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September 18, 2010

Picture Me

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , — Kate @ 3:07 am

The story of the life, literary and motion-picture accomplishments of Kenneth Anger, a pivotal figure in the history of experimental film. Considered to be one of the major personalities of the 1960’s and 1970’s underground art scene, Kenneth defined himself as a “cinematographic magician” and his “cinema” as a ritualistic form. In 1947 in Los Angeles, while his parents were away, a young Kenneth took his family’s film camera and shot a short, dramatic film entitled “Fireworks”, which is now considered one of the seminal works of experimental film. Expressive, imagistic, sexually charged, and made with the help of friends (and apparently without a script), “Fireworks” brought to the screen an unconstrained vision and an almost unbelievable candor. Kenneth Anger also led in the field of visualization of homo-erotic imagery. “Fireworks” was a film that went beyond maturity and sexual conscience–an extraordinary event considering that it was made in 1947. Kenneth did not cross over to commercial cinema. Throughout his career he has been completely devoted to uncompromising expression. Since the 1960’s, Kenneth Anger’s films have been the subject of many books, film panels and film theory courses. Although he has never made a commercial music video, he has even been called the “Godfather of MTV”.

Production Status: Released
Genres: Art/Foreign, Documentary and Biopic
Running Time: 1 hr. 13 min.
Distributors:
Segnale Digitale, A Few Steps Production
Production Co.:
Segnale Digitale, A Few Steps Production
Financiers:
Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council
Produced in: Canada

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Ben Stein’s Debate for Intelligent Design Lacks Substantial Argument

Dec 17, 2008 Rob Humanick

Ben Stein may be a certifiable genius, but his (in)ability to sufficiently craft an argument is so deprived that any rational person could be forgiven for mistaking him as outrightly deranged. His cinematic thesis, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, plays so poorly and laughably that one may very well mistake it for a lampoon of its subject matter (here, the debate between evolution and Intelligent Design).

Expelled is Short on Insight; Long on Assumption

Sadly, no such irony exists here. Expelled’s argument for ID is so dimly and laughably constructed that anyone who isn’t familiar with the topic could easily become overwhelmed – strike that – infuriated by the rampant assumptions and finger-pointing abundant therein. A disingenuous bit of propaganda masking itself as an informed and evenhanded documentary, Expelled makes one valid point before stepping permanently outside the lines of acceptability, that being that, despite its overwhelming popularity within the scientific community and the culture at large, Darwinian theory is incomplete insofar as it answers how life arose in the first place.

From this moment on, the film assumes that this lack of conclusive evidence on the part of the scientific community represents nothing less than proof of Intelligent Design. Period. End of discussion. Not for a moment does Stein even attempt to provide his own shreds of evidence, let alone an encompassing argument that could claim some sort of irrefutable proof. That this double-standard bias violates virtually every rule of rational debate (i.e. lack of evidence for one argument does not inherently render a sufficient counter-argument) makes it difficult to accept anything else that the film proceeds to establish is a given, and one made even more frustrating given Stein’s supposed dedication to scientific inquiry.

Science vs. Religion vs. Science & Religion

For him, ID needn’t be a religiously associated belief, but instead represents a viable scientific acknowledgment that entities beyond our understanding or perception may very well exist in the universe, and that such entities may have deliberately planned and created life as we know it. Call it God, call it the Big Bang, call it the unseen aliens that nurture mankind from across the cosmos in 2001: A Space Odyssey: the fact remains that, as to how life itself arose, we don’t know. It’s an essential truth and one that addresses the fundamental relationship between science and religion, but it’s one only appreciated between the lines in this rancid debacle of a film. Indeed, to grant Expelled any credibility beyond the opening minutes requires nothing short of a leap of faith.

Offensive Documentary Tactics

Stein interviews scientists both for and against ID, yet his methods of inquiry pander to inflammatory tabloid antics more than a genuine inquiry of the films chosen, loaded subject matter. Rather than pondering the notion of a God or how the rise of Christian fundamentalism has affected the ID debate within the scientific community (the film interviews several professors of science blacklisted for merely giving ID the time of day in serious discussion), Stein goes for easy targets and exploitative arguments that make some of Michael Moore’s tactics look saintly by comparison. Without going into great detail, Expelled goes so far as to equate the lack of free speech in today’s scientific community (itself a sad reflection on the status quo) with the sum loss of life at the hands of the Nazi’s in WWII.

Frightening as this is, it says nothing of Stein’s already gut-churning lack of humility; for a film so appalled at a dearth of open-mindedness, Expelled never even grazes the age-old conundrum of “If God made us, then who made God?” The imposed slant of the film rarely eases its stranglehold – even the anti-ID voices interviewed therein often feel deliberately handpicked for their lack of charm or grace in discussion as Stein lays out his bullying verbal traps. There are many who believe that a union between spiritual and scientific exploration is needed to foster any true progress in either category. With the utterly inept Expelled, Stein does nothing short of shooting himself in the foot, considerably setting back any such understanding in the process. No intelligence, indeed.

  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed movie poster - Premise Media Corporation

    Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed movie poster – Premise Media Corporation

  • Ben Stein in deep thought in Expelled - Premise Media Corporation

    Ben Stein in deep thought in Expelled – Premise Media Corporation

The Town

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , , , , , , , — admin @ 3:07 am

Ghost Town (2008) Poster

Bertram Pincus is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy, who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen. That puts Pincus squarely in the middle of a triangle, with spirited results.

Production Status: Released
Genres: Comedy and Science Fiction/Fantasy
Running Time: 1 hr. 42 min.
Release Date: September 19th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some strong language, sexual humor and drug references.
Production Co.:
Central Casting, Inc.
Henry s International Cuisine
Remote Control Productions, Santa Monica
Rhino-Gravity
Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment, Inc.
Technicolor New York
Spyglass Entertainment Holdings, LLC, Pariah
Studios:
DreamWorks Studios
U.S. Box Office: $13,214,030
Filming Locations:
New York City, New York, USA
New York City, New York, USA
Produced in: United States

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Leaves of Grass

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , , , — Kate @ 3:07 am

Leaves of Grass (2010) Poster

When Ivy League classics professor Bill Kincaid receives news of the murder of his estranged identical twin brother, Brady, in a pot deal gone bad, he leaves the world of Northeastern academia to travel back to his home state of Oklahoma. Upon arrival, he finds that reports of his brother’s death are greatly exaggerated, and he’s soon caught up in the dangerous and unpredictable world of drug commerce in the backwaters of the Southwest. In the process, he reconnects with his eccentric mother, meets a wise and educated young woman who has bypassed academia in favor of the gentler rhythms of life, and unwittingly helps his troubled brother settle a score with a pernicious drug lord who uses Tulsa, Oklahoma’s small Jewish community for cover.

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: A tale of identical twins, one an Ivy League classics professor and the other a pot-smoking career criminal.
Genres: Comedy, Thriller and Crime/Gangster
Running Time: 1 hr. 44 min.
Release Date: April 2nd, 2010 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for violence, pervasive language, and drug content.
Production Co.:
Class 5 Films, Nu Image/Millennium Films, Langley Productions
Filming Locations:
Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
Produced in: United States

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“Leaves of Grass” is not a Walt Whitman movie about poetry. This is Tim Blake Nelson’s affectionate and curious vision of his native Oklahoma, and what he sees makes for a uniquely restless, ribald motion picture.

Nelson is likely best known as an actor for his role in the Coen brothers’ film “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” and he embraces their sense of multiple styles in making a film that is by turns a marijuana comedy, a suspenseful crime tale and an analytical philosophy short course.

These ideas at times go together about as well as the official state meal that includes chicken fried steak, barbecued pork and strawberries. But a degree of patience with this mellow, quirky look at living life on one’s own terms is ultimately rewarded.

Some may think that “Leaves of Grass” is best enjoyed with a good smoke. The Holland Hall graduate and writer-director has made a film that has cult favorite written all over it.

Nelson was smart enough to have his pal Edward Norton in mind when writing the part of the lead characters. Bill and Brady are identical twin brothers, and the only thing better than one complex performance by Norton is two such creations.

Both brothers are brilliant, and they could hardly be more different: Bill is a classics professor, a rising “great mind” in the brainy community who’s being wooed by Harvard. Meanwhile, Brady is a marijuana grower in southeastern Oklahoma.

Bill has long distanced himself from his Oklahoma roots, going so far as to eradicate

any hint of an accent and estranging himself from his criminal screw-up of a brother. Meanwhile, Brady has a problem of such severity – he owes money to a Tulsa druglord who hides his criminal activities behind his Jewishness – that he must fake his death to force his brother home to the Sooner state.

“He got shot with a crossbow,” Bill plaintively tells his secretary, to her confusion. “They’re inexplicably popular where I come from.”

Uniquely Oklahoma

Nelson himself lives in New York City, but he is consistently pulled back to Tulsa by family and his love of his state and roots. Throughout the film, we watch the contradiction of cultures examined.

One example of this is Nelson’s unique view of Tulsa Jewishness, such as Richard Dreyfuss as the druglord. This is a man who uses a menorah as a weapon and seeks to have his name put on Tulsa’s buildings. The writing of these scenes is both informed and gleefully taken to extremes on Nelson’s part.

Nelson embraces Oklahoma’s unique eccentricities. A love of the arts and outdoor sports is combined in Keri Russell’s character, a Walt Whitman-quoting, catfish-noodling poet and love interest for Bill.

The film is punctuated by violence on several occasions in the second half of the film, and Nelson consistently finds a balance to such harshness with gentleness like tender moments between Russell and Norton.

In one scene, they are sitting on a rural home’s front porch with friends, with beer flowing, music chilling the atmosphere and Bill mellowing from toking on one of Brady’s turbocharged joints. The couple’s flirty little dance of words, of romantic mystery and of her setting his priorities straight (the women in this film are all smarter than the men) is as beautiful in its simplicity as in its execution.

The film is rich in its detail of Oklahoma manners and lifestyles that should make local audiences warmly embrace the picture. Multiple performances stand out, such as Melanie Lynskey as Brady’s pregnant fiancee, who sets the film’s events in motion by demanding that, with their first child on the way, he quit the pot business.

A character played by Josh Pais is bothersome, an orthodontist who makes a connection between the brothers. He’s a minor character who comes to play too vital a role in the story, I decided, because his making the connection seemed implausible, and without that connection the third act would fall apart.

“Leaves of Grass” – a reference to Whitman’s idea of a life lived at one’s own poetic pace, as well as to the wacky weed – leads to a conclusion that is predictable in its outcome, if not its path in getting there.

Which is a lot like life, when you think about it. Nelson, at age 45, has clearly been thinking about it.

LEAVES OF GRASS

Stars: Edward Norton, Tim Blake
Nelson, Keri Russell, Susan
Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss

Theater: Circle Cinema

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Rated: R (violence, pervasive
language, drug content)

Quality: (on a scale of zero
to four stars)

Original Print Headline: ‘Leaves of Grass’ offers a hit of Oklahoma life

Michael Smith 581-8479

michael.smith@tulsaworld.com

Jack Goes Boating

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , — admin @ 3:07 am

Jack Goes Boating (2010) Poster

Jack and Connie are two single people who on their own might continue to recede into the anonymous background of the city, but in each other begin to find the courage and desire to pursue their budding relationship. In contrast, the couple that introduced them, Clyde and Lucy are confronting unresolved issues in their marriage. Jack is a limo driver with vague dreams of landing a job with the MTA and an obsession with reggae that has prompted him to begin a half-hearted attempt at growing dreadlocks. He spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and fellow driver Clyde and Clyde’s wife Lucy. The couple set Jack up with Connie, Lucy’s co-worker at a Brooklyn funeral home. Being with Connie inspires Jack to learn to cook, pursue a new career and take swimming lessons from Clyde so he can give Connie the romantic boat ride she dreams of. But as Jack and Connie cautiously circle commitment, Clyde and Lucy’s marriage begins to disintegrate. From there, we watch as each couple comes face to face with the inevitable path of their relationship.

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: Jack, a stoner limo driver, embarking on such quixotic missions as cooking and swimming lessons forms an unlikely friendship with another lovable loser.
Genres: Drama, Romance and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 29 min.
Release Date: September 17th, 2010 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for language, drug use and some sexual content.
Distributors:
Relativity Media
Production Co.:
Big Beach Productions, Cooper s Town Productions
Camera Service Center
Tribe Road Catering
Sylvia Fay/Lee Genick & Associates Casting
Entertainment Partners
Sloss Law Office
Production Resources
Indieclear
Orbit Digital
Soundtrack Group
C5, Inc.
Technicolor New York
Brainstorm Digital
Brainstorm Digital
Dubway Studios, NY
Studios:
Relativity Media Distribution Group
Filming Locations:
New York, New York USA
New York City, New York, USA
Produced in: United States

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Movieline Score: 7

jackgoesboating_rev.jpgJack Goes Boating, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s first time out directing a feature film, is such a gentle picture that at times it threatens to drift off the screen. Hoffman plays Jack, a going-nowhere, reggae-loving New York limo driver who appears never to have had a girlfriend. His closest friends, married couple Clyde (John Ortiz) and Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega), decide to set him up with one of Lucy’s new co-workers, Connie (Amy Ryan) — she works phone sales for a slick funeral director-bereavement guru, though she’s so awkward and tentative in this new gig that she’s in danger of losing it.

Jack and Connie hit it off, sort-of, and though it’s the middle of winter, Connie expresses her desire to go boating in Central Park. Jack nervously sets up a possible date — it will have to happen a few months down the line, after the weather gets warmer — and then panics, because he doesn’t know how to swim. Clyde offers to teach him, and this is the beginning of Jack’s gradual blossoming, his first step toward feeling comfortable in the world and in his own skin. A shy, pudgy, uncertain fellow, who typically mashes down his matted blond almost-locs with a nondescript knit cap, Jack suddenly becomes alive to certain possibilities — for one thing, he may actually be on his way to having sex.

Jack Goes Boating was originally an off-Broadway play, and the playwright, Robert Glaudini, has adapted the script himself. Perhaps that’s part of the reason the picture feels more playlike than cinematic: This is a work in which every line has been measured and weighted carefully, in which characters will undergo Big Transformations and have Sudden Realizations, all of them coming together with a nice, loud click in the third act. Hoffman (formerly the artistic codirector, with Ortiz, of New York’s LABryinth Theater Company) has clearly thought about every moment, every shot, carefully — perhaps too carefully.

That’s not to say he doesn’t stage some things quite nicely: A scene in which Jack goes to visit Connie in the hospital (she’s been mysteriously attacked on the subway), shortly after meeting her for the first time, is delicately framed and articulated. Unsure of what to bring her, he’s toting along a stuffed koala bear. When he arrives at the hospital waiting room, Clyde and Lucy have an argument — the first sign that even though they truly want Jack to have love in his life, their own marriage is coming apart at the seams — and Jack’s childlike discomfort speaks volumes about his own idealistic yet fearful expectations about love.

Hoffman, a versatile and tactile actor, gives a charming, shuffling performance here, albeit one with a bit of an edge: You always get the sense that Jack is capable of really blowing his stack, and sure enough, in that all-important third act, he does. Ryan matches him nicely: She’s fidgety and brittle at first, but as she gets used to Jack, and becomes accustomed to the possibility of love, she begins to radiate a slow-burning warmth. Her character is likable without being desperate to be liked.

But as a director, Hoffman appears to have saddled Jack Goes Boating with more weight than it can comfortably bear. The material is sensitive and a little biting, but it’s not particularly deep. Even so, Hoffman appears to have worked overtime to polish every scene to a jewel-like gloss, and he’s lost some spontaneity and freshness in the process. The picture is well-crafted; it just doesn’t breathe.

There are also some tantalizing but unanswered questions about Connie’s character, who’s constantly claiming that men — on the subway, at work, just about everywhere — are victimizing her with inappropriate sexual attention. How much of it is real and how much is in her imagination? The movie fudges the issue, as if it doesn’t matter, and maybe it doesn’t. Still, you’d hate to see a character like Jack get saddled with a delusional nutcase.

And the movie’s conclusion — that all people in romantic partnerships can expect to have trouble; they just won’t all have the same kind of trouble — feels wispy, despite the fact that it’s a completely reasonable idea. Jack Goes Boating is a lightweight picture that operates on the illusion that it has more ballast than it does. It ought to shimmer more; instead, it keeps getting caught in the glare of its not-so-profound ideas.

Last Day of Summer

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Last Day of Summer (2010) Poster

This dark and twisted comedy centers around, Joe, a put upon fast food employee who’s reached his breaking point. So on the last day of summer he decides to take revenge on the boss who’s tormented him. But a chance encounter with a beautiful customer throws a monkey wrench in his plans and ultimately…his life.

Also Known As:
Last Day of Summer
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: An agitated fast-food employee decides to take revenge on his boss but has his plans disrupted by an encounter with a beautiful customer.
Genres: Comedy and Romance
Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min.
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, some violent images and brief drug use.
Distributors:
E1 Entertainment Distribution
Production Co.:
The Vladar Company
Filming Locations:
New York, New York USA
Produced in: United States

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-By Frank Lovece

For movie details, please click here.

The character actor DJ Qualls, an odd scarecrow whose eyes can turn
from befuddled to feral in seconds, creates a tortured and
believable loser in this excruciating exercise from writer-director
Vlad Yudin—whose bio says he completed “the NYU Filmmaking
Program,” i.e., a certificate from the adult-ed division, and which
should not be confused with an MFA from the vaunted Tisch School of
the Arts. That distinction helps explain how this indie
psychological seriocomedy could misfire as badly and explosively as
a cheap gun.

Poorly shot and lit, draggy and padded despite its short running
time and structured as a series of narrative hiccups, this
shot-in-2008 feature is also remarkably defecation-obsessed: One
character, a burger-restaurant manager, keeps talking about
“feces,” even in front of customers, and there’s a lengthy sequence
of someone using the toilet, with full facial expressions and
detailed sound effects. One janitor has brown stains on his uniform
after cleaning a toilet, with a plunger he brings into the kitchen,
while talking about feces. If this feces fixation had more than a
marginal relationship to the plot or to the characters, you could
rationalize it as thematically relevant. As it is, it’s just crap
in a crappy movie.

Qualls—who like co-star Nikki Reed is one of the four executive
producers—admirably gives it his all amid a sea of amateurs and of
such farfetched plot items as a motel clerk (Lawrence Feeney)
reading a porn magazine with his pants undone while a customer
waits to check in. Masturbation also figures into the hero’s
backstory. In a nominally naturalistic movie, all these
teen-horndog, gross-out comedy antics mesh badly and confoundingly
with what the filmmaker apparently intended as a trenchant story
about an alienated and potentially violent young man.

That would be Gregory “Joe” Wilkes (Qualls), a high-school dropout
and put-upon janitor at the rundown Burger Haven, whose martinet
owner (the talented William Sadler, sadly over-the-top as a
caricature) heaps gratuitous indignities onto this
lowest-of-the-low. On the day he’s fired, Joe’s finally had it, and
he buys a gun with which to go back and go postal. He winds up
taking a young woman (Reed) hostage but, not being a killer at
heart and not wanting to go to prison either, doesn’t know what to
do with her.

That could have made for an intense, two-character locked-room
drama a la William Friedkin’s Bug or even this past spring’s
surprisingly sophisticated, one-hour season finale of “Family
Guy”—which, ironically, also involved excrement but in a thoroughly
organic and logical way. Yudin instead intercuts pointless inserts
about the restaurant owner and his clueless interactions with
employees and others—none of which has anything to do with the
larger story. Add lame jokes about using a “meat extender” and
you’ve an idea of this ostensibly serious movie’s jarringly
juvenile tone. Even the film’s score can’t decide whether this is
an eccentric comic romance or an edgy portrait of a disaffected
loner.

Fans of roadside Americana will at least appreciate the film’s
documentation of the Hazlet, N.J., landmark Jim’s Burger Haven, a
former drive-in restaurant used as one of the film’s primary
locations. The decades-old joint, with its vintage 1960s signage,
has since closed, its place taken by an AutoZone car-parts store.

The Girl

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , — Kate @ 3:07 am

The Girl (2001) Poster

A beautiful Painter who frequents a Paris nightclub has an affair with a singer. The Painter, tells the story of her increasing obsession for the singer. She calls her The Girl. When The Painter asks The Girl to spend the night, The Girl takes her to the hotel where she lives. They make love but The Girl lets her know “it’s just one night.” The Girl and The Painter continue seeing eachother until a suspicious-looking man, who seems to know The Girl, appears in the club. Just when The Painter learns The Girl and the man have left Paris together, The Girl reappears, looking more elegant than ever. The Painter goes to The Girl’s hotel as she has so many times before and finds the man and The Girl together. Crushed, she runs out. She walks the streets. She paints obsessively. But she has to return to The Girl’s hotel one more time. This time she discovers The Girl and the man together again, but it will be for the last time.

Production Status: Released
Logline: About a romance between two women who meet in a Paris nightclub.
Genres: Art/Foreign, Drama and Romance
Running Time: 1 hr. 23 min.
Release Date: April 20, 2001 NY
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributors:
Artistic License Films
Production Co.:
Dollface Productions, Method Films, Hollywood Productions
U.S. Box Office: $104,883
Filming Locations:
Paris, France
Produced in: United States

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Inception

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Rating: 9/10

Previous to Inception, Christopher Nolan has directed six films, none of which I dislike, and three of which I outright love, including his last two, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. His movies are often puzzle-like and require great cerebral attention, which is part of what makes his works so rewarding to watch. But one might hesitate to call them “entertaining” in the common sense of the word. Nolan’s films often reach into the dark recesses of men’s minds, and the view there is so pessimistic and gloomy that it wouldn’t be a stretch to say his movies are missing a “feel-good” quality. They’re cool, even slick, but could they be called fun?

With Inception, Nolan finally lets loose that fun side. Let’s not be mistaken — the seriousness of tone still remains, and the main character, Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio; the character’s name refers back to Nolan’s first film, Following), is haunted throughout by the death of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) — but the draw of this movie involves its realization of concept. Simply put, the world of Inception is one where people have found ways to visit and infiltrate other people’s dreams; thus, much of the movie takes place in dreamscapes, and, as we know, inside the mind anything goes.

Nolan thus takes the opportunity to give us his version of dream worlds, and it’s actually quite unique. He resists random disorientation, preferring to place his dreamers in fabricated, but mostly grounded, worlds. Once inside such a space, everything that happens appears relatively believable, but shifts in reality can occur, and it’s the shock of those shifts that provide the impact to the dreamer — and the audience. Inception’s dream worlds are tightly wound, and when shifts happen, they are intriguing, anticipatory. They can lead to bursts, which are cathartic, thrilling. And just getting to play around with such a set up provides a lot of, yes, fun.

The movie features many moments of build-up which find their payoffs in some wonderfully playful visuals. Most of the time, the dream worlds are destroyed through spontaneous bursting, as objects and buildings around the characters pop, crumble, and explode. There are moments of controlled surrealism, such as when the populace in a dream all at once decide to look at the dreamer, or when the landscape visually defies normal physics. I think the most entertaining set piece involves gravity changes in a hotel corridor. Watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt battle an opponent hand-to-hand while walking up walls, falling on the ceiling, and being hurtled towards the elevator might easily be one of the coolest movie scenes of the year.

If Inception feels slightly lacking in anything, Nolan would have no one to blame but himself. His previous movies appealed greatly to me because they were about men making choices, breaking moral codes, and dealing with mostly internal consequences. In comparison to his past works, Inception’s main story is pretty straightforward. The external story involves Cobb and his team of dream infiltrators working on a job to get inside the head of the heir of a powerful businessman, but the internal story is about Cobb’s dealing with the loss of his wife. The danger here? His unresolved feelings have a way of intruding in the dreams he visits, manifesting themselves as antagonistic entities. Although this part of the story falls in line with some of Nolan’s usual themes of men willfully deluding themselves, and of the relativity of guilt, it was better explored in Memento and here seems more casually employed as an emotional anchor for the main character (on a side note, poor DiCaprio — that’s two movies this year in which he plays someone crushed by the tragedy of losing his wife).

However, I think we can forgive Nolan for being more interested in exploring cool effects and inventive visuals this time. It’s the first of his films that I would call flat-out fun, from the tricky opening to the coolness of the cast (a great group of actors including Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, and Cillian Murphy) right down to the smile-inducing teaser ending. The movies have a proud line of dream explorations and unreal worlds, from Spellbound to Dreamscape, Dark City and The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to almost anything by Luis Buuel, David Lynch and Satoshi Kon. Now Inception can be proudly added to this list of places we might never have been able to go to, but are now privileged to be able to revisit again and again, thanks to the dream-like imaginations of intelligent, creative directors like Nolan. (added 7/16/2010; this review also appears at ReelTalk Movie Reviews)

The Happy Poet

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , , — Kate @ 3:07 am

The story of Zelda, a young unmarried mother who just wants things to be different, to be better for her two-year-old daughter, Little Z. But she can’t rely on her poet-hipster boyfriend, Max, and doesn’t have enough energy to help Natali, her best friend from years ago, who has moved back into her life looking for support to remain drug-free. It is with the other single moms at their regular afternoon Happy Hour, that Zelda is offered a way out. Then one day when events take an irreversible turn, Zelda must decide whether to move forward or remain trapped by the choices she made a year ago.

Production Status: Released
Genres: Comedy, Drama and Romance
Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min.
Release Date: Sundance, 2001, March 22, 2002 (NY)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Production Co.:
Passport Pictures, Susie Q Productions, Little Z
U.S. Box Office: $11,454
Filming Locations:
New York, New York, USA
Produced in: United States

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FILM  MOVIE REVIEW

Slackers as seen in Paul Gordon’s The Happy Poet. Photo: Paul Gordon The Happy Poet

The Happy Poet **

by Jesse Cataldo on September 12, 2010 Jump to Comments (0) or Add Your Own

There’s definitely potential for humor within the realm of the green movement, with its locavore restrictions and organic produce, wholesome things that are just geeky enough to tease. Yet a film primarily about such a specific movement risks diminishing its reach, both through the insularity and modesty of its topic. This is the eventual result of The Happy Poet, a diffident, occasionally sly comedy that could have benefitted from a little more energy and range.

Nevertheless, it’s easy to forgive the problems displayed here, most notable being the lackadaisical personalities of the movie’s main characters. They speak in a natural style that’s often too authentic, replete with dumb comebacks and thoughts that trail off into silence. If dramatic realism was director’s Paul Gordon’s aim, this might be a plus, but this is a comedy, where real life needs to be leavened with some measure of humor. As it stands, The Happy Poet is still a relatively sophisticated example of the genre, weird, hopeful, and full of ideas.

A sharp wit is certainly buried somewhere beneath all the self-conscious mumbling that dominates the film’s discourse. The plot centers on Bill (Gordon), an Austin idler who leaves his corporate job to open a natural food stand. This dream is immediately punctured in the first scene, when a less-than-ample loan leaves him stuck with a converted hot dog cart, paid for on the installment plan. Bill decides to soldier on anyway, setting up shop in a downtown park, stocking his cart with hummus and eggless egg sandwiches.

The Happy Poet will inevitably draw mumblecore comparisons, both for its examination of a subculture and the inelegance of the character’s speech, but it separates itself by avoiding the willful ugliness and that so many of those films present. Gordon knows how to compose a shot, not in any virtuoso style, but carefully enough that many of his scenes attain a roughly handsome beauty. The message and story, aside from some hurried third-act resolution, match this intelligent carefulness.

A more accurate reference point might be Richard Linklater’s Slacker, linked further by the shared Austin pedigree. Yet this film, fully dedicated to a conventional narrative structure, isn’t nearly as experimental or vibrant. If it dared to be more of anything, faster or broader or stranger, it might even be great film. But like its sad-sack main character, whose closed-off personality makes him hard to fully understand or sympathize with, The Happy Poet is too reservedly rough around the edges.

  • Director(s): Paul Gordon
  • Screenplay: Paul Gordon
  • Cast: Paul Gordon, Jonny Mars, Chris Doubek, Liz Fisher
  • Runtime: 85 min.
  • Rating: NR
  • Year: 2010

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The Freebie

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , , , — Kate @ 3:07 am

The Freebie (2010) Poster

Darren and Annie have an enviable relationship built on love, trust and communication — they still enjoy each others’ company and laugh at each others’ jokes. Unfortunately, they can’t remember the last time they had sex. When a dinner party conversation leads to an honest discussion about the state of their love life, and when a sexy bikini photo shoot leads to crossword puzzles instead of sex, they begin to flirt with an idea for a way to spice things up. The deal: one night of freedom, no strings attached, no questions asked. Could a “freebie” be the cure for their ailing sex life? And will they go through with it?

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres: Drama
Running Time: 1 hr. 20 min.
Release Date: September 17th, 2010 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for language and sexual content.
Distributors:
Phase 4 Films
Produced in: United States

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-By David Noh

For movie details, please click here.

Darren (Dax Shepard) and Annie (Katie Aselton) have been together a
while and are totally comfortable with each other. Maybe too
comfortable. Sex has become a very sometime thing with them,
although they certainly enjoy being in bed together, doing their
respective crossword puzzles. They decide to grant each other a
single night of infidelity.

Who, in any long-term relationship, hasn’t entertained the notion
of straying? It’s an endlessly intriguing concept and
writer-director Aselton at first seems game, but I wish her
approach had been more headlong, rather than sideways, as is all
too apparent in The Freebie. Darren and Annie are just too
nice, too ordinary and bland to engender much viewer passion in
their passion. They have that affectless Gen-Y (or is it Z by now?)
quality which is inoffensive to the point where you crave a little
blatant vulgarity, any sign of real, roiling life.

Humor is often the glue which holds such long-term relationships
together, but there is very little of it here (that placid
crossword puzzle activity says much). A couple of dinner party
scenes with friends whose yuppie talk rather goads them into action
provide a little respite from all their cocooning. The most
interesting scene is their first discussed broaching of adultery,
but it’s something of a chore to sit through, what with Aselton’s
meditative pacing and smothering use of close-ups.

The two finally get off their duffs and go trawling, he to a comely
neighborhood barista he’s eyed for a while and she to the local
bar. Stuff seems to be definitely happening, but then Aselton coyly
cuts away from any real—excuse the expression—climaxes, as if
operating under her own self-imposed Hays Code. It’s all, of
course, meant to suggest that imponderable mystery of human choice
and behavior (yawn), but it merely further renders totally sexless
a film purporting to be about sex. The great Hungarian playwright
Ferenc Molnar, in his play The Guardsman, knew how to use
this type of suggestiveness for real provocative wit rather than
irritating obfuscation.

When literally comes the dawn—to add even more antediluvian
flavor—and the two must fess up, Aselton goes all traditionally
moralistic. Darren says that he couldn’t go through with it, and
then rages at Annie for doing what he shied from, and calls her a
whore. “But I really didn’t!” she pipes, and you know what? We
simply don’t give a f*** about their f***s.

Devil

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 3:07 am

Devil (2010) Poster

In this supernatural thriller, a group of people are trapped in an elevator.

Logline: A group of people are trapped in an elevator, and one of them is the devil.
Genres: Suspense/Horror and Thriller
Release Date: September 17th, 2010
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence and disturbing images, thematic material and some language including sexual references.
Distributors:
Universal Pictures

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srijeda, srpanj 28., 2010. 0:17

Piše: Dragan Antulov

POČETAK
(INCEPTION)
uloge: Leonardo Di Caprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine
scenarij: Christopher Nolan
režija: Christopher Nolan
proizvodnja: Warner Bros, SAD, 2010.
trajanje: 148 ‘

U posljednje vrijeme se filmske kritičare u svijetu može podijeliti u dva tabora – u one koji svaki film Christophera Nolana proglašavaju remek-djelom prije nego što je itko imao prilike pogledati ijedan njegov kadar i one koji zbog toga izražavaju zgražanje ili čuđenje. Razlog za to je prvenstveno u tome što je Nolan pronašao ono što predstavlja Svet graal svakog holivudskog filmaša, odnosno reputaciju rijetke zvjerke koja je u stanju “umjetničkim” filmovima steći naklonost kritike isto onako kao što njegova “komercijalna” ostvarenja pune kino-blagajne. Među ovo potonje spadaju dva ostvarenja novopokrenute franšize o Batmanu, shvaćena kao sredstvo kojim Nolan kupuje strpljenje i podršku komercijalnih studija za “osobna”, odnosno umjetnički ambiciozna i “intelektualno stimulativna” ostvarenja. Najnoviji “umjetnički” projekt je Početak, SF-triler koji je, začudo, imao prilično dobre rezultate na blagajnama pa se može shvatiti i kao “punokrvni” blockbuster.

Radnja je smještena u blisku budućnost gdje su farmacija, psihologija i tehnologija napredovale dovoljno daleko da omoguće dijeljenje ljudskih snova. Kao i svaka tehnologija, tako i ova omogućuje zloupotrebe – u ovom slučaju je to neovlašteni ulazak u snove svjetskih moćnika iz čije podsvijesti stručnjaci kao što je Dominic Cobb (Di Caprio) iznose najpovjerljivije tajne. Cobba, koji je zbog svojih kriminalnih aktivnosti postao međunarodni bjegunac odvojen od obitelji, japanski tajkun Saito (Watanabe) unajmi kako bi upao u snove Roberta Fischera (Murphy), nasljednika njegovog glavnog poslovnog suparnika. Misija je teža nego obično, jer Saito traži da se u Fischerovu podsvijest umjesto krađe umetne ideja koja bi mogla dovesti do propasti njegovog imperija. Cobb za taj posao okuplja tim vrhunskih stručnjaka, ali će misija svejedno postati teška, i to zbog Mal (Cotillard), Cobbove destruktivne supruge koja stalno vreba iz njegove podsvijesti.

Svatko onaj tko bude tražio nedostatke u Početku na kraju će ih pronaći, ali će za to morati uložiti daleko veći napor nego što je u slučaj s mnogim slično razvikanim holivudskim ostvarenjima. Christopher Nolan još jednom dokazuje kako predstavlja jednog od tehnički najnadarenijih redatelja naše generacije – oboružan visokim budžetom, u Početku prilično efektno i s velikom dozom discipline dočarava svjetove koji istovremeno mogu pripadati i snovima i javi, odnosno u kojima je sve moguće. Ono što je u svemu tome najbolje jest da specijalnim efektima oživotvorene vizije ovdje, za razliku od većine holivudskih ostvarenja, služe zapletu i centralnoj ideji filma, a ne obrnuto. Nolanu, koji je napisao i scenarij, veliku je pomoć uz sjajnu glumačku ekipu dao i skladatelj Hans Zimmer, čiji je soundtrack za Početak jedan od rijetko upečatljivih ostvarenja filmske glazbe u posljednje vrijeme.

Ono što bi Nolanu mogao biti problem jest možda upravo njegov perfekcionizam, koji se kod nekih filmaša vrlo lako može izraziti i kao mrtvačka ozbiljnost, ali hladnoća prikaza radnje i likova. Mnogo ozbiljniji nedostatak, ako se to može nazvati nedostatkom, možda je i u nedostatku originalnosti, odnosno činjenici da su ideje i teme kojima se bavi ovaj film zapravo prilično često obrađivane na filmu.

Gledatelji, čak i oni koji su već zaboravili razvikani Matrix, će doživjeti niz deja vua. Za njega će djelomično biti zaslužan i Leonardo Di Caprio, čiji će se lik teško otresti sličnosti s likom u Otoku Shutter, koga je tumačio samo nekoliko mjeseci ranije. Usprkos svega toga, Početak zaslužuje preporuke; Nolan, čak i kada nije onako dobar kao fama koja se stvori oko njegovih filmova, gledateljima pruža zabavu za osjetila i intelekt na način koji se čini iznad mogućnosti najvećeg broja njegovih kolega.

OCJENA: 8/10

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Easy A

Filed under: Movies, Movies online, Release — Tags: , , , , — Kate @ 3:07 am

Easy A (2010) Poster

After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne’s in “The Scarlet Letter,” which she is currently studying in school — until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres: Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 32 min.
Release Date: September 17th, 2010 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material.
Distributors:
Sony Pictures Releasing
Production Co.:
Olive Bridge Entertainment
Central Casting, Inc.
The Event Department
Animals of Distinction
Reel Team
Sony Pictures Scoring Stage
Picture Mill
Sony Colorworks
Zoic Studios
Studios:
Screen Gems
Filming Locations:
Ojai, California, USA
Produced in: United States

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