2011. Dir: Catherine Hardwicke. Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Gary Oldman and Julie Christie. ●○○○○
Well let's just get this clear straight off the back. I am not the intended audience for Red Riding Hood, however I went to see it on a Thursday afternoon during Easter holidays and the (sparse) audience around me was in the majority were ealry teenage girls, and like me they were shifting uncomfortably in the seats whilst this shockingly inept piece of filmmaking rolled (and not just when the projector turned itself off in disgust).
Perhaps I should be more generous, as there are elements of the film I liked - lovely costumes for instance however poor scriptwriting, acting and direction combine to destroy any positivity I have about the piece.
So using the traditional fairy tale as it's core, Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight inspired picture focuses on the love triangle faced by the eponymous cloak clad heroine (Amanda Seyfried pouting to hide her gritted teeth) as she decides between hunky poor woodcutter (Shiloh Fernandez), rich but faintly dull blacksmith (Max Irons) or being ripped to shreds by the local werewolf.
Meanwhile her faintly ludicris family - a sacrificial sister who's the first victim of the wolf, heart-broken Virginia Madsen, alcoholic Billy Burke and kooky Grandma Julie Christie - as well as the crowds of other largely unnamed villagers have to deal with the sudden arrival of master werewolf hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman turned up to eleven). Each of the major characters gets the finger of suspicion pointed towards them at various points, including Seyfried's best friend, the village simpleton and the local priest through lingering pov shots and incidental music.
In a BBC interview Hardwicke claimed she was trying to raise post 9/11 parallels, where we begin to suspect all our neighbours and friends and trust braks down. Gary Oldman even gets a speech to this effect, but that good intention fails because we really don't care about the characters. Frankly they could all have been werewolves tortured and murdered by Oldman and I really wouldn't have cared.
If I were Seyfried I'd have ignored both of her potential suitors. Irons is at least worthy, but his delivery is immensely dull, but Fernandez is off handed and stroppy throughout and has a look of Tim McInnery around him which really took me out of the picture. Trust me, slap a 'tache on Shiloh and you'll want to call him Darling.
The elder cast members are given short shrift too - Madsen has either endless exposition to remind the audience of the parallels between her and her daughter's choices and Christie doesn't even have the good fortune to get eaten by the wolf in real time we only find out in flashback during the reveal. Oldman is clearly having a lot of fun with his screentime but he's so wildly over the top it's pantomimic and off-putting, although the silver fingernails are a nice touch.
The below the line talent is scarely better served with the clean wooden huts and furry white rabbits bouncing around appearing to come out of a children's TV show combined with a horrid soundtrack and giddy swishy camera movements. Complete with a trite and cliche ridden script.
Easily the worst of the 20 odd films I've seen so far this year I can honestly recommend that you steer a wide berth from this monster of a movie.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Red Riding Hood
Friday, 15 April 2011
Something we all do (Out this week - 15/04/11)
Odd little week, without much exciting at the cinemas, but some independent US and overseas efforts keep the art-house crowd happy enough. With the latest block buster efforts from Catherine Hardwicke and Wes Craven fighting for the top spot I'll definitely be attending a multiplex at some point, but the film of the week is Little White Lies.
Little White Lies
Actor turned director Guillaume Canet amazed everyone with his 2007 thriller Tell No One and here gets the opportunity to follow-up with a multiple character mood piece as a group of bourgeois 30 somethings head to the coast to play fast and loose with the truth of their relationships. Marion Cotillard reminds everyone she's French.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Meeks Cutoff
Michelle Williams (with a lab called Lucy) broke hearts in Kelly Reichart's relationship drama and now they have reteamed for this female centric look at the journey west taken by the early settlers. It's a very early horse in the 2012 Oscar race - be interesting to see if it's remembered at the end of the year.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Red Riding Hood
With undertones of terrorism paranoia and the nature of sexual desire, Hardwicke's interviews about her new Twilight inspired Werewolf/fairy tale hybrid are more fascinating than most of the pre-release publicity. Still the costumes look fantastic.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Scream 4
This is probably the biggest release I've heard of which has failed to screen the movie to Broadsheet critics prior to the release date. Anthony Quinn, writing for The Independent, is particularly pissed off by this, but it's hard to resist this belated sequel.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Winnie the Pooh
Charming looking return to the seven acre wood we all grew up in, with Christopher Robin's adventures with his stuffed animals. The trailer exhibits how Disney aren't afraid to play with the traditional illustrations, including words from the prose getting entangled with the story. Definitely the best choice for kids this month.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Cold Weather
Not strictly speaking mumblecore, but clearly influenced by the movement, this non-detective story with a brother-sister reuniting in Portland, Oregon over Conan Doyle and mutual friends has been highly praised by critics and festival goers and may just be a surprise worth looking out for.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Your Highness
Poisonous notices have scuppered any chance this stoner-medieval quest movie has of making it's budget back. It's like The Princess Bride but with all the wit and carefully crafted characterisations taken out. God knows how Oscar baity actors like Natalie Portman and James Franco were persuaded to get involved. Avoid.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
And missed from last week:
Cold Fish
Japanese Black Comedy, supposedly based on a true story, that charts the differing fortunes of two aquarium owners as business and personal relationships descend into madness and serial killing. Askew glances to societal traditions in the far East are bound to come into play.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Tuesday Trailers - Red Riding Hood
As we rumble on to April's releases we hit on a project that's an anomaly for my usual viewing habits. Not only because I'm clearly not part of the demographic the film is supposed to pull in (we're talking girls in the mid teens through to mid twentys) but also because this is directed by a woman - Twilight helmer Catherine Hardwicke. It's clear from my 20 for 2011 list that female directors rarely get a chance to shine for me (only Lone Sherfig's One Day made the cut) so I'm going to try to broaden my horizons and see what Hardwicke has to offer. That and this movie is the first in a tide of fairy tale based properties (Jack the Giant Killer, Hansel and Gretel) set to arrive over the coming years and I want to see what the mini-genre has to offer.
Red Riding Hood is released on 15 April 2011.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Virginia Madsen
Happy Birthday to
Virginia Madsen
49 today
Not many reformed scream queens go on to pick up Oscar nominations, but Virginia's performances in both Candyman (screamy) and Sideways (awardy) weren't ordinary by any stretch. Next up is Red Riding Hood (I may be the only guy over 11 looking forward to that) where she plays the titular fairy tale heroine's mother.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
More Bad Bankers (Film News - 10/07/09)
I was initially worried that it was going to be another very quiet week, the Independence Day holiday limited press office action and the rumour mill. Even on Tuesday there wasn't much happening, but as the weeks gone on we've had a plethora of stories, most of which are at the very early stages but there's enough to get into a mild conversation about them.
Wolf of Wall Street
Leonardo DiCaprio has been linked to the big screen adaptation of Jordan Belfort's "Wolf of Wall Street", for a long time it was likely to one of his collaborations with Martin Scorsese. Now Martin is preoccupied with Hugo Cabret Leo's gone to some of his other former employers to get it underway, including the notoriously busy Ridley Scott. Belfort's memoir is a cathartic expose of his former life as a broker, exposing both the immense wealth he obtained and the close to the line and often downright illegal activities he had to do to maintain it.
What I find most interesting about this story is how little Hollywood has tried to denigrate the financial system which kick-started the last recession. There was a banking conspiracy in The International and lefty Oliver Stone has resurrected the icon of greed Gordon Gekko, but other than that the studios have left well alone.
To me this is as much an indication of how the modern production system has failed as any other. In the 70's satire ruled the box office, the production companies were proud to highlight their views on politics, war and modern culture. Now mainstream movies are so anodyne there is little attempt to reflect the reality of modern life back at the audiences, even the banks and broker houses who everyone agrees are the badguys in this global slowdown have go away without censure.
Perhaps the idea of biting the hands that feed them is too scary to most of the studios, especially in these times of financial woe where reduced funding could well cause even major companies to go the wall - see MGM or the leaked Warner Bros. papers that indicate Harry Potter is losing money! I will certainly be supporting this movie, though. It is time for political cinema to return to the mainstream.
In case anyone's forgotten Leo has other pictures out about now, including the hotly anticipated Inception (above).
Read on for priests, pianists, unlikely sequels, youtube, more fairy tales and the latest news about a major broadway to screen adaptation.
Brother Jack
Machine Gun preacher may still be twos years away but it's already started a trend for religious tinged biopics. The next project is former priest and human rights activist Jack Healey who literally spent time on the streets in order to highlight America's homelessness problems.
Last Airbender sequels
M. Night Shyamalan probably doesn't know what to think right now. On one hand the reviews for his manga-like adaptation (left) have been poisonous beyond expectations but on the other the films taken over $80m so far in the States and will probably easily pass $100m that's more than The Prince of Persia or The A-Team. He's probably very confused about whether to push forward with the idea of a sequel, or even to continue with the planned trilogy. What do you think?
Untitled Liberace Project
Matt Damon thinks Steven Soderbergh's much delayed Liberace biopic, focusing on his outing by the Daily Mail, is still set to be filmed next year. It wouldn't surprise me if he's telling the truth, Soderbergh just can't sit still for ten minutes without starting on a new film and we're probably all desperate to see Michael Douglas in one of the late singers more OTT outfits.
Life in a Day
I don't normally do documentaries in cinema - not that i don't like feature length docs I just would rather watch on DVD in the comfort of my own home - and therefore very rarely feature them here on rlag but the youtube movie has me intrigued. Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald have issued an invitation to the world to film their activities on July 24th, submit them to youtube and for consideration to a collection of DIY videos to be released commercially. This could be absolutely fascinating, or it could be just a bunch of cats playing piano and brides fainting at the alter.
Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Anderson was a uniquely gifted storyteller able to fuse incredible truths about societal inequality and heartache to the medium of children's fairytales, well aware it's the story that engages the child but the feeling that makes them remember it. One of his most renowned fables, The Little Mermaid, is currently being prepped for a big screen live action production. Putting aside the practicalities of such a move I imagine that this will such a different experience to the popular Disney version (left) that the two pictures can happily co-exist.
Red Riding Hood
Speaking of fairy tales Virginia Madsen has joined the cast of the little red riding hood adaptation. It's odd but I'm actually beginning to think I may go and see this.
Wicked
The Wizard of Oz prequel has to be the most anticipated musical adaptation for the last 15 years, and the deep expectations of millions of fans will need to been taken into account so the process will be a long and detailed one. This week it was announced the writers have begun to interview directors including J J Abrams (Star Trek, !!!???), James Mangold (Walk the Line), Ryan Murphy ("Glee") and Rob Marshall (Chicago). Which is certainly an eclectic bunch. I an see benefits of any of these choices, but who would you choose?
This has become an iconic logo, how will the impending film poster go one better, or will it even bother trying?
