Yes, No, Maybe So: "Moneyball" and "Footloose"

Striiiiike. I forgot to sound off on the trailer for Moneyball. And then there's Footloose what shuffled by us, too. It's been a long week. TGIF and all that... only it's already Saturday. What? Okay, here we go. You know how we do here. We manage expectations with the patented Yes, No, Maybe So breakdown. How excited are we/should we be for each new movie?

First up... Brad Pitt in the baseball stats dramedy Moneyball.

YES Brad Pitt. And there's something mellow but casually exciting about the presentation overall... which is rather like the sport of baseball come to think of it, wherein nothing much happens until it does.

NO All behind-the-sport dramas made after 2006 are always going to come up short on account of Friday Night Lights (2006-2011). That's just the way it is. It's like trying to envision what the future will look like after Blade Runner or trying to do a porn drama after Boogie Nights or somesuch. Several of the shots of Brad Pitt here instantly recall Coach Taylor for example even though they're probably not trying to. Plus the topic just seems so dry, right? True stories also have the disadvantage of inevitable and therefore (sometimes) anti-climactic finales.

MAYBE SO The trailer doesn't get all obsessed about Philip Seymour Hoffman being in it which is a considerable relief. If the trailer is true it looks like Jonah Hill is the one to watch IF (and I still think it's a big IF) the film gets any sort of Oscar traction. I liked Hill in Cyrus and though he seems a bit limited in the range department, choosing the right projects can really help to shift perceptions about that or at least maximize what can happen within the confines of any actor's range. The script is by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, both strong writers, and though that's not an automatic yes (must we invoke the name of Charlie Wilson's War? for example), it's a good sign that it'll be lively and smart.

Me, I'm a maybe so and I'll lean whichever way the Oscar buzz does.  But then it does star Brad Pitt so chances are very good that I'll see it.

The other night while I was out at a party and my friend Kenneth totally got in my face about how Brad Pitt is a terrible actor and I'm like no-no-no. Brad Pitt is... well he's Brad Pitt! ♥. He's been continually underrated his whole career despite being a huge star with the exception of that highly unnecessary Oscar nomination for his Benjamin Button turn, the equivalent of Depp's Neverland nomination surely ("Yes, you're totally boring in this but WE JUST LOVE YOU ANYWAY!"). So maybe whether or not you're a yes, no or maybe will come down to Brad?

And the remake of FOOTLOOSE (2011) [see trailer here]

UGH. FOLLOWING IN KEVIN BACON'S FOOTSTEPS IS HAAARD.

YES Miles Teller in the Chris Penn role? That could be fun. And though it pains me to say it... when an original isn't sacred -- and Footloose is only sacred in the nostalgic sense not in the "movie" sense -- it's sometimes fun to watch how they reinterpret key moments. Like, when Kenny Wormald crazydances in that empty warehouse, they won't have to go all silhouette body double right?

NO The most annoying bit in the trailer is surely the "It's OUR time" town hall righteous speechifying since the movie looks as generic as can be and anything but generation-defying... unless today's generation prides themselves on being super lame Frankenstein's monsters stitched together by their parent's nostalgic parts. Also in its insistence on looking like both a hip-hop movie AND a remake of "Dirty Dancing" AND the original "pop" film AND a country and western joint, it's clearly trying to be all things for all people and will subsequently have no identity of its own.

Plus (by which I mean minus): exploding trucks.

And a lead female star so bratty you want Dennis Quaid to give her a good spanking and ground her. Where is Lori Singer's weirdly comatose sensuality... the believable byproduct of a stifling home environment (with or without the cello)

MAYBE SO
Craig Brewer wrote and directed it and though I can't for even one frame spot the brave provocateur behind Hustle & Flow or Black Snake Moan, maybe you can? Or maybe the trailer is just a bad lie and the film will be interesting?

"No" unless reviews by nearly every trustworthy critic surprise.

Where are you with these two pictures?

Gay Marriage Equality In New York

This is one of the nights, a history maker, as New York legalized same sex marriage. It's a win-win for everyone... it's just that some people don't know it yet. Eventually they'll make movies about this and everyone will watch and think "Duh! Of course" and imagine themselves fighting the good fight with the protagonists and shake their heads at the small minded antagonists. Ah, those "safely in the past" message movies. But it's all part of the predictable beauty of social progress. Eventually everyone ends up on the same side (which is why one should always cross first and help with the bridge building.)

In the past decade of the movies, we've seen some beautiful transformative and realistic depictions of gay love onscreen. We love to dream about fictional couples here at the Film Experience but the beauty of what's happened tonight in New York is what it will mean for the dreams of real couples, just living their lives together day in and day out.

Much love to all. Happy Pride Weekend!

P.S. The Empire State Building is rainbow tonight -- previously scheduled for Pride but I can't see it due to all the fog. Here's a photo. Sunday's parade is going to be insane.

TV @ The Movies: "I'm a Veronica"

I believe I've expressed my love for Raven of RuPaul's Drag Race before. I loved her ferosh wit and confrontational showmanship long before she owned me for good with her "I'm giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch" competition moment. Now, she's the main attraction (if you ask me) of Drag U, the spin off show with TV's most absurd premise: drag queens do makeovers on biological women. It's really quite quite perverse when you think about it. It's essentially telling women that their men will be hotter for them if they look more like drag queens!  Is this show trying to create a whole future generation of trannychasers?

Earlier this year on Drag Race Season 3 movie-geeks everywhere were horrified to realize that half of the young drag queen contestants on the show had never heard of the high school classic Heathers (1989). This basic pop culture fail did not automatically eliminate them from the show even though there ought to be laws against that! So the self proclaimed Heathers of the competition banded together like true Mean Girls to belittle their pop-history-deficient competition. But Raven, queen bee of Drag Race Season 2, shows everyone how it's done on the season premiere of Drag U.

Manila tries the formerly successful mean girl moves on Raven. Manila starts throwing her shade at Raven and her makeover subject...

Manila: That's not sexy.
Raven: Why are you so concerned with Miss Denise. Should I call you Heather?
Manila: You wish you were a Heather!
Raven: Actually I don't. I'm a Veronica.

It's such a simple smackdown but it shuts Manila right up. See, everyone knows that Veronica > the Heathers.  She's very.

Click to read more ...

Links: Frankenstein, Hughes, Zombies, Swampthings

FriiiiiiiiieeeeeeeendAntagony & Ecstasy by way of Green Lantern, Timothy looks back at another ill advised green-hued DC adaptation, Swamp Thing
the Wrap John Landis's son hired to write the reboot of Frankenstein. I was wondering when that stitched man monster would try to lumber through the current supernatural crowds again. Hey, Craig was just talking about the original Frankenstein in the Take Three series.
i09 considers True Blood characters who still haven't had sex with each other yet. Who should? 
IndieWire looks at five female directors on the verge 
Movie|Line says the offer is out for Emma Stone to headline Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Natalie Portman was previously rumored but I think Emma is a much better idea for this kind of tonally specific project. Portman is too uneven with the fanciful stuff. Superb in Black Swan but less so other times that f/x surrealness have been involved. But will Emma really say yes given that she's already done Zombieland?

Howard HughesMeanwhile I was asking on Twitter why anyone would want a Chris Nolan Howard Hughes bio (he previously expressed intent) now that the news is out that that's the Warren Beatty project that is in the works. So many blogs were all "but what about Nolan's movie???" Excuse me but has no one seen Reds (1981)? If all biopics were as resonant, well acted and potent as that one it'd be a different film world altogether and Oscars love of the same would be fully and thoroughly justified and not just THIS again?(Nolan is excellent at certain things but I wonder why people think he'd be the man for a biopic when depth of characterization isn't exactly his forte.) Warren will play Hughes (who Leonardo DiCaprio already played as a younger man of course in The Aviator) in his later years and it'll focus on a romance with a younger woman. Rumored to be involved or interested in being involved are: Andrew Garfield, Alec Baldwin, Annette Bening, Shia La Beouf, Rooney Mara and Evan Rachel Wood. Oh and Jack Nicholson who gave one of his all time best and least characteristic performances in Reds. No word yet on who will be playing who but the important news is already out in the cosmos: Warren Beatty is getting back to work. Fi-nal-ly.

First and Last, 5th Season!

Here we go again. This is the first and last image from a motion picture.

Can you guess the movie? check your guess after the jump

Click to read more ...