INCOMING: Curing the summertime blues. Pt. 2

Here’s the second part of my round up of the alternatives being offered at cinemas during blockbuster season this year (along with the odd interesting looking major release)

AUGUST
13th
Le Refuge


If you know me at all you know that I hold Francois Ozon in very high regard. He’s a master filmmaker, and perhaps the only working director with a lengthy filmography who has never made a bad film. Le Refuge, which I saw at Rendez Vous with French Cinema earlier this month, is among his best work, certainly his best film since his masterpiece; 5 X 2. It features an(other) exceptional performance from Isabelle Carre as Mousse, a young woman trying to kick drugs and bring the child of her boyfriend, who has recently died of an overdose, to term. Ozon doesn’t indulge in the clichés of either a drug or a pregnancy movie, instead crafting a genuinely brilliant character study.

The Secret in their Eyes


The surprise winner (beating, among others, Haneke’s The White Ribbon) of this year’s foreign film Oscar. This Argentinean film has attracted very appreciative reviews from the critics who have seen it. It appears to be a thriller, with a murder mystery at its heart, and I’ve seen it compared to The Usual Suspects. For me, another point of interest is Ricardo Darin, who I was very impressed by in XXY. This one is something of an unknown quantity for me, but I’m expecting a nice surprise.

25th
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World


The latest from British director Edgar Wright seems well suited to his idiosyncratic sensibilities. It’s a romantic action comedy about Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who begins dating the girl of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but before he can win her heart he must fight, and defeat, her seven evil exes. The dialogue should be sharp and funny, the cast is brilliant (and also includes recent Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick) and the fights have been choreographed by Jackie Chan’s stunt team. I’m sold.

27th
The Girl Who Played With Fire


As a novel this follow up to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a little bloated, and felt like a bit of a stopgap; the first part of a huge story for completion in the third book (the film of which opens, smartly, in November). Hopefully, in the inevitable tightening of the story, the film will inject a little more pace, and get to the thrilling heart of the story faster. Whatever happens we get another two hours with Noomi Rapace’ Lisbeth Salander, which can only be a good thing really.

The Runaways


I’m interested in this biopic, which apparently focuses more on Joan Jett and Cherie Currie than their band as a whole, for several reasons. First is trying to discover whether Kristen ‘cant act, blinking’ Stewart can actually act. Second is to see how Dakota Fanning (who can act) fares in her first real adult role. Third is to see whether the amazing music video director Floria Sigismondi can bring her very particular style to the movies.


SEPTEMBER
3rd
Cherry Tree Lane


It will be very interesting to see how this fares with BBFC, because it is apparently cut from the same cloth as the home invasion horrors like Fight For Your Life and The House on the Edge of the Park which featured so heavily in the 'video nasties' list. I’m getting a little bored of this British hoodie horror cycle (see, or don’t, the awful Eden Lake), but I’ll give this the benefit of the doubt because Paul Andrew Williams is at the helm, and I’m hoping this will mark a return to the form of his excellent, if disturbing, debut; London to Brighton.

10th
Metropolis [Restored Version]


A couple of years ago, in Argentina, a print of the long thought lost original version was discovered. Since then there has been a battle to restore it, so that we can, for the first time in 83 years, see this groundbreaking vision of the far future in a form that is at least very close to that intended by its director (a few scenes were too badly damaged to repair). The real joy though will be in seeing those famous images, particularly the cityscapes, and the robot Maria, in a fully restored digital print on a cinema screen. It should be a mindblowing experience.

Tamara Drewe


I know next to nothing about this latest from Stephen Frears, who seems to be continuing his genere hopping ways here, with an adaptation of a British comic strip. It was well received at Cannes though, and is toplined by rising British star Gemma Arterton (who pretty much owns 2010 at this point, with The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time having opened already). The only thing I really know is that I’ve read that comic strip is something of a spoof of The Archers (long running, and appalling, radio soap about farmers).

17th
The Horde


French horror has, over the last few years, been churning out some of the edgiest, most compelling, most punishing horror films in the world (including the peerless Martyrs). What they’ve been missing from this fantastic cycle of films is a zombie movie, well, The Horde is going to cure that. I really know little more then ‘French, insanely violent, zombie movie’. I’ve been avoiding information and trailers so I can go into it as cold as I did Martyrs and Inside, hoping for a similar experience.

24th
Cyrus


Mumblecore auteurs Mark and Jay Duplass make their mainstream debut with this festival hit, which has also been well received at the box office, scoring a very respectable screen average. It sees John C Rielly’s character beginning to date single parent Marisa Tomei, and discovering that she has an unhealthily close relationship with her son (Jonah Hill). Tomei has, over the last few years, become one of Hollywood’s more interesting character actors, and it should be interesting if Hill has the chops to match his co-stars.

The Hole [3D]


I know I hate 3D, but I’m interested in this for one reason… Joe Dante’s BACK. This is the first feature in six years from the man who gave us the Gremlins films, Piranha, the underrated Looney Tunes: Back in Action and Matinee, that’s all I need to know. It’s also interesting because Dante is a great visual storyteller, his films may not be the most beautiful in the world, but he’s got an individual and witty eye, I’m intrigued by what he might do with 3D.

The Town


I didn’t like Ben Affleck’s directorial debut; Gone Baby Gone quite so much as some people did, largely because the ending just didn’t work for me, but it did demonstrate that he had a firm grip behind the camera, real style as a filmmaker and a sure hand with actors. This second effort is a cop movie with an exceptional cast list including Affleck himself, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper, Rebecca Hall and Blake Lively. Should be a sure bet for some strong performances.

INCOMING: Curing the summertime blues

I have long hated summer at the movies. It’s the season when the already dangerously low IQ of both films and audiences appears to drop another twenty points, when the studios wheel out their most aggressively marketed and (not coincidentally) most aggressively dull films. It’s also when the schools are out, so even at matinees you get mewling brats shouting, throwing popcorn and playing with their phones.

So, as a way to stave off my depression, here’s a selection of counter programming, the films being released up until the end of September which should help stave off those summertime blues. I’ve included some of the less idiotic looking studio fare, along with a lot of things that are much more off the beaten path. Some I’ve seen already, others I’m just as much in the dark on as you are. All films are listed under their UK release date.

In this first part I'll look at a couple of films out now, as well as the whole of July. I'll cover August and September in the next post.

OUT NOW
Good Hair


Chris Rock explores the $9bn industry around black hair in this irreverent looking documentary. It’s attracting good reviews, and the trailer alone contains some very funny stuff, as well as some genuinely interesting, and sometimes shocking, information.

Villa Amalia


The first of a pair of Isabelle Huppert films opening in the UK in the next two weeks. Here she sees her husband kissing another woman, which acts as the trigger for her to leave and pursue a whole new life, including, apparently, a new relationship with a younger woman played by Maya Sansa. It’s got mixed notices, but Huppert is always worth watching.


JULY
2nd
White Material


The latest from acclaimed French director Claire Denis has attracted laudatory word at the festivals since Cannes last year, and finally opens here having played at London in 2009. It’s set in an unnamed African country and sees Huppert as a coffee grower who is threatened with violence when there is a growing rebellion among the native population. There’s an interesting cast, including Christophe Lambert as Huppert’s husband and frequent Denis collaborator Issach De Bankole as a rebel leader. It will be the first I’ve seen of Denis’ work, I hope she lives up to her reputation.

9th
Leaving


I saw this latest from Catherine Corsini at both LFF 2009 and Rendez Vous with French Cinema 2010. It does boast brilliant performances from Sergi Lopez and Kristin Scott Thomas, but the film, which is a little melodramatic at times, struggles to come up to the level of excellence achieved by the leads.

Went the Day Well?
Alberto Cavalcanti’s 1942 masterpiece is getting a re-release thanks to a BFI season. The story of a covert Nazi invasion of Britain, via a tiny rural community, must have been terrifying in its day. Now it serves as a rousing war movie, while remaining tense and provocative thanks to strong direction from Cavalcanti and fine performances all round. Highly recommended among this summer’s reissues.

16th
Inception


Christopher Nolan’s stopgap between The Dark Knight and his likely next project; Batman 3 is his first entirely self-penned script since his debut, Following. In a summer seaon that looks overwhelmingly braindead it seems that the worry with Inception is the reverse, apparently some of the actors didn’t understand the film while shooting it, so the question is; are audiences too dumb for this movie? I’m interested anyway, I don’t love Nolan’s work, but this has a great cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Michael Caine) and at the very least it looks like it’s going to pack visual inventivness to match the story.

Rapt


Lucas Belvaux made an audacious debut with One, Two and Three, a trilogy of linked films, each in a different genre. His latest is a kidnap thriller following negotiations for the release of Yvan Attal’s character, even as he deteriorates in captivity. The wonderful Anne Consigny plays Attal’s wife.

19th
Toy Story 3


If I were going to see just one film this summer it would be this one. And by the way, if ANYONE tells me ANYTHING about what happens in it I will rip out their lungs. I know it’s got great notices (and that professionally contrary critic Armond White hated it) and I know that it is supposed to continue Pixar’s grand tradition of making films that are funny and emotional, both for children and for adults. I want to be as surprised by this film as I was 15 years ago at a preview of the first.

23rd
Splice


I didn’t love Splice on seeing it at Sci-Fi London this year, but before it falls apart in its last twenty minutes (and it does, spectacularly) this is a smart and engaging sci-fi movie. Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody work well together, and bring some gravitas to what is essentially a generic story about two scientists whose gene splicing experiment gets out of control, producing a creature they name Dren. The effects are excellent, and Delphine Chaneac is affecting as the ‘teenage’ Dren. It surrenders to cliché in the end, but the first 70 minutes or so are well worth your time.

Incoming: Jack and Diane

This needs to get made. NOW.
Juno Temple [above left] has apparently just signed on, coming through what has seemed to be a revolving door, to play Diane in LESBIAN WEREWOLF MOVIE Jack and Diane, opposite Olivia Thirlby [above right] as Jack. I've been anticipating this for a while - because it's a LESBIAN WEREWOLF MOVIE - It was going to star Ellen Page, and the Allison Pill in the role now (for now?) taken by Temple.

Aside from the sheer awesomeness of the phrase LESBIAN WEREWOLF MOVIE, Jack and Diane has a pretty cool sounding plot...

Jack and Diane, two teenage girls, meet in New York City and spend the night kissing ferociously. Diane's charming innocence quickly begins to open Jack's tough skinned heart. But, when Jack discovers that Diane is leaving the country in a week she tries to push her away. Diane must struggle to keep their love alive while hiding the secret that her newly awakened sexual desire is giving her werewolf-like visions.

and it's also got a couple of solid choices in the lead roles. Both Thirlby and Temple are beautiful, sure, but they're also both decent actors (check out Thirlby in The Wackness and Juno and Temple in Cracks for proof), so this first horror feature from writer/director Bradley Rust Gray might be good, as well as being a LESBIAN WEREWOLF MOVIE. Yeah, I just like typing that.

20 + 10: Pt. 2

10 more exciting things for the next 12 months, in no specific order.

Scott Pilgrim


Edgar Wright’s latest hasn’t really inspired me until now, thanks largely to the fact that I wasn’t fond of Hot Fuzz and that it stars Michael Cera, who can only play one part (one part which is wearing perilously thin). It’s starting to look like a lot of fun though. The cast is cooler than cool (especially with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Anna Kendrick in the mix), but what has me excited is what Wright is saying about the action. After all the bullet time that has followed in the wake of The Matrix, Wright says he’s going back to fast, furious, Hong Kong style action (he’s got some of Jackie Chan’s stunt team working on the action sequences). “It’s like a cross between Cameron Crowe and Five Deadly Venoms” he’s said. Awesome, assuming he means Say Anything, rather than Elizabethtown.

Testing
One room thrillers seem to be hit (Cube) or miss (Fermat’s Room) with me, but I’m hoping for good things from British director Stuart Hazeldine’s first feature; Exam. It’s the job interview from hell, as the nameless candidates find themselves in a room, given sheets without a question and 80 minutes to find the answer. It sounds bizarre and intriguing; exactly the right conditions for a good thriller.

Beware the Devil
Interviewed on the BBC’s Film 2009, the Midlands based auteur said that his next project would, hopefully, be “one of the scariest films of 2010”. If it happens Beware the Devil will be Meadows’ first proper foray into horror (though there are shades of it in Dead Man’s Shoes). He’s said that just writing the script has been scary, and that he’s going to talk to Sam Rockwell, with hopes of casting him. Meadows is one of the most interesting filmmakers in the UK right now, I’m anxious to see what he can do in genre cinema.

Fests Galore
Wherever you live, there’s probably a film festival near you some time in 2009. I’m lucky enough to live near London, where there seems to be a film festival of some stripe most weeks. My first of the year will likely be the Birds Eye View film festival in March (this year closing with Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut; Whip It!) and my last will almost certainly be December’s Festival of German films, with hopefully many in between. Festivals are where you find the strange and compelling fare, the stuff that often doesn’t reach cinemas at all. The little films, the new talent. Next time you see a festival playing near you, try this; buy tickets for two films you are sure you want to see, then get one for something you have absolutely no knowledge of, whatever happens to be playing directly after one of your two other choices. It may not be great, but it will almost certainly be different (I did that in 2009, and saw Dear Lemon Lima).

Nina Hoss


I don’t know if, in her native Germany, Nina Hoss is as ridiculously famous and as well rated an actress as she clearly deserves to be, I hope she is. Over here few people have even heard her name, and that’s a crying shame because she’s one of the most consistently intriguing and most chameleonic actresses I’ve seen in a long time. Most of her work is unreleased in the UK, so any new release is a reason to celebrate and Anonyma, based on the wartime memoirs of an anonymous Berlin woman sounds like it will provide a great part for Hoss to get her teeth into. Even sight unseen, I can tell you that this should be worth seeking out, if only for Nina Hoss.

Back to the 80’s
The movies have taken a little while to catch up to the music scene, which has spent the last couple of years partying like its 1984, but the pop culture of the 80’s is coming back in a big way this year. Joe Carnahan’s The A Team is being touted as a big franchise for the future, Footloose, The Karate Kid (with Jackie Chan) and (groan) A Nightmare on Elm Street are being remade, but the big excitement for movie geeks is coming from two projects aiming to recapture the fun of 80’s action movies. Nimrod Antal and producer Robert Rodriguez are working on Predators, on a fast schedule for a summer bow, it seems pretty close to the feel of the first film, and has an intriguing cast led by, of all people, Adrien Brody. Then there’s The Expendables, which seems to be Sylvester Stallone’s attempt to cram every 80’s action hero (and Jason Statham) into a single film. After the giant shitpile that was Rambo, I don’t care about The Expendables, but it’s certainly one of the most rabidly anticipated movies of 2010. However, if anyone remakes Back To The Future, I'm marching on Hollywood, and I may be armed.

Marty and Leo: Part 4
Okay, so Gangs of New York was ragged round the edges, but since then both Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have gone from strength to strength when working together. A nearly complete version of their latest; Shutter Island (I miss the original title; Ashcliffe) debuted at Harry Knowles’ ButtNumbAThon, and received very positive notices (notably a typically near sub-literate blowjob from Knowles himself). The trailers look very promising, and the cast (which also includes Jackie Earle Haley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams and Patricia Clarkson) is amazing. But of course it’s Martin Scorsese, so you were already there.

Masters of Cinema
The UK’s Eureka Entertainment continues to release, under this banner, stunning editions of some incredibly rare and fascinating films. Definitely on the slate for this year is a new edition of M (also on Blu Ray), Murnau’s little seen City Girl and the continuation of their Maurice Pialat series, soon, finally, to include the region 2 debut of A Nos Amors. I should own more of this series of releases, and any self respecting movie fan should have at least a few in their collection. Check out their site here.

Twilight to suck less?
Okay, the first two Twilight films are absolutely appalling drivel. The acting is so false that the same amount of expression would be possible if the cast were replaced with stop motion animated Lego men and the filmmaking has been miserably poor at all levels. BUT. David Slade (Hard Candy / 30 Days of Night) is directing the next in the franchise; Eclipse. He’s made plain his contempt for the first film, though he’s since taken back the remarks, which included “Twilight at gun point? Just shoot me.” That attitude, plus the word that he’s deliberately playing up the darker aspects of Eclipse and actually trying to make a horror film (apparently to the consternation of some of his cast), gives me a little hope that, at the very least, this will be a more interesting watch than the first two films.

Ink and paint return


When John Lassetter took over Disney’s animation division the first thing he did was to reactivate its cel animation production arm. He re-hired John Musker and Ron Clements (directors of Aladdin and The Lion King) and set them to work coming up with ideas. The first fruit of that labour; The Princess and the Frog, opens in the UK in time for February half term. I’m seeing it a week early, with Musker and Clements in attendance for a Q and A. You’ll be the first to hear about it. Personally I've missed traditional animation, which is a truly special art form, and I'm looking forward to this return from the company that established it and from two filmmakers who have made some truly great films with these techniques.

Incoming: More movies I want to see, RIGHT NOW: Part 1

In this first part of this article I'll be covering films with a UK release date set for 2009. Next time I'll cover set release dates for 2010, and a selection of films with no confirmed date.

Fish Tank (Sept. 11th)

Andrea Arnold’s first feature, Red Road, was one of the most promising and interesting debuts by a British filmmaker since Tim Roth’s The War Zone. This is her second. It was rapturously received at all the festivals it has played at, with Michael Fassbender and newcomer Katie Jarvis (who was discovered yelling at her boyfriend at a station) being singled out for praise. It doesn’t sound like a huge leap for Arnold - another contemporary kitchen sink drama - but she’s clearly a massive talent, and that’s something the British film industry needs to embrace and nurture.

Ip Man (Oct. 2nd)

Wilson Yip’s latest, based on the life of the man who taught Bruce Lee Wing Chun (perhaps my favourite martial art to watch on screen, largely thanks to The Prodigal Son), was nominated for 12 Hong Kong Film Awards and won two (Best Picture and Best Action Coreography for the legendary Sammo Hung Kam-bo). The film marks the fourth in Yip’s series of collaborations with Donnie Yen, and reunites them with Simon Yam, with whom the pair worked in Sha Po Long. The film should provide some of the finest martial arts you are likely to see on screen, what with Hung and Yen working together.


Toy Story in 3D (Oct 2nd)

Here’s a fact that makes me feel old… Toy Story is nearly 15 years old. That’s long enough, I think, to declare it not merely a great film, but a timeless one. It’s an interesting film to re-process into 3D, because Toy Story was a film that transcended its technological achievements. It was, of course, the first fully computer animated film, but that took second place to story, character and laughs. Avatar is coming in December, but for me this is the real test of whether 3D is viable, because if re-processing a film that is already as close to perfect as you’re likely to see doesn’t add something to that film, to that experience, then what’s the point? Toy Story 2, the even better sequel, is coming out in 3D as well, that opens Jan. 22nd 2010.

Shutter Island (Oct. 9th)

The words ‘A Martin Scorsese Picture’ are almost always a reason to get excited, and that’s certainly the case here. He’s working from a book by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote the source novels for Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, but it’s the cast that’s really getting me interested. Scorsese’s new muse Leonardo DiCaprio is, again, the lead and he’s backed up by some of the greatest character actors around: Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Jackie Earle Haley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, to name just a few. I’d be watching out for this one come Oscar time.

Thirst (Oct. 16th)

I’ve been looking forward to this for a few years now, ever since Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) announced that one of his future projects was a vampire movie starring his frequent collaborator Song Kang-ho, entitled Evil Live. Well, Evil Live has become Thirst, but otherwise this looks exactly like the film Park has been promising us. It’s the story of a priest who becomes a vampire, and the woman he falls for. The trailer looks amazing, with Park’s visuals as gorgeous as ever and the suggestion of a pair of brilliant performances from Song and Kim Ok-bin. In a year that has seen vampire movies become very fashionable, this might well be the best of the bunch.


Cold Souls (Nov. 6th)

The trailer paints this as something of a cross between Being John Malkovich (this time starring Paul Giamatti as a version of himself) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (only it is the soul that is removed here, not memories). Still, even if the rest of the cast weren’t as interesting as it is - Giamatti, Emily Watson, David Strathairn - I’d be seeing this purely for Russian actress Dina Korzun. She’s only been in two English language films before this, and in each she’s given a brilliant performance and she’s become one of my favourite actresses, so I’m sold on Cold Souls, and so should you be.

Das Weiße Band [The White Ribbon] (Nov. 13th)

Michael Haneke doesn’t make easy films. His Palme D’or winning latest is long at nearly two and a half hours, black and white and once again (after his English version of Funny Games) in German. The White Ribbon is set in a rural school in Germany in 1913, apparently ‘strange events’ take place there, and many people have read the film as Haneke’s comment on the origins of the fascism that would give rise to the Nazis. I’m looking forward to going into this one blind, Haneke always surprises me, and that’s usually a very good thing.

Spread (Nov. 27th)

David MacKenzie is, for my money, one of the best young filmmakers around. His first four films; The Last Great Wilderness, Young Adam, Asylum and Hallam Foe are all showcases for distinct and diverse talent. Spread is his biggest film to date; he’s got American money behind him and a couple of stars in Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, I’m just hoping that trying to appeal to a bigger audience won’t blunt Mackenzie’s hard edged style or his unflinching approach to depicting every aspect of relationships of all kinds. He’s good with actors, so I’m hoping he’ll get better work than we’ve seen so far from Kutcher and be able to make people take note of the fact that Anne Heche can actually act. I’m looking forward to this one.

Zombieland (Nov. 27th)

This looks like a great deal of fun - think buddy comedy meets zombie mayhem and you’ve hit the tone of the trailer. After a few disappointing horror comedies it seems that this one may have hit just the right mix of guts and giggles, thanks largely to what looks to be a highly entertaining turn from Woody Harrelson.

Avatar (Dec. 18th)

Avatar is the year’s big mystery. It is director James Cameron’s long held dream - he’s waited 15 years for technology to catch up to his vision - and it will be required viewing. Make no mistake, this is the film that will make or break 3D. Cameron is promising to revolutionise cinema with this film. It had better be good. Personally I’m uninspired by what I’ve seen from it, and I have yet to be won over by Cameron’s beloved 3D, but I’ll be there on opening day, because if this really is going to fundamentally change the world’s greatest artform then I have to see it, and so, I suspect, do you.