I was worried about this week's news being even worse than last Sunday. As I dipped in and out of the web during the week there was absolutely nothing grabbing my attention - except maybe for the unfortunate departure of Darren Aronofsky from The Wolverine and that certainly won't be a major story (I try to keep it positive around here). However, when trawling the web yesterday I found some stories that had been given very little coverage during the week, and so we move on to:
Seconds of Happiness
Neil LaBute's collection of short stories within the theme of fleeting pleasures is making it to the big screen under the watchful gaze of Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis. All set on a plane the film will highlight the differences between the sexes as they exploit each other's weaknesses. The cast list includes Kristen Scott Thomas, Matt Dillon, Christina Hendricks and Brendan Fraser.
There's potential for soap-like interconnectivity which will go down like Airport without the suitcase bomb, however I rather think that LaBute's biting satire and clever plotting will ensure the project doesn't fall into that trap. Plus Figgis seems like an interesting choice given his experimentation with the medium (like Timecode with it's split-screen single take action below) so maybe we could be onto something interesting.
Read on for naughty bits coming out the screen, exploitation and taking to the piste.
Me and You
You know the 3D circus hasn't hit it's peak yet when hitherto serious directors start announcing using stereoscope for more auteurish projects - see Baz Luhrmann and The Great Gatsby for proof - but this many jaws dropped when Bernardo (The Dreamers, Last Tango in Paris) Bertolucci announced his next movie will be the adaptation of Niccolo Ammaniti's Italian novel about adolescent love. Given his form with nudity I'm imagining this will be a really odd development for multiplexes.
Untitled Russ Meyer biopic
When producer/director Russ Meyer passed away in 2004 it was inevitable that his life story would eventually be made into a film in itself. Known as the Fellini of the sex-industry Meyer's work in soft-core porn and exploitation pics earned him a legion of fans thanks to best selling titles like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (right) and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. At the moment this is just another movie on David O. Russell's list of potential projects, but you know when it gets made - whoever ends up in the directors chair - it's going to be wildly fun.
Woodchucks
I love it when an outcast returns to the fold, so it was great to hear that Tremors director Ron Underwood is making his first feature since the disastrous one-two combo of Pluto Nash and In the Mix ten years ago. The comedy focuses on a ski instructor getting his incompetent local ski team up to scratch to fight off corporate resort developers. Sounds like a cross between Dodge Ball and Mighty Ducks to me. Oddly Underwood has stated that, as a skier himself it's great to be involved in making a rare movie about the sport. Clearly he's not seen the adverts for Chalet Girl which opened in the UK this weekend. 
A picture of a block skiing - because I needed to break up the post...
Casting News
A few good rumours this week with Jude Law and Aaron Johnson potentially attached to Joe Wright adaptation of Anna Karenina, Tommy Lee Jones mooted as a possible husband for Meryl Streep in Great Hope Springs (nice match) and the rather delicious prospect of Woody Allen cameoing in his next Italy set movie - although given my review of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, coming Wednesday, I may regret saying that.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
I doubt they mean you get to go back for more (Film News - 19/03/11)
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
The Fighter
2010. Dir: David O. Russell. Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo and Mickey O'Keefe. ●●●○○
Everywhere I looked in late January there were posters advertising David O. Russell's The Fighter with the strangely unambitious critical quote "The best boxing film since Rocky". It's not, far from it, but like Stallone's breakout it shares the same metaphorical use of pugilism. Rocky is at it's core a working-class love story with a boxer, The Fighter is a working class family drama with a boxer.
Showing the fall and rise of light Welterweight "Irish" Mickey Ward and his crack addicted brother Dicky Eklund (Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale respectively) the film focuses on the family dynamics between the brothers, the rest of the family - led by over-bearing mother Melissa Leo - and the more sedate influences on Mickey's life in his cop-turned trainer Mickey O'Keefe (here played by himself) and girlfriend Amy Adams.
I won't deal with too much detail of the plot, not least because as it's a biopic the whole story is largely in the public domain including the influential crack documentary about Dicky's fall from grace. Indeed the biopic structure seems awfully forced in this movie, the happy endings seem contrived even though we know that's what really happened. It's a strange feeling where reality doesn't feel real. The attention to detail even extends to the boxing scenes which were filmed in the same way the original games were shown on TV even hiring the same commentators to read over their, at the time, improvised discussion of the action unfolding. This deliberately removes the viewer from the ringside we're used to in boxing movies and back into our armchairs however it also removes the tension from the fight. I rewatched Champion and Cinderella Man in recent weeks to prepare and both had more exciting boxing even if neither seemed realistic.
The performances from the main cast are exemplary. Wahlberg and Bale play introvert and extrovert brothers perfectly, one being the yin to the other's yang, with each performance only working because of the alternative extreme of the other. It's the kind of sibling pairing we often see in real life but rarely in the movies. Don't be fooled by Bale forthcoming supporting actor Oscar his is a co-lead performance and the battles he faces are as central to the plot as Wahlberg sporting encounters.
Melissa Leo and Amy Adams add some needed character to the underwritten female roles the former especially transcending the material conveying so much with a sidewards look or a hand on the hip. On a side note the level of misogyny in this movie is shocking with every woman being presented as manipulative, cold or stupid.
The technical work is fine with some excellent make-up work being done and quality set decoration but a cliche ridden script (the scene where Wahlberg says he wants everyone to get along is particularly risible) and pedestrian direction doesn't help.
I really wanted to like this movie going in but performances aside it's the least effective of the best film nominees I've seen so far.
