Happy Birthday to
Chris Cooper
60 today
Always an impressive performer, always making the most of minor roles including his brief scene in last years The Town or his vocal performance in Where the Wild Things Are. He's a regular collaborator with John Sayles, including their latest film Amigo (which just opened in the US, so I'm hoping we'll get it later in the year).
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Chris Cooper
Friday, 8 July 2011
Illuminating the Almighty (Out this week - 08/07/11)
This week I'm all about joining the conversation. Everytime Terence Malick makes a movie it's front page news, the masterful arthouse agitator is able to present concepts that few understand let alone consider when going to the local multiplex. It's an odd week for films otherwise with the gap between Transformers and Harry Potter being curiously empty of big box office releases meaning anything could happen at the top of the chart. I confess I'm wary about the film, but I will go and film of the week must therefore be: The Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life
It's the most talked about movie of 2011, and a cinematic marvel that has enraged and astounded critics in equal measure. Eschewing conventional narrative Malick charts the history of the universe and our relationship to God through the experiences of one family in small town America. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are the twin forces of Nature and Grace (or Father and Mother) that battle for the control of their son Hunter McCracken, later Sean Penn.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Holy Rollers
Pleasing looking comedy with Jesse Eisenberg as an Hasidic jew, bored with his early twenties closeted life, finding himself embroiled in a smuggling ring carrying pot over international borders.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Super
The film that Kick-Ass could've been. With Rainn Wilson's fragile mental state tipping over the edge after his girlfriend leaves him and electing the way of the masked vigilante dishing out extreme violence. Ellen Page co-stars as his sidekick "Boltie".
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Film Socialisme
If you thought Terence Malick had the arthouse market cornered this week stand by for Jean-Luc Godard's symphony in three movements, where he explores his various passions with little linking structure to the snippets of conversations and moods he films. Godard (80) has threatened this will be his last movie so it could well be worth catching for that reason alone.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Princess de Montpensier
The film I really want to see next week looks like it may be the hardest to find, with a distinctly limited independent release pattern. Based on the true story of an affair that nearly ripped apart the French court, the film won dedicated admirers at Toronto last year.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Sawako Decides
Japanese comic drama about female empowerment, certainly the most leftfield film to come from Japan this year it opens with a intimate scene of colonic irrigation.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Trust
Former "Friend" David Schwimmer continues to confound all expectations with his directorial career, shifting from Simon Pegg comedy Run Fatboy Run to this paedophilia drama, exhibiting the worst case scenario from teenagers dating on the net. Clive Owen and Catherine Keener (as the parents) headline the cast that also includes Liana Liberato as the vulnerable daughter and Viola Davis.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Devil's Rock
New Zealander horror movie, set on the channel islands during the second world war with two Kiwi commandos uncovering a secret Nazi occult plot. Sounds like a well-worn cliche of a plot, but there must be an audience for this sort of thing.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Murder 2
Bollywood sequel to the 2004 film "Murder", which at least makes sense of the title.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○p
Venghai
Tamil action thriller that translates to Leopard and involves Dhanush rising up against his aggressors like the invoked big cat.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○p
Huge
Film about stand-up, starring a whole host of stars of the British comedy circuit, that somehow fails to be either funny or insightful about the cutthroat business. Probably best avoided.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
There's something odd going on in the world of Bollywood releases, with a large number of smaller films getting a limited release at a couple of cinema over the next week or so. I've seperated them from the wide releases and included only the most basic plot descriptions (sorry about that), hopefully if you're interested you'll still want to find out more.
Rang Rasiya
Biopic of 19th century Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma. In Hindi, originally released in 2008.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Veettilekkulla Vazhi
Malayalam movie about a doctor reuniting the 5 year old child of a terrorist who dies in his care with their father.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
The Conspirator
2010. Dir: Robert Redford. Starring: James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston and Tom Wilkinson. ●●○○○
The trouble with watching films that posit a political statement that you support is that whislt the euphoria of a high quality finished article is heightened so to is abject disappointment of poorly made movie making. Sadly The Conspirator falls squarely in the later camp, for it's liberal pleading for social justice and the rule of law the inadequacies of the movie itself somewhat negate the impact of the message.
The film opens, utterly pointlessly, on the field of battle - or at least the aftermath due to budgetary constraints - with James McAvoy's serious Lt. Frederick Aitken trying to keep the horribly injured Justin Long alive by telling him an inappropriate joke. Fortunately we never hear the end as medics arrive first to cart off McAvoy but he persuades them to tend to his friend first. I suppose the point of the scene is to introduce McAvoy's self-sacrificing nature and to reinforce the bravery of the man, even to highlight his stubborness. It pretty much fails on all counts as personally I never felt McAvoy's life was in danger, as horrific as his injury may appear there's little sense of sacrifice in the scene.
This scene is important though as those qualities are repeated and reflected in McAvoy's journey through the rest of the film, and it feels equally false in context of the legal battle to save Robin Wright's Mary Surratt the mother of the Lincoln assassination support team that got away. Yes, McAvoy loses membership of his officers club, his haughty girlfriend (Alexis Bledel) and finds his sholastic legal reputation tarnished but none of that seems like a great loss and he friends seem to be prepared to stick by him at all costs. Part of this issue is McAvoy - he seems uncomforatble in the role and fails to convince as a patriotic and torn soldier forced to defend a woman he clearly imagines as guilty.
The vast majority of the running time is given over to McAvoy's defence of the case, from the early days as a paralegal to Tom Wilkinson's Southern born senator (who knows he cannot win the case due to the perception of his loyalties during the civil war and eventually manouvres McAvoy into taking the case alone) to the final summation of the case where McAvoy rails against the clearly biased military court procedure with no jury organised and orchestrated by prosecution counsellor Danny Huston - tiptoeing malevavently around the court like an oiled spider.
Robin Wright gives a great performance as the proud Southern matriach, unapologetic for her thoughts and beliefs and stubbornly refusing to save her victimisation (the film unequivocably indicates her likely innocence) by selling out her absentee son. Stoical, even in the shadows of the gallows, Wright is able to bring layers to the character that simply aren't there in the script a tilt of the head or a flicker of cheeks making up for the lack of anything for her to do. Equally under-represented with the screenplay is Evan Rachel Wood as her daughter Anna, although she too tries her best dodging the over obvious symbolism in the set decoration.
Whenever we leave those two ladies the pace of the film suffers though, McAvoy's priviledged circle pontificate self-righteously but come across as boorish or irrelevant. Robert Redford, directing James D. Solomon's script, seems unable to coax any sense of reality form the supporting cast of Army officers and Kevin Kline's bespectacled Edwin Stanton, gleefully pushing over the rule of law in order to give the public the sense of retribution they desire is given no sense of character depth.
Redford has yet to make an interesting movie, essentially the best of his films have been well staged insightful scripts, and that workmanlike style is shown up in all it's inadequate slendour given the meandering, preachy script.
And remember this review is from someone who wanted to like the film. I would argue for the fundamental rights of habeous corpus for all. The continued injustice of Guantanamo Bay (and you could argue the foreign policies of extraordinary rendition, military tribunal and indefinate incarceration without charge are the real subjects of this film) is a cancer in the US constition, it blights the best intentions of the early signatories and the principles of justice must be applied to even those accused of the most heinous crimes. So just imagine what the the backers and apologists of the war on terror will make of this film.
We on the left deserve so much better.
Geoffrey Rush
Happy Birthday to
Geoffrey Rush
60 today
It's been a mixed year for the antipodean actor, picking up an Oscar nomination for his superb performance in The King's Speech, but then has had an appalling summer with performances in the two worst critically received blockbusters so far (Pirates and Green Lantern). Next up is the adaptation of Patrick White's novel Eye of the Storm, pictured.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Tuesday Trailers - One Day
Tuesday trailers are back - something that always makes me a little happy as it means good movies (or at least ones I really want to see) are on their way. At the end of August we'll get the big-screen adaptation of David Nicholls' bestseller. Personally I wasn't much of a fan of the novel - both of the characters irritated me - but I can certainly see the cinematic potential of revisiting the same characters once a year to see how their lives change.
One Day opens on 26 August 2011.
Shirley Knight
Happy Birthday to
Shirley Knight
75 today
Born in Kansas Shirley has an impressive track record in both films and on the stage, although she's almost certainly most remembered for her work in the first part of her career including co-starring with Paul Newman in Sweet Bird of Youth.
Monday, 4 July 2011
Personal (04/07/11)
Happy Independence Day (I thought I'd get that out of the way for my US readers).
I've been very remiss of late, and not keeping you up to date with the Fringe castings I've attended (mainly because I keep getting rejected) however the good news is last weekend I was offered the role of "Nigel" in Matthew Todd's Blowing Whistles, produced by Laced Banana productions.
Described as a frenetic, funny and provocative play on love, life, and the internet, BW will be shown as part of the Manchester Pride Fringe festival on 22 and 23 August. Tickets can be obtained here.
The picture above is most of the cover art, which maybe gives you some indication of the tone of the piece. It also acts as a daily reminder that I must work out more...
I have also been a very busy boy this weekend sending out my CV and headshot to 35 UK casting agents. Frankly I'm exhausted - but if even one gets back to me with a potential job (especially given a couple are working on films I've mentioned right here on the blog) it'll be worth it.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Running (03/07/11)
Hopeless. I took the throttle off this week both in terms of distance and pace (although it was still far better than the avergae of the last 10 weeks), I hav a long run with a friend in this coming week planned so hopefully I'll be back on target by then. Only 10 weeks left until the Marathon now...
5 runs
26.2 miles
3 hours 38 minutes
So that's an average speed of 7.23 mph
Tom Cruise
Happy Birthday to
Tom Cruise
49 today
As Cruise edges closer to his half century it seems the career is moving into another phase, over the last ten years he appeared to be trying to do less action flicks and more character work (even if some of these were more successful than others), but over the next couple of years the career seems to be splitting between ever more preposterous thrillers and even a comedy-musical. I hope that it's just a temporary thing, like most actors with a quality CV I hope Cruise will get his mojo back.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Taking all that pain away (Film News - 02/07/11)
Not exactly a classical week for film news, given half of the stories I'm running with are retreads with slight updates of projects I mentioned just two weeks ago (both of which turn out to be biopics of musicians), nevertheless if the other two movies we mention in the main news get made rest assured they will be culturally significant enough to have them queuing round the block. I've also had a catch up on IMDb, looking for the latest developments on a number of projects we've mentioned here before and quite a few have entered the early production stages, which is all good news for film fans. So without further ado:
The Giver
Jeff Bridges has been repeatedly behind attempts to film Lois Lowry's Newberry Award winning 1993 novel for at least 15 years. Originally envisioning his father in the role of a sage within a Utopian future who alone has the knowledge of the true pain and pleasures of life Bridges now feels he is old enough to take the role himself so he and producer Nikki Silver has obtained the screen rights and are trying to put together cobble together funding. I doubt that will be a struggle, whilst I don't know the book it is a young adult sci-fi novel (see the cover below) - the protagonist is a 12 year old boy being trained to take over from "The Giver" - and the first of a trilogy which in these uncertain times with Harry Potter and the Twilight franchises about to end and The Hunger Games still untested could well be what's needed to keep some of the studios cash flow going.
On the other hand the book contains some very adult themes such as the suppression of emotions and the physical and psychological effects of puberty and even state-sponsored euthanasia. As well as some tricky visual constructs such as only the Giver being able to see colour.
In spite of these problematic sections I expect the funding will eventually be found, and the significant task of casting the 12 year-old Jonas will begin.
Read on for American heroes and two very diverse singers, as well as the latest casting stories and an update on which of the stories we run here actually happen.
American Can
Whilst a number of movies have skirted around the effects of Hurricane Katrina so far Hollywood has yet to confront the issue head-on (ignoring of course Spike Lee's excellent documentary When the Levees Broke) so it's refreshing to hear that Will Smith's production company is still pushing on this project so much the script is currently with Denzel Washington with the hope of Denzel taking the role - originally considered for the busy Smith - of ex-marine John Keller who helped take of the residents of the titular New Orleans apartment complex, ensuring the seven feet of flooding wasn't followed by a wave of looters.
Untitled Dave Van Ronk biopic
It seems the Coen brothers next movie will be based on the life of coffeehouse folk singer and political activist Dave van Ronk, whose legacy both as an artist and as a spotter of talent (he paved the way for Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell among others) is certainly significant. This ties up with the rumours of the single instrument music based movie and will be a sidestep and unique addition to their canon. Take a listen to van Ronk here:
Untitled Anita Lindblom biopic
Meanwhile Catherine Hardwicke has revealed her European jaunt will look at the turbulent relationship between Swedish singer Anita Lindblom and boxer Bosse Hogberg with Noomi Rapace on board as Anita. Unfortunately I cannot find anything other than Lindblom's music on the net so I know nothing else about the topic - so it could be intriguing. Take a listen to Lindblom here:
Casting News
We've got three major stars picking up some intriguing projects this week. Firstly Leonardo DiCaprio may be the washed up actor taking Beyonce under his wing in Clint Eastwood's Star is Born remake and Brad Pitt might be going into the South American jungles for The Mission, for the ladies Nicole Kidman is leading the field, somehow getting entangled with crime drama The Paperboy. We also heard this week David Strathairn will be joining Steven Spielberg's Lincoln as William Seward (hopefully getting more time than the unfortunate extra who took the role in The Conspirator).
Production News
I've been catching up with the latest production shifts, and there's an exciting range of films that we've already mentioned here on RunsLikeAGay which have entered the pre-production stage so we can hopefully look forward to seeing them at some point in the future.
First up I'd just like to welcome back James Foley's nativity reinvention Mary Mother of Christ, a project he's been trying to get underway for some time and which left IMDb earlier this year, only now o return. Also Paani - the sci-fi based on the premise of extreme water shortages - and The Wolverine both of which seemed to become mired in production woes.
We've also seen movement on Al Pacino's black (sex) comedy The Humbling, portmanteau picture Jayne Mansfield's Car, children's western The Lone Ranger and the Denzel Washington as a drunk commercial pilot movie Flight. Charles Dickens adaptation The Great Expectations is moving forward with BBC films, although I understand it may become a TV mini-series. The biopic of British explorer George Mallory is moving ahead as is Jason Statham vehicle Parker, Recession themed European movie Le Capital and - almost finally - lacrosse movie Crooked Arrows.
Balladem Om Marie
I'm actually going to end with this completely new project of which I had heard nothing until spotting it on IMDb. The Danish movie, set to be directed by Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror) looks at the relationship with renowned painter P.S. Krøyer and his long-suffering wife Marie who sticks by him through bouts of manic depression and psychotic rage. It sounds like the sort of high-class suffering that could get awards attention so look out for this in the 2013 foreign language Oscar race.
A self portrait of Krøyer with Marie.
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