Yes No Maybe So: "The Rewrite"

Hugh Grant returns to the romantic comedy genre in "The Rewrite". Here's Matthew Eng to break it down for us in our Yes No Maybe So way

YES

• Marisa Tomei
• Marisa Tomei
• Marisa Tomei
• Let me say it again. Marisa. Tomei. I’ll take her wherever I can get her, and I’d watch The Rewrite if only as a dolled-up delivery system for the most undervalued Oscar-winning actress working today. Why active, actress-friendly directors like David O. Russell and Woody Allen have yet to scoop her up and make a comedic muse out of her is totally beyond comprehension. She’s moving, miffed, and magnificent in Love is Strange, giving a pitch-perfect supporting performance, in the purest sense of the term. And she seems to be serving up her usual best here (i.e. rich, relaxed, and revealing character work) and top-lining (!) the damn thing as Hugh Grant’s older screenwriting pupil/inevitable love interest and she also seems to have a scene where she adorably re-creates the “Born to Hand Jive” scene from Grease with two little girls, and so for that and for My Marisa, I’ll be there.

more and the trailer itself after the jump...

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Yes, No, Maybe So: Jon Stewart's Rosewater

Amir here, anxiously over-analyzing the trailer for Jon Stewart’s directorial debut. Rosewater tells the story of Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist who was arrested following the Green Revolution riots, when Iranians protested against the controversial presidential elections of 2009. At the time, Daily Show host Jon Stewart followed the story in great detail. That publicity was instrumental in Bahari’s eventual release and Stewart's interest in the events has evidently not subsided since. Rosewater stars TFE favorite Gael García Bernal as Bahari.

The trailer and our usual YNMS treatment after the jump...

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Yes, No, Maybe So: Men, Women & Children

In the effort to get caught up on a backlog of trailers via our Yes, No, Maybe So. series, I asked the team which they'd like to do. I accidentally got two Men Women and Children completed before I had a chance to assign it as it were. So here are both Andrew and Matthew, both Maybe Sos but leaning in opposite directions to sound off on Jason Reitman’s upcoming Men, Women & Children based on the 2011 Chad Kultgen novel. It’s his immediate follow-up to last year’s Labor Day, which everyone is trying to forget about. (Successfully?) Will it return him to former critical glories. The film goes wide in the US on October 17th (facing off against Brad Pitt in Fury), shortly after its TIFF bow. Let’s make snap judgements about the trailer after the jump - Nathaniel.

Double-side breakdown after the jump

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Yes, No, Maybe So: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Tim here, with a peek at the new trailer for one of the year's biggest remaining animated releases. "Big" in the sense of "very, very small, but of peerless interest to animation buffs". Namely, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, the latest film by Studio Ghibli, and the second-to-last before their indefinite leave of absence. It's just a teaser, but with less than two months before GKIDS releases the film, it's probably the best we're going to get.

Yes

• Director Isao Takahata's films aren't as widely known in the States as his colleague Hayao Miyazaki's, but they might honestly be better on a title-by-title basis. He favors simple, human-driven scenarios, which he then depicts using innovative, unconventional visual styles.
• Like this visual style, for example:
  
  
  Whatever else it is, the colored-pencil look is going to make it the most unique animated film of 2014.
• So dramatic! The ominous music, the non-stop momentum, the collection of mysterious locations. I have no clue what's going on, but it's obviously very serious.

No

• GKIDS isn't releasing a version with the original Japanese audio to theaters, and their dub cast doesn't raise a lot of hope: Dean Cain? Mary Steenburgen? Beau Bridges? The '90s wants their B-listers back.

Maybe So

• There's absolutely nothing here to indicate the content, so it's selling the movie entirely on two brand names, Ghibli and Takahata. Those are trustworthy brand names, but not infallible.

I'm 100% a Yes on this one. Takahata isn't infallible, but he's damn close, and the artwork, especially in movement, is eye-wateringly beautiful.

Who else is joining me in the YES column for this one?

Yes, No, Maybe So: Rudderless & Revenge of the Green Dragons

Deborah here, with a double-entry of Yes, No, Maybe So. First up, Rudderless from actor turned director William H Macy. (He's up for an Emmy Monday night for Shameless)

Yes

• Directorial debut of William H. Macy. I'm a fan.
• He's using his wife, the awesome Felicity Huffman. Also Billy Crudup.
• There's a sweet naturalism to the trailer.
• It looks like Begin Again, except with more death and less money. I loved Begin Again.

No

• It looks like Begin Again, except with more death and less money. How about a new movie?

More after the jump including the trailers themselves...

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