Opening This Week
January 5th, 2009 adminCheck out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
…because A Fistful of Reviews was taken.
2008 Hot and Not List
December 31st, 2008 adminThe Dark Knight aside, 2008 would have to go down as a pretty underwhelming year in the grand scheme of things. A lot of promise, hype and pedigree culminated in an end product that was more often than not well, kinda crap really. But it wasn’t all bad and there were some clear winners this year with some real breakout performances delivered along with some more established players cementing their status as genuine heavy hitters. This year also produced its fair share of monumental, cataclysmic screen bombs that might not necessarily sink careers, but have certainly sunk a few franchises. So here is a brief summary of who made out this year and who will likely spend 2009 wandering the wastelands of career wilderness.
What’s Hot?
Josh Brolin – Following last year’s breakout supporting roles in such prestigious vehicles as American Gangster and In The Valley of Elah, capped off with a matured lead in Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men, Josh Brolin scored big in 2008. A quietly understated performance as the conflicted and unstable city councilman in Gus Van Sant’s Milk came hot on the heels of a star making turn in Oliver Stone’s ultimately rather pointless biopic of number W., where Josh amazingly managed to make Georgie and his daddy issues almost sympathetic. If there is one drawback, he is now almost certainly too famous for The Goonies sequel.
Opening This Week
December 30th, 2008 adminCheck out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
December 30th, 2008 admin
2008
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Mahershalahasgbaz Ali
Director: David Fincher
Runtime: 165 Minutes
Distributor: Paramount
Rating: PG-13
A screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzferald’s celebrated 1922 short story about a boy born in his eighties who throughout his life endures a process of reverse aging has been on the table for sometime. However, getting it off the table and into production proved something of a mammoth undertaking as a series of seemingly insurmountable hurdles presented themselves.
First technology needed to catch up so you could use a single actor for the role instead of eight different actors, and thanks to the likes of Peter Jackson and his work with Golem we can consider that one hurdled. Then you needed a director with both the interest and experience in cutting edge digital technology – step forward David Fincher. Next you needed a star with a big enough draw to justify the $150 million and up budget. That would be Brad Pitt then. Finally you need a scripter with enough smarts to cram one mans wildly colorful life story into a single, coherent movie. For that you turn of course to Eric Roth, whose last attempt at doing just that, Forest Gump, bagged him an Oscar.
Opening This Week
December 27th, 2008 adminCheck out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
‘Tis the Season to Be Jolly?
December 20th, 2008 admin**Warning – contains some spoilerage**
Christmas time is right around the corner. Decorations are being put up, credit cards are being maxed out, and cantankerous old relatives are being flown in for the requisite awkward domestic atmosphere. You know, all the usual good stuff. Though with the economy in the tank the way it is and people being layed-off in the tens of thousands all across the nation, this year more than ever we desperately find ourselves in need of some holiday cheer of bailout proportions.
As is customary during every holiday season many people turn to the movies. They’re cheap (relatively), they’re fun (providing whatever you’re watching doesn’t have Mark Wahlberg in it), and they also go a long way towards offsetting that aforementioned awkward domestic atmosphere. But to look at this year’s post-Thanksgiving line-up it’s a small wonder people aren’t walking out of theater right in front of the nearest bus, because boy is there some epic misery on display right now.
Seven Pounds
December 20th, 2008 admin
2008
Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Ealy, Barry Pepper, Joe Nunez
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Runtime: 120 Minutes
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Rating: PG-13
In what just might be the most depressing film of 2008, which is an impressive feat in and of itself when you pick over the festive line-up of assassination pictures and holocaust dramas, Will smith reunites with his Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino. While Happyness exists in the same realm of a somber tug in the heartstrings the two pictures are a world apart, and in fact Seven Pounds has more in common with Smith’s post-apocalyptic savior from I am Legend.
Like Robert Neville eking out a meager existence in self-imposed exile on Manhattan, as IRS agent Ben Thomas Smith again delivers another earnest portrayal of a tortured soul desperate to atone. A former aeronautical engineer consumed by guilt over a dark secret from his past Ben sleepwalks through his life inviting punishment. Whether berating a neglectful administrator in a nursing home or caustically mocking a blind, mild-mannered telesales operative (Woody Harrelson making the most of a small but meaty role) over his condition, Ben challenges people to judge him.
Click here to read the full review at WiFly Radio.
The Wrestler
December 18th, 2008 admin
2008
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Runtime: 109 Minutes
Rating: R
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Say what you like about Darren Aronofsky, the guy takes big risks. Whether it be a story about obsessive mathematician, or pluming the deepest, darkest depths of drug-addled squalor, or even a bald Hugh Jackman floating through space in a bubble, it’s pretty obvious that when choosing a project, commercial viability is not exactly his first consideration.
So after briefly flirting with The Batman franchise his decision to make a serious drama about the pro-wrestling circuit starring Mickey Rourke, an actor no major financers wanted to touch, is really just par for the course. Shot mostly handheld (to save money) and without the benefit of on set playback (to save time and therefore more money), this is a really organic, free flowing movie that time and again just takes you places you don’t expect the subject matter ever could.
Firefly
December 16th, 2008 admin
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite,
Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass
Creator: Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 9/20/2002-12/20/2002
Network: Fox
Another product of the much loved and acclaimed “Whedonverse”, Firefly’s lifespan was completely comparable with its real life namesake found in nature. After the Fox executives that originally green-lit the show were replaced, the show was shunted around different time slots, including Friday night kiss of death slot at one point.
Preempted several times and consistently aired out of order, it was finally it was canceled after just eleven of its fourteen episodes had been aired. Some small screen conspiracy theorists have even speculated that whilst the show was admittedly expensive it was poorly supported in every way possible by new the new Fox regime as something that could be pointed to as an example of the kind of bad programming that justified the ousting of their predecessors.
Opening This Week
December 16th, 2008 adminCheck out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
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