Channing Tutum is one of the very delightful surprises of 2012. After his successes in Haywire, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike, it’s obvious the guy isn’t the action meat-headed type-cast we all thought he was going to be and he’s clearly going places; particularly looking at his upcoming filmography including collaborations with Soderbergh and The Wachowskis to name a few. /RunOnSentence
But every actor has got to go through some growing pains and mixed in with the Soderbergh vehicles, there is the potential for some stumbling blocks upcoming as well. Case in point, 10 Years.
With only a handful of festival screenings under its belt, hence not much talking about it on the internets, it’s difficult to get a handle on exactly what the film is. On its surface, it appears to be another in this new trend of “massively cast, multiple, loosely-related story threads dramedy” (or MMLD) sub-genre pieces (e.g. Love, Actually, Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve). These types of films always hinge on a holiday and thereby trick audiences into feeling like they’re obligated to see them on the weekend that coincides with that particular holiday. The three films above are three very distinct levels of quality; starting with great and moving very quickly to garbage – so the trend does not buckle favorably towards this. On the flip side, 10 Years is not a holiday movie but it does revolve around a very specific type of event. Also, in general I’m pleased with most of the releases from Anchor Bay, so somebody must’ve seen something of merit here. So what can we expect with 10 Years?
Jake is deeply in love with his girlfriend and ready to propose—until he runs into his high school flame for the first time in ten years. Jake’s friend, Cully, married his cheerleader girlfriend and has been looking forward to the ten-year high school reunion so he can finally apologize to all of the classmates he bullied in high school. However, after a few too many drinks, the jock-turned-family man ends up reverting back to his old ways instead. Meanwhile, longtime rivals Marty and A.J spend the night still trying to one-up each other to impress the coolest girl in class, who now has a secret. The famous one of the group, Reeves, is now a well-known musician, but is still too shy to talk to the high school crush who inspired his one hit wonder.
Fascinating. Sounds like it really has a lot to say. Perhaps the cast will make it delightfully charming and worth ten dollars. Well, outside of Tatum and Rosario Dawson, I’m not seeing anyone here that really warrants a hip-hip-hooray:
Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Chris Pratt, Justin Long, Oscar Issa, Kate Mar, Ron Livingsto, Lynn Collins, Ari Graynor, Anthony Mackie, Max Minghella, Aubrey Plaza, Scott Porter, Brian Geraghty, Aaron Yoo, Eiko Nijo and Nick Zano.
Considering the movie was officially released in 2011 and I haven’t heard word one about it until today, does not bode well.
Upcoming advanced screenings:
show
I didn’t write this post to drum up (potentially) unwarranted hatred towards a film that has yet to be released officially (maybe it’s amazing, who knows?). More, I wanted to ask about Channing Tatum and where his career is headed and also to ask readers about these MMLDs and whether you enjoy them and/or think they are a viable entity in the world of cinema for any length of time.
I try to like the guy, but he does make it hard sometimes. Like with how awesome his abs are. Fuck, they’re sexy.
Do you count more serious multi-stranded films like some of Altman’s work or Magnolia and Amores Peros (sp?) under the banner? If so I love those, but got tired of the sub genre quickly after they became more popular. Without wanting to bring up an old argument, Crash was one that made me fall out of love with them. I wasn’t a big Traffic fan either.
As for the lighter ones you listed above I’ve only seen Love Actually which I didn’t think much of at all. It felt like a weak sappy rom-com desperately trying to be Magnolia.
Really. Huh. I love love love LOVE ACTUALLY. If for no other reason, check out the cast… and none of them phoning it in:
ALAN RICKMAN(!)
COLIN FIRTH
LIAM NEESON
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
CHIWETEL EJIOFOR
HUGH GRANT
MARTIN FREEMAN
BILL NIGHY
EMMA THOMPSON
LAURA LINNEY(!)
BILLY BOB THORNTON
THE MAIN GUY FROM WALKING DEAD
(cameos by: Rowan Atkinson, Elisha Cuthbert, Claudia Shiffer, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards)
The movie is awesome actually. Comparing it to Magnolia is not fair. I don’t think it’s trying to be anything other than fun, humorous drama with a holiday flavor.
And no, I wasn’t counting the more serious stuff. Can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I know these types of films when I see them. I can only think of the ones I mentioned. Geared towards a holiday or single, common event. Huge cast of well-known names that may or may not tie together.
For my part, I actually really like the message of Love Actually – that love is all around, just maybe not in the way you expected or with the person you thought. I liked that it kind of shows all different sorts of love – parents’ love for children, kids having their first crushes, grief for a lost loved one, unrequited love, love across language barriers, just trying to get laid, long-term committed love, loneliness desperately seeking love, etc. etc. And it feels like THAT idea came first and then they were like, well, let’s cast a whole bunch of awesome people and make it an all-star ensemble. And let’s happen to set it at Christmas.
The other films like this feel like they started with “let’s have a big ensemble cast and a holiday” rather than a solid plot/theme idea, so they end up being much less satisfying.
In that way, Love Actually sort of does feel more like the dramatic ensemble pieces, in that the story comes first, and the ensemble naturally flows out of that. But in terms of tone, yeah, it’s not trying to do anything epic like Magnolia, and I think it captures what it is trying to do perfectly.
Thank you for saying it way better than I did/could. I think you’re right about story first, cast second with Love Actually.
I can see how maybe it would rub some people the wrong way, but I love the “nice” factor of this film. It’s very warm and fuzzy but never really gets into the cheesy zone (ok, the doorstep scene with the Dylan-esque flashcards is a little cheesy, but outside of that, I can’t think of any).
And as I think about it, I really LOVE this movie. The Knightley story thread is great with the misunderstanding and how she (and the audience) simultaneously realizes the truth; and how we learn the truth is cool too.
The Liam Neeson thread is feels so good to watch unfold with the kid – it’s very touching in a light-hearted way and the kid is great.
I’m a fan of Hugh Grant and think his turn in this is pretty great – that relationship is awesome.
And The Colin Firth thread really crawls into your skin as well with the frustration and translation breakdown.
Alan Rickman is Alan fucking Rickman and he (and his story) is great in this. Love the tension with the gift to his wife.
Laura Linney is Laura fucking Linney and can do no wrong. Her story is equally as frustrating as the language barrier one but in a different way.
So yeah, there are so many things going on in that movie and done in different ways (like Jandy said above) it seems crazy to me that there isn’t at least something in there that everyone can latch on to.
I know the types of films you mean – I don’t think there are many of them.
I think with Love Actually I just have a problem with Richard Curtis’ style of writing and humour. Although I liked Four Weddings back in the day, I’ve not liked anything else since. It might just be because I’m a northerner, but I struggle to swallow his glossed over, nicey-nice, everybody’s middle class view of Britain. It all seems so bland. Plus, with Love Actually I only found myself interested in one or two of the story lines (the Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson one being the strongest) and others were just dull (Kiera Knightley etc.) or dumb (the guy travelling to America to get laid or whatever).