Posted: June 11, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Brendan Gleeson, Christopher McQuarrie, Doug Liman, Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, Tom Cruise | 1,198 Comments »
Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Much has been made of the new summer blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow (or as I usually call it, the new Tom Cruise movie, because, damn, if I can ever remember its real name) having a structure based on the Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day.
But it’s not, really. I mean, yeah, I guess, sort of, because it does have a similar structure. But no, it’s really not. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 9, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Audrey Tatou, Bruce Davison, Cedric Klapisch, Clive Owen, Cold in July, Don Johnson, Fred Schepsi, Gerald di Pego, Jim Mickle, Juliet Binoche, Kelly Reilly, Michael C. Hall, Nick Damici, Romain Duris, Sam Shepard, Words and Pictures | 2 Comments »
Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Ofttimes of late, and not so late, I get into a discussion/argument/knock down drag out fight as to whether the director or the screenwriter is more important to the success of a movie, or even to the existence of a movie. The conflict usually boils down to which is more important, the visual or written aspects.
It’s a silly argument, at least it should be, because the answer is that both are important and neither should be denigrated (and are often so intermingled that you can’t even tell what part of the film resulted from one over the other). It’s a pretty obvious conclusion, though you’d be surprised as to how many people don’t go for the obvious. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 5, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville, Linda Woolverton, Maleficent, Robert Stromberg, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley | 2,137 Comments »
In one episode of Daria, the MTV animated series about a loner misfit at a new high school, the title character goes out with her best friend’s brother (someone she has a crush on) to buy her friend a birthday present, and ends up getting her belly button pierced. All because of said crush on said brother.
When she shows her friends, they all tell her it’s neat, as long as she didn’t do it for some guy. At first she doth protest too much, but then realizes, very embarrassed and ashamed, that she did indeed do it for some guy. SOME GUY.
I thought of that episode while watching Maleficent, the new post modern cinematic take with an attempt at modern sensibilities on the old Charles Perrault fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 2, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Jeremias Herskovits, Kresimir Mikic, Mate Matisic, The Dance of Reality, The Priest’s Children, Vinko Bresan | 3,113 Comments »
The Dance of Reality, avant-garde director-terriblé Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first film in more than twenty years, is a surrealistic, impressionistic, magical realistic (and any number of other tics you might want to throw into the mix) semi-autobiographical story about the artist’s early life in Chile before the revolution.
In many ways, one might compare it to Frederico Fellini’s Amarcord, also a semi-autobiographical story, with more than a few touches of impressionism itself, about that filmmaker’s life in 1930’s fascist Italy.
Of course, Fellini’s film doesn’t have a chorus of ex-coal miners missing most, if not all, of their limbs, breaking into a little ditty about their life as beggars; a mother who only sings her lines as if she were in an opera; a scene where this same mother raises her dress and urinates on her husband to cure him of his injuries (while belting an aria at the same time, of course). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 29, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alexander Desplat, Bryan Cranston, Bryan Singer, Dave Callaham, David Strathairn, Elizabeth Olson, Evan Peters, Gareth Edwards, Godzilla, Hugh jackman, Ian McKellen, Jane Goldman, Jennifer Lawrence, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, Matthew Vaughn, Max Borenstein, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Peter Dinklage, Peter McAvoy, Sally Hawkins, Simon Kinberg, X-Men: Days of Future Past | 1,646 Comments »
All the while, while watching Godzilla, the mega monster movie epic written by Max Borenstein from a story by Dave Callaham and directed by Gareth Edwards, all I could think is “where is Mystery Science Theater 3000 when you need them?”
(I remember this one moment, see, and this female MOTU, okay, she like passes over the central character, Ford Brody, and you can like see its testicular like sac carrying its eggs and everything, and, and I so wanted Crow, Tom Servo or Gypsy to call out, “Please don’t teabag me, please don’t teabag me”). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 26, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Avi Korine, Cathy Moriarty, Chris Messina, Chris O’Dowd, Craig Roberts, Emma Roberts, Gia Coppola, Jack Kilmer, James Fox, James Franco, Jasmine Paige, Jesse Eisenberg, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Mia Wasikowska, Nat Wolf, Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, Palo Alto, Richard Ayoade, Sally Hawkins, The Double, Wallace Shawn | 678 Comments »
Palo Alto is about teenage angst and existential ennui, just like the Twilight series, but without the werewolves and vampires, though almost as painful to get through (sorry, but it’s true).
The story revolves around three teens: April (Emma Roberts), Teddy (Jack Kilmer) and Fred (Nat Wolf) who are going through the throes of finding themselves. Unfortunately, the throes they are going through are pretty much the same throes that millions of other movie teens have pretty much gone through in millions of other movies before this and dramatized in pretty much the same way as those millions of others that came before as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 23, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Charlotte Rampling, François Ozon, Ida, James Gray, Jeremy Rinner, Joaquin Phoenix, Lukasz Zal, Marine Vetch, Marion Cotillard, Pawel Pawlikowski, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Ric Menello, Ryszard Lenczewski, Young & Beautiful | 3,832 Comments »
I am one of those annoying movie fanatics who tend to make year end lists. You know what I mean: the top ten movies of the year, the best acting, directing, writing, etc. And if that’s not bad enough, like most people who do this, I start building that list early on such that by June, say, I have some strong possibilities as to who might make it out of the Darwinian survival of the fittest mire and who might not.
But there is something interesting happening this time round. While I already could easily have a top five or more list when it comes to female actors, I don’t have anyone I feel that strongly about for their male counterparts. So far this year, roles for women have been more interesting, more complex and more exciting than roles for men. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Brendan O’Brien, Dave Franco, Lisa Kudrow, Locke, Neighbors, Nicholas Stoller, Rose Byrne Andrew J. Cohen, Seth Rogan, Steven Knight, Tom Hardy, Zac Efron | 9,103 Comments »
I remember seeing the semi-classic frat comedy Animal House when it opened some thirty-six years ago (god, thirty-six years, excuse me while I go shoot myself). I can still recall Bluto, played by John Belushi, screaming, “Christ. Seven years of college down the drain”.
I don’t think that I will have any such memory of the new frat comedy Neighbors.
Yes, that’s right, dear readers. I did not care for this film. That officially makes me, I suppose, the fuddy duddy party pooper Mr. Wilson who has lost all sense of humor and does nothing but scream at little kids to get off his lawn. But it’s true. Neighbors never remotely worked for me. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 11, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alex Kurtzman, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Andrew Garfield, Campbell Scott, Colm Feore, Dane DeHaan, Embeth Davidtz, Emma Stone, James Vanderbilt, Jamie Foxx, Jeff Pinker, Louis Cancelmi, Paul Giamatti, Roberto Orci, Sally Field | 2,009 Comments »
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is one of those movies where at one of the climaxes (there are a few here, but the one I’m referring to is a scene where two passenger planes are heading toward each other), the hero has four minutes to resolve the disastrous situation and twenty minutes later there is still thirty seconds left on the clock (the writers must be watching too much football).
Of course, I’m not sure I’m being fair. This is a standard trope for action movies and I’ve enjoyed many a one that, well, let’s say played fast and loose with the space time consortium. And this one cheats no more than the best or worst of them.
Beyond that, as far as I’m concerned, on a scale of one to ten, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is less painful than Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man 1, but far, far, far more painful than Iron Man 2 and The Dark Knight Rises. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 8, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blue Ruin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Fading Gigolo, Jamie Bell, Jeremy Saulnier, John Turturro, Lars von Trier, Liev Schreiber, Macon Blair, Marco Pontecorvo, Nymphomaniac Vol. II, Shia Lebouf, Stellan Skarsgard, Vanessa Paradis, Willem Dafoe, Woody Allen | 7,266 Comments »
Fading Gigolo is about a man, Fioravante, who, without intending to in any way, shape or form, falls into being a gigolo (don’t you just hate it when that happens?).
It’s written by, directed by and stars John Turturro. But it probably should be noted that it co-stars Woody Allen. The reason this is significant is that in many ways, Fading Gigolo is a Woody Allen film that isn’t written by, isn’t directed by, and doesn’t star the famed writer/director himself.
It has the wit of a Woody Allen film. It deals with the Woody Allen themes of love and neuroses. It takes place in New York. Woody Allen is in it.
