Dan Trachtenberg is in talks to write and direct an MCU movie for the Mutant era. Per the report, it's a theatrical feature. It's also a single-character film, not an ensemble piece.
Miike has directed a whopping 114 films and TV productions. Almost nobody has seen all of them, and if you have, you're not just a completist—you're a madman.
Netflix and Lionsgate are teaming up on “Fairytale in New York,” a new action thriller starring Aaron Pierre, with “Sisu” helmer Jalmari Helander directing. Netflix will distribute and Lionsgate will produce.
Borgli and Robbie had been talking about her starring in his next film, and she's now committed to shooting it sometime in 2027, which means it will likely come out in 2028.
This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.
Listen, I didn't like "Doctor Strange," safe for the Oscar-Worthy visuals, but the kind of stuff Dr. Ted Baher, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, preaches is straight up whack. He has given "Doctor Strange" a -4 which translates in his own rating system as "Abhorrent." Why do these guys still exist? Here's their Facebook Page and the following is an excerpt of his rant on "Doctor Strange."
“Doctor Strange is a dangerous introduction to demonic occult deception,” Behr wrote in his review. “The Bible clearly warns against the kind of occult practices and sorcery the hero in this movie learns to do, in Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and Galatians 5:20. Also in the movie, the hero’s New Age, occult guru teaches there may be no afterlife, that death is truly the end, and that this is a good thing.”
"Winning the People’s Choice Award, Damien Chazelle’s film was a no-brainer. Everyone felt sure it was going to win even before the festival started. Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, Chazelle’s film has moments of pure joy that make you feel punch-drunk in love at the movies again. The morning press screening burst into extended applause after the film’s final shot and that sealed the deal for the film’s eventual fate as a major Best Picture contender. Stone, a beauty of an actress, also turned heads for her performance as Mia, a struggling actress hoping to find her big break. Mia falls for Sebastian, a playful and charismatic Ryan Gosling, as they embark on a colorful and touching adventure filled with some of the best original songs ever conceived for the big screen. It’s quite possibly the best movie musical since Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz.”
Mel Gibson has revealed the title of what might be his next directorial film: The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection. Yes, you heard that right, a sequel to his 2004 mega-hit "The Passion of the Christ." The film made $612 Million on a scant $30 Million budget. One of the most succesful independent films of all-time and lots of $$$$ for its studio Newmarket. The actor revealed his plans about the sequel on Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" on Tuesday. He'll be working with Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace on the screenplay and consider us intrigued. Although passion divided critics it was an eye-opening account of the last days of Jesus Christ. I'm not a believe in anything, but the film was gripping and as horrific as any horror movie out at that time.
"It’s not just some chronological telling of just that event. That could be boring, and you think, ‘Oh, we read that,' "But what are the other things around it that happened?"
"It’s probably about three years off, because it’s a big subject,"It’s more than a single event, it’s an amazing event, And to underpin that with the things around it is really the story, to enlighten what that means. It’s not just about the event; it’s not just some chronological telling of just that event. That could be boring, and you think, ‘Oh, we read that.'... But what are the other things around it that happened?"
Additionally, the film's villains "are in another realm, Sure, you’re going all over the place. What happened in three days?... I’m not sure, but it’s worth thinking about. Get your imagination going."
A snippet of what I had to say about "Passion of the Christ" back in the day:
"Mel Gibson isn’t scared of showing violence in the movies he directs. Apocalypto and Braveheart could have both been on this list, but instead we’ll settle for The Passion of the Christ. The Bible isn’t tame on violence and the film makes us well aware of that, recounting Jesus’ final days of suffering before his ultimate crucifixion. There are only three sentences in the Bible that mention the flogging of Jesus and yet Gibson dedicates more than 10 minutes of screentime to Jesus getting whipped until he collapses. The crucifixion scene isn’t any better, as Gibson apparently wants the audience to feel the pain as much as possible. However, Gibson has stated that he believes that The Bible describes a far more horrific crucifixion than the movie. The film is shocking, extreme, and tries to make you see the – as the director of the film has stated – “enormity of the sacrifice”. The brutality onscreen had audiences not only seeing the sacrifice, but feeling it as well."
The Room, a film funded by entrepeneur Tommy Wiseau for $6 million, was supposed to be a serious movie, but what turned out instead was, what many consider, one of the very worst movies of all-time.
Its incomprehensible narrative, terribly out-there script, and hilarious non-intentional one-liners has been the joke for many internet fans.
It has become such a cult classic that there are countless nationwide screenings out there of the movie. If there is one in the area I do recommend you experience a sold-out showing of the film, the hoots and hollers alone are worth the price of admission.
It's become a sort of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" experience with "interactive traditions such as dressing up, mimicking scenes and throwing plastic spoons at the screen in reference to the framed photo of a stock image spoon that appears as a background prop throughout. "
"The Masterpiece" could become a cult classic of its own as it is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tommy Wiseau's 2003 abomination. The film stars James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, Zach Efron, Sharon Stone, Melanie Griffith and, yes, Bryan Cranston as himself? "I play a real-life character who's this sitcom dad," Cranston explains toFairfax Media "I play a character named [pauses for effect] Bryan Cranston." Franco says Sestero has already seen an early version of The Masterpiece and "absolutely loved" it.
"He spent many years with Tommy and gave me a very nice compliment as someone who probably knows Tommy better than anybody. He thought the performance was just great and right on, so I feel really good about that."
"The Simpsons Movie" grossed over $500 million worldwide. The film felt like a feature-length episode from the golden-age of the series, that's around season 4-6. I really liked the film, so much so that it cracked my Top 30 in 2007, a year that some consider to be the greatest in movie history. I never really thought there would be another film happening, but James L. Brooks spoke with LRM and was asked whether or not a second film might happen and it seems like Fox wants that.
“Fox very much wants us to do another one, and maybe we will and maybe we won’t—that’s where it is,” Brooks explained. “How do we divide our labors, and do we believe in the idea we have? We may go into a more active exploration of a second movie soon.” "The Simpsons" is still on television, almost 30 years on, even though the quality has gone down there is a rather large fanbase and there is no doubt Fox believes that another film will be successful. I haven't seen a new episode in years, but I very much look forward to another film especially if the older writers are involved. The 2007 movie had such stalwarts as James L Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean and Mike Scully among many others involved.
I saw "Sing" at TIFF this past September. It's a mildly enjoyable romp that somewhat satirizes, but also warms up to, singing contest reality shows such as "American Idol" and "The Voice." Some of the jokes have a major sting to them and others just fall flat. The songs are great, a lot of catchy top 40 radio and they must have payed a lot of dough to secure the rights to use them. It probably won't be a critical darling, but I can see some hefty box-office in its future. For now we have this trailer which does capture the vibe that Director Garth Jennings is trying to convey.
In casting “Dog Eat Dog,” Director Paul Schrader got two game actors in Willem Dafoe and Nicolas Cage, who gleefully feed off of each other. It’s as if they’ve been working together for years. Their chemistry is what drives this fiercfully funny movie.
The opening scene to the film, a little backstory about Dafoe’s Mad Dog, is an open invitation for the audience to get on board with the movie or not, filled with nasty gravitas, wholly terrifying violence and non-PC humor.
There isn’t an ounce of fat in Screenwriter Matthew Wilder’s wildly inventive screenplay. The film is an amalgam of everything that’s come before it in the gangster genre and yet it feels fresh. Schrader’s direction is possessed, and he hasn’t seemed this energized by a film since 2002’s great “Auto Focus.”
This is only Wilder’s second screenplay, and yet the freedom he was given to write “Dog Eat Dog” is, quite frankly, refreshing.
Full interview I conducted for The Playlist can be found HERE
Anything by Michael Haneke is welcome here at "World of Reel." But his latest, entitled "Happy End," has been in a state of secrecy ever since it started shooting earlier this year. What do we know about the latest from the Austrian auteur of "Cache," "Amour" and "Funny Games"? The official plot has it as "A drama about a family set in Calais with the European refugee crisis as the backdrop." It stars Isabelle Huppert, Mathieu Kassovitz and Jean-Louis Trintignant as, more than likely, that family. It also stands a good chance of premiering at the Cannes Film Festival next May. Now we have Huppert, who is doing promo for "Elle," giving us a little more insight of what the film will be about, although she is still being vague it does wet our appetites about what will likely be one of the most anticipated movies of 2017. “It’s a portrait of a family, and everything that implies,It’s a very quick view of a family. There’s no psychology. It’s very factual. Just the facts. It sounds like ‘Code: Unknown,’ but it’s different to that. It’s certainly more like ‘Code: Unknown’ than ‘The Piano Teacher,’ where you follow a single character. The aim is that everyone who sees it will be able to create their own film.”
No, really, this ain't hyperbole, Mel Gibson's latest directorial effort "Hacksaw Ridge" has incredibly realized battle sequences. Probably the best that I have seen since the opening of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" and Gibson's very own bloody "Braveheart." The film comes out this Friday, but I saw it weeks ago.
Here a few excerpts from my B+ Review:
"It has been ten years since Mel Gibson gave us "Apocalytpo," a bloody, surreal, but cinematic-ally brilliant dissection of the Mayan's final days. "Hacksaw Ridge" is his fifth movie as a director. I missed it when it premiered at Venice because I was out covering the Toronto International Film Festival, so I was highly anticipating watching this latest film from "Bloody Mel." "Tackling WWII for the first time as a director, Gibson sets his film on the true story of Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield) a soldier that refuses to handle a gun or shoot a bullet, but willing to risk his own life to save the lives of others. Cue in the Christian imagery, a Gibson staple, which gets milked for all its worth in this movie. Why does Desmond not want to shoot or kill? the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill." His religious convictions are too strong that he would rather be imprisoned than take the life of the enemy. He's a "conscientious objector" driven to join the army out of patriotic duty, even if he has a romance going on back home with a beautiful nurse (Teresa Palmer)." "Of course, things don't go as planned, he is ridiculed by his peers in boot-camp, beaten up, abused, and imprisoned for his refusal to bear arms. He does end up getting his wish and going to the battleground with nary a weapon, thanks to his father, himself a war veteran, who turns to a old army friend with power to grant the permission." "The first half of the film is somewhat flawed, convoluted and reveals a softer side to Gibson, that I'd rather never see again, with a cliched and calculating setup and one-too many christian allegories. The second half reveals what "Bloody Mel" is best at doing on-screen: passionate, visceral mayhem. It's no secret that he loves shooting violence on-screen, check out "Braveheart," "The Passion of the Christ" and Apocalypto" if you have your doubts, and "Hacksaw Ridge" is no exception." "The close-combat between the USA and Japan on the Hacksaw Ridge in Okinawa is a no-holds barred spectacle from a man that knows how to shoot fury. He means to make us see hell on screen with limbs flying all over the place. Bullets, bombs, grenades and rocket launchers take up most of the screen-time from thereon in. Caught up in the middle of all this Doss does his best to save lives and makes amends with a troupe that took him for granted." "After a failed attempt to take over Hacksaw, Doss receives an epiphany from God, yeah I know. He'd rather die saving lives than not try at all. Taking advantage of the surreal Japanese evening he attempts to sneak into combat territory and drag injured soldiers out of harm's way. This tense game of suspense is the film's real high-point and reveals Gibson at the top of his filmmaking game."
*** (R) After having seen it this past May at Cannes, Jeff Nichols' "Loving" is finally coming out to the general public this coming Friday. Although I was somewhat underwhelmed by the film at first, I have to say it was for the wrong reasons. There is no Oscar-baiting in this film or as Anthony Lane so eloquently put it in his mixed/positive review of the film "The quiet joke of the film is that you could scarcely meet two less revolutionary souls." The very thing that put me off guard at first is the reason why I do recommend this lovely film.
"Loving" is a very delicate film about racial injustice in the 1950s. Now, just stop there, ponder how rare that is for a studio film. It's not grandiose nor does it shove any melodrama in your face. The camera is still and just peeks, watches as an interracial couple sublimely maintain their composure with restraint as authorities continuously try to break their union apart. Most filmmakers would have shot the whole thing as one show-stopping scene after another with much dramatic fireworks, oh, and don't forget you probably have to hammer down the message on your audiences throats. That is not the case here. Jeff Nichols' "Loving" is so subtle and restrained that you do fear many Oscar voters might not appreciate it as they should. We have been force-fed to like flashy, putting-a-lump-on-your-throat kind of ways of telling a true story, but that's rarely how they actually occur in real life. Some of the time history is made in the most mundane and dull of situations. Spielberg's "Lincoln" knew that and Jeff Nichols' "Loving" knows that as well. By all means go and watch the film with this review in mind.
With all of these rumors about Garth Edwards having problems with "Rogue One," it is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that such a mess occurs at a major movie production. You can read the full details of studio interference in "Rogue One" HERE.
Here are 10 other extreme examples of studio interference in Hollywood productions.
Alien 3 (1992)
After becoming a music video boy-genius David Fincher was a hot commodity for any major studio on Hollywood. His visual flair struck many as potentially game changing, but the project he decided to pick for his directorial debut has since become the only bad movie of his career. "Alien 3" had countless re-shoots and rewrites, most of which weren't Fincher's decision, even worse the creative differences Fincher faced with studio executives is now the stuff of legendary stories. It is then not very surprising that Fincher immediately disowned the film and has since released his own cut called "The Assembly Cut" which improved upon the original in terms of tying together plot holes amd character development, but still missed the spark that would ignite many of the eventual great movies he would eventually make in his career.
Blade Runner (1982)
Upon its release in 1982 "Blade Runner" had so much studio interference that its history is the stuff of legend. Receiving mixed reviews the film came and went upon release, but ended up receiving a cult following on home video - which got Scott amped up and screeing his own versions to audiences around the country for the next few years. There have been several versions of "Blade Runner", seven to be more specific, but the ultimate version will always be the "Final Cut" which got rid of the narration, left us with an extra final brilliant shot and fixed many of the plot holes present I'm the original. It was the only time director Ridley Scott ever had total freedom in the editing room for the film and it would only come 25 years after its release.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
This might be the most butchered film by an American studio on the list. The original version ran for 229 minutes, an epic to say the least, and featured character development that got completely cut off and disjointed by the 139 minute American version. That's right, more than 1 hour and 30 minutes of footage gone. Some of the highlights of the original got completely cut off: A big chunk of the childhood scenes were not to be found, as was the famous garbage truck scene with Bailey which concludes the film on a more ambiguous, talked about note. Europeans got to see the final cut of Sergio Leone's classic, but Americans didn't. However, time has been good to the film as most people now tend to seek the 4 hour version instead of the butchered 1984 version which is clearly and justifyingly hard to find.
Brazil (1986)
Terry Gilliam has never hidden the fact that he had problems with the studio while making 1985's "Brazil". His 142 minute cut, which Criterion released in beautiful pristine quality, is well known as a visionary sci-fi classic that paved the way and influenced a generation to come. Much of the problems had to do with the film's ending which Gilliam refused to change. The story goes that the fighting persisted throughout the year until Gilliam decided to screen his cut -in secrecy- for the L.A Film critics, which prompted them to name "Brazil" the Best Picture of 1985 and had audience and critics demanding its release. The studuo finally gave in and release the damn thing. The rest -ands they say- is history.
All The Pretty Horses (2000)
Billy Bob Thornton wanted to followup his directorial debut "Sling Blade" with an adaptation of "All the Pretty Horses", a Cromac McCarthy novel that many said was unfilmable. Thornton's original version ran nearly 4 hours, maybe the only way such a movie could have worked, but Harvey Weinstein quickly forced Thornton to cut it down to its eventual final cut of 116 minutes- Many say as payback for Thornton fighting and getting his version of "Sling Blade" released in 1996 despite Weinstein's disapproval. That's more than half of "All The Pretty Horses" on the cutting room floor. Its star Matt Damon publicly came out and defended Thornton, saying it wasn't fair that this much footage should be offed. Eventual efforts to get a director's cut on DVD have been tampered by the film's original music composer Daniel Lanois who refuses to have his score have anything to do with the movie. Yikes.
Heaven's Gate (1980)
The infamous movie that made United Artists declare bankruptcy. Michael Cimino was the hottest director in Hollywood, "The Deer Hunter" cleaned up the Oscars and Cimino was thought to have had carte blanche for his next movie. Then "Heaven's Gate" happened. A monstrous failure who's backstage stories are the stuff of legend and of which we won't be able to get fully into here, maybe another list? One of the stories goes that Cimino changed the locks of the editing room so that studio execs wouldn't interfere. His erratically insane behaviour concluded with a 5 hour and 25 minute cut of the film which Cimino said was a 15 minute cut away from the final version. Even though the film has garnered a cult following in recent years, the 2 hour and 29 minute cut that was finally released in the fall of 1980 garnered terrible reviews.
Hancock (2008)
The studio meddling done with "Hancock" was brutally significant. The first directors cut tackled the title character played by Will Smith as more of an anti-hero with questionable behavior and an overall unpleasant demeanor. The studio obviously didn't respond well to this cut, which quickly sent the film to the cutting room floor and tried to make the character more likeable. The film went on to eventually make millions at the box office, but was it because of the new cut? Or just Will Smith's star power? Way after its initial release details have come out about the studio pressure director Peter Berg had to face. All these stories only make us want a director's cut even more.
Fantastic Four (2015)
Much has been made about director Josh Trank's problems with Fox over this film. The story goes that Fox was unsatisfied with Trank's cut of the film and decided to completely take over and re-shoot key scenes- Trank was obviously unhappy and took to Twitter to voice his disapproval saying that "A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've received great reviews. You'll probably never see it. That's reality though." The film has been one of the worst reviewed Hollywood movies in recent memory, raising doubt over an already announced sequel and cementing it as movie that will forever live in infamy.
Killing Them Softly (2011)
Director Andrew Dominik is no stranger to making long movies.The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Fordreportedly ran for more than three and a half hours before the studio forced him to cut more than 45 minutes of footage for its theatrical release. Regardless, the film was still a triumphant work of art that is still being dissected to today in film schools worldwide. Dominik’s followup to that movie wasKilling Them Softly, also starring Brad Pitt as a hit-man looking for a man responsible for robbing an illegal high-stakes poker game in post-Katrina New Orleans. Dominik also ran into trouble with this film, which reportedly clocked in at more than two hours and thirty minutes in length. The final theatrical release was almost an hour shorter, which means something happened in the process that turned the studio against Dominik. What was it? Everyone involved has been very hush-hush about the drama, but the resulting film wasn’t half as good asJesse James, which might explain why many people are asking for a director’s cut to get released, even though there isn’t any actual proof that it exists.
Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Your name is Orson Welles, you're 27 years old and your first movie was "Citizen Kane". You would think that with your second movie the studio would give you carte blanche and all the freedom that you need to bring your vision onscreen. Not exactly. "The Magnificent Ambersons" is the granddaddy of all studio interfered movies. Cutting almost an hour of footage from the original cut? check. Changing the downer ending for a happier ending? check. A Bernard Herrmann score heavily edited by the studio? check. Welles was highly affected by the disastrous studio meddling of his beloved film, one which he believed could have truly marked his career. "They destroyed 'Ambersons,' and 'it' destroyed me." he later said.
“That’s up to the studio because they have to pay for it,” said Feig when asked about the chances of Ghostbusters 2. “Nobody’s called me. But I love those characters and I know they are now heroes and mean a lot to a lot of people, so in a perfect world it would be great if we could see them bust more ghosts, kick more ass, and be awesome again.”
“Now that the movie’s kind of past all that stuff and we’re out on DVD and streaming on digital, I get contacted all day long over social media by women thanking me for the movie, and girls and young women sending me pictures of themselves in their modern-day Ghostbusters costumes,” he continued. “I even get tweets from women saying, ‘If this movie was around when I was younger I’d maybe be an engineer now, because I see these cool women who are scientists.’ So I hope the world will go, wow, we got upset over something that we really didn’t need to get upset over. I’m hoping that time will rehabilitate us.”
My comeback? Why Paul? You can make better movies by staying far away from this.
Here's what I had to say about "Ghostbusters" back in the summer:
"Paul Feig's new "Ghostbusters" is not as bad as we might have expected from all the backlash, but not as good as it had the right to be. The cast is mostly good, but I could have done without Melissa McCarthy who's a little too serious here as the leader of the gang. Kate McKinnon is the clear standout as complete weirdo Jillian Holtzmann, Kristen Wiig is her usual awkward self, and Leslie Jones does a great job with what is essentially a thinly written part."
"I actually find McKinnon is as delightful to watch here as Murray was back in 1984. The SNL actress, best known for her spot-on Hilary Clinton, delivers her lines with such fresh abandon that I wish there was much more for her to chew on here. The screenplay is sadly not that funny, it's the actresses that try to make the best of their lines with their delivery. This is a 120 minute "Ghostbusters" remake with both spirited and dull moments. It's not the total failure some of the internet geeks might have you thinking it was, but there's not enough here to justify the budget and expectations."
Obama had the apology tour. Gibson has the 'forgive me' tour. You won't get no apology from "Bloody Mel," he was loaded and he was angry (HERE). Here's the latest from his "apology tour" this time around it's with the AFP, click HERE.
Rick Famuyiwa, who brought a unique vision to his coming-of-age Sundance hit Dope, has decided to leave "The Flash" over what the reps call "creative differences,"
The attempt by DC to promote an 'auteur driven cinematic universe' has gotten off to a rather lukewarm start. At this point I can't imagine many respectable directors wanting to jump on board the DC universe. This is what you get when you decide to hop on-board a supehero movie, are you ready to sell your soul to the devil? Famuyiwa didn't think so. In fact many people didn't think so. The amount of auteurs that have dropped out of superhero movies the last few years is astounding (Ava Duvernay, Joss Whedon, Joe Carnahan, Edgar Wright, Darren Aronofsky, George Miller, Rupert Wyatt )
James Cameron has promised innovation with the new Avatar sequels. This would surely get way more people willing to watch 3D if they don't need to incorporate those goofy, uncomfortable glasses. As someone that already wears glasses at the movies, I can't stand wearing these uncomfortable and dim specs. Cameron is, of course, not holding on any promises. So don't be surprised if we do get these sequels with glasses, but in James Cameron we should trust. This is a man that has continuously been ahead of movie technology for decades. “I'm going to push. Not only for better tools, workflow, high dynamic range and high frame rates — the things we are working toward. I’m still very bullish on 3D, but we need brighter projection, and ultimately I think it can happen — with no glasses. We’ll get there.” “magic has to amaze … and that involves constant creation of new tools and techniques. The audience’s eyes adjust to what we did, and so we need to up our work.” “Movies are going to look better than they’ve ever looked. They already do and they are going to continue [to look better]. Anything we can imagine, we can put on the screen.” I'd of, of course, rather have him concentrate on story and characters, but this is the sort of stuff that makes us love the man. Cameron absolutely pushes the technical limit, HOWEVER his earlier work is superior filmmaking because it had everything to offer. Good storytelling, fantastic visuals and good dialogue. "Avatar" was well worth seeing because of the technical accomplishment that it was. The story itself, its lazy message and terrible dialogue were not positives that came out of it.
On The technology Ang Lee used for "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"
“I think [high frame rates] is a tool, not a format. I think it’s something you want to weave in and out and use it when it soothes the eye, especially in 3D during panning, movements that [create] artifacts that I find very bothersome. I want to get rid of that stuff, and you can do it through high frame rates.
“In terms of that kind of hyper clarity, there may be some films that benefit from it," he continued. "But I feel you still have to have a little bit of that veil of unreality that comes with [today’s commonly used] 24 frames per second. This is my conclusion now. I don’t think you do it wall-to-wall, I think you do it where you need it.”
Full HollywoodReporter coverage of James Cameron at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers' Centennial Gala can be found HERE
Taken from my review for The Playlist for Anna Biller's "The Love Witch" which was seen at the 20th Fantasia International Film Festival. Full review HERE
"The first thing that you notice about Anna Biller's "The Love Witch" is how strikingly beautiful a movie it is. Shot on 35mm its look is inspired by 1960s sexploitation and Technicolor melodramas. It is sumptuous in its eye-popping photography filled with relentless color and incredibly impressive and precise costume design."
Its plot of a modern-day witch named Elaine (a very spicy hot Samantha Robinson) that relentlessly, but good-hardheartedly, concocts magical spells to get men to fall in love with her, can seem like a throwaway compared to the actual, eye-candy imagery Biller has created. You wouldn't be wrong, but what Biller is trying to create is a cinematic treatise very much akin to what Todd Haynes did with his Douglas Sirk inspired melodrama "Far From Heaven." The beautiful, luscious coilers are deceiving enough to make an audience believe that what they are seeing is total pastiche, but the underlying themes and resonances that lurk beneath tell a very different tale.
"Elaine's Gothic, Victorian-inspired apartment is an over-the-top inspired treat. There are spell books and love potions being created all around the place. It makes for a hilariously messy environment, but one which subtly indicates the deranged mind of its titular character. She makes over-the-top potions, sprinkles them with absurd spells and then goes out to find the next victim in her deadly web. We never truly know if the spells actually work or if she just picks up all these hapless male souls because, well, she's quite easy on the eyes."
"Most of the men Elaine meets are weak-minded fools that cannot handle the heavy, and proudly feminist image, that comes with dating this kooky witch. Her aim is to get the perfect man, but not without getting what she truly wants. She will use sex, just like Scarlett Johnanson's toxic UFO vixen all too easily did in "Under the Skin," to seduce her male partners and get to her ubiquitous goals. The sex scenes are ugly, misguided and completely awkward, purposely so, but they also end up revealing the true nature of many of its male characters. The sex brings out the hidden truths that the plasticized men she encounters have kept hidden until that very moment from her."
"Newcomer Robinson is unusually impressive. She not only is perfect for the role with her provocatively good looks, but brings erotic, provocative, and never mean-spirited vibes to her character. She might be responsible for a few deaths, but Biller somehow finds a way to make Elaine likeable and not entirely responsible for the murders she has committed."
"Robinson certainly looks the part with her great outfits and provocative blue eye make-up. Her performance is veers between the erotic and the outrageous."
"It is no coincidence that "The Love Witch" feels like it was made in another era, in fact it is such a technical accomplishment that at times I truly thought I was watching something that was actually shot in the late 60s. Much of the visual palette stems from the technicolor thriller genre made popular back in the late 60's early 70s. From the acting to the lighting to the compositions, Biller has pulled out quite the effort to authenticate her film and make it look, sound and feel like it was made in 1971. She even directly uses music from older Ennio Morricone's Italin giallo soundtracks such as "The Fifth Cord" and "A Lizard in a Woman's Skin." The fact that Biller has stated that the film is supposed to be set in modern times, and we do happen to catch a few people talking in cell phones, is an accomplishment in itself because never does it feel like your in present time when 3watching the film."
"And so, with all these technical accomplishments, "The Love Witch" does retain its feminist themes throughout. Biller explores female fantasy in the most diabolical of ways imaginable and gender politics are dissected in such an honest, but stinging way that it could infuriate some feminists with its truthful observations. Biller proves to be the an auteur in the truest sense of the word: She directed, wrote, produced, edited the film and created many of the spectacular costumes and set decorations. She also, quite possibly, created a new cult classic."
"Nicolas Pesce stunned more than a few audiences at Sundance with his his horrifically hypnotic goth show. The story was disturbing, with a precisely constructive narrative that never let up in its dark, twisted surprises. No fair revealing any plot details about this one, except to say that this one is from film collective Borderline films which gave us in the past few years Martha Marcy May Marlene, James White and Simon Killer - this might be the best one of the bunch, it's that good." The film opens on December 2nd. Too bad they didn't decide on a Halloween release.
Frank Miller spoke to Variety about his own vision of how the Batman movies should have turned out and also about his aborted Batman project with Darren Aronofsky, which sounded amazing. That eventually had Christopher Nolan jump on-board and make the seminal films that we now know, but one does wonder just how great a Aronofsky/Miller film would have been. I do get what Miller was trying to convey here and it would have been great to get HIS OWN vision, especially since this is the guy that is responsible, he wrote the graphic novels, for what is quite possibly known as the greatest superhero movies of all-time: The Dark Knight Trilogy. “My dream would be to make it much smaller,”“To lose the toys and to focus more on the mission, and to use the city a great deal more. Because he’s got a loving relationship with the city he’s protecting. And unlike Superman his connection to crime is intimate; it has been ever since his parents were murdered. And he defeats criminals with his hands. So it would be a different take. But it will never be in my hands, because it would not be a good place to make toys from. There wouldn’t be a line of toys.” About the Aronofsky/Miller movie: “It didn’t have the toys in it. The Batmobile was just a tricked-out car. And Batman turned his back on his fortune to live a street life so he could know what people were going through. He built his own Batcave in an abandoned part of the subway. And he created Batman out of whole cloth to fight crime and a corrupt police force,” “That screenplay was based on my book ‘Batman: Year One,’ and yeah it was much more down to earth. In it a fair amount of time is spent before he became Batman, and when he went out and fought crime he really screwed it up a bunch of times before he got it right. So it was [a] 90-minute origin story,”
I'm not a woman, but getting touched by someone that looks like Alfred Hitchcock must be a nightmare, but seriously, and pardon for that rather out of left field remark, this is quite an important story as we've heard many of these kinds of things happening during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood during the 1950s.
Tippi Hedren, who turns 86 this year, was a latter-day Hitchcock blonde, the last of them actually, a strikingly beautiful and talented actress that starred in "The Birds" and "Marnie." She might be my favorite Hitchcock actress.
In her memoir “Tippi,” being released on Tuesday, the actress states that once the venerable director attempted to forcibly kiss her while the two were taking a limo ride on the set of "The Birds." Calling this “an awful, awful moment,” in her life, she goes on to say that she felt like there was little she could do because “sexual harassment and stalking were terms that didn’t exist” at the time and that she "knew the studio considered him more important than her."
The following year she signed on to make “Marnie” and his behavior did not change, in fact it got worse. She claims "Hitchcock installed a secret door between his office and dressing room. Eventually the director found his way into her room and “put his hands on me. It was sexual, it was perverse…the harder I fought him, the more aggressive he became.” In the more than 50 years since these experiences, Hedren says she has “made it my mission ever since to see to it that while Hitchcock may have ruined my career, I never gave him the power to ruin my life.”
This is all Rothman’s idea, by the way. He’s going to pour millions into this campaign because he believes “Brand New Day” is a great movie.