Sundance: Only Lovers Left Alive

Our Sundance Film Festival coverage continues with Michael Cusumano on Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive.

Tom & Tilda - who needs neck pillows travelling when you have each other

Before Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive I would have gladly placed a moratorium on all vampire films. Beyond the exhausting cultural ubiquity of the undead, Tom Alfredson’s masterpiece, Let the Right One In appeared to be the final word on the sub-genre for the foreseeable future. What was left to say after that?

I should’ve known better.  All it takes is the synopsis “Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton in a vampire movie by Jim Jarmusch” to remind one that there is new life to be found in any song, provided that the singer is right. [more...] 

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Curio: My 2013 Wish List

Alexa here. 2013 has been filled with movie gifts aplenty, my favorites thus far being the smaller-scale treasures Stories We Tell and Frances Ha. But enough pixels have been spilled over the best films of 2013, so I'm using this space to share the film curios I've been dreaming of this year, all of the art variety. Some of these I've already gifted myself, too impatient to wait for someone else to get on it!  Here's hoping you get everything you're wishing for this year, too.

1. Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art from the Underground by Matthew Chojnacki. This volume nicely covers some of the best indie film posters out there, and includes some of my favorite artists in the process. I couldn't wait for the holidays so I bought it off of my own Amazon wish list; it's sitting on our coffee table right now.  

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Hollywood Is Mean To Older Women. Let's Help Them With A Chart!

The news about Laura Dern playing Reese Witherspoon's mother made me giggle at first this weekend since she's the right age to play her big sister. But the more I thought of it the more it bugged me. Especially since it came hot on the heels of realizing that Tilda Swinton, who turns 53 in a week or two, had the role originally designed for the legendary Angela Lansbury (who is 88) in Grand Budapest Hotel. To add insult to injury, Alex reminded me on Twitter that Susan Sarandon will be playing Melissa McCarthy's grandmother in the upcoming comedy Tammy. Sarandon is just 24 years older than McCarthy which would make her a fairly young mother of the star but a grandmother? That means she and her fictional daughter were knocked up as pre-teens. Gross!

None of this should be miscontrued as me not enjoying myself some Dern, Sarandon and Swinton! But all of this reminds me that Sally Field, ten years senior to Tom Hanks, played his mother in Forrest Gump just six years after rejecting him romantically in Punchline. That's misogynist Hollywood's version of karmic punishment, right?! [more]

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Yes, No, Maybe So: Grand Budapest Hotel

Hospitality is all about speed, charm and mind-reading. Get them checked in, ingratiate yourself, anticipate their every need. Movies have to do that in reverse so the new poster (discussed) and the trailer have arrived to charm and anticipate our needs. Will you check into his GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL in Spring 2014? Let's check off our yes no maybe so boxes...

YES

• ohmygod the colorology! I'm in ♥ with all the reds and purples and whites on view here. Wes Anderson movies may all look exactly like Wes Anderson movies but they do change up the color palette, so points for that.
• And speaking of which... I really think costumers and production designers on his movies do not get enough credit. It's insane to me that Karen Patch, for example, wasn't Oscar nominated for her instantly iconic work on The Royal Tenenbaums. This time it's the legendary Milena Canonero (on her 3rd Anderson picture) and Adam Stockhausen (who graduated to Production Designer on Moonrise Kingdom), respectively.
• If Wes Anderson were a hotelier, I imagine he'd have to run a very small exclusive boutique, building the perfect meticulously designed dollhouse rooms for his devout fanbase and repertory actors to squeeze into. I would glady pay rack. 
• Ralph Fiennes as a ladykiller concierge named "Gustav H"
• Tilda as an unrecognizably old rich lady horny for him? 

NO

• Oh noooos. Tilda dies to kick off the plot? That's too little Tilda.
• ...Especially since the cast list is otherwise a total sausage party. 

MAYBE SO

• Why is this trailer square? Is Wes challenging himself with an old school aspect ratio? [update after writing: yep, apparently there are three aspect ratios here] I know people complain about his center framed horizontals but I LIKE horizontal, and love his unique aesthetic.
• Do you think this one will skew too forced whacky? (the roundelay of face-punching, the skiing) or too precious (the secret code, the name of the painting, the "lobby boy" cap)
• ...can a Wes Anderson movie even be too precious? Or, if so, should they all be animated like Fantastic Mr Fox?
• Moonrise Kingdom will be hard to top but he doesn't need to. Even his least satisfying movie (The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou) still has all sorts of corners and hallways and portholes to look into and at.

THE TRAILER

Are you a yes, no, or maybe so... and in what ways? Do tell.

Free Bong!

JA from MNPP here. I assume you guys been following the burgeoning brouhaha surrounding the new movie Snowpiercer from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho? The film is Bong's first English-language feature (you should definitely seek out some of his previous work like Mother or Memories of Murder, if you are unfamiliar) and stars Chris Evans, Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton amongst others, and is set in a post-apocalyptic future on board a train barreling through the wintry wilderness. The film's gotten some seriously positive reviews at some film festivals (and if any of you have actually seen the movie out there, please do share) over the past few months...

... which apparently means little to The Weinstein Company, who snapped up the distribution rights to the movie for half of the globe only to immediately decide that twenty minutes or so needed to be lopped off of it. There's been some back and forth about it in the press, and Bong's tried to remain diplomatic about it. Until now, that is - Variety's reporting that he's furious, and telling audiences now that the cut that most of the world will end up seeing will not be his cut.

I'll point out that it's impossible for me to hide my tone here - I've spent years watching Harvey Weinstein snap up horror movies with magnificent festival buzz only to hide them away and botch their release, so I've had some time to build up these resentments. They are deep and I can't be counted upon for a level head here. I'm just glad we live in a connected world of technological wonder where I'll be able to see Bong's film the way it was intended as soon as it's released in South Korea, and therefore bypass putting a penny into the Weinstein's pockets. That said, I recognize I haven't seen the film - maybe Harvey knows best? What do you guys think about this?