Curio: Paperback Love

Alexa here with your weekly film curios.  I am an unabashed lover and collector of vintage paperbacks, especially movie tie-in paperbacks. Kayo Books is always a stop when I'm passing through San Francisco (and where I found What's Up, Doc? and King Solomon's Mines tie-in paperbacks).  I have been known to scan some favorite covers from my collection, and then print and frame them for quick wall art.  So the recent trend of movie posters re-imagined as paperbacks is one that I can't resist.  Of course, Penguin Classics are a favorite inspiration, as well as designs of the more pulpy variety like Dell (a hat tip to Pulp Fiction's 90s marketing).

Here is a collection of some favorite designs I've seen out in the wild.  

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Review: Ant-Man

Tim here. Ant-Man is maybe the most typical film yet made in the now 12-picture Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is up to the individual viewer to decide if that's a compliment or a vicious & lacerating criticism. But it's really hard to think of it as anything other than a factory-pressed rebuild of the same basic story beats, character arc, gags, and conflicts that have become locked-in through Marvel's seven-year multifranchise experiment.

The film's distinguishing elements are all at the margins: in the hands of director Peyton Reed (who is much more in Yes Man-style "mercenary hack" mode than Down with Love-style "crafty stylist" mode), this is the most generously comic of all Marvel films to date, with the zippiest, silliest performances; the stakes are refreshingly low, and there's no aerial battle with the fate of nations and worlds at stakes in the final act. The cinematography by Russell Carpenter - an Oscar winner for Titanic - is distinctly more interesting than anything in any Marvel movie so far, with something resembling a thought-out purpose for the muted colors and rough lighting. It strips back some of the polish and gleaming surfaces in the Marvel movies of yore, to make a film that feels like it takes place in an actual world.

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73 Questions w/ Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman does Vogue's "73 Questions" as she gives us very brief peeks at her farm. I didn't know that Vivien Leigh was her favorite actress! Or that she'd just throw out the title "Bewitched" without worrying about bringing up painful memories.

Also she is terrible at doing impressions. 

We can discuss sexism in comic book movies when you get back from the theater.

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Secret in Their Eyes Character Posters

Manuel here sharing these new character posters for the English-language adaptation of the Oscar-winning film, The Secret in their Eyes. 

We talked at length about the film's trailer a few weeks back and the marketing for the film will surely continue revving up as we near its October release date.

The poster series is bold (if a tad on-the-nose) to deny us three sets of expressive eyes but it does force us to focus on these gorgeous movie stars' lips and eyebrows, while denying us another opportunity to gripe about the film's look (those wigs!!)

And yet, I'm surely not alone in flashing back to a handful of other eye-less character posters:

If you're going to ape a marketing campaign, you could do worse than reminding us all of that perfect Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman film. But perhaps that wasn't the intention, especially as it ends up being an unfair comparison on every single count; look at all the detail and suggestive plot elements we get in those 2004 posters and then turn to these new photoshopped images of Nicole, Chiwetel and Julia. They're much emptier and only tell us

Julia: Don't look back
Chiwetel: Don't look closer
Nicole: Don't look away 

Here's hoping the final Secret poster is a bit more inventive, though floating head composites are always a very real threat for all star movies. I'm personally hopeful about Julia's performance; are you?