June 2006
With a click of our heels...
By Alison Willmore on 06/30/2006
...away we go! Well, nowhere in particular, but as we head out for the long weekend, a few random quotes from other critics (and critics of critics) to ponder. Roger Ebert does A.O. Scott doing Anthony Lane literature snark on "The Devil Wears Prada":"The Devil Wears Prada" is based on the best-selling novel by Lauren Weisberger, which oddly enough captures the exact tone, language and sophistication of the books of my childhood: There was nowhere to wipe my sweaty palms except for the suede Gucci pants that hugged my thighs and hips so tightly they'd both begun to tingle... MORE »
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The week's critic wrangle: "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Jerri Blank did.
By Alison Willmore on 06/30/2006
Filed under: Critic wrangleEven for a long weekend, this one's packed — here in New York, beyond the films below, we count at least six other indie openings, including Takashi Miike's "The Great Yokai War," Iraq doc "The Blood of My Brother," Bollywood superhero flick "Krrish," pedophilia (!) comedy "Say Uncle," IFC's own arty bull riding doc "Rank" and Kyle Henry's Independent Spirit Award nominee "Room"...and all of these are in addition to "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Superman Returns." It's both exhilarating and frustrating — more movies (and many of them worth seeing), it seems, then there are people to see them.... MORE »
Fabián Bielinsky, 1959-2006.
By Alison Willmore on 06/30/2006
Via Reuters:Argentine film director Fabián Bielinsky, who shot the critically-acclaimed "Nine Queens" crime caper, died of a heart attack in Sao Paulo, Brazil, consulate officials said on Thursday. He was 47. Bielinsky was in Brazil doing casting for commercials. He died on Wednesday night in his hotel.Bielinsky had only directed two films — the most recent, "The Aura," was just acquired by, actually, IFC's First Take arm, as reported by Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE early this month. His first film, "Nine Queens," was a critical hit here in the US and was invitably remade, though the result, 2004's "Criminal,"... MORE »
News bits.
By Alison Willmore on 06/29/2006
Because it's awfully quiet today — and damn right, it's a holiday! Nearly! Big news: Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" has been acquired by Sony Pictures (via Borys Kit at the Hollywood Reporter). Of the notorious Cannes reception and the assumed heavy editing the film would be undergoing:"(Richard) is going to complete his edit, and when we see his cut, we'll figure out the distribution plan," SHE president Ben Feingold said. "But it will be theatrical." The studio is providing suggestions to Kelly, but "it's his movie," Feingold said. "We'll have a point of view, but people like (Kelly's) sensibility."Also... MORE »
Venice, anyone?
By Alison Willmore on 06/28/2006
The Hollywood Reporter announced today that the 63rd Venice International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of writer-director Douglas McGrath's "Infamous" — i.e. that other Truman Capote biopic, the one with the shitty timing. Though at the Independent, David Thomson goes to bat for the film (before the Venice announcement was made, even):In "Capote," the achievement of the film - and it delivers - is to show that Capote was a shit, a devious glory-seeker and a fine writer who got his own way all the time. That film says he was ruined by his success, but... MORE »
Odds: Tuesday - Southland Tales and such.
By Alison Willmore on 06/27/2006
The latest issue of Cinema Scope has the expected Cannes focus, with Mark Peranson grumbling“How was Cannes?†For about two weeks after the Fortnight, that’s the question a returning Cannes cavalry soldier receives from whomever he comes in contact with on the homefront. They might as well be asking, “How was the root canal?â€Peranson also weighs in on the CriticGate 2006 crisis and interviews Richard Kelly. And there's the usual dozen smart offerings. [On the topic of CriticGate, canned New York Daily News critic Jami Bernard has gone blogger over at Movie City News.] At New York, Logan Hill... MORE »
Ruh-roh.
By Alison Willmore on 06/27/2006
Manohla Dargis: "Every era gets the superhero it deserves, or at least the one filmmakers think we want. For Mr. Singer that means a Superman who fights his foes in a scene that visually echoes the garden betrayal in 'The Passion of the Christ' and even hangs in the air much as Jesus did on the cross. It's hard to see what the point is beyond the usual grandiosity that comes whenever B-movie material is pumped up with ambition and money. As he proved with his first two installments of 'The X-Men' franchise, Mr. Singer likes to make important... MORE »
Odds: Monday - Pirates, Je T'Aime.
By Alison Willmore on 06/26/2006
The site for another big Cannes title, massive anthology film "Paris Je T'aime," is live here, with photos and trailer (click "Film Annonce"). In French, natch — no US distributor for this one either, despite looking mighty charming. At The Hot Button, David Poland big hearts "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "easily the best studio confection of the year... kicking ass, taking names, and reminding us all of the joy that going to a big summer movie is supposed to inspire in us." Slightly old, and we're still having trouble believing it: Newsweek's Lorraine Ali reports on the... MORE »
Man is something to be surpassed.
By Alison Willmore on 06/26/2006
Bryan Singer's possibly gay, possibly Jesus superhero tale opens inescapably on Wednesday, and coverage is reaching a crescendo, particularly in the Australian press, which seems to feel more proprietary over the Aussie-shot epic than the US press, which in general seems a little tired of the damn thing. A quick run-through: At the Sydney Morning Herald, Phillip McCarthy recaps the gay thing while (in a piece from last week) Sacha Molitorisz tackles its sequel, the Christ-metaphor thing, while also wondering whether Singer can possibly make Superman relevant to modern audiences:It's a valid question. Superman's values of "truth, justice and... MORE »
All we are is barley in the wind.
By Alison Willmore on 06/26/2006
After a lukewarm critical reception at Cannes, an out-of-the-blue Palme d'Or win, and knee-jerk accusations that the film is anti-patriotic and pro-IRA, Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" opened in the UK on Friday to both praise and a caveat-encumbered dance around what is indisputably a highly unflattering view of the British at that time. Sukhdev Sandhu in the Telegraph places the film in "a noble and very English tradition of dissent that reaches back past Cobbett and Defoe right through to William Langland." Jonathan Romney at the Independent is more measured, allowing that:While few of Loach's... MORE »
The week's critic wrangle: Gitmo, 9/11 and SoCal skate rats.
By Alison Willmore on 06/23/2006
Filed under: Critic wrangle+ "The Road to Guantanamo": It's almost impossible to look at Michael Winterbottom's latest as a film to like or dislike (or in any sense enjoy), but the highly charged hybrid doc in certainly interesting. Our beloved Armond White snarls "This whacked-out piece of anti-American propaganda, pretending Human Rights rhetoric, is a Weapon of Crass misInstruction" and goes onto to grumble that if Winterbottom has "come down to pardoning the Taliban regime just for narrative fodder, then it's time he folded up his digicam." At the Village Voice, J. Hoberman finds the film "effectively grueling," and writes (with apparent... MORE »
"The Road To Guantanamo."
By Alison Willmore on 06/22/2006
"The Road to Guantanamo" depicts a whole range of government-approved non-torture and acts of injustice, but what's really shocking is the film itself, the calculated cinematic equivalent of a blow to the gut. At a time when earnest agenda-docs about important, dire issues are a dime a dozen, rarely reaching past the same crowd of pre-concerned arthouse-goers or leaving any kind of lasting mark, "The Road to Guantanamo" effortlessly gets under your skin, mostly because it's only partially a doc. Michael Winterbottom and co-director Mat Whitecross have taken the accounts of the Tipton Three and made them into a... MORE »
Odds: Wednesday - Fair use and run times.
By Alison Willmore on 06/21/2006
At Wired News, Fiona Morgan interviews law professors Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, who co-wrote and produced "Bound By Law? Tales From the Public Domain," a must-read for any documentary filmmaker, as it lays out intellectual property laws, including the boundaries of fair use and public domain, in clear and charming comic book form (you can read it online here).WN: Why did you decide to focus on documentary film in this book? What is it about that art form in particular that makes it an especially good topic?Jennifer Jenkins: First of all, documentaries are incredibly important records... MORE »
"The world I grew up in is gone."
By Alison Willmore on 06/21/2006
At the LA Times, Kimi Yoshino recounts how Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride is getting an overhaul to look more like the films it inspired, including the addition of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow character. The ride's reopening will coincide with the release of the sequel, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." And yes, people are bitching:Internet message boards have been in mutiny for months, with fans debating whether Disney is taking corporate synergy and marketing too far — and that's saying a lot for a company that capitalizes on just about every character tie-in... MORE »
Vincent Sherman, 1906-2006.
By Alison Willmore on 06/21/2006
Only a month shy of his 100th birthday, Vincent Sherman, one of the last of the surviving Hollywood studio-era directors, passed away on Sunday. He worked with many of the greats, directing Bette Davis and Claude Rains in 1944's "Mr. Skeffington," Clark Gable and Ava Gardner in 1952's "Lone Star" and Joan Crawford in "Harriet Craig" (1950), "The Damned Don't Cry" (1950) and "Goodbye, My Fancy" (1951). And just as impressively, as the obits all take due note, he also banged several of his legendary leading ladies. Robert Berkvist in the New York Times:In his autobiography, "Studio Affairs: My... MORE »
Quotables: Hammer and "the last hurrah."
By Alison Willmore on 06/21/2006
We're back, having overcome a bout with flesh-eating bacteria (but never will we overcome our tendency to exaggerate for dramatic effect). While we catch up, a few selections: At MTV, Justin Lin shares with Larry Carroll this tidbit about the fascinating journeys to gathering cash for one's independent film:"I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for [MC] Hammer," Lin said. "When I was using all my credit cards, I had maxed them out and had to go out trying to get investors ... the only guy I knew was MC Hammer, who I had met once in Vegas. It... MORE »
NYAFF 2006: "Funky Forest: The First Contact," "Ski Jumping Pairs: Road to Torino 2006."
By Alison Willmore on 06/20/2006
Filed under: Festivals, ReviewsStill wounded -- here's one we had prewritten: You do not know strange until you've seen "Funky Forest: The First Contact," from a team of three writers/directors that includes Katsuhito Ishii, whose "The Taste of Tea" won the audience award at last year's festival. "The Taste of Tea," while also off-kilter, did have a narrative; "Funky Forest" is a collection of sketches strung together by barely overlapping characters that resembles nothing so much as the experience of late night flipping through public access channels while half asleep on the couch. Powerfully bizarre, often hilarious public access channels: reoccuring characters include... MORE »
Whiny.
By Alison Willmore on 06/19/2006
While walking in the park yesterday (pretty much a once-a-year occasion) we took a dramatic spill aided by our ill-conceived (but, rest assured, supercute) footwear, leaving behind a minor chunk of the skin on our palm and a good portion of our dignity. Until the cut scabs over, it's hurting us to type, so we're taking the day off from blogging to feel sorry for ourselves. But while we're here, quote of the day from Jacques Steinberg's interview with a glum Dan Rather in the New York Times:Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the "CBS... MORE »
NYAFF 2006: "Art of the Devil 2," "Blood Rain."
By Alison Willmore on 06/17/2006
Filed under: Festivals, ReviewsOne for all y'all who like your prolonged torture scenes (and you are out there): "Art of the Devil 2," a sequel in name only, is a Thai cautionary tale about the dangers of black magic (which go something like "once you pop, you just can't stop"). A group of Bangkok college students take a trip back to their rural hometown, while in flashbacks we learn that two years ago they managed to get one of their teachers, the beautiful Ms. Panor, fired for having an affair with the school coach. When they pay her a visit, it seems... MORE »
NYAFF 2006: "The Great Yokai War."
By Alison Willmore on 06/17/2006
Filed under: Festivals, ReviewsLumbering out of the primordial ooze of pop culture, "The Great Yokai War" is a lavish children's film from, of all people, Takashi Miike, the director famous for his phantasmagorias of horrific, imaginative violence, horrific, imaginatively disturbed sexuality, and general horrific, imaginative weirdness. Epic in scale, scattered with motifs lifted from Miyazaki movies, favoring old-school, Jim Henson-style creatures and containing one of the most ludicrous (and, considering the brand in question is Kirin Beer, oddly chosen) moments of product placement ever seen, "Yokai War" is, in the tradition of "Labyrinth" and "Return to Oz," the kind of film that would... MORE »
The week's critic wrangle: We didn't even like you BEFORE you sold out edition.
By Alison Willmore on 06/16/2006
Filed under: Critic wrangleThere are plenty of probably worthwhile indies bouncing around the theaters this week: "Wordplay," "Lower City," "Loverboy"...feh. We're weary and just not up to an array of tasteful or tastefully erotic indies. So here are some thrown-together quotes regarding the two films opening this weekend that, as our colleague Matt Singer points out, are both the work of young directors who made splashy indie debuts and followed them up by leaping immediately into the Hollywood big kids pool, giving everyone a chance to rag on how they weren't that great to begin with. + "Nacho Libre": LA Weekly's Scott Foundas: "Like... MORE »
Critical mess.
By Alison Willmore on 06/16/2006
Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman becomes the latest to take on the "Do film critics still matter?" existential crisis (If a critic writes a bad review and people go see the movie anyway, does that critic spontaneously cease to exist?):More to the point, why on earth would a critic cease to matter simply because a movie that he or she didn't like became a huge box office hit? I've been in more screening-room conversations than I can believe in which some critic I like and respect, speaking about the latest X-Men sequel or what-have-you, will say, with a rueful defeated... MORE »
Inspirational.
By Alison Willmore on 06/15/2006
We're really loving this year's AFI list, "100 Years...100 Beers," which gathers together and ranks the greatest drunk scenes committed to celluloid, digital video or highly flammable nitrate stock, with extra consideration given to the actors who likely actually intoxicated at the time. Ah, we wish. Wouldn't you rather read that list any day over this one? That does remind us, though: When we went to a screening of "Mutual Appreciation" at BAM, there was a Q&A afterward with Andrew Bujalski and members of the cast, including star Justin Rice. Someone in the audience stood up and remarked about... MORE »
"The Outsider."
By Alison Willmore on 06/15/2006
For anyone who's ever felt a bit bemused by the continuing career of director/writer/sometime-actor James Toback, "The Outsider" will be an illumination. Toback, whose finest hour was when his screenplay for "Bugsy" was nominated for an Oscar in 1992, feverishly churns out a new film every few years, each a variation on the same themes. Only his first, 1978's "Fingers," which starred Harvey Keitel and football Hall of Famer Jim Brown, and which was remade as last year's "The Beat That My Heart Skipped," has earned any kind of consistent critical regard. The Harvard-educated Toback is at least as... MORE »
Kore-eda: The Opera.
By Alison Willmore on 06/14/2006
At Kaiju Shakedown, Grady Hendrix points out that Hirokazu Kore-eda's "After Life" has been made, awesomely, into an opera which recently premiered at the Holland Festival. At the Japan Times, Mark Schilling reviews Kore-eda's latest, "Hana Yori mo Naho" (his last film was 2005's critically acclaimed, lovely, and, er, ultra-uplifting tale of abandoned children "Nobody Knows"). Schilling calls "Hana," which is a revisionist samurai film, "one of Koreeda's rare stumbles."+ KORE-EDA OPERA IN (Kaiju Shakedown)+ The sword could be a little sharper (Japan Times)... MORE »
NYAFF 2006: "Linda, Linda, Linda."
By Alison Willmore on 06/14/2006
Filed under: Festivals, ReviewsIn "Linda, Linda, Linda," four high school girls in Japan pull together at the last minute to form a band to compete in the musical competition of their school's spring festival. They decide to cover three songs by 80s pop-punk band The Blue Hearts, include the titular song, their biggest hit. They practice and practice. They perform. The end. Ladies and gentlemen, we wept. Nobuhiro Yamashita's film is, in its understated, sharply observed way, one of the most joyous films about high school we've ever seen, one that understands that just how momentous the small-scale triumphs and dramas that... MORE »
Odds: Tuesday - Uwe Boll, Justin Lin, Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd."
By Alison Willmore on 06/13/2006
We hate ourselves for posting this, but we wouldn't be where we are today (sitting behind a computer for hours and hours and hours at a time) without a little self-loathing: Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool reports that everyone's favorite terrible (and technically indie) director, Uwe Boll, is preparing to take on his harshest critics in the ring as part of his latest film, "Postal":Towards the end of the filming of Postal, the five most outspoken critics will be flown into Vancouver and supplied with hotel rooms. As a guest of Uwe Boll they will be given the... MORE »
NYAFF 2006: "A Bittersweet Life."
By Alison Willmore on 06/13/2006
Filed under: Festivals, ReviewsSo, spoilers (barely): "A Bittersweet Life" has an odd coda that's either a flashback to a happier time or an implication that the slickly brutal, nihilistic gangster story that preceded it is all the fantasy of the (presumably normal, working stiff) main character. Of course, director Kim Ji-woon (whose previous film was the disquieting gothic horror flick "A Tale of Two Sisters") has made it known that the latter reading was not his intention -- still, we prefer it. It explains the unlikely way that, in the course of his bloody adventures, Sun-woo (Lee Byung-Hun, of "J.S.A.") continually shrugs... MORE »
NYAFF 2006: "Always - Sunset on Third Street."
By Alison Willmore on 06/13/2006
Filed under: Festivals, ReviewsTakashi Yamazaki's "Always - Sunset on Third Street" is shamelessly sentimental (sort of admirably so) and gooey with nostalgia, in the fine tradition of many filmic representations of the 50s, which assure us that, for a decade, the world went slightly sepia-toned. The winner of 13 Japanese Academy Prizes (among them "Best Picture," "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay"), "Always" is a broad crowd-pleaser about the residents of a small neighborhood in Tokyo in the late 50s, when the promise of economic success was luring many into the cities, among them Mutsuko, a young girl from the countryside who accepts,... MORE »
The New York Asian Film Festival tries harder.
By Alison Willmore on 06/13/2006
The New York Asian Film Festival starts Friday, and for its fifth year offers up another fine slate of fanboy violence, oddities, novelties, arthouse fodder and (our personal obsession) big glossy blockbusters that are, in a way, the unlikeliest import of them all. No one needs to argue over the prominence of Asian cinema anymore, but while the films of directors like Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are, if hardly raking in the cash, at least scooping up occasional theatrical runs and nestling into the top ten lists of high-minded critics at year's end, the pleasures of... MORE »
International men of steel.
By Alison Willmore on 06/12/2006
The "is Bryan Singer's Superman too gay?" discussion may be the dumbest story that's ever bounced from idle web chatter into the Real Print Media. In Reuters today, Singer is incredulous:Superman "is probably the most heterosexual character in any movie I've ever made," said Bryan Singer, director of "Superman Returns," a new movie about the crime-fighting superhero that opens June 28. "I don't think he's ever been gay."The article continues: "So he wears a leotard and flies around in a red cape. Big deal, Singer said, noting Spider-Man wears tights. The X-Men do too, and they aren't gay. Singer... MORE »
God bless you, Mr. Swearengen.
By Alison Willmore on 06/12/2006
We didn't watch "Deadwood" last night — we were too busy, and we didn't want to give it any less than our sickeningly devoted, complete attention, because, let's be honest: best show in the history of television. It's also inspired its fair share of interest writing, most notably Matt Zoller Seitz and crew at The House Next Door, whose series of "Deadweek" articles has been as dense and well-considered as the show deserves. Seitz reviews the initial episode at the Newark Star-Ledger. At the New Yorker, Nancy Franklin struggles with where to place "Deadwood" on the Western/post-Western sliding scale:It... MORE »
The week's critic wrangle: Who's your "Prairie Home Companion" now, bitch?
By Alison Willmore on 06/09/2006
Filed under: Critic wrangleSorry. Somehow it seemed necessary. + "A Prairie Home Companion": We haven't has a chance to see Robert Altman's latest yet, but we probably will, as by most accounts it's a joy. It inspires Roger Ebert to drippiness and the quoting of F. Scott Fitzgerald: "There is so much of the ghost of Scott Fitzgerald hovering in the shadows of this movie that at the end I quoted to myself the closing words of 'The Great Gatsby.' I'm sure you remember them, so let's say them together: And so we beat on, boats against the current, drawn back ceaselessly into... MORE »
"This Film Is Not Yet Rated."
By Alison Willmore on 06/08/2006
Shiny and new: the trailer for Kirby Dick's "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," which will be getting a theatrical release on September 1st, is here. + Trailer: "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" (IFC) MORE »
The horror, the (British) horror.
By Alison Willmore on 06/08/2006
At the LA Weekly, John Patterson finds that "The Golden Age of British Horror: 1955 - 1975" series offered by Hollywood's American Cinematheque (and kicking off today) might be a little too quick in gilding itself:Despite winning notoriety in their time for censor-baiting levels of violence, gore and cleavage exposure, the early Hammer successes — "Horror of Dracula" and "Revenge of Frankenstein," which inaugurated the studio’s lucrative practice of plundering Universal’s monster gallery — now look like the rickety, bottom-of-the-bill fare they in fact were. Only in such a tame and sexless era of British cinema could they have... MORE »
Odds: Wednesday - The UK on "United," scary children.
By Alison Willmore on 06/07/2006
Quiet today. We feel like we should post an image of the Brangelina baby just so we have something to talk about, even if it's threatening correspondence with Time Inc.'s lawyers. We'd missed this the first go-round: In the London Times, novelist Martin Amis finds "United 93" "unremitting, stark and utterly moving":...106 minutes in and with only seconds to go, you will find yourself, I am confident, in a state of near-perfect distress — a distress that knows no blindspots. The New York Times called "United 93" "the feel-bad movie of the year." But this hardly covers it. The... MORE »
Odds: Tuesday - Keep the Wicker Man waiting. Also, "Mulan."
By Alison Willmore on 06/06/2006
Maybe we were the only ones intrigued by Neil LaBute's "Wicker Man" remake. Well, color us sorry we ever said anything — trailer's here. We'd never expect it to manage the serendipitous tonal weirdness that made Robin Hardy's original so memorable, but (and it could just be a lousy trailer) this look like a flabbily standard horror film. And it looks like they've saddled Nicolas Cage's character with a lame traumatic back-story. And...when will we get over this uncontrollable urge we have to punch Cage in the face whenever he appears onscreen? "Wolf" at Twitch uncovers this (French) teaser... MORE »
Interviews: Emmanuelle Béart, the mystery of Bai Ling, Wiley Wiggins.
By Alison Willmore on 06/06/2006
Who's been talking to who lately: Daniel Auteuil, with the Independent's Jonathan Romney:"As time goes by," Auteuil volunteers, "you become more and more complicated, because you lose your lightness - a bit like a ship that's sprung a leak. You can feel it sinking. So I'm bailing out water, trying to shed as much weight as much as possible." It sounds like pessimism, I suggest. "No, just clear-sightedness. But everything's fine, hein?"Emmanuelle Béart, with Susan Bell at The Age:"In Hollywood there's no real material. They would send me stuff, but I hadn't even seen the director. If I don't... MORE »
Just like Pagliacci did.
By Alison Willmore on 06/06/2006
In the New York Times, Dennis Lim writes about his pilgrimage to London to see the unheard-of two-day screening of a "cinephile's holy grail" — Jacques Rivette's 12 1/2-hour "Out 1: Noli Me Tangere."So just how rare is the original "Out 1"? The National Film Theater program claimed it had been "unseen since its one and only screening in Le Havre." David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, notes that it was "never shown properly without mechanical breakdown." The critic Jonathan Rosenbaum reported a sighting at the 1989 Rotterdam Film Festival, where 45 minutes of its soundtrack was... MORE »
If Man is five...
By Alison Willmore on 06/05/2006
...then the Devil gets an awkward Tuesday release for the sake of the marketing campaign. The original "The Omen" really wasn't that great to begin with — even odder, then, are the attempts by some members of the press to find significance in the dismal-looking remake that opens tomorrow. Will Lawrence in the Telegraph uses the film as the center of yet another piece on "why all the horror remakes?":"Also, I think there is a connection between the times we live in now and the '70s," continues [London FrightFest co-director Alan] Jones. "Look at the original 'Omen'; the church... MORE »
Eating Crowe.
By Alison Willmore on 06/05/2006
An update for any of you (and there must be some of you out there) pining for the latest film from Baz Luhrmann. In August of last year, it was announced that Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman were in talks with Luhrmann to star in what would surely be the Most Australian Film Ever, after their previous attempt at a project together, "Eucalyptus," was cancelled after Crowe's rumored disagreements over the script with director Jocelyn Moorhouse. Last week, Crowe has bounced from the film in favor of the still extremely Australian Heath Ledger — the New York Post's Page Six... MORE »
Franchise: Theme and reinventions.
By Alison Willmore on 06/05/2006
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Hartlaub noses around the long-rumored, now a reality "Rocky 6," aka "Rocky Balboa," then notes that most franchises now follow a neat cycle of steady decline, apparently series-killer, and inevitable "reinvention." The ability to forget the last flop in a franchise may be the most important skill a modern mainstream moviegoer can possess. With sequels and remakes becoming the norm in Hollywood -- there have been more retread films than original concepts in each of the past three summers -- audiences are being asked to ignore past atrocities with increased frequency. The makers... MORE »
The week's critic wrangle: "The War Tapes," "The Cult of the Suicide Bomber," "District 13."
By Alison Willmore on 06/02/2006
Filed under: Critic wrangle"The War Tapes": Deborah Scranton's guardsmen-shot documentary, which won the Best Documentary prize at Tribeca, provokes reactions ranging from impressed to frustrated. At the New York Times, A.O. Scott's in the first camp, writing thatWhatever your opinion of the war — and however it has changed over the years — this movie is sure to challenge your thinking and disturb your composure. It provides no reassurance, no euphemism, no closure. Given the subject and the circumstances, how could it?Michael Atkinson at the Village Voice is startlingly dismissive: "[As] a piece of sociopolitical culture with context and ramifications of its... MORE »
"District B13."
By Alison Willmore on 06/01/2006
"District B13"'s characters are as developed as a damp Polaroid. The film simplifies and makes kind of goofy the very real problems of Paris' poverty- and crime-ridden banlieus. The plot exists to string us between various scenes showcasing parkour, the sport of "free running" founded by David Belle (one of the film's stars) and familiar from any of a variety of stylish commercials on a television near you. It's great. We'd see it again in a heartbeat. "District B13" is Euro action by way of "Ong Bak" — its stars, Belle and professional stuntman Cyril Raffaelli, perform all chases,... MORE »
Box office.
By Alison Willmore on 06/01/2006
"X-Men: The Last Stand" opened with a $120.1 million this past holiday weekend, easily the biggest Memorial Day opening ever. E. Scott Reckard at the LA Times: The 20th Century Fox comic-based adventure about misunderstood mutant heroes staged one of the biggest premieres ever, trouncing previous films opening over the weekend that traditionally signals the start of the summer movie season. That includes "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," which opened to $90.2 million in 1997 and "Shrek 2," which grossed $95.6 million in its second week of release in 2004.More fuel for the debate about the rise of the critic-proof... MORE »
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