Justin Timberlake Wrecked My Piano. And Other Dream Mysteries.

My subconscious is angry that I have only done one big NYFF write up. Last night I tossed and turned -- 3 hours of sleep tops -- and had one of those persistent dreams which recycles stuff you've just experienced. Each time you fall back asleep you return to it and in its relentless disturbance, it becomes a nightmare even though it's not scary.

It took place in a huge empty house in which I'm throwing a party. At some point I was doing an elaborate photoshoot with two actresses. Please don't stop to ponder why they were Franka Potente (!) and Meg Ryan (???) or why they were then Juliette Lewis* and Sandra Bullock. (Was this a 1990s period piece?) Everyone was angry when they discovered the shoot was in black and white. At one point someone wore a Princess Valhalla Hawkwind costume. My dad was suddenly there smiling with approval that I knew famous actresses (This was the "you're dreaming!" moment -- or like that bit in Inception where all the subconcious projections turn to look at you -- whoever the forger was, he wasn't as prepared as Tom Hardy. My dad would never do this.) I went out for coffee since the party was running low.

Then I'm in the atrium and I see Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg lowering my rented grand piano down through the building and all is chaos. The piano strikes a railing and begins to break into pieces. They claim they were trying to help but they've ruined my life as the cost of a grand piano will bankrupt me.

Then there is no party, and the dream is a mystery about some crime which keeps changing and to which I am not privvy and the detectives (Mills & Somerset, natch) keep asking me if David Fincher did it. How self referential! They also tell me they're investigating "Joe" and Abbas Kiarostrami** and I keep telling them I know nothing but everyone is sure that I do.

We know you've seen them! They were at your party

Nothing makes any sense from moment to moment in the dream's third act. It's all fractured clues, 2 second scenes, filmmaker name-checks. The last image is a shot of dusty footprints leading nowhere. I don't know who did it or what they were supposed to have done but I'm pretty sure that bastard Justin Timberlake who wrecked my piano is guilty.

My dream was edited with a chainsaw. The chainsaw had ADD. I hope your night was more restful and the celebrity cameos less willfully destructive and angry. Feel free to share.

*regularly makes cameos in Nathaniel's REM life.
** I assure you this is a first time appearance.

Yes, No, Maybe So: The King's Speech

I suppose I must pick up my Oscar-pundit speed now. Sorry for the delays...

Let's talk about The King's Speech



As you know this film came roaring out of Toronto as the audience award winner (see previous post) and The Film to Beat at the Oscars... unless you think that's The Social Network but it's since it's only late September fans of either (in reality or in theory) need to calm down. We were always confident that The King's Speech was an Oscar film even before they started filming which is why we've predicted it for several nominations since April. But now that the trailer is here allowing non-festival goers to have a looksee, what do we think?

On the bright side, it looks fun. Or at least it looks fun to anyone who loved watching Eliza Doolittle learn to properly e·nun·ci·ate. It also gives Colin Firth a meaty role that seems like a reward for elevating A Single Man (2009) (but for the fact that he probably signed for this before anyone saw how great he was in last year's nominated turn). I'm also THRILLED -- and yes it needed to be typed in all caps -- to see that Helena Bonham Carter has managed to escape Burton's gothic dungeon for some badly needed air. She's probably heading straight to her second Oscar nomination with relative ease; You know how they love those supportive wives. What's most surprising about the trailer is that the production values look superb and not in some vaguely rote prestige way but with a vividly handsome specificity. I didn't expect great visuals so maybe Tom Hooper's Best Director buzz isn't so far-fetched for a film that on paper seemed like one for the acting and production design branches mostly.

On the other hand, I am completely allergic to Geoffrey Rush in hambone mode. His win for Shine (1996) is one of my least favorite Best Actor prizes in the category's history and they nominated him for the entirely wrong film in 1998 as he was much more restrained and effective in Elizabeth than he was in Shakespeare in Love. He looks to be bringing the kook to scenes that already have inherent kookiness (speech therapy's comedy friendly exercizes) and I may just break out in hives watching him go for a second Oscar. I'm taking epipen into the theater with me... just in case.

Then we come to the Oscar Bait -- as if Royalty Porn weren't enough of it -- which is the World War II 'Nazi's are coming!' time frame. I hope it's less awkwardly handled here than it was in Mrs. Henderson Presents which this film vaguely reminds me of sight unseen. That's not a purposeful mental jump. It's worrisome rather but probably just based on account of early Oscar buzz, prestige actors, and the world war haunting the periphery of a "light" film.

Again, I might need the epipen but the festival buzz is certainly something to think about in an optimistic way. I'm a Yes leaning Maybe So because, again, Geoffrey Rush is a total No for me most of the time ...especially whilst clowning around. Look, we can't help what we're allergic to. Don't give me a hard time about it.

Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So? And do you buy the Oscar frontrunner (or thereabouts) hype?
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Links: Social Networks, Hulk Bulges and Zombie Pornos

Just Jared more pics from the set of Captain America. Chris Evans with prosthetic feet. I always did wonder how they filmed barefoot chase scenes.
The Evening Class a defense of Bruce LaBruce's porno/horror hybrid LA Zombie.
Freaking Awesome ...speaking of zombies, this poster is created from zombie movie titles. Sick.
The Playlist Stanley Tucci shopping a sports biopic to direct and star in? At least it's not a traditional sports star biopic.
Vulture Mark Ruffalo will actually be playing the Hulk in his monster 3D form (i.e. motion capture) "I hope I don't bulge in anyone's face."

In Contention "I'm just here for the movies" I'm glad I have Guy Lodge with me on this. While it's true that some Oscar pundits care about the race first, with the cinema being but a happy-accident side dish, that's not true of all of us.
Boy Culture Remember when I got to meet Michelle Pfeiffer and Julianne Moore? Good times. Matthew Rettemund, who wrote my favorite book on the icon (Encyclopedia Madonna), finally got to meet her. Here's his story - with video!
LA Times Lindsay Lohan wins more jail drama. I am going to valiantly try to never mention her again on the blog. I'm not sure why I'm doing so now. It'll be hard for me but I feel embarrassed, actually, that I've been rooting for her and intermittently defending her talent for 12 years. What so many millions of people would do with the breaks, beauty and talent she was gifted.
LA Rag Mag Adam Levine wants you to know that Jake Gyllenhaal is not gay.
Noh Way in the wake of the release of Easy A, looks at Hester Prynne throughout movie history

Finally, here's the first bit of the NYFF press conference after our screening of The Social Network yesterday.



I love this bit from Aarron Sorkin...

I didn't think it was a movie about Facebook. I thought it was a movie that had themes as old as storytelling itself: friendship and loyalty, class, jealousy, power -- these things that Aeschylus would write about or Shakespeare would write about or Paddy Chayefsky would write about. Luckily none of those people were available so I got to write about it.

I don't know if I quite buy into the "it'll win Best Picture!" mania that's spreading (it's only September 25th, after all. We don't even know how it will fare with the public) but I 100% believe that Sorkin has a very strong shot at taking home whichever Screenplay category he ends up in.

Foreign Film Race: Coco Martin's Winning Moves, France's Losing Streak

Coco Martin (left) is smiling because his career is going so nicely, thank you very much. He employs the savvy modern move of many a contemporary Hollywood star which is to say he alternates between mainstream projects for the fame/money and indie films for the cred. 'One for audiences, one for me' as it were (see also: Clooney, Moore and dozens of American A-listers). The irony for stars outside of the Bollywood and Hollywood mega-systems though is that the "art" or indie projects are really the only way you get fame/money in the international sphere, since that's the stuff that travels and wins international honors in other countries

Coco is the star of the Pinoy Oscar submission Noy which he also co-wrote and co-produced. If you recognize him at all, it's probably as the frequent muse of The Philippines most internationally recognized director Brillante Dante Mendoza for whom he starred in the violent Cannes lauded/loathed Kinatay, the gay DVD hit The Masseur and in Serbis about a troubled family running a porn theater which had a brief US run.

Mendoza has nothing to do with this film, but I bring it up because Coco's next film, a reunion with Brillante Mendoza, is called Captured and will co-star none other than Isabelle Huppert. Talk about reasons for a young actor to smile.

 Coco plus Isabelle for lucky man Mendoza

I'm pretty sure I compile the foreign film charts each year mostly due to my OCD with movies. Sadly, with distribution the way it is and the new Academy Best Picture field expanded to 10, one dream of mine will always be a windmill to tilt at. I've always wanted to cover both races head on, as if it's Best English Language Picture vs. Best Picture in a Language Other Than English for some invisible Best of Best Statue within the same Oscar coverage year. But now, even if all of 15 pictures were released in time, which they never are, it'd be a lopsided head on battle, 10 against 5. The symmetry is all ruined even if the sorry state of foreign film distribution hadn't already done the dream in.

Still... in the fantasy movie land inside my head where there are never any time constraints and watching movies happens in the blink of an eye so you can fit dozens into each day without eye strain, I have always hoped to one day place them head to head, like Best Foreign Film Shortlist 1970 vs. Best Picture Shortlist 1970 = which is better? which is the best of the best? Etcetera. Someday...

Austria to France. I've just seen France's entry Of Gods and Men and it's a strong tear wringing contender that handily avoids the treacly by going quiet and meditative to look at the last days of a Christian monastery in an increasingly terror-addled Muslim village. I definitely could see it shortlisted but I'm not sure it's a "winner". France has had difficulty with that in the past 30 years. In fact, since their amazing run in the 1970s  -- they won four times in just one decade (!) for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeousie, Day for Night, Madame Rosa and  Get Our Your Handkerchiefs  -- they've only won once. That was for 1992's Indochine which also landed Catherine Deneuve her only nomination. I'm still sad they lost when The Class (2008) was up for the naked gold man. What a brilliant film that was.

But speaking of Indochine (pictured left) it's interesting that virtually all distributors, even the ones who are good at pushing foreign films like Sony Pictures Classics, have forgotten how much more momentum you can gather if you open in the actual calender year and get yourself on top ten lists and in other Oscar category races, too.

I recognize there are holes in this theory. It didn't work for Amélie but you know that year had to have been a squeaker with the Bosnian film No Man's Land just edging it out. And it didn't work for The White Ribbon unless you consider that maybe it wouldn't have even been nominated (not exactly their favorite style of film) if it hadn't been able to build such a huge tidal wave of "masterpiece" citations before they had to vote on the nominees plus a last weekend of December release is hardly a "momentum" date.

But still... I'm hoping at least two of the future nominees find a way to play in theaters before the end of the calendar year instead of waiting for February or March and banking on the elusive Oscar spotlight.

Germany to The Netherlands. Greece's Dogtooth and India's Peepli [Live] have had US releases prior to submission announcements. But they're lonely. While many of the submissions have played at either Toronto or Sundance only three (thus far) have seen the insides of regular movie theaters. The other one is Peru's moving gay drama Contracorriente (Undertow).

Norway to Venezuela. I can't imagine Oscar going for Thailand's absolutely bizarre Uncle Boonmee... having now seen it. But I remain pleased that it's in the mix. That said -- and maybe I'm alone in this -- but I think it's more accessible than Apichatpong Weerathesakul's most succesful export thus far, Tropical Malady so I think it could theoretically nab some attention once it's in theaters. How much and when remains to be seen. (More on "Joe's" filmography here in the "Modern Maestros" series.)

I need help. I have been unable to locate movie posters (I have stills already) and official sites for Iran's Farewell Baghdad, Israel's The Human Resources Manager and Macedonia's Mothers if anyone can provide.

Which country are you rooting for thus far? I've seen but three official submissions thus far (Thailand, France and Peru) and all would make worthwhile or at least solid nominees and in roughly that order of preference... More please!
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7 Word Review: The Social Network

Screwball sharp dialogue meets riveting bad behavior.
(A-?)

I'll get to a fuller review soon. Screened it at 9 AM this morning and I'm already desperate to see it again. The film has its big premiere tonight at the NYFF. Expect another torrent of crazed "buzz" to follow. That word is often used interchangeably with "hype" in Oscar punditry and online discourse -- I use it incorrectly myself I freely admit. But "buzz" is the real thing whereas "hype" is like buzz in vitro, carefully created. Buzz is uncontrollable and what results when something (pre-hyped or not) actually delivers. And The Social Network most definitely does.

 About the sordid topic of Oscar... Before seeing it, I had predicted The Social Network for five nominations: Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Justin Timberlake), Adapted Screenplay and Editing. I have probably underestimated it slightly since Cinematography and Sound could well be in the cards, too. The performances are quite strong across the board but I fear it's the type of work that the acting branch will be the most resistant too, since most of the characters are "unlikeable" without being showy, and showy is the key modifier in clearing the unlikeable hurdle for awards voters... generally speaking of course.

Which movie...

...have you (or had you) borrowed for the longest without watching. Maybe a friend loaned it to you or it clogged up your Netflix queue or you paid a zillion late fees back in the days. Did you ever get around to watching it?

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First and Last, "Worth Repeating"

first and last images from a motion picture (excluding credit sequences).


first and last lines of dialogue if you need help though I'm not sure it'll be of help

first ~ [unintelligible whispering... I think it's "I not like her. Mr ____ not like her.]
last ~"Come on."

Can you guess the movie?

Highlight for the answer to check your work... It's GODS AND MONSTERS (1998). I wish more biopics were this good since they keep making 'em.

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Crying with Juli M. Laughing with Jamie Lee. Casting of Chloe M.

Go Fug Yourself Jamie Lee Curtis & Sigweavie repeat their You Again joke on the red carpet: same dress.
Hollywood Reporter Speaking of JLC, she has...feeelings about this True Lies reboot for TV.
Coming Soon Chloe Moretz to play Emily Strange. She's the only young girl in Hollywood. The only one you're allowed to see in anything, okay?! Learn to love her. Or else.

...And my latest column at Towleroad covers Buried with Ryan Reynolds and has a lot more linkage too, including that hilarious 'Julianne Moore Loves to Cry' video that several of you have alerted me, too. I love to watch her weep but it's not because I'm a sadist. Find out my self-rationalizing theory over there.

Something else I need to find a rationalization for: I've had Atom Egoyan's Chloe --no, not Moretz! -- sitting on my TV for a week or more now and I still haven't watched it. Damn you time management issues. This is also why posting has been slim while I've been NYFF'ing. Apologies.

P.S. More Foreign Film Oscar Submission have happened and the charts are updated. But you know what's really weird. When I was looking up the info I found this article from the AP which says the craziest thing

"Lula, the Son of Brazil" will be among 95 titles from around the world competing to be chosen for the shortlist at the US Academy Awards ceremony on February 27, the culture ministry said

Apparently the culture ministry hasn't followed the Oscars much. I've been tracking this category extensively since 2001 and I've never seen a year that hit 75 titles, let alone 95!

Here's a music video from Andrius Mamontovas from the  Latvian Oscar submission Hong Kong Confidential. Andrius also co-stars in the romantic dramedy.

Modern Maestros: Aleksandr Sokurov

Maestro: Aleksandr Sokruov
Known For: critically acclaimed Russian art films
Influences: Tarkovsky, Tarkovsky and... well Tarkovsky

Masterpieces: Russian Ark
Disasters: none
Better than you remember: none, or all
Box Office: over 2 mil for Russian Ark

Art cinema is alive and well (and not as difficult to watch as the naysayers keep naysaying), and the lovers of such cinema are thankful that rather prolific Russian Aleksandr Sokurov has reached a point of notability where those of us who live in the western world can anticipate all of his films getting a release date (now if we could only do something about that back catalog.)  Sokurov, a long time pupil and friend to contemplative, languorous, spiritual poet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, the man who brought us Solaris, continues his mentor's work on a regular basis, churning out films that utilize the camera, and occasionally video to capture a unique perspective on the human condition, and not always in the domain of spirituality and death.  Yes, Sokurov himself admits that death is a significant theme of his, and yes he is responsible for 1990's The Second Circle, in which a man wanders through his home around his father's recently deceased body pondering the details of mortality and 1997's Mother and Son in which a man wanders through the nature outside the home of his dying mother, pondering the details of mortality (both films are brilliant I should add, especially the latter which was Sokruov's big (and by "big" I mean "of modest size") American breakthrough.) but Sokurov's recent films, while the spectre of death is always there (isn't it in all great drama?) focus more on people's perception of their place in the world.

Yes, Aleksandr Sokurov's films are becoming more accessible as well, while not sacrificing all of the great elements that make them art.  His two most recent films, Alexandra and The Sun still focus on a single person's experience of the mundanities (all the stuff that wouldn't make it into other films) of life.  But the settings in which he places his subjects are more unique, allowing for a bit more excitement, to use that term loosely but not lightly.  Alexandra follows a woman who visits her son's military station on the Russian/Chechen border.  The Sun examines the life of Japanese Emperor Hirohito during the ending days of World War II.  In that film Sokurov demonstrates how adept he is at playing with the camera's aesthetic eye to make his point.  In the film, the actions of Hirohito examining a fish or perplexedly accepting a diplomatic shipment of Hershey bars from the American forces don't tell the story as much as how the camera presents him doing these things.  And doing these things in his palace, he is presented as an almost god-like character, large in the frame, full of power.  But once in the presence of General McArthur, he is diminutive in the frame, overwhelmed by his surroundings.  For Sokurov, the visual is the tool.  He employed mirrors to distort the images in Mother and Son, creating surreal yet serene painting-like images.  For Russian Ark, his most famous film in America, he shot the entire elaborate film in one take using the camera as a first-person point of view.

Sokurov's cinematic exploration of man's place in the world will continue next, and quite appropriately, with his own take on Faust.  Though nothing is specifically in the works, expect more entries in his planned tetrology on historic world leaders (in which The Sun was the third part, Taurus is the second part (about Lenin), and Moloch was the first (Hitler)).  Expect them to find a friendly reception at a festival followed by a thankful release in the west.  For those of us who lament the days when "art cinema" was seen as a genre that meant neither "weird" nor "boring" the growing status of Aleksandr Sokurov after over twenty years is a promising sign.

Unsung Heroes: The Editing of 25th Hour

Hello again, Film Experiencers. Michael C here from Serious Film with another episode of Unsung Heroes. This week it is a tribute to one of my favorite of modern films and one of the most chronically under-appreciated of film professions.

Spike Lee's 25th Hour (2002) is a film that feels wired to the psyche of its main character. Working itself up into fits of rage and down into long, disconsolate sighs, it tells the story of drug dealer Monty Brogan's last day of freedom before turning himself over for a seven-year jail sentence. The filmmakers, including star Edward Norton and writer David Benioff, had the courage to leave a lot in the story unsaid, and it was editor Barry Alexander Brown who was there to have their back. He does such a masterful job evoking the mental state of the protagonist that at times it is like we in the audience are thinking Monty's thoughts along with him.

In Brown's hands, time stretches and contracts the way it would to someone experiencing the enormous stress of Norton's character. Shots stutter and double cut to express the way Monty is attempting to freeze moments in his mind, to make time stand still. When Monty brutally excoriates all of New York in the famed "F- you" sequence, the film coils into a tight ball of tension, if only so he can briefly push out all thoughts of how pained he is to leave it all behind. Probably the most poignant moment in 25th Hour is when Monty's interaction with the kid on the bus, probably the last human kindness he will know for seven years, ends all too abruptly. Brown is able in moments like this to underline the film's meaning without hitting us over the head with it.

Apart from carrying the film's thematic weight, there are moments during the course of the film when it seems Brown and Lee decide to bust out a virtuoso sequence just because they can. The dance sequence in the club is a show-stopper in the way so many similar scenes attempt and so few pull off. And the lengthy dream sequence that ends the movie is like the flip side of the "F- you" montage, a long, elegiac fantasy filled with an undercurrent of bitter rage at the inevitable reality approaching to wipe it away.

Late last year when the best of the decade polls started to accumulate, it was gratifying to see the frequent presence of 25th Hour on the lists. Overlooked in 2002 during the year-end glut of Oscar bait, it was dismissed by many at the time as a successful, if minor, entry in Spike's filmography. Now time has revealed its depth and staying power. But in all the accounts of the film's greatness not once did I read Brown's name. Why would I? When it comes to being overlooked who can beat the contribution an editor makes to a film's success? There is no evidence of his labors in the finished project that can't be credited to someone else. Yet when one looks at Brown's body of work it becomes clear that if the Spike Lee brand means anything to film lovers, then Barry Alexander Brown is a large part of that achievement.
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"God of Carnage" The Movie

News this heavy with starry wattage and awarded source material spreads quickly. I'm sure you've heard this morning that Kate Winslet & Matt Dillon will square off with Jodie Foster & Christopher Waltz as the combative couples of Yasmine Reza's hilarious and occasionally disturbing four-hander, God of Carnage. Make that Roman Polanski's God of Carnage, since he's bound to make adjustments in the adaptation. I fear that they'll add characters and scenes and lose the play's intense get-me-outta-here vibe... all in the name of "opening it up" as a movie. But perhaps I worry for nothing. Polanski has shown skill at non-literal claustrophic material in the past. In the play two sets of parents meet up cordially to discuss a school fight between their children and the way it breaks down, everyone basically breaks down. The play is entirely set in the living room of one of the couples and takes place in real time.

James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden and Jeff Daniels
in Broadway's God of Carnage (2009)

Polanski is a reliable auteur and all four actors are strong but I still have to worry. It's my nature. I'm hoping that everyone involved understands first and foremost that it's a comedy. This type of material could easily fall apart if it loses its satiric edge and embraces the dramatic too willfully. If it does, people will just be like "ugh. these people are so immature. I hate them!" and you know how the public reacts to characters they don't like.

Pray for Jodie to pull this off!

The most intriguing casting choice has to be Jodie Foster, who I assume is taking on the Tony-winning Marcia Gay Harden role. I would haved loved to have seen Harden get this shot on the big screen but they rarely let people transfer... even Oscar winning people who aren't bankable. Anyway, Foster knows from claustrophic environs (Panic Room, Flight Plan, Silence of the Lambs) but she hasn't spent much time honing her comic gifts and this character is, at least in my experience of the play, the fulcrum point. She's full of abundant pretense and holier-than-thou speechifying and she'd be utterly detestable and annoying if she weren't also so funny and so endearingly a complete emotional wreck. It's just a killer role.

I'm glad the two time Oscar winner will be truly challenging herself for the first time in well over a decade but if you rest you rust and I hope she's up to the challenge.
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First and Last, Ritual

first and last images from a motion picture


Highlight for the first and last lines of dialogue if you need extra help.

You won't believe it but I remember my circumcision
How sweet it is to sit, surrounded by your brothers.

Can you guess the movie?

[Highlight for the answer if you're stumped]. It's the Holocaust drama EUROPA EUROPA (1990). 
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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Se7en (1995)

In this film-loving series we look at movies from all over the cinematic time line and in each genre pool to select a shot that particularly resonates with us, be it for aesthetic, thematic or for simply eye candy reasons.

This week we look back at David Fincher's breakthrough hit, Se7en (1995) which celebrates its 15th anniversary today. It happens to be my favorite serial killer picture ever, though I should note that its only real competition is Silence of the Lambs since this is an overstuffed genre with few actual classics.

Se7en's opening credits were an instant classic of the form and unfortunately so duplicated thereafter that the jarring edits, mental/visual derangements and perfect rock track probably feel like clichés to young viewers. But Se7en absolutely unnerved when it hit in 1995. My favorite shot comes about 80 minutes in when Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) and Detective Lt. Somerset (Morgan Freeman) finally discover John Doe's (Kevin Spacey) lair, the very place those opening credits would call home sweet sick home. After some creative corner-cutting search warrant business, begin to investigate its secrets.


Se7en, like all of David Fincher's work, is meticulously designed and this one in particular is just gorgeously shot. I consider it cinematographer Darius Khondji's best feature work and his omission from the Oscar line up that year was a real shame. That's not actually a split screen. Fincher and Khondji have made awesome use of the multi-room apartment set and smartly blocked the actors. For a brief moment before the detectives separate and cross cutting and horrible discoveries begin, we see them both searching different spaces simultaneously. There's multiple light sources and pockets of saturated color, Somerset's room has cool colors and Mills hallway is hot, rather like the personalities that make up this fractious partnership. But despite multiple lights, colors and faux split screen, the image is never muddied or chaotic, just darkly foreboding and dynamically alive both literally (the movement of the flashlight) and figuratively (what horrors lurk in these rooms?). In this shot, Mills and Somerset are almost shining their flashlights at each other, but as always they're seeing things differently.

Incidentally this is my favorite Brad Pitt performance outside of Fight Club. It's full of the kind of masculine anguish and wounded bird magnetism that's Leonardo DiCaprio's bread and butter these days. Brad went the extra mile... that broken left wing is his own.


6 More Deadly Sinners. That Makes Se7en

• Brown Okinawa... looks at how attached Detective Somerset is to his job.
• Serious Film... appreciates the craftsmanship and thinks Se7en lingers.
• El Fanatico... gets creative like John Doe's books. Check out all these shot groupings.
• Stale Popcorn... chooses seven deadly shots. Well, one is life-affirming.
• Sketchy Details... absolves the detectives of their sins.
• Plakatay... lives in the shadows.
  

 Other Films in This Series

• Angels in America (2003)
• X-Men (2000)
• Showgirls (1995)
• Bring It On (2000)
• Black Narcissus (1946)
• A Face in the Crowd (1957)
• Pandora's Box (1929)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)

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Familiar Faces: The Woody Allen Hierarchy.

Woody Allen's newest feature You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger opens today in movie theaters. It's currently confusing me with its Curse of The Jade Scorpion or The Purple Rose of Cairo -like silhouette poster. With this move the marketing department has made me recall both the worst and the best from Woody Allen's filmography simultaneously. It's very schizo... maybe this means the new feature will be right smack dab in the middle, neither essential nor embarrassing?

American Poster (left), a European treatment (right)

Why couldn't they have gone with the European poster treatment? European posters are always better. It's a law of Hollywood's nature.

To celebrate its release -- I haven't had time to see it yet -- I wanted to revamp an old list I started years ago. When Vicky Cristina Barcelona was cast in 2007, numerous media outlets were making ridiculously inaccurate claims about Scarlett Johansson being Woody's third most consistent muse (talk about A list tunnel vision!). Those inaccuracies of reporting died down as soon as Scarlett missed a movie. But this list I found interesting in the creation nonetheless and I hope you will in the reading. I've attempted a comprehensive list of collaborations but there are bound to be a few mistakes -- particularly in the area of tiny character actor roles so do note any omissions should you spot them in the comments.

For this ranking, I'm counting only the feature films he directed (plus his third of New York Stories and his one telefilm Don't Drink the Water). The actors, male and female, who've logged the most time with the prolific writer/director are...

Woody Players ... Quantitatively Speaking

01 26 Times. Woody Allen himself. Well you do have to direct yourself if you're also acting. It's 27 if you count a film he didn't direct but wrote & starred in: Play it Again, Sam.

02 13 Times. Mia Farrow is the queen. Remarkably and horrifically, despite the plentiful acting nominations earned by Woody Allen films, she's still never been nominated for an Oscar.

Keaton in Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan,
Radio Days and Manhattan Murder Mystery

03 7 and 7.5 Times. Diane Keaton is the runner up woman. Her most famous appearance was for her Oscar win as Annie Hall but she returned to the fold rather blissfully as his wife in Manhattan Murder Mystery and proved that the two of them hadn't lost an ounce of their chemistry. One wonders why they haven't tried an eighth time... (or ninth time if you could Play it Again, Sam which Woody did not direct so we gave her a half point there). Fred Melamed, who so recently nailed his supporting role in the Coen Bros' A Serious Man as huggy Sy Ableman, probably looked familiar to you. That's because he's all over the place in the Woody filmography albeit in small roles. And finally, there's Julie Kavner. Her most memorable part was as Woody's co-worker in Hannah and Her Sisters. Yes that's "Marge Simpson" we're talking about.

04 6 Times. Maurice Sonnenberg and Peter Catellotti have roles like "Movie Theater Patron" in Anything Else or "Sound Recordist" in Celebrity. But since they're in six movies each, one assumes they're either spectacular extras or friends with Woody or the casting director.

Stiers in Jade Scorpion; Wiest in Bullets; Shawn in Radio Days

05 5 Times. Dianne Wiest Wiest won both of her very deserved Oscars for Allen pictures (Hannah and Her Sisters & Bullets Over Broadway). If you've ever wondered why actors are so obviously desperate to work with him, consider this: He's guided thespians to 15 nominations with 6 wins among them - one of the best records of all time.) The instantly recognizable Wallace Shawn has also been in a whole handful of Woody film albeit in smaller roles. You may remember him as The Masked Avenger in Radio Days. David Ogden Stiers (of TV's MASH fame) was another regular.

06 4.5 Times. Louise Lasser has appeared in 4 films but she also does voice work in his first film What's Up Tiger Lily (1966) so let's allow for that with this special designation. Same goes for Tony Roberts, who appeared most famously in Annie Hall. His count would be 5 if you allowed for Play it Again, Sam but Woody only wrote that film and didn't direct it, so we'll give him a half credit there.

[clockwise from top left: Lasser in Bananas; Roberts in Annie Hall;
Waterston in September; Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives

07 4 Films. Judy Davis nearly won an Oscar for Husbands and Wives. Sam Waterston also appears in four films. His most significant role is, if I'm remembering correctly, in September but this was notoriously not a happy film, having been reshot and delayed and not causing much of a stir when it opened despite Woody's semi-popularity at the time.

08 3 Films. Scarlett Johansson has the leading role in three of his films, winning the most mileage from their first outing, Match Point. Alan Alda has also worked three characters in the Woody gallery, most notably in Crimes and Misdemeanors. The following actors have also been in three Woodys: Danny Aiello, Philip Bosco (a familiar TV face last seen on Damages), Frances Conroy (all of her roles predate the Six Feet Under career peak), Blythe Danner (Gwynnie's mom!) Julie Halston, Annie Joe Edwards and Camille Saviola and Jack Warden.

Theron in Celebrity; Daniels in Purple Rose; Hemingway in Manhattan; Huston
in Manhattan Murder Mystery; Balaban in Deconstructing Harry; Ullman in
Small Time Crooks; Clarkson in Whatever Works

09 2 Films. I'm sure to forget someone here but well over a dozen actors have done double duty including: Bob Balaban, Ewen Bremner (yes, that's "Spud" from Trainspotting), Josh Brolin, Patricia Clarkson, Lynn Cohen, Jeff Daniels (who deserved an Oscar nomination for The Purple Rose of Cairo), Larry David, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Gregg Edelman, director Nora Ephron (only cameos), Stephanie Farrow, Rupert Frazer, Joanna Gleason, Jessica Harper, Mariel Hemingway (Oscar nominated for Manhattan), Anjelica Huston, Erica Leerhsen, Debra Messing, Gretchen Mol, Zak Orth, Michael Rapaport, Deborah Rush, Marian Seldes, Tina Sloan, Charlize Theron, Michael Tucker, Loretta Tupper and Tracey Ullman.

10 1.5 Films. Christopher Evan Welch, pictured left, Vicky Cristina Barcelona's omniscient narrator, actually appears physically in Whatever Works. (He can currently be seen as "Grant Test" on AMC's new series Rubicon.) Great speaking voice, eh?

∞ 1 Film. Everyone with a SAG card... or thereabouts. Though when you look at people who made very strong impressions in their sole appearance, you do wonder why there wasn't another film. I'm thinking of Martin Landau (Crimes and Misdemeanors - Oscar nom), Elaine May (Small Time Crooks -NSFC Best Supporting Actress) and Goldie Hawn (Everyone Says I Love You) in particular, who all seemed like natural fits in the Woody-verse. Most of the members of the You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger ensemble are newbies save for Brolin and Bremner making their second films. Midnight in Paris, which recently completed shooting, is entirely Allen virgins but for Kathy Bates who was last seen as a prostitute in his experimental black and white picture Shadows and Fog (1991).

Who do you wish he would work with again?
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We all go a little link sometimes

Antenna looks at the year in Bollywood box office. Not a pretty story
Pussy Goes Grrrr on loving Julianne Moore
Mr Hipp "we all go a little mad sometimes"
If Charlie Parker... Sir Ian McKellen before and after.
popbytes Clint Eastwood wants Joaquin Phoenix and Leonardo DiCaprio as lovers for the Hoover biopic.


Twitch a teaser poster for Wong Kar Wai's The Grand Master
popbytes Kate Winslet's new man
Empire wait... they're still trying to make Ender's Game into a movie? Give it up already. Love the book but I am most decidedly not down with Gavin Hood after that atrocious Wolverine movie.
/Film four people watch Buried...while buried. That is SO not right as promotional events go. Shudder.
Serious Film thinks that Jesse Eisenberg is getting an Oscar nomination for The Social Network. Hmmm, I can't see it yet (the nomination, not the film. I see the film very soon)
Some Came Running brief notes to prepare you in the watching of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Damn, I wish I'd read this before the movie. Actually, I don't. I like to go to movies as blind as possible as to their content. But if you like a little more of an inkling, this is a good users manual.

First and Last

first line of dialogue

"Sigh no more..."

last image



Can you guess the movie?

That's right it's [highlight for the answer] Kenneth Branagh's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993). Such a boisterously fun movie.
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Haute Couture Cateure

Cate Blanchett should do another movie where she's a glamour girl, like in The Man Who Cried. She's wasting her red carpet gift on... the red carpet. No reason not to put blow that up on 70 mm, you know?
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MM@M: "The Beautiful Girls"

This week's episode of Mad Men "The Beautiful Girls" contained no movie references -- unless you count Faye calling Don "Mr Bond" (we think we heard that?) when he pried too much into her business with other ad agencies -- and a few celebrity name-droppings in a pitch meeting. What we did get is a lot of forward movement on Mad Men's quest to illustrate the 60s itself as a character. Vietnam is starting to scare these familiar faces and the burgeoning civil rights movement is starting to interfere with their perceptions of self.

Beautiful Girls: Joan, Peggy and Faye (Betty not pictured)

Mad Men probably won't win any new fans with that bad neighborhood mugging scene, since they've already been criticized in some quarters for the (mostly) all-white cast. But Mad Men's focus has always been a very specific type of people, ad men in midtown, and the show is doing a beautiful job of reflecting how people actually deal with change. I love Peggy's initial dismissal when confronted with racism "I'm not a political person!" and the way this bled into her own ideas about sexism and then to actual guilt about her culpability in working for racist organizations. This strikes me as an honest and realistic depiction of the way that people actually deal with change. Usually people respond to things based on how and when they affect them or their loved ones personally or they put off dealing with it at all until the social tide swings far enough towards a new way of thinking that they have no choice but to either jump on board or refuse the tide of progress and become ultra conservative. You can see this in the way straight people deal with the gay rights movements and you can see this in how native citizens deal with immigration issues in their own country, wherever that country may be.

Hopefully Mad Men will give us a movie to discuss soon... but this season is just on fire.

Further reading for Mad Men fanatics:

• all episodes of Mad Men at the Movies
• GIF - Sally Draper is the new boss of you
• Los Angeles Times interviews Cara Buono on playing Dr Faye Miller
  
• Times "Tuned In" on Peggy's women's rights march
• Movie|Line will Sally Draper get an Emmy nomination next year?
  
• p.s. i'm happy to take link suggestions for interesting articles if you have any in the comments.
  

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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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NYFF: "Poetry"

Nathaniel, reporting from the New York Film Festival

In the first shots of Poetry, the latest film from gifted director Lee Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine) an idyllic moment of little kids playing by a river is interrupted by a floating object in the water. The corpse of a middle school student is floating their way. This nonsensational but horrific reveal will soon intersect with the story of Mija (Jeong-hee Yoon), a sixty-six year old maid. She happens to be exiting the hospital from a worrisome test (her arm has been tingling), when she is startled by the chaos of the body's arrival and the grieving mother of the middle-schooler.

Mija is quick with smiles and laughter, but as the camera intimately follows her about her daily life it starts to look suspiciously empty and full of loneliness and drudgery. She cleans, she cooks, she care-takes, and she has conversations with just about everyone, though those are often one-sided. Her grandson, who went to school with the suicide victim, treats her like the help, spending all of his time with his friends. Her cheerfulness starts to feel like a saving grace. She's a good soul but she's basically fading away without close friends or family members or anyone taking notice of her. Impulsively she starts attending a poetry class, eager to experience more beauty and do something creative.

Lee Chang-dong, who coaxed such a wondrous performance out of his lead actress in Secret Sunshine, performs similar magic again. Jeong-hee Yoon, who came out of retirement after 16 years for this role, is a wonder as Mija, beautifully fleshing out this woman's high spirits, kindness, and fears. Yoon's nuanced performance manages to reflect all of this within Mija's ever present curiousity. Mija seems to instinctively understand that her endless curiousity will fill her life with both more beauty and more sadness.

Actress and Director, basking in well earned praise.

Watching the old woman deal with neighbors, grandson, doctors, employers, and fellow would-be poets, Poetry finds pockets of both humor and tragedy in its detailed observations of her character and the patriarchal town she lives in. Two things continually occupy her: the poetry class and the teen suicide. The poetry fills her days and the dead girl hovers on the periphery of her thoughts... sometimes taking over completely. In one fascinating scene that's exquisitely shot and performed, Mija impulsively steals a photo of the dead girl from her memorial service.

So Poetry begins, as many movies do, with a shot of a dead body. But it ends so very differently. What sets this beautiful character study apart from so many movies, is the reanimation of the young girl's corpse -- not literally, of course. It's not accomplished through cheap flashbacks (the story is told chronologically) but it happens spiritually and, well, poetically. This movie's magic is a spell cast through the genuine empathy of the writer/director and the inquisitive humanity of the protagonist, who can't let the girl, a complete stranger, go. Mija wants to write poetry, to commemorate the beauty in life. She knows its fragility, at any moment it can slip away. A-

Poetry won Best Screenplay at Cannes. Unfortunately it was not submitted by South Korea for the Oscars. Kino International will distribute the film in the States. Release date TBA.