My latest MSN Movies gallery does the only thing it can do this week, using the release of “Shutter Island” to explore some other famous cinematic snake pits. And yes, “The Snake Pit” is first on the list.
Step on in. And don’t worry about the door slamming shut behind you … they do that sort of thing all the time to mess with new visitors.
Don’t they?
It’s an interesting week at the megaplex — a Cannes hit, a TIFF triumph, a delayed Scorsese picture and a Belgian toy story, among others. Shall we plunge in?
“Defendor“: I’ve written at length about the appeal and the gravity of Peter Stebbings’ directorial debut, so what are you waiting for? Go see! Go see!
“Fish Tank“: Andrea Arnold’s exquisitely observed kitchen-sink drama charts the coming of age of a fifteen-year-old Essex teen who forms a dangerous bond with her mother’s new boyfriend. Katie Jarvis is amazing; Michael Fassbender is pretty damn great himself.
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”: The most notorious whistleblower in American history — and possibly the most important — gets his due in this Oscar-nominated documentary, opening for a limited run at the Bloor. Susan found it competent but cold.
“Reel Injun”: Neil Diamond (no, the other one) examines the American cinema’s treatment of First Nations characters, and their ensuing stereotypes, in an engaging and insightful documentary. Andrew agrees with my assessment.
“Shutter Island“: Martin Scorsese tries to make a 1950s pulp thriller, and the result is a weird mixture of exquisite mood and banal storytelling. You can admire its accomplishments without ever caring about the characters or enjoying the story … but I don’t think that’s the point. Not sure why my review isn’t up yet, but I’ll post the link as soon as it is. UPDATE: There it is!
“A Town Called Panic“: Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s antic animated comedy — produced in stop-motion, with scaled-up replicas of children’s toys — is a truly unique experience. It’s also sort of exhausting, which works against it even at 75 minutes. But if you ever wanted to see Jeanne Balibar play a horse, this is the only game in town.
“Until the Light Takes Us“: I know very little about the intense world of Norwegian Black Metal — basically, just what I saw in Sam Dunn’s “Global Metal” — and after watching Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell’s tale of rivalry, delusion and murder among musicians, I feel like I know even less. Also, Norwegians are crazy. UPDATE: Review’s up now, for what it’s worth.
Every now and then, a movie comes along that just speaks to you. Sometimes it’s a serious drama that addresses a personal issue you didn’t even know you had, and sometimes it’s a genre piece that treats its subject in a way you’d been hoping someone would.
Last year at TIFF, that movie was “Defendor”, Peter Stebbings’ oddball meditation on superhero mythology and the cultural impact of heroism. If Alliance had got behind it and released it on the heels of its festival success — or even popped it out in December after it made Canada’s Top Ten — it might have had a shot to distinguish itself from “Kick-Ass“, another subversion of costumed-hero iconography that’s been stoking the fanboys since Comic-Con and is set to open in April.
But the moment passed, and now it’s being dumped onto a single screen at the AMC Yonge & Dundas, where it’ll be likely ignored. Don’t you make that mistake.
Anyway, my interviews with Stebbings and star Woody Harrelson are online at the NOW site. Check them out, and go see their movie if you can. It may not kick ass, exactly, but it’s awfully good.
As I teased yesterday, this week’s MSN DVD column is all about Gotz Spielmann’s “Revanche”, an entirely excellent Austrian spin on the worlds of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson rescued from import-only obscurity by the fine folks at the Criterion Collection, which so badly wanted to release a special edition of the film that they bought the North American distribution rights themselves.
You should see it, is my ultimate point. And don’t let anybody describe the plot to you beforehand.
This morning on The Auteurs, Glenn Kenny uses the British Blu-ray release of Godard’s “Une Femme Mariee” as the locus of a fascinating reverie of the various ways he’s watched that film — and by extension, all cinema — over three decades.
His conclusion is that Blu-ray rocks (which is the same conclusion I’ve reached over the last couple of years), and that the format also enables the appreciation and experience of cinema on a scale not previously possible in home theater.
I’d go so far as to argue that it may now be preferable to have one’s first viewing experience of a given film at home, watching a pristine BD projected in 1080p/24 on a reasonably large screen. This hypothetical situation would require the available 35mm prints of said film to be old and scratchy; we’re not talking about “2001” or “Lawrence of Arabia” here. But if it’s a tough film to find, and one that rarely screens in repertory … well, hell, my basement has a better sound system than the Bloor these days.
I mention this because my own DVD column this week will be devoted to “Revanche”, a film that most Canadians — and most Americans, for that matter — didn’t get the chance to see on the big screen at all, because the theatrical prospects for anything that isn’t “Valentine’s Day” or “Avatar” are growing ever more slender.
You might as well buy that new projector now, is all I’m saying.
Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” dominated the box-office this weekend with a three-day gross of $52.4 million — and of course it did. You release a movie called “Valentine’s Day” on Valentine’s Day weekend, you’re going to come out on top, even if the movie is horrible.
(Rad’s exasperated take on it is representative of the general critical reaction.)
Bottom line? People like romantic comedies, especially in the middle of February, and Garry Marshall will keep making simplistic, pandering movies until they take his viewfinder from his cold, dead hands.
And then there’s the other tragic story that broke this weekend: Kevin Smith was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight over the weekend for being, as he puts it, “too fat to fly”. He has responded to this insult with characteristic grace and wit, marshalling his 1.6 million Twitter followers to … I dunno, overload Southwest’s e-mail server or something.
Anyway, the story’s hit the AP wire now, so maybe this will turn into a teachable moment. We can always hope.
My latest MSN Movies gallery considers the various studio attempts to launch another young-adult literary franchise in the wake of the “Harry Potter” series — the better to, uh, expose young minds to literature, and also maybe get in on some of that phenomenal box-office.
Results have been mixed. Sure, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was surprisingly satisfying, but does anyone remember “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising”?
I do. And that’s why I write galleries like this one. To remind people, and warn them …
This weekend brings a whopping three major-studio releases to the megaplexes — the most since Christmas, I believe. And what a wide selection for Valentine’s Day!
“Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief“: Chris Columbus brings Rob Riordan’s young-adult adventure to the big screen in a naked attempt to launch another “Harry Potter” franchise … and it’s actually sort of okay. Uma Thurman is Medusa, Steve Coogan is Hades, Catherine Keener is the hero’s mom and Pierce Brosnan plays a helpful centaur. The man is up for anything, isn’t he?
“Valentine’s Day”: Garry Marshall casts his net, drags in everyone who’s hot right now — Bradley Cooper! The “Gray’s Anatomy” fellas! Two whole Taylors! — and throws ’em all in a multicharacter salute to the wonderfulness of love. As I’m contractually excused from watching Marshall’s movies after “Georgia Rule”, I will catch up to this some other time.
“The Wolfman“: Universal remakes a beloved monster classic with too much money and too little sense. And really, why shorten the title from “Wolf Man” to “Wolfman”? A Wolf Man is a scary, hairy monster; a Wolfman is your periodontist. Actually, I’d pay to watch Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt in “Sheldon Wolfman, D.D.S.” Someone get on that!
You may notice something a little different in the film section of NOW this week — specifically, my piece on the increasing sophistication of American television, in contrast to the dumbed-down movies that clog the megaplexes this time of year.
Basically, I’ll take any excuse to tell people how great “Lost” is. What, you want to fight about it? I’ll be down at the Dharma docks.
Sorry for the late post this morning — I’ve been tangled up in the AV Club’s always essential “Lost” recap and comment thread. (I know, it was another Kate episode, but the left-field return of Mac from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” made the whole thing worthwhile.)
Anyway, today’s new thing is my latest MSN Movies gallery, which should have gone up last weekend but somehow didn’t — a look at Luc Besson’s legacy of European action movies to tie into the release of “From Paris with Love”, which I quite enjoyed but no one else did, apparently.
Ah, well. Chacun a son gout, right?