I can't quite believe it's happening, but after two and a half years of previewing the weekly releases I'm coming to a major milestone - it's the first movie to get a perfect score. The reviews have been cracking, it's from a director(s) and cast that I truly admire, it's picked up awards and nominations from major organisations - whilst I have had my doubts frankly it's hard to ignore it even if it didn't actually make my countdown for most anticipated film for 2010! So later today I will go to see , this weeks film of the week True Grit. 
True Grit
Without doubt this is the most exciting Western proposition in nearly 20 years. The Coen brothers returning to Charles Portis' novel for this exciting tale about redemption and loyalty all seen through the eyes of a 13 year old girl. By the way the talk that this is not a remake of the earlier movie is slightly undermined by the eyepatch, which was an invention of the first film.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●●●
Gnomeo and Juliet
Smart looking children's adaptation of Shakespeare most famous romantic tragedy set to the music of Elton John. The changing of the characters to Gnome's is odd but is at least understandable for the kids. The eclectic cast backing James McAvoy and Emily Blunt in the leads ranges from the highbrow Michael Caine, Maggie Smith and Julie Walters to the bizarre trilogy of Ozzy Osbourne, Jason Statham and Hulk Hogan!
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Never Let me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro's subtly sci-fi love triangle set in an alternative 1970's UK somehow never managed to capture the pre-screening buzz it elicited. Nevertheless the melancholic style and triumphant central performances by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield makes this an interesing proposition.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Just Go with It
Dreadful looking Adam Sandler vehicle where he somehow manages to drag Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman into the mess with him. Plot seems to revolve around Sandler pretending Aniston is his wife in order to attract another (younger) woman.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Nothing to Declare
French Buddy Cop Comedy (be warned) about the closing of the French-Belgian border in the ninety's. Plenty of national stereotypes abound. Should appeal to the Top Gear crowd - if it weren't actually in French.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Patiala House
Akshay Kumar headlines this UK set Bollywood movie about a second generation Sikh, the central question is whether supporting your family or following your dreams is more important or whether you should have to choose.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Son of Babylon
Iraqi drama about a 12 year-old boy Ahmed and his Grandmother crossing the country to find Ahmed's missing father who might have been released after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
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Yogi Bear
The questionable regurgitation of 1960's cartoons reaches a new low with Hanna-Barbera's most famous Bear, most famous for it's "Best things come in Bears" first poster. You can understand why Dan Aykroyd desperately needs the work but Justin Timberlake has no excuse fr this boo boo.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Bizarrely missed from 04/02/11
New York, I Love You
Not sure how I missed the release of this themed collection of shorts in the same vein as Paris Je t'aime. I've already got the DVD and will review - as part of my normal film reviews - in a few weeks.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Saturday, 12 February 2011
The clue's in the eyepatch (Out this week - 11/02/11)
Josh Brolin
Happy Birthday to
Josh Brolin
43 today
Brolin may not be getting much of the heat from True Grit (which opened yesterday) but I expect his scarred Tom Chaney is coming across as suitable repellent. Add that to his forthcoming performance in Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and it's quite a year for the Californian native.
Friday, 11 February 2011
Burt Reynolds
Happy Birthday to
Burt Reynolds
75 today
International star and all round sex symbol Reynolds has been making the fans swoon since the late 50's (although Deliverance in 1972 really marked the beginning of his high profile career). He's keeping busy, but aas nothing looks worth seeing.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Morning Glory
2010. Dir: Roger Michell. Starring: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldblum. ●●●○○
Formulas are meant to work, they are meant to work because the plot is tried and tested with a million other examples in the relevant genre. They work because we, as an audience, often don't want much more than the formula. In Morning Glory writer Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) and director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) both know that formula and work very hard to follow it. They should have tried something different. The formula restricts them so much that the great chemistry and situations are buried under the relentless forward motion of the plot contrivances.
Of course the plot does not have an original twist in it's 107 minute running time. Rachel McAdams, as perky as possible, plays a workaholic TV producer who gets the enviable job of trying to save Daybreak (no, not that one) the ailing breakfast news programme on IBS (couldn't thay have found better initial than that). Recognising things have to change shesacks the pervy male anchor and replaces him with grumpy high-minded journo Harrison Ford. In the meantime she's in the early stages of a relationship with current affairs producer Patrick Wilson.
Does the show get to the magic share that will stop Jeff Goldblum's exec cancelling it? Will Ford and co-anchor Diane Keaton put away their differences and work together as a team? Will Wilson and McAdams find a way to co-exist with the demands of their high pressure jobs? We know the answers to these - they all fit within the formula.
On the plus side, other than the bleeding obvious throughline of the movie, just about everything work fine. The comic element works well throughout with some choice one-liners from the older cast and the occasional bout of slapstick, the romance seems a little tagged on but both McAdams and Wilson are beautiful people and you can't help hoping it will be OK for them in the long run, although frankly I have my doubts. The audience that were hoping for Broadcast News level bite at the dumbing down of hard journalism shouldn't be too disappointted as the thesis seems to me to suggest that - in Breakfast anyway - the big story should be able to rub shoulders with culture.
The cast all put in fine work, with Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford particulary proving what great comedic performers they are; she's all ditzy and charming, he's deadpan with solid timing.
For a change I'd like to suggest how this film could have been significantly better. Instead of showing the arc of the characters over several months I believe we could have followed behind the scenes during one morning show, from the pre-production meeting to the final credits. I think the same beats could've been hit, and the emotional storyline for the characters who learn might have had a better chance of translating with the audience if it were a single day of getting there. The jokes would also have had more time to develop. Any Hollywood producers who agree just give me a call and we can discuss Morning Glory 2.
Overall the film was pleasant enough viewing in spite of it's straitjacket. I fully expect this to be the best romantic comedy I see this year.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Rabbit Hole
2010. Dir: John Cameron Mitchell. Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller and Sandra Oh. ●●●●○
Grief is a difficult and complex set of emotions, and losing a child must be one of the most horrific episodes in anyone's life, but presenting that issue on screen is rarely managed well. The usual method is to overload the pathos to emotionally devastate the parents. Thankfully Rabbit Hole manages to avoid that pitfall in this slow-burning, deeply felt and under-played look as parental loss.
The film picks up eight months after Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart have lost their only child in a car accident, and follows them as they drift apart, both of them looking for ways to deal with their mixed emotions and neither of them feeling the other can help. Kidman begins a - suspend your disbelief here - faltering friendship with the college student who ran her son over (newcomer Miles Teller) whilst Eckhart finds himself drawn to Sandra Oh, a fellow attendee at the group grief counselling sessions.
The tone of the screenplay allows the charcters to feel and think in ways that seem realistic and nuaced, elements of guilt and mutual anger - partly due to the differences in how they cope - mingle freely with black comedy and tender observations. The group therapy includes some of the most delicious lines, Kidman reishing "Why didn't he just make one" which is even funnier in context than it was in the trailer.
Both of the protagonists give career best performances and I'm surprised Eckhart didn't get much heat in award season his mood swings and need to both goforward and hold onto the past are utterly convincing, Teller also stands out as one to watch in the future (he has a supporting role in the Footloose remake coming up but I expect more will come). I have to say I was less enthused by Dianne Wiest, party because I found it extremely hard to imagine her and Kidman were actually mother and daughter both in the way they interact with each other and the characers outlook on life.
John Cameron Mitchell directs with an unfussy plainness that would surprise fans of his earlier work (Shortbus, Hedwig) and Frank G DeMarco shoots with a drab sensibility that fits the dourness of the script. I would like to suggest to Nicole and Aaron that they get some decorators round, it's going to be difficult to sell their house with the relentless brown of the ground floor, a depressing reminder of the emptyness of their lives.
A couple of glitches and a painfully slow pace aside this is a unique look at the grieving process and certainly worth a look.
Joe Pesci
Happy Birthday to
Joe Pesci
68 today
Few critics argue Joe Pesci ever tries subtlety, whether playing an psychotic gangster or a Brooklyn ambulance chaser he's displays a larger than life character which makes him hard to cast (even if he usually knocks it out of the park). In theory we'll next see him in Taylor Hackford's Love Ranch but that's looking less and less likely that it's going to get a UK release.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Tuesday Trailers - Animal Kingdom
It's surprising really that we're going to be treated to most of the Oscar nominated films so early in 2011, remember the American indie that breaks out often doesn't make it to this side of the Atlantic until much later if at all (see Frozen River or The Messenger), however this year all the nominated performances will screen in UK cinemas by the end of February with the last one being Jacki Weaver's horrific mother in the Aussie crime drama from David Michod.
Animal Kingdom is released on 25 February 2011.
Nick Nolte
Happy Birthday to
Nick Nolte
70 today
Whilst it's hard to imagine Nick Nolte being young it's equally impossible to think of him as a septugenarian. Coming up is the ultimate fighting flick Warrior with Tom Hardy getting into to ring to impress daddy Nolte. Hopefully that won't go the same way as the Renee Zellweger/Nolte starring My Own Love Song which is set to go straight to video in the US.
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Dinner fit for a bride (Film News - 05/02/11)
There's been some interesting headlines this week with a couple of new titles coming our way which look very watchable, in fact the beauty of my first title is it will provide casting opportunities to hundreds. This is on top of the usual rounds of casting rumours and our monthly check of upcoming movies on imdb.
Great Expectations
If watching Derek Jacobi intone a few lines of Little Dorrit in the third act of Hereafter made you salivate for more Charles Dickens then you're in luck. It's looking like a version of his classic tale of class envy and redemptive guilt is set to make a foray into the big screen. Naturally this isn't the first time Pip, Magwitch and Miss Haversham have been in cinemas, most notably in the 1946 David Lean version with John Mills, Finlay Currie and Martita Hunt in those memorable roles.
I won't go into the plot details here, like all Dicken's it's long and meandering and with characters disappearing and reappearing with alarming regularity. There are also some magical moments of descriptive writing including fog shrouded escaped convicts and uneaten wedding cakes that could easily become iconic shots from the film.
The key thing is to try to imagine the casting. It's a film that practically begs for the brightest and best of British acting talent to be assembled. I'm saying Andrew Garfield for Pip and Helen Mirren as Miss Haversham. You heard it here first. Any casting ideas you have?
An early illustration of Miss Haversham's Wedding feast.
Read on for an unlikely true story, an surprising director says his next film will be an epic and the usual News segments.
Argo
The hunt for Ben Affleck's next directorial task continues with this bizarre true-life tale set to be produced by Men who Stare at Goats colleagues George Clooney and Grant Heslov. Like Goats it's an expose on one of the weirder moments in US military history focusing on the CIA operation to release the American Embassy hostages in 1979. Their ultimate plan involved disguising the operatives as a film crew scouting for locations. Whether Affleck can produce the satirical edge a project like this might need remains to be seen but if he pulls it off this could be hilarious.
Place beyond the Pines
Derek Cianfrance has been talking up his follow up to Blue Valentine to almost epic proportions. In an interview with indiewire he used terms like "the transformative power of fatherhood", "a Darwinistic idea of survival through ancestry" and (if that wasn't enough "I’ve had people tell me they feel like its ‘The Deer Hunter’ meets ‘The Godfather." Proof that he's certainly willing to enthuse about the project. The story focuses on a motorcycle stunt driver (Ryan Gosling's already practising in Cage's of death like this one to our right) who has to learn how to be a father and will cross generations. If it taps into even half as much honest human emotion as his latest then it will definitely be one to watch.
Casting News
The usual suspects have been hogging the casting rumours with Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes both close to signing on for Bond 23 - which could just become the starriest Bond ever - and Eva Green and Jackie Earle Haley may be hiding in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. Robin Williams continues to be a possibility for Hugo Strange in Dark Knight Rises, although the main issue seems to be are three villains too many for the film to cope with. David O. Russell may be inviting Amy Adams back for his next project, the big screen adaptation of Playstation 3 game Uncharted: Drake's Progress although Scarlett Johannsson is another name in the mix. Finally Samuel L. Jackson has surprised nobody by exclusively revealing he'll cameo in Thor, frankly I was surprised when it was rumoured he wasn't going to.
Production News
Every month I like to update on the latest films moving into the pre-production stage, essentially as a way of monitoring which of the stories I've previously covered have actually come to fruition. This time we're seeing movement on David Cronenberg's limousine set thriller Cosmopolis, 60's crimecaper remake Gambit, hyperlink love story 360, and big budget big effects movies The Wolverine, Prometheus, Oz, Th Great and Powerful and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The last four of which are bound for box office glory if nothing else. One movie though caught my eye even though I hadn't imagined it would.
Playing the Field
Gerard Butler obviously believes he's a big star, and I expect the studios think the same, why else would he continue to get high profile roles. So to follow his "acting" turn in Machine Gun Preacher there will be this black comedy about a soccer coach working his way through the Mums from his son's team. Whilst this doesn't scream high quality there's something intriguing about the notion and I expect they'll be some fun to be had when they start joining the dots. 
You get some very odd results if you search for Soccer Moms on google, but this pic's relatively tame. Apparently there's a whole subculture relating to the term. Anyone want to clue me up on it?
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Eye of the Tiger (Out this week - 04/02/11)
Really quiet week with only five releases, however it's still been tough choosing the top film due to the competitive nature at the top of the tree. With top Oscar nominated films vying for the title I think I've naturally imagined the two heavy hitters in the ring and with that sort of attitude it's no surprise that The Fighter is the film of the week.
The Fighter
David O. Russell has proven to be a quality director several times before (even if his methods can be questionable) but this is the first time his movies have made it to the Oscars with his true-life boxing fable.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●●○
Rabbit Hole
Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart try to rebuild their lives following he untimely death of their four year old son, based on David Lindsay-Abaire's award winning play.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●●○
Brighton Rock
Grahame Greene's gangster novel gets it's second big screen treatment, and unfortunately can't seem to get out of the shadow of it's 1947 counterpart. Helen Mirren and JOhn Hurt provide support to Sam Riley as Pinkie.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Little Bit of Heaven
Kate Hudson falls in love with Cancer specialist Gael Garcia Bernal as he tells her she's dying. Not sure if that sunds at all workable as a premise. Kathy Bates and Whoopi Goldberg (as an angel?) turn up in minor roles.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Sanctum
James Cameron puts his 3D producer name on the poster for this familiar looking disaster movie with a bunch of b-list actors caught in a big cave as it floods and desperately fight to escape. Trailer looks OK.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
And naturally I missed one last week:
Men on the Bridge
Three men working and waiting on the Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul find their lives intersecting in this slice of life European drama which uses non-professional actors.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
