Negromancer News Bits and Bites from December 1st to 7th, 2024 - UPDATE #14

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like this, MOVIES PAGE, and BUY something(s).

TREATS: From AnotherCookie?:  There is a new online cookie retailer, "AnotherCookie?" The cookies are delicious.

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NEWS:

MOVIES/TRAILERS - From THR:  Sony Pictures has released a mysterious teaser for "28 Years Later," the follow-up to the zombie apocalypse films, "28 Days Later" (2002) and "28 Weeks Later" (2007). The film is due June 20, 2025.

MOVIES - From ThePlaylist:  Amy Adams is keeping the secrets of her new film, Marielle Heller's "Nightbitch," to herself.

HARRY POTTER - From THR:  "The Hollywood Reporter" is reporting that actor Paapa Essiedu ("I May Destroy You") is being considered to play the role of "Professor Severus Snape" in HBO's "Harry Potter" television series.  The role was played by the late Alan Rickman across eight "Harry Potter" theatrical films.

AWARDS - From NBR:  The National Board of Review has named its 2024 film honorees.  "Wicked" wins "Best Film" and "Best Director" (for John M. Chu).

MOVIES - From ThePlaylist:  Writer Phillipa Boyens says that "The Lord of the Rings" brain trust (Boyens, Fran Walsh, and Peter Jackson) really wants actor Viggo Mortensen to return in his LOTR role of "Aragon" for the upcoming LOTR film, "The Hunt for Gollum."

MOVIE AWARDS - From Deadline:  The winners of the 2024 / 90th New York Film Critics Circle Awards have been announced.  Director Brady Corbet's three-hour epic, "The Brutalist," has won "Best Film" and its star, Adrian Brody, has won "Best Actor."

From Variety:  The winners at the 2024 / 34th Gotham Awards have been announced.  Writer-director Aaron Schimberg's "A Different Man" has won the "Best Feature" award.

BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro:  The winner of the 11/29 to 12/1/2024 weekend box office is Walt Disney Pictures' "Moana 2" with an estimated take of 135.5 million dollars.

From Variety:  "Moana 2" made an estimated 221 million dollars at the domestic box office over the five-day "Thanksgiving holiday weekend" period. The previous record was held by Disney's "Frozen II" with a five-day take of 125 million dollars in 2019.

From Deadline:  Dwayne Johnson has pulled off a rare feat with two films ("Red One" and "Moana 2") opening #1 at the weekend box office in the same calendar month (November 2024).

NETFLIX - From Deadline:  John David Washington talks about Netflix's "The Piano Lesson" and working with Christopher Nolan.

MOVIES - From Deadline:  20th Century (Fox) has won a bidding war for a project from director Edward Berger ("Conclave") and actor Austin Butler ("Elvis").  Entitled "The Barrier," it is a sci-fi, time-travel story.

OBITS:

From Variety:  American screenwriter and director, Marshall Brickman, has died at the age of 85, Friday, November 29, 2024.  Brickman was probably best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen.  Brickman and Allen shared the "Best Original Screenplay" Oscar for Allen's 1977 film, "Annie Hall."  Brickman shared writing credits with Allen on three other films, "Sleeper" (1973), "Manhattan" (1979), and "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993).  Brickman also directed three films, including the comedies, "Simon" (1980) and "Lovesick" (1983).

From Deadline:  British-born American assistant director and producer, Adam Somner, has died at the age of 57, Wednesday, November 27, 2024.  Somner was the go-to assistant director for Steven Spielberg (12 films), Paul Thomas Anderson (6), and Ridley Scott (6).  Somner received a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination, shared with Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson, for Anderson's 2021 film, "Licorice Pizza."

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MOVIE AWARDS:

From NBR:  The National Board of Review has named its 2024 film honorees.  "Wicked" wins "Best Film" and "Best Director" (for John M. Chu).

From Deadline:  The nominations for the 2025 / 40th Film Independent Spirit Awards have been announced.  Cannes 2024 Palme d'Or winner, "Anora," and "I Saw the TV Glow" each lead with six nominations apiece.  The winners will be announced Saturday, February 22, 2025.

From Deadline:  The winners of the 2024 / 90th New York Film Critics Circle Awards have been announced.  Director Brady Corbet's three-hour epic, "The Brutalist," has won "Best Film" and its star, Adrian Brody, has won "Best Actor."

From Variety:  The winners at the 2024 / 34th Gotham Awards have been announced.  Writer-director Aaron Schimberg's "A Different Man" has won the "Best Feature" award.

From Deadline:  The 2024 / 34th Gotham Awards kick off the 2024-25 movie awards season by announcing its nominations for achievement in film.  Director Sean Baker's "Anora," which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, leads with four nominations.  The winners will be announced Monday, December 2, 2024.

From Deadline:  The nominations for the 2024 British Independent Film Awards have been announced.  The Irish film, "Kneecap," leads with 14 nominations. The winners will be announced Sunday, December 8, 2024.

BEST PICTURE WINNER COUNT:

"The Brutalist": 1 (NYFCC)

"A Different Man": 1 (Gotham Awards)

"Wicked": 1 (National Board of Review)

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Review: "THE FRENCH DISPATCH" is Ultimate Wes Anderson

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 of 2022 (No. 1826) by Leroy Douresseaux

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPA – R for graphic nudity, some sexual references and language
DIRECTOR:  Wes Anderson
WRITERS:  Wes Anderson; from a story by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Hugo Guinness
PRODUCERS:  Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, and Steven Rales
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Yeoman (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Andrew Weisblum
COMPOSER:  Alexandre Desplat

COMEDY/DRAMA/ANTHOLOGY with elements of fantasy

Starring:  Jeffrey Wright, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Liev Schreiber, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Winston Ait Hellal, and Owen Wilson and Anjelica Huston

The French Dispatch (full title: The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun) is a 2021 comedy-drama and anthology film from writer-director Wes Anderson.  The film focuses on the French foreign bureau of a Kansas newspaper and the features magazine it produces.

The French Dispatch introduces Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray).  When he was a college freshman, he convinces his father, the owner of the newspaper, the “Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun,” to fund his transatlantic trip.  Junior would in turn produce a series of travelogue columns, which would be published for local readers in the Evening Sun's magazine supplement “Sunday Picnic.”  Arthur, Jr. sets up shop in the (fictional) French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé.  Over the next decade, young Arthur assembles a team of the best expatriate journalists of the time.  In 1925, he transforms the Sunday Picnic into the weekly magazine, “The French Dispatch” (something like The New Yorker).

In 1975, fifty years after he left Kansas, Arthur Howitzer, Jr. dies suddenly of a heart attack.  Although it has half a million subscribers in 50 countries, as per his will, The French Dispatch will immediately cease publication following the release of a farewell issue that will feature Arthur's obituary and four articles by magazine's best writers:

In “The Cycling Reporter,” Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) gives a sight-seeing tour.  It is “a day in Ennui over the course of 250 years” and demonstrates how much and yet how little has changed in Ennui over time.

In “The Concrete Masterpiece,” J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton) delivers a lecture at an art gallery.  She details the career of Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro), a mentally disturbed artist serving a sentence in the Ennui Prison-Asylum for murder and the two most important people in his lives.  The first is Simone (Lea Seydoux), a prison officer who becomes Moses' lover and his muse.  Moses paints a portrait of Simone, and that second important person, Julien Cadazio, an art dealer also serving a sentence for tax evasion, is immediately taken by the painting.  After buying the painting, Cadazio uses it to turn Moses into an international sensation.  However, Moses struggles with inspiration, and his relationship with Simone becomes complicated.

In “Revisions to a Manifesto,” Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) reports on a student protest breaking out in the streets of Ennui, one that soon boils over into the “Chessboard Revolution.”  Krementz fails to maintain “journalistic neutrality” when she falls in love with Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet), a college boy who is the self-styled leader of the revolt.  She secretly helps him write his manifesto, but Juliette (Lyna Khoudri), a fellow revolutionary who has some feelings for Zeffirelli, is unimpressed with his manifesto – thus, creating a love triangle.

In “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) is the guest of a television talk show host (Liev Schreiber).  Wright recounts the story of his attending a private dinner with The Commissaire (Mathieu Amalric) of the Ennui police force.  The meal is prepared by the legendary police officer and chef, Lt. Nescaffier (Stephen Park).  Nescaffier is the creator of a kind of “haute cuisine” specifically designed to be eaten by police officers while they are working.  The dinner is disrupted when the Commissaire's inquisitive and bright son, Gigi (Winston Ait Hellal), is kidnapped and held for ransom by a large gang of criminals, led by a failed musician known as “The Chauffeur” (Edward Norton).

They mourn his death.  Now, the staff of The French Dispatch must put together a final issue with these four stories that Arthur Howitzer Jr. touched in some way?

The French Dispatch has been described as a film that is “a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city.”  The film presents four of the magazine's stories of the city.  Director Wes Anderson has apparently stated that this film is inspired by his love of the venerable weekly magazine, The New Yorker, and that some of the film's characters and events are based on real-life equivalents from that magazine.  During The French Dispatch's closing credits, there is a dedication to several writers and editors, many of whom wrote for The New Yorker.

To that end, The French Dispatch is a movie that celebrates magazine writers, illustrators, and editors and the stories they tell.  This film is a love letter to stories of local color and of locales written for magazines.  The film demands patience and attention on the part of the audience.  The French Dispatch is a hybrid.  It is an anthology of four main stories and of a few small chapters, although everything connects in the end.  The audience has to follow each of the main stories, paying attention from beginning to the end.  That is where the pay off comes.

In fact, each of the main stories seems like one thing in the beginning, but fully develops over the course of the narrative in something different.  At the end of each, I realized that the story was about wonderful characters living lives both ordinary and extraordinary.  In the extraordinary, Anderson gives us a reason to love what is so ordinary and human about them.

This is brilliant character writing on Anderson's part.  His gift is to make not only the lead and supporting characters fascinating, but he also makes even the characters who say little and the extras seem worth knowing – even when the narrative passes them by.  To that end, I think Roebuck Wright is the character that ties all the characters and stories together.  He is the narrator/writer of “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” the final story.  Both his first meeting and final conversation with Bill Murray's Arthur coalesces the film's theme of expatriate writers, and he begins Arthur's obituary, which also brings together the film's shifts in time.  It would have been nice to see Wright receive a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his work here, but The French Dispatch did not receive any Oscar nominations.

The film's production values:  art direction and production design, costumes, and cinematography all meet the wonderfully inventive and incredibly imaginative standards that audiences have come to expect from Wes Anderson's films.  The French Dispatch looks like no film I have ever seen.  Even Alexandre Desplat's score sounds like something entirely new in film music.  I described Anderson's 2014 film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, as Wes Anderson art for Wes Anderson's art sake.  The French Dispatch is Wes Anderson high art.

9 of 10
A+

Thursday, March 17, 2022


NOTES:
2022 BAFTA Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Milena Canonero); “Original Score” (Alexandre Desplat), and “Best Production Design” (Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo)

2022 Black Reel Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Supporting Actor” (Jeffrey Wright)

2021 Cannes Film Festival:  1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Wes Anderson)

2022 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Alexandre Desplat)


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is Stylish and Quirky, of course

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 17 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, some sexual content and violence
DIRECTOR:  Wes Anderson
WRITERS:  Wes Anderson; from a story by Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness (inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig)
PRODUCERS:  Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, and Scott Rudin
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Yeoman (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Barney Pilling
COMPOSER:  Alexandre Desplat
Academy Award winner

ADVENTURE/COMEDY/DRAMA with elements of fantasy

Starring:  Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jeff Goldblum, Mathieu Amalric, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Lea Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Bob Balaban, and Owen Wilson

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 comedy-drama and adventure film from writer-director Wes Anderson.  Anderson and Hugo Guinness, who wrote the film's story with Anderson, were inspired by the writings of Austrian, Stefan Sweig (1881-19420, a novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer.  The Grand Budapest Hotel focuses on the adventures of a legendary concierge at a famous hotel and the lobby boy who becomes his trusted sidekick.

The Grand Budapest Hotel opens in the present day, before moving back to 1985.  The film moves back again to the year 1968.  A man, known as “The Author” (Jude Law), travels to the Republic of Zubrowka (a fictional Central European state).  He stays at a remote mountainside hotel in the spa town of Nebelsbad.  The Author discovers that the Grand Budapest Hotel has fallen on hard times.  He meets the owner of the hotel, an elderly gentleman named Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham).  Moustafa tells “The Author” how he came to own the Grand Budapest Hotel.

That takes the story back to the year 1932, during the hotel's glory days.  Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) is the Grand Budapest Hotel's devoted concierge.  He manages the hotel's large staff and sees to the needs of the hotel's wealthy clientele,  Gustave also often has sexual relationships with some of the hotel's elderly female clientele.  One of the aging women who flock to the hotel to enjoy M. Gustave's “exceptional service” is Madame Céline Villeneuve "Madame D" Desgoffe und Taxis a.k.a. “Madame D” (Tilda Swinton).

After Madame D dies, M. Gustave discovers that she has left him something in her will, a highly-sought after painting by Johannes van Hoytl (the younger), entitled, “Boy With Apple.”  M. Gustave also learns that Madame D was murdered and that he is not only the chief suspect, but that he is also caught up in a dispute over a vast family fortune.  M. Gustave is in trouble, but luckily he has hired a most capable and talented new lobby boy, Zero (Tony Revolori).  M Gustave's most trusted friend and protege, Zero, may be the only one who can help a legendary concierge save himself.

I said that Ethan and Joel Coen's 2010 film, True Grit (a remake of the classic John Wayne western), was a movie in which the brothers got to work out and to employ their visual tics, cinematic style, and storytelling techniques on a Western.  It was a good film, but it was truly “a Coen Bros. movie.”

In a similar fashion, The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson employing everything that is eccentric, quirky, and unique to his films going back at least a decade.  Embodied in this movie, the Wes Anderson style is wonderful and invigorating and a joy to watch.  Truly, The Grand Budapest Hotel has a striking and an eye-catching visual style.  Anderson's mix of ornate visual environments and eccentric characters with deeply held emotions makes his movies hard to ignore, if you give them half the chance.

Those characters can be a problem, though.  For this film, Anderson easily offers 20 characters worth knowing, but other than M. Gustave and Zero, Anderson uses the others as quirky backdrops or as caricatures upon which he can hang his plot.  Thus, The Grand Budapest Hotel is beautiful, but depth of character is lacking.  The adventure of M. Gustave and Zero plays as if it were something straight out of a beloved children's book.  Much has been made of Ralph Fienne's performance in this film, and it is indeed a good one.  It must be noted that Tony Revolori as Zero is also quite good.  Still, the adventure of the two leads would be better with more interplay from the other characters than the film offers.  Adrien Brody's Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis is wasted, and Willem Dafoe's J.G. Jopling is not so much a menacing villain as he is a bad guy straight out of Jay Ward Productions.

However, while this movie does not fail to burrow into the imagination, it does not really plant its roots in the viewers' hearts.  It is gorgeous on the surface, but Anderson seems to avoid the deeply emotional ideas he introduces, making The Grand Budapest Hotel an exceptional film, but keeping it from being truly great.  It is Wes Anderson art for Wes Anderson's art sake.

8 of 10
A

Friday, April 10, 2015


NOTES:
2015 Academy Awards, USA:  4 wins: “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Milena Canonero), “Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling” (Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Alexandre Desplat) and “Best Achievement in Production Design” (Adam Stockhausen-production design and Anna Pinnock-set decoration); 5 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven M. Rales, and Jeremy Dawson), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Wes Anderson), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Robert D. Yeoman), and “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Barney Pilling), and “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Wes Anderson-screenplay/story and Hugo Guinness-story)

2015 BAFTA Awards:  5 wins: “Best Original Music” (Alexandre Desplat), “Best Costume Design” (Milena Canonero), “Best Production Design” (Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock), “Best Original Screenplay” (Wes Anderson), and “Best Make Up & Hair” (Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier); 6 nominations: “Best Film” (Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven M. Rales, and Jeremy Dawson), “Best Leading Actor” (Ralph Fiennes), “Best Cinematography” (Robert D. Yeoman), “Best Editing” (Barney Pilling), “Best Sound” (Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Wes Anderson)

2015 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical;” 3 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Wes Anderson), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Ralph Fiennes), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Wes Anderson)

The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites: June 15 to June 21, 2014 - Updated #6

NEWS:

From The Wrap:  Meryl Streep makes a move to television as she will play opera legend Maria Callas in a television film for HBO.  Director Mike Nichols is adapting the Broadway play, "Master Class," which tells the story of Callas' life.

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From Variety: The next "Bourne" movie, starring Jeremy Renner, has been moved from August 14, 2015 to July 15, 2016,  That film will ostensibly be a sequel to the Renner-starring The Bourne Legacy.

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From Variety:  Apparently the F. Gary Gray N.W.A. biopic will take Bourne's August 2015 release date.

From Cinema Blend:  Speaking of the N.W.A. biopic, the film reportedly has its actors to play the lead characters, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and Dr. Dre.  O'Shea Jackson, Jr. will apparently play his father, Ice Cube, whose birth name is O'Shea Jackson.  At one point, Michael B. Jordan was eyed to play Cube, but his role in the Fantastic Four reboot may have squashed that.

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From Yahoo:  John Cusack and Adrien Brody join Jackie Chan in the Chinese-language film, "Dragon Blade."  It looks to be the most expensive Chinese-language made to date at $65 million.

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COMIC BOOK MOVIES:

From Marvel:  Rosario Dawson joins Marvel's Netflix series, "Daredevil," which is scheduled to debut in early 2015.

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From The Wrap:  Jon Spaihts who wrote Ridley Scott's Prometheus is apparently writing Marvel Studios' planned "Doctor Strange," movie, which would be based on the surgeon turned Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange a/k/a/ Doctor Strange.  Scott Derrickson, who directed the low-budget hit horror film, Sinister, is apparently directing the film.  Jared Leto and Benedict Cumberbatch are the top choices to play Strange.

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From Yahoo Celebrity: Ben Affleck buffs up for Batman role in Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.


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STAR WARS News:

From Yahoo:  Harrison Ford broke his leg, not his ankle.

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From Heat Celeb News:  More on Harrison Ford's injury on the set of Star Wars Episode VII.

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From GoSanAngelo:  Here is an interesting article about fans who spend much money and time to build their own Star Wars droids.  There is even a club, Astromech.net.

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MISC:

Surprising article from a few years ago:  I was a drunk teenaged wizard.

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From Yahoo: In this installment of Hollywood Time Capsule, the 1999 flick, Wild Wild West, gets a look-back via Entertainment Weekly.

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OBITS:

From the New York Times and Indiewire: Casey Kasem, the famous American disc jockey, radio personality, and voice actor, died Sunday, June 15, 2014.  He was 82-years-old.  Kasem was born Kemal Amen Kasem in Detroit on April 27, 1932 to Lebanese immigrant parents.

I remember Kasem for several reasons.  First of all, I was a big fan of his syndicated radio show, "America's Top 40." Beginning in 1970 and continuing for 24 years, Kasem played the top forty songs on Billboard magazine's weekly "Hot 100" singles chart.  There was also a syndicated television version of the show in the 1980s that showed the music videos for the top ten songs of the week on the "Hot 100" singles chart, and sometimes for songs on Billboard's other singles chart.

But I most treasure and love Casey Kasem as the voice of cartoon character, Norville "Shaggy" Rodgers, beginning with the animated series, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" (1969) and continuing until 1997.  He also provided the voice of Robin on "Super Friends" and Alexander on "Josie and the Pussycats."

Negromancer sends condolences to Casey Kasem's family and friends.  R.I.P. Shaggy.

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From Yahoo Sports:  Former Major League Baseball player, Tony Gwynn, died today, Monday, June 16, 2014 at the age of 54.  He was one of the greatest hitters in the history of Major League Baseball and the greatest pure hitter of his generation.  He played with the San Diego Padres for 20 years (his entire career) and was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.  He was named on 532 of 545 Hall of Fame voting ballots, for one of the highest percentages ever, 97.61.  Negromancer sends its condolences to Tony Gwynn's family, friends, colleagues, and teammates.  R.I.P. slugger.

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From the New York Times and Yahoo Sports:  I think I've stated before that the Pittsburgh Steelers are my favorite NFL team.  Well, I was saddened to learn that beloved head Coach Chuck Noll died Friday night, June 13, 2013.  Charles Henry Noll was born on January 5, 1932.  He was 82-year-old.

Noll built the "Steel Curtain" Steelers of the 1970s, one of the most dominant teams in NFL history.  The Steelers won the Super Bowls in the 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979 seasons.  They were the first team to win four Super Bowls.  Noll coached the Steelers from 1969 to 1991 and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, his first year of eligibility.

Rest in peace, Coach.  Negromancer offers condolences to Chuck Noll's family and friends.

Review: "The Village" is Great ... Until it Isn't (Happy B'day, M. Night Shyamalan)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 135 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Village (2004)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for scene of violence and frightening situations
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Sam Mercer, Scott Rudin, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Christopher Tellefsen
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Celia Weston, John Christopher Jones, Frank Collison, Jayne Atkinson, Judy Greer, Michael Pitt, and Jesse Eisenberg

The subject of this movie review is The Village, a 2004 fantasy thriller and mystery film from writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan. The film is set in a late 19th century village built in a forest supposedly filled with dangerous creatures.

Circa 1897, Covington, Pennsylvania is a nice, quiet town surrounded by a beautiful, but haunting forest where strange, apparently dangerous, and unseen creatures live. For ages, there has been a truce between the citizens of Covington and the mysterious denizens of the woods. The people of Covington do not go into the woods, and the creatures (or monsters) do not come into the village.

But when quiet, almost sullen, young townsmen Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) crosses the border from the town into the woods, the truce is broken, and the monsters start visiting the town. Soon, the villagers find an increasing number of their livestock slaughtered and skinned. In the midst of the fear, happiness blooms, but before long the scourge of the faraway towns comes to the village. Village elder Edward Walker’s (William Hurt) blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) must pass through the woods to find aid. But will the monsters dine on her beautiful flesh?

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village is probably the least accomplished of his films since his worldwide blockbuster, The Sixth Sense. However, like his best-known films, the journey of watching the film is usually more important than the destination, which is the flick’s finale. Like Signs, the supernatural element is a red herring, and the most important element of The Village is its theme of dealing with heart-rending loss. The film also tackles the ideas of locking oneself off from the world to avoid devastating pain and of living in paranoid fear of the other, which is quite relevant in an America where “gated communities” seem to spring up everywhere on a daily basis.

As a work of movie art, The Village is an ambitious stumble. The ideas are good, but muddled, lost, and poorly considered, or at least poorly presented in the structure of this story. As big studio entertainment, The Village has a small numbers of genuinely frightening bumps in the dark, but the suspense is tepid and the thrills are exhausted half way through the film. The movie also takes such an idealized view of utopias, that it sometimes seems to take wild flights of fancy. However, Shyamalan just might be making a sly comment about the upper middle class and upper class’ fear of violence at the hand of the lower classes.

The delight in this film is the debut of Academy Award winning director Ron Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard. Her performance is luminous, so much so that it lights the way for this occasionally befuddled mess. Ms. Howard is spunky and rebellious when she needs to be, and the sheer terror she displays is practically the only thing that sells this film’s horror thriller aspects. She also portrays moments of bravery with openness in her performance that invites us into her life; she is the one through whom we live vicariously. She is The Village’s champion.

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (James Newton Howard)

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Review: Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" is Magical and One of the Year's Best Films

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 106 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Midnight in Paris (2011)
Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – R for some sexual references and smoking
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
PRODUCERS: Letty Aronson, Jaume Roures, and Stephen Tenenbaum
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Darius Khondji with Johanne Debas
EDITOR: Alisa Lepselter

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA/FANTASY

Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy, Michael Sheen, Nina Arianda, Carla Bruni, Corey Stoll, Alison Pill, Tom Hiddleston, Yves Heck, Kathy Bates, Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, Adrien Brody, Sonia Rolland, Adrien de Van, and Léa Seydoux

Midnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy/drama and fantasy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film focuses on a struggling novelist who has magical experiences in Paris which begin each night at midnight. Midnight in Paris is the first high-quality Woody Allen film since Match Point (2005), and it is his best film since the early to mid 1990s, certainly the best since Bullets Over Broadway (2004).

Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is a successful Hollywood screenwriter, but he hates the kind of movies with which he is usually involved. He travels to Paris with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), and her wealthy, conservative parents, John (Kurt Fuller) and Helen (Mimi Kennedy), for a vacation. Gil is struggling to finish his first novel, and he believes a permanent move to Paris would be a good thing. Inez, who wants to live in Malibu, sees this desire as a foolish romantic notion, and this disagreement is but one of many of the couple’s divergent goals.

One night, a drunken Gil wanders the streets of Paris. At the stroke of midnight, an antique car pulls up and the passengers, who are dressed in 1920s clothing, beckon Gil to join them. Gil soon finds himself in a bar enjoying a performance by Josephine Baker (Sonia Rolland), watching Cole Porter (Yves Heck) sing and play the piano, having a meeting of the minds with Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), and chatting up Zelda (Allison Pill) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston). Gil realizes that he has been transported back to Paris of the 1920s, an era he idolizes. He visits the home of Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), where he meets Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and Picasso’s mistress, a young woman named Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Gil and Adriana are quickly attracted to each other, but their strange romance also reveals their unhappiness with their current personal situations.

In a broad sense, Midnight in Paris specifically deals with nostalgia as a theme, especially people’s nostalgia for a time that existed before they were born – a golden age. For instance, Gil yearns for the 1920s, which occurred decades before he was born. Allen’s script allows Gil to revel in his ability to go back into the past, which is perhaps the only way for Gil to come to grips both with reality and with his idealization of a time in which he didn’t live. Allen resolves this in a way both sensible and satisfying.

On a personal and character drama level, Midnight in Paris plays with themes of denial and cognitive dissonance. The characters have desires and find ways to sabotage or sully their desires when they find them difficult to obtain or perhaps too costly. Both in his script writing and directing, Allen subtly tells us that only those who are honest with themselves about what they want can be happy.

Beyond that, I have to say that Midnight in Paris is just an utterly magical film. There are fantasy films that only feel like Hollywood action movie product and lack a sense of enchantment. Then, there are others that, when you watch them, you can feel the magic emanating and oozing from the screen. That’s how Midnight in Paris is, and Darius Khondji’s shimmering, golden-hued, ember-infused cinematography is a big reason why Midnight in Paris looks like one big enchanted holiday. This movie moves, sounds, looks, and feels like a romantic film.

I am a big fan of Woody Allen and have been for nearly 30 years. I love his films that take place in the past, like Radio Days (1987), which is set in a period when my parents would have been small children or toddlers. I also like his films that are infused with magic, like Alice (1990). For me, Midnight in Paris is the best of both those worlds. A lot of people may dismiss Allen, but they would have to be honest after seeing this film. Few feel-good movies feel better than Midnight in Paris.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, December 25, 2011

"A Matador's Mistress" Debuts on DVD and Video on Demand in June 2011

Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody Steam Up The Screen In Long-Awaited "A Matador's Mistress"

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Oscar-winning Actress Penelope Cruz unveiled her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on Friday as Xenon Pictures and Viva Pictures LLC announced the national DVD and VOD release of the long-awaited romantic saga "A Matador's Mistress." The film stars Penelope Cruz ("Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tide") and Adrien Brody ("King Kong," "The Pianist") and was written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Menno Meyes ("The Color Purple," "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade"). "A Matador's Mistress" finally gets a highly anticipated U.S. release when it arrives on DVD and Video on Demand on June 7th.

Along with breathtaking international locations, steamy love scenes and stunning bullfighting sequences, "A Matador's Mistress" features deeply moving performances by both the Spanish-born Cruz who took home the Oscar for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and co-star Adrien Brody who won Best Actor for "The Pianist." Menno Meyes who wrote and directed the $28 million production is also an Oscar nominee for writing the screenplay for "The Color Purple."

Set in the 1940's, "A Matador's Mistress" tells the story of the most celebrated bullfighter in Spain, Manuel Rodriguez Sanchez (Adrien Brody), famously known around the world as Manolete.

Manolete's life changes when he becomes obsessed with the beautiful and mysterious Lupe Sino (Penelope Cruz). What unfolds is a passionate and tragic romance that ends with Manolete's death in the bullring in 1947 at the age of 30.

"A Matador's Mistress" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival under the working title "Manolete" and has been praised for Brody and Cruz's performances as well as the dazzling art direction and cinematography.

Xenon Pictures CEO Leigh Savidge said Xenon acquired U.S. distribution rights for "A Matador's Mistress" in a co-venture with Viva Pictures LLC and the two companies are in talks for a theatrical release.

Xenon Pictures is an independent film and media distribution company specializing in cutting edge urban dramas and popular independent films often over-looked by the mainstream studios. Viva Pictures LLC is a Westwood, Ca. based multi-media distributor of high quality star driven films with award winning casts and talent.

Review: "Predators" Rocks Except When It Sucks

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 94 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Predators (2010)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong creature violence and gore, and pervasive language
DIRECTOR: Nimród Antal
WRITERS: Alex Litvak and Michael Finch (from Jim Thomas and John Thomas)
PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Avellan, John Davis, and Robert Rodriguez
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gyula Pados
EDITOR: Dan Zimmerman

SCI-FI/ACTION with elements of horror

Starring: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Louis Ozawa Changchien, and Mahershalahashbaz Ali

In the 1987 movie, Predator, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch led a Special Forces team into the Guatemalan jungle. There, they encountered an alien hunter (called “the Predator”) that picked them off one by one. The 2010 movie, Predators, is a direct sequel to the original film, and follows a ruthless mercenary, as he leads a group of trained and untrained killers through a jungle on another planet.

In Predators, Royce (Adrien Brody), an ex-American military turned mercenary, awakens to find himself falling from the sky into a vast, unknown jungle. He soon meets seven other people that arrived there in the same manner. They include Isabelle (Alice Braga), a sniper and black operations soldier; Edwin (Topher Grace), a doctor; Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a Yakuza, and Stans (Walton Goggins), a death row inmate; among others. They are killers without a conscience.

The group soon learns that they are not on Earth. After a pack of alien beasts attacks them, Royce deduces that the planet is a game preserve and that they are the game and the prey. When the hunters stalking them finally attack, the humans discover just how formidable they are. Their only hope – to get off the planet – is seemingly an impossible one, but they may get help from the unlikeliest sources.

I found Predators to be immensely entertaining, and this is also one time that I can certainly give credit to the director the film, in this case, Nimród Antal. He works action movie magic out of a script filled with inane characters and inconsistencies. Some of the characters are extraneous and pointless (a Yakuza!) or defy common sense (a death row inmate!). Some of the good ones disappear too early in the film, Danny Trejo’s Cuchillo, a drug cartel enforcer, and Mahershalahashbaz Ali’s Mombasa, a death squad soldier. The audience doesn’t get to know the characters that well, if at all, and they often come across as cardboard cutouts. However, Laurence Fishburne’s Noland is a delight; Fishburne plays him as so deranged that the character is both scary and alluring.

Meanwhile, the director took advantage of a new setting for the Predator franchise (an alien world) and special effects, CGI, and production design talent, improved from the original, to make a movie that looks cool, especially when the Predators attack. The moment the viewer stops and tries to make sense of the plot, story, and concept, Predators begins to fall apart. When the viewer focuses on the chasing and the killing, Predators is just plain fun – so much fun that I didn’t want it to end. So let’s go with this formula for a future film: more Predator action and fewer crappy characters.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, November 20, 2010

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"Splice" Merges the Monster Movie with the Family Drama

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 91 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Splice (2010)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language
DIRECTOR: Vincenzo Natali
WRITERS: Vincenzo Natali and Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor; from a story by Vincenzo Natali and Antoinette Terry Bryant
PRODUCER: Steven Hoban
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tetsuo Nagata (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michele Conroy

SCI-FI/HORROR/DRAMA

Starring: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Cheneac, Brandon McGibbon, Simona Maicanescu, David Hewlett, and Abigail Chu

Splice is a science fiction and horror film with an international flavor – being a French, Canadian, and American co-production. It is also a kind of monster movie/family drama about two scientists and their taboo-obliterating creation.

Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Klast (Sarah Polley) are brilliant scientists who are as devoted to their careers as they are to one another. Their cutting-edge experiments in genetic engineering, which involve splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals, have made them superstars in their field. Now, they want to splice human DNA to animal DNA in order to create a hybrid that could potentially revolutionize science and medicine.

Although, N.E.R.D., the pharmaceutical giant that funds their research, forbids it, Clive and Elsa continue their unorthodox experiment to create a human-animal hybrid. The result is a female creature that Elsa names Dren (Delphine Cheneac). Clive starts to have misgivings about their creation and tells Elsa that they must destroy the creature. As their fantastical creation grows stronger and smarter, she also grows more dangerous.

Monster movies can be scary and thrilling or they can be creepy and disturbing. Splice is creepy and exceedingly disturbing, while managing to be more unsettling than scary. It really isn’t a cautionary tale about the misuse of science and man playing God. It is more a quirky take on the Frankenstein motif, with Clive and Elsa as two hubristic Victor Frankenstein-types, arrogantly going places that would give most scientists pause.

In a way, Splice is also a drama about a dysfunctional family. Once Clive and Elsa’s creature baby arrives, they are not as thrilled about being custodians as they were about being the first to create a human-animal hybrid. That pretty much sums up this movie’s eccentric narrative. It is smart and has a lot of ideas, but co-writer and director Vincenzo Natali and his co-writers, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, are constantly shifting this movie from one genre to another. Splice starts out as a science fiction movie, before becoming a monster movie when Dren arrives. Finally, it becomes a family drama, which is why the film seems longer than it is.

The story largely focuses on Clive, Elsa, and Dren, a dynamic that grows dull and cold pretty quickly. When other characters enter the narrative, the movie comes to life. That is where the real dramatic tension and conflict are. It is not about Clive and Elsa’s little secret family, but about what happens when other people get caught up in their web of deceit and have to deal with Dren. That is most obvious in the film’s final 20 minutes.

Regardless of its faults, Splice is too intriguing to ignore. Although it uses familiar ideas, Splice also manages to be fresh and smart when many science fiction and monster movies just want to be about the action and thrills.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Review: "The Pianist" Simply Superb

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Pianist (2002)
Running time: 150 minutes (2 hours, 30 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and brief strong language
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
WRITER: Ronald Harwood (based upon the novel by Wladyslaw Szpilman)
PRODUCERS: Robert Benmussa, Roman Polanski, and Alain Sarde
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pawel Edelman (director of photography)
EDITOR: Hervé de Luze
COMPOSER: Wojciech Kilar
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/WAR

Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Kate Meyer, and Michal Zebrowski

Director Roman Polanski, writer Ronald Harwood, and actor Adrien Brody all won Oscars® for their work on The Pianist, a film based upon the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Polish Jew who survived for five years in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. It’s arguably the best non-documentary film about the Holocaust and Jewish oppression at the hands of the Germans after Schindler’s List.

Stylistically, The Pianist is similar to Schindler’s List in that both films visually have an atmosphere of classic cinema from the Golden Age of Hollywood film – the late 1930’s and 1940’s. From a technical aspect, the film is beautifully photographed with a gorgeous color palette that looks luscious even when melancholy gray tones are omnipresent. Also of top caliber are the art direction and set decoration, the costume design, and the original music by Wojciech Kilar.

What else can I say? This film, because of its subject matter, is difficult to watch, but from a filmmaking point of view, The Pianist is near perfect. Everyone deserved their awards and nominations, and Polanski cemented his place as a daring filmmaker willing to take chances and making great films when he succeeds.

If there must be one main reason to see this film, Adrien Brody’s performance is it. He plays Szpilman as both an eternal optimist and as a survivor, and the thing that is most uplifting about this film (which is filled with sorrow and tragedy) is that Szpilman survives. When he’s beaten down to being little more than a pitiful animal and a pathetic human skeleton, he nimbly skirts death’s every blow. Add the beautiful musical performances of Chopin and Beethoven, each one exquisitely staged and shot by Polanski and his cinematographer Pawl Edelman, and a great film is even greater.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 3 wins: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Adrien Brody), “Best Director” (Roman Polanski), and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Ronald Harwood); 4 nominations: “Best Cinematography” (Pawel Edelman), “Best Costume Design” (Anna B. Sheppard), “Best Editing” (Hervé de Luze), and “Best Picture” (Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Film” (Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, and Alain Sarde) and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Roman Polanski); 5 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Wojciech Kilar), “Best Cinematography” (Pawel Edelman), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Adrien Brody), “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Ronald Harwood), and “Best Sound” (Jean-Marie Blondel, Dean Humphreys, and Gérard Hardy)

2003 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Adrien Brody)