Delays in release dates are so tricky to figure out. For every Assasination of Jesse James you get a Southland Tales. So it is with some trepidation that Crossing Over makes it to number 15 on my films to look forward to in 2009.
Originally slated to come out last summer it shifted back to the Oscar season and then was moved all the way into August 2009. August also doesn't bode well - the late summer dumping ground is often devoid of trips to the cinema. Mind you Distribution is being handled by the Weinstein company so quite frankly anything goes.
There are some great actors involved with Crossing Over. Ray Liotta being sleazy, Jim Sturgess being cuckolded, Alice Braga being deported and Sean Penn cameoing. Although topping all of these is Harrison Ford.
Ford doesn't do nearly as many good films as his early career indicated. In the late seventies/early eighties he worked with Spielberg (famously), Peter Weir and Francis Ford Coppola. Over the last 10 years though he's been content to coast in mediocre thrillers and the fourth best Indiana Jones film. I can see Crossing Over as a real opportunity for him to remind all how good an actor he is.
Crossing Over is directed by Wayne Kramer. His biggest success was The Cooler back in 2003, although I'm also a big fan of Running Scared - an undercover cop in over his head flick that was both stylish and tense, and also made me relaise that Paul Walker isn't just a sexy coathanger.
The intercutting stories of Crossing Over may feel like a immigration based rehash of Traffic or Syriana, but it's actually based on Kramers own short film from 1999.
Enough of me though. Here's the trailer. What do you think?
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
20 for 2009 - Crossing Over
Run Training Day 2
I know the whole Marathon thing has been rather kicked to touch - what with not getting a place and whatnot - however I do wnat to return to the training. Jogging can't be bad for me anyway.
So today I nipped out for a quick 31 minutes over 5.2 km. Or 10.1 kmph.
I will carry on the training in earnest and hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to manage 11 kmph over a much longer distance.
Here's to an optimistic future.
Rinko Kikuchi
Happy Birthday to
Rinko Kikuchi
28 today
Rinko first burst onto our screens as death mute Cheiko in Babel, and immediately stole the film from Brad and Cate. She has plenty of intresting projects coming up, including the Japanese remake of Sideways, so I'm sure we'll be keeping an eye on her.
Monday, 5 January 2009
20 for 2009 - Hachiko: A Dog's Story
I am a dog person.
No two ways about it. Love dogs, hate cats. And love films about dogs.
So when I hear there's a new film about a dog and his extraordinary bond with it's owner I'm there. Same as I will be for Marley and Me.
Bear with me though as Hachiko isn't your average doggie tale, it's based on a true and unforgettable story.
A Staue of the real Hachiko in Tokyo.
Hachiko was born in Japan in 1923 and was first brought to Tokyo in 1924. He and his owner were inseparable friends right from the start. Each day "Hachi" would accompany his owner, a professor at the Imperial University, to the train station when he left for work. Upon returning, the professor would find the dog patiently waiting, tail wagging. This happy routine continued until one fateful day in 1925, when the professor was taken ill on the job and unfortunately died before he could return home.
Despite the fact that Hachiko was less than two years old at the time, the bond between dog and owner was strong. Hachiko continued to wait each day at Shibuya station for a friend who was never coming back. At times, he wouldn't return home for days at a stretch.
The Akita became a familiar sight to commuters as he kept his vigil for over ten years. On March 8, 1935, Hachiko finally went to meet his master. He died on the very same spot he last saw his friend alive.
The film is being directed by Lasse Hallstrom, no stranger to the kind of four hanky epics like this and stars Joan Allen and Richard Gere. Whether this means Gere will be dead after the first half of the movie remains to be seen but I wouldn't be surprised. Either way I'm there.
Robert Duvall
Happy Birthday to
Robert Duvall
78 today
Putting it very simply Duvall is one of the best screen actors of all time. The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, M*A*S*H, Network, The Apostle - you can't tear your eyes from the screen. Coming up is The Road, among many other things. Whatever else we can expect from Hillcoat's post apocalyptic nightmare I'm sure Duvall will knock his scenes out of the park.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
Che: Part 1
2008. Dir: Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Benecio Del Toro, Julia Ormond, Demián Bichir, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Rodrigo Santoro . ●●●●○
It has been over 24 hours since I saw Che: Part 1 and I'm not sure I've given enough time to fully be able to review the film. The experience was so visceral, so raw I find it difficult to seperate my thoughts about the process from my thoughts about the film making. It is common, when watching biopics, to be unable to distance my ideas about the characters to those of the film, but somehow, because of the way Che was made, I find it even harder than normal.
The films alternates between scenes of the July 26th movement's struggle against Batista's dictatorship in Cuba and Che's triumphant speech to the UN headquarters in December 1964.
It is in Cuba that the film is truly alive. We are plunged alongside Ernesto "Che" Guevera as he fights alongside Fidel Castro, romps with the wounded, leads the troops and in his decisive battle in Santa Clara. During these sections we get a real insight into what Guevera was like: his crippling asthma, his belief in education as being the only way of leading Cuba out of poverty, his resolve and bloody mindedness, even his ideas on justice.
In the main this is due to the seamless performance by Del Toro who disappears completely in the role, physically and spiritually embodying the famed revolutionary. Soderbergh's cinematography and direction help with this feat, the camera always appears to be placed so that Che is central to the action, or ahead of the rest of the crowd. You end up feeling like you're following Guevera in a documentary.
The grainy black and white work in the New York scenes are less sucessful. Seeming more like a greatest hits of Guevera's speeches and some interlocking scenes I was aching either to here the speech in full or just return to the Cuban jungles.
The rest of the cast are exemplarary too, even if the nature of guerilla warfare and the films focus on Che means that many of them have little characterisation to work with.
Perhaps the biggest issue I had with the film was that it seemed to focus on how Che acted but not on the why. It seems that Fidel persuaded him to join the Cuban revolution over a single cigar. Even in the New York scenes, where Del Toro is interviewed by Ormond he states he fully realized why he was joining the campaign whilst transporting the sick from the attack on the Moncado barracks yet what this why is is never investigated.
Maybe the whys will be become more apparent following Che: Part 2. Until then the review can only ever be 4 out of 5 blobs.
20 for 2009 - The Tempest
I'm opening this post with Lord Snowdon's portrait of Helen Mirren because Helen is my main reason I want to see this, not the only reason, but one of the main ones. It's going to be a bit of a purple year for the Dame, and 2 more of her films will pop up in my top 20, only one other actor will come close to achieving that. Julie Taymor's adaptation of the Tempest is the first on my list of Mirren's films.
Taymor is a visual genius, no two ways about it, and her first Shakesperean follow up to 1999's Titus should be a real treat.
The Tempest is an odd play, one of Shakespeare's last works it has sections of really beautiful prose, but the story is delightfully batty. Prospero (or Prospera, played by Mirren) has been banished from Milan by the usurping Duke Antonio (Chris Cooper). Prospera lives on an enchanted island with her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones), the islands deformed inhabitant Caliban (Djimon Hounsou) and a collection of spirits, notably Ariel (Ben Whishaw). Antonio and a group of nobles (Alan Cumming, Reeve Carney) and misfits (Russell Brand, Alfred Molina) are shipwrecked on the island. Cue a number of parallel stories involving romance, revenge, intrigue and drunkeness.
Cinematically there have been a number of films based on The Tempest; Cult SciFi The Forbidden Planet, Peter Greenaway's mesmerizing Prospero's Books with John Gielgud playing all the roles and Derek Jarman's homoerotic version from 1980. However no direct version has really suceeded in mainstream cinemas.
I think this version with it's amazing cast, headed by the superb Mirren may just be the one to do it.
Personal News (04/01/09)
Much like yesterday's beginning of a weekly column regarding film news today I'm starting a weekly column about my own personal news. Essentially a catch up of the acting work I'm involved in, and maybe any seismic shifts in my personal situation outside of the Theatre.
Only one thing to report this week. Yesterday was the first rehearsal for Lifelong Yearning a comedy from David Wake. Essentially we worked our way through the first half of the play, reminding ourselves of the jokes (I'd forgotten how funny some of them are) and getting into grips with the characters to a certain extent.
I'm a little unsure about Oliver (my character) right now, and I'm swinging a little between Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and Hugh Grant in Bridgit Jones. Once I've decided how to copy Hugh I'll let you know.
Some production dates are now confirmed 29/30 May at the Kidderminster Rose and 5/6 June at the Highbury Little Theatre, and the 3 weekends after that are still in discussion.
We're also short of a man. So if you're in your mid 30's based in the West Midlands and want to audition for the role of Pete, a playwriting lecturer with an obsession about Aristotle and are able to improvise around a theme then please feel free to drop me an e-mail at ben-j-thomas@hotmail.co.uk
Saturday, 3 January 2009
20 for 2009 - Biutiful
Here's a thing. Number 18 on my most anticipated films list is one I know virtually nothing about.
I know it's an Alejandro González Iñárritu film, so expect many cross cuts and a cavalier attitude to timelines, and I know it stars the incredible Javier Bardem. I know nothing else.
IMDB states it's about "A man involved in illegal dealing is confronted by his childhood friend, who is now a policeman." Or basically the plot from Angels with Dirty Faces, only without the angels.
Here are some library pictures of Alejandro and Javier, in case you've forgotten what they look like.
We do know some background to the film, though. This is the first film Iñárritu will direct without a script from Guillermo Arriaga after their much publised creative split. He has however surrounded himslef by the same technical crew that worked on 21 Grams and Babel, so there will be some parity with previous work.
It is also worth noting that Bardem dropped out of Nine, the musical adaptation of Fellini's 8 1/2 in order to take a rest, and has then come out of that rest by taking this role. So the part, if not the film as a whole, must be reasonably tempting.
Film News (03/01/09)
Going forward I will be having a news column each week here on runs_like_a_gay. An opportunity to vent my spleen about the shocking and/or disturbing rumours spreading from the world of cinema.
This week, however, has been awfully slow so there's really only one story I have on my mind.
Hugh Jackman has dropped out of Cleo.
OK, I know that Soderbergh's Cleopatra meets Elvis film won't be to everyones taste, but surely few people could argue with watching Jackman stryt around in a toga for 2 hours.
The story goes that Hugh's too busy, but that seems to be a cover, as his slate seems clear. Unless filming begins on Oscar night, of course.
As a memorium to that particular casting coup please accept this photo of Jackman shirtless to cheer you up.
