tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37016191190102543092024-02-19T03:12:52.091-08:00Jessica Has a Movie BlogA Blog for movie reviews, movie commentary, and previews.Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-45756755417645836222012-02-21T13:17:00.000-08:002012-02-21T13:17:59.277-08:00Chico & Rita: Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edfortune.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/lg_chico-and-rita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://edfortune.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/lg_chico-and-rita.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The days of animation resting in the children’s film genre is officially over. Dashing aside all conventions for the “cartoon,” Fernando Trueba’s <em>Chico & Rita</em> transcends its medium with a magically adult and sensual story about relationships, music, culture, and the importance of passion.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The film centers on three characters: Chico (Eman Xor Oña), an aspiring pianist; Rita (Limara Meneses), a singer with an incredible voice; and Havana in the year 1948. When Chico sees Rita performing in a nightclub, he immediately sets his sights on her for his partner in a competition that would bring the musical duo to New York City. Naturally, their partnership extends beyond piano keys and microphones, and their romance must battle the cultural and emotional obstacles characteristic of a classic love story.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rather than being defined by the art, <em>Chico & Rita</em>’s animation and art style (spearheaded by illustrator Javier Mariscal) supports the story beautifully. The objects and characters seem to float through the sketched Havana without gravity, an effect that lends itself to scenes of dancing and music. Rita in particular is gracefully portrayed, a curvy temptress that floats from foot to foot, her body constantly shifting from one shape to another in a demonstration of extraordinarily illustrated femininity.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps the most impressive portrayal, however, is that of the city. The drawn images are remarkably detailed and richly colored. Due to the trembling animation style, the buildings appear to shift and shiver in the background, giving the impression that the city is living, breathing, participating.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">This surrounding sense of color, movement, and energy goes on to support the generally vibrant tone of the film. The melancholy of the couples’ ballads, following in the bolero tradition, juxtaposes perfectly against the city’s frenetic energy. We can see from the calm elegance of their music that their love is something set apart from the hectic lives that exist in the background. The result is a very carefully painted picture that is balanced and engaging.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">That <em>Chico & Rita</em> is a beautiful movie is clear from its opening frames; that it is a good movie is developed through every scene until the very end. While it may not add much to the classic romance formula, it works with the narrative devices that have served so well through history. In the end, it is a wonderful story of desire, both intellectual and physical, and the nature of the world, in which nothing comes easy.</span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-12471878034881431902012-02-21T13:13:00.000-08:002012-02-21T13:13:57.430-08:00Chop: Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.upcoming-movies.com/ashx/WFTCRMImageFetch.aspx?ImageType=PhotoImg%26PhotoName=0399711a-8356-4978-ac8a-59cbee332b0d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://www.upcoming-movies.com/ashx/WFTCRMImageFetch.aspx?ImageType=PhotoImg%26PhotoName=0399711a-8356-4978-ac8a-59cbee332b0d.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Troma Entertainment has by now established an impressive reputation for heedless gore, nudity, and tackiness in the horror genre, so it is no surprise that when Troma royalty like Trent Haaga makes a film, the expectations are high. Sadly, Haaga’s <em>Chop</em> is a lackluster try at the horror comedy trend that fails both to amuse and terrify.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The film centers on the detestable Lance Reed (Will Keenan), an ex-druggie that is tortured and mangled throughout the film by a stranger (Timothy Muskatell) in a vague revenge plot. Lance, it seems, has committed some heinous crime against the stranger, of which he has no recollection. As the stranger, and the viewer, uncover more of Lance’s distasteful past, the stranger chops off more and more of Lance’s expendable limbs.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Playing Lance, Keenan is an over exaggerated clown channeling Robert Downey, Jr. in <em>Kiss Kiss Bang Bang</em>, playing panic, fear, love, disappointment, depression, annoyance and all other emotions in neurotic fast talk that lacks the wit to entertain. It is difficult to determine whether it’s Adam Minarovich’s script or Keenan’s acting that makes Lance so utterly difficult to watch. He is objectively despicable with no charm or intrigue to temper it, and no matter how many ways Keenan can move his eyebrows, nothing can make us care even remotely about the character.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Naturally, if we judged every horror film over its unlikable or badly developed central characters, we’d have to throw the whole genre out the window. Perhaps if <em>Chop</em> supplied something decent to support its genre categorization, we would forgive it for Lance. But instead, <em>Chop</em> misses the mark constantly. As a horror film, it is nearly mislabeled: there is no suspense, no pop out scare tactics, and only one scene of laughable gore. As a comedy, the jokes consistently fail to land, often coming off as trying too hard or simply alienating rather than funny.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Perhaps the greatest error of <em>Chop</em>, however, is its resistance to committing itself too fully to one thing. It seems that Haaga and Keenan, both from Troma backgrounds, have failed to learn the lesson taught by Troma films: when it comes to blood and laughs, more is better. If <em>Chop</em> really committed to the absurdity of its concept -– for instance, if the premise of the movie was simply a man who woke up to find himself missing an appendage every time he fell asleep –- there might be more life in this. If the filmmakers embraced the brutality of its subject, and actually showed some of his limbs getting chopped off, maybe the giddy gore would at least elicit an emotion from the audience.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Instead, <em>Chop</em> doesn’t commit to anything, making it hard for the viewer to commit to even watching the film through to its dissatisfying ending. Movie watchers would do well to skip this in favor of the Troma catalogue for a bloody good time instead of a bloody mess.</span></span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-29631883819673550372012-02-21T13:06:00.000-08:002012-02-21T13:06:53.938-08:00The Innkeepers: Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.sxsw.com/2011/films/F31354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://img.sxsw.com/2011/films/F31354.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The greatest critics of the horror genre will make definitive statements about its reliance on formulas and tropes, cliches and repetition, and cheap tricks to garner gasps and shrieks from the audience. While these observations may be true for most of the Blockbuster hits that will spike adrenaline in theaters, this trend has also given birth to a delightful breed of satirical horror masters. Let it be said that Ti West is royalty among them, and his new film, <em>The Innkeepers</em>, does not disappoint. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Set in a retiring hotel, <em>The Innkeepers</em> is a neat horror package. Skeleton crew of the hotel staff, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are self-fashioned ghost hunters, intent on capturing evidence of a haunting in the Yankee Pedlar Inn’s final days. Naturally, rumors of an apparition related to a death on the property forms a classic origin story for the haunting, and the vast open spaces of the near-empty hotel provide a perfect setting for a suspenseful ghost hunt.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Writer/Director West is not an artist to conjure up tales of unique creativity or edgy insight; instead, he works with the existing tropes, cliches, and repetitions to create something acutely smart and cheeky. Gripping the classic haunting film by its edges, he crinkles it up, adds a few lines, and smooths it out again. The result is charming, and impossibly fresh.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is in no small part due to Claire. Paxton is a child-faced pixie with a petulant attitude. She stomps around the hotel, growling at Luke, flinging her tiny body from one activity to the next like a possessed rag doll. Her comic timing is impeccable, and armed with West’s writing, she is charmingly off type for a horror heroin. Playing against the grumpily aloof Luke, she makes one of the most engaging horror characters ever to grace the screen.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Most of the film consists of following Claire around the hotel as she attempts to contact the ghost and subsequently gets severely “freaked out.” These sequences are full of typical horror scare tricks, with birds flying in faces and clomps and clunks turning out to be harmless tinkering. Yet, the film is not undone by the feeling of phoniness to which these tricks often doom a horror project; instead, they seem like deliberate, playful winks at the audience. Got you, West is saying. And you know he’ll get you next time too.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em>The Innkeepers</em> is a lot more than a few bumps in the night, however. West’s inclusion of home recording techniques and amateur ghost capturing technology is an obvious satire of the trends in horror toward handicam and low-fi. With each one of these sniggers at modern horror, West supplies a throwback scene, reminiscent of campfire scary stories and 80s haunting films that relied on story and tone to draw chills rather than film student gimmicks. Perhaps the greatest appeal of West’s work is that it is visceral, enjoyable, entertaining, and doesn’t give you the impression of degrading your intelligence. He knows exactly what is going on, and so do you.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, this self awareness tends to remind the watcher that this is just a film, and so it fails to lead to anything truly frightening. The spirit as represented doesn’t terrify (in some scenes, it’s unclear as to whether she’s even malevolent), and nothing feels high stakes. But perhaps this film, unlike <em>The House of the Devil</em> and its chilling suspense, or <em>Cabin Fever 2</em> and its revolting gore, is not meant to garner such a physical reaction. Perhaps West aims for something more intellectual with this one. The mind is the most dangerous weapon.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even tongue in cheek, his films continue to delight not just horror fans, but those that desire good story and characters on their screens. In the end, <em>The Innkeepers</em> is a classic and simple formula that yields a charmingly classic and simple result.</span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-47416622794666078002012-01-09T17:17:00.000-08:002012-01-09T17:17:55.266-08:00The Devil Inside: Tie My Right Hand to the Bible<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.ibnlive.in.com/ibnlive/pix/sitepix/01_2012/thedevilinsideboxoffice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://static.ibnlive.in.com/ibnlive/pix/sitepix/01_2012/thedevilinsideboxoffice.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.28275022618344703" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a subcategory of the horror genre, the exorcism film does not have the best reputation. For every </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Exorcist, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there are a dozen </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Posessed</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond the Door</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s. Yet, when done well, there is rarely something as profoundly disturbing as the image of someone in the grips of demonic possession. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Devil Inside </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">combines traditional exorcism tropes with a quick, well written story to provide a deliciously horrifying package; blood, Bible and all. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writer/Director William Brent Bell appears to have an acute understanding of exorcism film’s successful attributes and its traditional flaws. Recycled trademarks like unnaturally contorted bodies, speaking in tongues, and sexual threats are all present in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Devil Inside</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, but they do not feel old or tired. The film also avoids any preachy religious characters, and overly elaborate makeup. Bell brings freshness to the subject by approaching it from a different angle; he does not follow the linear progression of a possession, but rather approaches the subject of possession from a distance and narrows upon several victims through a nonlinear narrative. As a result, the film does not carry the standard exorcism film formula, where the viewer knows exactly when to rest in safe boredom, and when to tense in preparation for the climax.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More important than his approach, however, is Bell’s portrayal of the actual exorcisms. Too frequently in films of demonic possession, there is thematic discussion without satisfying horror scenes to back it up. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Devil Inside </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">does not shy away from its subject; each exorcism and possession is examined in full, grotesque detail. The effects are seamless, careful, and tastefully explicit. One victim breaks her own bones and contorts wildly, as exorcists Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth) attempt to drive out the demon. The scene is disturbingly authentic and the details are obsessively precise. For the first time on screen, exorcism feels real. </span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.images.theweek.com/img/dir_0071/35563_article_main/the-devil-inside-garnered-one-of-the-biggest-january-openings-in-history-bolstering-the-new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.images.theweek.com/img/dir_0071/35563_article_main/the-devil-inside-garnered-one-of-the-biggest-january-openings-in-history-bolstering-the-new.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crowley plays the possessed Maria</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As with so many horror films these days, the storyline appears to take the backseat. In faux-documentary style, the film follows Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade) who travels to Italy to visit her hospitalized mother, Maria (Suzan Crowley) to investigate the truth of an incident from her childhood: Maria viciously murdered three people while they performed an exorcism–on her. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The lackluster story creates more of a foundation upon which to build a study of exorcism than a structure for the film. Emotionally, the viewers become much more entranced with the activities of the cynical priest Ben, and his reluctant partner, David. Their conversations over the morality of performing illegal exorcisms and unravelling the truth behind Maria’s questionable possession are well written and intellectually stimulating, giving the film a feeling of depth that the main storyline doesn’t supply. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With the exception of a particularly cliche “horror movie” ending, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Devil Inside </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is a horror film that will intrigue even the most discerning horror fans, and terrify those less acquainted with the genre’s staples. This one definitely deems a rewatch–but this time, we’ll keep the lights on and the Bible close. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-28761404325644109362011-12-30T00:15:00.000-08:002011-12-30T00:17:29.319-08:00The Jessies: Top Movies of 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="post-meta"><h2><i style="font-weight: normal;"> </i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309" rel="bookmark" title="">THE TOP TEN FILMS OF 2011</a></span><i style="font-weight: normal;"></i></h2><h2><i style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309" rel="bookmark" title=""><br />
</a></i></h2><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blog.schipul.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/SWAMP-blog-movie-seats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="http://blog.schipul.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/SWAMP-blog-movie-seats.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="post-meta"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.moviesonline.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/insidious-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.moviesonline.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/insidious-poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><h3> </h3><h3><a "="" class="post-title" href="http://0/">10. Insidious</a></h3><h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></h3><h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A bit of a wild card in the horror genre, Insidious plays with horror cliches to make a bizarre package. Stemming from a simple haunted house formula, the movie gets wacky fast, in the good way. </span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</span></h3></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDk3amTWsW-nqEKPLKWHDRKwwNwlA6MipXvi5aUHJSJtGgu8MV4Su8vlplGke9E697oLRQdQTzxXuqmfBO0j01oiR6zvmeU0EIDfevmE1RaRw_Tdaj4EfBLmGThD2o2c8cRCh1PuREpV9b/s1600/lightning_mcqueen_in_cars_2-wide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Conan-OBrien-Cant-Stop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Conan-OBrien-Cant-Stop.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">9. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chronicling Conan's Legally Prohibited to Appear on Television comedy tour, this documentary isn't just a catalogue of his funny moments, but also a touching insight into the man behind the hair. As it turns out, he's as hilarious as we all thought; he's also a human being. </span><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read my full <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/portrait-of-artist-conan-documentary.html">review</a>!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/x-men-first-class-movie-poster-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/x-men-first-class-movie-poster-04.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">8. X-Men: First Class</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Welcome to the film that saved superhero movies. Emerging from a slew of tired or simply badly made superhero films (cough, <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/lantern-leaves-moviegoers-green-around.html"><i>Green Lantern</i></a>), X-Men is stylish, smart, and quick. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender have serious chemistry as the young Professor and Magneto. The only problem now is waiting impatiently for them to make another one.</span><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read my full <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/x-hits-spot-first-class-revives.html">review</a>! </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/06/02/article-1393554-0C5FC77B00000578-966_468x716.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/06/02/article-1393554-0C5FC77B00000578-966_468x716.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">7. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perfectly paced through its lengthy runtime, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is everything it should be: exciting, dark, explicit, intriguing, satisfying. Rooney Mara establishes herself as the number one actress to watch with an incredible performance. </span><br />
<h3> </h3><h3> </h3><h3> </h3><h3> </h3><h3> </h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/a-dangerous-method-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/a-dangerous-method-poster.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">6. A Dangerous Method</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A film so smart it deserves several rewatches, A Dangerous Method is carefully intellectual and full of natural drama. Combine this with two of the best actors out there (Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender) and you've got a dream film package. It's refreshing to watch something that doesn't treat you like a child, and dares you to join the characters in intellectual treatise, rather than simply observe.</span><br />
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Read my full <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/dangerous-method-psychoanalyze-this.html">review</a>!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/melancholia-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/melancholia-poster.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">5. Melancholia</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the year's most interesting films, Lars Von Trier brings us depression in the beautiful body of Kirsten Dunst. Thoughtful, subtle and dramatic, and containing some of the best pathetic fallacies I've seen on screen, Melancholia is a rich experience from beginning to end. But let's not skip talking about the beginning, because it's definitely the best film opening this year, maybe ever. Watch it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM6dYVNNg2k">here</a>.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.moviepostershop.com/midnight-in-paris-movie-poster-2011-1020695872.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.moviepostershop.com/midnight-in-paris-movie-poster-2011-1020695872.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">4. Midnight in Paris</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Woody Allen's fiercely witty film, which takes a tour through the history of expats and artists of Paris, is a fantasy in two parts: first, that it bends the rules of reality; second, what creative-minded person doesn't fantasize about getting to meet greats like Hemingway and Picasso? The real trick of the film, though, is Owen Wilson's quick charm and the subtle class of its portrayals. What a surprise, Woody Allen's done it again. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2011/01/britsr1sht13-5x20jan241-1296252551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2011/01/britsr1sht13-5x20jan241-1296252551.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">3. Bridesmaids</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don't know where the concept that women aren't funny began, but this film disproves it. Thanks to this, the rest of the world is now as addicted to Kristen Wiig as I am.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://seat42f.com/images/stories/Movies/Posters/beginners_movie_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://seat42f.com/images/stories/Movies/Posters/beginners_movie_poster.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">2. Beginners</a></h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ewan McGregor makes another fantastic career choice with this indie gem, a story about love in all its forms. Christopher Plummer delights as McGregor's father who comes out of the closet at 75 and dives into gay culture with wide eyes and an open mind. Writer/Director Mike Mills, telling a story close to his heart, frames the film with creative, nonlinear and sometimes irrelevant asides that form a package both heartwarming and mournful, but most of all, beautiful.</span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
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</h3><h3> </h3><h3> </h3><h3> </h3><h3> </h3><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://0/">1. Drive</a></h3><a href="http://static.igossip.com/photos_2/august_2011/3019_drive_poster_header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://static.igossip.com/photos_2/august_2011/3019_drive_poster_header.jpg" width="640" /></a><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
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</h3><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With graceful action, powerhouse actors and one of the best soundtracks ever, Drive leaves your spine tingling and your blood pumping. It's the prettiest adrenaline rush you'll ever experience.</span><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read my full <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/not-equipped-with-airbags-drive-is.html">review</a>! </span><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-66366829520136873522011-12-25T13:40:00.000-08:002011-12-25T13:40:23.852-08:00A Dangerous Method: Psychoanalyze This!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dims3/GLOB/resize/600x600/quality/60/http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2011/12/dangerousmethod-540-1323802068.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dims3/GLOB/resize/600x600/quality/60/http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2011/12/dangerousmethod-540-1323802068.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7295513163477523" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If there is a single academic that can be judged to have the most extensively permeated theories, it must be Sigmund Freud. Perched in an ivory seat of eminence in Vienna in the early 1900’s, his theories on sexuality and its effect on standard human behavior were famed as far as America, and his fervent followers counted among them doctors, academics and patients. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While Freud’s modern day reputation relies upon the diffusion of these theories in academia, the personalities of Freud and his colleagues has also become a great subject to discussion and interest. Freud is recognized to have been, among other things, a cocaine addict, an egotist, and stubbornly fixated on cores of his theories to which he would accept no compromise. He is known to have lost many of the great friends he forged through his work. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is with one of these friendships that David Cronenberg’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Dangerous Method </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">occupies itself. On the eve of World War I, a young Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) treats a hysterical patient, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) with the “talking cure” developed by Freud (Viggo Mortensen). As Jung’s theories advance, he struggles with Freud’s preoccupation with sexuality, with Spielrein’s representation of it, and his own resistance to indulgence. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The film is a tangled mess of conversation and minimal plot, where story advances with subtle slights and shifts of ideas rather than large events or broken dishes. The slow pace is paired with Cronenberg’s perfect intensity to create a precarious, exciting balance. Handsomely mirroring its subject, the blurred line between instinctual indulgence and societal restriction, the filmmaker has created a monster wearing a mask of human courtesy. From the beautiful trimmings of Jung’s well-fashioned house, to the brittle repartee between Freud and Jung in the book-lined studies of Vienna, we can feel something boiling in the background. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For perpetration of such a feeling, Cronenberg could not have cast two better actors as his male leads. In his third beneficial pairing with the director, Mortensen is incredible as Freud. Partially obscured by the theorist’s trademark beard, constantly puffing on a cigar, Mortensen plays his part with an understated intelligence and obstinant self-satisfaction. He simultaneously evokes genius and ignorance. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img2-3.timeinc.net/ew/i/2011/09/08/toronto/A-Dangerous-Method-2_610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://img2-3.timeinc.net/ew/i/2011/09/08/toronto/A-Dangerous-Method-2_610.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Playing off of Mortensen, Fassbender further establishes himself as one of the strongest actors on screen. His Jung is quiet and calm in a deep way. When he rationalizes his marginal choices, we can almost see the decision occurring in his body, as if there were gears shifting into place. Capable of a great magnetism and physicality that might be too large for the character, Fassbender now indicates his ability to step back into himself, to allow his eyes and his forehead to act, to stammer and to weep without ever once overstepping himself. His self-control is a wonder, and perfectly tailored to the cautious Jung. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Knightley is certainly the weakest link among the performers in the film, but for all her visible straining it must be said that she far surpasses anything in her history. Particularly remarkable is her evocation of Sabina in hysteria, writhing and shuddering, forcing out an underbite that seems almost physically impossible. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What the film lacks in conventional plot, it makes up for in its writing. Based off Jon Kerr’s book </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Most Dangerous Method</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> with a script penned by Christopher Hampton, the dialogue doesn’t peddle to ignorants. The fact that the film does not dumb itself down is one of its greatest strengths; it is sweetly inflated, high on its own extraordinary intelligence. When Jung and Freud exchange theories, the viewer does not feel subject to an explanation, but rather witness to an intellectual discussion. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The result of this is that at times, it can be slightly too academic. It is imaginable that less interested viewers will find the film to drag at parts, when discussions heap on other discussions, and the talk of sexuality becomes greater than the actual sexuality in the film. However, for those with an interest in psychology, and terrifically intelligent movies, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Dangerous Method </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is not one to miss. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-636534144105231912011-12-20T18:01:00.000-08:002011-12-20T18:01:50.542-08:00Young Adult: Who Wants to Grow Up, Anyway?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/max_viewable/images/field_images/movie-youngadult.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/max_viewable/images/field_images/movie-youngadult.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7786852710585919" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rarely is a screenwriting debut so full of unique voice and character as Diablo Cody’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Juno, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which opened to great critical praise and cult honorifics in 2007. Now, Cody’s pen brings us a darker, ironically more mature study of growing up in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Young Adult. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If the title isn’t warning enough, this is not a piece exalting subtlety. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Young Adult </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">follows Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), an explicitly childish and unfulfilled woman, visually described in a quiet, sluggish opening that frames Mavis on the gray backdrops of Minneapolis as she attempts the opening chapters of a young adult series she ghostwrites. Theron tinkers around the high rise apartment with a fragile grace, her eyeliner smeared, hair mussed, skin perfect. For a few moments, it feels like a clumsy scene stolen from Todd Haynes’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Safe</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, the obvious pathetic fallacy reflecting Mavis’s mute hollowness. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then, Mavis discovers that her high school flame, Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson), has had a baby. The film shifts gear and switches tone entirely as Mavis swivels her uncanny focus onto returning to her hometown of Mercury, Ohio, and reclaiming her soul mate, no matter the consequences. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is in the process of this pursuit that the film finds its rhythm, largely due to the subtle genius of Patton Oswalt, who plays a crippled, “fat nerd” that knew Mavis in high school, and becomes an unlikely foil to her marginally sociopathic intent. Oswalt, famous for comedic turns on screen and a sharp standup routine, plays his part with a sweetly self-deprecating, puppyish affect. Acting against Theron’s Mavis, all hard angles under layers of mascara, Oswalt demonstrates a charmingly human, rancorous amusement. At times, the repertoire between the actors appears almost competitive; every quip drips with a threat of stealing the scene. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is clear from these exchanges that the film’s most remarkable aspect rests in the performances. Where the humor is lackluster and the narrative arc lacks the conviction to hammer home any of its petty conclusions, Theron is a marvel. Having played serial killers and bubble gum popping teenagers, the actress is by now a seasoned champion on screen. Still, it is rare that we see her flexing so many acting muscles in one film. She is in one scene a coy, flirtatious princess, extraordinarily gorgeous and alluring. In another scene, she is pallid, picking at her hair, anxious, afraid. The issue, then, becomes that Theron is too big for the character. She brings a level of depth and profound insight into a role that is written like a character in a young adult novel. </span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thatfellow.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/young-adult-movie-photo-09.jpg?w=500&h=281" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://thatfellow.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/young-adult-movie-photo-09.jpg?w=500&h=281" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilson shines as one-time dreamboat Buddy Slade.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This effect is visible with the other main players’ roles as well. Patrick Wilson, arguably one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, is incredible as the one-time football star, Buddy. Cody’s script indicates a general disinterest with the Buddy character. Still, Wilson manages to use his face and inflection to an incredible degree, developing an interesting character out of what might have appeared the grownup version of a dumb jock if played solely from the script. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These performances may be partially due to the direction of Jason Reitman (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Up in the Air, Juno)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, who is famous for eliciting great performances. But if we are crediting him for the performances, we must also acknowledge his part in the failures of the film. While individual attributes of the film may be delightful, they come together in a disappointing melting pot of discordant tone and jumpy mood. Where </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Juno </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">successfully accomplished a humorous film with hints at darker themes, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Young Adult </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">gets bogged down in the melancholy. Too frequently, it slips back to the grey feeling of the opening. Add to this the manifold references to Mavis as a “crazy person,” her clear mental dissonance, and the disturbing scenes of her picking hair out of a spot on the back of her head, and the film simply is not funny. It’s sad. And scenes that try to jostle the viewer into laughter feel phony and uncomfortable. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the end, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Young Adult </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is an interesting treatment of the madness perpetrated by unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and the danger of selfish desire. Yet, Cody’s attempt at a more mature subject falls short; not surprisingly, the best lines of dialogue are the theatrical snippets that Mavis witnesses when she overhears teenage girls speaking. Perhaps Cody, like Mavis, isn’t quite ready to grow up. But maybe that isn’t the worst thing, after all. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-29016709609070383642011-11-25T10:13:00.000-08:002011-11-25T10:13:30.288-08:00The Descendants: Trouble in Paradise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/images/content/Hawaii_Oahu_Kauai_Big%20Island_film_Waikiki_movie_beach/MoviePost2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/images/content/Hawaii_Oahu_Kauai_Big%20Island_film_Waikiki_movie_beach/MoviePost2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.3493450602767425" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The danger of a film as well reviewed as Alexander Payne’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Descendants </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is that it cannot, and inevitably will not, live up to the hype. Payne follows up his widely successful </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sideways </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and moderately successful </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cedar Rapids </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">with a middle of the road story that placates rather than delights, and like a jolly rancher, starts out with an intense sweetness that fizzles into a saccharine aftertaste you can’t get out of your mouth. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Descendants </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">follows Matt (George Clooney), a father who struggles to balance the discovery that his comatose wife had been having an affair with the grief of his two young daughters, Alex (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller). Clooney is soft spoken and refreshingly dumpy, strung up in high-waisted slacks and boxy, floral-printed shirts. With his expressive eyes and constantly pursed mouth, Clooney wars with the often stilted dialogue and unfortunate voice-overs to evoke a solitary resignation as he proceeds through Matt’s misfortune. When Clooney delivers the line, “No one wants to do this,” it is one of the only moments that we believe him. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Disappointingly, in an attempt to slip Clooney under the guise of a well-meaning everyman, Payne has effectively erased Clooney’s charm and replaced him with a heap of mediocrity. He may be more likable than previous characters, but he is less interesting, and not even his lush eyelashes can elicit something beyond apathy from the viewer.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img2-3.timeinc.net/ew/i/2011/09/08/the-descendants_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://img2-3.timeinc.net/ew/i/2011/09/08/the-descendants_400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Granted, Clooney is not responsible for the large part of this apathy. The film’s script, penned by four co-writers (which may explain the film’s uneven tone), manages to be simultaneously flippant, ignorant, heavy-handed, and cliche. One would expect more from Jim Rash, of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Community </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">fame, who made up half the writing team with his comedy partner, Nat Paxon; their comedic contributions are invisible behind the melodrama. The jokes that do make it through are largely dad jokes and cheap tricks, like Alex’s stoner friend Sid (Nick Krause), a character that has been recycled so many times it ought to be retired, and Scottie, a ten year old with a penchant for flipping her father off, so overacted that the viewer yearns for Abigail Breslin’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Little Miss Sunshine </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">performance. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet the comedic portions’ failings are epically upstaged by the film school quality voice-over. Clooney audibly struggles to deliver heavy lines like, “My family is like an archipelago.” The film fails to provide any precedent for the voice-over, at times representing it as a memoiric reflection, at others a direct thought from the scene. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Furthermore, the filmmakers made the bizarre choice to set the movie in Hawaii. Most of this implementation feels simply phony, as if it was added in as an afterthought, like the acoustic ukulele that pursues the characters in every non-dialogue scene. It becomes clear through Matt’s narration, however, that this is meant as a clumsy metaphor for family and tragedy, indicating the the persistent tranquility of nature despite human strife, and the destructive reactions of humans to the natural order of things, whether it’s resistance to death, or the desire to develop a nature reserve. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If only Payne had taken another message from the setting and worked on making his film flow and feel more natural. Perhaps then we could walk out of the theater feeling touched, rather than hungry for a trip to the beach. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-74739954813717152552011-10-27T12:32:00.000-07:002011-10-27T12:37:10.324-07:00The Trailer Park: Halloween Edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0cMfs7qQmee7A6kaj33nbyyRd4Q1Pgo7ASQ5dtFiU36lZGBLRDC4QNSagv3L9xV3RKzkio8GT9Zmiim8sSr9Y34SOswuxqDqbo7zsQ0s5izuOvtzu2DZSSwt3lI_-M75aVqbg0ZDs6Q/s1600/Still-from-Atrocious-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0cMfs7qQmee7A6kaj33nbyyRd4Q1Pgo7ASQ5dtFiU36lZGBLRDC4QNSagv3L9xV3RKzkio8GT9Zmiim8sSr9Y34SOswuxqDqbo7zsQ0s5izuOvtzu2DZSSwt3lI_-M75aVqbg0ZDs6Q/s640/Still-from-Atrocious-007.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5525064401156945" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Let’s face it, going to the movies is a game of trick or treat. No matter how fancy the house looks from the outside, you never know until you ring the doorbell whether you’re going to get a please-all Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, a deliciously bizarre Mochi, or a, dud, a, ugh, Almond Joy. Here are some awesome trailers for the expected Snickers of the year in horror films. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f6b26b;">The Devil Inside</span> (January 2012)</span><br />
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<object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OyT7xMPurgw?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OyT7xMPurgw?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I can’t even talk about this movie because it looks so.freaking.good. Yes, most of us learned from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Last Exorcism </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that we shouldn’t judge a film by its exorcism theme, but this includes several promising elements:</span><br />
<ul><li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Freaky jumping out things</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Weird whispering</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Women wearing no makeup in hospital gowns</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Real Footage” but not a full film in handicam</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Done by choosy director William Brent Bell (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stay Alive</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That lip thing with the cross? Awesome.</span></li>
</ul><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Need I say more? Let’s go see it. I’ll bring the popcorn, you bring the holy water.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Atrocious</span> (August 2011 but I’m guessing none of you saw it)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RiJuXTGpFxI?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RiJuXTGpFxI?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I know what you’re thinking. Wahh, so many horror movies ripping off </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Blair Witch Project </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">because that’s the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">first movie ever </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that used a handicam. This movie looks awesome and here’s why: it’s in Spanish, its tagline is “2011’s answer to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Paranormal Activity,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” and that footage looks totally real. In case no one’s noticed, when something works in the horror industry, it tends to stick. Has no one seen one of the first slasher movies? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f9cb9c;"><span style="color: #f6b26b;">The Divide</span> </span>(January 2012)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iaLpieSNIfk?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iaLpieSNIfk?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Post apocalyptic survivors trapped in a bunker get crazy and weird (surprise). Admittedly this looks a lot like one of my favorite horror films (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hole)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and given that comparison, the whole ever-popular post-apocalyptic trope seems a bit unnecessary, but the action at the end promises some bland but surprising imagery and some pretty rad action. Also, who here realized Milo Ventimiglia was still alive?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Filth to Ashes, Flesh to Dust</span> (Technically September 2011, but I haven’t seen it anywhere)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/A2FFVLzN51U?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/A2FFVLzN51U?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have no idea what this movie is about except that there are boobs and the acting style resembles that so beautifully highlighted in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Room</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Sold. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Rare Exports</span> (Christmas)</span><br />
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<object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9RQlikX4vvw?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9RQlikX4vvw?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps you’re wondering how you’re going to spend your Christmas. Let me help you answer that question: watching this.</span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-11716768435373412512011-10-14T12:57:00.000-07:002011-10-14T12:57:26.776-07:00The Cold War: The Thing & Antarctica<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.yellmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mary-Elizabeth-Winstead-The-Thing-prequel-movie-picture-Joel-Edgerton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://www.yellmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mary-Elizabeth-Winstead-The-Thing-prequel-movie-picture-Joel-Edgerton.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.24102872930941188" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The concept of extraterrestrial life has long been of interest to movie-going audiences, and reincarnations of alien lifeforms onscreen have varied from the friendly almond-eyed </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E.T.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to the brutal spider-legged monsters of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cloverfield</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Regardless of the plot, they always ask the same question, What if something is out there? Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr.’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Thing</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> asks another question: What if the Thing is out there?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A prequel to the 1982 Kurt Russel classic, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Thing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">follows a group of scientists and helicopter pilots (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen) that make a startling discovery in the icy wastes near the South Pole. However, celebration doesn’t last long, as they quickly realize that the specimen drudged from the ice is more dangerous than they could have ever imagined. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Director van Heijningen, Jr., whose resume boasts only short film and commercial work, indicates a deft understanding of the requirements for suspense and tension. The pacing of the film is generally tight, and although it accelerates quickly into the action, there is never a sense that the director has lost control of the wheel. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A great part of the suspense is contributed by the original concept. Rarely do alien films pair the Earth’s innate hostility with a violent extraterrestrial presence. Here, while the creature attacks from within, the tundra outside is equally dangerous. Thus the tension is twofold. Where do you go when you cannot stay inside, and you cannot go outside? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And when we say “inside,” we mean inside. The concept of the creature accesses the core of all fear associated with arrival of an alien presence. Rather than creating a simple monster that harries the scientists, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Thing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">imagines a creature that can replicate the cells of a host, living inside the body, masquerading as a human being. Rather than a murderous invasion, this creature attempts to slide into place among us until it strikes. Its intrusion is not exterior, it is into the very cells of the body. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.yellmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mary-Elizabeth-Winstead-The-Thing-prequel-movie-picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.yellmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mary-Elizabeth-Winstead-The-Thing-prequel-movie-picture.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is no doubt that part of the attraction to alien films is that they acknowledge a general human discomfort with the different ,“the other.” While it’s unacceptable to kill the alien presences in our societies, it is perfectly reasonable to torch an alien monster. The fact that the two main characters are Americans further develops this line of thought. Sadly, the film fails to capitalize on the deeper implications of its subject matter, and it ends with more of a fizzle than a spark. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like the alien and its hosts, this film appears to be a fairly standard thriller on the outside, but inside it lacks heart. The characters are not developed, so it is up to the actors to create the unscripted personalities for us. As a result, the relationships are often confusing and inconsistent. As the cast gets slowly picked off, it is unclear who to root for, and no death feels weighty or even very interesting. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the end, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Thing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is a solid film that gives the right amount of jumps and thrills. Still, even with a concept this chilling, the story leaves us numb. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-5403746253973164342011-10-11T12:26:00.000-07:002011-10-11T12:26:28.727-07:00Vote tu, Brute? The Ides of March; a Lesson in Disappointment, Taught by Example<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJdKBGHuwdOsibhVq_WXUGrF-8DIN9IyUj5qXg8X1gwhN02UDPJSVNpZR2-HB3m8vY664Rh9PFYfRKvkNZGxUSl4BJfQ75-eeNvszP5LjgQmbzkj_xNqxkF35Sdet4ZQIFp3wlqO6RQTS/s1600/the_ides_of_march_2011_1000x666_50170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJdKBGHuwdOsibhVq_WXUGrF-8DIN9IyUj5qXg8X1gwhN02UDPJSVNpZR2-HB3m8vY664Rh9PFYfRKvkNZGxUSl4BJfQ75-eeNvszP5LjgQmbzkj_xNqxkF35Sdet4ZQIFp3wlqO6RQTS/s640/the_ides_of_march_2011_1000x666_50170.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the forties, Robert Penn Warren’s novel </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All the King’s Men </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relayed a story of the danger of politics for good men, and the disillusionment delivered by the politically great. Now, George Clooney’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Ides of March </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">attempts to impart the same message. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">March, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">co-written, directed, and starred in by Clooney, follows Steven (Ryan Gosling), an up and coming campaign staffer for Governor Mike Morris’s (Clooney) run for the Democratic primary. Steven finds his ideals challenged when he becomes a pawn in a game of campaign managers (Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman), reporters (Marisa Tomei), and interns (Evan Rachel Wood). </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clooney’s vision is clear and specific, if a bit narrow. Steven, an intelligent and seasoned consultant with an idealistic vision of political potential, is doomed by his own optimism. After years in the business, he believes that Morris is a politician unlike the others. When Duffy, Giamatti’s puffed up rival campaign manager, offers Steven a job, he argues, “I don’t have to play dirty anymore. I’ve got Morris.” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The painting of Steven’s character is handled exceptionally well, and the most intriguing part of the film is the behind-the-scenes look at the campaign. We see Steven as a puppeteer, carefully pulling strings to support his candidate, tip-toeing through the press. The delicacy of politics is the real wonder, and the insight Steven’s role gives the impression of a performance rather than a job. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But this sense of subtlety is quickly lost as the film delves into the supposedly tragic disillusionment of the optimist. Evan Rachel Wood’s Molly, Steven’s love interest with– surprise – a dark secret, seems more like a plot device than a character, and her acting is so reminiscent of high school theater that Gosling appears incapable of playing convincingly off her performance. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqxPihK2CoeSCsv4QogHHNRYo5Lghn7EDlUZyaUsx09cczAuJtWXVVqGMoph5S6_JBCKutqU-nQxLp6iGz486WfUB-LkRlcoM0t6_M9zHeyg_ubldqf58qTdEPy0Vjr0ddpT77Nk3RM1O/s1600/The-Ides-of-March-Clooney-006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqxPihK2CoeSCsv4QogHHNRYo5Lghn7EDlUZyaUsx09cczAuJtWXVVqGMoph5S6_JBCKutqU-nQxLp6iGz486WfUB-LkRlcoM0t6_M9zHeyg_ubldqf58qTdEPy0Vjr0ddpT77Nk3RM1O/s320/The-Ides-of-March-Clooney-006.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aside from the over the top framing of scenes, such as a shot that places Steven lost in thought, silhouetted against a giant American flag, Clooney makes an ill-conceived choice in attempting to draw comparisons by framing scenes in ways that evoke images from organized crime films. While a subtle nod in this direction might be effective, scenes where dark political discussions occur in the shadowy kitchens of local restaurants appear manipulative and phony. Intended to lend the story arc a sense of higher stakes, and justify some of the melodrama, it fails deeply when the sense of danger fizzles out and we are reminded that this is a story of a primary campaign, not a mob takeover.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is Clooney’s greatest mistake. In the end, politics are dramatic in subtle, and often intellectual ways. While the stakes are high, with the campaign and Steven’s career at risk, the fact remains that politics simply are not life and death. By creating a film about politics that chooses cheap tricks over remaining true to the tone and pace of politics, Clooney illustrates an inherent ignorance to his subject. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps what Clooney discovered is that the meat of politics is not screen worthy, or engaging, or dramatic. If the content of a campaign looked like the flashy glitz of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">March</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, then maybe the populace would be more eager to play a role in it. Clooney’s Morris seems more like a preacher than a politician, and while he parrots all the right opinions for the film’s demographic, Morris is simply, too good to be true.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the end, the package leaves the impression of a glossy exterior with little thought behind it. But it does make you wonder, how many more people would turn out to vote if real politics looked this good in a suit? </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-47349904996397087502011-10-04T22:06:00.000-07:002011-10-04T22:06:57.486-07:0050/50: High Times, Low Chances<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaX8X2KYGwExJyGx29DWlqSYj8McrsWoFfcmriFb7qhGAbkw0nMHKOP8p6sddgVP8oJ2xlCMvAjhiJyZ8EvAD8E9P6QCqbDnfcT4SHQ-kFEkV8mhpAnzXLwsjf1KIaVdt5QotM41N_rXCR/s1600/Joseph-Gordon-Levit-Seth-Rogen-50-50-Aug24ne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaX8X2KYGwExJyGx29DWlqSYj8McrsWoFfcmriFb7qhGAbkw0nMHKOP8p6sddgVP8oJ2xlCMvAjhiJyZ8EvAD8E9P6QCqbDnfcT4SHQ-kFEkV8mhpAnzXLwsjf1KIaVdt5QotM41N_rXCR/s640/Joseph-Gordon-Levit-Seth-Rogen-50-50-Aug24ne.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.12079764856025577" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While you may never read it on a prescription pad, the concept that laughter is the best medicine is familiar to most. Jonathan Levine’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50/50 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">proves it with a film that’s half cancer drama, half buddy comedy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inspired by writer Will Reiser’s own experience with illness, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50/50 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tells the story of Adam (Joseph Gordon Levitt), who is diagnosed with spinal cancer at the age of 27. Most of the narrative balances his struggle to accept his chances of survival with the ups and downs of his social support: his best friend, Kyle (Seth Rogen), reluctant girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), overbearing mother (Anjelica Houston), and therapist (Anna Kendrick). </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50/50 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is not a standard illness film following in the footprints of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love and Other Drugs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Walk to Remember</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While Gordon Levitt’s representation of the physical hardship brought on by the cancer and treatment rings true, the movie never gets overly lost in representations of sorrow or anger. Instead, it is chiefly a comedy, choosing to face each new development with a light sense of humor. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is made possible, and inoffensive, by the charms of the lead actors. Gordon Levitt plays Adam’s bitterness and dry humor with reservation, giving the sense of an actor seasoned far beyond his years. Still, he is easily outshone by Rogen, whose heroic Kyle is a Judd Apatow transplant with a heart of gold. Rogen, Reiser’s real life friend, has plenty to call on; the writer attributes some of the film’s best scenes to actual experiences the two shared when Reiser was battling his own cancer. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLuILP_Jk8xPe10jj1K5xqBgblios8Jk3UQckZT5biZ_hdFo1n9LukNy3eehBl94ftrcL97kuNbY2HsiLgAyVvq6GlLskCGv2NSdFatdZOLjYkPcnN4oO46DmVGUX5C4nSRgLZ3wEYoYN2/s1600/2011_50-50_003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLuILP_Jk8xPe10jj1K5xqBgblios8Jk3UQckZT5biZ_hdFo1n9LukNy3eehBl94ftrcL97kuNbY2HsiLgAyVvq6GlLskCGv2NSdFatdZOLjYkPcnN4oO46DmVGUX5C4nSRgLZ3wEYoYN2/s640/2011_50-50_003.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Culturally, most people are fairly accustomed to the concept of illness among the elderly. The establishment of rest homes, retirement villages, and hospice organizations has both removed exposure to affliction and codified a practical and emotional response to it. But what happens when it happens to you, and you’re young, and you have your whole life ahead of you? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the question that Reiser attempts to answer. While the film at times gets tied up in the shadow that Hollywood casts over its head (portraying a one-sided girlfriend, or an unbelievable romantic prospect), Reiser’s answer touches on friendship in a way that the bromance trend is alternately too bawdy or too shy to portray. Adam and Kyle are more like family than friends, and it is the warmth of their interaction much more than any doctor’s words that reminds us that everything will be OK. </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-41247207526683253122011-09-21T17:40:00.000-07:002011-09-21T17:40:02.840-07:00Who Let the Straw Dogs In?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbtNhTkpFRKpajebBCiOvqoay5epjM_W0z_IBKFu6vq7NoIxlA5uwWyjvTWcPM2b94xmgBIhmsQRLa_c-MTe_wKaPFHMg8U0redLw40Kii8MDim_vyJAJi4fwtZjGiy5VKk2BMdJtRrLf/s1600/straw+dogs" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbtNhTkpFRKpajebBCiOvqoay5epjM_W0z_IBKFu6vq7NoIxlA5uwWyjvTWcPM2b94xmgBIhmsQRLa_c-MTe_wKaPFHMg8U0redLw40Kii8MDim_vyJAJi4fwtZjGiy5VKk2BMdJtRrLf/s640/straw+dogs" width="640" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.8760665894299554" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The decision to remake something as controversial and daring as Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Straw Dogs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is risky, to say the least. In Rod Lurie’s updated version of the film, many of the same elements color the screen–the ambiguity of violence, the nature of manhood, the vast cultural difference between urban and rural life–with a few modern additions, creating a thriller sharp as a hunting knife. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The most obvious update to the original formula is that Lurie moves the story from the English countryside to the American south. When Hollywood writer David Sumner (James Marsden) moves with his actress wife, Amy (Kate Bosworth) back to her hometown of Blackwater, Mississippi, he finds the town to be a far cry from Los Angeles. Filled with a first-name basis population that farms its youth for football athletes, then sets them out to pasture as manual laborers, the town could be any plucked from the deep south. A safe haven in the real world, “We all trust each other here,” Amy says. “We don’t even lock our doors.” </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The viewer is smarter, of course, and not only those that know the original story. When David attempts to make a friendly gesture to the friends of Amy’s past by hiring a roofing crew headed by her ex, Charlie (the marvelous Alexander Skarsgård), he gets more than shingles. Tension builds as the crew repeatedly takes advantage of his kindness, and pays particular, uncomfortable attention to Amy.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lurie paces his film fantastically, allowing it to unfold slowly with a careful building disquiet. Blackwater is bathed in a buttery light, and the roofers constantly clothed in autumn colors of red and orange and brown, bent in physical and violent action, from hammering nails to hunting to draining cans of beer. David, instead, is adorned in crisp white, and the only thing he hammers is his keyboard. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0kV31CctuucT-dalSOcv_newzPTUfGnneWbGWia6wwOSi3Y-3dr8Q9G19lN-saFG2TtUzofSQ8FZwPRe2SwSp4MfDvYQ_lqjBmEU8NyVFeI-VYQgsZ4aYFSlpGzjeP4vUQnRaQ0yqVr2/s1600/alexander+skarsgard" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0kV31CctuucT-dalSOcv_newzPTUfGnneWbGWia6wwOSi3Y-3dr8Q9G19lN-saFG2TtUzofSQ8FZwPRe2SwSp4MfDvYQ_lqjBmEU8NyVFeI-VYQgsZ4aYFSlpGzjeP4vUQnRaQ0yqVr2/s320/alexander+skarsgard" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Skarsgård’s is the face of menace. Soft spoken and wearing a consistent, sly smile, he is the epitome of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Taking a break from a very successful role on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">True Blood</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, one might expect a less convincing performance from Skarsgård. Instead, he brings a complicated nature to the character, playing him not as a simple brute, but rather an emotional man possessing a dangerous <span id="goog_1958909215"></span><span id="goog_1958909216"></span>off-kilter sensationalism and sense of entitlement. Bizarrely, until the very end, the viewer is struck by the impression that he is a bad man that means good. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Playing opposite, Bosworth’s wooden Amy is unsatisfying, but Marsden is an inspired choice. The traditional rom-com and superhero star slips into the oblivious and brutal role of David seamlessly, allowing the viewer to simultaneously disagree with and root for him. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By the time the tension escalates to its gory climax, Lurie’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Straw Dogs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is morally black and white. What’s missing here is the controversial ambiguity of the original, where the famous rape scene posed the question: Did she like it? In Lurie’s version, the answer is clear, and in that he misses one of the interesting elements of the original. In a world where manhood can be defined so subjectively, where strength and violence are valued over intelligence and financial success, what other perceptions can be skewed? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The avoidance of a real treatment of the rape is intriguing, and follows a mainstream trend on screen. Where modern film is increasingly explicit with violence, language, and sex, rape remains a taboo subject. This was highlighted recently in criticism of HBO’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Game of Thrones</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, which omitted many of the rapes included in the novels. In general, film rapes are either hinted at or threatened rather than committed; if committed, they are largely off screen. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thus, while Lurie’s version may one-up the original with explicit gore and violence, it loses the controversial nature that horrified and intrigued viewers long after the credits rolled in 1971. Lurie’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Straw Dogs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is a tight, tense thriller that will leave theaters speckled with gnawed off fingernails, but when it’s over, it will send many home to lock their doors, and watch the football game on TV. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-11659047412959754802011-09-16T12:46:00.000-07:002011-09-16T12:46:31.881-07:00Watch Word: September 16, 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="post-meta"><h2><i style="font-weight: normal;"> <a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309" rel="bookmark" title="">What's Hot and What's Not: On Screen This Weekend</a></i></h2><div><br />
</div></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="post-meta"><h3><a "="" class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">STRAW DOGS</a></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBRcKe1B1-pwP8eBlmfUS00bgfAINPegEeVvJnbaxgswwfu4-MvdZsJXpklXbSiVAkAsY1yv-s0ldzk_65orMSjzXk_2EqiVAUdmKROZastjdJlx7FQNw_hjK9C0BLqLPoqI2KRS92_QYF/s1600/Straw-Dogs-is-still-ferocious-TVCSQUF-x-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBRcKe1B1-pwP8eBlmfUS00bgfAINPegEeVvJnbaxgswwfu4-MvdZsJXpklXbSiVAkAsY1yv-s0ldzk_65orMSjzXk_2EqiVAUdmKROZastjdJlx7FQNw_hjK9C0BLqLPoqI2KRS92_QYF/s640/Straw-Dogs-is-still-ferocious-TVCSQUF-x-large.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><h3> </h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9291949906186124" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A remake of Sam Peckinpah’s original psychological thriller, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Straw Dogs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">promises an exciting plunge into rural America with a hint of psychotic violence. The combo of a great cast (Alexander Skarsgard, Kate Bosworth, James Marsden, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Shield</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s fantastic Walton Goggins) and a simple plot–a couple moves to the countryside and falls victim to local harassment and brutality–should create a project with real bite and a profoundly disturbing aftertaste. Skarsgard, in particular, will be a pleasure to watch in a role that lets him fully assume the hostility of his stature and features without any romantic ropes tying him down.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div></div><br />
<div class="post-meta"><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">LION KING 3D</a></h3></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnU_m8gPGfVqIy5aa1599kKnDFoHOoE-VFel49Lhc5M3efIXRUlqabIPIik4yCao6CZgI1NFxlvfKXiw02CglncT5FmtqhMy3dBr8VHEszwYwZSV12pVqd5v0dTDObpuD_d9oWAJYRrG0j/s1600/warrior-tom-hardy-image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAVqVmNWMQ-RqlOc-lps1Bw8o8t3D1MhZbGSn1sbZtQG1RYSAw800yJjNg8mXFnW9sOEbHmdO5_9t6_FY3d_60mwMBPdcay82dxjLdyLlh3kggNJKtwJeMCmu_STwvJpkbOofnxoCRlXp/s1600/the-lion-king-3d-22-6-10-kc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAVqVmNWMQ-RqlOc-lps1Bw8o8t3D1MhZbGSn1sbZtQG1RYSAw800yJjNg8mXFnW9sOEbHmdO5_9t6_FY3d_60mwMBPdcay82dxjLdyLlh3kggNJKtwJeMCmu_STwvJpkbOofnxoCRlXp/s640/the-lion-king-3d-22-6-10-kc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDk3amTWsW-nqEKPLKWHDRKwwNwlA6MipXvi5aUHJSJtGgu8MV4Su8vlplGke9E697oLRQdQTzxXuqmfBO0j01oiR6zvmeU0EIDfevmE1RaRw_Tdaj4EfBLmGThD2o2c8cRCh1PuREpV9b/s1600/lightning_mcqueen_in_cars_2-wide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0OlGEuQ2Nmg26uj4FeMpl_688m_yjGU-eDPQKCGqvO1ddxM1x3EVkIdGhVFmiAk6otalnkkpAY9CJnEcl5RLNK9-pRd_Q9WTmGHu__u5jVphElriYL9yMVOW1MjudtXOtTu98Ztg6Y0Gr/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0OlGEuQ2Nmg26uj4FeMpl_688m_yjGU-eDPQKCGqvO1ddxM1x3EVkIdGhVFmiAk6otalnkkpAY9CJnEcl5RLNK9-pRd_Q9WTmGHu__u5jVphElriYL9yMVOW1MjudtXOtTu98Ztg6Y0Gr/s200/5.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9291949906186124" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For many of today’s young adults, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lion King </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">was the first movie they saw in theaters. At its 1994 release, the animation was crisp and Disney-fied, the songs were hip, and Timon and Pumba, what jokers! Elton John’s soundtrack mainstreamed animation music with the single “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” It. Was. Epic. And now, in 3D! ...If this idea doesn’t get you jumping for joy, you’re not alone. With film releases already oversaturated with 3D and that desk in your drawer brimming with glasses, reanimating something like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lion King </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">seems a little frivolous and perhaps even offensive, like superimposing Hayden Christensen into </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Return of the Jedi. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While 3D might give some of the action scenes a little more dynamic (Hello Mufasa’s death–spoiler alert!), I suspect the quality of the 3D will determine the final reaction. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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<div class="post-meta"><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">DRIVE</a></span></span></h3></div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdXA7vby8snE4CjROF7BYl1-ecFBJZsH5zobF-JB-obKY-5rCtaiI8DC3IKSrSOHeIt1dnOUs3U9A26A9ilg_0_VqoOa89qV0tuYFKf-ZXwcOk21ruv9vngozOGQtQSDc685Fw6lqW9_O/s1600/Ryan_Gosling_Drive_May16newsnea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdXA7vby8snE4CjROF7BYl1-ecFBJZsH5zobF-JB-obKY-5rCtaiI8DC3IKSrSOHeIt1dnOUs3U9A26A9ilg_0_VqoOa89qV0tuYFKf-ZXwcOk21ruv9vngozOGQtQSDc685Fw6lqW9_O/s640/Ryan_Gosling_Drive_May16newsnea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHeGuG4wfWIVuvivs_xWYJpGzPmLwujuRS0ttO7vrYjn7KuPmq6s_PJPrfJy_9KAnUA1vNW0JwqIrXyVao3yrmbUn4_tLxU4lMxjtTRhKoDYfnds3uPTpqC6nHEpIB4mkhx7JNeoetJb7C/s1600/bucky+larson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9291949906186124" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A promising young stuntdriver gets in over his head with an organized crime circuit. <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=eolvdTIBAAA.BoZn7ZYsEkvvs51lKZGXYw.Od-6AbA9Amde2MHbtSmjHw&postId=1857271623075578529&type=POST">Go see it</a>! </span></div><br />
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><div class="post-meta"><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT</a></span></span></h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFicf9_MLBFe7rN-JxI3cdySCJe-JMc1Zi_OHbTjYfi47ljJv2xaydtt8WFcAaXYeIHgWclGSoDv3pB9Ex1OYiq1z4ZIBafGR8wivcDdTM6-oLQZZ56XJUT9i690auuuu59j67vD5VLH2L/s1600/WhereSoldiersComeFrom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHytYu_1NBVFO8fjj_Lp_5U43xs1pejxZXVCF64HRP3sFVvZGaeWKLuucmvd_0uwhj-nd38jhuzJ68eauJUSxfJa_uZj1nwGV-u9IzrdfZaq-k3jdHCQkduGR-RT5nStUyN5v6mVuRZ4o/s1600/sarah+jessica+parker" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHytYu_1NBVFO8fjj_Lp_5U43xs1pejxZXVCF64HRP3sFVvZGaeWKLuucmvd_0uwhj-nd38jhuzJ68eauJUSxfJa_uZj1nwGV-u9IzrdfZaq-k3jdHCQkduGR-RT5nStUyN5v6mVuRZ4o/s640/sarah+jessica+parker" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9291949906186124" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While Sarah Jessica Parker may not have always been the favorite lady on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sex and the City</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, most lovers of the show will squeal at the chance to see the actress on screen again. Most were even willing to forgive her for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did You Hear About the Morgans? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(and let’s face it, for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sex and the City 2)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. But this film might really be pushing it. Casting SJP as a working mom juggling children, a successful career, and all the other stuff women just </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">have </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to do, might be entertaining if SJP can put aside Carrie and assume the new role. But being famous for a woman hated and loved for an acute narcissism may prove difficult training for a moralistic film about priorities. One thing can probably be expected: good shoes. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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</div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-18572716230755785292011-09-16T12:30:00.000-07:002011-09-16T14:12:26.300-07:00Not Equipped with Airbags: Drive is a Violent Romp with a Ton of (Horse)Power Under its Hood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPdZUNVV7IAewvqScgGsceiV6lb3pihc1JuwHdJWvHyH1XB950s8iBqeAT3tQ_w3eu81eBNXC7n8IgQBgI-XlWMpI63gRw6VgTAYiFLoNnvEa_ovICZPkuXeUhzul8wiNa4yvHaZmQQhEd/s1600/Drive-2011-Movie-Image-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPdZUNVV7IAewvqScgGsceiV6lb3pihc1JuwHdJWvHyH1XB950s8iBqeAT3tQ_w3eu81eBNXC7n8IgQBgI-XlWMpI63gRw6VgTAYiFLoNnvEa_ovICZPkuXeUhzul8wiNa4yvHaZmQQhEd/s640/Drive-2011-Movie-Image-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9291949906186124" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is difficult to know how to react when the credits roll after </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drive</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Applause for a tight and generally well crafted film? Disappointment, that the excitement and action has concluded? Or dance, commemorating the film’s fantastic soundtrack? One thing is certain: you’ll walk out with a feeling of contentment and satisfaction rarely awarded by film. Because if there is one thing that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drive </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is, it’s a good movie. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> One of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drive</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s greatest strengths is its commitment to a strong, straightforward plot. The Driver (Ryan Gosling, whose highly anticipated return to the silver screen has not failed to surpass expectations) is employed performing vehicle stunts for Hollywood while moonlighting as getaway wheels for petty criminals and a mechanic at a local garage. The apathetic balance of his life is thrown askew when he gets in over his head with an organized crime circuit. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Having set up this plot line, the film then leaves the plot to essentially solve itself. Instead of preoccupying itself with clever twists or richly layered dialogue, the film steps back to place it in context. Director Nicholas Winding Refn, who most recently directed the spare, stoic Viking drama </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Valhalla Rising</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, allows the Driver’s story to unfold upon the massive backdrop of Los Angeles. This is an alternate universe,existing in quiet dichotomy with the glittery world of Hollywood. The city </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drive </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">portrays is slick pavement, dim streetlights, and shadows. No one speaks because no one needs to. A cracked smile, a blink, that is the currency of communication.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Winding Refn uses Los Angeles as a character in itself. From scenes of sunshine and water in the polluted L.A. River to a tense scene where the Driver uses overpasses to hide from a police helicopter, the geography of Los Angeles is essential to the action and plot development. In particular, the lighting is used purposefully to evoke moods, surging warmth in scenes of romance, and cold whites and glaring reds with violence. The streets are brimming with the sleek forms of cars, and these cars are not the passive vehicles of action from standard film chases; instead they hold the same energy and character as a shuddering stallion. Frequently, the physical actions of the car mirror the Driver’s mood, stopping when he is surprised, accelerating with his rage.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLZ-srxvnluMLjgeSNXXDNGPs3_KhX2lp2yzEls7O1kTmLkZMToYGKpC6M8ZY9_VL8x6qJseDvDfqo3t55gm1Z-nouatDfjbQSY9FRQCr9rzV9kT7Ft2yryuBnAQR0tgfsU_QKUjEYB9Q/s1600/Drive-2011-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLZ-srxvnluMLjgeSNXXDNGPs3_KhX2lp2yzEls7O1kTmLkZMToYGKpC6M8ZY9_VL8x6qJseDvDfqo3t55gm1Z-nouatDfjbQSY9FRQCr9rzV9kT7Ft2yryuBnAQR0tgfsU_QKUjEYB9Q/s320/Drive-2011-007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Winding Refn has chosen two of the A-list’s most expressive faces for his main roles. Gosling has a magnificent control of his facial muscles, and while the Driver is largely stoic and reticent, his softened smiles communicate a shy hopefulness that dialogue might fail to deliver. Similarly, Carey Mulligan, though a stretch to believe as Irene, the wife of a petty criminal, has a seldom delivered smile that consumes her face. As the Driver cautiously grows close to Irene and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), all three exhibit alternately childlike behavior, exuding a sense of ignorance, and innocence, that makes their risk all the more acute when events take a brutal turn. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In at times comedic and villainous roles, Bernie (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman) are bursting with menace while still appearing natural, realistic.The violence in turn is very careful, with tasteful but explicit gore. As the film progresses and the Driver delves deeper into the treacherous waters of Bernie and Nino’s world, the tension gains momentum and accelerates to a fantastic and bloody climax. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But for all its simplicity, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drive </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is not one, long car chase. Underneath all of the blood, the gasoline, and the tire marks, there is an interesting view of Hollywood, and the effects of a world where the artificial lies in bed with the dangerously tangible. The Driver mainstreams as a stunt driver,performing car rollovers like circus tricks. We see the expenses put into the faux-violence, the faux-danger, but what of the cost? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drive </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">shows us what happens when the artificial and the tangible bleed into each other, as the line between film and reality blurs. While the Driver may accomplish a safe rollover on screen, in real life, rollovers and fights and guns end in death. And the good guys don’t always walk away at the end. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This retrospective view of film continues to the last scene, with a Lynchian ending that leaves the viewer guessing, and more importantly, wanting more. One thing’s for sure, if the Driver wants to go for another, we call shotgun. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-35646633533868975842011-09-13T12:57:00.000-07:002011-09-13T13:01:15.248-07:00Don't Touch Anyone: Contagion Shows us that Sharing is Scaring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgudJyXlFBnCpwUV79STtpwcgwcCvsFJKHPu5wkHnxOCZa8dqsRkp_FRDQrVQrvMVLbpPH6p5GLhfDCNuttHiT9xmT50Mk_Mj9U3iErrWei4_wFD46lQxJX3Kzz2jYPFvR00yWmpqiNNZGl/s1600/contagion+1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgudJyXlFBnCpwUV79STtpwcgwcCvsFJKHPu5wkHnxOCZa8dqsRkp_FRDQrVQrvMVLbpPH6p5GLhfDCNuttHiT9xmT50Mk_Mj9U3iErrWei4_wFD46lQxJX3Kzz2jYPFvR00yWmpqiNNZGl/s640/contagion+1" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.3797009469978391" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the landscape of horror, rarely are the scenarios as probable as that presented in Steven Soderbergh’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. While the concept of a brute that wears human skin for clothes and sleeps with his chainsaw is terrifying, and the idea of <a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/dont-be-afraid-of-dark-fairytale-with.html">fairy-like creepers</a> living in the fireplace might make one’s hair stand on end, seldom does something settle in such a quiet cool as the very realistic concept of an epidemic that kills indiscriminately and pushes aside all feeble human defenses. This chilling message is what </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">attempts to communicate, but unfortunately, the film’s message is not as infectious as its subject.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmSrOtKRTgFVKIYH9CRsto6dMaeIoWSjAfWJABzHaWQsFIgDPkWlzPAHMfWoF5Vwz_HU29EtV4umMEd-Iz1hXRinH3-KNk7LZdnLt0aXLfTCi-ZNTKvV6ePlMa1KdtSIRGqCwPCIzgRVe3/s1600/marion+cotillard+" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmSrOtKRTgFVKIYH9CRsto6dMaeIoWSjAfWJABzHaWQsFIgDPkWlzPAHMfWoF5Vwz_HU29EtV4umMEd-Iz1hXRinH3-KNk7LZdnLt0aXLfTCi-ZNTKvV6ePlMa1KdtSIRGqCwPCIzgRVe3/s320/marion+cotillard+" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marion Cotillard takes a turn as an epidemiologist.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">approaches the what-if scenario with a collection of divergent story lines surrounding characters experiencing a devastating epidemic through different cultural and economic lenses. The A-list cast, tempted into the project in part due to the low commitment, is one of the film’s greatest draws, although the film does not supply its actors with much to work with. Gwyneth Paltrow starts the film as Beth Emhoff, the traveling businesswoman that transports the disease to the U.S. Matt Damon plays Mitch Emhoff, a father mourning Beth’s death and devoted to protecting his teenage daughter (Anna Jacoby-Heron). Jude Law is Alan Krumwiede, a “prophetic” blogger that predicts the epidemic’s rise. Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne represent the CDC as they attempt to control the contagion’s spread. Overseas, Marion Cotillard plays an epidemiologist intent on discovering the index patient and tracking the epidemic’s origin. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One would assume that with an ensemble of such time-tested actors, the film’s emotional core would hold the strength. Instead, the actors struggle to pack sensation into largely stale dialogue. While Damon manages to force in some endearing earnestness as he protects his daughter, the other storylines are overshadowed by the vastness of the threat. As a result, many of the twists and jabs–in particular, Law’s cheeky narcissist–smack of phoniness, like a doctor attempting to make a joke while delivering a cancer diagnosis.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps this is because the antagonist of the film is so much more developed and fully realized than any of the characters. The opening of the film shows us the progress of Beth’s succumbing to the disease. Paltrow gives a disturbingly fantastic performance as she experiences brutal seizures at home, and the hospital. There is no question as to how deadly this threat is. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Q7_K-8B8tV6b-9Wieen7T55KwG-cUKsyj7RxN8GNalSI-iKuJCW8uTWpt8uoppTjnA3P91EC2KUYyTuYfUE5lR2j0It6NnmuhoidAOIvMtQWWjVbxpa2RdHaZ8WxEDD8i8mek_yyIw-4/s1600/photo-contagion-contagion-2011-49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Q7_K-8B8tV6b-9Wieen7T55KwG-cUKsyj7RxN8GNalSI-iKuJCW8uTWpt8uoppTjnA3P91EC2KUYyTuYfUE5lR2j0It6NnmuhoidAOIvMtQWWjVbxpa2RdHaZ8WxEDD8i8mek_yyIw-4/s640/photo-contagion-contagion-2011-49.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Still, the film does not go quite far enough. With a PG-13 rating, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">seems to have its hands tied. How can you make a film about widespread death, about the cultural response to this event, without the ability to show corpses in gory detail, to show the survivors in full violent and panicked reaction? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The result is a feeling of suspicion, like that felt while watching news coverage. Clearly, they aren’t showing us the full picture. There are bodies in the back room that we aren’t seeing, and there are children crying somewhere that we can’t hear. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The choice to release the film on the weekend of September 11th’s tenth anniversary is interesting, as it, surely deliberately, pairs the one-time horror of a devastating event that left so many innocents dead with the motiveless brutality of an epidemic. However, this comparison is most felt in the draw of the film; just as millions watched and rewatched video of the planes hitting the Twin Towers, the viewer watched the contagion’s spread not out of personal connection to those affected, but rather out of a recoiling horror and fascination. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s great flaw, then, is that it attempts to combine two films into one. On the one hand, it is an exciting study of a potential scenario that has left the human race devastated, and could do so easily at any time. On the other hand, it is a treatment of the personal tolls–familial, professional, moral, economic–that such an event would take. Unfortunately, it does not successfully meld or juxtapose the two sides, resulting in a project that seems constantly uncomfortable with its current storyline. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The result? Walking out of the theater, viewers may not be filled with the intended cold fear, but they certainly aren’t touching the banister on their way out. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-544743296006247522011-09-09T13:43:00.000-07:002011-09-09T13:43:25.082-07:00The Watch Word: September 9, 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="post-meta"><h2><i style="font-weight: normal;"> <a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309" rel="bookmark" title="">What's Hot and What's Not: On Screen This Weekend</a></i></h2><div><br />
</div></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="post-meta"><h3><a "="" class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">CONTAGION</a></h3><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-TcIyI8wNbkkA1t8I0SN6OL13uwbLnraQX1Sn0FdI39CghBojr93OADx-npNX19QfJPNoptGPIfg88RIlP6w20lzCLRvlG3cX4stCOqalAVO1JbEecms6zX-YC8rSW_uPBODwKAvTRzXX/s1600/contagion+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-TcIyI8wNbkkA1t8I0SN6OL13uwbLnraQX1Sn0FdI39CghBojr93OADx-npNX19QfJPNoptGPIfg88RIlP6w20lzCLRvlG3cX4stCOqalAVO1JbEecms6zX-YC8rSW_uPBODwKAvTRzXX/s640/contagion+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBKf3z8w53-MuaOODKD2UYO-wOUca1OEBpkS_ZPCYEl9K8gACyV-EkohIpo7OB1Kj2AAU5suH4XfntWeUaIQ8sAUYPjU5ThesusQdKK6tNqQ3NnTmA1ORtrbahK-YV2PKX_l02NvCz05X/s1600/bad+teacher+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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</div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.16564596025273204" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As sources of horror go, nothing is quite as profoundly terrifying as the concept of a plague. This is largely rooted in the knowledge that humanity has fallen prey to the devastation of a contagion, such as the Bubonic Plague that is estimated to have wiped out up to 60% of Europe’s population. Now, Steven Soderbergh’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">adapts the horror of an indiscriminate scourge, touching on themes of vulnerability and exposure. No one is safe. With a cast that includes Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneht Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, and Dmetri Martin (what?), this promises to be one hell of a ride to the Doctor’s office.</span></div></div><br />
<div class="post-meta"><h3><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">WARRIOR</a></h3></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnU_m8gPGfVqIy5aa1599kKnDFoHOoE-VFel49Lhc5M3efIXRUlqabIPIik4yCao6CZgI1NFxlvfKXiw02CglncT5FmtqhMy3dBr8VHEszwYwZSV12pVqd5v0dTDObpuD_d9oWAJYRrG0j/s1600/warrior-tom-hardy-image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnU_m8gPGfVqIy5aa1599kKnDFoHOoE-VFel49Lhc5M3efIXRUlqabIPIik4yCao6CZgI1NFxlvfKXiw02CglncT5FmtqhMy3dBr8VHEszwYwZSV12pVqd5v0dTDObpuD_d9oWAJYRrG0j/s640/warrior-tom-hardy-image1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDk3amTWsW-nqEKPLKWHDRKwwNwlA6MipXvi5aUHJSJtGgu8MV4Su8vlplGke9E697oLRQdQTzxXuqmfBO0j01oiR6zvmeU0EIDfevmE1RaRw_Tdaj4EfBLmGThD2o2c8cRCh1PuREpV9b/s1600/lightning_mcqueen_in_cars_2-wide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The fact that viewers are still so obsessed with fighting movies grates on me. If you want to convince me otherwise, you don’t have to explain to me about how it represents a primal state or has high stakes or speaks to something deep inside the human spirit. You just have to pluck that hard-headed brit from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Inception </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and put him on a poster shirtless. Color me interested. Still, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Warrior</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s plot is less than colorful, actually described as an “underdog” story. Perhaps the fact that the film focuses Mixed Martial Arts, a fighting style that centers itself in meditation and body awareness, will give it another dimension. But I think the real core strength of this film will rest on the brawny shoulders of Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton (remember him? From </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Kinky Boots</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">?) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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</div></div><object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bwgG6OfW7Yo?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bwgG6OfW7Yo?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
<div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<div class="post-meta"><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">BUCKY LARSON: BORN TO BE A STAR</a></span></span></h3></div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHeGuG4wfWIVuvivs_xWYJpGzPmLwujuRS0ttO7vrYjn7KuPmq6s_PJPrfJy_9KAnUA1vNW0JwqIrXyVao3yrmbUn4_tLxU4lMxjtTRhKoDYfnds3uPTpqC6nHEpIB4mkhx7JNeoetJb7C/s1600/bucky+larson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHeGuG4wfWIVuvivs_xWYJpGzPmLwujuRS0ttO7vrYjn7KuPmq6s_PJPrfJy_9KAnUA1vNW0JwqIrXyVao3yrmbUn4_tLxU4lMxjtTRhKoDYfnds3uPTpqC6nHEpIB4mkhx7JNeoetJb7C/s640/bucky+larson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At first look, this film appears to be the buck-teethed lovechild of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Boogie Nights </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Happy Gilmore</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. If you think that parentage might put out something a little less than attractive, you’re right. But with parentage like this, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bucky </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is born to be...OK. While the trailer stinks of the “every good part of this movie is in the ads” conundrum, a look at the IMDB page lists character names like Miles Deep and Dick Shadow. If it supplies the right sly wit with its crude humor, it just might be worth $1 to rent it from Redbox in six months.</span></div><br />
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><div class="post-meta"><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="post-title" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3701619119010254309">WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM</a></span></span></h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFicf9_MLBFe7rN-JxI3cdySCJe-JMc1Zi_OHbTjYfi47ljJv2xaydtt8WFcAaXYeIHgWclGSoDv3pB9Ex1OYiq1z4ZIBafGR8wivcDdTM6-oLQZZ56XJUT9i690auuuu59j67vD5VLH2L/s1600/WhereSoldiersComeFrom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFicf9_MLBFe7rN-JxI3cdySCJe-JMc1Zi_OHbTjYfi47ljJv2xaydtt8WFcAaXYeIHgWclGSoDv3pB9Ex1OYiq1z4ZIBafGR8wivcDdTM6-oLQZZ56XJUT9i690auuuu59j67vD5VLH2L/s640/WhereSoldiersComeFrom.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5376317531467937" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This film fest darling is coming to limited theaters this weekend, documenting the journey of a group of friends that enlist in the army in hopes of making money and earning their college tuition, only to discover the real horror of modern war in Afghanistan. With a trailer that combines a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Garden State </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">soundtrack melancholy with grainy images, this already feels like the kind of movie that’s mean to the viewer’s self confidence. A documentary to hurt, and remind. If its laurels say anything, this is worth a watch and a good think sesh. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div><object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gWixLvfef0Y?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gWixLvfef0Y?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-84839972935259626492011-09-01T17:55:00.000-07:002011-09-01T18:02:03.751-07:00The Trailer Park: Like Crazy and More<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQti3MXStqFoJ7t5hBQn-J0nxyuwG1cCQqYAARcZmQc88RDPTFP-0s7qg23LUxr2RcKSrZMRgGTCjxY-ufY5JbKHcr5e6-w8LwbPXwfQV6KaTI6nhceQdPbRkAQcafaGeBBWB7fx7D8taT/s1600/like+crazy" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQti3MXStqFoJ7t5hBQn-J0nxyuwG1cCQqYAARcZmQc88RDPTFP-0s7qg23LUxr2RcKSrZMRgGTCjxY-ufY5JbKHcr5e6-w8LwbPXwfQV6KaTI6nhceQdPbRkAQcafaGeBBWB7fx7D8taT/s640/like+crazy" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.08030461503867137" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like Crazy</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Out 10/28/2011</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This trailer makes me want to cry. It makes everyone want to cry. Life is full of scraped knees, broken hearts, and missed opportunities. So what if it’s a cliche, it’s still true. Don’t deny it. Just cry. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r-ZV-bwZmBw?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r-ZV-bwZmBw?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.08030461503867137" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Straw Dogs</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Out 9/16/2011</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Because just writing “Alexander Skarsgard” over and over again isn’t adequate commentary, I’ll note that this movie is a remake of an original that my boyfriend describes as too good of a movie to remake. This trailer’s got everything it needs to fill seats, with the menace of a film that’s not afraid to break unspoken rules and the casting to back that up. Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard Alexander Skarsgard...</span><br />
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<object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jc2WepwFcWE?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jc2WepwFcWE?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.08030461503867137" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Out 9/9/2011</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contagion has been billed as the ultimate horror movie for the modern world. You can be pretty sure you won’t get mauled by a Great White Shark or attacked by a Vampire that looks like Colin Farrel, but you can’t avoid touching things. Add to that the freaking incredible cast (thank you, Kate Winslet, for coming back), made possible by the fact that each actor had to spend only about 5 days on set, and you’ve got an A-lister germfest even worth forgiving some of the hokiest credits ever seen in a trailer. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4sYSyuuLk5g?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4sYSyuuLk5g?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.08030461503867137" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shark Night 3D </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Out 9/2/2011</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sharks! In a lake! “This is insane! It’s a lake!”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Nuff said. </span><br />
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<object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uXo_SAgz0cc?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uXo_SAgz0cc?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.08030461503867137" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Atrocious</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Technically out 8/17/2011, hopefully in theaters nearby soon!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cue whining about how it’s just a remake of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Blair Witch Project. Atrocious </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is billed as “2011’s Answer to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Paranormal Activity,”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and it appears to have all the necessary traits and more. That means gritty, shaky handicam, haunted house evidence, and a few teasing shots of blood, blood, blood. There’s a reason they keep remaking </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Blair Witch Project</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, it’s because it work...ed. And it will work again. Maybe this time. Maybe. </span><br />
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<object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RiJuXTGpFxI?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RiJuXTGpFxI?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.08030461503867137" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Thing</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Out 10/14/2011</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This snowy horror has all the trademarks of blockbuster horror that won’t quite deliver on its promise. Still, the icy isolation worked as a suspense technique in that one X-Files episodes, and I want to believe it will work again. </span><br />
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</div><object height="345" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UKjErC2JLQc?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UKjErC2JLQc?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-35438313487329781992011-08-31T12:41:00.000-07:002011-09-09T14:09:46.718-07:00Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: A Fairytale with Teeth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKR6XvG02n3Snoqf2iqX68K_YdgZhv66AgFynUQtE7mD8e-SWYOFt5ZYrSHcIZvMHOSstoY7oHpK3JDrpu269_KidSx7m8MHzoEBdaHJ1mFLMyMtFGMDIi7QgAIOTZ8tnyu3y1WbCy5f84/s1600/dont-be-afraid-of-the-dark-remake-creature-goblin-fairy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKR6XvG02n3Snoqf2iqX68K_YdgZhv66AgFynUQtE7mD8e-SWYOFt5ZYrSHcIZvMHOSstoY7oHpK3JDrpu269_KidSx7m8MHzoEBdaHJ1mFLMyMtFGMDIi7QgAIOTZ8tnyu3y1WbCy5f84/s640/dont-be-afraid-of-the-dark-remake-creature-goblin-fairy.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.8782988747599814" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Guillermo del Toro has by now established himself as the master of the child horror-fantasy. His work–ranging from the brittle-cruel fairytale of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pan’s Labyrinth </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to the haunting ghost story behind </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Devil's Backbone</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">–is a ranging study of children’s unique potential to experience both horror and magic, enabled by an innate sense of wonder and lack of fear. Now, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">adds another to his examination.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">may be billed as a remake, but it takes dozens of charming liberties from its 1973 original. Del Toro’s version follows Sally (Bailee Madison), a young girl sent to live with her estranged father, Alex (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend, Kim (Katie Holmes). Alex and Kim are at work restoring the Blackwood Mansion, a towering structure of brick and dark wood trimmings. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Del Toro, who produced and co-wrote the film, arranges everything very carefully, so that the details of the house, the sounds, the lighting, all seem to drip with his influence. This movie possesses at times the haunting quietness of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Devil’s Backbone, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">at times the revolting horror of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Orphanage, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and yet it is unlike any of its predecessors alone. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is marvelously polished, with hardly a misstep. Rarely does a filmmaker take an original and create a remake that is so clearly his own. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In part, this is due to his selection of fantastic and unconventional actors. Most notably, Madison is a twelve-year-old powerhouse. As Sally explores the house and, discovering its otherwordly inhabitants, tries to befriend them rather than escape, Madison is full of chastened curiosity and a struggle against emotion. The film aids her in that it does not try to make her cute, or give her charmingly childish things to say, or create jokes out of her youth. It instead leaves her alone to cry, to scream, to express her acute vulnerability. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3r2eq6M8_HjQa66MLogC1x_aezPQUMQWg83kJ-vpJzEleDFYF70XFWMC29p-V7wIpW3GdPvrQ4Rqwo9L78iBst4z5F8py80RptZdI8Y86gKt0_A9f95TKUq2rBvP5tEX42aXUWV8GOBe/s1600/dont_be_afraid_of_the_dark_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3r2eq6M8_HjQa66MLogC1x_aezPQUMQWg83kJ-vpJzEleDFYF70XFWMC29p-V7wIpW3GdPvrQ4Rqwo9L78iBst4z5F8py80RptZdI8Y86gKt0_A9f95TKUq2rBvP5tEX42aXUWV8GOBe/s320/dont_be_afraid_of_the_dark_01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holmes returns to the screen as Kim</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The fact that Sally is actually in danger is never in doubt. Del Toro has killed children before in his narratives, and he is not a filmmaker who capitulates to Hollywood taboos. His choice of Holmes and Pearce as Sally’s adult allies is both unconventional and effective. Holmes casts aside her off-screen tabloid history to play Kim as likable, intelligent and wonderfully dressed (though one wonders how much of her acting is informed by personal experience). Pearce, whose resume boasts primarily sci-fi and action films, is spot on as a disconnected and preoccupied father who juggles familial and career obligations, and surprisingly delivers some of the film’s only jokes. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">However, the film really owes itself to del Toro’s formula. Aside from making a beautifully crafted film, he also defeats the most common downfall of the modern horror movie: the fact that the idiocy of the heroin is the driving force behind the plot, a trend that Neve Campbell’s Sideny Prescott describes as “some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door.” By placing a child in this role, the film adjusts. There is plenty of the “Don’t go in there!” reaction, but the viewer forgives Sally for wandering into the basement, for looking under the bed. Rather than stupidity, we see that the film is driven by wonder, and it rings far truer than a heroine that manages to stumble and fall four times while being pursued, or one who never, ever remembers to pick up the gun.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But perhaps this wonder ought to be turned on del Toro, whose vision becomes more clear with each film he makes. As a group of films, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pan’s Labyrinth, The Orphanage, The Devil’s Backbone, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> form an inspiring and penetrating examination of the power of young imagination, and the danger of committing oneself too much to fantasy. Chiefly, what del Toro recognizes is the profundity of the darkness which exists in the human mind, and the ability of children to access this darkness without the fear that has been conditioned in adults. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While often marketed as horror films, they are in fact grisly fairy tales with the sort of unhappy endings that will creep on a viewer long after the lights come up. Don’t be surprised if you feel relieved when you walk out of the theater. Maybe everyone should be a little afraid of the dark. </span></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-27541971224967324362011-08-22T22:38:00.000-07:002011-08-22T22:38:00.449-07:00Fright Night 3D: Night of the Living Dud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVlsLIXUBltmjra87NwURcgHjJetAvtMuuZhC562aDKQKTVx0bQWaeMVrUXWMLiyK2FVQ-adeQl_vsxhf03GodcGh81qEfkCEOung6ve3-MU8RB7lxhx5VA8hccWVA1rnE7vQOXgog5_e/s1600/fright+night+3d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVlsLIXUBltmjra87NwURcgHjJetAvtMuuZhC562aDKQKTVx0bQWaeMVrUXWMLiyK2FVQ-adeQl_vsxhf03GodcGh81qEfkCEOung6ve3-MU8RB7lxhx5VA8hccWVA1rnE7vQOXgog5_e/s640/fright+night+3d.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5855651902966201" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The popularity of Vampires of late has given birth to dozens of creative and exciting reinventions of the original lore. The vampire is no longer the accented Dracula of legend; instead he or she is by turns a shimmering statue, a Viking, a distorted inhuman creature, and a child. Sometimes the vampire needs an invitation, sometimes it does not. Sometimes its death leaves it in dust, other times in bloody goop. The one thing that the vampire trend has not revisited in mass amounts is the landscape of campy, gory indulgence: the “Campire” flick. Now, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fright Night </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">poses a remake intended to resurrect the “Campire” film, and instead puts the last nail in its coffin.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fright Night </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">follows Charley (Anton Yelchin), a newly-popular high school student living in a subdivision just outside of Las Vegas, whose life is turned upside down when a vampire named Jerry (Colin Farrel) moves in next door. Yelchin’s Charley is flanked with a limited cast of do-gooders: his single mother (Toni Collette), his girlfriend (Imogen Poots), and his one-time best friend (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, better known as McLovin of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Superbad</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where the 1985 film was a surprise hit and well received critically, still maintaining a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, the 2011 remake doesn’t take advantage of the inherent camp of the genre to produce something enjoyable. The strength in the “Campire” genre, as with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lost Boys</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is the self-referential acknowledgement of the film’s location in the less than masterpiece. This gives the genre permission to take liberties with things that more discerning films avoid – cheesy one liners, excessive and fake gore, ridiculous turns of plot, and general tongue-in-cheek depravity.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fright Night </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is strangely muted. Farrel, evidently trying to reinvent his image with character roles like the coke fiend boss he played in July’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Horrible Bosses, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">strains in the role of Jerry. The vampire, written to come off as smooth and somewhat absurd, instead appears vacant and peculiar. Farrel appears to think that he can communicate otherwordliness by refusing to focus his eyes at any moment, and so his pupils roam through every scene, like he is trying to read cue cards worn by moving camera men. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGX9jYGqwY-isVXikghWUcKb05f5TZYg0Czg4KpI9rc1GAC21JP3S6hTwXAvvkVwrhXv1yxPmgGeR635kqUsqNagDRkRE6Xm9tQw5e9OcKjSm_-6HxE4xvNVfo6xretjLJztILw-4005SB/s1600/Fright_Night_3D_68395_Medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGX9jYGqwY-isVXikghWUcKb05f5TZYg0Czg4KpI9rc1GAC21JP3S6hTwXAvvkVwrhXv1yxPmgGeR635kqUsqNagDRkRE6Xm9tQw5e9OcKjSm_-6HxE4xvNVfo6xretjLJztILw-4005SB/s640/Fright_Night_3D_68395_Medium.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Farrel is not the only one visibly struggling with their role. The character of Charley isn’t a stretch for Yelchin, who has made his name playing earnest yet neurotic teens. However, his performance seems to be a battle against the material. Collette, whose comedic ability cannot be critiqued, also fails to land any of her jokes. Their interaction feels stilted, unnatural, and all of the emotional cues fall flat. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the exception of David Tennant, who plays a phony performing illusionist in a delightful role that involves makeup, leather pants, and fake facial hair, all of the actors fall prey to the script’s inadequacy. Even Mintz-Plasse, whose role seems deliberately reminiscent of the much-loved McLovin, doesn’t manage to bring life to his character’s allotment of tired jokes. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One would assume that a Campire script penned by </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Buffy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> alum Marti Noxon would be on the mark at every turn, but instead, Noxon appears to have lost her touch. Where there are some instances of Buffy wit hovering around, for the most part the script is uninspired and lacks the creative drive to power the story toward any meaningful or interesting conclusion.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to this sense of creative apathy, the 3D effects are both unnecessary and poorly executed. For the most part, the 3D is utilized only to make counters look more prominent, or enhance the effect of explosions. Granted, this complaint is levelled against many of the new 3D releases; however, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fright Night</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> stands out due to its clear low quality. In any of the scenes involving night time or shadows, the resolution is blurry and appears hazy, with no definition. There are times that faces areall but unrecognizable, and action is unclear due to the murky effects. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fright Night </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is not the first to fail in a remake, but it is the first with sucha noticeable metaphor for the danger in reviving the dead. In the end, the film communicates an effective message: some things are better left alone. Let sleeping vampires lie. </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-78735083496448885902011-08-14T21:06:00.000-07:002011-08-14T22:49:36.664-07:0030 Minutes or Less: The Heist with a Heart of Gold<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jv1sFARGqtHpRjUjxFCaBkNSiRMSh_eGchAjkASFmAWm1KLi_hoElpdz32BjvO7oFk4UTPOV02KDMLI1M0uGQj56KD5rC0dR9erXAADqY5fBwLTt0hQFqTFhVqJd-nlrI5ZtPplVTjgR/s1600/30+minutes+or+less.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jv1sFARGqtHpRjUjxFCaBkNSiRMSh_eGchAjkASFmAWm1KLi_hoElpdz32BjvO7oFk4UTPOV02KDMLI1M0uGQj56KD5rC0dR9erXAADqY5fBwLTt0hQFqTFhVqJd-nlrI5ZtPplVTjgR/s640/30+minutes+or+less.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.27186666266061366" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The age of the misfit comedy has officially begun. A visit to the theater shows the most promising trailers to lie in the hands of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Freaks and Geeks </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">royalty, writers of razor sharp wit, and producers hailing from beloved titles like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Superbad. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, in a landscape of hilarious “offbeat” comedies, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 Minutes or Less </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hardly skips a beat.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 Minutes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">follows Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), an everyman-boy who spends his time delivering pizzas and crushing on the sister (</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dilshad Vadsaria) of his best friend, Chet (Aziz Asnari). Starting out with all the hallmarks of a buddy comedy, from badly coordinated fighting to hurling profanity-laden insults at each other, the film pulls a 180 when two amateur criminals, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson) strap a bomb onto Nick’s chest and instruct him to rob a bank in the next 10 hours.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesse Eisenberg, selected previously in director Ruben Fleischer’s </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zombieland,</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a careful and deliberate choice. Eisenberg, who received an Oscar nod for his role in </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Social Network</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is at home as the narcissistic and wryly witty Nick. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 Minutes </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gives him the opportunity to exercise his asshole muscles more extensively than his role in </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zombieland</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and the effect is simultaneously funny and endearing. Eisenberg has a unique talent for switching from the self absorbed cruelty of the standard young man to a cautious vulnerability that is so authentic, it is impossible to not be taken in by his characters. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At opposite, Aziz Asnari gets most of the film’s funny, portraying his character with a theatricality that, while at times breaking the fourth wall with the feeling of a stand-up routine, is also the greatest comedic strength of the film. In comparison, Eisenberg at times fails to carry his end, and their banter sometimes leans too heavily on Asnari’s comedic strength. However, even with a bit of overacting from Asnari, the jokes are predominantly successful and the witty and fast-paced script picks up any necessary slack. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXUMlIbODuoQzzyy6e7yY8G5QH1GaTCbXnliO9JdqPxN_RbzSOEgSEWD85qRUshlinqJj1OJidzKR62M7vkZ1SqlsXwYMXq3w_cnX-rm9Nx8ZrjghG_O17FLSKNL8BeTUxCMO4j6SRvx4/s1600/30+minutes+or+less+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXUMlIbODuoQzzyy6e7yY8G5QH1GaTCbXnliO9JdqPxN_RbzSOEgSEWD85qRUshlinqJj1OJidzKR62M7vkZ1SqlsXwYMXq3w_cnX-rm9Nx8ZrjghG_O17FLSKNL8BeTUxCMO4j6SRvx4/s320/30+minutes+or+less+2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The film’s villains are worth noting as well for their more low-brow style of humor. As two rednecks, McBride and Swardson are in their element. In comparison to Nick and Chet, the two criminals’ interaction seems a bit </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">slow and lacking in the cracking wit; however, the juxtaposition of the laughs creates a well-rounded film with jokes for fans of all comedy types. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fleischer has showed himself to be very skilled at making humorous films that not only lampoon a genre (such as the Zombie flick, or now, the heist movie), but also use the tools of that genre to construct a surprisingly effective film in its own right. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 Minutes </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">functions perfectly as another offbeat bromance with bite, but it is also simply a good movie about robbing a bank–something that cannot be said about many films.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And that is what </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 Minutes </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f5; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is. Some bank robbers just have more fun. </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-3076734836094988862011-08-14T16:05:00.000-07:002011-08-14T16:05:37.206-07:00Uncanny Valley of the Apes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SIVrtN1i0b2s-wy-N9s7n1HJpPR6vnWkzUS3vmW5n5Wqzhi8lBkVfXLCQZp7Jh8B3DRIEt2LBfFct0VsCAYSEsbMRD3j3L5HVtWaLtz8sokMnMIoRYh3UkPAeKvCQOgyT-QxSmar4V6K/s1600/rise+of+the+planet+of+the+apes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SIVrtN1i0b2s-wy-N9s7n1HJpPR6vnWkzUS3vmW5n5Wqzhi8lBkVfXLCQZp7Jh8B3DRIEt2LBfFct0VsCAYSEsbMRD3j3L5HVtWaLtz8sokMnMIoRYh3UkPAeKvCQOgyT-QxSmar4V6K/s640/rise+of+the+planet+of+the+apes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.6981643792241812" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those familiar with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Planet of the Apes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in its 1968 original appearance will remember a distant planet populated entirely by a civilization of fully sentient, creepily humanoid apes. Now, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rise of the Planet of the Apes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reboots the original series with a leading backstory that just may mean it’s time to stop monkeying around on Earth. (Hey, they’re not monkeys, they’re apes!) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to director Rupert Wyatt, the film, which does not fit into </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Planet of the Apes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">continuity, is intended as mythology, and functions as “primarily a prequel to the 1968 film.” This means, you won’t see any fully articulate apes wearing armor. Instead, the film follows scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) in his attempt to find “the cure for Alzheimer's.” Motivated by a desire to help his deteriorating father, Charles (John Lithgow), Will develops a retrovirus that rebuilds damaged braincells and–in healthy chimps–actually serves to develop and enhance intelligence.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXmGOHMNZ16r16zlQI2WypTZXK2ztru4Ftk6E6jBhubs3479E7yAnduxAGyraujBWOKWdX3YGAuHpC12h-c7oDOHHrTzt7VwzQu9HlRPyqYlbcE2YK4sjae6y2KLY4PIDnE572RYL4Dg-Q/s1600/caesar+planet+of+the+apes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXmGOHMNZ16r16zlQI2WypTZXK2ztru4Ftk6E6jBhubs3479E7yAnduxAGyraujBWOKWdX3YGAuHpC12h-c7oDOHHrTzt7VwzQu9HlRPyqYlbcE2YK4sjae6y2KLY4PIDnE572RYL4Dg-Q/s640/caesar+planet+of+the+apes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This latter effect becomes apparent with the introduction of Caesar (Andy Serkis), a chimp that Will rescues from the lab and raises with his father. The majority of the film occupies itself with Caesar’s origin story, splicing charming scenes of the ape swinging around the house with hints of dissatisfaction and aspiration for more than the role of a “pet.” The first half of the film s could have been clipped directly from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim_Chimpsky">Project Nim</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rather than function as the foundation for what has been billed as an action movie. The story progresses, at times, painfully slowly. While Lithgow manages some remarkable chemistry with a character that is largely CGI, watching them interact for an hour becomes repetitive and boring. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The scenes most lacking in human emotion are those, naturally, that involve the ape ensemble. With the exception of scenes where the apes sign to each other, their interaction lacks the clarity to be clearly interesting. While watching apes in a zoo as they play or challenge each other can entertain, these apes are animated in a bizarrely humanoid way, and makes the uncanny valley effect uncomfortably prominent. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The greatest disappointment of the film, however, is the lack of action and actual confrontation. With such a title and the mythology of the series, confrontation is to be expected. However, the film waits until the last twenty minutes to offer any real action, and there the violence is unsatisfying and shy, where explosions happen but no one ever dies. In the end, the film follows the environmental track of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fern Gully </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more than the traditional content of the series. Where fans of the original may be filled with the warmth of nostalgia at the film, this is more of a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Forest of the Apes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">than the promise of the scope of the original </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Planet. </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-63478700717817145322011-08-10T18:52:00.000-07:002011-08-10T18:52:20.171-07:00Crazy, Stupid, Love is a Battlefield, with Cocktails<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEjbqTmFc73TVKxCf1Ki792sXmWzqXh03NrwpsUAaFq5Ufb3FqSpr8fbuyAS74exmD1sQC-bxqpweJJ8qqRnDfRjtAitCIErMhmtRKeD5uthdzbVaSIYIaAqdR0REjbjLiz6fXdzEZPOk8/s1600/Crazy-Stupid-Love-movie-image-Steve-Carell-Ryan-Gosling-2-600x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEjbqTmFc73TVKxCf1Ki792sXmWzqXh03NrwpsUAaFq5Ufb3FqSpr8fbuyAS74exmD1sQC-bxqpweJJ8qqRnDfRjtAitCIErMhmtRKeD5uthdzbVaSIYIaAqdR0REjbjLiz6fXdzEZPOk8/s640/Crazy-Stupid-Love-movie-image-Steve-Carell-Ryan-Gosling-2-600x400.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5599203463643789" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the forties, the American family was established with the concept of the “Nuclear Family.” Two smiling parents were joined by two smiling children. Now, with a divorce rate that sees half of all marriages broken, the American family looks quite a bit different, and Love is a whole new game. A </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crazy, Stupid, Love </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">game. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crazy, Stupid, Love </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is the story of a divorce, and the reactions that follow. Cal (Steve Carell) is a standard guy wearing oversize stonewashed jeans and baggy pastel-colored polo shirts. When his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore) asks for a divorce, it comes as a surprise. Cal’s downward spiral is intercepted by the tomcat Jacob (Ryan Gosling), whose womanizing methods and collection of beautifully tailored suits is meant to cure Cal’s romantic woes.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of what the film sets in front of its viewers is the same saccharin feel-good formula of a standard romantic comedy. However, it fleshes out the sometimes unimaginative script with a fantastic cast. Carell plays Cal with a poignant sadness bordering on mania. It is refreshing to see him take on a role with a more dramatic undercurrent, where the annoying ticks he develops in comedies appear more like attributes of a fully developed character. He manages to deliver his jokes here with a wry humor that doesn’t reach his eyes.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The film’s other standout quality is the relationship between Cal and his mentor. Gosling sheds his quirky loner M.O. (see </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Notebook, Blue Valentine)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for a surprisingly masculine role as Jacob, who prowls the night scene and takes home women nightly with a collection of charming witticisms. His wardrobe should be listed as a character in the film, as tongue-in-cheek body shots take up a sizable chunk of the film. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is not surprising that his chemistry with Hannah (the magnetic Emma Stone) becomes the most attractive part of the film. Stone, playing a young lawyer with a history of “PG-13” relationships, uses her fresh face and husky voice to their full potential. The best scene by far in the film involves Stone and Gosling in a of cracking banter and organic laughter. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite the two actors’ delightful charisma, the attention given to their new “love” cheapens the film’s message. Where Cal and Emily’s more mature relationship groans and weeps with age, the film seems afraid to fully embrace the melancholy of its subject. As if to numb the pain, it throws the Hannah and Jacob pair into the equation, paying homage to the womanizer myth, which tells women to seek out men like Jacob under the illusion that, while he may treat women worse than his finely pressed shirts, his behavior will change when he meets the right one. While the film attempts to establish Cal’s accordance with Jacob as something that is good for his confidence but finally only serves to give him perspective, the glorification of Jacob’s new romance negates this message, instead calling the viewer’s attention to the new, young, and flashy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the end, a film that could have been great, based upon a talented cast and touching on important concepts, unravels itself into the newest attempt at </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garden State </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(and a straining attempt at the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garden State </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">soundtrack). While Cal’s account is poignant from afar, you’d have to be crazy and stupid to believe in this mediocre love story.</span></div></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-41768139723995024982011-08-03T12:07:00.000-07:002011-08-03T12:08:31.703-07:00Cowboys and Aliens Conquers the Last Frontier<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5x1BIj9U0ZcXnqxzp6HXYhGdkzXETy7iP1dgCgVSFY65caX86uVupd2sOAuxKGEUN_q8EkH4AO3AfsowoHtofneezRTwspS-eHKmsVP-g4eEt0vZWGVyqTytbtnBbUG7Mgmx0zioG2QD/s1600/dp246005.sJPG_900_540_0_95_1_50_50.sJPG.sJPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5x1BIj9U0ZcXnqxzp6HXYhGdkzXETy7iP1dgCgVSFY65caX86uVupd2sOAuxKGEUN_q8EkH4AO3AfsowoHtofneezRTwspS-eHKmsVP-g4eEt0vZWGVyqTytbtnBbUG7Mgmx0zioG2QD/s640/dp246005.sJPG_900_540_0_95_1_50_50.sJPG.sJPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.33143468643538654" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a genre, the Western is fairly straightforward. Whether it’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Assassination of Jesse James</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the formula is plain. There’s the saloon. The duel at dusk. The revolver sitting pretty on the lone ranger’s hip. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now comes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cowboys and Aliens</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a Western with an out of this world storyline hell-bent on changing up the formula. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cowboys and Aliens </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">has all of the Western’s general hallmarks. There is the lone wolf outlaw, Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig). There is the capitalist tycoon, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). There is the mysterious saloon waif, Ella (Olivia Wilde). There is the saloon owner for comic relief, Doc (Sam Rockwell). And then, there are aliens. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The film begins with a dusty, befuddled Lonergan, who, having lost his memory, wakes in an unknown place with a bizarre metal cuff on his wrist. Craig plays the part with extraordinary control, using the harsh lines of his face to their full advantage as he scowls and huffs but rarely speaks. While Craig comes off more as a displaced James Bond than a traditional cowboy, his coldly placid face and tense body recreate the Western antihero in a way that spoken lines or plot development can’t. Before Craig utters a word, we know that he is a skilled fighter, a punch first, ask questions later sort. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lonergan’s quest to recover his memory takes him to the town of Absolution, where he encounters Dolarhyde’s dramatically wayward son, Percy (Paul Dano). Things are going along the route of a traditional western, with Lonergan shaking up the town’s status quo, Dolarhyde making menacing statements, and an impending hanging. Cue: aliens. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9rlYbTDLt-rppHbARZAH5HAFg2dTtCBRDJkcco0wFWtttFyez3pIk_-dTWQ9ptk_PRotip6J0WIz3qUe6P8gCsVdGYTp9psSzgkPCDSG7YrrWnL5ftwhnEGC7tE61Xr9xznPpP95LbT-/s1600/cowboys-and-aliens-movie-photo-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9rlYbTDLt-rppHbARZAH5HAFg2dTtCBRDJkcco0wFWtttFyez3pIk_-dTWQ9ptk_PRotip6J0WIz3qUe6P8gCsVdGYTp9psSzgkPCDSG7YrrWnL5ftwhnEGC7tE61Xr9xznPpP95LbT-/s320/cowboys-and-aliens-movie-photo-15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a plot so outlandish, the film could easily fall into cliches and overacted one-liners. Instead, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cowboys and Aliens </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">undercuts its serious swagger with cheeky jokes and the occasional eye roll. The action movie feel is boistered by a cast of seasoned actors. Ford, whose acting might be expected to fall in line with Indy and Han Solo, assumes the more mature role of Dolarhyde with a gruff humor. Rockwell, fast developing into one of the most intriguing actors in Hollywood, transforms the archetypal saloon owner into a likable and ornery man whose depth goes further than the bottom of the whiskey barrel. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though the title is reminiscent of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snakes on a Plane</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the film does not rely on a single gimmick to drive its action. While unconventional, the melding of the Western and Sci-Fi genre is seamlessly drawn together to set a straightforward film without any reference to morally ambiguous aliens as seen in the disappointing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://jessicahasamovieblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/super-8s-nostalgia-train-loses-track.html">Super 8</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While the message represented in Westerns is generally frowned upon, the sentiment behind it is recognizable--the cowboys of lore were just humans facing a force that they believed to be terribly strong, confusing, and terrifying. Was battling against the last frontier with all of its perils and often dangerous inhabitants so different from the battling against the unknown that finds its place in so many human versus alien films? It is refreshing to watch a movie where the bad is so plainly bad and the good is so plainly good. Combining this moral simplicity with a light shade of character development and director Jon Favreau’s taste for action, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cowboys and Aliens </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is exactly what it sounds like, pulling off a genre fusion as rare as gold. </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3701619119010254309.post-67747745222597431322011-07-25T23:54:00.000-07:002011-07-25T23:54:32.219-07:00Captain America: American History Pecs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFeFF_c6MF7RYpbl00vIlvqOFfA1q2KicJv4nx_Henf_xHjPdStP9wrfCXRj9woIOOSnRErruxIWrhnDb__ije41OAP26Qczf1Zy2GY8tgDvK408kriFkXF1JyL4nR7G14aE11xeS8ZL7/s1600/captain+america+fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFeFF_c6MF7RYpbl00vIlvqOFfA1q2KicJv4nx_Henf_xHjPdStP9wrfCXRj9woIOOSnRErruxIWrhnDb__ije41OAP26Qczf1Zy2GY8tgDvK408kriFkXF1JyL4nR7G14aE11xeS8ZL7/s640/captain+america+fire.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.8563570643309504" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American history texts often display World War II as a time of rare moral clarity, where the bad guys were bad and the good guys were good. The bad guys were so bad that they took on the fatalistic qualities of “pure evil” villains generally only seen in the bombastic pages of comic books, and it was up to the earnest stock of American farm boys to grow into the heroes on the front line. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America: The First Avenger</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> brings this equation from the comics to the screen in a straightforward story of good versus evil, and the would-be emblem of America. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">follows Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a young man whose dreams of joining the army are snuffed out by his small stature and laundry list of medical conditions. When a government scientist (the charming Stanley Tucci) inducts him into the ranks for the purpose of a super-soldier experiment, Rogers undergoes a massive transformation to become Captain America. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJAkp8tFhCFo3GpWjpLVJD1dLDotR54E-vJ0AVlG1k53h7dK2AaW_B-VIOtHqPrgnuFdeqTWRIQU6HTtnOy2CGziALEwZofBSKnN_L0oDZYHR1k7KgXQiuhOlQLv9XLzlfOaSXr7CBhdF/s1600/red+skull.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJAkp8tFhCFo3GpWjpLVJD1dLDotR54E-vJ0AVlG1k53h7dK2AaW_B-VIOtHqPrgnuFdeqTWRIQU6HTtnOy2CGziALEwZofBSKnN_L0oDZYHR1k7KgXQiuhOlQLv9XLzlfOaSXr7CBhdF/s400/red+skull.jpg" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hugo Weaving plays Red Skull</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While Captain America’s corresponding villain could have simply been the historically portrayed evil “Axis Powers,” the film pits him against his traditional antagonist, Red Skull. Originally named Johann Schmidt, the Nazi scientist is played by the rare talent of Hugo Weaving. The casting alone gives the character a shade of dark intelligence behind his superior physical strength, and the true scope of his terrorist plan involving a tesseract energy source is artfully handled so as not to appear too silly or outrageous. It is important to note that Schmidt’s association with a clandestine group called Hydra separates him from the Nazis; the film skirts the stickiness of appearing a U.S. versus Them equation while still pulling off the appropriate propagandic arrangement of siding America with the cause of “good.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond this, the film acknowledges the propaganda inherent in a film called </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with a winking sense of humor. When Rogers first receives his new physique and powers, he doesn’t plunge into the fray at the front lines, but rather steps on stage to perform for a lengthy PR tour intended to sell war bonds. In addition, the character of Captain America is played with a careful humility by Evans, who does not bring any of his standard playful arrogance to the role. His American is quietly confident, sincere, and devoted to aiding those in need. This is the American that doesn’t stand for bullying, the friend of the underdog. By poking fun at the historical examples of propaganda, the film establishes a far more flattering image of America. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This effect is further developed with the over the top action. The action scenes are simultaneously expansive and intimate--while we often see Captain America in true-superhero action, equal time is spent with him fighting at the forefront of an army, more like a King Arthur before his knights than a lone Superman figure. The more excessive scenes, like a shot that frames Captain America on a motorcycle, soaring in front of a massive explosion while military planes pass in the background, are just excessive enough to be tongue in cheek. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnSjugggweBhOzSgmbj4XLeTFf7IgQzEcVNoZSdrijnNYTooEmDRhMn7FGwahhbkXOcocjcLC5B0r2OfvZjnv0ozq7cm35Y-BVymq3gb2xJJzyFo_IJjnngAOjeNxDHsIJrQnu2Nt4Axt2/s1600/peggy+carter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnSjugggweBhOzSgmbj4XLeTFf7IgQzEcVNoZSdrijnNYTooEmDRhMn7FGwahhbkXOcocjcLC5B0r2OfvZjnv0ozq7cm35Y-BVymq3gb2xJJzyFo_IJjnngAOjeNxDHsIJrQnu2Nt4Axt2/s320/peggy+carter.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Atwell shines as Peggy Carter</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps the American sense of confidence is too pervasive; there is not a moment where the viewer fears for the hero. Generally, superhero films pose an endangered female counterpart to generate the sense of risk and suspense, whether it’s Batman’s Rachel, Spiderman’s Mary Jane, Superman’s Lois Lane. The fact that Captain America’s leading lady is not so weak may decrease the film’s tension, but Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is a breath of fresh air. Captain America trades a damsel in distress for a military officer who is by turns brave, sassy, and discerning. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Atwell’s is not the film’s only noteworthy performance. Captain America is joined by Colonel Chester Phillips, played by the surly Tommy Lee Jones who plays a pit bull military officer with seasoned humor. Dominic Cooper also brings his suave wit to the cast as Howard Stark, with his arrogant genius a cheeky gesture toward the later events of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Iron Man. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the end, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s great strength is in its simplicity. The hero has no otherworldly powers or props, the character behind the shield is guileless and likable, and the story is clear. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is a straightforward superhero movie that calls back to the history of American action to create something new and exciting. Let’s hope </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Avengers </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">follows suit. </span></div></div>Jessica Delfantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278204280887793423noreply@blogger.com1