Monty the Film Critic

Despite being named for a movie star, my furry son rarely pays any heed to movies. The only thing he enjoys about DVDs is the reflected light they throw on the walls.

But this morning his paws sifted through a stack of Fox Searchlight screeners and he was suddenly all opinionated. He immediately claimed Danny Boyle's 127 Hours for his own. Moments later -- my god how I wish I had been filming -- he pulled that flick closer, then shoved Hilary Swank's Conviction right off the couch!

I am not making this up.

Later he used Never Let Me Go as a mattress which is as good a use as any for the movie.

all recent oscar articles | return to main blog
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Linky Linky

Movie|Line offers up pre 1970s horror movie suggestions for Halloween
/Film James Franco making another poetry film. From behind the camera this time.
MCN Halle Berry's Frankie & Alice to get Oscar qualifying release. Have I ever told you how much I hate the one week qualifier rule?  "YES. SHUT UP," the readers shout in unison. I'm just sayin' movies should be eligible only if the year of their real release. It's the only way a calendar year 'future history!' eligibility system actually means anything.
Serious Film wonders where the critical bar is set for Best Picture nominees in the wake of the cool response to Hereafter. As some of y'all know I don't put much stock in rotten tomatoes scores as Oscar signifiers (partially because all positive or all negative scoring (the dread thumbs!) is an inherently flawed system for reflecting worth and even true opinion. Unless of course everyone is all "A"s and "F"s these days and I realize that's the sad way it's been heading.
The Spy in the Sandwich reviews an interesting-sounding film I hadn't yet heard of called Le Fil (The String), a gay film with Antonin Stahly and Claudia Cardinale (!)
Hell on Frisco Bay looks at the explosion of film festivals over the last decade. I suspect this is our future since distribution has become so impossible for so many films. My guess: people attending festivals these days are the people that used to frequent their neighborhood arthouses.
Paul C wrote a (spoiler-heavy) review of Never Let Me Go that I think is really interesting and perceptive ...though he likes the movie much more than I.

offcinema just cuz
Before Glee revives The Rocky Horror Picture Show mania for the next few days, why not a peak at Russell Crowe in fishnets in 1987 playing Eddie & Dr. Scott. Whaaaaa? [hat tip: Cinemablend]



I wish I knew who was playing the other roles. Anyone else famous on that stage?

i09 You have taste receptors in your lungs. Wait... what?
Everything I Know a perceptive review of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson which I just saw on Broadway (see "crush of the moment" in the sidebar.) I wish movie biopics had this much irreverent invention.
ONTD Madonna to open fitness centers around the world. "Hard Candy"! Ha, I love this idea. Sometimes when celebrities branch out into other fields it's a big "No!" head scratcher. But this one makes perfect narrative sense.
Luc Latillipe awesome drawing of Yvonne Craig's Batgirl. There are no other Batgirls if you ask me.

Never Let (This Piece of) Me Go

It's hard not to lose your heart a little to Never Let Me Go at the start. Carey Mulligan, making good on that An Education promise, stares through you with big caring soulful eyes. She even confirms that look with dialogue about being a "carer". Andrew Garfield stares back, through glass, with an uncomplicated smile on his face. He's prone on an operating table and obviously in need of her caring. Never Let Me Go uses a definitive plea as title. Not to be to cruel when faced with so much neediness but can we do some haggling first? May we keep parts of you and discard the rest? Never Let This Piece of Me Go? Consider it a deal.

Cathy H, Tommy D, and Ruth ???

I'd personally like to keep the actors. I've even written up a "Best in Show" column on Andrew Garfield for Tribeca Film. The set decoration has its moments, too. I'll even keep the screenplay so long as I can jettison at least a third of Cathy H's redundant narrated bits and a truly atrocious final speech which ruins the heartbreak of the scene preceding it. You know the type of final speech I'm talking about "Let me spell out the theme for you in case you were two hours late to the movie or took a really long bathroom break." The narration is actually a bit baffling for a film that does, in fact, trust you to fill in some of the blanks. If you're trusting the audience to infer meaning on several occasions, haven't you already decided your audience is a smart one?

More than any film this year, I want to fuss with everything. The first donation needs to be Rachel Portman's score. Give that away immediately. One can half imagine the creative meetings "This is the climax of the film. Make it important." ...only they forgot to mention which scene. The score even treats transitional bits like cars pulling up to buildings as perfect moments to remind you that this is an ominous dystopian tale that is Breaking Your Heart. For all of the inherent power in Never Let Me Go's compelling premise, clever images and nuanced performances -- that seems to be the exhausting directorial mantra for the entire creative team: 'this is the climax, make it important!' But not every scene can be a climax - just as with life, they only happen once. C+

Related Articles
"Best in Show" Andrew Garfield
A Second Look at An Education
Oscar Predictions
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Lev @ TIFF: "What's Wrong With Virginia", "Never Let Me Go"

Lev, checking back in. Early mornings and late nights have prevented me from fulfilling my Film Experience duties, so capsule reviews will serve the purposes best. Starting with . . .

The Illusionist which is an achievement in many ways. What makes it so remarkable is its focus on every day sadness. Whereas most animation relies on comedy to engage, Chomet transmits his ideas through small gestures and simple, delicate drama, foregoing laughs for emotion. Every character, plot point, musical cue and lush painting is working in favour of this sadness without ever forcing it or revelling in it; It's a simple story evoked with impassioned feeling . A-

Dustin Lance Black's What's Wrong With Virginia? attempts numerous forays into the group psyche of town and religion but fails. Inconsistency is the word here; Characters come and go, narration is shoved in from different perspectives for no apparent reason. Jennifer Connelly is stuck doing her best Holly Hunter impression, approximating Wanda Holloway without being realistically nuts or even funny. Black, the Director, seems to have little idea how build through composition or montage, but that doesn't excuse Black, the writer, from starting his film with the end. C-

[Editor's Note: Apparently Virginia? is getting critically knocked around quite a lot at the festival. Movie|Line interviewed Dustin Lance Black about the unpleasant response. Good interview]

Predicated upon the intriguing idea of redheads as a discriminated minority, Romain Gavras' Our Day Will Come is an uneven mixture of bold filmmaking and bad decisions. The film stars Vincent Cassel as a psychologist and Olivier Barthélémy as a bullied teen. Clearly the work of a first time director, Gavras has strong ideas that don't always seem thought out as well one would like. Particular moments seem needlessly mean-spirited giving the film a cruel edge that it isn't always justified. Still, it's heady, compelling filmmaking that shouldn't go unnoticed. B-

Of the films mentioned here, Never Let Me Go surely requires the least introduction. Much has been made about plot particulars but they hardly seem worth noting; The sci-fi elements are rooted to a present reality and explained without much fuss which allows the characters to move to the forefront. There's no dwelling on its high-concept premise so it's just one step away from other high-end British productions (not that this is to its detriment). Romanek's form has improved, but the persistent score and unnecessary narration often feel perfunctory. It's the power of the story and performances, particularly Andrew Garfield who takes every gesture and line and tilts it into something unique and devastating, that make Never Let Me Go so emotionally satisfying. B


I'll be back as soon as possible, hopefully with notes on Of Gods And Men, Meek's Cutoff, Blue Valentine and Uncle Boonmee.

Never Let That Go

I like the way Film Experience reader Kenn thinks. He made this for image for his tumblr and it's reprinted here with his permission.


Though this reminds me of those dread horizontal slice posters, I approve of the first panel 150%. I'll never let that go... for shame, Academy, for shame. I can't wait to see what good ol' Sally does with this new opportunity in Never Let Me Go.

Meanwhile... Wouldn't it be hilarious if movie trailers used "shoulda's" in their advertisements. Which shoulda would you add to new trailers?
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Sally Hawkins

Yes, No, Maybe So: Never Let Me Go

I guess June is when the OscarBait trailers begin their stampede? I always forget summertime occurences as I have already melted. I hate summer. Yesterday we performed our patented three pronged expectation-management on Somewhere. Today Mark Romanek's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's best seller Never Let Me Go.



You might not want to read this if you're worried about subject/thematic spoilers. I still need to read the book but I feel like this would have been great to go into blind. I'm glad that the trailer is hinting rather than telling, as all trailers should.

The cast is a big draw: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Sally Hawkins (looks like a good part), Charlotte Rampling... it just keeps on giving people that are a) fine actors and b) interesting to look at in one way or another. And they're all in the service of sober non-f/x driven sci-fi which is all too rare at the movies. [SPOILER] This one has to do with a school for clones though this trailer doesn't make that too specific. [/SPOILER] The last such sci-fi flick that comes to mind was Children of Men and those three words strung together should prompt fine cinematic memories.

This is an entirely personal thing. I don't tend to respond well to bifurcated structures where we get used to one actor playing a role and have to switch to another or switch back and forth. I like it when movies cover a short frame of time in their character's lives. Movies are most equatable with short stories, if you ask me. The television miniseries is the ideal home for novel adaptations but nobody in Hollywood agrees with this assessment. That said, that's the only "no" I could come up with which is a great sign. And those young girls do seem well cast to evoke Mulligan & Knightley.

Blade Runner (1982) is one of the greats and when an image like the one to your left explicitly calls it mind, it's both exciting and worrying. It seems likely that the movie will similarly examine entirely human concerns about the purpose of life, the mystery of the soul, and the fear of death through the distancing protection of a genre lens. Can Mark Romanek do all this justice? He's got a great eye and makes absolutely incredible music videos. But I didn't get much apart from aesthetic value from his previous feature, One Hour Photo. There's so much rich thematic possibility here: Do I have a soul? Is my life not even mine? Will loving someone save me? There's not enough time. All these moments will be lost like tears in the rain.

In short, I'm a yes. But I do think I should read the book first since it's supposed to be incredible. I'd rather know the real thing before experiencing its copy, even though the copy looks to have plenty of soul.

You?
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Linkily Every After

Movies Kick Ass how the Palme D'Or is not unlike the Oscar, thought its partisans will protest
Movie|Line interviews one of our favorite people in the movieverse, Ari Graynor
TOH! Will Luke Evans be the next big thing once Tamara Drewe opens?
/Film Mark Romanek has completed work on Never Let Me Go. It's due October 1st.
Acidemic would like you to stop judging Lindsay Lohan. Her downward spiral is none of your concern


Total Film has the 21 most storied, insane movie shoots. I refuse to scroll through 21 pages to read it (a blight on all the traffic whores out there!) but I'm guessing you get some Werner Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God) and Coppola's Apocalypse Now therein. Those jungle movies are brutal on filmmakers and cast
Subway Cinema Asian Film Festival in NYC very soon. Lots of exciting stuff including the NYC premiere of the award winning Bodyguards and Assassins [prev post]
Pfangirl has a lengthy look at the superhero genre, where it's been and where it's going. This is the DC edition. Marvel later this week.
Empire Soapdish (1991) is jumping on the remake train along with everyone else. Good luck to however has to top Cathy Moriarty's bitch goddess this time around
Golden Trailer Awards that's happening in June. I don't really understand their nominees but whatevs

Shrek Forever After?
I "love" that the tagline is the final chapter but the movie's actual title promotes Shrek in perpetuity. That's a nightmare ending for me since I hate that lazy green franchise. I am still dumbfounded that Dreamworks suddenly learned how to make good animated films (Kung Fu Panda & How To Train Your Dragon) in its aftermath. Usually studios try and repeat successes rather than find a way to make films that are way better than them. You'd think they would have tried to repeat its success rather than tried to be Pixar (a far worthier goal) given that Shrek films make more than Pixar films (a sad audience-damning truth). So HAPPY ENDING, however improbable. I do so love How To Train Your Dragon. Anyway, Erik Lundegaard looks at Shrek's franchise box office and understands, unlike Hollywood, the math that goes into sequel numbers. Opening weekend is never about the movie you're seeing but about the one before it... provided that there is one before it. If there's not it's about the marketing. Meanwhile Tim at Antagony & Ecstasy shares my fear that this won't be anything like The End

The ostensibly final film in the Shrek franchise (which I'll believe the moment that everybody involved is dead, and not a second before)

He goes on to say that the movie isn't half bad. for this sort of thing. But definitely half bad all the same!

We Can't Wait: #3 NEVER LET ME GO

The We Can't Wait series nears it's end with an adaptation of a book about events shrouded in mystery; just like the film itself...

Never Let Me Go
Directed by: Mark Romanek
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling, Andrea Riseborough

Synopsis: A woman reflects on her mysterious years at a private boarding school as she reunites with two friends scarred by those days.
Brought to you by: Film4 and Fox Searchlight Pictures
Expected release date: TBA

Dave: In a moment of unintentional foresight, I actually read 'Never Let Me Go' before I knew anything about it being turned into a film; it's a superb book, taking the reader to surprising, uncomfortable and devastating places, with a sci-fi aspect that never really registers as such because it's treated in so downtrodden and normalised a way. I'm not sure I thought it was a particularly cinematic novel but I also don't see why it can't work; the prose is fairly straightforward, so all that really needs doing is retaining the gripping way the mystery of the whole thing unfolds. I'm intrigued to see what Mark Romanek does visually; One Hour Photo was a solid enough film but I'd hope for at least a little bit of an infusion of his music video days, at least to liven up what could be a rote imagining of the boarding school of the first third.

But let's not fool ourselves; it's the cast here that we're all getting glinty eyes over. It might be Carey Mulligan's first big project post-breakthrough, but my eye goes straight to Andrew Garfield on the credits; although between this, Red Riding and his blindingly good performance in Boy A it's a wonder the boy can crack a smile any more. Then there's people like Keira Knightley and Charlotte Rampling hanging around too. A possible acting masterclass? Is Romanek the man to really coax greatness out of these actors?

JA: If he could coax greatness out of Robin Williams - and I think he was pretty dang great in OHP - I don't foresee him having much trouble with these lovely folks here, Dave.

I'm about as much in love with Ishiguro's book as I am with anything written in the past ten years though, so I ought to be terrified about an adaptation. But I ain't. I ain't at all! Mulligan, Garfield, Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Andrea Riseborough - just saw her on stage with Hugh Dancy and Ben Whishaw a couple of months ago in The Pride and she's become a pet project of mine to trumpet her name whenever given the chance, and she's got a good role here as Miss Lucy - and begrudgingly Knightley, who I loved in Pride & Prejudice and... I'll leave it at that.

Craig: Yes, the cast. I'm excited to see Rampling, Garfield and Hawkins here - and Mulligan has shown she can do boarding school cool already. Although with the exception of Keira Knightley, who hasn't completely convinced me in any film yet. But this one - along with her role in Cronenberg's new one - might see her expand a bit from the corsets and pirate girl area and she may surprise me. Though whenever they say Knightley, I say Rosamund Pike. She might have been a good choice here, though isn't she slightly older than the other two principle cast members? And would that matter? But yes, Jason, Andrea Riseborough - she was great in Happy-Go-Lucky (could she be the secret surprise here?).

Jose: Without knowing what the book was about, this film adaptation got my attention only by the cast (this could be the year of the great female ensembles). Keira, Carey and Sally all had wonderful breakthrough roles in the past decade and are some of the most fascinating actresses out there. I hope they will continue to prove their worth here, if not there's always the brilliance of Charlotte Rampling who can do no wrong.

Craig: Mark Romenek is such an interesting choice for director too. I'll echo the thoughts about One Hour Photo being quite the nifty film, and he's got the style factor sorted.

Jose: I'm sure Romanek will bring an interesting visual conception to the project; his One Hour Photo was clinically beautiful to watch and for a man who has confessed he wanted to become a director because of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sci-fi angle of this tale sounds like bliss. I hope he gets inspired by his work on Madonna's Rain for this...

Keira, Carey and Andrew enjoying a moment off-camera; you can tell because they're smiling...

Craig: I never got to reading the book (mainly due to the ending being spoiled for me, darn it), so I feel I've missed out on a great piece of fiction here. I'll have to leap into this film version in the hope that it'll have a few surprises in store, which, by the sounds of it, it will have. I'm a sucker for downtempo sci-fi and everything all together does actually sound as if it could make for an extraordinary and fresh approach.

JA: I adore this book. If they can capture one tenth of the beauty and sadness therein, this will be something very very special to me.

Dave: There's a great weight of expectation there. I think that the fact, beyond the novel and the cast, this is another film we know very little about just makes the anticipation of it greater, because we just don't know. It's another film that looks so very promising on paper, but who can know if it will deliver? The fact that Fox Searchlight are on-board for American distribution suggests they've seen something of worth, though.

Are you excited, readers? Do you trust in Romanek, Carey and Keira? Or did you never want to let go of the book and let it up on that screen?

"We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond" complete series: The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.

Screenplays, Toys, Books

I'm kicking off the Oscar predictions for this new film year. (Have you entered the actress psychic contest yet?) So let's talk about the year's screenplay contenders. Ah, the screenplay... the architectural blueprints of entirely visual buildings. An invisible art to some degree, which is why it's so hard to judge and why films with great dialogue or good dialogue elevated by great acting often get the lions share of the praise in this field. But we can't let that stop us from awards season guesswork. I put up a page with possibilities for both Original and Adapted work.

As per usual there's a few titles that might switch categories eventually whether because of unavailable information, confusing Oscar practices or fluid definitions. I don't remember any sequel not based on a novel or somesuch prior to Before Sunset (2004) claiming itself to be Adapted... but now that seems to be the norm when campaigning films dealing with "pre-existing characters" even when you did write it yourself rather than basing it on material (which seemed to be the case with Jane Campion's Bright Star last year). This year there's a number of True Stories that have been written about already though the screenplays seem to be original. We'll see. The new fluidity probably makes Toy Story 3 this year "adapted" even though it's not adapted from anything and even though the original Toy Story (1999) was campaigned as "original" and some of the characters in it were obviously "pre-existing" (just ask Hasbro). The more you think about it the more confused you can become.

Here's two more confusing ones: The Illusionist, the new animated film from Sylvain Chomet (Triplets of Belleville) is based on an unproduced screenplay by Jacques Tati. But obviously Chomet would have had to have rework it (they're both listed as writers) so is it an "original" or an "adapted"... see the fluidity? I've seen other sites mention The King's Speech, a baity sounding thing about a royal with a speech impediment, as an adapted screenplay. Not so concrete. Though conceived as a stage play, at least according to Wikipedia, it headed for the screen first which may mean it has plenty of wiggle room in this day and age of calling yourself whatever it is you'd like to call yourself. So I'm guessing "Original"?

One tangentially related tidbit... last night on twitter I asked followers for some book recommendations. Only one person mentioned a book that's soon to be a movie (Never Let Me Go). Here's some upcoming adapted situations, though not the entire picture of this year's crop.

"Now a Major Motion Picture"

• Eat Pray Love - Ryan Murphy and Jennifer Salt refashion these memoirs around the radiant Julia Roberts for this summer journey. (previous post)
  
• London Boulevard -Ken Bruen's novel about a criminal (Colin Farrell) and the reclusive actress he works for (Keira Knightley) is the directorial debut of The Departed scribe William Monahan.
  
• Rabbit Hole - David Lindsay-Abaire rewrites his own award winning play for a director who knows his way around both stage and screen (John Cameron Mitchell).
  
• Norwegian Wood - Murakami's coming of age story about a group of college students gets visualized by The Scent of Green Papaya's Anh Hung Tran. Should be lovely. Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) stars.
  
• The Rum Diary - Actor/writer Bruce Robinson gives Johnny Depp a chance to return to the Hunter S Thompson crazy fountain.
  
• Fair Game - Valerie Plame's memoirs get Naomi Watts' face. Easy casting.
  
• The Tempest - Julie Taymor sets her imagination loose upon William Shakespeare for the second time (she previously attacked Titus).
  
• Never Let Me Go -This sci-fi tinged bestseller by Remains of the Day author gets reworked by Alex Garland for music video director genius Mark Romanek to make his way back to the cinema for the first time since 2002's One Hour Photo.
  

And then we've got more confusing situations where the title has been changed but they are adaptations anyway.

"a rose by any other name..."

• "Prince of Thieves" gets no less generic sounding with its new title The Town. The screenplay is by Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and last year's Oscar nominated screenwriter Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)
  
• "A Very Private Gentlemen" still keeps his name hidden. He's now simply The American in the screenplay by Rowan Joffe.
  
• "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman" is a punny title for a book. But punny won't do for eternal Oscar-seeker Edward Zwick who renames this the also clever Love and Other Drugs. Good title. Especially considering how addicted so many of us are to both stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.
  
• "The Adjustment Team" gets a major reworking as The Adjustment Bureau. Hollywood never tires of adapting Phillip K Dick short stories
  
• "The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom" this true World War II story is retold by the great Peter Weir as The Way Back
  
• "Accidental Billionaires" the screenplay based on this founding of Facebook tale is by Aaron Sorkin and it's now called The Social Network.
  

Have you read any of these books that'll be visualized soon?
Would you recommend others pick them up? And what do you think of the screenplay predictions?
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