Well that looks properly creepy, doesn’t it? Sweet. Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis outweigh the Portman-factor for me, so I’m definitely in.
I have very little affection (read: none) for the Beats. Mostly: they annoy me. I won’t pretend part of that isn’t due to the generally exasperating experience of the modern poetry class in which I was introduced to the Beats in college, but my furrowed brow remains.
That said: I’d like to see this; maybe it’ll break that association for me so I can appreciate the work.
I’d say the less you know about the movie before you watch it, the better; don’t look at me, I’m not going to spoil it for you. But I will say: I can’t remember the last time I saw a character’s wheels turning like that; Cillian Murphy kills it.
And! 90 minutes. So good.
The Last Airbender (via Bryce)
!!
Also: I really like the update to Aang’s arrows, getting their Air Nation symbol in there, very nice.
Mr. DiCaprio, having grown perhaps overly fond of his accent from “The Departed,” brings it along for the ride, and it spreads through the movie like a contagious disease. Teddy’s partner (pahtnah), Chuck Aule, played by Mark (Mahk) Ruffalo, is supposed to be from the Pacific Northwest but he seems to have left all his R’s back in Seattle.
All at Sea, Surrounded by Red Herrings, A.O. Scott, NYTimes
Cracking up over here. My favorite part of the review might be “Something TERRIBLE is afoot.” You and I both know all-caps like that is a set-up and he follows through quite well.
And then Fanny cuts her hair off and walks the heath, in the snow, reciting a Keats poem and weeping. Campion could have saved that bit by cutting to credits after the affecting wide shot of Fanny crossing a lea and her teenage brother dutifully trailing her, but she didn’t, so the movie squanders its promising beginning with a conclusion straight out of a term paper.
Yes, that. Straight to credits would have, for me, made the too long, too heavy scenes…worth it? Less noticeable at the very least. Fanny reading his work is something we already know she does: that groundwork’s been laid; on the heels of his death, she’s sure to continue but we don’t need to see it.
Phantom Menace Reviewer Takes on Avatar
You see the ultimate irony with Avatar is that for all the time and money spent to make this movie in 3D, the story and characters were still stuck in one dimension.
(via Coudal)
It’s been awhile since I read or heard “irony” used correctly. Also: word.
TED! A clip from Josh Radnor’s Happythankyoumoreplease.
Star Wars: Phantom Menace Review Part 2 of 7 - via /Film, who have the whole set conveniently grouped (via ✪DF)
The first part is likely to keep you interested the full 10 minutes (esp the character breakdown), but it’s the first couple minutes of Part 2 that are (so far) the kicker: comparing the opening scenes from “A New Hope” and “Phantom Menace”.
So good. (Let me be clear: the analysis bits are “so good.” All the extra nonsense with the hookers and blah blah ex-wife got old real fast. Apart from being, y’know, kinda sick, it’s fucking distracting.)
The Harry Potter economy
Harry Potter was in the vanguard of a new approach to big-budget film-making. Most modern blockbuster franchises have two things in common: they are based on known properties such as books and comics, and they are steered by respected but little-known directors. …
It is as though the auteur tradition has been fused with the industrial approach to film-making that was common practice in Hollywood before the war.
(via Coudal)
Robin Hood in the style of Gladiator by Ridley Scott with Maximus and Cate Blanchett?!
Obviously: I’m in.
(That music, though, made me laugh so loud I think I startled a few co-workers.)
So. This will proooobably have the typical rom-com French Kiss-twist! ending, but c’mon Amy Adams and Matthew Goode? I’m in.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (The Art of the Title Sequence)
The saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover” but we can judge a movie by its title sequence, right?
“Six Feet Under” might be the first title sequence I noted, followed by “Carnivàle” which provided more discussion for JA and me than you’d have thought possible. Of course there’s a lot of attention paid to opening title sequences, now (“True Blood”, “Dexter”, etc.), but I think animated films (apart from Pixar’s) get short shrift.
(I also appreciate the title card-only: “LOST”, “Vampire Diaries”, etc.)
Nationalistic propaganda is terribly appropriate, too, when you’re talking Superman and Batman. (Plus! Tim Daly!)
