7 Word Reviews: Made in Dagenham, Stone, 127 Hours, Etc...

Can you feel Oscar precursor season gearing up?

Left: Aron Ralson as himself.
Right: James Franco as Aron Ralston

The mountaintops are a-rumbling. To delude myself into thinking I've "caught up" before the avalanche, herewith seven word reviews on a bunch of movies I haven't got around to talking about just yet. More to come on three of them.

127 Hours
In which James Franco plays Aron Ralston who is pinned under boulder in southern Utah.
7WR: Nervously tricked up storytelling, but gripping nonetheless. B/B+


Made in Dagenham
Sally Hawkins leads fellow factory women on a strike for equal pay in late-60s England.
7WR: Engaging nuanced star turn elevates predictable story.  B

Stone
A parole officer who is about to retire (of course!) gets mixed up with an inmate and his wife.
7WR: Weirdly acted, overcooked presentation of undefined 'whatthefuck?'ness. D

Norton: What the fuck are you looking at?
Nathaniel: Honestly, I have no idea. You should tell me since you made it. 

Salt
In which Angelina Jolie is an American spy accused of being a Russian sleeper agent.
7WR (Angelina): An unactable enigma, so Jolie charismas instead. B+
7WR (Movie): Endearingly absurd but sadly disposable. Lame ending. B-

Soul KitchenFatih Akin's comedy about second chances, a flailing restaurant, and two German-Greek brothers.
7WR: Slow burn silliness and lusty adult appetites. B+

Leaving
Kristin Scott Thomas gets the f*** of her life from Sergi Lopez, then loses her cool.
7WR: Feverishly horny portentousness. Somehow Kristin sells it. C+

I Am Love
Tilda is the matriarch of a rich Italian clan whose family business is changing hands.
7WR: Mouthwatering visuals, melodramatic verve, subtextual theme;  Masterpiece?  A/A-

(big article forthcoming now that it's on DVD. Probably in a week's time.)

Mic-Macs
(From the man behind Amélie.) A man with a bullet in his brain seeks revenge on arms dealers.
7WR: Inspired (But Exhausting) Hijinx Setpieces 'R Us B-

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If you've seen any of these, do share your feelings. I lift the restrictions on word counts for the comments. You may use more than 7! (If you're ever in doubt about whether or not to comment try to think of comments as little crumbs and The Film Experience as a zoo. Here you may should feed the animals because they don't eat otherwise.) 
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Kristin Scott Thomas Wanted Tilda's Role in "Burn After Reading"

The latest issue of French Premiere has hit the newsstands 'cross the Ocean. It's a big Harry Potter issue with new photos and such but if you look at the top left hand headline you can see the hallowed name of Kristin Scott Thomas, one of the few British acting giants that didn't teach at Hogwarts. Kristin has lately been headlining French films like Leaving (now in theaters) and, of course, I've Loved You So Long a couple years back. 

I had the pleasure of interviewing her a couple of years ago and she struck me as surprisingly unguarded and honest about her career ups and down. Premiere asked her if she ever watches movies and wishes she had played that role. "Of course, all the time" she answered (!) and then some.

Les rôles de garçon, surtout. Il y a aussi Burn After Reading des frères Coen, dans lequel je voulais tourner, mais ils ont préféré prendre Tilda Swinton. Et je suis aussi très fâchée contre Stephen Frears, parce qu’il ne m’a pas proposé le rôle de la femme de l’écrivain dans Tamara Drewe. Tamsin Greig est formidable, mais quand j’ai vu le film, je n’ai pas pu m’empêcher d’aller voir Stephen pour lui demander pourquoi il n’avait pas pensé à moi. Je rêve de tourner avec lui et il le sait très bien !

 Kristin Scott Thomas and two roles she wanted to play.

My french is of the high school variety but basically she's jealous of the men's roles first and foremost. She also alludes to having auditioned for the Tilda Swinton role in Burn After Reading but the Coen Brothers preferred Tilda. I heart Tilda but I could totally see KST barking orders at George Clooney and John Malkovich while chopping carrots or driving through DC, can't you? She also approached Stephen Frears after seeing Tamara Drewe. 'Why hadn't he thought of her for the role played by Tamsin Greig?'

About the Oscar loss (The English Patient) and the snub for I've Loved You So Long, she has this to say.

Un jour, quand j’aurai 95 ans, ils m’amèneront sur scène et me donneront un prix pour l’ensemble de ma carrière. Mais je n’ai pas vraiment besoin de récompenses. De toute façon, je ne gagne jamais rien, ni loto, ni tombola, ni Oscars.

This is something humorous along the lines of  'I never win anything -- lottery, Oscar -- but I don't need awards.' Maybe when she's 95, they'll bring her up on stage for career honors?

 Kristin and Sergí Lopez in Leaving (Partir)

Kristin Scott Thomas is still inarguably vivid onscreen at 50 and what's more she's still erotically viable, too. Leaving is full of randy sex scenes with Sergi Lopez but my favorite moment in the film is one where her husband (played by Yvan Attal, Charlotte Gainsbourg's real-life man), who has learned of her affair verbally assaults her marking her "sluttish grin" and comparing her to a cat in heat. The moment, which is nasty but unfortunately relatable (given the outright flaunting of her affair), wouldn't work half as well if you hadn't already marked how much she's abandoned herself to desire.

One hopes more directors and casting directors start to notice how well she's maintained her particular screen magic. Maybe her role in Nowhere Boy, in which she's typically excellent playing the key role of John Lennon's (Aaron Johnson) disciplinarian aunt can remind them what they're missing when they don't consider her for the meaty parts. If that pre-fame Beatles biopic takes off at all, it's easy to imagine Oscar traction for her role in Best Supporting Actress.

Can you imagine her in Tilda's Burn role? Do you plan to see Nowhere Boy?
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Happy 50, Kristin Scott Thomas

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I know that she can play so much more than a bitch,
but I do love it when she plays a bitch most of all.
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"Death has no excuses."

Sundance Day 8: Parker Posey, Cyrus and Nowhere Boy

In which all celluloid begins to bleed together, sickness wins out, and Nathaniel loses his mind (from now on, shorter festival trips!). But, just when all hope for sanity is lost as Sundance winds down, Nathaniel dances with Parker Posey at a party! Nathaniel is elated. And no, I don't know why Nathaniel is speaking in the third person either.

Awesome Parker. As friendly as she is talented.
And fun to dance with, too. She was on the competition jury

Cyrus
The Duplass brothers (Mark and Jay), have been steadily rising stars in the indie scene with contributions to films like Humpday, Baghead and The Puffy Chair among many others. Their latest, which they wrote and directed, looks like a breakthrough... at least where mainstream attention is concerned. This is why people cast "name" actors. It wins attention and quite often name actors are names for a reason: talent. There's not a dud performance in the film. John C Reilly plays a sad sack divorcee, Catherine Keener is his ex-wife who worries about him, and Marisa Tomei is the angel he falls for. Because this is a movie, she falls right back. It's all quite funny and just off kilter enough to be surprising. All this despite being the umpteenth billion flick to reinforce that venerable straight male fantasy: yes, any type of guy no matter his appearance, serotonin levels, aspirations, past history or employment status, can and will win incredibly hot chicks. One wonders where homely girls are supposed to go for love?

A few notes on the performances: Catherine Keener is playing warm Catherine Keener [there's two primary modes: smart-bitchy and smart-warm. Both are wonderful... though the most exciting are the performances that veer off into complicating Keenerisms like in Capote and Please Give]; Marisa Tomei continues to be one of the most enduring and endearing actresses of her generation. She's wonderful here as a fun-loving woman who loves too fiercely and impulsively not be blinded by it; Jonah Hill plays her needy manipulative son (he's very funny) and John C Reilly her needy and only slightly manipulative boyfriend. The film is smart enough to see the parallel even if it finds that more amusing than worrisome. B/B+

Finally, I ask you this: Parker Posey was the queen of '90s indies and Catherine Keener the queen of '00s indies. When exactly is Keener going to be dethroned? It seems like she's still pretty comfy on that throne. Or am I forgetting someone...

Nowhere Boy
Director Sam Taylor Wood, who previously made the great short Love You More (see previous post) and her star Aaron Johnson (soon to be seen in Kick-Ass), pictured right, were much talked about at Sundance. Both of their stars are rising (this is her first feature but she's already a famous artist, this is his first high profile role with a probable blockbuster to follow) and they're also engaged and pregnant... not just with possibility. She's 42 and he's 19 which helps with the 'much talked about' bit.

Nowhere Boy, which has already been up for film prizes in Britain, will make it to the States in 2010 hopefully and it's well worth seeing. It's a biopic on John Lennon. The Young John Lennon as it were. Like Capote, it gains a lot of impact by tightly focusing on one specific time period and arc in its subject's life. Taylor Wood definitely has a gift with visuals and the film is always pleasing to look at. Johnson holds his own in the central role as the cocky but emotionally confused Lennon but the true stars of the picture are Kristin Scott Thomas as "Mimi" (interviewed here a year ago) and Anne-Marie Duff (James McAvoy's wife) as "Julia" who play estranged sisters -- Lennon's aunt and mother respectively -- and the most formative women in the musician's life. Pre Yoko that is. Both actresses are wonderful, refusing any standard biopic reduction into "mother figure" and becoming as compelling and three-dimensional as John Lennon himself, without the aid of the audience's pre-identification or projection. The Beatle's teenage anger at his mother figures gets a little wearying before the movie is over (grow up already!) and it ends rather abruptly but, all in all, it's a fine first film. I can't wait to see what Taylor Wood does next.


Cyrus: B/B+ (leaning B+)
Nowhere Boy: B/B+ (leaning B+)
Dancing with Parker Posey: A/A+ (leaning A+)

Which celebrity would you most like to dance with? Do tell in the comments.

Previously
Day 1: Travel Nightmare
Day 2: Late Arrival for Asian Day: Last Train Home, Vegetarian
Day 3: Marathon Day: Waiting for Superman, Splice, Bran Nue Dae, Boy, Please Give
Day 4: I Am Love, Buried
Day 5,6: Holy Rollers, The Runaways, Mother and Child, Catfish
Day 7: Gay Day: The Kids Are All Right and Contracorriente

next: a few more movies and my personal awards for the fest.

LFF: I've Been Somewhere, Boy

Dave here, reporting from the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL one last time. It's been my first full-on film festival, and if I said I wasn't dying to lie in my bed for twenty-four hours in a deep sleep, I'd be lying. But it's been a fantastic few weeks, a reignition of my passion for film, and an experience I'll probably never forget. Below, you can read my full review of Nowhere Boy, the John Lennon picture that received its world premiere as the festival's Closing Night Gala, and then my own personal set of "awards". But first, a big thanks to Nat for making it all happen, and I really hope you've enjoyed my coverage and that you'll seek out some of these movies - should you, of course, be given the chance.

Nowhere Boy begins with a couple of coy nods to that which it avoids mentioning explicitly - the Beatles. (Clearly I have no such qualms myself.) The exhilirating screams of a crowd rise on the soundtrack as the young John Lennon races down the road - pursued by no one. It is, one feels, the perfect way to deal with a fact that isn't integral to this particular story, but will inevitably be flitting around the audience's minds. It's not ignored, it's merely unimportant for the portion of John Lennon's life the film choses to focus on. It's also exemplary of the spry, brisk humour that lightens the load of a story that errs slightly too much to the heavily emotional.

Sam Taylor-Wood's debut feature, following her acclaimed short Love You More and almost two decades of artistic work, shows her aesthetic skills to be, thankfully, pushed more in the direction of emotion than style. There remain some striking visual moments, but all are tailored to deepen the understanding we have for the characters that Taylor-Wood has made so empathic. Matt Greenhalgh's script is serviceable but suffers from similar problems to his previous musician biopic-of-sorts, Control, in that, in its choice to follow a similar template - a man stuck between two women - it risks reducing a life to a set of scales. But where Control's romantic triangle remained elusive because the interactions between the trio were limited in their complexity, Nowhere Boy not only has more angles to the three points of its shape but has a better sense of who they are.

It helps, of course, to have such a fine cast, and all three of the lead players here respond with impressive dexterity and emotion to their director, lifting the script's occasionally tired dimensions to a fresher, natural feeling. The film peaks in a powerful, confrontational scene between the three of them - Lennon (Aaron Johnson), his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) and his Aunt Mini (Kristin Scott Thomas) - where the odd dimensions of this triangle are laid bare. What is Julia to John? A mother? A sister-type? A crush? An obvious dimension to this all sets John as caught between embodiments of the sides of the stark shift that was occuring at this moment in time - Aunt Mimi is the stiff upper-lip, reserved old guard, where the estranged Julia is the free spirit of the rock 'n' roll generation. All three actors finely modulate both the surfaces and the recesses of their characters, never compromising on who they presents themselves as and playing the slips from it as natural, organic moments. Kristin Scott Thomas, you won't be surprised to learn, steals best-in-show honours, her firm, slightly cold attitude mediated with the fierceness of her love for John, expressed in the strict mothering way that seems to be the way that makes the most sense to her. That's not to discredit Duff, whose vibrant exterior cracks as her past is scrutinized by her family, or Johnson, who combines rakish charm with a slightly off-putting arrogance, as it's the combination of the three performers that really makes the film spark.

Nowhere Boy doesn't spring any particular surprises, but it's as good as it could possibly have been. Taylor-Wood's artwork, some of which I glimpsed at her talk a few days ago, was much less visually styled than intensely personal and emotional, and it's this trait she carries so strongly across to her filmmaking. Ultimately, while it's not the film's focus, Lennon's music emerges as important because it makes him individual, it escapes the need of both women in his life. Nowhere Boy is a promising debut from a director who evidently has a lot of passion for what she's doing, and thankfully seems to be quite good at doing it. B+

In the end, then, a very good film to finish with. And now, because no one can ever resist them, my own picks for the best of the fest:

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Niels Arestrup, A Prophet
(runner-up: Oscar Isaac, Balibo)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Rosamund Pike, An Education
(runner-up: Kristin Scott Thomas, Nowhere Boy)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Aleksei Arsentyev, Wolfy
(runner-up: Stéphane Fontaine, A Prophet)

DIRECTOR
Jacques Audiard, A Prophet
(runner-up: Jane Campion, Bright Star)

ACTOR
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet
(runner-up: Aaron Johnson, Nowhere Boy)

ACTRESS
Abbie Cornish, Bright Star
(runner-up: Yana Troyanova, Wolfy)

FILM
A Prophet
(runner-up: Samson and Delilah)

Thanks for reading, commenting, thinking, and, hopefully, watching.

LFF: Time To Grow Up

Dave here, still at the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, and apologising profusely for his absence - it's been a busy few days of film, and having an hour staring at Julianne Moore and ten seconds staring at Eva Green. (Both are as stunning as you've been led to expect.) There have been some big names and some big films the past few days, and so this is a triple-threat of things-you'll-actually-have-heard-of - and all this without The White Ribbon, thoughts on which are lingering on my computer, waiting for me to approve of them. For now, you'll have to make do...

By far the loudest applause I've yet experienced at the festival was given at the end of Precious. The film's status as a crowd-pleaser seemed odd to me - granted I'd avoided as much press on it as I could, but I knew the basic story. It seems obvious in retrospect that the harshnesses Precious deals with serve to make the audience investment that much deeper, and coupled with the generous, poignant amount of humour the film also emits, it's a hard film to argue with the pure love it might inspire. The education storyline errs a bit closely to the Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets' Society cliche, and the fantasy sequences and vibrant, distorted flashbacks are a bit too overtly flashy (even as these artistic choice makes sense narratively), but the performances are as powerful as you'll already know. Sibide and Carey project a subdued, painful honesty, while Mo'Nique's erratic, monstrous character sears through the screen almost too heavily - the film ends almost unbalanced in her favour. But reservations about the narrative construction and aesthetic flourishes seem churlish in the face of such emotion, such a refreshingly unpretentious attitude, and such vibrant human feeling. B+ [I know this is my show, but if you've yet to read Nick Davis' review of the film, it's one of the best pieces I've read in quite a while and says everything I wanted to, even things I hadn't yet understood I even felt.]

Jacques Audiard's A Prophet retains the nervy, lucid, enthralling energy of his previous films, and objectively speaking it's surely his most assured, controlled piece of work yet. It helps, of course, that newcomer Tahar Rahim is so superb in the central role, progressing from a nervy but proud young offender and, gradually, becoming a top dog. But the greatness of this film lies in the complexity of the arc - the Malik of the beginning is recognisable in the Malik of the ending, and there is no pretence that these experiences mean Malik is anything impressive or worthwhile - a notable conclusion here is of how narrow prison life is, as Malik's youthful wonder remains in his brief experiences of the outside world. And despite the intensely personal, close shooting style that really involves the audience with Malik's story, the story opens out wider, from the toweringly magnetic Niels Arestrup as a prison don to the tragic, intriguing figure of Adel Bencherif's ex-con who proves Malik's only connection to the outside world. The film's compass is more observant than incisively judging, a film that could be - and likely sounds like - a sprawling epic is instead a deeply engrossing personal story, lingering in the mind with its dark, inconclusive ending. A-

Leaving starts with the deadening bang of a gunshot. But as we flashback months previously to see how we reached this mysterious act of violence, we find that Leaving is anything but dead. It's almost too alive. Kristin Scott Thomas, acknowledging her English roots but once more making use of her French-language skills, stars as a married, bourgeois housewife who cannot resist an affair with a builder (Sergi López), much to the violent outrage of her husband (Yvan Attal). Catherine Corsini rattles through the cliched processes of affair melodramas so quickly it's vaguely absurd - "I can't live without you" is uttered about twenty minutes in - but this leaves plentiful room for such dramatics to be expanded upon. Leaving self-consciously seems to acknowledge, in the speed of its melodrama, the childish, impulsive attitudes of all three main characters. The actors, especially Attal with his torrid, merciless anger and Scott Thomas with her naive, wilful, rebellious passion, play up to the faintly hysterical tone, making Leaving both perversely enjoyable and oddly insightful. B

A Long Fade To A Fade To Black

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JA from MNPP here. The night before last I watched the 2006 French thriller Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne). I'm sure many of you have seen it. It's a nice, solid, little piece of work - smart and character-based in a way not enough American thrillers are and just twisty enough (plus it's got Kristin Scott Thomas flexing her Gallic-skills, which is always a treat). I had a couple of issues with the film (I'm never gonna hate on getting to listen to the entire length of a Jeff Buckley song, but the music-video-like montages were a little distracting), but mostly I was entirely involved in its drama - I found myself shouting at the screen! - and enjoyed it thoroughly.

And then it ended. Or rather, it should've ended. I saw the cut to black coming, I felt it in my very bones. Right... now. Black.... now? Fin. The End? No? You gonna keep going movie? Okay... another thirty seconds of overly sentimental hooey. Blurgh. Thanks for that, movie! Thanks. Send me out on an annoyed note.

It's just... it was so there. In my mind. That cut to black. I wanted numerous heads of lettuce and cauliflower to toss at the screen. Bales of hay. I wanted to rewind time, step into the editing suite, and smack them about the face and hands until they got it.

The movie that always gets called out for its over-extended ending is Return of the King, but that one didn't so much bother me (but then, I am a geek). I last remember this feeling hitting during Australia (and there was like forty more minutes of film to go on that one). But this did get me thinking of that very specific gut-feeling I get when I sense a perfect ending and the subsequent sense of violation when it is crossed, and was curious when the last time y'all felt that twinge... and if you take it as personally as I appear to...
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Podcast: Kristin Scott Thomas Interview

Kristin Scott Thomas is "Extraordinary"

When I spoke with the acclaimed British actress in January, as we both recovered from Golden Globe parties, I discovered that she loves describing other actors that way. Yet the adjective fits her like a glove. "Versatile" would be another apt descriptor. She's equally at home in drama, comedy or in period epics. You'll find her in French, British, American and even Romanian cinema. She also treads the boards. Her recent performance in the Broadway run of The Seagull could bring her her first TONY nomination this summer. Her film career from Prince's odd con artist flick Under the Cherry Moon (1986) [think of his "Parade" CD if you're drawing a blank -ed.] through the Oscar stamped The English Patient (1996) to the recent French hits Tell No One and I've Loved You So Long (2008, just out on DVD!) has been alternately celebrated and underappreciated.

She likens her past twenty years in the spotlight to a rollercoaster

You have moments of complete grace and glory and heaven. Others of failure or rejection... So much of it is out of your control

That zen like acceptance of the ups and downs of a screen career threads itself throughout our conversation. She's benefiting from France's affection for mature women but she understands the irresistible beauty of youth. She credits much of her screen performance to what's built in the editing room but doesn't discount her own efforts in front of the camera "If you haven't got good raw material you can't create anything". She's just as willing to discuss that first high profile Prince dud ("a baptism of fire") as she is to chat about how proud she is of a small French/Romanian film An Unforgettable Summer. When asked about future roles she's interested in, there's also a little bit of the up and down balancing...

Once you've done something you're not really interested in doing it again. I'm quite glad to be rid of 'the withering remark'. But then on the other hand I really enjoy the withering remarks, the witticisms and the puff of the cigarette.

Despite the rich variety of characters she's essayed I half expected her stickiest screen persona, the initially icy aristocratic beauty familiar from Gosford Park and The English Patient, to bleed over into our conversation. Not so. She was congenial, down to earth and in great humor -- hardly ready with a "withering remark". Her co-stars performances are often deemed extraordinary but after our quick run through of her career, she does allow herself a minor pat on the back.

You know, I look back at the list... 'You haven't done too badly, old girl'

It's an understatement.
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*Go to iTunes for the enhanced interview or listen to the simple mp3

Listen and discuss.

What's your favorite screen memory of Kristin Scott Thomas? Are you excited for her pas de deux with Sergi López in Partir? Do you prefer those 90s arthouse films Angels and Insects, Bitter Moon or the big hits Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient? How drôle was she as "Alette" in Confessions of a Shopaholic? Finally, if you've just seen her Golden Globe and Cesar nominated turn in I've Loved You So Long (the film just hit DVD) what did you think of her performance as the withdrawn ex-con?

Red Carpet Lineup

Post Oscars the the crowds are smaller but red carpets never stopped being walked on. So here we go with this week's sampling.


Maribel Verdú would like to know what it is with French actresses and The Film Experience. How about some attention for the Spanish ladies? Rupert Friend and Keira Knightley attended the opening of his film The Young Victoria (previous post). Rupert will be the love of Michelle Pfeiffer and Emily Blunt's lives this year onscreen. Offscreen he's still Keira's. They make such a beautiful couple but they're both so angular one wonders if they keep gauze and surgical tape on their nightstands just as a precaution. Cheekbones that kill.

Breaking news: Charlize Theron still hot, still knows it. Can we please have more Carla Gugino and Miranda Richardson onscreen? Come on agents, casting directors, producers etcetera. Use them (We discussed Miranda earlier). More on Carla next week since Watchmen opens today. She's playing Silk Spectre, the first. Speaking of... Malin Akerman is smirking at me. 'You can try to shove me off to the side Nathaniel but I'm coming for you. After Watchmen, I'll be everywhere. Like Megan Fox all over again.' I'm not quite ready to say uncle. We'll see how she does as Silk Spectre II. Was it just me or did Malik sort of blow that bitchtastic opportunity she had in 27 Dresses by playing it safe? That movie needed a dose of over the top villainy to give it some flavor.

We'll end with the stars of the sibling ex-con drama I've Loved You So Long, Elsa Zylberstein and the great Kristin Scott Thomas. They're pictured left at the Cesars (France's Oscars) last week. Elsa didn't ever get real traction for the supporting race here at the Oscars but in France she won the statue. Kristin was nominated for lead actress (as were two other actresses we adore Sylvie Testud and Tilda Swinton) but lost to Yolande Moreau in Séraphine which is about the french painter Séraphine de Senlis. That biopic swept the Cesars winning seven prizes. It isn't only the American Academy that loves the epic period bios. I'd say to expect this to be France's submission for next year's Oscars but for the fact that France always has an enviable supply of dozens and dozens of valid contenders.

My interview with Kristin is now up!

Rental Queue Alert: Australia, Ashes of Time, Wonder Woman

Calling out sick never quite works for me...confessions of a blogaholic, I guess. Here are today's new DVDs. (Links go to Netflix for your ease of queue'ing)

The Must See
Ashes of Time Redux I once tried to watch a copy of Ashes of Time before the "reworking" and the image quality was so bad that I gave up after five minutes. Who wants a Wong Kar Wai movie with its visuals compromised? Nobody who knows how ravishing his imagery is, that's who. I'm thrilled to have a real go at this swordsmen drama starring the unbeatable Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and his two greatest screen lovers: Happy Together's Leslie Cheung and In the Mood for Love's Maggie Cheung. Plus there's Tony's frequent co-star and offscreen wife Carina Lau, Jacky Cheung and the legendary Brigitte Lin (The Bride With White Hair). Yes please sextupled.

Your Other Options
I've Loved You So Long Kristin Scott-Thomas slow burns through this French drama like a woman possessed by intractable personal demons. Some people think she should've been in the Oscar lineup. My interview with this great British actress is here.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua Remember when Dalmations were all the rage and everybody had to have one and true animal lovers were a little concerned that people weren't getting pets for the right reasons. That's what's going on with chihuahuas now, right?

Lake City Sissy Spacek and Troy Garity (Soldier's Girl) star in this indie drama as an estranged mother and son. If the script is as good as these two actors it might be a gem.

Australia Baz Luhrmann's messy '30s outback epic might be both diminished and reenergized on DVD. On the downside, the huge vistas will be smaller and that great cattle drive sequence, the obvious highlight, will be less of a stunner. On the other hand, DVD viewing tends to break up movies and Australia might feel less like a misfire and more like a generously overstuffed adventure serial once you're able watch it in pieces. Baz's wife Catherine Martin fetishizes Nicole Kidman with costumes and Baz fetishizes Hugh Jackman with the camera. Mucho eye candy [full review]


Wonder Woman If you're a fan of the Amazon princess you'll want to savor this new animated feature since you know that that live action film is never going to happen, right? You've accepted that, haven't you? DC does not have a clear vision for their movie franchises. Remember how long it took them to get Superman flying again? Wonder Woman is basically DC's kryptonite. She's always popping up and the very thought of her defeats them. We'll be lucky if a live action Wonder Woman gets made in our lifetime. Or maybe we'll be luckier if it doesn't since her transfer would be tremendously difficult to pull off. She'd need a strong screenplay and directorial vision, not a corporate board, guiding her to the screen.
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Now Playing: Hockey Masks and Shopaholics

links go to trailers

L I M I T E D
Gomorra The Italian hit finally opens proper, without the intended Oscar nomination it expected to be promoting itself with. I thought it was good but I don't totally understand the fuss, I must confess. If you like hyperlink mosaics or mafia films you could certainly do a lot lot worse. It has its moments.

Two Lovers I keep thinking this movie opened already but such is the fateful pattern of distribution for small actor's films. Only in this case it's more like actor (singular) since that's not what Joaquin Phoenix is anymore, you got it? See it for Gwynnie. Didn't you realize you kind of missed her when she showed up in Iron Man last summer?

W I D E
The International Evil banks vs. the world. How timely! But how did they get permission to shoot up the friggin' Guggenheim? (I never use the word friggin but the doubled double 'g's were too much to pass up). That's all I can think of when I watch the trailer because despite the presence of a director I once loved (Tom Run Lola Run Tykwer) and actors I admire it seems so, what's the word, "standard"? We'll see.

Confessions of a Shopaholic In which two time Oscar nominee Amy Ad-- I'm sorry in which Isla Fisher (the other one was on my mind, that's all) tries to carry a girlie hit all by herself presumably targeting the huge Devil Wears Prada audience. Notice the helpful hint "You speak Prada?" in the trailer. Although do we really care what Hugh Dancy speaks so long as we are able to read his lips? Do you think the female audience will ever tire of being portrayed as insatiable brand-crazy consumers?

Kristin Scott Thomas also appears in this one and we'll be talking about her again in a couple of weeks when I've Loved You So Long hits DVD. I'll share my interview then.

Friday the 13th I have no idea what number this is the endless bloody stream of Jason pictures, but the title suggests it's a reboot. Not a rethink! How can one rethink "Kids go to Crystal Lake, get slaughtered" I saw the first five minutes of this at Comic Con (not by choice! they sandwiched it between two things I wanted to see so I couldn't give up my seat). In the first five minutes of the picture, young pretty people get killed in increasingly gruesome ways. Sorry to go so heavy on the spoilers. Did I ruin the movie for you? What surprised me is how many people got killed in those five minutes. I counted five. The movie is 97 minutes long. I guess I'd see 92 more murders if I purchase a ticket? Slasher math.

True story: One of my friends is hosting a Friday the 13th party tonight in which apparently a bunch of the movies are going to be screened in marathon succession --how does one tell where one film ends and another begins? Hours upon hours of grisly murders. Another friend keeps bugging me to go. Don't they know I would just curl up in fetal position? That's no way to behave at a party and it's also not conducive to hanging out by the food, my preferred party position. It's hard to reach for chips and salsa when you're hands are hugging your knees.

Seeing anything this weekend?
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Link Side Stories

Film Ick is disappointed in how The Hobbit (2012?) and The Green Hornet (2010?) are shaping up... or not shaping up as the case may be
Club Silencio can't wait for the banana ranch action in Gael García Bernal's latest
ProBlogger If Marilyn Monroe was a blogger... advice from movie stars on blogging? I love it
ModFab on Obama's first terrible move (before he's even in power. argh)
In Contention 'it's nice to be wrong' Interesting piece but how could anybody not have known that Kristin Scott Thomas as a powerhouse before now?
Nick's Flick Picks a splendid defense of Howards End (and Merchant/Ivory films in general)
Scanners top five cinematic dogs of the year. The good kind of dog
The Daily Have you heard? David Hudson is leaving Daily GreenCine for IFC starting Jan 1st

Finally, the West Side Story obsessive in me is having a mini revival. And just in time: Tapeworthy sees the pre-Broadway run of West Side Story in DC for not much $ and speaks highly of it. Click for details. For those of you who haven't heard they're going for a grittier and more realistic take. The gangs are supposed to be scarier and half the cast (Maria, Anita, Bernardo, The Sharks) will be performing in Spanish. Since WSS is my favorite film ever, I sometimes get nervous about seeing stage productions of it (the last one I saw was ... not so good) but I'm quite excited for this... even if I'll miss half of the prime wit of Sondheim's lyrics since I don't habla español. Another thing I didn't know as I've been out of the theater loop a bit: Cody Green from the reality show Step It Up and Dance is playing Riff.

I've Linked You So Long

popbytes Grace Jones licks Joseph Fiennes. Whaaaaa?
My New Plaid Pants new pics and new new on Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are
ModFab declares undying love for Kristin Scott Thomas
People Hugh Jackman: Sexiest Man Alive
The Wicked Stage Desplechin A Christmas Tale collects another fan
Twitch thinks Star Trek is relevant again. It is? I guess I missed the part where people are excited for this one. Or maybe it's just my lifelong teflon like resistant to the franchise
Kenneth in the (212) "Face Dances" with Ethan Hawke
Fire of Spring HBO is finally doing a fantasy series. Yay!
Voynaristic more on the Prop 8 fallout at the Los Angeles Film Festival
Buzz Sugar a new Pinocchio (Just how many hours does Guillermo Del Toro cram into one day... 42?)
Out in Hollywood Both original stars are coming back to Hairspray for its final weeks on Broadway. Yay. I saw Marissa and Harvey in previews years ago and I wasn't "Without Love". In fact it was pouring out of me. Joy.


And Reports From the Edge shared this Fine Bros 4 minute video which "spoils" 100 movies. You've been warned.


Watch 100 Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes - NAKED VERSION in Funny Videos, Entertainment Videos, and Webisodes | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

20:08 (Best Pictures From the Outside In)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 8th second of movies.
I use a VLC but different DVDs do come up with slightly different screenshots. It's an inexact exercize.

It's a very plum... plum

Even Pee Wee Herman would love this redundant statement from The English Patient. 'Mmm, plummy!' But it gets at one of the best things about the movie, the feast it offers the senses.


In this first frame from Gone With the Wind, "Good Morning Scarlett", our heroine is all ablur ready to wreak havoc at the Wilkes Plantation. In the second frame (20:08 if you remove the overture) she's transferring her affections to Charles when she can't find a wedge inbetween Ashley & Melanie, newly betrothed.

Charles Hamilton, I want to eat barbecue with you! And mind you don't go philandering with any other girls because I might be jealous.

Such a troublemaker, that one! Or as her husband hunting rivals call her, "a hornet".

Visit Nick's Flick Picks for the new episode of Best Pictures From the Outside In as Mike, Nick and I tackle these two film giants, two of the longest best picture winners evah. "Fiddle Dee Dee"

And here's a chart of all episodes as per requests
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European Film Award Nominees

As discussed on the recent podcast, the European Film Awards will never be as big as the Oscars, because even in more multilingual places than the US, distribution is an unpredictable game. France isn't going to get the same titles as Norway. Italy won't show every movie that screens in the UK. Israeli screen choices don't mirror those in Spanish movie houses. And so on and so on... It's tougher to have fun arguments on awards-worth when everyone has access to different movies. But that said, the EFAs are still interesting and offer yet another window into what movies in a given year inspire those with ballots in hand.

European Film

• Il Divo, Italy
• Entre Les Murs (The Class), France
• Gomorra, Italy
• Happy-Go-Lucky, UK
• The Orphanage, Spain
• Waltz With Bashir, Israel/France/Germany

Il Divo and The Orphanage aren't up for Oscars this year (Orphanage was eligible in '07 and didn't receive attention) but Gomorra and The Class are among the likeliest contenders for Best Foreign Language Film. Bashir, being animated, will be a tougher sell for AMPAS voters who have never nominated a cartoon in that category, despite numerous drawn submissions. Happy-Go-Lucky is an Oscar contender of some sort. But what sort?

European Actress

• Hiam Abbass in Lemon Tree
  
• Arta Dobroshi in Lorna’s Silence
• Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky
• Belen Rueda in The Orphanage
• Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long
• Ursula Werner in Cloud 9

Two buzzy Oscar contenders for Best Actress right here (Sally & Kristin, come on down). Expect to hear their names all throughout awards season. But will Oscar's final shortlist have room for both? [Note: the other women aren't eligible due to release dates... but Hiam Abbas is featured in the well liked Richard Jenkins vehicle The Visitor and one assumes she'll be campaigned for that.]

European Actor

• Michael Fassbender in Hunger
• Thure Lindhardt & Mads Mikkelsen in Flame & Citron
• James McAvoy in Atonement
• Toni Servillo in Gomorra and Il Divo
  
• Jürgen Vogel in Die Welle (The Wave)
• Elmar Wepper in Cherry Blossoms
  

I know you're reading James McAvoy's name and everything else has become a blur. Snap out of it! Only Fassbender is eligible for Best Actor Oscar consideration but he's an extreme longshot. Why? A) it's not a sentimental performance. B) The movie is even harsher C) a December release for a challenging film without stars or Oscar-quantity director faces a nearly insurmountable task: how to carve out attention for oneself amidst all the crowd pleasers, A-Listers, audience coddling middlebrow fare and the freaking holidays themselves?

You can read the full list of nominees over @ European Films
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Red Carpet Rendezvous

A brief glimpse at this week's movie star fashions on the carpet for those cinephiles among you who don't troll gossip blogs or who might if they weren't littered with so many worthless celebrities who aren't famous for anything cinematic or encumbered by talent --there's so many these days. Why do people care about the talentless? It remains a mystery to me. But not the type of mystery you can't put down for hoping to solve, the kind that makes your eyelids very heavy.

Kate Beckinsale is a midget! No offense to midgets: she pretty
[image sources mostly]

from left to right: Brad Pitt, Brad's lucky left hand & Angelina Jolie at NYFF's Changeling premiere. For Oscar-Watchers: I wouldn't worry so much about the sudden influx of mixed/negative reviews from NYFF for this Eastwood pic. Once the mainstream critics get to it, it'll be raves. That's how it goes. Some of them even called Flags of Our Fathers a 'masterpiece'... and this movie is better than that. Expect its RT percentile to move up when it opens proper. Jennifer Lopez and Kate Beckinsale pretty in white at Elle's "Women in Hollywood" event. FYI: JLo is ending her strange and rather sudden 3 year break from acting. (Oh right, infants) She has two movies in pre-production.

Tangent Gripe: Jane Fonda and Kerry Washington were also there and if I could've found a photo of them full length (at the time I prepared this photo - I've seen one now), I would've included them in this red carpet mashup in order to declare my love for the 188th and 41st time respectively. But, as it turns out, photo services and gossip blogs have 3,000,000 photos of a certain heiress and various reality TV stars to every 1 photo of Kerry f'ing Washington and sometimes this just makes me want to die. What a world if Kerry be not prioritized?!

Maggie G favors black for the "Fashionably Natural" Gen Art and SoyJoy show. Kristin Scott Thomas, having quite a year, at the Seagull opening on Broadway. My BFF who saw Dianne Wiest onstage in the same role earlier this year gives the thumbs down in comparison. Actually he does the cat poo scratch but that seems awfully harsh --I've seen neither performance so I can't say. But it is what it is. Kristin is on Broadway run and Dianne wasn't. This Broadway gig will raise her acclaim and profile for that Oscar run for the upcoming I've Loved You So Long. TONY run to follow for The Seagull? Campaign synergy!

And finally we get to Saoirse Ronan and Nicole Kidman since we needed a little color with everyone leaning heavily on black & white. Saoirse was promoting City of Ember (now open) and Nicole was also at that starry Elle event. Isn't her increasingly strawberry hair begging to darken? Take back that head o' hair: Come Back to the Red or Ginger Nicki Kidman Nicki Kidman.
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I've Linked You So Long

In Contention joins in on the Kristin Scott Thomas Oscar buzz (for I've Loved You So Long). Could we really have a French language film in the Best Actress race two years running?
As Little As Possible filing reports from Telluride. Can't wait to see some of these films
Anne Thompson's Telluride Watch, too.
Daily GreenCine collects the rousing response to Slumdog Millionaire, a festival breakout
Just Jared burns up for Charlize Theron at her latest premiere. fwiw, the shoes are beyond fierce.


Drawn! highlight a Gremlins fan film. Ah DIY film culture.
Guardian wonders why "chick flicks" have such a shallow pool of themes
LA Rag Kevin Spacey gets cheeky. Oh, come out already man. It's so tiresome.
Big Screen Little Screen Audrey Tatou as Coco Chanel.

And -- trés awkward segueway --please cheer me up in the comments. This consulting gig I'm doing (no, I don't make a living from writing just yet) is wearing me down. Nathaniel is missing the movies and Manhattan and friends. and especially his cat! I never intended to doom him to depression by naming him after Montgomery Clift ... but the name proved prophetic. He's not exactly a chipper thing. When he's not morose he can be demonic. But now that I've abandoned him for a month, I worry. His brain is so tiny and he doesn't speak English and I'm like the only thing he loves. I feel guilt. GUILT. He's soft and fuzzy and I fear that if I don't return soon he won't need Lacuna Inc to erase his memories of me. Are there any pet owners out there who can relate?