Yes No Maybe So x 4: The Mule, The Happy Prince, Mortal Engines, and Aquaman (again)

Let's get caught up on movie trailers. Clint Eastwood is dropping another December surprise, Rupert Everett reminds us that Bradley Cooper isn't the only actor stepping behind the camera, and there's always another would be franchise or two on the horizon. Four trailers after the jump starting with the Eastwood...

THE MULE

Yes - Very effective trailer opening with that car trunk mishap and the barking dog. Perhaps it's a bit vain, given that he is directing and starring, but we admire the honest of Clint only giving himself a solo title card at trailer's end despite major stars and cherished character actors supporting him (Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña, Dianne Weist, and Laurence Fishburne) since that's probably the truth of the movie. It'll live or die based on Clint's work behind and in front of the camera...

No - This isn't fair to the movie but I dont think I can take Clint Eastwood dashing lots of other people's Oscar dreams AGAIN with a sneak attack in the last two weeks of the year...

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Review: A Star is (re) Born

This piece was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. The movie was first screened at TIFF but he hopes to see it many times. 

Overnight success is a myth. Great artistic success in show business generally comes from working hard and learning the craft, often for years, so that you're ready should a big break ever come. 'Overnight'  is only just that moment when the world suddenly notices your long-standing gifts. A Star is Born as a franchise always synthesizes this myth and this truth for something like a fairy/cautionary tale; just as quickly as a star rises, a star can fall. Talent is never the question, but the starting point; whether the world notices and for how long, is out of your hands. The screenplay for the latest telling of A Star is Born, emphasizes this last point, as Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) urges Ally (Lady Gaga) to give it her all because the world might not always be listening. 

For those who've been living under a cultural rock the story of A Star is Born is ancient and simple: One already established successful showbiz man 'discovers' an absurdly gifted but basically unknown female performer and takes her under his wing. They fall in love but as her fame rises, his falls, plagued as he is by personal demons in liquid form. The story never has a happy ending so if you need a good cry, queue up...

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"I dont know. You erased me."

Coming Very Soon: Oscar Submissions "Burning" and "Border"

NYFF/TIFF screenings from Nathaniel R

"My what lovely posters!" he said, as he struggled to decide how to review two pictures that are best seen cold, knowing as little as possible. "But people don't buy tickets / get excited about movies without knowing something," he reasoned with himself about reviewing both South Korea and Sweden's Oscar submissions which are opening in US theaters very soon.

"Okay, okay," the purist in him, responded. "I'll say a little something about each but only if I can limit my discussion to the posters! People absolutely shouldn't watch the trailers." "Deal" his practical self muttered rolling his eyes, having been through this existential crisis of movie blogging numerous times. "Proceed..."

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"The Savages", Also Revisited

Chris Feil continues his look at the films of Tamara Jenkins...

The Savages came nearly a decade after Tamara Jenkins arrived in 1998 with Slums of Beverly Hills, and the wait found the writer/director’s onscreen family dynamics develop to something tougher. Turns out time brings a whole host of concerns both harder to reconcile and compromise with, both in fiction and real life. Though it deals with timeless issues like family and aging, The Savages is also quite of its time, though in subtle ways it has maybe taken over another decade to see. What’s always been clear is that the film is miraculous.

Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman star as adult siblings and unfulfilled creatives Wendy and Jon Savage, forced to care for their estranged and formerly abusive father as he succumbs to dementia. Jenkins again is fascinated with our unfortunate bodies and social pretenses, this time with the film’s humor taking a more refined, unflinching swing at our very human shortcomings.

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