Rite of Link
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 9:25AM straight outta Cannes
Guardian wonders why Sofia Coppola is so obsessed with pole dancing. The pole is back for Bling Ring
MCN David Poland has several capsule thoughts on Cannes films. This is my favorite type of festival review since I find that festival environments are not good for full length reviews and yet people persist in lengthy split second reactions anyway. Let the movies marinate. But he hates the explicit gay sex drama Stranger by the Lake and thinks it wouldn't be in the festival it it were hetero explicit
In Contention gives the same film fuller consideration
Apple Daily Tony Leung Chiu Wai -at Cannes for his wife's new film -- meets Ang Lee for dinner. Chinese press follows but the Lust, Caution pair are not reuniting any time soon (shame). Tony tells the reporters that he's seen Zhang Ziyi already, too.
Ultra Culture lists ten selfless acts committed by the protagonist of Fruitvale Station. Just in the first hour! I was kind of worried about a lack of nuance in this buzzy tragic drama and if the character is a complete angel, I wonder if the movie will experience a huge critical backlash when it opens. Most interesting characters are not 100% anything.
speaking of Michael B Jordan
...who is the lead in Fruitvale. You may not know this since I don't talk about TV much but I'm most definitely a fan. He's already done really sensitive affecting work in both Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. /Film is revisiting the rumor that they want him for the Fantastic Four reboot as Human Torch. I'm usually all for color blind casting since it should be about who is the best actor for the job, you know? But there are some cases where it doesn't seem like a great idea and this, to me, is one of them. In fact, I'd pick The Fantastic Four dead last, along with like The Black Panther and Storm, as Marvel Universe roles that should be color-blind casted. One of the peculiarities of FF is its kind of dated nuclear family WASPy feel (I think director Peyton Reed's original concept ten years back about doing it as an early 60s retro-stylized thing would have been so interesting and right for the material). Since they went with Allison Williams as Sue Storm (I like her just fine but she seems as weird of a fit for Sue Storm as Jessica Alba was!) I have no understanding of what they're new concept is. Other than just "reboot and make money!"
Miscellania
Sundance Now revisits Disney's weird sorta wonderful Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - those mid90s post Lion King/Aladdin movies are as underrated as that duo is overrated if you ask me
Guardian Antonio Banderas will headline the flick about the Chilean miners rescue. His career seems to be back on the upswing. Can we blame the reunion with Almodóvar?
CHUD is doing a series of 15 great actors who haven't starred in a comic book film and they started with Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Although really shouldn't that Mission: Impossible 3 movie kinda count?)
Filmmaker Kurt talks with Julianne Moore, "cinema's modest chameleon"
New York Times congratulations to my friend Tom, who composes for musical theater (more on him right here
at TFE soon if...well, I'm not allowed to say just yet), who is now married. His engagment is commemorated with this cute NYT Video!
/Film thinks a limited Christmas opening with a platform rollout in January for the Jason Reitman Kate Winslet Labor Day picture shows faith in the movie for the Oscars. Hmmm. to me the shy December openings with January rollouts are more hedging your bets than total confidence. If there's so much faith you go wide (see Django & Les Miz last year) to get the holiday money.
Oh and don't forget...
Tomorrow night (and the following Wednesday night) are the last episodes of Hit Me With Your Best Shot before a hiatus in June. So if you've been meaning to join us, now's the time. Tomorrow night is Disney's experimental FANTASIA (1940) which were doing as sort of an offhand centennial tribute to Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" which turns 100 years old this month. So pick one image from the Rite of Spring section and your favorite from the movie as a whole. (Or one for each of its six musical sections if you're feeling into it). Next Wednesday is the brilliant Paul Newman as HUD (1963) which I want everyone to see it because it's one of the best movies of that decade. Even if you're not doing a "best shot" rent it so you can experience it in full before reading the articles.
Reader Comments (25)
I would totally go see Stranger by the Lake.
Are you done with Mad Men? I really hope you're not. Last episode was kind of memorable.
You just gave me the best wedding present: a link on your blog directly after Julianne Moore. Thanks for the good wishes...and you'll be the first to know when the ink is on the contract.
Please please, let's see Winslet with a nomination only if she's exceptional! But not otherwise. Please!
Dear GOD! Hud is one of my favorite movies of all time. Newman's Oscar loss is disgusting, just DISGUSTING!!!
Speaking of Julianne Moore, have you already seen What Maisie Knew? From the reviews, I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaking of Rite of Spring---did you ever see Coco & Igor? That film does an amazing recreation of the first Paris performance. It was incredible and I'm surprised more people didn't talk about it.
PSH as Doom or Darkseid? For Doom? Okay, just for comparisons sake, in 2004 I'd have, probably, suggested Aleksander "Olek" Krupa for the role. I don't quite know what I'd suggest today, but something along those lines. For Darkseid? Michael Ironside might be getting up there, but I can't imagine PSH matching or exceeding his take on the character in the DCAU Justice League cartoon.
Another one that really doesn't fit the whole "colour-blind casting" thing. Janet Van Dyne, The Wasp. Considering her initial characterization in the main universe, it's hard to view that as anything other than a conscious racially motivated pun.
The Fantastic Four: WHITE. DON'T CHANGE.
Storm: BLACK. DON'T CHANGE.
Black Panther: VERY BLACK (African actor would be ideal.) DON'T CHANGE.
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne): WHITE. DON'T CHANGE.
Everyone else: Change as much as you want.
Other reviews say that Oscar Grant isn't portrayed as an Angel. I don't think cheating on your girlfriend is Angelic.
"Coogler, who directs and wrote the screenplay, doesn't attempt to paint his real-life characters as something they aren't as we're first introduced to Oscar, arguing with Sophina about the girl he was caught cheating on her with. He sweet talks her and attempts to make amends when their daughter knocks on the door, unable to sleep. Crawling in-between them, the symbol of their love is obvious and while Oscar is clearly a flawed human being, we respect the fact nothing is being hidden from us only to be cheaply revealed later in the story."
I mean did they see the same film?
The Actress categories are so competitive this year. It seems like a waste, Meryl Streep, will take up a perfectly good 5th slot in Best Actress.
Josh Trank who directed Chronicle (one my favorites of 2012) is directing the Fantastic Four reboot hence why Michael B. Jordan is getting connected to that movie. And since Dane DeHaan (who I thought could make for an interesting Johnny) is in that other Marvel property movie that should not be made, I can see why Jordan is next in line even though Alex Russell is also a very talented young actor Trank is familiar with. I actually think Chris Evans was a great Johnny Storm but the rest of the movie was terrible. I just do not want the fakey-looking aesthetics as those other terrible movies. Not into Alison Williams as Sue at all. Just am interested to know who Reed and Ben will be played by (and how old they will all be).
In terms of retro-fitting superhero movies, X-Men: First Class tried it and for the most part got the vibe part kind of right (but the costumes and hair were still off by a decade at least). I actually wished the new Superman movie had Jon Hamm as the star and was a throwback to the Fleischer cartoons. At least Captain America made got its throwback origins story which is still probably my favorite Avengers-related movie at this point.
CMG: Tim Story's Ben and Johnny? Perfect casting for 2005. Just, completely dead-on. Reed, Sue and Doom? Bad, terrible and terrible respectively. And that's the big problem: You could flop on Ben and (especially) Johnny and still (in theory, at least) get a "good" (though not "great") Fantastic Four movie. But, instead, they flopped on the central trinity of Reed, Sue and Doom in the first film.
Peggy Sue - no, not at all. but i've found it really difficult to write about this year. so much unpacking to do each episode and i got behind so instantly.
Bia - i didn't know this!
The post-Lion King world for Disney animation is puzzling. I've developed a few theories on it:
1) The output was too high. After TLK, Disney released one traditional-animated film per summer for the remainder of the decade, leaving the Pixar releases to the Holiday season. If Disney had spread these films out further, like the 1.5 years between Aladdin and TLK, it might have slowed the burnout for the traditional animated films.
2) Hercules should have followed Pocahontas. Pocahontas was more cerebral, slower, and darker than TLK on the whole. Instead of coming back with the more lively and comedic Hercules, they went darker with THOND. I think they lost audience with that 1-2 punch that didn't return for Hercules.
3) All of the post-TLK films followed the same formula. Misunderstood hero, diabolical villian seeking power and glory, silly sidekick(s), aloof/flawed love interest, soundtrack with multiple Best Song Oscar hopefuls. Mulan? Sounds like Pocahontas in China. And in many ways that's exactly what it was.
4) Diminishing quality vs. competition. I liked Pocahontas, THOND and Hercules. Starting with Mulan, the quality went downhill, especially crossing into the 00's, while Pixar was getting better with each film. Dreamworks had a tough time finding their way at first, but once Shrek hit, it was clear that CGI animation was the future, and traditional animation was doomed at Disney.
I'm way more bothered by the idea of Allison Williams as Sue than I am Michael B. Jordan as Johnny!
Now, as to the viability of Peyton Reed's take on the Fantastic Four: They're Marvel's third biggest property (in the comics), but the issue is this: The Fantastic Four are the most goofy, disconnected, unsellable team with stories that are the toughest to pull off in any sort of prompt time frame. They have "problems" but they're the normal problems and for any artist wanting to work in a heightened genre like superhero fiction, they want something that can deal with big universal themes, big universal emotions and big universal problems, which the FF unfortunately doesn't have. They don't suffer prejudice (X-Men), they don't have anything that could be called as even operating in the same ballpark as a regular job (even though Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen are rich, they don't go on adventures in space with aliens as an explicit day job) and they don't deal with big earth shattering pains to be created (Batman, Spider-Man, some takes on Hulk and quite a few others.) There's more of an audience in for The Runaways and Nextwave than there is for the FF when it comes down to it.
So when it even comes to a "retro-stylized take", there still has to be a more traditional and relatable emotional core to the characters for an artist to want to take the risk and the FF don't really have it. If Richard Donner managed to get a Superman level budget again, I'm sure we could have seen what, exactly, a GREAT Fantastic Four movie could have looked like. And Josh Trank? Yeah, I doubt he's Richard Donner good.
To be a bit more succinct: The Fantastic Four wind up looking like a mix of the least relatable traits of both companies collective stables, turning off any and all artists. And honestly, I kind of hope Marvel buys back the property quickly (they've got four months before they enter production, Iron Man 3 was massive and, on current success rates, it can't be more than $300 million to buy them back outright (mostly due to that purchase bringing an adaptation of the far more interesting characters The Inhumans out of a legal grey area)) and liquidates the production.
To be frank: Marvel should use the Iron Man 3 money, buy back the rights and liquidate this production.
Yavor, still pissed that Winslet won an Oscar for that cinematic sludge pile The Reader. What a genuinely dishonest movie. She should have won for Revolutionary Road the same year.
Are you done with Mad Men? I really hope you're not. Last episode was kind of memorable.
The impromptu tap number was just insane, and so unexpected in such a testosterone show. Speaking of which, who would've thought Don Draper would drop his pants and bend over for a vitamins shot?
I don't love this season -hate the flashbacks and that Don's women end up as abandoned as characters as wives- but it has many more funny moments than others.
I think Best Actress is shaping up to be a bit competitive this year, so I'm thinking Julia Roberts is probably gonna go supporting. I really want Sandra Bullock nominated for Gravity. That's who I'm really rooting for at this point. And I'd love to see Judi Dench nominated again.
Also, the 90s Disney films are my favorite ... probably because I was born in 93. But The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Hercules, A Goofy Movie, etc
I really don't like Aladdin though. It's was always just "okay" to me and then I learned of how offensive it is.
Philip H.: Yeah, there's enough unfortunate and semi-offensive about Aladdin that it's not perfect. But the Robin Williams improv is enough of a hoot disconnected from the kind of uncomfortable main narrative that it's still fun to watch in places.
" And Josh Trank? Yeah, I doubt he's Richard Donner good."
Took Richard Donner his fourth movie to be Richard Donner and The Omen, the first good Richard Donner movie, was trailing the coattails of The Exorcist. Trank nailed a bunch of things going on within Chronicle that easily could have just fallen apart that was a breath of fresh air compared to the bigger named franchise superhero movies. Honestly, it is almost for the best he gets something seemingly ordinary as FF.