to time, and in fact this seemed to be exactly that, only with the cameras turned on. The setting has been updated to present day but of course the dialogue is unchanged, and fans will recognize plenty of Whedon actors in the film, from Angel's Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker as the lead characters Benedick and Beatrice, to Firefly's Sean Maher and Nathan Fillion, Buffy's Tom Lenz, and The Avengers' Clark Gregg filling out supporting parts. The characters show up at the mansion (in this case, Whedon's) and the familiar romantic misadventures of Shakespeare's comedy takes place, but for me although the effort was admirable, it didn't click on a  a higher level than simply a bunch of pals hanging around playing make believe.

The actors are fine, but there's no real spark to the performances, and they didn't seem to give more than marginal effort to the dialogue that we've certainly seen in other, better Shakespeare adaptations (there's no Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice here, for example, which is one of my favorite Shakespeare performances in a film). Alexis Denisof in particular didn't quite work for me as Benedick, coming off more smarmy and hammy than lovelorn and cynical. Nathan Fillion is the one exception- he's absolutely perfect as the constable Dogberry and steals the movie in his fairly small part. His high energy and comic timing suit the material perfectly and if every role was inhabited as joyfully as his that would have elevated the rest of the proceedings immensely.

The movie is shot in black and white, but given how low key the whole undertaking came across I'm left to suspect that was a move simply to distinguish it from a home movie in some way. There's really not much more than that on the screen, and it's a very slight entry into the filmed Shakespeare canon. On the plus side, you can't do much to take away from the dialogue, which is always a pleasure to hear, even in a setting equivalent to a table reading. If you're a devoted fan of the Bard and want to see every adaptation, I certainly wouldn't dissuade you from this one, but just know that there have been and very likely will be, better staged and grander versions of this play (the 1993 Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson one comes to mind) and this was ultimately a minimalist exercise that could have been infused with a hell of a lot more energy.

* *

TRAILER #2: "The Monuments Men"

Ok, well this is a much better trailer than the first one. Looks like they did their best to try to make it feel more "important" since it's set in WWII and everything. But still, I can't help but think this movie is still going to be another Ocean's Eleven-style caper heist.  Coming out Dec. 18th.

POSTERS: "Oldboy"

New posters for Spike Lee's Oldboy are out today, via EW. My favorite's the second one. The film comes out Nov 27th.

FEATURETTE #2: "12 Years a Slave"

A new featurette behind the scenes of the Oscar frontrunner, this time with the cast and crew focused on Chiwetel Ejiofor as the lead character, Solomon Northup. The film is based on Northup's autobiography that recounts his being kidnapped as a free man in the 1840's and then sold into slavery. It's coming out in limited release Oct 18th, then nationwide Nov 1st.

REVIEW: "The Conjuring" (2013) Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga. Dir. James Wan

On the level of pure horror, I can't deny that the The Conjuring is effective- this movie keeps you in a state anxious anticipation throughout its entire running time, and the level of pure terror it inflicted upon me was by far more stressful than anything I've seen in a long, long time. And yet, there are so many elements of this movie that are derivative of countless other horror films, that it lacks for even one single original idea, and exists by itself as a stylistic exercise (if a very effective one) from director James Wan.

The plot starts out with The Amityville Horror- in a supposedly true incident from the 1970's, a family of seven moves into an old, mysterious, creaking house, where they are promptly terrorized by unknown forces. In a nod to Poltergeist, two paranormal investigators (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are summoned to investigate the disturbances and move in with the family to record what's happening, in order to get permission for an exorcism from the catholic church (you can guess what that's from). The ghosts haunting the premises show up in shocking jolts, with a couple of scenes lifted directly out of The Sixth Sense, and the house is so haunted that birds swarm around it, killing themselves by flying directly into the walls (that was a real stretch to get The Birds in there).

Every single element and almost every scene in this movie is derived from another horror film. You can read the whole thing as a tribute to other movies in a Tarantino-esque manner (unsurprisingly, this is one of his own top ten films of the year so far), and I'm sure that's meant to be the case, and yet I cannot deny that Wan fashions the frights and shocks effectively and paced throughout the film, never letting up for one minute and giving audiences, especially horror buffs, exactly what it is that they came for. It's really not a film for the weak of heart. Even his filmmaking style is a tribute to 70's B-movies, with an opening credit sequence styled directly out of a 70's film and the silly dialogue and kind of ludicrous plot left on the surface level only, right down to the direct endorsement of the catholic religion as the only protector against all evil. The performances are all good, especially Lili Taylor as the mother of the family, who becomes possessed by a demonic spirit, but the exorcism scene in particular bordered on camp after just a few minutes, and the first half hour or so was filled with way too many of those horror movie "false starts," where you think something's going to happen and doesn't (I hate it when that's overdone in these movies, and for me it was here).

So, all in all, mixed feelings from me on this one. It does what it's supposed to and yet with so many direct lifts from other movies I feel it's at fault for not bringing at least something new to the table. Are we at the point now where there's nothing original left to do in a horror movie, has it all been seen and done at this point? The Conjuring wants to be a 70's B-movie at heart and for that purpose it reaches, but not exceeds, its goal.

* * 1/2

TRAILER #2: "American Hustle"

The new trailer for American Hustle shows more of the movie this time. Still set for release on Christmas Day, it's expected to be another big Oscar contender for David O. Russell, which, if it happens would make it his third Best Picture nominee in a row.  

POSTER: "Inside Llewyn Davis"

The final poster for the Coen Brother's new movie is my favorite one: 

REVIEW: "The Heat" (2013) Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy. Dir. Paul Feig

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy make a hilarious pair in The Heat, which works best when it's playing up their chemistry and excellent comedic rhythm, which thankfully it does for pretty much the majority of the nearly 2 hour running time.

The Heat is a buddy-cop movie with the novelty coming from two women as the leads, and amazingly enough, this is the first time this has ever been attempted (especially surprising given how often this genre has been done, re-done and spoofed over the years since the 80's Lethal Weapon series perfected it). Sandra Bullock is the uptight, by-the-book FBI agent sent to Boston to help take down a major drug dealer and Melissa McCarthy is the crazy, profanity-laced nut on the local police force she encounters and is forced to team up with. There's not much of a plot here, this is really just an exercise in comedic improv and a chance for the two stars to riff off each other and make us laugh with their verbal exchanges and dialogue (and Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold comes up with some good lines), so in a movie like this the two actors better click.

And thankfully, they do in spades- there's a magic from the start between them, and they're clearly having a good time filming this, as I imagine much of McCarthy's verbal riffs are improvised and could go on for hours. While not exactly a revelation here, after her Oscar nomination for Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy proves herself a kind of comedic tornado from the minute she arrives on screen. Dominating every scene with a verbal wit and physicality that reminded me at times of the late Chris Farley, she's a force to be reckoned with and completely hilarious as one insane, profanity-laced jab after another escapes from her mouth with ease. Bullock is generous enough to stand back and give her the movie, but even as the straight man she's enough of a pro herself to know what it takes to be funny playing off of someone and the chemistry and rhythm between them is perfect in their extended, banter-ridden dialogue scenes.

They're so great together that they carry the movie through any cliched, by the numbers drug dealer plot, but luckily enough, director Paul Feig knows this movie is all about them and doesn't even bother to get too caught up in any real plot details. That can also serve to make the movie feel a little too lightweight and insubstantial (like an SNL skit stretched to feature length), but it never gets repetitive and is really worth seeing just for the two of them, who make such a unique and memorable comedic duo that it almost makes me want a sequel just to see them again. They make it seem effortless, and Melissa McCarthy is a total star.

* * *