Posts by Brian «
Blowing Your Mind One D at a Time
MEGAMIND (2010/PREVIEW: IN THEATERS 11.5.10) Thanks to my new best friend, the free and awesome Gofobo.com, I have attended several free sneak previews recently, all films of which I knew nothing whatsoever before viewing. This has paid off for me big time, especially for a recent Saturday morning screening of Dreamworks Animation’s upcoming 3D spectacular, Megamind. Holy cow, did I love this movie. And boy was I happy to have missed the film’s ad campaign, whose trailer idiotically gives away most of the film’s many fun plot twists. I heartily recommend you plug yer eyes ‘n’ ears when those suckers come on, and schedule a night at your local cineplex for a 3D DIGITAL PRESENTATION (don’t forget the integral 3D and DIGITAL PRESENTATION parts!) of this delightfully entertaining film.
Let’s just say that the story follows two alien babies, sent by their parents into space via escape pods a la Superman, who both crash land on Earth—one pod gliding directly into the living room of a wealthy family’s Xmas morning mansion, the other crashing disastrously into a prison yard, to be raised collectively by the criminals. The pair eventually grow up to be superhero Metro Man and supervillian Megamind (guess which landed where), whose rivalry plays out amongst the skyscrapers of Metrocity, whose citizens are decidedly gaga over their superhero to the point of erecting a worshipful skyscraper statue/museum in his honor. But let’s stop there—you’ll appreciate this fun thrill ride so much more with an open mind unsullied by preconceived notions. (Unsullied!)
Cross and Farrell go blue.
Megamind is an exhilarating visual experience, and an amazing leap forward in 3D (whether that leap is in technology or application, I’ll let the nerds battle that point out) that left me gape-mouthed and giddy. Remember the first time you looked into a ViewMaster as a kid, and each image looked surreal as hell but every bit as real as the world around you? This film is ALL that, but somehow without overwhelming the story or characters. No small feat! Read more »
Picture Books: Making Movies
MAKING MOVIES (1995/KNOPF) by SIDNEY LUMET Acclaimed director Sidney Lumet prefaces his 1995 insider how-to book on, well, making movies, with a telling anecdote about how he once asked one of his favorite directors, the great Akira Kurosawa, why he’d chosen to frame a shot in a particular way. Kurosawa explained it in the plainest terms possible: If he’d have panned the camera an inch to the left, you’d see the Sony factory; an inch to the right, the airport. Neither belonging in a period movie.
This story sets up Lumet’s book perfectly. Making Movies is a Hollywood tell-all of a variety not often enough seen, devoid of the usual kiss-and-tell, sensationalist twaddle, instead concerning itself with the fascinating(ly tedious) day-to-day process of how a film is created frame by frame. There’s some wonderfully exclusive stuff in here—a step by step detailed lesson explaining coded info on actual daily call sheets from previous Lumet productions, for example—you wouldn’t otherwise get wise to unless you’d find yourself somehow working on an actual set, or perhaps knee-deep (read: $100K+) in film school.
Yes, Lumet wants to make clear, there IS a great amount of chance-taking, inspired artistry in the filmmaking process, but there are also the thousands of tiny decisions that have to be answered NOW, and obstacles popping up left and right (say, a factory and an airport) that a director has to be able to consistently overcome—sometimes via the dreaded compromise—while still somehow maintaining the integrity of this thing to which you’ve dedicated the next year or more of your life.
While Lumet does mine his greatest successes—including Network, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, The Verdict, and Running on Empty—for much of the book’s anecdotal material, he also interestingly focuses on many of his lesser known (or sometimes, just lesser) films, for example, his 1992 Melanie Griffith-led A Stranger Among Us, a film that you totally forgot ever existed, until I just now mentioned it. (Also something you forgot ever existed? Melanie Griffith.) Read more »
Let’s Talk About…Let Me In
LET ME IN (2010/IN THEATERS)
From: Brian
To: Kimberly, Sarah
So, ladies, was this as a big a surprise for you as it was for me? Let Me In totally DIDN’T stink! We should really discuss it. VIA FAKE EMAILS!
First thing, though, let’s acknowledge the amazing film of which this is a remake, the haunting and devastatingly sad 2008 Swedish flick Låt den rätte komma in, released in the US as Let the Right One In. (Hey, who knew that Swedish movie titles aren’t all capitalized like ours? Now YOU do.) Basically it’s a tragic romance between a weird, isolated 12-year-old boy (Owen in Let Me In) and a new girl (Abby in LMI) that moves in next door. Well, she’s a vampire, OF COURSE, and is as isolated and lonely as her new friend. The older man livingwith her, who most assume is her father, is actually her caretaker, in charge of hunting victims, draining their blood into a jug, and bringing it home to the little girl monster. Besides one unfortunate (meant to be?) absurdly comical scene in which a whole mess of CG cats attack a recently made vampire lady, Let the Right One In was a masterpiece of its genre, and one of best films released in 2008, period.
When fans of that film (myself definitely included) heard it was getting a US remake, well grumble grumble grumble. The things that really made it stand out, amazing artfully stark cinematography and knockout performances from the two young Swedish leads, would be completely lost on a US director, right? Well, mostly NOT right at all! (You curmudgeons you!) While the remake doesn’t try to recreate the strangely lit, often gorgeously unreal visuals of the original, director Matt Reeves (of the so-so Cloverfield) has created in Let Me In a world rooted deeper in realism, which benefits the story in a whole new way. And as for the remake’s young lead actors, I adored the original Swedish duo, and was expecting to not accept slick American kid actors (who usually BLOW) in these subtle, dark roles, but I felt Let Me In‘s Kodi Smit-McPhee (last seen in another bleakathon, The Road) and Chloë Grace Moretz (whose turn as Hit-Girl was the only redeeming quality in the otherwise pretty awful Kick-Ass) really handled these challenges like old pros. Read more »
Not As Easy As You’d Think
I would agree!
EASY A (2010/IN THEATERS) I am what you would call an optimist. I choose to believe that things are never as bad as they might seem, and if they are pretty bad, that the worst of it is likely over, and it’s only going to get better from here. While this mindset has served me well for the most part, it has also resulted in my viewing many terrible movies. I always try keep an open mind and not let bad prerelease buzz or internerd word of mouth (uhhhhh, Kimberly) sully my nugget with any preconceived notions that might affect the way I would otherwise naturally respond to a film. While this has worked out for me occasionally (HELLO, The Last Exorcism), it has more often led me to watching my fave Hollyweirdos wallowing in their lesser (read: crap) works. Which brings me to the always charming young actress Emma Stone and her first lead role in Easy A, which, surprise!, kinda sucks. What shocked me even more than how much this film did not work for me was discovering how well reviewed it has been by just about everybody else, which leads me to a sad, inevitable truth: Everybody else is so very dumb. But you can better believe they think just the opposite, smugly sitting back in their luxury cineplex “love seats,” basking in the buttery glow that is recognizing a few arcane references stuffed into an otherwise tired and joyless exercise in “smart” teen comedy. I pity them.
The story follows virgin nobody high school student Olive (Stone, as charming as possible amidst some unfortunate ham-ery) who for no good reason lies to her best friend (who is more unpleasant and mean than the heavy in this story, yet who our heroine STILL wants to be pals with at the end) about sleeping with a college boy, a conversation overheard in the ladies room and passed through the grapevine until Olive is officially considered That Kind of Girl by her gawking classmates. Olive surprises herself by welcoming the attention, and is more than happy to put her new rep to use when a gay classmate (Dan Byrd, showing more heart and depth in his couple of scenes than this thing deserves) asks her to pretend to have sex with him at a crowded party so the bullies will stop picking on him for being a sissy. When that works, and she unintentionally starts a service of sorts where she pretends to have sex with dorks for payment (of gift cards anywhere from Auto Zone to Target), the attention from her classmates turns uglier, spurring a protest from a stock group of Amanda Bynes-led Christian students right outta Central Casting (a la Saved, but without the funny, with the firm exception of Kevin Volchok [!], as awesome here as ever), who make it their mission to rid the school of this tramp. In an act of defiance inspired by her class reading assignment, The Scarlet Letter, Olive decides to respond to this attack by dressing in the tackiest Pussycat Dolls bustiers available, emblazoning upon each a stark red letter “A”. Wait, what? Read more »
Totally Bitchin’ Dead Guys: Leo McCarey & Bing Crosby (Part 2)
Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St Mary's.
THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S (1945/DVD)
While Leo McCarey’s 1945 sequel to his 1944 Best Picture winning Going My Way didn’t rack up the Oscar wins like its predecessor—though it did receive several nominations—The Bells of St. Mary’s is every bit its match as a masterfully told, sweet comic masterpiece.
Bells follows Bing Crosby’s Father O’Malley to a new assignment—taking over at a rundown and fiscally struggling parochial school for an ailing priest who apparently couldn’t hack it living “up to [his] neck in nuns.” The problem with the nuns? Starting with Sister Superior Benedict, played by an Ingrid Bergman that could not possibly appear more beatific, they have their own particular ideas as to how children should be raised, and well, a man in 1945 has other ideas on the subject.
Surprising enough, NOT a dance battle.
For example, when a young male student gets beaten by a playground bully, the student follows a perilous path assigned to him by the nuns—turning his cheek, repeatedly, and being knocked silly for it. When O’Malley seems to brush off the incident, and appears kind of tickled by the bully’s display of masculinity, sister Benedict is (ever so gently) shocked, leading to a few words between them about what makes a man a man, and what a big part defending yourself plays into it. While Benedict still disapproves, she begins to doubt her peacenik ways—resulting in the purchase of a boxing how-to book and teaching the young boy and herself, in full nun gear, how to properly kick some ass. One more woman brought kicking & screaming into the world of rational common sense by a Man, 1944 style. DONE! (Insert wiping hands clean gesture here.) Read more »
Totally Bitchin’ Dead Guys: Leo McCarey & Bing Crosby (Part 1)
Father O'Malley finds that somebody up there (in this tenement) does NOT like him.
GOING MY WAY (1944/DVD) plus (but Not Bitchin’ Whatsover): HOLIDAY INN (1942/DVD)
I had somehow made it thus far without seeing any Bing Crosby movies—until now I’d only known him as the guy who sang “Little Drummer Boy” with his friendly TV neighbor, 1977-via-1982 David Bowie—and as an introduction to his stuff I somehow managed recently to watch three films featuring the crooner/actor in the same night. This was an unintentional marathon—my original intent was just to view director Leo McCarey’s 1944 smash hit Going My Way and its equally popular sequel, 1945’s The Bells of St. Mary’s, both featuring Crosby in the lead role of easygoing, modern (for 1944) Father O’Malley. The DVD I procured of Going My Way just happened to be a double feature edition*, paired with the also very popular Holiday Inn, starring Crosby with his real-life pal/golf buddy Fred Astaire, so after viewing these wonderful McCarey pictures, I figured, hey, I like this “Der Bingle” fella well enough—might as well check out Holiday Inn. Man, was that a bad decision. Holiday Inn. Is. The. Worst. More on that later…
Der Binger REPRESENTS STL, yo! (with Risë Stevens)
McCarey’s charming and sweet-natured 1944 Best Picture winner Going My Way features Crosby in a career (re)defining role that much of the 1944 moviegoing public wasn’t quite ready to see. It sounds silly now, but at the time, Crosby—the playboy crooner and “Road” picture goofball—playing a priest was seen as a blasphemous act. That knee-jerk reaction subsided quickly enough as audiences fell in love with Crosby’s genuine, fits-like-a-glove turn as the gentle, easygoing, and good hearted Father O’Malley, a young priest transferred from his hometown of St. Louis (shout out to the STL Browns, yo!) to a run-down parish in NYC to assist and eventually take over for the aging, very Irish, and cantankerous-on-the-outside Father Fitzgibbon, played by Dublin-born stage actor Barry Fitzgerald in a cherished performance that was (as a honest fluke) nominated for Oscars in both Best Actor AND Best Supporting Actor categories, the latter of which he clinched. (Fun fact: Fitzgerald later accidentally beheaded his Oscar statue while practicing his golf swing in his living room. Thanks, DVD Production Notes!) Read more »
Let’s Talk About…Jennifer’s Body
JENNIFER’S BODY (DVD/2009)
From: Kimberly Faulhaber
To: Brian McClelland
So were you as surprised as I was to actually enjoy this movie? I have been a staunch opponent of Diablo Cody–penned anything over the past few years—I found Juno’s dialogue totally insufferable (though it must be mentioned that the Rushmore-aping direction by Jason Reitman didn’t help), and let’s not even bother discussing the unfun trainwreck that is “The United States of Tara” (even the name pisses me off). I rented this thinking it would be a decent enough treadmill distraction (to qualify, a movie must be pretty to look at and highly mockable or a quick-moving classic) and ended up laughing throughout. Not “at,” but “with”! Cody really dialed back the quippy puns, and I was able to ignore the few she left in because the overall tone was so silly and surreal.
Cohen: LIVE
One-sentence plot summary! Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried) are BFFs who have a falling out that involves the loss of a soul and some boy eating (not in a dirty way). It’s essentially a metaphor for how terribly mean girls (particularly the teenage variety) are to each other—even when they’re besties—and the sexual, competitive, and bullying undercurrents that run through a lot of high school friendships. Jennifer pushes, provokes, and talks down to Needy, and her initial downfall essentially comes because she wants to prove what a tough chick she is by getting into the back of a band’s van. I really like that the sexual-tension-in-friendships aspect is done in a titillating, but not exploitative “girls having pillow fights in their panties” kind of way. It’s a delicate balance, and I think you need to be a truly feminist screenwriter to achieve it believably (not, say, Michael Patrick King or the people who write Amanda Bynes movies). Cody also had a very knowing take on band worship (the scene in which Jennifer falls under the spell of Low Shoulder, a small-time band who are willing to do anything to “be as rich and awesome as that guy from Maroon 5,” looked a little familiar, didn’t it?). Read more »
Let’s Talk About…Cemetery Junction
One guess which is the bad boy.
CEMETERY JUNCTION (DVD/2010)
From: Brian McClelland
To: Kimberly Faulhaber
So, Kim. Did you know that the comic giants that created the original UK version of The Office, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (an actual semigiant at 6’7″!), co-wrote and co-directed a movie this year in their homeland called Cemetery Junction? Well, of course you do, because we are Let’s Talking About it, but until this DVD showed up in a red Netflix envelope last week, I had no idea it existed. So! What were we missing? Not a whole hell of a lot, really. I mean, it’s definitely a movie. It looks and sounds like a very competently made film, you bet. Unfortunately, the film’s content is mostly just a bland rehash of a zillion other coming-of-college-age period flicks with a few grains of Gervais & Merchant’s awkward, dark comedy sprinkled throughout. The biggest problem for me was the casting of some seriously blaaaaaaaaaaaand actors in the story’s romantic core–Christian Cooke as flippy-haired and way too handsome cad-with-a-heart Freddie Taylor and blank canvas Felicity Jones as, well, blank canvas Julie Kendrick. NO! Wait! Julie wants to be a NatGeo photographer. Sorry–these characters are so multidimensional that I’m almost overwhelmed in my understanding of them. Like, Freddie’s best pals Snork, who has an actually pretty hilarious crudely drawn front and back tattoo of a vampire lady and her vampire boobs luring himself (also in the tattoo) through a window, and Bruce, who is angry at the world, but mostly at his dad, who he blames for the departure of his mum way back when. Did you SEE ALL OF THOSE DIMENSIONS I WAS JUST NOW TALKING ABOUT?! Read more »
Machete Don’t Text
C'mere, Spy Kid! I got something to show you.
MACHETE (2010/IN THEATERS) It’s been an agonizingly long wait since director Robert Rodriguez first introduced audiences to this character and his namesake film via one of the “fake” trailers from the 2007 Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino Grindhouse extravaganza. Unlike many of the trailers included in Grindhouse, Machete wasn’t really fake—Rodriguez had written the feature-length script way back in 1993, on the heels of his debut breakout feature El Mariachi, after first meeting and casting star Danny Trejo for 1995′s Desperado. Not being a fan of his too-often joyless mexi-westerns El Mariachi OR Desperado OR Once Upon a Time in Mexico, but a HUGE fan of his first collaboration with QT, the scare-larious killers-on-the-lam/vampire cabaret hybrid From Dusk Till Dawn, it’s too bad that its taken the director so long (and so low, with those terrible Spy Kids sequels and, uh, The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl in 3D) before really finding what he does best—create enthusiastically invigorating cinematic trash of the highest order. (John Waters, I sure do love ya, but your movies do this.) Read more »
Let’s Talk About…Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (IN THEATERS/2010)
BASS BATTLE!
From: Brian McClelland
To: Kimberly Faulhaber
So…Scott Pilgrim vs. the World! Having never been much of a gamer OR or comic book (ha, I called it a comic book, Kim) fan, I wasn’t expecting this film—touted as pretty much targeted to those precise demographics—to connect much with me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Edgar Wright’s third film—following the excellent horror/comedy hybrid Sean of the Dead and the fun but slightly overcooked Michael Bay buddy cop tribute Hot Fuzz—is a hilarious and rollicking good time on par with his smashing debut. I smiled through through every frame of this thing.
Making Canadians cool: Michael Cera and Co. in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Although the irreverent story—taken from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s manga-inspired series of graphic novels (Scott Pilgrim [Michael Cera] must defeat his new love’s seven deadly exes in order to continue dating her. What?)—is very silly and often quirky for the sake of being quirky, Wright’s sharp cast handles O’Malley’s cleverly absurd dialogue masterfully, grounding what is a fantastical premise with ease.
It’s to Wright’s credit that the cast remains in focus here, while inhabiting a hyperspace, visually explosive manga-infused universe. My fave visual element is when Scott’s band plays and their awesome rock power is seen as a visible, tangible element, flying off and over the band into the audience as if bursting forth from some awesome volcanic force. I found the visuals to be consistently and exhilaratingly kinetic without fatiguing my eyes, or my nerves, for that matter. I was pleased it wasn’t released in 3D—with this much action in the frame, it would likely have only served to distract from the quick and witty dialogue and just-quirky-enough performances from this shit hot ensemble of young actors. Read more »
