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  • REVIEW: “Fish Tank” (***1/2)

    Katie Jarvis in Fish TankEdinburgh International Film Festival

    There’s a slightly condescending tendency among many critics to brand almost any British film set on a working-class council estate as “miserablist” simply by virtue of the aesthetics of its setting, despite the fact that many thousands of people live functional, three-dimensional lives in precisely such conditions.

    Of course, it’s a bias that filmmakers feed too: since Ken Loach essentially patented this sub-genre with “Cathy Come Home” in 1966, the landscape of Britfilm has been clogged with imitators piling on the grimness to perverse effect.

    Occasionally, however, the trend gives rise to a creative voice of genuine compassion and ingenuity. Recently, Lynne Ramsay and Shane Meadows have located poetry and humor in the crevices of blue-collar Britain.

    Now Oscar-winning short filmmaker Andrea Arnold joins their rank with “Fish Tank,” a deserving Jury Prize winner at Cannes that represents a quantum leap on Arnold’s already impressive feature debut, “Red Road.”

    I’d be lying if I said “Fish Tank” isn’t an often unhappy, and occasionally very angry, film. But in its detailed, immersive study of the life of an emotionally tormented, 15 year-old Essex girl (the term applied geographically rather than pejoratively, though protagonist Mia certainly has many of the vulgar physical and behavioral traits beloved of British satirists like Catherine Tate), the film seeks out moments of everyday contentment, and even cathartic bliss, that keep the proceedings in balance. (It’ll be interesting view the film in relation to its similarly-themed U.S. counterpart, “Precious.”)

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  • Windy City ‘Enemies’ premiere

    Johnny Depp at the Chicago premiere of Public Enemies

    Christian Bale at the Chicago premiere of Public Enemies

    (Courtesy: Chicago Tribune)

  • Best review ever

    ThiefI put in Michael Mann’s “Thief” for the first time in a few years last night.  Partly preparation for an upcoming installment of The Lists, partly just general Mann-watching in the wake of this week’s “Public Enemies” screening.  Anyway, I did some searching on the net, poking in the usual corners while watching the flick, and I stumbled across this IMDb user review that just cracks me up.  I would insert a paragraph break, but the run-on nature of the thing wouldn’t come across right.

    Here it is in full:

    Saw this in the theater at it’s release. Went back the next weekend and scenes were cut. They remain cut in every version I’ve seen since. Frank snaps chalk lines off traces of blueprints onto the safe face in the opening heist. Guess the crime commission didn’t dig that, ’cause that 5 seconds is history in every cut I’ve seen since. How do the boys and their gear get up on the roof of the bank building? Rocket assisted grappling hook mortars firing mountain lines and Jumar ascenders from the parking lot. You won’t see that scene anymore, either. Man, I miss the Corned Beefs at the Belden Deli on Clark where Frank hands the stones to Gags. Long gone. But if you are in Chicago, stop in early at the Green Mill and you might be able to have a drink in that big, round wood booth – still there. Great gun & car flick. Frank’s .45 looks like a Bomar Svenson custom combat, tremendous. Watch for the High Standard 12 guage stakeout special at the end – very rare. Take a drive up north on Western Avenue to check out all the used car lots – still there. Great locations. Yup, the creme was ALWAYS cottage cheese at the old Oasis restuarants. Yuch! You know – Tuesday Weld actually even ACTS a little in this movie, amazing. Man that was a gorgeous house in my old neighborhood and yes they blew it up. Notice when they are snuggling on the outdoor patio – it had a two-sided fireplace – indoor and outdoor. Probably the best Chicago movie ever. The phone book and trash can – time honored tools of the early 80’s. When I saw it opening night the theater was filled with every crook and detective on the north side with their wives. And everybody just nodded to each other on the way out. Those days are gone but not forgotten. Great, great flick. Cool TD soundtrack album, too. Also probably the best metallurgical movie ever. I want Frank’s coat.

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  • 6/19 Web Round-up

    Larry David in Whatever Works• What is “entertainment news?” [CNN]

    • The top 10 Woody Allen proxies, in honor of Larry David’s performance in “Whatever Works.” [Spout Blog]

    • Hollywood sets its sights on “happening” Washington, D.C. [USA Today]

    • A few days after we discussed the exciting social networking cinephile destination The Auteurs, Andrew O’Hehir writes at considerable length about the influx of Video On Demand websites. [Beyond the Multiplex]

    • Stage productions, coming to a theater near you? [Wall Street Journal]

    • The seven most contrived rom-com scenarios. [Cinematical]

    • Peter Sciretta calls DreamWorks out “Boo U.,” which seems awfully similar to Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” [/Film]

    • Spotlighting a dozen of EW’s Movie Must list. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Peter Bart joins Michael Fleming on a new industry blog at variety. [BF Deal Memo]

  • What does that say on the ‘2012’ logo in the new trailer?

    UPDATE: Commenter IOc is on it.  Turns out the phrase is likely a Bible quote from Revelations 16:16: “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon (here Apocalypse).” Ominous.

    EARLIER: Earlier today we posted the new trailer for Roland Emmerich’s “2012.”  Clearly anticipation is divided on the matter, but besides all that, I noticed some weird message on the logo at the end.  Here’s the clearest screencap:

    2012

    Looks like it might say “Enter into a place” and then some word that ends with “gue” then “Apocalypse.”  What’s it say?  What’s it mean?  Do you care?

  • Festival frenzy

    You know you’re properly in the swing of a film festival when you have neither the time nor the clarity to actually write about the day’s events. And so it is today: after four back-to-back screenings, one panel discussion and a whole lot of trekking back and forth between the festival’s rather widely dispersed theaters, I haven’t really the presence of mind for anything other than a stiff drink and an early night. And with the festival’s official press party due to kick off in under an hour, it looks like I’ll only be getting the first half of that prescription.

    Of course, there is much that I want to share with you from today’s proceedings, including one superb film that I’m deliberating over giving another four-star review to. (I don’t usually dish those out often.) Meanwhile, this afternoon offered up another film lover’s Sophie’s Choice: attend the in-depth Sam Mendes Q&A, or the festival’s only screening of the exquisitely restored “The Red Shoes?” Actually, my heart had no trouble deciding on the latter, and it proved every bit as nourishing as you’d expect, but I’d have liked to have made both.

    All to be discussed in good time. Stay tuned.

  • Comment of the day

    I’m in but if John Cusack figures out a way to stop the natural end of the world, I am going to punch someone in the face.

    Chad over in the “2012” thread.

  • New ‘2012’ trailer melts my face off

    Alright, I’ll say at the top here that I’m full on in the tank for Roland Emmerich’s brand of blow-stuff-up-good apocalyptic cinema.  Even when the science is dubious (coughthedayaftertomorrowcough), I’m glad there’s someone out there who at least knows how to make this stuff engaging.  Sue me.  And this new trailer for “2012” (a subject I’ve written at length about before and which fascinates me completely), is indicative of what has to be the most balls-to-the-wall, destroy everything, leave nothing standing movie ever.  Of all time.  Biblical.  BRING IT.

    A sound mixer friend who saw large chunks of the film also told me the technical aspects of this thing are unbelievable.  The carnage is outrageous, he says, which has me wondering: could “2012” be the first Emmerich film since “Independence Day” to rack up some tech nods?  His films as of late have seemed somewhat stuck in the 1990s when it comes to the below-the-line stuff, but the effects in this trailer (exclusively released on Yahoo! Movies) are quality.  Mind you, I laughed out loud at the brazen nature of this destruction.  I cracked up at the performances, too.  It’s so sincere it’s just too much.  But I don’t care.  I can’t wait.

  • Poster for ‘Wrestler’ writer Robert Siegel’s directorial debut: ‘Big Fan’

    Big Fan

    (Courtesy: Cinematical)

  • 6/18 Web Round-up

    Antichrist video game• Reed Johnson talks “Whatever Works” with Larry David. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Donna Freydkin, meanwhile, chats up Woody Allen. [USA Today]

    • Lou Lumenick breaks the “Public Enemies” embargo with an unthoughtful, painfully ignorant review. (Updated now, redacted at Universal’s request.) [New York Post]

    • Speaking of which, check out a new clip from the film. [Yahoo! Movies]

    • Shanghai film fest jury president Danny Boyle speaks out against Chinese restrictions on freedom of speech. [The Guardian]

    • Is technology ruining movies? [Rope of Silicon]

    • Uhhhh…an “Antichrist” video game? [/Film]

    • Kevin Maher gets some quality time with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” director Michael Bay. [The Times]

    • People actually think Christopher Nolan is in a position where he has to fish for more money from Warner Bros.? [CHUD]

  • This I like

    Inglourious Basterds

  • Weirdest film-lover knick-knack ever?

    Robert Osborne bobble head

  • Alexander Payne tapped as Telluride’s guest director

    Alexander PayneFrom Screen International:

    Festival co-directors Tom Luddy, Julie Huntsinger and Gary Meyer have invited Payne to select a series of films to show at the prestigious Colorado-based festival. The festival chooses a guest director each year, with past participants including Salman Rushdie, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo and Slavoj Zizek.

    As with the rest of the programme, Telluride will keep Payne’s selections top secret until the festival kicks off on September 4.

    “I have had the pleasure of knowing Alexander for many years – from the time he was a Stanford student who came to see rare films at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and throughout his career,” Luddy said. “I have long admired his work and his obvious love of the art of film. Our partnership with him on this year’s Festival has been seamless.”

    “Alexander has succeeded in programming a group of films with both rarity and variety,” added Meyer. “We have a sophisticated audience at Telluride and he has met the challenge and exceeded our highest expectations.”

    We anticipate covering the Telluride fest here at In Contention for the first time this year.  More as it comes.  The season’s right around the corner…can you believe it?

  • EDINBURGH: Away they go

    John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph in Away We GoTuesday dawned gray, gusty and rain-spattered here in Edinburgh – the kind of morning where there’s nothing for it than to bury oneself in the comforting recesses of a dark movie theater – which, handily enough, is all that I had on my agenda for today.

    After formulating a strategy over breakfast as to which films could be caught at a later date, I ended up deciding morning’s viewing with a coin-toss, a concession to fate that happily led to the droll delights of Australian animation “Mary and Max,” before my afternoon was given over to the festival’s rather more glossy opener, “Away We Go.”

    As I write, Sam Mendes and cast members John Krasinski and Maggie Gyllenhaal are treading the red carpet to formally christen this year’s festival. (Not joining them is female lead Maya Rudolph, who, in an irony apparent to anyone who has seen the film, was unable to fly to Edinburgh because she is eight months pregnant.)

    It’s a fitting opener, in the sense that its carefully negotiated balance between indie outsiderness and cozy Hollywood warmth reflects the transitory state of the Edinburgh Film Festival as a whole. Symbolic neatness aside, however, I see no context in which “Away We Go” (**1/2) can’t be regarded as a major disappointment from Sam Mendes.

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  • Play it again

    Once Upon a Time in the WestAs a younger film lover, there are few thrills greater than seeing a title you’ve always loved through the medium of television and DVD (and, at the risk of dating myself, home video) given new life on a cinema screen, the way nature, or the filmmaker at least, originally intended.

    A big-screen reappraisal can heighten already ardent cinephile devotion to a certain title – watching Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (admittedly in redux form) on a 20-foot screen in an empty theatre remains the single greatest cinemagoing experience of my life, while a pristine new cut of “Once Upon a Time in the West” at last year’s London Film Festival was one of my highlights of 2008.

    Alternatively, the closer scrutiny of a cinema viewing can heighten one’s appreciation for a less-adored title. I had always admired “Barry Lyndon” more than I actively loved it, until a gorgeous restored print at London’s BFI Southbank earlier this year awakened me to the intricate painterliness of its compositions and near-hypnotic stateliness of its pacing. Some films need the immersive quality of the theatrical experience to drive their aesthetic point home.

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  • EDINBURGH: Animated pleasures

    Mary and MaxToday’s Edinburgh talk may have centered on festival opener “Away We Go” (more on that to come), but the day’s real delight was “Mary and Max” (***1/2), an alternately disarming and disconcerting feature debut from claymation maestro Adam Elliot, who won a 2003 Academy Award for his short “Harvey Krumpet,” and carries that film’s decidedly adult-level cuteness into his new effort.

    As “Up” continues accumulating valentines from critics across the board, “Mary and Max” forms some interesting parallel points to Pixar’s mega-hit, with both films employing the gentleness of the animated form to address difficult themes of loneliness and social isolation, and doing so via an unlikely friendship between misfits young and old.

    Of course, the relationship at the core of “Mary and Max,” which details the accidental but long-enduring friendship of correspondence between a neglected 8 year-old girl in Australia and a middle-aged New York man emotionally crippled by Asperger’s Syndrome, will likely raise far more eyebrows than “Up,” which is probably why the film is still seeking a U.S. distributor months after its warm reception at Sundance.

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  • Larry David on Conan

    I haven’t written about Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works” yet because it’s such a problematic, forgettable piece of work.  Back to the usual after a heck of a success last year, I guess.  But regardless, this “Tonight Show” interview with Larry David last night (his first appearance on the show) is an absolute hoot.   It’s amazing that a partnership with Allen, which you would think would sing, somehow muted his comedic talents. The performance has its moments, but most of them are a bit cheap, I thought. Anyway, here’s the interview, in two parts:

  • REVIEW: “The Hurt Locker” (****)

    The Hurt Locker(Edinburgh International Film Festival)

    Put in the most glib possible terms, the longstanding industry perception of Kathryn Bigelow is that she’s something of an artistic tomboy: the girl who likes to play in the boys’ sandbox — and play roughly, at that. While true to a large extent, it’s a reputation that is rooted in the belief that genre filmmaking is principally a male preoccupation.

    Never mind that a number of her films — from vampire tale “Near Dark” to female-fronted cop thriller “Blue Steel” (to say nothing of the curious anomaly that was the brooding Elizabeth Hurley drama “The Weight of Water”) — aren’t exactly testosterone-fests; the fact that she frequently foregrounds the physical ahead of the emotional is enough to qualify her as a male-centric storyteller in most viewers’ eyes.

    So it’s somewhat surprising, upon closer inspection, to note that Bigelow has heretofore never made a film explicitly about masculinity. Yes, “Point Break” and her misfiring last feature, “K-19: The Widowmaker,” may have revolved exclusively around men, but the characters in these films were mere facilitators of action, not freestanding psychological subjects. For a woman who purportedly makes movies for men, Bigelow has never seemed particularly interested in the male experience.

    All that has changed spectacularly with “The Hurt Locker,” a formally simple but startlingly layered, savage war film that, in localizing its conflict to the internal battles between three unmoored soldiers, marries her dazzling staging abilities with a newfound level of human interest and compassion.

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