Yet another disappointing month of crappy-looking Oscar bait. The good news is that I’ll be spending most of the month at the Chicago International Film Festival (current schedule: 19 features and a slate of animated shorts), and so I don’t have to see any of it.
6.10.2006
Marty Scorsese seems to finally give up on whoring himself out for a Best Director trophy with The Departed, in which many fine actors struggle mightily with an incoherent plot and bad Boston accents. I’m probably being too harsh on it, but it’s a remake of Infernal Affairs, one of my very favorite cop movies of all time, and I’m not disposed to be generous. The only thing about thefilm that interests me is the trailer’s use of a live recording of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” And y’know, that a bona-fide genius is directing it, even if he hasn’t had a bona-fide masterpiece in over 15 years.
Elsewhere: for The Queen, one of my favorite British directors (Stephen Frears) teams up with one of my favorite British actors (Helen Mirren) for the first time ever, and it’s to make a freaking Princess Diana movie. Keeping the faith on this one, but it seems a bit too soon (and the main character is still a bit too much alive) to have anything “actual” to say. And a prequel to the needless remake of a horror masterpiece – tasty. I’ve got too many good things to see to bother with it.
The less said about Jessica Simpson’s new vehicle, the better.
13.10.2006
You have to admit a certain grudging respect for an action film so unashamed that it is total shit that it actual puts the requisite “He just won’t die!” line right in the damn trailer. Maybe you don’t have to admit it. Anyway: The Marine, which stars professional bad movie hardass Robert Patrick, whose acting I always enjoy even though it is almost always surrounded by awful.
Movies that will be bad because they have no choice: The Grudge 2 (okay, I haven’t seen the original, and the trailer’s nice and creepy, but the J-Horror thing is totally played out by now); Man of the Year, in which Robin Williams plays a Jon Stewart clone in a Barry Levinson film, and while Levinson is at his best with satire, Williams…isn’t; Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, already a full-on flop in Britain
Movies that will be bad because they are too ambitious: John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig followup Shortbus; yay for unashamed sex scenes, boo for that “New York is the world” schtick, and way boo for the very concept of “9/11 changed how we have sex.” Come again? Also Infamous, and it’s totally not anyone’s fault that Capote already came out as the best possible Truman Capote biopic, but that doesn’t make this look any less desperate.
Movie that might well be good: Todd Field’s Little Children. Best. Trailer. Ever.
20.10.2006
The only Oscar bait that I’m really looking forward to is Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, and it’s not just because he’s one of the best directors in American history (we can debate the script quality of Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby as long as anyone likes, but it takes balls – and insanity – to deny that they’re brilliantly crafted). For literally the first time I can think of in English-language film history, there’s an honest-to-God companion film coming out – not a sequel, but a retelling of the same event from a different perspective, such that each film is complete in itself, but also requires the other for full effect. This is Trois Couleurs territory, and to me it’s the most exciting thing in years. Am I more excited about the concept than either film per se? Yes, and I don’t see that as a problem.
Sadly, my gibbering fanboy orgasm over Clint’s turn towards Euroartiness obscures one of the only other fall films I’m unambiguously excited for (although I don’t see it as an Oscar film): Christopher Nolan’s period magician thriller The Prestige starring the best cast of the season. Watch the trailer again and tell me you don’t get weak-kneed.
Which leaves me with no energy at all for Running with Scissors and Marie Antoinette two films that I’m looking forward to with reservations: the first because it could skew very easily into wannabe Wes Anderson territory, the second because it seemingly turns a very bad human being into a punk heroine.
Lastly, the first Bobcat Goldthwait-directed film since Shakes the Clown will be opening in New York and Los Angeles. The More You Know.
27.10.2006
Can I just go ahead and admit, I am absolutely paranoid about Babel? Good Cannes buzz or not, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first film was orders of magnitude better than his second. The return of Gael García Bernal is a good step, the rest of the cast is good, and the trailer is flawless; but I’m not going to acknowledge that it might be any more than decent until I’ve seen it.
Phillip Noyce’s Catch a Fire is being pitched as “From the director of Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger,” and that has to be annoying. Still, at least the world gets another Tim Robbins liberal piety drama, because those are invariably good.
And look! Another Saw! How cute! I hate American filmgoers!