NYFF: "My Week With Marilyn"

Poor Marilyn. The press hounded her. Fans would tear off pieces of her soul if they could. Co-stars and directors dissed her. Men wouldn't leave her alone (not that she wanted them to). And now Simon Curtis is holding yet another Monroe seance -- her soul will never rest in peace -- with his feature film debut My Week With Marilyn (2011),  a "true" story about the making of The Prince and the Showgirl (1957).

True must come with quotes. The film is based on the memoirs of Colin Clark, the third assistant director on the "lightest of comedies" directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). Can we trust the awestruck account of a young movie dreamer's version of his friendship and quasi-romance with the world's most famous actress? My Week With Marilyn emphatically does despite the amusingly placcid (if repetitive) moonyness with which the talented Eddie Redmayne portrays him, as if he's just as doped up as Marilyn, but much smarter about his cocktails of choice.

"Surprise!" Marilyn escapes with Colin Clark, lowly third assistant directorClark was 23 going on 24 when he met the immortal bombshell while hustling into the movies, landing his first job on a set through the help of his father's connections, despite the fact that the father did not approve of him 'running off to the circus'. The details of Clark's adventure in the movies are both acted out and explained to us in voiceover in the film's inelegant screenplay, which prefers for the characters to state the obvious or speak their psychologies aloud. Sometimes they even speak Marilyn's aloud; in the great transitive powers of true celebrity, everyone on earth is her psycho-therapist. Sometimes this obviousness of speech has comic payoffs (the film works best as a comedic clash between proper British theatrical training and idiot-savant American stardom) and once it even pays off both dramatically and comedically in a sadly funny scene where Colin Clark tells it like it is, succinctly, to Marilyn. He understands Marilyn and Olivier's mirrored goals and prophesies the failure of the movie.

Thought Balloons as dialogue and Michelle's performance after the jump...

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10 Word Reviews: The Ides of Miss Pina Bala's March of Shame

I think you'll agree that we've had our best festival coverage ever with our NYFF write-ups (thanks to Kurt & Michael for their continued input) but even with the speedy pace of full reviews that we've been hitting, it's all too easy to fall behind. So here are super short notes on films seen recently during the festival and outside of it since we can't get to full reviews yet (or ever probably in some cases). After the ten word reviews I'm adding Oscar Thoughts since all four of these films have golden dreams.

Shame (Steve McQueen)
Fucked up siblings Michael Fassbender & Carey Mulligan self-destruct in New York through sex & despair.
10 WR: Brilliant sense of ghostly city, personal demons. But too obvious. B+ (B?)
Oscar?: Frighteningly committed acting but will voters see it? It'll surely be NC-17

Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo)
A beauty pageant contestant falls prey to drug cartel in escalating war.
10 WR: Easy indulgent nihilism elevated by smart construction and thematic visualizations. B-
Oscar?: The things it does very well are easy to see/love (or overpraise depending on how you see it). Will almost certainly make the pre-nomination finals in Best Foreign Language Film.
P.S. Michael reviewed this one and liked it much more than I did it. 

Pina (Wim Wenders)
A performed documentary on Pina Bausch, the late legendary German choreographer.
10 WR: 3D amplifies choreography's spatial genius. Bit noncommittal: Performance? Doc? Decide! B
Oscar?: Unless you count Waltz With Bashir, Oscar's foreign committee has never nominated a documentary. But this one is very very easy to enjoy (the dancing is like heaven) and could be a novelty exception to "rule". 

Ides of March (George Clooney)
Clooney adapts the stage play about dirty politics and betrayals of spirit, body, and ideals
10 WR: Involving and handsome but few great scenes. Weird "scene-change" pacing. B
Oscar?: Seems very likely on several fronts but particularly Supporting Actor (Clooney, Giamatti or Hoffman, though?) and score (Desplat's work gets a lot of "air time" if you will.) Though Evan Rachel Wood (major role) and Marisa Tomei (minor role) are both marvelous, Supporting Actress seems less likely for a wide variety of reasons.

Quick takes. Finis! In short it's been a good run of super enjoyable or at least interesting movies lately. Other than that Abduction fluke. Your turn in the comments.

Hollywood Awards 2011. Something For Everyone (& the Fanboys)

The annual pubicity stunt that is the Hollywood Film Festival Awards have been announced. The ceremony will take place on October 24th, 2011. No publicity is bad publicity so this is good news for all of the recipients, especially since in most cases they are blocking some direct competition from picking up the very same free publicity. (Not that publicity is free but... oh never mind.) Just for fun I've included the past two years of recipients in italics below this year's honor so you can gauge their general behavior (which is erratic in terms of titles of awards, number of recipients, and whether it has any reflection of general awards season hoopla).

A professional working actor for the past 23 years and a famous one for the past 16 wins "BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR" (Hee!)

Hollywood Career Achievement Award: GLENN CLOSE - Albert Nobbs
2010 -Sylvester Stallone; 2009 - 
Hollywood Actor Award: no one announced yet
2010 -Robert Duvall -Get Low; 2009: Robert DeNiro -Everybody's Fine
Hollywood Director of the Year: no one announced yet 
2010 Tom Hooper -The King's Speech; 2009 Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Hollywood Actress Award:MICHELLE WILLIAMS - My Week with Marilyn
2010 - Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; 2009 -Hilary Swank -Amelia 
Hollywood Supporting Actor Award: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER - Beginners
2010- Sam Rockwell, Conviction; 2009 -Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterdss 
Hollywood Supporting Actress Award: CAREY MULLIGAN - Shame
2010- Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech; 2009 -Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT - 50/50
2010- Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; 2009 - Jeremy Renner The Hurt Locker; 
Hollywood Breakthrough Actress Award: JESSICA CHASTAIN - The Tree of Life; The Help; Take Shelter; Coriolanus
2010 - Mia Wasikowska; 2009-Carey Mulligan
New Hollywood Award: FELICITY JONES -  Like Crazy
*** strange note *** According to the IMDb Felicity Jones won this prize last year, too, for the same film. But there is no "New Hollywood" prize for 2010 listed on the Hollywood Film Festival Site; 2009 Gabby Sidibe, Precious
Hollywood Ensemble Cast Award: "THE HELP" CAST 
2010: "The Social Network" Cast; 2009: n/a
Hollywood Screenwriter Award: DIABLO CODY -Young Adult
2010: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network; 2009 Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber -500 Days of Summer
Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award: MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS - The Artist
2010 -n/a; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Producer Award: LETTY ARONSON - Midnight in Paris
2010: Danny Boyle & Christian Colson 127 Hours, 2009 Ryan Cavanaugh (not sure which movie. he had several) 
Hollywood Cinematographer Award: EMMANUEL LUBEZSKI - The Tree of Life
2010 Wally Pfister -Inception; 2009 Roger Deakins -A Serious Man
Hollywood Film Composer Award: ALBERTO IGLESIAS - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
2010 Hans Zimmer -Inception;
Hollywood Editor Award: STEPHEN MIRRIONE - The Ides of March
2010 Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter -The Social Network; 2009-Dana Glauberman - Up in the Air
Hollywood Production Designer Award: JAMES J. MURAKAMI - J. Edgar
Hollywood Visual Effects Award: "TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON" - Scott Farrar
2010 Iron Man 2; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Animation Award: "RANGO" directed by Gore Verbinski
2010: Toy Story 3; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Comedy Award: no one announced yet 
2010 Zach Galifianakis; 2009: Bradley Cooper (they're working their way through the entire cast of The Hangover)
Hollywood Spotlight Awards: SHAILENE WOODLEY - The Descendants
2010: Mila Kunis, Milla Jovovich, Leighton Meester, and Noomi Rapace; 2009 Paul Schneider and Melanie Lynskey  

Their "Movie of the Year" prize (won by Inception last year and Star Trek the year before) you can vote on yourself since they do this in conjunction with Yahoo Movies. The nominees are...

• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Cowboys & Aliens
• Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part Two
• The Help
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Rango
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Super 8
• Transformers Dark of the Moon
• X-Men First Class

Movie of the Year is short for Fanboy Film of the Year since, despite the weird anomaly of The Help, they go strictly boy-appeal f/x driven blockbusters. They lean that way so hard that they're willing to toss out a big hit like Bridesmaids in order to include a movie virtually nobody likes to drive the target-audience point home (hi, Cowboys and Aliens!). 

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Young Adult"

Last time director Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody got together they gave us Juno (2007). This combined effort won them millions at the box office and four Oscar nominations. Can they strike gold twice? 

Cheers. Charlize Theron is a fierce funny bitch in "Young Adult" 

Young Adult features Oscar winning glamazon Charlize Theron as "Mavis" who returns to her hometown to win back an old boyfriend who is now a happily married father. Everyone else knows this is a terrible idea.

YES

• A lying cheating amoral lead character who is a "psychotic prom queen bitch"? We're so there.
• Dogs in bags, black fingernail polish... love that she's a bit dated in her badass "coolness" but totally pleased with herself about it. You can't get a bead from these two minutes whether she's aware that she's "shocking" (see also: Liza in Cabaret) or if she's oblivious to her own crazy... but either way that'll be funny.
• Biggest LOL Moment: Mavis and the ugly baby. If the whole movie is that funny, it'll be a perennial you can watch on repeat.
• Love the disconnect in her conversations "I'm a married man." "We can beat this thing together!"
• Charlize's comedic talents rarely get such a work out so bring it on.

NO

• The trailer promises The Charlize Show, but one of Juno's strengths was its fully humanized supporting cast. This doesn't suggest any depth of focus at first glance beyond its showy lead. Will Charlize be enough?
• If Charlize ends up with Patton Oswalt, that's just going to be weird and yet totally pandering/typical of the movies where the über babes are always falling for guys who look like regular moviegoers. 

MAYBE SO

• Jason Reitman's films are usually fairly impressive juggling acts with dramatic and comedic balls up in the air (sorry) constantly. This looks like a simple straightforward comedy. It might be more but even if it isn't won't that be welcome in the heat of Prestige Film Season surrounding by Totally Meaningful Sober Epic Dramas?

Here's the trailer

Are you a yes, no or maybe so? Charlize Theron: how ya like her now? How you like her Oscar chances once that Golden Globe is sewn up... or will Kristen Wiig's Bridesmaid trip her up there?

Yes, No, Maybe So: "My Week With Marilyn"

Visual information was a long time coming with My Week With Marilyn, but now at last the trailer for the film has arrived giving us a peek at Michelle Williams as Hollywood's most famous blonde bombshell and the story of a diversion with a reporter during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl.

Dougray Scott and Michelle Williams as Mr & Mrs Arthur Miller

In the trailer we see lots of Michelle as Marilyn and a pissy Sir Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier. Judi Dench seems starstruck, Dominic Cooper annoyed, and Eddie Redmayne appropriately in over his head as the young man she takes up with.  Let's break it down. Do we wanna see it and why?

Breakdown and full trailer after the jump.

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