Archive for July, 2008

  • 22 Jul

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    Screen Shot Quiz #82

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    No hints on this one for about an hour or so. I think its pretty obvious but then again it always seems obvious when you know what the movie is.

  • 21 Jul

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    Hidden Treasures – Week of July 20th

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    Now, the latest installment of Hidden Treasures.

    The Man With the Golden Arm (1955)
    Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, a film that deals candidly with the subject of drug addiction, was denied the Production Code’s Seal of Approval upon its initial release. The year was 1955, and the Code still viewed drug addiction as a taboo subject for a feature film. Quite surprisingly, the Production Code stood alone on this one; even the Catholic Church’s Legion of Decency gave The Man with the Golden Arm a passing grade. Bolstered by the Legion’s support, the producers decided to go ahead and distribute the film, marking the first time a major studio production was released nationally without the Production Code’s Seal of Approval.

    Based on the novel by Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm tells the story of Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra), a former heroin addict who’s just returned home from a stint at rehab. Having beaten his addiction, Frankie is determined to start his life over again, hoping to finally realize his lifelong dream of becoming a jazz drummer. But the pressure Frankie feels from those around him, including his wheelchair-bound wife, Zosch (Eleanor Parker), threaten to drive him back to his old ways. Only Molly (Kim Novak), a former sweetheart, supports Frankie through this troubling time, and works hard to keep him from drifting back to his addictions.

    I’ve always been a fan of Frank Sinatra as an actor. He was not only excellent in films like From Here to Eternity and The Manchurian Candidate, but also managed to shine brightly in a handful of smaller movies, such as 1954’s Suddenly. What struck me most while watching Sinatra in The Man with the Golden Arm was that he never rushed his performance. Frankie’s fall happens very methodically, so much so that it’s initially quite difficult to even spot a difference in his behavior. Ultimately, the only way to tell that he’s back on ‘the fix’ is the look in his eyes. Several times, director Preminger focuses his camera right on Sinatra’s eyes, giving us a first-hand account of the effect that the drugs were having on Frankie. Once the drugs start up again, however, it doesn’t take long for Frankie to get completely hooked. All at once, he transforms from a former addict who felt he could control the occasional fix into a junkie who loses total control of himself.

    Due in part to their experience with The Man with the Golden Arm, the Production Code updated their strict regulations the following year, approving changes that would allow the sensible depiction of, among other things, drug addiction and prostitution. As the Production Code was forced to realize, Post-War America was facing a bitter struggle with its own identity, and a multitude of social problems were finding their way into the public consciousness. Times were tough, and it was high time for films to reflect this reality. With The Man with the Golden Arm as a starting point, Hollywood would never be quite the same again.

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    Lenny (1974)
    British author Horace Walpole once said, “The world is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think”. For comedian Lenny Bruce, whose career was plagued by censorship, legal battles and drug addictions, there was no differentiating between the two. In him, comedy and tragedy existed as one.

    Based on Julian Barry’s Broadway play, Bob Fosse’s Lenny is the story of Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman), perhaps the single most influential stand-up comedian of his, or any other, generation. Employing humor that was considered too controversial for early 1960’s America, Bruce was arrested numerous times for lewdness and obscenity, occasionally being led off stage in handcuffs before his act was even finished. Yet Lenny gives us not only Bruce’s legal struggles, but his personal skirmishes as well, many of which stemmed from his turbulent marriage to Honey (Valerie Perrine). Both would play a part in Bruce’s eventual downfall, culminating in his death by drug overdose in 1966.

    In Lenny (which sets a perfect tone with its black and white photography), we’re given both sides of Lenny Bruce: the sharp, observant comic who challenged the status quo every chance he got, and the sad, depressed man who became a victim of his own excesses. We witness his brilliance on-stage, with observations that were as funny as they were poignant. One of his favorite subjects to explore was society’s uptight reaction to certain words, which would culminate with the legal battles he faced as a result of his words. For Lenny, words were precious; they were the tools he used to shake up the world, and the more explosive his words were, the more people sat up and took notice. Unfortunately, the law noticed as well, leading to numerous arrests in cities such as San Francisco and Chicago. Before long, Lenny Bruce was defending his words in open court, and using as many of them as he could to plead his case.

    This story alone would make a great film, but what makes Lenny all the more insightful is that it goes beyond the drama of stage and courtroom to the tragedy playing out behind closed doors. In so doing, we see another side of Lenny Bruce, whose private life was just as volatile as his professional one. Bruce meets future wife Honey while working as a comic in a Baltimore strip club, where she herself is the main attraction. Eventually, the couple moves to California, where they begin experimenting with a variety of drugs, resulting in long-term addictions for both of them. Years later, Honey, looking back on her days with Lenny, tried to sum up her husband’s actions with one word: Insecurity. “He had to prove himself”, Honey says, and in defining his behavior, Honey also managed to sum up his entire life. Whether on stage or off, Lenny Bruce always had something to prove.

    Yet it was Lenny Bruce himself who provided the perfect epitaph for his life, saying his entire act owed its very essence to “the existence of segregation, violence, despair, disease and injustice”. By attacking such issues at a time when nobody else was doing so, and in a way nobody else dared, Lenny Bruce captured the attention of the entire world. In the end, it proved more than he could handle.

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    Sexy Beast (2000)
    Gal (Ray Winstone) is a retired thief. Having done his time in London’s criminal underbelly, which included serving a nine-year prison term, he has now retired to a villa on the Spanish coast, where he spends his days in the company of the love of his life, former porn star DeeDee (Amanda Redmon). Despite the fact that a runaway boulder has just damaged his swimming pool, Gal really can’t complain. For him, life is pretty damn good.

    While out to dinner one night with good friends Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and Jackie (Julianne White), Gal is given some disturbing news: an old acquaintance from his days in London has just called Jackie, and is coming to Spain to ask for Gal’s help with a new heist. No worries, Gal tells them. He’s retired now, and has no plans to return to his former life of crime. But that’s not the problem. The real concern arises from who it was who called, and who it is whose coming to Spain the next day. With terror in her eyes, Jackie tells Gal that the call came from Don Logan (Sir Ben Kingsley). All at once, the table grows silent. Gal tries to shrug the news off by ordering a plate of calamari, but he is visibly nervous. Don Logan is coming to Spain to see him.

    Shit. Don Logan.

    This is a great scene from director Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, and it works to perfection. At this point, we the audience have no idea who this Don Logan is, yet judging from the faces of Gal and his companions, he’s obviously someone you don’t want to mess with. Still, what’s the big deal? After all, how bad can Don Logan really be? The next morning, he flies in. We meet him. We watch him interact with Gal and the others. After three minutes, our question of “how bad can it be” is answered.

    Pretty damn bad!

    Don Logan is like no film character I’ve ever seen. This is a man with no fear. None. He is arrogant, angry, sharp-tongued and violent. To borrow a quote from Denzel Washington in Training Day, King Kong ain’t got shit on Don Logan.

    Sir Ben Kingsley is a tremendous actor, one who’s played some of the cinema’s most sympathetic characters. He was wonderful as Itzhak Stern, the man who helped Oskar Schindler save over a thousand Jews from the Nazi ovens in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. In fact, Kingsley’s first major film role was the title character in Richard Attenborough’s award-winning epic, Gandhi, a man who abhorred violence. Well, with Don Logan, it seems the great actor is equally at-home playing pricks as he is at playing saints. Kingsley completely disappears behind the wild, volatile eyes of Don Logan, building his character by way of sneers and insults. It’s an incredible performance.

    When I think back on all of the movie villains I’ve hated in my life, I’m reminded of characters like Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance in a film of the same name, Stephen Boyd’s Messala in Ben-Hur, and Ralph Fiennes’ Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List. These were detestable characters, to be sure, and now I can add Don Logan to that list. A vile, despicable man with no redeeming qualities, I dare you to like anything about Don Logan.

  • 21 Jul

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    Meirelles’ Next is Shakespeare

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    Fernando MeirellesMost of us have yet to see Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness, though that hasn’t stopped us from discussing the film at length, and now it looks like the Brazilian director is trading in one writer for another.

    Meirelles’ next project will be a film based on a Brazilian adaptation of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” by Jorge Furtado, who is also writing the script. The story takes place in New York and London and follows a Brazilian boy who gets a scholarship to study Shakespeare abroad and during his foreign stint, he falls in love with an Arabian student.

    “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is not my favourite of Shakespeare’s works, I’m actually not a huge fan of the Bard’s comedies, but the story seems to be only vaguely tied to the original and if one really breaks things down, it could be argued that every story is a derivative of Shakespeare. The dude was that prolific.

    The material is a little different from what we’re using to seeing from Meirelles but the director has been quoted as saying that he wanted to work with some lighter fare and this seems to be the answer. Production on the film isn’t scheduled to start until next year so I expect we may get to see it late 2009 or early 2010.

  • 21 Jul

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    José Padilha Teams With Don Cheadle

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    Marching Powder Book CoverOne day I had no idea who José Padilha was and the next, the man’s name is all over the web. Aside from the fact that his award winning Elite Squad (trailer) is getting all sorts of positive attention and playing here and there (though no where near me), I recently discovered that the director already has a third film in the can and then there’s his involvement with the Think Tank shorts.

    Now there’s news via Variety that Padilha has agreed to direct a long dormant drama titled Marching Powder. It sounds as though the film has been in the works for some time with Don Cheadle in line to star and produce but it looks like things have finally dropped into place. The film is based on a memoir by Thomas McFadden and Rusty Young and Cheadle is in line to play McFadden, a British drug trafficker who was arrested in Bolivia and jailed in La Paz’s San Pedro prison where he served as a tour guide during his his six-year stretch. A tour guide? Is this for real? It appears so.

    Checking out the official page for the book, I was shocked to see children locked up and with a little more research, I found out that the prison is unlike any other in that it contains a society within its walls with entire families living alongside the inmates. This is unlike anything I’ve seen before and it certainly sounds like a fascinating story. I can’t wait to see where Padilha takes it.

  • 21 Jul

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    Screen Shot Quiz #81

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    It’s been a pretty busy day today for me. Here is the screen shot quiz. Better late than never I say.

    screenshot 81
  • 21 Jul

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    Trailer for Atom Egoyan’s Adoration

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    Adoration Movie StillThe release of a new Egoyan film is always a bit of an “event” for fans of Canadian film but I must admit I was a bit concerned that Adoration wasn’t particularly well received at Cannes and having seen the trailer, I can sort of see why.

    According to a wiki entry, the film focuses on the story of Simon, a young man obsessed with the idea that he is the spawn of two historical figures. There has been talk that the film is also a look at how internet culture affects individuals and creates/breaks down relationships something which is much more in line with the themes in Egoyan’s previous works. Devon Bostick plays the role of Simon and the film also co-stars Scott Speedman, who seems to be working almost exclusively in Canada over the last few years, and Rachel Blanchard.

    The Twitch folks have dug up the promotional trailer for Cannes and I have to admit, I’m not impressed. There are a few interesting moments in the trailer, namely the camera pan along a park but the rest of it comes off as amateurish. Speedman seems to be walking through his performance while Blanchard appears to be in acting in a completely different film, namely a melodrama. Hopefully the reaction is only a response to the way the trailer has been cut but at the moment, I’m not at all impressed.

    Adoration is scheduled to open on January 7th.

    Trailer is tucked under the seat!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 21 Jul

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    Perlman Talks Hellboy III

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    With the critical and financial success of Hellboy II ($56 million domestically after two weeks – compare that to the first movie’s $59 million domestic total) and with director Guillermo del Toro busying himself with the mythos of Middle-Earth, many are left wondering if the door for another Hellboy sequel is still open. Well, according to Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, in an interview with Coming Soon, it’s not something that is being ruled out.

    “Well, I certainly think that it’s not without the realm of possibility at this point. I can only imagine the discussions that are taking place in some other dark room right now,” Perlman said. “I know Guillermo has a very compelling idea for how to end the trilogy and I hope that he gets a chance to tell it and I hope that he gets a chance to do it exactly as he wants to do it. That’s all I can say to that. I’m not privy to anything because we didn’t want to start counting our chickens before they hatched.”

    He also comments on The Hobbit, saying that he hasn’t been offered a part yet, but he says that del Toro has hinted to him that he might have a role lined up for him. Cool.

    I’m hoping they can get a third and final Hellboy out, even if we have to wait a while for del Toro to get his Hobbit fix out of his system. While comic book trilogies have been ending pretty bad the past few years (i.e. X-Men, Spider-Man), I have far more faith in del Toro… and really, Perlman prancing around in that big red suit and being all cynical for two hours can’t possibly not be entertaining.

  • 21 Jul

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    Star Trek (Reboot) Character One Sheets

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    Star Trek One Sheet (Reboot)The first look at the characters in the J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Trek franchise (known around our household as ‘the bad idea’) went everywhere on the web last Friday. Upon glancing at the four photos, the thing that jumped out is that Chris Pine looks a heck of a lot like James Van Der Beek in Rules of Attraction. Maybe there will be some sex with green women in this new picture at some crazy Starfleet ‘End of the Universe’ party.

    /Film has the high resolutions versions of the individual posters.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  • 20 Jul

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    Screen Shot Quiz #80

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    A distinctly different kind of ‘superhero’ film. OK, that is probably of more of a red herring than a clue. Nevertheless, this is a great little debut film from a young and talented director.

    Screen Shot Quiz 80
  • 20 Jul

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    R3view: The Dark Knight

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    The Dark Knight one-sheet

    Director: Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins)
    Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer
    Producers: Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
    Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
    MPAA Rating: PG-13
    Running time: 152 min

    Synopsis:

    Batman continues to act as a force of vigilante justice in Gotham City, but his presence causes a number of copy-cat ‘crime-fighters’ to complicate the situation. District Attorney Harvey Dent steps up to clean up the criminal element using more due-process means, while the Joker comes to town to burn the place down. Mayhem and pondered morality ensue.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Jul

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    After the Credits Episode 30 – A Dark Rant

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    After the Credits Episode 30 - A Dark Rant [ 27:05 | 24.79 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

    Dale (Digital Doodles), Colleen (353 Haiku Review) and Marina discuss a few recently seen films.

    Row Three:

    RSS Feeds:

    Subscribe to “After the Credits”
    Subscribe to ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
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    We can also be contacted via email – marina@rowthree.com!

    Show Notes:

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Jul

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    Review: Pineapple Express

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    Pineapple Express one-sheet

    Director: David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls, Snow Angels)
    Writers: Evan Goldberg, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen
    Producers: Judd Apatow, Shauna Robertson
    Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Amber Heard, Rosie Perez
    MPAA Rating: R
    Running time: 111 min

    When you think of director David Gordon Green, you’ll have one of two reactions: 1) who? or 2) arty, drama film. Stoner-comedy is not the genre that springs to mind. But for all intents and purposes, that’s exactly what Pineapple Express is. An easy, three-word review would be: it was funny.

    Rogen is Dale Denton. A late twenties, slob of a guy who works his day job as a process server only to make enough money to hang out with his high school aged girlfriend and buy pot from his dealer, Saul (Franco). When Dale accidentally witnesses a murder by a notorious crime boss and a lady cop who are in cahoots, he panics and flees the scene as unintentionally loudly as possible. With the criminals following the clues to Dale’s identity and his whereabouts, Dale goes to the one guy who might be able to keep him safe: stoner Saul. The two hit the road in an attempt to find out what the bad guys know or don’t know and figure a way out of their predicament. Along the way, they find that they have more than just a business partnership. Maybe they’re best friends too.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

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