The premise of this film is so fucking outrageous and demented that I don’t know whether to respond with utter horror or hilarity. All I know is I have to see it. Wow.
Archive for the 'Film' Category
More clearing out of old flagged items im my RSS reader.
The Alphabet Meme: An A-Z of Nikkatsu Sleaze and Action via Like Anna Kaarina’s Sweater
Stephen Kinzer: Understanding America Through Moby Dick via The Guardian
Shuttle Toolbag Filmed From Earth via Geekologie
HOWTO cook a kick-ass pizza crust in your home oven via Boing Boing
You Never Know What You’ll Find In A Book, via NYT Book Review
The Tale Of Genji At 1,000 via The Economist
At World’s End - 25 Post-Apocalyptic Visions via Weburbanist
Awful For Travel Times, Great For Photography via The Mental Floss Blogs
The Millions Meta-Data 2008 via The Millions
2666 Review In TLS
If you are J.J. Abrams, apparently the rights to film Stephen King’s Dark Tower
The Walrus Blogs have an excellent piece on Pynchon and comics.
In other Pynchon news, the man himself creates an Inherent Vice Playlist
Yahoo has the exclusive trailer for The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.
The 5 minute red band trailer for Legion is worth a watch:
The Aquarium Drunkard takes a look back the Prince’s Sign Of The Times.
Id Software unveils footage from Rage at Quakecon:
Rumor has it Pynchon lent his voice to this little promotional piece from Penguin books.
According to Publishers Weekly , the film rights to Thomas Pynchon’s forthcoming 60’s noir novel, Inherent Vice, are currently being shopped around.
Paging Joel and Ethan Coen…
The BBC has a segment on the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Included is some of Nick Cave’s soundtrack work. Link.
I’m in an oscar pool every year, and usually do quite well. Here’s my picks for this year:
Best Picture - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Film - Departures
Best Actor - Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress - Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress - Amy Adams (Doubt)
Best Director - Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Cinematography - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Writing (Adapted) - The Reader
Best Writing (Original) - In Bruges
Best Music (Score) - Wall-E
Best Music (Song) - The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen…oh wait, it wasn’t nominated…hmm…Jai Ho - from Slumdog Millionaire
Best Film Editing - The Dark Knight
Best Animated Feature - Wall-E
Best Art Direction - The Dark Knight
Best Documentary Feature - Man On Wire
Best Documentary Short - The Conscience Of Nhem En
Best Costume Design - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Best Animated Short - Presto
Best Live Action Short - Auf Der Strecke (On The Line)
Best Sound Mixing - The Dark Knight
Best Sound Editing - The Dark Knight
Best Makeup - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Best Visual Effects - The Dark Knight
Michael Cera on the set of Youth In Revolt
Ed Champion is reporting on a possible film adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas
. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. I’ll watch it, of course….Cloud Atlas was one of the best fictional experiences I’ve had in years. The potential for fucking it up, however, is very high.
I had high hopes for this film. I like David Fincher. I like Brad Pitt. I like Cate Blanchett. I like Brad Pitt when he teams up with David Fincher. I like F. Scott Fitzgerald. I didn’t particularly care for this film.
Based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, we follow a child born as an old man who lives in reverse, growing younger as time passes. Told in a series of flashbacks and set amongst the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina, the film’s ambition far outpaces any promise it can deliver upon.
The start is fairly promising, with Pitt born as a feeble old man. There’s lots of nice makeup work and special effects, but they just can’t make up for the plodding pace. Knowing the gist of the story before I saw the film, I could have fallen asleep for a good chunk of the film and not missed a whole lot when I woke.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is not a terrible film, just a boring one. Like most of Fincher’s work, it is stylistically interesting. The main problem stems from stretching a short story into a two hour and forty minute feature film. I knew I was in trouble when I started checking my watch an hour into the film, and then realizing I was just over one third the way in.
Save yourself some time and read the short story.
The Mumpsimus gives a heads up on the powerful (and free) screenwriting software, Celtx.
The Guardian,The Independent and The Financial Times preview this year’s coming book releases.
Maybe there should be a carbon tax on bestsellers.
Amazon.com reported that if it stacked end to end all the copies of Breaking Dawn it had sold over the Christmas period, it would reach the summit of Mount Everest eight times. Across 2008 Breaking Dawn was Amazon.com’s best selling item.
More evidence that people will buy anything.
The Shield Vs. The Wire: Two great T.V. shows wrapped up this year. The Guardian debates which one was better.
The New Yorker has a story by Roberto Bolaño.
Popular Mechanics shows how Hollywood classics are prepped for HD release.
First, let me state my allegiances. I am not a “comics guy.” Sure, when I was a teenager I had some superhero comics…Superman, Batman, Captain America, Shazam. Chances are though, you would probably find me nose deep in Mad magazine. The original Superman and Batman television shows were just a little too campy for me. When superheroes started hitting the big screen, I liked them well enough. It was still the era when big budget special effects didn’t overwhelm the story. Recent years have seen an explosion of superhero films, and for good reason…box office receipts. Most, if not all, have left me a bit cold. X-men, Spiderman, and Fantastic Four, not to mention the cavalcade of superhero wannabes (Elektra and Blade, for a start) are tall on the special effects and short on pretty much everything else.
This brings us to The Dark Knight. Another confession…I haven’t seen the first film in the rebirth of the Batman franchise, Batman Begins. I’ll get around to it soon. The Dark Knight is hard to ignore any longer though. With Heath Ledger’s death (and possible forthcoming Oscar nomination) and the utterly explosive box office take, which, upon it’s re-release in January in theaters and IMAX, may just make it the all-time highest grossing film (only a little more than 70 million to go), I would have to say that you’ve gotten my attention.
The Dark Knight is a near flawless film, at least for the first hour and forty-five minutes. There is a hiccup or two, and then a bit of a slow period, until it maniacally descends into its mesmerizing conclusion. It is indeed, without a doubt, the best superhero movie ever made.
Most of the attention surrounding The Dark Knight revolves around Heath Ledger, who died several months prior to the film’s release. There is significant Oscar-buzz surrounding Ledger’s performance, and deservedly so. Every second that Ledger appears on screen is absolutely riveting. It’s a pity that if he is nominated, it will likely be in the Best Supporting Actor category, since he clearly carries the film.
In stark contrast to Ledger’s inspired performance are the run-of-the-mill turns by its other actors. Christian Bale is a bit wooden. Maggie Gyllenhaal seems to impress me only in movies where she gets full-frontal. Morgan Freeman is, well, Morgan Freeman. Even the great Michael Caine doesn’t break out of the slimest of supporting roles. This makes Ledger’s performance all the more amazing.
The one exception is Gary Oldman’s performance as James Gordon. As always (or just about) Oldman is fantastic.
The Dark Knight gives me hope that mainstream entertainment can achieve the level of true art.
Buy The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]
The Road’s release date has moved to next year…no official date yet.
The two movie posters have me drooling.
