Happy Birthday to
Kevin McCarthy
95 today
It's always a pleasure to say Happy Birthday to someone in their 80's or 90's, it's a real link to Hollywood's glorious past. And without Kevin's help we'd all be pod people (or commies, or paranoics) by now.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Kevin McCarthy
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Film News (14/02/09)
February must be a good time for butering up studio execs, or at least making the press teams work overtime as there's been another 7 stories worth mentioning this week.
The Matarese Circle
Robert Ludlum was a reasonably successful writer during his lifetime, but in the a5 years since his death his books have really taken off cinematically. The Bourne trilogy is as obvious example. This week two of his books have been the subject of news. The Parsifal Mosiac, which has been optioned by Universal, and The Matarese Circle which is going into production later this year. The film will star the incredible pairing of Denzel Washington and Tom Crise as enemy spies who have to join forces, and if that wasn't enough to get me going David Cronenberg is set to direct. Now I don't know much about action thriller franchises, but starting with the director of Scanners and Crash is certainly going to be fascinating.
Gemini Man
The script of Gemini Man has been drifting around Hollywood for over ten years and it looks like it's finally going to start production soon under the guidance of L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson. I like Curtis, his direction is usually assured, but he's an unusual choice for this clone assassin starts trailing his "father". His only action film to date, The River Wild, is hardly a great barometer of his suitability.
Inception
Christopher Nolan has annouced his next pic is the self-penned contemporary adult sci-fi Inception. Nolan will have a lot to prove after The Dark Knights massive success, so let's hope this isn't a Fountain.
Leap Year
I feel a bit bad about my anti-Amy tirade in the Doubt review. I actually love Miss Adams to bits - her performance in Enchanted was divine - so any chance I get to see her in a romantic comedy I will jump at. In Leap Year she will enlist the help of newly cast Matthew Goode to cross Ireland in order to propose to her beau. Somehow I think they'll fall in love on the way. Ahhh.
Nottingham
Apparenly Cate Blanchett has signed up to play Maid Marian in Scott's revisionist tale of men in green. No, I can't see that casting work either.
Untitled James Mangold picture
Another month another rumour about James Mangold. His next film is now based on a true stroy where a pair lawyers from New Orleans faced off against a Multinational Petrolium Giant in order to get compensation for families who lost their loved ones overseas. As with all James Mangold stories including my recent story of Juliet, I will wait until the camera starts rolling before I believe it.
Untitled Woody Allen Picture
I already slipped in the news on Josh Brolin's birthday buit just to reiterate Brolin and Anthony Hopkins have signed up to star in Woody's next UK based film which will shot later this year. Could be brilliant, could be pants - you never really know with Woody. (By the way picture is proof you can never have too much Brolin)
Friday, 13 February 2009
Out the Week (13/02/09)
After last weeks epic battle to find the winner this week is a case of finding the least bad film. Interestingly Bolt may have come out last week (it was certainly showing at my local fleapit) even though the release date is today. If it had come out last week it wouldn't have stood a chance to be the recommendation. As it is the biggest competition comes from Pink Panther 2, so I guess Bolt wins.
Ayan
Bollywood movie shot across Africa, with a hero who finds love when all he wants is to go to university. Sounds like a good old fashioned coming of age action adventure. I wish I could get really excitied about Bollywwod - someone please help me.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Billu
Formerly Billu Barber, until it had the pants sued off it by the Indian hairdressing union (no, really) this tale of a struggling smalltown hairdresser (Irfan Khan, Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake) and how is life is turned upside down by a film being shot in the village at least has some recognisable faces to recommend it in Khan and Om Puri.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Bolt
Inhouse 3D computer animated film from Disney. Said to be great fun for the kids, if not so much for the adults. The 3D effect pushes new boundaries.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Friday the 13th
Remake of the classic Carpenter chiller. Lots of teens getting chopped up by insane Jason Voorhees. Getting fair reviews for this type of picture.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Hotel for Dogs
Two kids set up a hotel for dogs. That's it. All they want is love. Don Cheadle slums it as a social worker. Whya re you still reading this?
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
King of the Hill
Superior Spanish horror/thriller about 2 ne'erdowells (a love rat and a thief) who meet by chance in a lonely wood when a hunter starts shooting at them. The perspective shifts between the leads and the hunters, where we only see first person shots.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Notorious
Part sanitised version of the life of the Notorious BIG. Yes he was a womaniser, no he had nothing to do with gang violence. Does nothing to enhance his musical reputation or to let the viewer understand how he influenced rap artists.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Pink Panther 2
Steve Martin returns as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. Feels like 20 years since Martin made a good film, although I'm looking forward to seeing him and Alec Baldwin scrap over Meryl Streep later this year. Films gets extra points for gathering Jeremy Irons, Andy Garcia and Lily Tomlin in the supporting cast.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Three Monkeys
Nominated for this years best Foreign Language Oscar this Turkish film looks at how lack of communication can affect relationships during times of great hardship.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
George Segal
Happy Birthday to
George Segal
75 today
Gearge may have made a name for himslef on television, but his big break was as the hapless Nick in 1966's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe. Those of you who now me know that Virginia Woolfe is on of my top movies, so I couldn't possibly miss todays celebration.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Thursday Talking Point - F. Scott Fitzgerald
This week's top recommendation was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, although unfortunately I was unable to see it myself due to scheduling difficulties. However, in keeping with the scope of the Thursday Talking Point I will discuss a theme associated with Benjamin Button, so this week it's Hollywoods relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born to an Irish Catholic family on 24 September 1896. He seems to have been forever destined to become a writer, publishing detective stories in his school newspaper and whilst at Princeton. Although he did not complete his studies, leaving to enlist for the First World War.
He never saw action, but he did then meet Zelda Sayre, the woman who would shape his wrting and his life irrevocably before she developed schizophrenia.
His first novel, published before he was married in 1920, was This Side of Paradise and concerned the loves of a ambitious writer. It was followed by The Beautiful and the Damned in 1922.
Three years later Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Great Gatsby hit the shelves. The novel concerns itself with the failure of the American dream post World War I, and how the endless pursuit of monetary gain can become just taht with people never satisfied with what they have.
Fitzgerald wrote only one more novel whilst he lived and The Last Tycoon, edited from his notes was published in 1941 the year after he died. Although he wrote numerous short stories either for magazines (easy money for someone like Fitzgerald) or as part of collections.
The success of Fitzgerald's first noel was so huge that Hollywood wasted no time mining his work. The first film based on Fitzgeralds writing was The Chorus Girl's Romance in 1920, based on his short story "Head and Shoulders". Needless to say other than for curiousity value, and the thought that it is probably a "lost silent" there is little to recommend this however it sparked a trend.
In the next 4 years 6 of his novels and short stories were adapted, and The Great Gatbsy, starring Warner Baxter as Gatsby and William Powell as Wilson, went into production soon after the book was published.
From the 1930's Fitzgerald began to work inside the Hollywood on short stories. Essentially a hack, although he worked on some well remembered films like Marie Antoinette, The Women and even Gone with the Wind, although the scenes he wrote were not later filmed. His time in Hollywood may have been degrading but it certainly gave him plenty to write about, be it the "Pat Hobby Stories", about a Hollywood hack much like Fitzgerald, or his final novel, based on the Irving Thalberg.
Since his death Fitzgerald's works have gone inand out of fashion, although it is now widely regarded that he is one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th Century. Gatsby itslef has seen 4 incarnations with Alan Ladd, Robert Redford and Toby Stephens all taking on the iconic role. There is even another version currently in the pre-production stage from director Baz Luhrmann, and if anyone can pull off the fascination yet disgust we will feel towards the opulence on show I think Luhrmann will be able to do it.
Josh Brolin
Happy Birthday to
Josh Brolin
41 today
Coming of a couple of fantastic years the great hunk of manliness, Josh, is celebrating his 41st. Well done him, especially with the news released yesterday that he's been cast in Woody Allen's next London pic alongside Anthony Hopkins. (It's not actually his first filme with Woody, see Melinda and Melinda, but it's still good news for Josh)
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Doubt
2008. Dir: John Patrick Shanley. Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and Joseph Foster. ●●●○○
In the end this weekend I chose to see the peadophile priest film, mainly because it was on at the best time to fit with my rehearsal schedule. I was looking forward to it, mind. The combination of highly buzzed performances from the main cast and an adaptation of a Tony award winning Broadway hit.
In case you aren't aware of the basic plot it revolves around a titanic battle between the headmistress of a Roman Catholic bronx school (Sister Aloysius, played by Meryl Streep) and Father Flynn (Hoffman) a modernising Priest, ostensibly over an alleged incident of molestation against a black pupil, although there are many reasons why the pair don't really interact. Adams plays a novice caught between the titans and Viola Davis plays the boys mother, who just wants him to survive in the school until the end of the academic year.
It is important that the incident is only alleged, as one of the key selling ponts of the one-act play was that the audience went home questioning and doubting the guilt or innocence of Father Flynn. As I walked out of the cinema I did have my doubts, my I suspect that I was more one way than the other. This is largely due to the opening out of the film to include the boy (Foster) as well as a supporting cast of rebellious school children and frail nuns.
It's not uncommon for a film adaptation of a play to introduce new characters, and I can certainly see why it was done. Unlike, say Closer or Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, Doubt is defined by the relationships between the characters you see and the characters you don't in the play. This can work on the stage but in film the limitations are different. As a result there are a number of quick moments between Donald and Flynn where you spend the time thinking "Is Father Flynn buggering the boys?" It simply cannot be helped.
The last ten minutes between Streep and Hoffman/Adams also seem to push you in one direction.
There were also some elements of the screenplay that felt heavy handed in the adaptation. Storms, lightbulbs blowing, etc. So God is unhappy, we get it, no need to overdo the imagery.
The performances from Streep, Hoffman and Davis are uniformly excellent. I was less enamoured with Adams, her cloying naiveity seemingly a odds with her position. As a consequence I found the last scene where Sister Aloysius opens out to Sister James at odds with the way the characters had been playing around each other up to that point.
Hoffman's monologue like sermons were also very effective, as anyone who has regularly attended Church will tell you the way a Priest addresses the congregation varies significantly. Hoffman was confident and firm, maybe even stand offish, which certainly informed the rest of his performance. I disliked the imagined story in the second sermon - I felt we could have done better by just watching the protagonists as they respond to his words.
Aside from the perfomances there is very little to recommend the film. The cinematography was generally dull, and the decision to do some shots angling the camera was frankly jarring and took me away from the action. There was little to work with on sets and costumes (for nuns and schools, everything tends to look the same) but there was an oddly antiseptic feel, like none of the characters were in rooms they frequented often.
Overall I would love to encourage you to see the film, if only for the performances, but to be honest when I left I was thinking I wish I had seen the play. I hope you see the play too.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Trailer - Che Part 2
After the incredible first part of Che, I'm on the edge of my seat lookiong forward to part 2. Che's destiny takes him from Cuba to Bolivia, to another country struggling to bring democracy to the people. Only here they are ready for him.
Laura Dern
Happy Birthday to
Laura Dern
42 today
Congratulations, Laura, on your Golden Globe win for Recount the other week, but please make some more films. Maybe with your good friend David Lynch?
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Personal News (08/02/09)
Another week of no significant updates, just Bus rehearsals and cancelled Bus rehearsals (snow, eh? Who needs it?).
I've been asked by the publicity team to fill out a form that thay'll use to push the play. On it I'm asked for my favourite line. This is turning out to be quite tough. Do I go for "You c**t! Screaming at the top of your voice.", "You almost s**t yourself with fear." or may be my opening "You've said it." or closing "Why it's my little Emmy, my Emmy."
The first 2 may be a little hard to use in family newspapers, and maybe the third is just a little bland. And as for the last one, it seems a little desperate to use that, especially during the awards season.
I've also been asked to audition for a minor role in a film being shot locally. Should get the script in the week, and I'll let you know next week what it's like and how the audition went (it's on Saturday morning).
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