With Andrew’s new night school/work schedule things are a bit weird in the Cinecast scheduling department, but we still manage to get to a lot of new ground (and some old Australian ground) in this 3+ hour episode of The Cinecast. Two definitely “off the beaten path” films from a Hollywood standpoint to talk about. Yet both as different from each other as they could possibly be. We introduce a new segment to The Cinecast this week with our weekly “Game of Thrones” recap in which we realize that although this week’s episode covered more ground in 55 minutes than most television covers in half a season, it still left about a third of the character threads off the screen this week. A healthy Watch List harkens back to Australian (not really) blockbusters, Harmony Korine’s previous works and a couple of straight to DVD pictures that might (might) surprise you.

As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

show

show

show

 

 

DOWNLOAD mp3 | 147 MB
if player is not working, try alternate player at bottom of this post

 

 
 
Full show notes are under the seats…
Would you like to know more…?

We recorded last week which means we’re not in the loop to talk about the passing of the great Roger Ebert however, Dale (Letterboxd) and I (Letterboxd) (Colleen was a was too busy on the roller derby track to join us this month) did manage to get together to look ahead at the April line-up which is looking pretty good. Bring on TC!

Direct Download

Subscribe:
show

We can also be contacted via email – marina@rowthree.com!

Show Notes:

Would you like to know more…?

Some of these reviews were written in joyous zeal. Others with glee. Some in sorrow, some in anger, and a precious few with venom, of which I have a closely guarded supply. When I am asked, all too frequently, if I really sit all the way through these movies, my answer is inevitably: Yes, because I want to write the review.
I would guess that I have not mentioned my Pulitzer Prize in a review except once or twice since 1975, but at the moment I read Rob Schneider’s extremely unwise open letter to Patrick Goldstein, I knew I was receiving a home-run pitch, right over the plate. Other reviews were written in various spirits, some of them almost benevolently, but of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, all I can say is that it is a movie made to inspire the title of a book like this.

-Roger Ebert, Your Movie Sucks (2007)

Roger Ebert, unquestionably the most recognizable film critic in the world, has died at the age of 70, according to NPR.

You can check out his vast archive of reviews over here. It’s worth spending some time browsing through his old reviews.

Also, thanks to Kurt for pointing out this essay of Ebert’s from 2011 titled “I Do Not Fear Death.”

There is a moment in Fede Alvarez’s articleless remake of The Evil Dead that offers a hint of the condescension to come; an utter lack of faith in the audience or a confidence crisis in storytelling. After a thoroughly unnecessary prologue involving the exorcism of a dead-ite girl in the basement filled with more cat corpses and mutant hillbillies than Sleepwalkers and The Hills Have Eyes combined and our younger, prettier, twentysomethings come to the cabin in the woods to become, as they say, “spam in a cabin.” Fifteen minutes after an interminable stretch of graceless character building and (forgive me) soul sucking serio-tragic exposition, the characters find themselves down in the burned out foundation from the prologue, dead kitties still hanging from the charred joists. This is when the editing geniuses behind the film feel the need to flash back to the prologue to remind us that, you know, an ‘evil dead’ thing was going on in this creepy woodland cottage. This is immediately followed by the reveal of the Necronomicon, the evil book that releases demons into the world. Here it is not only fully annotated in large bloody english Cliff-Notes over the ancient text, but also, far more insultingly, the book has a handy-dandy series of pictures to explain things after each scene and to tell the audience what is going to happen next. If this is satire of the excesses of Raimi’s original trilogy (Dead By Dawn is itself a parody-laced remake-slash-continuation of sorts – if you don’t know, don’t ask) the he is of the most subtlest sort. (Hint: This is not the case.)

Alvarez and co-writers Rodo Sayagues, with script-polisher Diablo Cody, are utter slaves to burying references and Evil Easter Eggs from the original trilogy that things threaten to make this film more of a distracting dialogue with what came before, not to mention rather unsuccessful games of bait-and-switch in the screenplay. “The Classic” Delta 88 Oldsmobile, the charming rustbucket of a vehicle which takes on an increasing significance in the original films, shows up here not as an old clunker, but more a piece of impostor art object to be used as pretty object for our pretty actress to sit upon. I single out the remade car not as a miffed Raimi fanboy (of which I assure you, after a few too many Spiderman flicks and Disney Oz prequels, I am not) but rather that an ill executed homage such as this is indicative of the whole enterprise. But wait, there is more. At the other end of the pander-spectrum are things of such pathological minutiae that I am kind of embarrassed to know of their existence at all, such a necklace chain sculpted into the shape of skull (again don’t ask – it is not really that important.)

Excess is the name of the game in these films, and that is not a problem per se. What was the original if not the combination of the Friday 13th slasher mixed with the highlight reel of all The Exorcist pea-soup moments shaken and cooked into a high energy speedball of manic-camerawork. It worked as slapstick, it worked as a frightening hallucination. The remake is merely an engine for gore. Painful, quite realistic gore. A wet-dream for those who look for this type of thing, that somehow survived NC-17 censorship. Tree rape and limb-severings aplenty are done so with effects that slickly combine old-school practical and modern digital craft. So much time is spent getting rusty nails propelled into arms and faces that the filmmakers forgot to make it riveting (sorry) in any other way. If onscreen suffering floats your boat, and you’ve not tired of the Torture Porn cycle that I thought was well behind us at this point, then this is the horror film for you. Because Evil Dead is not scary, or even interesting.

Would you like to know more…?

Ryan Gosling, welcome to your prime. Even though Gangster Squad didn’t quite work out the way you wanted it to, The Place Beyond the Pines goes wide this weekend, you’re helping out Malick release his third film in as many years and now your Winding Refn follow-up to Drive, Only God Forgives.

The anticpation continues to grow for me on this one. The one sheet stunned and now this red band will mesmerize. This is pretty stellar marketing so far and I feel I can assume that the marketing is made easy because the picture is going to absolutely rock us.

Synopsis: show

Take a look at this newest shocker of a trailer and tell me you’re not interested. Wanna fight about it?

Here’s a quick sampling of my week’s watches. You can find more of my reviews at Always Watch Good Movies.

 

The Grandmaster (2013)

Directed by: Wong Kar-Wai
Country: China / Hong Kong / France

Cult filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai is back, bringing with him Tony Leung and Zizi Zhang as stars. We cannot find many movies with the elegance and passion of “In The Mood For Love”, but “The Grandmaster” brings to our mind some of its best moments, adopting the same poetic approach to depict another impossible love. The novelty here is the addition of some action through martial arts, since the story was inspired in Yip Man’s life, the kung-fu master who would come to teach the legendary Bruce Lee. The film covers three different periods: 1930’s Foshan in China where he was recognized as a master, the difficult life in Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion, and finally from 1952 till his death in 1972. We also get to know the sad fate of Gong Er, a master’s daughter who became secretly in love with Yip Man after a challenging fight. Kar-Wai’s camera work remains very strong where the richness of the plans and aesthetical care were crucial to catch our eye. To tell the truth, the visual aspect was much stronger than the story itself, which despite being interesting didn’t reveal the mystique of previous adventures. “The Grandmaster”, not being a masterpiece, is a sumptuous accomplishment that puts together a dissimulated love, revenge, sacrifice, and martial arts in the form of floating dances (preferably in the rain).

(4/5)

 

 

The Hunt (2012)

Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg
Country: Denmark

After the immediate success of “The Celebration” in 98, Thomas Vinterberg has been lost in mediocre plots. Finally, with the gripping “The Hunt”, he shows once again what he is capable of. The story, written by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm (“R”, “A Hijacking”), depicts two hellish months in the life of Lucas, a divorced daycare worker who is struggling for his son’s custody. The troubles start when a little girl, who also happens to be the daughter of his best friend, tells the daycare director that Lucas showed his penis. When the director called him, he seems not to give much importance to the case or even try to defend himself. This scene intentionally aims to bewilder us. In a blink of an eye, Lucas loses his job, is abandoned by his new girlfriend, becomes threatened in many ways, and ends desperately alone. The film is filled with tension and is done in such way that the doubt persists till the end. It was incredible how many times I convinced myself that Lucas was innocent, but then some behavior or conversation made me go back again in my opinion. Mads Mikkelsen and the young Annika Wedderkop had first-rate performances, while the direction was very effective and determined. The heaviness of the matter was handled thoughtfully, provoking a variety of intense emotions, and making “The Hunt” one of the most gratifying experiences of 2013 so far.

(4.5/5)

 

 

All That Matters Is Past (2012)

Directed by: Sara Johnsen
Country: Norway

Sara Johnsen’s third feature-film had a promising start, but in fact did not provide us with a great storytelling. It reconstructs the happenings that led to a double killing, involving William and Ruud, two brothers who hated each other since childhood, when they both moved from Sweden to Norway and fell in love with the same girl, Janne. The latter, as only witness, will clarify the story, which was oddly narrated by the policewoman responsible for the investigation. Using frequent flashbacks to their youth, the plot was a prolonged mess of encounters and separations, jealous situations, abandoned babies, illegal immigration, kidnaps, and sexual abuses. The incidents, presented in a confusing order, diverted our attention from the story’s center. Actually, the film drags for long periods, evincing a slowness of processes that never pushed me to care much about its characters. Using a tragic soundtrack along with a sorrowful narration, “All That Matters Is Past” is a bleak tale that often uses unnecessary scenes to impress (like a childbirth or a goat’s slaughter) and almost never shakes the viewer for the right reasons. Merely a promise…

(2.5/5)

Would you like to know more…?

Also be sure to check out Kurt’s review from TIFF!

Director: Daniel Espinosa (Safe House)
Screenplay: Daniel Espinosa, Jens Lapidus (book)
Producer: Fredrik Wikström
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic, Lisa Henni
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 124 min.

It’s ridiculous to me that it’s taken three years for it to finally arrive but here we are, in 2013, long after we first posted the trailers for Daniel Espinosa’s Easy Money and we finally have a DVD release. Crying won’t help matters any, neither does the thought that the third movie in the franchise is nearly ready for release while most of the world is only now being introduced to the goodness that is Espinosa’s adaptation of Jens Lapidus’ novels but as they say, better late than never.

Though it’s not new, few things are anymore, I love the concept behind Easy Money, a crime thriller that is more focused on the people involved with the crimes than in the crimes themselves, exactly what separates crime dramas from great crime dramas.

Joel Kinnaman, in a star making role that brought him to the attention of international producers, stars as JW, a young, handsome smart guy looking to elevate himself far beyond his economic means. He comes from a middle class family but you’d never tell by looking at him. He’s sharply dressed, he has expensive tastes and friends with money to burn and it’s his inability to keep up financially that sets him on the wrong path. He finances his parties and sharp looking closet by writing papers for others and driving a cab for some shady characters. He’s been pitching a money making scheme to his boss, who seems completely uninterested and who instead offers JW an opportunity to make some quick cash by simply following a guy. Of course, when you’re mixed up with a mob, just following a guy could get you into serious trouble.

Would you like to know more…?

Has Australia been quietly re-inventing itself with R-rate crime flicks? After the Edgerton Brothers’ The Square and David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom, both of which were exported and successful on these shores. Less stressful abroad, but no less harrowing were Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown Murders and Jon Hewitt’s X. Four films over a three year span hardly makes a trend, but then, here comes this strange, slightly noir-ish, vacation-gone-very-wrong film, Wish You Were Here.

Four friends indulge in a carefree Cambodian holiday, but their sun-soaked retreat quickly takes a horrific turn when one of the travelers disappears. As the search ensues, the others return home, racked with guilt and struggling to return to their daily lives. Does one of them hold the answer to the fate of their lost companion? Tightly-held secrets from their life-altering trip are brought to light, revealing clues to the whereabouts of their missing friend.

Sam Rockwell has been quite busy lately. Just in 2013, he has five movies being released in which he stars or co-stars. He has a high-profile comedy with Steve Carrell (The Way, Way Back), a sex and pharmaceuticals drama with Olivia Wilde and Ray Liotta (Better Living Through Chemistry), a re-teaming with Clark Gregg for the star-packed Trust Me, and another star-packed romantic comedy (A Case of You).

Yet, it’s his final 2013 film which looks the most promising. Titled A Single Shot, Rockwell stars as a hunter caught in a “tense and atmospheric game of cat and mouse” with “hardened backwater criminals out for this blood.” The film co-stars William H. Macy, Ted Levine, Melissa Leo, Kelly Reilly, Jason Isaacs, and Jeffrey Wright.

The trailer is intense and does a good job convincing me that this is one of the must-see films of this year. Then again, there isn’t a movie that I won’t watch if Rockwell is in it. The film will premiere at Tribeca this month with a release date to be announced at a later time.

I know, I know, Red Band trailers spoil all the fun. But really, it looks like Seth Rogan, Danny McBride and James Franco want to out-stupid Your Highness (or Neighborhood Watch if you prefer) by way of Bill Murray’s cameo in Zombieland. Beware all enterprises whose chief joke is an actor playing a fictional version of themselves dying onscreen for the pleasure of its audience.

(And while the title of this post slightly misleading, it is very much indeed Emma Watson who drops F-Bombs whilst wielding an axe.)

I’ll wait for the Edgar Wright’s The World’s End which has a shockingly similar title and premise and comes out a bit later later this year. It also promises to be a lot smarter, if this trailer for This Is The End is accurate.

Just a couple days left to enter the Mamo Summer Box Office Contest! We roll out the wildest, weirdest summer we’ve ever encountered and break down week by week what we think will make what, and how. Now it’s your turn: listen to the episode, and enter your picks for the top ten grossing films to be released between May 1 and August 31. May the craziest bastard win.

To download this episode, use this URL: http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo298.mp3

THE CONTEST ENTRY PERIOD IS CLOSED. All entries dated May 1 or before have been entered into the Grosses Tabulator, which you can view here: http://bit.ly/SBO2013 (thanks to GE Hale!)

Rules:

THE SUMMER STARTS ON MAY 1 AND ENDS ON AUGUST 31, in terms of movies you can pick. Please work by domestic release dates only and with domestic grosses only. Scores will be tabulated after the Toronto International Film Festival is over. ALL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY MAY 1 2013.

Players will submit the following:

Top ten films, in order of total grosses. Also total gross $ amount and opening weekend gross $ amount. So as an example, submissions should look like this:

1. Dark Knight Rises, $402 million, $175 million
2. Avengers, $375 million, $150 million

(ha ha this example is hilarious now)

Points awarded for:

A. 1-10 Points for film rankings. If you are bang on (your #1 pick comes in #1) you get 10. If you are 5 places away (your #8 film comes in #3) you get 5, etc.
B. 10 bonus points for every film who’s gross you have within 5 million of the actual gross.
C. 5 bonus points for every film who’s gross you have within 10 million of the actual gross.
D. 1 bonus point for every film who’s gross you have within 20 million of the actual gross.
E. 10 Bonus Points for every film who’s opening weekend gross is within $1 million of the actual opening weekend gross.

F. 5 Bonus Points for every film who’s opening weekend gross is within $5 million of the actual opening weekend gross.

G. 1 Bonus Point for every film who’s opening weekend gross is within $10 million of the actual opening weekend gross.

E. 10 point bonus for every film you have ranked correctly AND within 5 million of the actual gross AND within $1 million of the opening weekend gross.

F. For the purposes of calculating weekends – Films opening on a Wednesday are counted until the first Sunday they are released. Films opening on Memorial Day weekend are counted until the following Monday. Films opening the week of July 4 are counted from whenever they open in that week until the first Sunday of their release. Example – Spiderman opens on Tuesday, July 3. Your guess for weekend gross would actually be its 6 day total, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

.
The year was 1987. It was a tumultuous time…A breathless population tried to come to terms with the loss of Shelly Long from Cheers while simultaneously trying to choose sides in the great “Debbie Gibson or Tiffany?” debate. Fortunately Spuds Mackenzie and the announcement of Euro Disney were there to quell the public’s fears (not to mention the arrival of Prozac).

Side note: there was also the premiere of a little upstart cartoon series called The Simpsons which created an industry of people quoting and borrowing humourous ideas from it – something which continues today unabated.

In the movie houses, adultery was on the minds of the American film-goer as two of the year’s biggest releases used it as a central theme. Both Fatal Attraction and Moonstruck had characters cheating on their spouses (and almost-spouses) with varying degrees of consequences – none of which appeared to be lasting. Through different approaches and styles (one a sharply written comedy/drama, the other a consistently paced thriller), they each seem to end up at the same conclusion: infidelities certainly can’t be swept away, but don’t worry since you’ll be forgiven. Since Moonstruck’s main arc really deals with two suffocating people who stumble into each other (and subsequently allow each other to blossom), that’s likely not the fairest assessment of the film. But I’ll get to that later.

The story opens on Loretta (played by Cher), a tax accountant who seems to have the market cornered on frumpy. She’s unsure about the marriage proposal she’s just received from Johnny (Danny Aiello) because she’s had bad luck before – in fact, very bad luck since her previous husband was killed by a bus. Now she insists that everything be done just right including the actual proposal (she even makes Johnny do it all over again by getting down formally on one knee in the restaurant). When he tells her he has to fly to Italy for his dying mother, her biggest concern seems to be that they set an official date for the wedding. She doesn’t actually want or need him to help, but just agree to the date since all he’ll have to do is show up. It’s quickly established that Loretta isn’t exactly passionately in love with Johnny and even tells her mother (played in Oscar-winning form by Olympia Dukakis) that she doesn’t love him. Her Mom’s response of “Good, when you love them they drive you crazy because they know they can” sets up the issues she has with her own husband (Vincent Gardenia in a possibly too spot-on casting choice). But back to Loretta for the moment…

Would you like to know more…?