Archive for November, 2009

  • 13 Nov

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    Gay Romance for Firth & Rush?

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    Colin FirthWhat? How did I miss news that Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) and Geoffrey Rush would be gay lovers? HOW?

    Alright, so I’m not sure that’s exactly the case but the term “unorthodox relationship” certainly suggests as much. Apparently good ole Firth has signed on to star as England’s King George VI while Rush will portray the King’s Australian speech therapist in Tom Hooper’s upcoming The King’s Speech. The film has added a spectacular supporting cast made up of Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon – yes, pretty awesome.

    Hooper has made his share of awesome, namely the Golden Globe winning “Elizabeth I” and “John Adams,” and the very fun The Damned United (our review). I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us; not sure how I feel at the though of seeing Firth with another man but, I’ll take what I can get.

  • 13 Nov

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    Talk Amongst Yourselves

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  • 13 Nov

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    Me and Orson Welles Trailer

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    Efron’s agents finally steer the kid in the right direction!

  • 13 Nov

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    Song Titles that Became Movies

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    Minnesota Public Radio this morning asked it’s listeners for titles of songs that eventually inspired a movie (or at least the movie stole the title of the song for one reason or another). It seems like it became a particularly common method of naming movies in the ’80s, but there are fine examples from other eras too.

    I’m bad at coming up with stuff like that off the top of my head but I still didn’t think there were that many. Boy was I was wrong! Listeners came up with dozens. Here’s quite a smattering of them. As a Friday conversation starter, what movie titles can you think of that were originally song titles?

    Some Kind of Wonderful
    Pretty in Pink
    The Sweetest Thing
    Pretty Woman
    Purple Rain
    Can’t Buy Me Love
    Reign Over Me
    Detroit Rock City
    Dream a Little Dream
    Accross the Universe
    Spaceballs
    Closer
    Prelude To A Kiss
    Jungle Fever
    Less Than Zero
    Ode To Billie Joe
    Dazed And Confused
    Whip It
    Boys Don’t Cry
    Super Bad
    Roxanne
    Stand By Me
    My Blue Heaven
    Addicted to Love
    Jumping Jack Flash
    Can’t Hardly Wait
    Iron Man     – I don’t think this one counts.
    Blue Velvet
    American Pie
    Corrina, Corrina
    Just Like Heaven
    My Girl
    Sea of Love
    Jailhouse Rock
    Girls Just Want To Have Fun

    Do movie biographies of the actual artist count?
    La Bamba
    Walk the Line
    Coal Miner’s Daughter

  • 13 Nov

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    Almodóvar Marathon: “Volver” (2006)

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    STARRING: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo

    (4.5/5)

    Though maybe not Almodóvar’s best effort, it’s likely his most accessible (and probably in his top five) as an enjoying tale that is more than satisfying by the time the closing credits roll; though it takes us on more than one tangential trip to get there. Imagining an absurd Hitchcockian thriller with a dash of comedy and brilliant color sort of explains the look and feel of Volver.

    Most of Almodóvar’s films showcase his obvious affection of women: the love of women young and old, the struggles of women and their interactions with one another. Volver is certainly no exception – possibly even the most striking example of this tendency. The film focusses on three generations of women and the emphasis of what it means to be a mother, a daughter and a sister. At times, it even borders on being blatantly anti-men. Raimunda (Cruz) is the main protagonist who plays the feisty mother (and a sister and daughter) of a well mannered typical teenage girl. She struggles to keep the family afloat financially as a series of absurd circumstances begin to run amok. The plot runs simultaneously in so many different directions that it’s difficult to succinctly say what the movie is really trying to get at. There’s a death in the family, a murder with the subsequent effort of getting rid of the body, a friend in the hospital, the illegal running of a restaurant and a hair salon and a spiritual resurrection of a central character returning from the dead to help her struggling family in ways she never could have in life. Suffice it to say, this is the point where absurdity takes over – but most definitely in a good way!
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Nov

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    Ben Kingsley Goes Epic

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    BenKingsleyI love period epics, especially those that incorporate romance with action over a sweeping story from some period of time I’m not familiar with and it looks like Sir Ben Kingsley is about to fulfill that void.

    According to Variety, Kingsley and his gorgeous wife Daniela Lavender are on board to star in one such epic. Taj is the story of Shah Jahan, a 17th century Indian Mughal emperor and his rocky relationship with Persian princess and wife Kandahari Begum. Jahan is best known for building the Taj Mahal as a gift to his beautiful wife and if the building is any indication of their relationship, this is new project is bound to be a glamorously gorgeous epic (plus the budget of $25 to $30 million doesn’t exactly suggest this will be shoestring budget though for an epic it’s also not a whole hell of a lot of money).

    There’s no word on who’ll direct the project but Kingsley is on board to star and produce and British playwright, novelist and actor David Ashton has written the script which, I assume, will also be directed by a Brit.

    Can’t wait to see who they rope in for directing duties!

  • 12 Nov

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    P-Star; She’s Going to be a Superstar!

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    pstar_poster_web_tempRags to riches stories are a dime a dozen but few have ever caught my attention as much as this one.

    Mett P-Star (better known to her friends and family as Priscilla). She’s a nine year old girl trying to break into the music world via rap. That, in and of itself is enough of an attention grabber but what really impressed me is the other part of P-Star’s story, the part that features her single father as the man fighting for her success. P-Star Rising incorporates both the struggles of an up-and-coming artist with the story of a single father and his bond with his children. Admittedly, it’s this father/daughter connection that has me interested in the film since most of the stories we hear are of mothers and their daughters surviving through tough ordeals; it’s nice to see the other side of the coin.

    P-Star Rising has been making the festival rounds for a while now and I expect we may have a chance to see it on DVD some time soon. Looks promising.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Nov

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    Awesome Lord of the Flies Artwork

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    Not one of my favorite movies (although I quite like the original b&w version), Lord of the Flies is however one of the few books I was forced to read in my scholastic career that I actually really enjoyed. I found some really cool artwork to accompany the novel today, by a guy named Sam Weber. Head over to his site to see more of his art. But I posted these LOTF images here.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Nov

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    First Movie Shot on Canon 7D

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    Yes, more frakking zombies. I love the sub-genre, but enough is enough. The point of this post isn’t about zombies though; or even this particular movie. What is significant here is the look of this “film” shot on a $1700 camera. Almost anyone can now make a movie that looks good – or at least they can afford to make one.

    The camera quality is sort of a mixed bag for the bloody independent film. High resolution coupled with gorgeous depth of field tricks emulate Hollywood (or at least, TV-level) production. But, while you can call me old fashioned, blood and guts only look better in low-fi. Best of luck to the group finishing the film. These dailies from week one have some nice moments.

  • 12 Nov

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    “Gattaca” TV Series? Intriguing.

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    cut and paste job from MTV blog

     

    A couple weeks ago, Variety ran a story about what’s next for Denis Leary, Jim Serpico and Apostle Films after the hit FX series “Rescue Me” wraps up in 2011. Tucked away at the end of the story was a brief bit about plans to produce a future-set one hour police procedural based on the Andrew Niccol-directed Gattaca. Writer/producer Gil Grant, whose previous TV credits include “24″ and “NCIS: Los Angeles,” was named as the scribe, but that was where the news ended.

    Grant was kind enough to take some time last week to chat with us about the still-gestating project, and he revealed that his first move was to strip away the closed confines of the NASA-like organization that Hawke’s character worked for in the movie.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Nov

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    “Nine” New Images

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    Alright I admit it. These aren’t that interesting but it’s well documented that I never pass up a chance to post new picture of Penélope Cruz. So when I stumbled on these recently released stills of one my more anticipated films of the next two months, I had to share. Oh, and there also aren’t nine of them – there are actually eleven.

    the rest of the images are under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Nov

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    Top 25 Documentaries of the Decade

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    You’re going to start seeing a LOT of these various, “end of the decade” lists pop up over the next few months. Heck, we even jumped on the bandwagon before there even was a bandwagon to jump on.

    But sheer quantity of lists has never stopped me from seeking them out before and it sure isn’t going to stop me from creating more. Rank lists aren’t for everyone (mostly they’re just fun for the author to put them together), but if nothing else you’re likely to see something on these lists over the next 60 days that you haven’t heard about before or maybe simply forgot about. Finding or rediscovering these hidden gems is often reason enough to hash through these lists.

    Enter Paste magazine (link includes artwork, trailers and written commentary) with their choices for the Top 25 Documentaries of the Decade:

    25. Food, Inc. (2009)
    24. Dig! (2004)
    23. Gleaners and I (2000)
    22. The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006)
    21. No End In Sight (2007)
    20. No Direction Home (2005)
    19. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
    18. Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008)
    17. The White Diamond (2004)
    16. God Grew Tired of Us (2007)
    15. Super Size Me (2004)
    14. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
    13. Jesus Camp (2006)
    12. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
    11. Born into Brothels (2004)
    10. Waltz with Bashir (2008)
    9. Murderball (2005)
    8. Spellbound (2002)
    7. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006)
    6. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
    5. Bowling For Columbine (2002)
    4. The Fog of War (2003)
    3. Grizzly Man (2005)
    2. Iraq in Fragments (2007)
    1. Man On Wire (2008)

    As much I talk about how I’m not a big fan of docs and I don’t see that many, I can actually claim that I have seen 19 of these films and yeah, they’re all pretty great. I would’ve liked to see The Cove or Dear Zachary up there (actually I’m surprised they’re not) and Waltz with Bashir could probably stand to be moved up a couple of notches, but otherwise this is a solid list. If nothing else it’s a jumping off point to check out some docs I’ve not heard of before that if sitting in the company of these others, must be pretty darn good.

    Aside from my two glaring omission mentions, what titles need to be moved around, added or subtracted here?

    via: Thanks to The Documentary Blog for retyping them all out in a quick and readable format so we could repost!

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