Just found out that Jones' real name is Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones, and he is the son of musician David Bowie, who was born David Robert Jones, and is famous for a lot of things, including being Ziggy Stardust.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Moon (2009)
Bleak and engrossing, this sci-fi thriller is like a Twilight Zone episode, where someone is all alone and things go from bad to worse. The reliable Sam Rockwell (great in David Mamet's Heist (2001), George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) as Chuck Barris, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men (2003), Choke, and Frost/Nixon) plays Sam Bell, an astronaut who is running a lunar energy station with no one to keep him company but the HAL-like computer GERTY (voice of Kevin Spacey, emoticons for a face). Lots of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) comparisons, as well as another movie that you would never guess, but I'm not telling because it's a spoiler. Director Duncan Jones and Rockwell each won film festival awards (Edinborough and Seattle, respectively) for this. Composer Clint Mansell (who scored all four of Darren Aronfsky's features so far, including The Wrestler, as well as a number of others) did a terrific job, too. After you see it, you might want to read the press kit, but it has spoilers big time. Just see it.
Food, Inc. (2009)
You won't be alone if you lose your appetite or get depressed after seeing this documentary about the way big corporations control our food supply. I did. The filmmakers tried their best to end on an upbeat note, but one person's story left me sad for a while. And animals were most definitely harmed during the making of this movie. Go on an empty stomach, and then have something very healthy and organic for dinner afterwards. But do see it (I liked the music!). I have been advised by counsel not to say anything else.
Chéri (2009)
Director Stephen Frears may be best known these days for The Queen (2006), which won the Oscar for Helen Mirren, and was nominated for best picture, directing, screenplay, costumes, and music. But his resume is varied. Check out My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987--released in some places as Sammy and Rosie), The Grifters (1990) with John Cusack and Angelica Huston, Hero (1992) with Dustin Hoffman, The Snapper (1993) with Colm Meany, High Fidelity (2000) with John Cusack, Dirty Pretty Things (2002) with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tatou, and Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) with Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins; they are all first rate.
But the one that comes up in Chéri's publicity is his 1988 costume drama, Dangerous Liaisons, in which Glenn Close was the older woman and Michelle Pfeiffer played the ingénue (and was nominated for an Oscar), though she was 30 that year. That's because in Chéri, Pfeiffer (faves: Sweet Liberty (1986), Witches of Eastwick (1987), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Batman Returns (1992), White Oleander (2002)) played the older woman, Lea, in another costume drama, this one set at the end of the 19th century, during France's Belle Epoque. And, oh, those costumes! Oh, the hats! The gorgeous Pfeiffer's trim frame was swathed in the most luxurious fabrics and styles and topped with les chapeaux les plus élégants - my favorite being the one with the black lace brim when she got to Biarritz. Set design was also outstanding, with art nouveau furniture and architecture.
The screenplay was written by Christopher Hampton (Atonement (2007), and Dangerous Liaisons, for which he won an Oscar), based on two novels, Chéri (1920) and La Fin de Chéri (1926), by Colette, who also wrote the novel Gigi in 1945, on which the 1951 play and 1958 movie were based. This is a tale of a retired courtesan, Lea, and her relationship with Chéri (Rupert Friend, who played the kind young man in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and one of the Nazis in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) who is the son of another ex-courtesan, played with great belly laughs and furrowed brows by Kathy Bates (she will be co-starring later this year with Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher in Personal Effects, and was great in About Schmidt (2002), Titanic (1997) as Molly Brown, Dolores Claiborne (1995) as Delores, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), and the recurring character Bettina on HBO's Six Feet Under, in episodes that she directed). Bates won an Oscar for her role in Misery (1990), which I didn't see. Also seen are Felicity Jones (Cordelia in Brideshead Revisited) as the younger woman Edmée, and, in a cameo as La Copine, Anita Pallenberg (Keith Richards' baby mama, consort of Brian Jones and Mick Jaggar, and Queen impersonator in Mister Lonely (2007), which is about a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who befriends a Marilyn Monroe impersonator).
Chéri may be gone from the theatres by the time you read this, so be sure you rent the wide screen version and try to get a big monitor on which to see it!
But the one that comes up in Chéri's publicity is his 1988 costume drama, Dangerous Liaisons, in which Glenn Close was the older woman and Michelle Pfeiffer played the ingénue (and was nominated for an Oscar), though she was 30 that year. That's because in Chéri, Pfeiffer (faves: Sweet Liberty (1986), Witches of Eastwick (1987), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Batman Returns (1992), White Oleander (2002)) played the older woman, Lea, in another costume drama, this one set at the end of the 19th century, during France's Belle Epoque. And, oh, those costumes! Oh, the hats! The gorgeous Pfeiffer's trim frame was swathed in the most luxurious fabrics and styles and topped with les chapeaux les plus élégants - my favorite being the one with the black lace brim when she got to Biarritz. Set design was also outstanding, with art nouveau furniture and architecture.
The screenplay was written by Christopher Hampton (Atonement (2007), and Dangerous Liaisons, for which he won an Oscar), based on two novels, Chéri (1920) and La Fin de Chéri (1926), by Colette, who also wrote the novel Gigi in 1945, on which the 1951 play and 1958 movie were based. This is a tale of a retired courtesan, Lea, and her relationship with Chéri (Rupert Friend, who played the kind young man in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and one of the Nazis in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) who is the son of another ex-courtesan, played with great belly laughs and furrowed brows by Kathy Bates (she will be co-starring later this year with Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher in Personal Effects, and was great in About Schmidt (2002), Titanic (1997) as Molly Brown, Dolores Claiborne (1995) as Delores, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), and the recurring character Bettina on HBO's Six Feet Under, in episodes that she directed). Bates won an Oscar for her role in Misery (1990), which I didn't see. Also seen are Felicity Jones (Cordelia in Brideshead Revisited) as the younger woman Edmée, and, in a cameo as La Copine, Anita Pallenberg (Keith Richards' baby mama, consort of Brian Jones and Mick Jaggar, and Queen impersonator in Mister Lonely (2007), which is about a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who befriends a Marilyn Monroe impersonator).
Chéri may be gone from the theatres by the time you read this, so be sure you rent the wide screen version and try to get a big monitor on which to see it!
Brüno (2009)
Whoa. This is not for the faint of heart or closed of mind--on a scale of 1 to 10, it has a cringe factor of 15. Jack liked Sascha Baron Cohen's (Cohen had cameos in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)) Da Ali G Show on HBO, in which Cohen introduced his characters of Borat and Brüno (I didn't see it). We both loved the feature Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), in which Cohen (who is Jewish, duh) plays Borat, who is anti-Semitic. In Brüno, Cohen (who is straight) plays the title character, who is gay. Both have been called one-joke movies. Both have Cohen out in public with non-actors who think they're being filmed for documentary or interview purposes. I would say Borat, the movie, had a cringe factor of only (!) 8.5, and showed many more hilarious reactions of Cohen's unwitting victims. In Brüno, Cohen's envelope-pushing is the joke, while the onlookers look on, usually in disgust. I think the envelope is torn now.
It's impossible to recommend this movie, because everyone's cringe limit is different, but many will find it funny (not enough, however, to keep it from diving in the box office statistics, but I predict a long life on DVD). After the fact, Jack & I keep thinking of gags that we'll laugh about later (e.g. the Smart car, the stage parents, his "luggage"), so we're not at all sorry we saw it. The music video at the end is great, too. Caveat emptor: This may be rated R, but should be NC-17, in my humble opinion.
It's impossible to recommend this movie, because everyone's cringe limit is different, but many will find it funny (not enough, however, to keep it from diving in the box office statistics, but I predict a long life on DVD). After the fact, Jack & I keep thinking of gags that we'll laugh about later (e.g. the Smart car, the stage parents, his "luggage"), so we're not at all sorry we saw it. The music video at the end is great, too. Caveat emptor: This may be rated R, but should be NC-17, in my humble opinion.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)
We wanted to like this, but did not have high hopes as the reviews were particularly savage (here's one). Larry Doyle adapted his 2007 novel to the screen, after writing for The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-Head, and The New Yorker and Esquire magazines, among others. The book won the Thurber Humor Prize last year, and people I trust have assured me that it's a very good, very funny read, which I will be starting soon. But the movie? Meh. Maybe the problem was translating the high school recollections of a then-40-something writer into a current teen movie, with almost as much property damage as Public Enemies. I give director Chris Columbus (I LOVED Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)) a little credit for the gimmick of casting Alan Ruck from Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) as the father of lead character Denis (Paul Rust, to be seen later this year in two very different releases: Quentin Tarentino's nasty holocaust revenge drama Inglourious Basterds and a mock-umentary about love called Paper Heart), and it's always nice to see alumni of Freaks & Geeks, this time Samm Levine as the convenience store clerk. Read the book instead, and go see Larry Doyle if he makes an appearance in your neck of the woods!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Public Enemies (2009)
We had planned to see this anyway, but the rave review in Rolling Stone (spoiler alert--read it later) convinced me to go sooner rather than later. It's almost 2-1/2 hours long, so be prepared for that, and it could have been trimmed here and there, but we had a good time. There were high production values in set design and props. The 1933 technology was the coolest: banks of telephone switchboards, whirling tape recorders and vinyl records, hand-cranked movie cameras, prop airplanes, steam engine trains, glinting chrome of the picture cars, discussion of a Ford with V-8, and scenes lit by fiery camera flashes and automatic gunfire explosions. Yes, there was a high body count and plenty of blood--this is not for the faint of heart.
But the principal actors, Johnny Depp (more in a moment) as John Dillinger, Christian Bale (I didn't see him as a 12-13 year old in Empire of the Sun (1987), but I really liked Laurel Canyon (2002), Batman Begins (2005), I'm Not There and The Prestige (both 2007), and The Dark Knight) as Dillinger's pursuer, G-Man Melvin Purvis, and Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner for La Vie en Rose (La môme) (2007), and the unexpectedly lightweight A Good Year (2006), unexpected, considering that Ridley Scott directed Russell Crowe and Cotillard from a novel by the readable Peter Mayle) as Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette, and Billy Crudup (I liked Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Almost Famous (2000) where he played rock star Russell, and Robert de Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006)) as J. Edgar Hoover (playing him a bit on the prissy side, perhaps in light of the rumors that recently came to light about Hoover's cross-dressing) were so pretty that I could ignore the gore.
But the principal actors, Johnny Depp (more in a moment) as John Dillinger, Christian Bale (I didn't see him as a 12-13 year old in Empire of the Sun (1987), but I really liked Laurel Canyon (2002), Batman Begins (2005), I'm Not There and The Prestige (both 2007), and The Dark Knight) as Dillinger's pursuer, G-Man Melvin Purvis, and Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner for La Vie en Rose (La môme) (2007), and the unexpectedly lightweight A Good Year (2006), unexpected, considering that Ridley Scott directed Russell Crowe and Cotillard from a novel by the readable Peter Mayle) as Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette, and Billy Crudup (I liked Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Almost Famous (2000) where he played rock star Russell, and Robert de Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006)) as J. Edgar Hoover (playing him a bit on the prissy side, perhaps in light of the rumors that recently came to light about Hoover's cross-dressing) were so pretty that I could ignore the gore.
Johnny Depp, nearly as pretty as Cotillard, gets more than parentheses today. Looking at his list of credits I'm hard pressed to find one I didn't like. In Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999), for which I won't forget the effects of the Headless Horseman galloping full speed, his sword slicing off others' heads, Depp portrayed Ichabod Crane as a squeamish investigator, and I predicted his next role would be more effeminate. Was I ever right! The following year he played a full-on drag queen, Bon Bon, a supporting role, in Julian Schnabel's deservedly praised Before Night Falls, in which Javier Bardem played real-life writer Reynaldo Arenas, who was persecuted for being gay. Depp can do butch, kinda, if he has to (Chocolat (2000), Sweeney Todd (2007), and this one, where he plays Dillinger as a ruthless dandy), but there's always something gender-bending about his characters (think Jack Sparrow in all three Pirates of the Carribbean (2006-7)).
Michael Mann (Oscar nominated for directing, producing, and co-writing The Insider (1999); I liked Ali (2001) and he co-produced Ford v Ferrari) directs from a script co-written by him, Ronan Bennett (new to me), and Ann Biderman (co-wrote Primal Fear (1996) and Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997) and just a few others).
The music was great fun, with songs by Billie Holiday, Diana Krall (who appeared on screen singing "Bye Bye Blackbird"), Otis Taylor, Benny Goodman, and the Bruce Fowler Big Band (a plug for my friend, who is usually a film orchestrator these days, though he was on screen as the trombone player with Annie Ross & the Low Note Quintet in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993)), as well as some banjo and guitar work that I enjoyed. I could see Oscar nominations for music, set design, wardrobe, cinematography, and sound, to name a few, at this early date. History teacher Jack wondered who paid for the property damage done by Dillinger and his merry men in the real-life robberies.
The music was great fun, with songs by Billie Holiday, Diana Krall (who appeared on screen singing "Bye Bye Blackbird"), Otis Taylor, Benny Goodman, and the Bruce Fowler Big Band (a plug for my friend, who is usually a film orchestrator these days, though he was on screen as the trombone player with Annie Ross & the Low Note Quintet in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993)), as well as some banjo and guitar work that I enjoyed. I could see Oscar nominations for music, set design, wardrobe, cinematography, and sound, to name a few, at this early date. History teacher Jack wondered who paid for the property damage done by Dillinger and his merry men in the real-life robberies.
Every Little Step (2008)
Mary & Bob loved seeing this documentary when they were in NY, and they don't like everything, so I knew it would be a good bet. What I didn't know was that the producers/directors, Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern, also produced/directed two previous docs that sound interesting: The Year of the Yao (2004) about basketball player Yao Ming and ...So Goes the Nation (2006) about the role of Ohio in the 2004 presidential election. Stern was a producer on The Brothers Bloom, Easy Virtue, I'm Not There (the fascinating 2007 movie that looked at Bob Dylan's life with 6 different actors playing parts of his persona and used exclusively cover versions of his songs), and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), to name some that I can personally recommend. Every Little Step covers the casting of the 2006 revival of the 1975 game-changing musical, A Chorus Line, and intersperses that footage with archival video of the original creator, the late Michael Bennett, and others. 3,000 hopefuls showed up in New York to try out this time, and their stories are seamlessly woven with the true stories that were used in the original. Some users on imdb have taken issue with the authenticity of the documentary, but I don't think this will interfere in the slightest with your enjoyment of the movie.
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