How Rob Zombie is saving cinematic horror

Tim Brayton here, to talk to everybody about something particularly close to my heart, and particularly useless even in the grand scheme of cinema: the crushing lack of artistry and personality in American horror movies these days.

The issue is brought to mind by the release this week of The Lords of Salem, the fifth film directed by sometime heavy metal rocker Rob Zombie. I have not, at this writing, seen The Lords of Salem, and based on Zombie’s previous work, it’s very likely that I’m going to think it’s pretty terrible. But I am, anyway, more excited to see this than I have been for any other wide-release film in 2013, no matter how bad it’s going to be, because Zombie the filmmaker has consistently been responsible for horror films of the rarest sort: ones where you can actually tell how much the person making them cares about the work.

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Moore Maps The Stars For Cronenberg

JA from MNPP here, checking in with some movie news while Nathaniel heads off to fair Nashville - have you been following the progress of David Cronenberg's next film, the one called Map to the Stars? He's been speaking of making this movie, apparently a Hollywood satire of some sort, since way back in 2006. His then-muse Viggo Mortensen was going to star; as time passed it looked like it would be Viggo alongside Cronenberg's now-muse Robert Pattinson, with Rachel Weisz as the female lead. About a month ago Weisz dropped out and we were worried that the movie might not be happening (especially since Cronenberg's trying acting again in Luca Guadagnino's next flick)...

... but fear no more! Deadline's got word that the goddess Julianne Moore and the, uh, not-goddess John Cusack have now joined the film, and that it will be filming in July (in Toronto, of course). Julianne Moore in a David Cronenberg movie just about makes me wanna click my heels together and perform a dance routine down the street, and is plenty to overcome my, uh, apathy, regarding Cusack. And yes, it does seem that Cusack is replacing Viggo in the picture, so it will be Robert Pattinson and John Cusack as the male leads. I'm sure some of you will not take kindly to that; I personally thought Pattinson was fantastic in Cosmopolis, though.

Also on board is Sarah Gadon - if you've seen anything made with the name "Cronenberg" on it in the past three years, you have seen her. She played Michael Fassbender's wife in A Dangerous Method, and Robert Pattinson's wife in Cosmopolis, and she was the virus-stricken celebrity at the center of David's son Brandon Cronenberg's body-horror piece Antiviral (which I just reviewed the other day). These fellas sure do love them some Sarah Gadon, it seems.

Cannes: The Official Slate

It's afternoon in Paris but bright and early here in NYC and the official Cannes lineup has been announced. In 28 days Baz Luhrmann and his undoubtedly enormous Bazmark posse will be hitting the Croisette for the opening night film The Great Gatsby.  Immediately following that debut reactions will explode chaotically all over the web with unvariably less art-directed beauty than the fireworks in the film. 

But here's what'll actually be competing for the Palme D'Or and assorted main jury prizes. 

IN COMPETITION

• Behind The Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh)
• Borgman (Alex Van Warmerdam)
• Un Chateau En Italie (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi)
• La Grande Bellezza (Paolo Sorrentino)
• Grisgris (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
• Heli (Amat Escalante)
• The Immigrant (James Gray)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
• Jeune Et Jolie (Francois Ozon)
• Jimmy P (Arnaud Desplechin)
• Michael Kohlhaas (Arnaud Despallieres)
• Nebraska (Alexander Payne) 
• Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)
• The Past (Asghar Farhadi)
• Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
• Tian Zhu Ding (Zhangke Jia)
• Venus In Fur (Roman Polanski)
• La Vie D'Adele (Abdellatif Kechiche)
• Wara No Tate (Takashi Miike) 

Which of those films are you bullish on for prizes and/or your own impending fandom? Out of competition and more after the jump...

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April Showers: The Loneliest Planet

April Showers Returns! (Most nights @ 11)

When I reviewed The Loneliest Planet last year, I puposely avoided the one true spoiler that the whole movie pivots on -- "the incident" as the director calls it. But my aversion to spoilers was so pronounced that I got a little carried away. I didn't even reveal what the first scene of the film entailed. But by now, since this returning series is all about film showers, you've surely guessed it.

I began my review this way:

The first of the senses that writer/director Julia Loktev hits us with over the opening black screen is hearing. The sound is a rhythmic pounding / creaking / breathing that's hard to place (sex scene? construction work?). When the fade-up happens, you'd never guess what image is waiting for you! It's something both utterly mundane and alien and strange. This is only the first of the surprises that await you as you journey across the Georgian wilderness with Nica (Hani Furstenberg) and Alex (Gael García Bernal) in The Loneliest Planet. 

That utterly mundane yet alien [NSFW] image is after the jump...

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Watching You Watching...

Holy Motors (2012)

It's confession time. Name the last three movies you watched. No editing. GO...
 

Oscar Flashback: The Leg

Random Oscar Flashback: 
Q: How often do you think of "The Leg"?

My answer is: Embarrassingly Often.

(Your answer is... ?)