Am I alone in thinking that 2013 has been unusually bad for movies so far? Yes? No? Maybe? I know it’s been the burn-off period mostly, but there’s the winter and then there’s the winter, and it has been a brutal few months for American pictures that aren’t completely wretched.
So anyway, the last month revving up for the summer movie season may or may not change things as far as wide releases go (of which there are very few), but the limited releases in the U.S. this month have some things I’m hugely excited for. And I don’t usually dally with limited releases in this posts, because who can say when anybody not living in New York will be able to see them, but I’m going to break a rule this time, because a body needs to be excited about something.
5.4.2013
I was going to say, the only new thing this week… but “new” takes on a specially perverse context this weekend. On the one hand Evil Dead, a remake of Sam Raimi’s unimpeachable horror classic that has, literally, not chance at being anything but superfluous. Even if it’s absolutely great. It simply does not have the capacity to be, in 2013, what Raimi’s original was in 1981. And frankly, the trailers make it look a lot more gross than at all scary.
On the other hand, Jurassic Park is getting a 3-D reissue for its 20th anniversary. It will come as a horrible confession, I think, that despite being eleven the year it came out, I never actually saw it on the big screen, and I am sore tempted to make a trip out to finally do so, now that it’s a beloved piece of film history and all. Providing I can manage to do so without having to see it in 3-D, because seriously, fuck that.
Limited release I can’t wait for: Trance, which has a kind of dumb premise (hypnotic crimes! see also: dozens of shitty ’50s films). But the thing is, Danny Boyle, and even if he’s lost some lustre in my eyes of late, I think that James McAvoy is a terrific choice for a Boyle hero, and I really want to see how that plays out.
12.4.2013
Scary Movie 5 exists now, for some reason. And I have been boning up on the franchise of late to prep for it, for some reason.
Also, as incredible as it seems when you stop and think about it, there has never been a Jackie Robinson biopic in all of history. 42 seeks to redress this strange omission.
Limited release I can’t wait for: Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder! Which, I know, got the most divisive reception of any movie he’s ever made, but I don’t care. It will be shot by Emmanuel Lubezki and no matter how murky or pretentious, nobody can take away Emmanuel goddamn Lubezki.
19.4.2013
Tom Cruise in a sci-fi thriller is, on paper, something that I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt. And there’s no such thing as a post-apocalypse movie that I’m not at least a little interested in. So, Oblivion. But along comes director Joseph Kosinski, and honestly, none of the reasons that TRON Legacy is a guilty pleasure of mine have to do with the directing. So let’s file in the “cautious” pile.
Limited release I can wait for, though I am far more than just curious: The Lords of Salem, Rob Zombie’s fifth feature. Even when they are failures – and that’s not uncommon – I’ve found his works as a director to have such a strong personal stamp, and a desire to stretch virtually unknown in modern horror, that I’m almost inclined to say it doesn’t matter. It’ll be a thing to talk about, at any rate.
26.4.2013
Every aspect about Pain & Gain AKA “Bodybuilders go on a crime spree”, seems like a parody, and when I first saw the trailer, and Michael Bay’s name cropped up as director, I was 100% sure that I’d misread it. But no, he is. That Michael Bay. If nothing else, seeing him go from his grotesque animated robot movies to something so very small and contained and human-sized is going to be fascinating. And probably bad. Because his last good – “good” – films were in the ’90s. But still, fascinating.
I haven’t seen a single thing about The Big Wedding, so I have no idea what’s going on there, but check the cast list: Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robert De Niro. Add in Amanda Seyfried and Topher Grace on the youthful side, and it’s a damn Who’s Who of people who have more talent than they’re bothering to exercise with any of their script choices in the last, like, forever. Prepare for the soul-deadening disappointment to commence!
Limited release I can’t wait for: Mud, because Jeff Nichols directing Michael Shannon is about as close as we’ve got to a sure thing in the American indie scene right now.
Also, Terence Nance’s An Oversimplification of Her Beauty starts what I imagine will be an exceedingly tiny crawl through art theaters. It’s a movie I’ve previously seen and pretty much fallen in love with, despite its obvious and pervasive missteps, and I want to urge everybody who gets the chance – and it will not be most of you – to see it; it is the work of a very strong and original voice, and it needs all the attention it can muster.