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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Babs Posterized

"Hello Gorgeous!"

Barbra Streisand turned 68 yesterday. I thought we'd celebrate with posters for every movie she ever made. Because we're crazy like that. And it's fun to see someone's complete cinematic history all displayed like so.

Funny Girl (1968) | Hello Dolly (1969) | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)

The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) | What's Up Doc? (1972) | Up the Sandbox (1972)

The Way We Were (1973) | For Pete's Sake (1974) | Funny Lady (1975)

A Star is Born (1976) | The Main Event (1979) | All Night Long (1981)

Yentl (1983) | Nuts (1987) | The Prince of Tides (1991)

The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) | Meet the Fockers (2004) | Fockers Sequel (2010)

Babs is still one of the most famous people on the planet but I'm guessing that younger generations have quite the incomplete picture of her career. I'm guessing that that picture hangs in an old fashioned frame and shows the diva in a turtleneck sweater. Somehow her expression conveys stifling self regard, political activism and mega-wealth all at once.

But when I think of Babs, I laugh. Not at her but with her. Back in the day -- before most of us were attending the movies regularly (myself included) or even alive yet (myself not included) -- she was a corker of a comic actress. She could also swing dramatic as memorably as she could change keys. But if you peruse the posters above it seems clear that her giant movie stardom shrank just as soon as she swung dramatic in a permanent sort of way.

Questions for you

• How many of her 17 pictures have you seen?
• Isn't it weird that major stars never used to take supporting roles and now they all do?
• What's your favorite Streisand performance?
  

Babs is making a now rare return to the big screen this winter in the Meet the Fockers sequel. Will you see it?

Link-By Posting From Nashville

Hi y'all. Nathaniel (c'est moi!) is still in Nashville and feeling very out-of-time and place, shuttling from downtown hotel to movie theater to well attended/scrumptious VIP tent between said movie theater and parking garage. It sounds strange but it's pretty on the inside. There's even a red carpet outside for celebrities I don't recognize (Music City, you know). Celebrities seen wandering through VIP tent that I *do* recognize include Michael Clark Duncan, Mario Van Peebles, Sheryl Crow, Jane Seymour and always memorable character actress Beth Grant (No Country For Old Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Donnie Darko among many others). She's pictured below in what was a very flattering flowing emerald dress... though I wished when I saw her that it was more sparkly in motion. Uh... Get it? Ba dum dum. I'm here all week.


No Nicki Kidman like last year though *sniffle*. Last night I played poker until the wee hours (my first time ever!) with fellow jurors and a couple of filmmakers. Texas Hold Em Whilst In Tennessee. My my my my my my my my poker face. I don't have one. I lost.

There's so many newsy bits I haven't discussed since I'm in the alternate reality of the film festival and they all feel so ancient now despite just happening in the past week. Anyway, for now, random links!

Flickers remembers Yentl warmly. Someone needs to
Techland names 12 disaster movies that are better than Titanic for the 98th anniversary of the great ship's sinking
Deadline People keep asking me what I think of Kirsten Dunst joining Lars von Trier's Melancholia. A hearty nod of approval is what I think. She's making the right moves for a major comeback...i.e. potentially reminding people that she's actually a very talented actress, not just some overly famous celebrity


Guardian offers an amusing solution to the creativity drought of today's "remake it!" frenzy
GreenCine Daily on Summer Hours and the myth of age-appropriate cinema. Good piece but I have one tiny bone to pick. Kohn asserts that the main character is several decades older than he, suggesting that he is still in the womb. Charles Berling is only 51. If you were to be several decades younger than 51 how young exactly would you be? Have your parents even met yet?
Coming Soon Looks like Viola Davis is finally getting that lead role we've all known she deserves. She'll star as The Help, a drama about a housekeeper whose candid comments to a writer send shockwaves through her community.
/Film Joss Whedon to direct The Avengers? I refuse to be as enthused as the rest of the internet. Like I've said before I'll believe this entire movie's existence when I see it. It sounds like way too many contracts to corral into one movie. To me at least. Nevertheless the internet will keep writing about this movie until 2022 and beyond even if it spends decades in development hell.
Thompson on Hollywood on Ryan Phillipe and abs
Erik Lundegaard another interesting review of Kick-Ass
Peel Slowly remembers Jaws and investigates the tiny shifts in its iconic marketing

That's all for now. Enjoy...
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