Posts Tagged ‘danny boyle’

  • 09 Mar

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    5 Questions Regarding AMCs THE WALKING DEAD

    13

    I know I am late to the Walking Dead party, this is always the case with TV stuff. But with the DVD coming out today and having a chance last night to watch the entire first season in one sitting (Thanks Anchor Bay!), I can now see why all the writers of the show were summarily fired, or moved onto other projects (depending on which side of that story you accept.) I like the look of the zombies (CGI Blood is surprisingly not annoying!) and the abandoned Atlanta setpiece (not a single car on the road going into the city though? Seriously? I guess it makes the above screenshot work.) Don’t get me wrong, the production in handsome, and the acting is certainly serviceable, but here are some questions to level at the creators (or fans) of the show, that need to be addressed if the show is going to shake its Season 1 growing pains and aspire to something.

    Warning *Potential Spoiler Elements to Follow*

    1. What is the show about?
     
     
    Survival, disease outbreak, decay of social order? Sure those are a given in any modern zombie treatment, at this point, you very likely cannot do ‘zombie’ without them. I am not asking for the levels of blunt social commentary that (ahem) plague the last three Romero-Zombie movies (and are handled pretty damn elegantly in the first three), or even implying that the series should be a concise or coherent allegory – but after 250+ minutes of show, that I cannot actually figure what the show is about is a little crazy. Family ties vs. surrogate community (the greater good)? The country vs. the city as a nurturing force? Energy Crisis? (the show begins and ends on a discussion of conserving energy.) I think solid dramatic shows like Breaking Bad, The Wire or Deadwood (even genre-shows like Battlestar Galactica) work because they ask interesting questions of our times and morals. I’ve yet to see The Walking Dead do anything interesting with its story other than fulfill the usual tropes (to again cite Romero – Night’s holing up in a house, Dawn’s entrapment in a storefront, Day’s medical science in a government/military institution. Is Season 2 going to be “The Road?”

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 02 Feb

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    Cinecast Episode 200(!) – Stats, Stories and Sunshine

    94

     

     
     
    So, the better part of five years just seems to have flown by us in a podcasting frenzy. First, THANKS(!) to everyone who has ever downloaded or streamed a show and actually listened to the thing in its entirety. We certainly could do the show without you, but what would be the point? It would not be as much fun or as rewarding without the feedback and comments; so thank you very much for all the interaction over the years! Also, several shout-outs in the show go to various people that have helped out over the years (you know who you are!) There is no main review this week, instead we spend the majority of our time working out personal issues with one another and just sort of reminiscing about the podcast. Also, favourite films, favourite film going experiences and a big old batch of great listener emails (two hours of that!) Eventually, we talk a little on The Mechanic on The Mechanic and sort through the great selection of DVDs coming out this week.

    So, excuse (or indulge) in a great big boatload of narcissism (fair warning!) and thanks everyone for listening and supporting over the past half decade. Here is to you and here is to two hundred more. Cheers!

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

     
     

    Cinecast Episode 200 [ 3:24:34 | 117.06 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

     

     

    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_11/episode_200.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_11/episode_200-alt.mp3

     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 30 Nov

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    2011 Independent Spirit Award Nominees

    7

    Equally meaningless, but arguably a whole lot more fun to watch than the Oscars. Better films/celebs nominated, more relaxed, more accurate and a lot more alcohol. This year’s awards will be given out live on Saturday, February 26th on IFC channel at 10pm ET.

    The nominees this year are as follows…

    BEST FEATURE:
    127 Hours
    Black Swan
    Greenberg
    The Kids Are All Right
    Winter’s Bone

    BEST DIRECTOR :
    Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
    Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
    Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
    Debra Granik, Winter’s Bone
    John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole

    BEST FEMALE LEAD:
    Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
    Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
    Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
    Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
    Natalie Portman, Black Swan
    Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

    BEST MALE LEAD:
    Ronald Bronstein, Daddy Longlegs
    Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
    James Franco, 127 Hours
    John C. Reilly, Cyrus
    Ben Stiller, Greenberg

    BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE:
    Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism
    Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone
    Allison Janney, Life During Wartime
    Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jack Goes Boating
    Naomi Watts, Mother and Child

    BEST SUPPORTING MALE:
    John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
    Samuel L. Jackson, Mother and Child
    Bill Murray, Get Low
    John Ortiz, Jack Goes Boating
    Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

    more categories/nominations under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Nov

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    Review: 127 Hours

    17

    It turns out that two great things came about from Danny Boyle’s previous over-baked and lobotomized fantasy, Slumdog Millionaire. First, the Oscar means he will probably be able to work for the rest of his life if he so chooses, hopping genres with every project like contemporary film chameleons Stephen Soderbergh and Michael Winterbottom. Second, the is the collaboration with A.R. Rahman who leads off 127 hours with one of the snappiest pieces of musical introduction to come along since, well, Shallow Grave or Trainspotting. Boyle excels at the meld of the visual and musical rhythm – it screams youth and energy. Snappy split screens accompany the music which contrast hoards of people going about their day as the social, dependent animals we are, while Ralston prepares for a day of hiking and biking, happily solo and self-reliant. The music and opening scenes set such an optimistic, bustling tone for a film you probably know by now will go another direction at some point. The title card is withheld until that turn comes, but not before the film spends a bit of time with its lead and his outdoorsy risk-taking spirit. An early, violent spill off a mountain bike that might deter the casual offroad cyclist elicits a giggle, a shrug and a digital camera snap in the embarrassingly compromised position. The tale of Aron Ralston is one of confidence, self-sufficiency and frankly narcissistic hubris. Any goofy mistake is one for the flickr photo stream and likely an amusing anecdote over beers. Embodied by James Franco, an actor who gets better and better with every film he is in (you will have to let me know about that TV Soap opera), his Ralston is the life of the party, even as he leaves to do something by himself before the party is over. He meets two girls in while biking around and gives them the (platonic) time of their lives via a narrow gap in the rocks dropping dozens of meters into a cave-pool. The girls find him cute but can see that he is lost in himself leading one of them to remark, “How much do you think we will factor into his day.” Someone who knows where this is going might appreciate the films bleak humour. One of the girls asks him, after he mentions that he is a geologist when not tramping around or climbing rocks, if he thinks the narrow gap of rock will move while they wait in the space. Despite Ralston’s pithy response that everything is always moving (more self involvement) we know from one Werner Herzog that nature is indifferent and cruel; if it does move, it will not be because you are in the gap, the world does not revolve around the young.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 10 Nov

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    Cinema of Trapped! The Tonal Differences between Buried and 127 Hours

    1

     
    Due to the proximity of the releases, I am sure that this is not the first article to compare and contrast two films that center around their protagonists being trapped for the majority of their films running time. Rodrigo Cortés’ Buried (Cinecast Discussion) features Ryan Reynolds waking up in a pine coffin with a cellphone, a torch and a pen. 127 Hours (Kurt’s Review) features James Franco trapped by a boulder pinning his hand at the bottom of a narrow ravine in a Utah National Park with a video camera, a bottle of water and a multitool. In both cases the directors decide to be clever with their camera work in order (I am assuming here) that the audience not be bored from lack of movement. With the use of ever more flexible camera equipment (and the ability to film both wide and in close up in tight spaces), there is a surprising amount of movement and energy for films in such limited environments. But this is where similarities end. the two lead performances, and the two overall theses of the films are strikingly different. Buried is a cynical political screed and 127 Hours is a self-deprecating yet uplifting story of triumph and revelation. Both films are ambitious in terms of delivering genre (survival) thrills and also being about something else; ultimately though 127 Hours is ultimately far more of a crowd-pleaser despite its explicit scenes of blood and viscera. More importantly, 127 hours succeeds because it builds a human character over the course of its running time, and lets that character breathe a bit outside of the ‘here and now’ trapped situation, whereas Buried is only the here-and-now, and despite Reynolds’ heroic efforts in the acting department, is left to be little more than a cipher for the writers politics.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 23 Sep

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    Cinecast Episode 183 – The Jogging Gay Guys

    15

     
    Thanks to regular RowThree contributor and all around nice guy, Bob Turnbull for showing up once again on this week’s Cinecast to help us all digest the massive movie extravaganza known as this years edition Toronto International Filmfestival (aka TIFF10). Also, a hearty welcome to the longest Row Three Cinecast episode of all time. Bob and Kurt give some preview and insight into much anticipated films from Werner Herzog, Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, Mike Leigh, Sion Sono, Errol Morris, John Carpenter, Sylvain Chomet, and the folks behind Not Quite Hollywood looking at the Drive-In cheapies shot in the Philippines. And then there is the really off-beat stuff like a post-apocalyptic-vampire-western-road movie, Stake Land (which is magnificent), a naughty DIY costumed hero flick from James Gun called Super and starring Ellen Page and Kevin Bacon, an Eva Green starring ethereal cloning drama from Hungary, but in English, called Womb, and a film that will make you completely reassess how you feel about Santa Claus and his elf posse when the jolly fat man is portrayed as a 25 meter tall horned demon encased in a block of ice under a Finnish mountain. But before all that, Andrew managed to catch Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort, The Town as well as the much talked about I’m Still Here starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by the other Affleck, Casey. Easy A also available to the multiplex crowd has Bob and Kurt heap a fair bit of love onto the film in an effort to get Andrew to give it a chance. Yes, folks, it is that good. A few other movies we watched, DVD picks (we’re all a bit drunk at this point) and the odd tangent keep this podcast unspooling and unspooling.
    We hope you enjoy this latest show and as always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

     
     

    Cinecast Episode 183 [ 4:05:00 | 141.86 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

     
     

    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_183.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_183-alt.mp3

     

    +

     
     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 17 Sep

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    TIFF Review: 127 Hours

    3

     

    It turns out that two great things came about from Danny Boyle’s previous over-baked and lobotomized fantasy, Slumdog Millionaire. First, the Oscar means he will probably be able to work for the rest of his life if he so chooses, hopping genres with every film like contemporary film chameleons Stephen Soderbergh and Michael Winterbottom. Second, was the collaboration with A.R. Rahman who leads off 127 hours with one of the snappiest pieces of musical introduction to come along since, well, Shallow Grave or Trainspotting. Boyle excels at the meld of the visual and musical rhythm – it screams youth and energy. The music and opening scenes set such an optimistic, bustling tone for a film you probably know by now will go another direction at some point. The title card is withheld until that turn comes, but not before the film spends a bit of time with its lead and his outdoorsy risk-taking spirit. An early, violent spill off a mountain bike that might deter the casual offroad cyclist elicits a giggle, a shrug and a digital camera snap in the embarrassingly compromised position. The tale of Aron Ralston is one of confidence, self-sufficiency and frankly narcissistic hubris. Any goofy mistake is one for the flickr photo stream and likely an amusing anecdote over beers. Embodied by James Franco, an actor who gets better and better with every film he is in (you will have to let me know about that TV Soap opera), his Ralston is the life of the party, even as he leaves to do something by himself before the party is over. He meets two girls in while biking around and gives them the (platonic) time of their lives via a narrow gap in the rocks dropping dozens of meters into a cave-pool. The girls find him cute but can see that he is lost in himself leading one of them to remark, “How much do you think we will factor into his day.” Someone who knows where this is going might appreciate the films bleak humour. One of the girls asks him, after he mentions that he is a geologist when not tramping around or climbing rocks, if he thinks the narrow gap of rock will movie while they wait in the space. Despite Ralston’s pithy response that everything is always moving (more self involvement) we know from one Werner Herzog that nature is indifferent and cruel; if it does move, it will not be because you are in the gap, the world does not revolve around the young.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 24 Aug

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    Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” trailer

    9

     

    127 Hours

    It’s here and it’s not exactly what I had expected. Likely not what you had expected either but taking into account that we are talking about Danny Boyle here, that shouldn’t come as much as a surprise.

    127 Hours is scheduled to play at TIFF (where Slumdog Millionaire (our review) started its assent to Oscar in 2008. This time, Boyle and crew have taken on the real life story of Aron Ralston, an adventurer who is pinned under a rock and in order to survive, is forced to cut off his arm.

    If you were expecting a quiet, gruesome film about a man and a rock, you may be in for a little shock with this trailer. Mind you, it only features footage of events leading up to the fateful moment of disaster but that lead up is frantic, energetic and gorgeous. Add in James Franco as Aaron and Kate Mara in what I expect will be a short role and tada, here we have the first trailer for the film.

    I was game to see this from the first announcements and I’m still looking forward to eventually catching up with the film but I’ll freely admit that this trailer does nothing for me.

    Trailer, via /Film, under the seats.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 17 Aug

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    Toronto After Dark: Phobia 2 Review

    0
    Toronto After Dark
    Phobia 2
    (4/5)

    Phobia, the Thai anthology from a few years back was a very pleasant surprise, four well produced tales of things that go bump in the night, more or less moulded on old twilight zone motifs, but with a distinctly modern Thai flavour. So it is rather nice to see with the sequel that not only has the production values improved, but the stories are across the board solid whilst keeping the spirit of the enterprise unchanged. In short, the collective of directors has successfully raised the bar. This is the film that Trick ‘R Treat should have been, a solid mixture of tones and organically connected stories interspersed with comedy grace notes.

    First we start with Novice, a very snazzy Owl Creek Bridge story about a boy who has done some stupid things in his youth and joins a monastery. His own personal hell is set across the backdrop of an isolated monastery full of hungry ghosts. The exceptional sound design is present across the entire film but is really given a show case here as things go bump in the night and the director makes exceptional use of close-ups and strange temporal editing. Next we have Ward, which milks about as much as you can from a man lying in a hospital ward with an injured leg. In the bed next to him is an elderly comatose patient who receives a number of ominous and strange visitors during the day and has a habit of attacking every time at night. Like a good horror piece (call it the Jaws effect), it invites you feel anxious in any future visits you may have in any overnight ward. This is followed by, Backpackers; perhaps the weakest entry of the bunch, but as an unpredictable kitchen-sink entry that riffs on Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later it is certainly no slouch. A pair of Japanese backpackers get more than they bargained for when they get picked up by a greedy truck-driver (who already has an anxious passenger) and get the eventual look at his cargo. Salvage makes effective use of its location, a used car lot, to tell one of those vintage Edgar Allen Poe tales, taking the shysterism of the owner who buys smashed luxury sedans has them repaired them on the cheap and sells them as if they were single owner vehicles (‘grandma never drove it except to get groceries’) and spinning it into a little guilt and comeuppance in a rather vicious fashion.

    The piece de resistance is from Team-Shutter (Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom) who bring back the foursome happy campers from Phobia I and have them working as crew members on the set of Alone 2. Rich in humour and scary to boot, they tackle horror conventions and twist endings in an effortlessly charming (even cute) way right to the breaking point. And yet the still play very very fair. Probably understanding that the camping segment in the first series was the show-stopper, they wisely place it at the end, and the series goes out on a bang!

  • 17 Nov

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    Settle a Dispute: Vol 1

    7

    We’ve talked about it before on RowThree. Now we’re fighting behind the scenes. Give us the correct answer…

     

  • 17 Nov

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    Something New from Wright

    4

    The select few of us around here who will watch anything from Joe Wright nearly unconditionally should be fairly excited about this news. While we love Wright and his excellent sense of period film making (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice), this will be a welcome departure for fans and mainstream movie goers alike.

    As Indian Summer (starring Cate Blanchett) fell by the wayside due to budget issues and a sense that the public isn’t too into period drama pieces at the moment, Wright switched gears completely and is going for a straight up action picture with the likes of something as tantalizing as La Femme Nikita meets Bourne.

    from Heat Vision

    The story centers on a 14-year-old Eastern European girl who has been raised by her father to be a cold-blooded killing machine. She connects with a French family, forms a friendship with their daughter and goes through the pangs of adolescence. When the girl is dragged back to her father’s world and discovers that she was bred as a killing machine in a CIA prison camp, she must fight her way to a free life.

    With “legendary” directors such as Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón originally interested in the idea but ultimately passing on it, I’m super interested to see how well Joe Wright will make the transition from tears to blood. Keira Knightley to star?

     

  • 05 Nov

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    Danny Boyle Tackles the Self-Amputating Mountaineer Story

    2

    DannyBoyleThere’s a lot to love about Danny Boyle but the thing that keeps me coming back is the simple fact that Boyle is a chameleon, constantly trying his hand at new stories, often in different genres.

    The Boyle camp has been relatively quiet since the release of last year’s feel good hit Slumdog Millionaire but that all changed earlier today when Variety ran news of a new project from Boyle and once again, it surprises. This time around, Boyle will be directing 127 Hours which will tell the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston. So who is this Ralston and what has he done to garner an entire film? Ralston was 27 and hiking in the Utah wilderness when an accident left him trapped with one arm pinned under a 1,000 pound boulder. After five days of immobility, he made the ultimate sacrifice and tying a tourniquet on his arm, he started to slice away just above his elbow with a dull knife. Ralston eventually cut through and escaped into the wilderness where he was found by a family and eventually rescued by helicopter.

    It sounds like a great story but I’m not sure how this is going to work as a film. A guy trapped under a boulder for 5 days? He can’t move so there’s no exploration of nature, there’s no one to talk to so what’s left? You can only show a guy slowly cutting his arm off for a short period of time before the audience gets bored so what’s left? Ralston talking to himself? Some wicked pain induced trips? I’m not sure but I’m curious to find out.

    127 Hours will start shooting next year for a release in late 2010.

    So who’s going to jump at the opportunity to work with Boyle? The role of Ralston is a good one for a young actor with acting chops or a new comer looking to break into the business. The Variety Blog points to rumours that Ryan Gosling may be in the running for the role and he’d certainly be a good choice. Anyone else care to through a name into the hat?

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