The Movie Gourmet

Least convincing movie hair

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Fuqua as J.E.B. Stuart in Gettysburg Richard Jaeckel as Kip McKinney in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Jack Nicholson as Stoney in Psych-Out Tom Hanks at the title character in Forrest Gump (running beard) Anne Baxter as Nefertiti in the Ten Commandments Kim Darby as Mattie Ross in True Grit Robert Wagner as the title character in Prince Valiant Mel Gibson mullet as the title character in Braveheart Phil Gramm as Virginia Delegate in Gods and Generals Gordon Liu as Pai Mei in Kill Bill: Vol.2 Marlon Brando in Candy

The Woman Chaser: A (very, very) darkly funny lost film

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4675" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Woman Chaser"][/caption] I recently saw a lost film, a film not seen since the 1999 New York City and 2000 Sundance festivals and a brief limited release by Landmark Theatres. San Francisco film XXX Elliot Lavine is supporting the re-release of the film. film noir pulp novel by Charles Willeford Robinson Devor dark satire The film has a great lounge soundtrack. Apparently the music right have not been acquired for the DVD release. I hope that the producer can raise the money for the existing soundtrack and doesn't have to replace it. The soundtrack is an essential part of the movie. Listening to it, you can just imagine Paul Drake from Perry Mason sliding into a faux leather banquette at an underlit LA bar. Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld) smirking Alec Baldwin role This great article from Reel Popcorn fills in the story of this lost film. Here is a review from Kim Morgan's blog Sunset Gun.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

2012 Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Michael Fassbender Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Oldman will play George Smiley John le Carre Alec Guinness, Ian Richardson, Patrick Stewart, Ian Bannen

Goosing the duck

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

National Film Registry These Amazing Shadows early film test of sound motion picture technology 1925 Vaudevillian Gus Visser horrible teeth singing the hit "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me" If you watch his right hand closely, you can see how he makes the duck quack along [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwQ6v_nYPMs]

Meek's Cutoff: when men don't ask for directions

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The route of the Oregon Trail was not yet well established in 1845, so a covered wagon train hires a mountain man who claims that he has found a shortcut through the Cascades. However, it becomes clear that the mountain man (Bruce Greenwood) is unreliable, and there is a new option of following an Indian of unknown motives. The men (Will Patton, Paul Dano) must figure out what to do while their wives (Michelle Williams, Shirley Henderson) eavesdrop and guess their fate. Meek's Cutoff is especially promising because it is directed by the excellent Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy). Releasing widely on May 6. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rhNrz2hX_o]

Welles

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Orson Welles's unseen masterpiece set for release The Other Side of the Wind, shot in 1972, could now see the light of day Dalya Alberge Sunday January 23 2011 The Observer http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/23/orson-welles-last-film-release An unfinished "masterpiece" filmed by Orson Welles nearly four decades ago is finally to reach the screen. The Other Side of the Wind portrays the last hours of an ageing film director. Welles is said to have told John Huston, who plays the lead role: "It's about a bastard director? full of himself, who catches people and creates and destroys them. It's about us, John." The unedited film has been hidden away in a vault until now amid doubts that it could ever be shown. Rumours of its release have surfaced repeatedly since it was shot in 1972, but an ownership dispute has always scuppered any plans. However, a Los Angeles lawyer told the Observer last week that the film will finally be seen. Kenneth Sidle, a lawyer involved in the dispute over rights to the film, said: "We are in negotiations for the picture, which would lead to the finishing and public exhibition. Hopefully within the next few weeks we will know." Sidle, of law firm Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, represents Jacqueline Boushehri, widow of a relative of the Shah of Iran and one of the film's producers. Also embroiled in the negotiations is Welles's lover, Oja Kodar, a Croatian who starred in and co-wrote the film. Sidle confirmed that both are selling their interests in the film. He added that would-be buyers have checked that he can complete the film: "They wouldn't be putting up money if they weren't confident." Huston's actor son, Danny, describes the footage as "absolutely fascinating". In 2005 he recalled that Welles had given extensive "editing notes" on the film to actor and director Peter Bogdanovich, who also appeared in the film. Bogdanovich is understood to be involved in efforts finally to bring The Other Side of The Wind to the screen. Fran?oise Widhoff, a producer who collaborated with Welles on his F for Fake, spent a month on set of the unedited film, which she described as a masterpiece ? "the way it's shot, the way it's acted. It's very modern and free." However, Widhoff has reservations about anyone editing the film; she says the raw footage should be seen. Andr?s Vicente G?mez, a Spanish film-maker who worked with Welles on various productions, including the unedited film, agreed that its completion would be an "act of betrayal". Describing it as Welles's "testament", he said: "The main character is a mix of [Ernest] Hemingway, Huston and himself? It was a film very close to him. But his physical condition was delicate. He didn't have the energy to cut it."

Auto Draft

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hesher

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hesher, Joseph Gordon Levitt,Movies, movie recommendations, [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfiUfv9NWY]

Worst Movie Mothers

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Precious, Leave Her to Heaven, Carrie, Ma Mere, Animal Kingdom, Fish Tank, Mommie Dearest, Manchurian Candidate, Throw Mama from the Train, Psycho, Trainspotting, Cinderella,

RTG Four Lions: terrorist comedy, anyone?

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This couldn't have been made in the US, but fortunately the Brits have made the terrorist equivalent of Waiting for Guffman. A group of homegrown Brits of Pakistani heritage decide to join the jihad and try to organize a terror mission. Fortunately, the smartest one is both inept and unlucky, and each of the others is dumber than the last. The cell's intramural competition reminds me of the hilarious People's Liberation Front scene in Monty Python's Life of Python. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-SrlQ9tlI]

Troll 2

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

"Music publisher" is Idra Music, who had several similar credits fopr low budget films of the early 90s. popcorn scebe retardo boyfreinf and his retardo friends Grandpa Seth

DVDs of the Week Release schedule

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Illusionist 5/10 Carancho 6/7 True Grit 6/7 Kill the Irishman 6/14 Orgasm, Inc. 6/21 Kiss Me Deadly 6/21 (Criterion) Oblivion 7/5 White Irish Drinkers 7/16 Uncle Boonmee 7/16

dance sequences movies

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, Singing In the Rain, All That Jazz, The Red Shoes, Top Hat, Fame, Tropic Thunder,Black Swan, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Pulp Fiction, Zorba the Greek, Damn Yankees, Royal Wedding, Risky Business, Napoleon Dynamite Strictly Ballroom, Mad Hot Ballroom, Shall We Dance

The Hangover Part II

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

xx May 26 xx [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohF5ZO_zOYU&fea%20ture=player_embedded]

Troubadors

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Troubadours: This documentary about the singer-songwriter scene at LA's Troubadour Club in the late 60s/early 70s was well-regarded at Sundance. Features Carole King and James Taylor. Airs March 2 on PBS. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5qg_4v-YNs]

recut trailers

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kqqMXWEFs&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uwuLxrv8jY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4OnHCRd_4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekXxi9IKZSA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UaVUPsLsM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjvuCOlkO4E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BDGtH9F3x8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wOcQr-2-pE

American Grindhouse:

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Documentary about the exploitation films of the 50s, 60s and early 70s. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AndtsMdk2fc]

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

xxx Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story, Under the Boardwalk,Monopoly, game movies, Movies, movie recommendations, documentary [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA7OYnxeNJE]

Most Misleading Trailers

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stalag 17 Sunshine Cleaning [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf5S-1tJlg0] The Anniversary Party [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcUQhmIJZ3E]

trippiest movies

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda (1968) Ira Cohen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWWhPzkwL8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbyW57mSma8&feature=related Un Chien Andalou Being John Malkovich Fight Club 8 1/2 Donnie Darko Alice in Wonderland Fantasia The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen) Picnic at Hanging Rock Requiem for a Dream Blue Velvet (plus David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead) Spirited Away (plus Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle) scenes: Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; Pan's Labrynth

Best Documentaries

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Seven Up Series 49 up trailer [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rQ1V7m0Kfs] Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line and Standard Operating Procedure [caption id="attachment_1393" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Erroll Morris"][/caption] Gates of Heaven [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjEZv6y_YO4] Standard Operating Procedure: It is never a surprise when Errol Morris directs the year’s best documentary. Don’t be put off by the subject: the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Morris just invites the participants (guards and prisoners) to look into the camera and explain themselves, and makes it more gripping than any action film. Hoop Dreams (1994): Documentarian Steve James followed two inner city boys with bright futures in basketball for FIVE YEARS. As their story unfolds, they are recruited by a suburban high school and must adapt to the pressures of both basketball competition and a new environment that is radically different in culture, demographics and academic expectations. Will they survive? Flourish? Make the NBA? This is one of the great American documentaries and was chosen as the best film of its year by Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph2Y-epihlk] Harlan County, USA: This is the story of coal miners seeking a union contract with a hostile mining company. It won the Oscar as best documentary. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple embedded herself among the strikers and got amazing footage - including of herself threatened and shot at. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCiVMngILEI] The Civil War Shoa (1985): This is the definitive documentary on the Holocaust. Uniquely, it tells the story without ANY archival footage - just through contemporary interviews with participants (survivors and former Nazis) and witnesses and visits to Holocaust sites. Those first hand reminiscences - just old people talking to a camera - turn out to be as shocking as the file footage we have all seen of stacked bodies and starving survivors. One of the most compelling is an old Polish farmer drawing his finger across his throat to indicate that he knew what was happening in the neighboring death camp. Shoa is 503 minutes long. Usually I downgrade movies for length, but in this case the movies' depth and breadth reinforces the scale of the Holocaust. Surprisingly, 503 minutes is not excessive in this case. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGO3x6JkxQ] The Times of Harvey Milk (1984): This is the Oscar-winning documentary - NOT the 2008 Sean penn biopic Milk. If you liked Milk, you’ll be amazed by this documentary on Harvey Milk. You get to see footage of the real Harvey Milk and hear his story from his peers and friends. This is a great political movie, and it won the 1985 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohd2txsNf0o] Deliver Us From Evil (2006): This documentary tells the story of a priest who has admitted molesting over 25 children while his bishop moved him around the diocese to a series of assignments where he continued to victimize children. What makes this film compelling is the troubling interview with the priest himself. Nominated for an Oscar. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scW90Q6Z_OM] Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41hghA-ISjE] Crumb (1995): The Criterion Collection has released a great documentary, Terry Zwigoff's profile of the counterculture cartoonist R. Crumb, the creator of Keep On Truckin', Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and influential rock album covers. By exploring Crumb's troubled family, Zwigoff reveals the origins of Crumb's art. When we meet Crumb's shattered brothers, it's clear that Crumb's artistic expression preserved his very sanity. In honor of At The Movies, which ends its long run on television, let's hear Siskel & Ebert assess Crumb. Siskel placed it #1 on his Top 10 list for 1995 and Ebert had it at #2. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsFpgTm5e3A] Born Into Brothels [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Man1KT8VkY] Grizzly Man [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogYDUmIigw0] Vietnam: A Television History Eyes on the Prize: American's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965: July 4, 1776, is the start, not the apex, of the American journey. Since then, we have been working to fashion a more ideal America - in both tiny increments and great strides, with missteps along the way. This series tells the story of a great stride - accomplished by underdogs. The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ06MuB8_04&feature=related] Tom Doud and the Language of Music [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVM1jFhR8aM] Metallica: Some Kind of Monster [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE4wmmnahnk] Salesman (1968) Albert and David Maysles follow door-to-door Bible salesmen 85 minutes [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJIqZ9OLbRY&feature=related] Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (2002): One of the central questions is how could ordinary humans tolerate and even enable such monstrous acts? Blind Spot is the story of Traudl Junge who, as a rural, naive 22-year-old, happens on a job in Hitler's secretarial pool. After the war, she lived in obscurity for decades. Wracked with guilt, she was interviewed for 90 minutes shortly before her death by a film maker who lost his parents in the Holocaust. This 90 minute interview is the core of Blind Spot. Baseball (1994): This is Ken Burns' history of baseball, told in nine "innings". The first inning probes the hazy origins of the game, and the ninth inning explores modern corporate baseball. In between, we see the one-base-at-a-time game of the 1910s, the Black Sox scandal, Babe Ruth and the new power game, the Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, the move of MLB into California, expansion, and so much more. Burns uses a delightful array of talking heads (players and observers), the most compelling of whom are Buck O'Neil, Stephen Jay Gould and Bob Costas. This clip isn't from Baseball, but you can get a sense of Buck O'Neill from this oral history: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA1ZQGcIGYw&feature=related] Hearts of Darkness: A Director's Apocalypse (1991): [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyKoRNgaE2g]

13 Assassins:

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

13 Assassins, samurai, Movies, samurai movie, movie recommendation, Japanese movie [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-IzbkXo7bo]

Cave of Forgotten Dreams: 3D for grownups

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

xxWerner Herzog explores the 33,000-year-old Chauvet cave paintings in southern France. Herzog knows what he is doing (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Grizzly Man), and he says that this needed to be shot in 3D, so I believe him. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDiQ1lvBbr0]

DVD of the Week: The Tillman Story

moviegourmet — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:16:04 +0000

The Tillman Story weaves three stories together: the making of Pat Tillman, how he died in Afghanistan and his family's struggle to pull the sheets back on the US military's cover-up. At its core, it is the story of people who insist on truth dealing with a system that operates on perception. I thought I knew the story. Tillman left the fame and wealth of an NFL career to enlist in the Army post-911. He was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan. The Army reported that he was killed while heroically charging the enemy to save his comrades. It was later revealed that he was killed by fire from his comrades. Still later, it became clear that the heroic death story was immediately concocted by the military for spin control or, worse, propaganda. I didn't know that Tillman predicted that the Army would propagandize his death and smuggled out to his wife the documentation of his wish for a civilian funeral. I didn't know that Tillman crouched on a hill watching the bombing of Baghdad, and said, "This war is so fucking illegal." I didn't know that Tillman was with the team that waited hours to "rescue" captured soldier Jessica Lynch (abandoned by her captors) until a film crew arrived. The US military made a huge miscalculation: they assumed that the family that produced someone with Pat Tillman's values would be satisfied with a phony narrative of cartoonish heroism. The more I think about The Tillman Story, the more I admire it. And I am increasingly grateful that Michael Moore didn't make this movie and degrade it into a screed. Instead, Director Amir Bar-Lev avoids the simplistic and satisfying formulas and respects his subject matter and the audience by letting the story speak for itself. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaMAVAqef7I]

This Week's Movie Recommendations

moviegourmet — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:42:07 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4125" align="aligncenter" width="637" caption="James Franco in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours"][/caption] If you want to see the Oscar nominees for Best Picture, I'd suggest catching True Grit, The King's Speech, Black Swan and The Fighter in a theater. Another Year and Rabbit Hole are also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours, The Way Back, Somewhere and Biutiful are also good movies out now. Another Year is Mike Leigh's brilliant observation of the human condition, and asks why some people find contentment and others just cannot; Lesley Manville has the flashiest role - and gives the most remarkable performance - as a woman whose long trail of bad choices hasn't left her with many options for a happy life. I also strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is The Tillman Story. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV include The Caine Mutiny, Glory, Quo Vadis and The Graduate on TCM.

Cowboys & Aliens gets a Super Bowl commercial

moviegourmet — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:42:41 +0000

The Super Bowl audience just got a glimpse of the newest genre mutant - a sci fi blended with a Western. Universal recently released the trailer for its $100 million summer 2011 blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens. In this article, the New York Times reports that the trailer's first showing to a live audience evoked gales of laughter - but it's not supposed to be a comedy. According to the trailer, Harrison Ford's torch-bearing mounted lynch mob is interrupted by laser attack from an alien spaceship. Daniel Craig, playing a Clint Eastwoodesque Man With No Name, awakes with his memory erased by aliens and a futuristic bracelet. Saloon gal Olivia Wilde (House, The OC) is pulled into the sky by alien forces. It turns out that this isn't the first Western with space aliens, although Oblivion aimed a lot lower. This 1994 schlockfest starred Andrew Divoff (as the alien Redeye), Richard Joseph Paul, Meg Foster, Isaac Hayes and Julie Newmar, with George Takei as the Jim Beam-swilling town doctor. Amazingly, Oblivion rated a 1996 sequel, Oblivion 2: Backlash. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SPqYPQ-vzw] Here's the real trailer for Cowboys & Aliens. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmRbrzAhoQ]

The Illusionist - wistful and charming

moviegourmet — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:07:41 +0000

Sylvain Chobert (The Triplets of Belleville) made this wistful animated charmer from a screenplay by the French master director Jacques Tati, who died in 1982. The Illusionist tells the story of a small time magician whose act no longer appeals to a postwar audience. As he prospects for an ever bleaker array of gigs, he drifts through show a biz detritus of seamy dressing rooms and broken talent. He meets a girl, who attaches herself to him to escape her drab existence. The magician selflessly works to help her blossom. It's an innocent and sweet tale made bitterweet by the harsh grimness of his situation. I wasn't a big fan of Triplets of Belleville, but here Chobert strikes every note perfectly. It's an essentially silent film that captures the tone of Tati's Mr. Hulot's Holiday. (Indeed, when the magician drops into a movie theater, it's showing Tati's masterpiece Mon Oncle.) It's a fine movie with a sweetness that is rare in modern cinema. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPdLrxxo4mg]

DVD of the Week: The Social Network

moviegourmet — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:00:46 +0000

The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal - and about to become zillionaires. It’s a triumph for director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War). Sorkin has written a screenplay about nerdy guys writing computer code and has made it fast-paced, understandable, funny and even gripping. The most compelling aspect of the film is Jesse Eisenberg's performance as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. Eisenberg's Zuckerman has few social skills, less social aptitude and exactly one friend, yet creates a framework for other people to share scores and even hundreds of "friends". Eisenberg carries the film with an especially intense performance of an emotionally remote character. Eisenberg has been underrated despite strong performances in Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man. Here, it is impossible to think of another actor who could so vividly create this Zuckerman. The rest of the cast is outstanding, especially, Justin Timberlake (as Napster infant terrible Sean Parker), Armie Hammer, Rooney Mara and Douglas Urbanski. One more thing: Fincher and Sorkin know how to end a movie. It's on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53OUHupfqws]

New Movie Recommendations

moviegourmet — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:42:45 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4136" align="aligncenter" width="275" caption="Colin Firth in the King's Speech, about to pick up the Oscar he earned last year in A Single Man"][/caption] True Grit, The King's Speech, Black Swan and The Fighter are all crowd pleasers. A bit more challenging, Another Year and Rabbit Hole are also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours, The Way Back, Somewhere and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't seen Cedar Rapids (opening tomorrow), but you can its trailer and those of other upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is The Social Network. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. It's a good week for movies on TV, including Quo Vadis, The Graduate, Gone With the Wind, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Victor/Victoria, Mon Oncle, The Stunt Man, Do the Right Thing and Blow-Up on TCM.

DVD of the Week: Inception

moviegourmet — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:00:15 +0000

Inception was the year's best Hollywood summer blockbuster. Because it's written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight), we expect it to be brilliantly inventive and it exceeds that expectation. The story places the characters in reality and at least three layers of dreams simultaneously. A smart viewer can follow 85% of the story - which is just enough. Then you can go out to dinner and argue over the other 15%. The Wife said it was "like The Wizard of Oz on acid". Leonardo DiCaprio leads the cast, but the supporting players give the best performances: Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger and Tom Hardy. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM]

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:52:08 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4139" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, both Oscar-nominated, inTrue Grit"][/caption] The must see films are still True Grit, The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and Another Year. All are on my list of Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Inception. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV include Blow-Up, The Third Man, All the King's Men, 8 1/2 and Tom Jones on TCM.

Once again, some promising new movies in the theaters

moviegourmet — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:48:34 +0000

We're nearing the end of that period in January and February where the theaters are filled with 1) Oscar nominees lingering from the Holidays and 2) the very worst Hollywood inventory. Some intriguing new films are now ready to be released. I've updated the Movies I'm Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions. This weekend brings us Cedar Rapids and Kaboom. Cedar Rapids is an “aim low” comedy about a lame guy (Ed Helm) whose life is so boring that an insurance agent conference in Cedar Rapids is a revelatory experience. It’s got John C. Reilly as the Wild and Crazy Insurance Agent and is directed by Miguel Arteta, director of the underrated The Good Girl and Youth in Revolt. Kaboom: A trippy sex comedy from director Greg Araki, creator of the brilliant and searing Mysterious Skin. Here's the trailer for next weekend's Nora's Will, a Mexican dramedy in which a man's mother dies and he uncovers some jarring family secrets. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBxSBH2ELjI] The Movies I'm Looking Forward To page also features Troubadours, Certified Copy, Of Gods and Men, Carancho, Hanna, Jane Eyre, Restless, The Tree of Life, Tabloid, Cold Weather, Boxing Gym and American Grindhouse.

Great suggestions by you for my Oscar Dinner

moviegourmet — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:43:32 +0000

You've sent me some great suggestions for my Oscar Dinner. Every year, The Movie Gourmet watches the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, last year's highlight was Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man. We also had airplane bottles of liquor for Up in the Air, fastfood chicken for Precious and Middle Eastern fare for The Hurt Locker. I particularly relished having prawns for District 9; (“prawn” is the South African slur for the aliens). You get the idea and you can read more at Oscar Dinner. But this year, I was stumped on 127 Hours The King's Speech and The Fighter and asked for your help. 127 Hours: imagemoved said, "all he had was freeze dried food and granola bars. He also left that bottle of Gatorade in his car. Maybe do something with that?" The Wife suggested a water bottle with the exact number of milliliters of water that he had when he got stuck. The Wife has so far vetoed my idea of a water bottle with faux urine (the protagonist recycles his own urine while trapped). But Ana may have a winning idea: "Ginger ale, pineapple, white grape, and cranberry juice punch with an ice hand floating inside (pour water in a latex glove and freeze, remove glove and place in punch) — A bit gruesome but funny too, right? …right..? lol". The King's Speech: I think Ana also has a winner here: "English toffees. 1) They’re English 2) Their stickiness renders you temporarily incapable of speech. Get it? Eh, eh? ". They also made a big deal of serving tea in The King's Speech, but I really like the idea of gumming up my jaw with the toffee. The Fighter: Ana suggests "Boneless Buffalo Wings — They’re manly and something you’d eat while watching a boxing match…and their flavor is a real 'knockout'." But something tells me that Amy Adams would be serving the buffalo wings WITH bones in that bar. Maybe I'll just pick up some MGD or PBR. Any more ideas?

Set your TiVo for Carlos

moviegourmet — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:22:28 +0000

The Sundance Channel is broadcasting Olivier Assayas' 5 1/2 hour miniseries Carlos again on February 23. Don't miss this miniseries on the 70s/80s terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Carlos begins as a playboy who thinks it would be cool to fight for the Palestinians. It turns out that he is way smarter and more nervy than the other dippy wannabe terrorists, so he rises to lead his own crew. At first he prudently tries to remain clandestine, but he inadvertently gains some celebrity, and he LOVES IT. After his first exposure in the media, he self-consciously dons a Che Guevara beret for his next adventure. Soon he is a legend in his own mind. Finally, he learns what happens when he becomes too hot for anyone to shield. The action sweeps between atrocities in Paris and Vienna, a terrorist training camp in Aden, secret bases in Berlin and Budapest. Along the way, we meet European goofball radical posers and smarmy Syrian, Iraqi and Libyan intelligence officers. We see dynamite action scenes as Carlos must pull off escapes and attacks in compressed time. Carlos is a star making performance by the Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez who plays Carlos and has to carry almost every scene. Ramirez perfectly captures Carlos' bravado, audacity, vanity, sexiness, delusion and dissolution. Ramirez plays a few scenes in the nude, with Carlos at first admiring his own beefy body and later lolling about with a pot belly. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn_JS0sInXs] Carlos is a French film, but is mostly in English; there are subtitled scenes with French, Spanish and Arabic dialogue. Carlos has also been released in a 2 hour 45 minute version on Pay Per View. I strongly recommend the full length version on the Sundance Channel.

DVD of the Week: Animal Kingdom

moviegourmet — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:55:49 +0000

Watch this, and you'll be rooting for veteran Australian actress Jacki Weaver to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. In this 2010 Aussie crime drama, a high school kid's mother OD's on heroin, forcing him into her estranged family of brutal criminals, presided over by his sunny grandmother. Like many teen boys, he is terse in speech and impassive in demeanor. As he is plunged into increasingly desperate situations, neither the characters nor the audience knows what he is thinking in every instance. This, along with his peril, is the key to the movie's success. Will the teen safely navigate through the maze of his murderous relations? Will evil prevail? We don't know until the final scene...and then some questions remain. Animal Kingdom won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5BsYRmMfus]

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:05:25 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4141" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Another Year"][/caption] You can still see True Grit, The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and Another Year. They are on my Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Animal Kingdom. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV this week include Tom Jones, The Silence of the Lambs and All About Eve on TCM.

Cedar Rapids

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:38:34 +0000

Cedar Rapids is surprisingly winning comedy about a guy (Ed Helm) whose life is so boring that an insurance agent conference in Cedar Rapids is a revelatory experience. Helm plays a character whose sincerity and decency elevate his guileless cluelessness. There are excellent supporting performances by Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr. and the irrepressible John C. Reilly. This could have been a much courser and a lesser movie in the wrong hands. It's directed by Miguel Arteta, who also brought an appealing sense of humanity to the underrated The Good Girl and Youth in Revolt. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytPYm0_bgjU]

Kaboom: A trippy sex comedy

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:21:27 +0000

Director Gregg Araki created the brilliant and searing Mysterious Skin, but here he's just having fun. In the first hour of Kaboom, I lost track of how many characters had sex with each other - it's just about non-stop and guy-on-guy, girl-on-girl, guy-on-girl, guy-and-girl-on-guy, etc. I would characterize the sex as casual, but that would make it seem that the characters were having even a modicum of difficulty in finding partners. Anyway, the chaotic sexathon is fun and very funny. The last twenty minutes takes the film into a campy version of a paranoid apocalypse film, before an abrupt (and I mean abrupt) ending. Did I mention the bad guys in the animal masks? It's fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu9NkMCElMk]

Severed Hand Ice Sculpture

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:57:18 +0000

Severed Hand Ice Sculpture

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:58:47 +0000

Severed Hand Ice Sculpture

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:59:55 +0000

Severed Hand Ice Sculpture

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:01:46 +0000

This year's Oscar dinner

moviegourmet — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:02:02 +0000

Every year, The Movie Gourmet watches the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. You can read more at Oscar Dinner. Planning this year's Oscar Dinner proved challenging (despite being a great year for movie Food Porn). Fortunately I received some great suggestions from my readers. Here is my menu for Oscar Dinner 2011. COCKTAILS AND STARTERS First, the pièce de résistance: Severed Hand Ice Sculpture for 127 Hours and Winter's Bone. We will be floating the ice sculpture in an Appletini Punch for The Social Network. I read that, after seeing the film, Mark Zuckerberg made the Appletini the official cocktail of Facebook. Pistachios from Inception. It looks like the guys are sharing a bowlful of pistachios while assembling the team in Mombasa. Beer Nuts from The Fighter. Amy Adams' bar looks like a beer nut kind of place. I am told by a New Englander that the Eklund-Ward clan would be drinking Narragansett, but I can't find 'Gansetts in California, so a MGD or PBR will have to do. Tortilla Roll Ups from Toy Story 3. This is inspired by the all-time funniest movie scene involving a tortilla: Mr. Potato Head executes a prison escape by putting his facial features on a tortilla that can slide under a door. DINNER Cowboy beans from True Grit. Obvious and right out of the movie. Steak and Organic Roast Vegetable Salad served with a Petite Syrah from The Kids Are All Right. The Mark Ruffalo character serves steak (he mists it with truffle oil) while hosting the family at his house. Earlier, he brings a bottle of Petite Syrah to dinner, which impresses the Annette Bening character (before she drinks too much of it too fast). We see organic strawberries from his restaurant's garden, but I can see his menu featuring a nice salad of roasted veggies. DESSERT Coffee from Inception. From the Parisian cafe scene. Sheet cake from Black Swan. (We will not vomit it back up.) English toffees for The King's Speech. They're English and we will have difficulty speaking when we are chewing them. (I decided not to skin my own squirrel for Winter's Bone and not to recycle my urine for 127 Hours.)

Coming up on PBS: Troubadours

moviegourmet — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:30:32 +0000

PBS is airing Troubadours, the documentary about the singer-songwriter scene at LA's Troubadour Club in the late 60s/early 70s, on March 2. I haven't yet seen it, but it was well-regarded at Sundance. It features Carole King and James Taylor. Here's the trailer. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5qg_4v-YNs]

DVD of the Week: Fish Tank

moviegourmet — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:30:36 +0000

First-time actress Katie Jarvis plays Mia, a damaged and angry young woman from the British lower class. Her party-girl mom is the second-worst mother in recent films (after Mo'Nique's role in Precious). Can Mia use her passion for dance to escape her grim surroundings? Mom brings home a new boyfriend and everything changes. Michael Fassbinder, starring soon as Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, is great as the mother's boyfriend in Fish Tank. Criterion has released the DVD. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxo3-sGZgMI]

And more upcoming movies

moviegourmet — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:58:43 +0000

I've updated the Movies I'm Looking Forward To page to add trailers and descriptions. This month we'll see the singer/songwriter documentary Troubadours (first aired March 2 on PBS), the tragic Cannes hit Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et des Dieu)( releasing widely March 4) and Abbas Kiarostami's The Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) with the luminous Juliette Binoche (releasing widely March 18). Here's the trailer for Carancho, which will release widely on April 8. Well, they have ambulance chasers in Argentina, too, and that seamy world is the setting for this sexy and violent noir thriller. Stars Ricardo Darin of The Secrets of Their Eyes and Nine Queens. Won Un Certain Regard at Cannes. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiwzmX-8rvE] The Movies I'm Looking Forward To page also features Hanna, Potiche, Jane Eyre, Restless, The Tree of Life, Tabloid, Cold Weather, Boxing Gym and American Grindhouse.

This week's Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:41:24 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4310" align="aligncenter" width="307" caption="Oscar winner Natalie Portman and Natalie Portman in Black Swan"][/caption] You can still see Oscar winners True Grit, The King's Speech, Black Swan and The Fighter and Oscar nominee Another Year. They are on my Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy. Kaboom is a trippy sex romp. Nora's Will is a wry family dramedy. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Fish Tank. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV this week include D.O.A. and The Searchers on TCM.

black swan

moviegourmet — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:53:55 +0000

Nora's Will: A Suicide, a Rabbi and a Pizza

moviegourmet — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:55:13 +0000

In this wry Mexican dramedy, a long-troubled woman ends her life, and her ex-husband and adult son start uncovering some jarring family secrets. The son is out-of-town, so the ex is stuck with resentfully planning the funeral with the interference of an obnoxious rabbi. Did I mention that Nora's Will is set among orthodox Jews in Mexico City - who knew? The frustrated ex-husband finally offers a ham, bacon and sausage pizza to the orthodox rabbi during Passover, and somehow all the Jewish cemeteries in Mexico City become unavailable. After many chuckles, there's a sweet ending. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBxSBH2ELjI]

Blogging from Cinequest: A Little Help

moviegourmet — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:48:39 +0000

A Little Help is a Jenna Fischer vehicle that illustrates the depth that Fischer can bring to even a shallow character. In this dramedy, Fischer is suddenly widowed and must reassemble her life and support her quirky 12-year-old son despite the intrusions of her shrill, micro-controlling sister (Brooke Smith) and their chilly mother (Leslie Anne Warren). Fischer's biggest challenge is helping her son navigate social life at his new school, where he has told a preposterous lie on his first day. Kim Coates steals every scene as a medical malpractice attorney. Ron Liebman sparkles as the blowhard father. Writer/Director Michael J. Weithorn made the very smart decision to hold Fischer's character accountable for the bad choices she has made in her life. If she were instead written as a completely innocent victim, the story would have lapsed into cliche. Instead, it's a pretty good movie and a fine showcase for Jenna Fischer. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ljN1DV8B1w]

Blogging from Cinequest: Here's the Kicker

moviegourmet — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:34:50 +0000

The biggest surprise at San Jose's Cinequest film festival so far is the indie comedy Here's the Kicker, written by its star, Ian Michaels. The relationship of a prematurely retired football player and his girlfriend is being battered by their dead-end jobs in LA; (she is a make up artist - in porn films). To save their relationship, he agrees to move back to her hometown in Texas where they can open a salon/saloon: a combo beauty parlor and sports bar. Just as they are leaving on the road trip, he is offered his dream job as a football scout. When is he going to get the nerve to tell her? Along the way, they pick up his obnoxious former teammate and, most hilariously, his dad, who does NOT want to return to alcohol rehab. Many guffaws ensue in this all too rare occurrence - a satisfying American film comedy. It's hard to write comedy. Otherwise, we'd be seeing lots of good comedies. So Ian Michaels deserves some recognition, and, above all, to get more screenplays greenlighted. As the girlfriend, Sarah Smick succeeds in remaining sympathetic despite being continually aggrieved - no easy accomplishment. Luce Rains is great as the drunk dad. According to Ian Michaels at the screening, Director/Cinematographer/Editor Chris Harris made the key decision to cut some early scenes so the road trip could commence sooner. Obviously, that move worked. Here's the Kicker deserves a wide release. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55IITE5gafs]

Adjustment Bureau

moviegourmet — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 22:27:08 +0000

Blogging from Cinequest: Question in Details

moviegourmet — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:11:01 +0000

In this unassuming Hungarian film, a man and a woman recognize that their first date is a disaster and decide to keep talking as acquaintances - without the first date tension. They go back to her apartment, and he meets her brother. The three talk, bantering at first and then probing. A previously unknown connection between them surfaces - and it's a big one. The audience cares about the characters (at least two of them) so much that it's easy to forgive a highly unlikely coincidence in the plot. It's a satisfying little movie. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YsKC_xWVcQ]

Trouble Along the Way

moviegourmet — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:11:48 +0000

DVD of the Week: Inside Job

moviegourmet — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:04:46 +0000

Charles Ferguson's brilliant documentary Inside Job may be the most important movie of the year. It is a harsh but fair explanation of the misdeeds that led to the recent near-collapse of the global financial system. Unexpectedly, the film begins in Iceland, setting the stage for the collapse and kicking off the easily understandable explanations of the various tricks and bamboozles that have hidden behind their own complexity. It's on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2DRm5ES-uA]

Blogging from Cinequest: Small Town Murder Songs

moviegourmet — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:41:15 +0000

So there's part of a good film in here somewhere. Peter Stormare (the hulking brute in Fargo) plays the local cop in a rural Canadian community with German-speaking Mennonites. The cop comes from the traditional Mennonites, but he is ostracized by them (including his father and brother) for a previous act of violence. Now he has adopted a personal religiosity himself. Then there is a murder, and the suspect is the new boyfriend of the cop's ex (Jill Hennessy - very good here). Stormare gives a fine performance as the cop. So far so good. But the movie drags. It's at only 75 minutes, but feels like two hours. Indeed, there are some completely superfluous scenes with Stormare's partner and the partner's 12-year-old daughter. One of the of the film's potential assets is the unfamiliar setting. But after some old Protestant hymns and some stark scenes of northern nothingness, the audience is jarred by very loud and distracting call-and-response music that is completely inappropriate to the time and place. Disappointingly, the story relies on that hackneyed gimmick of using TV and radio newscasts to advance the plot. Finally, writer-director Ed Gass-Donnelly climaxes the story with a Christ-like sacrifice that doesn't fit this heretofore realistic movie. Overall, not a success. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB22oo_f8g0]

5 Essential Holocaust Films

moviegourmet — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:13:42 +0000

1. Schindler's List (1993): This Steven Spielberg masterpiece tells the real life story of a man who is comfortable with being a scoundrel. But he is not comfortable with pure evil. When he is faced with the most extreme evil of the Holocaust, he acts out of character and risks everything to save lives. Spielberg made a brilliant artistic choice in shooting the film in black and white, which evokes our sense of the period from newsreels. The black and white allows for the stark depiction of violence without exploitation. The cast is excellent, especially Ben Kingsley and Liam Neeson. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwfIf1WMhgc] 2. The Pianist (2002): This film tells the story of an affluent Jewish family in Warsaw, whose lives collapse in the Holocaust. One adult son (a classical pianist) survives by hiding in the abandoned ghetto. He is starving and physically and mentally decompensates until finally the Russians take Warsaw from the Nazis. He is brilliantly played by Oscar winner Adrian Brody. The film maker is the great director Roman Polanski, who lost his parents in the Holocaust and who had to escape across Europe as a boy. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itR0-I9idXk] 3. Shoah (1985): This is the definitive documentary on the Holocaust. Uniquely, it tells the story without ANY archival footage - just through contemporary interviews with participants (survivors and former Nazis) and witnesses and visits to Holocaust sites. Those first hand reminiscences - just old people talking to a camera - turn out to be as shocking as the file footage we have all seen of stacked bodies and starving survivors. One of the most compelling is an old Polish farmer drawing his finger across his throat to indicate that he knew what was happening in the neighboring death camp. Shoa is 503 minutes long. Usually I downgrade movies for length, but in this case the movies' depth and breadth reinforces the scale of the Holocaust. Surprisingly, 503 minutes is not excessive in this case. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGO3x6JkxQ] 4. The Pawnbroker (1964): The Holocaust lives on in the survivors that were scarred by it. This is the story of a man who loses his parents and lover in the Holocaust. He responds by detaching from all emotion, relationships and sense of morality. He works as a pawnbroker in a dismal and merciless New York neighborhood. It is Rod Steiger's greatest performance. Directed by Sidney Lumet. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qWqizV_puk] 5. Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (2002): One of the central questions is how could ordinary humans tolerate and even enable such monstrous acts? Blind Spot is the story of Traudl Junge who, as a rural, naive 22-year-old, happens on a job in Hitler's secretarial pool. After the war, she lived in obscurity for decades. Wracked with guilt, she was interviewed for 90 minutes shortly before her death by a film maker who lost his parents in the Holocaust. This 90 minute interview is the core of Blind Spot. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4FT8N4bJtA] Note: I do not particularly admire The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) as a film, but acknowledge that it serves as a gateway film, introducing children of tween age to the subject matter.

Blogging from Cinequest: 3 Backyards

moviegourmet — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:58:20 +0000

This unbearably pretentious and self-indulgent wannabe art film is constructed around three completely unconnected plot threads. In the best written and acted of the three, Edie Falco plays a woman excited about driving her new celebrity neighbor (Embeth Davidtz) to the ferry. The celebrity is having a personal crisis and deigns not to share her innermost turmoil with the new acquaintance. Because Falco's character had fantasized about gaining a celebrity BFF, she is disappointed. Unless petty disappointment counts as a major theme, this segment is pointless. In the second thread, Elias Koteas plays a man unhappy at home whose business trip is aborted. He wanders around waiting for the unexplained catharsis at the 87-minute mark of the movie. Koteas proves once more that he can furrow his brow and mumble at the same time. The third thread is about a little girl who plays with her mother's precious new bracelet and loses it. By this time, we almost expect the random appearances of a mystical unicorn, but we have to make do with a white poodle instead. Plus there's a masturbating dog killer. In between the three plot threads, there are odd transitional shots of caterpillers and the like. Somehow 3 Backyards won Eric Mendelsohn his second Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival. I like to think that good directors tell stories and make them compelling, so I am baffled by this "achievement". I hated this movie - and it is still pissing me off. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4esd8aYO3vs]

The Adjustment Bureau: Avoiding the Curse of the Delayed Release

moviegourmet — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:00:20 +0000

My hopes were not high for The Adjustment Bureau after the studio had delayed its release for several months. That can be the telltale marker of a movie disaster. But not this time - The Adjustment Bureau is a first rate love story embedded in the action thriller genre. A couple meet by chance and are drawn together - only to have scary guys in hats try to enforce different destinies for them. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have excellent chemistry, and the screenplay by director George Nolfi is smart and inventive. Nolfi also wrote the smart and inventive screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum. I'm certainly looking forward to his next project. The supporting players - Terence Stamp, Anthony Mackie and John Slattery - are excellent. Given the scarcity of them these days, it must be pretty hard to write a smart and authentic romance. So all the more credit to Nolfi, and to Damon and Blunt for pulling it off. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZJ0TP4nTaE]

Updated Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:24:21 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4361" align="aligncenter" width="535" caption="Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau"][/caption] The Must See film right now is The Adjustment Bureau, a first rate love story embedded in the action thriller genre. You can still see Oscar winners True Grit, The King's Speech and The Fighter. They are on my Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy. Kaboom is a trippy sex romp. Nora's Will is a wry family dramedy. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Inside Job. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV this week include After the Thin Man, Arsenic and Old Lace, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Trouble Along the Way on TCM.

Blogging from Cinequest: War Games and the Man Who Stopped Them

moviegourmet — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:42:06 +0000

This documentary tells the remarkable Cold War spy story of Army Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski. In his service on the Polish General Staff, Kuklinski saw that the Warsaw Pact's war plans for an invasion of Western Europe would inevitably lead to the nuclear obliteration of Poland. To avoid that horror, he passed on the Warsaw Pact war plans to the West so NATO could strengthen its stance and thereby deter the invasion by making it a less attractive option for the Soviets.. Kuklinshi passed over 40,000 pages of secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA - the largest espionage in world history. After the screening, Director Dariusz Jabloński said that Kuklinski considered himself a Polish soldier doing his duty, not a spy for the West. Kuklinski died just before he could be interviewed for this documentary. However, Jabloński did secure interviews with the senior commanders of the Soviet and Polish militaries, former Polish heads of state, CIA officers and Kuklinski's widow, as well as screen shots from Warsaw Pact war simulations. At 110 minutes, it's a little long, but the story is compelling. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGz8PlGxiso]

Potiche1

moviegourmet — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:47:20 +0000

Cinequest 2011

moviegourmet — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:10:39 +0000

Comments about films screened at Cinequest 2011. Potiche: This delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). DeNeuve plays a 1977 potiche, French for "trophy housewife", married to a guy who is a male chauvinist pig both by choice and cluelessness. He is also the meanest industrialist in France - Ebenezer Scrooge would be a softie next to this guy - and the workers in his factories are about to explode. He becomes incapacitated, and she must run the factory. Now, this is a familiar story line for gender comedy - why is it so damn funny? It starts with the screenplay, which is smart and quick like the classic screwball comedy that American filmmakers don't make anymore. And the cast is filled with proven actors who play each comic situation with complete earnestness, no matter how absurd. Director Francois Ozon, best known in the US for Swimming Pool and 8 Women, adapted the screenplay from a play and has a blast skewering late-70s gender roles and both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Gerard Depardieu plays the Communist mayor, who is both the husband's nemesis and the wife's former fling. Two of the very best French comic players, Fabrice Luchini and Karen Viard, shine in co-starring roles as the husband and his secretary. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiRGcExb0E&feature=fvst] The biggest surprise at San Jose's Cinequest film festival was the indie comedy Here's the Kicker, written by its star, Ian Michaels. The relationship of a prematurely retired football player and his girlfriend is being battered by their dead-end jobs in LA; (she is a make up artist - in porn films). To save their relationship, he agrees to move back to her hometown in Texas where they can open a salon/saloon: a combo beauty parlor and sports bar. Just as they are leaving on the road trip, he is offered his dream job as a football scout. When is he going to get the nerve to tell her? Along the way, they pick up his obnoxious former teammate and, most hilariously, his dad, who does NOT want to return to alcohol rehab. Many guffaws ensue in this all too rare occurrence - a satisfying American film comedy. It's hard to write comedy. Otherwise, we'd be seeing lots of good comedies. So Ian Michaels deserves some recognition, and, above all, to get more screenplays greenlighted. As the girlfriend, Sarah Smick succeeds in remaining sympathetic despite being continually aggrieved - no easy accomplishment. Luce Rains is great as the drunk dad. According to Ian Michaels at the screening, Director/Cinematographer/Editor Chris Harris made the key decision to cut some early scenes so the road trip could commence sooner. Obviously, that move worked. Here's the Kicker deserves a wide release. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55IITE5gafs] A Little Help is a Jenna Fischer vehicle that illustrates the depth that Fischer can bring to even a shallow character. In this dramedy, Fischer is suddenly widowed and must reassemble her life and support her quirky 12-year-old son despite the intrusions of her shrill, micro-controlling sister (Brooke Smith) and their chilly mother (Leslie Anne Warren). Fischer's biggest challenge is helping her son navigate social life at his new school, where he has told a preposterous lie on his first day. Kim Coates steals every scene as a medical malpractice attorney. Ron Liebman sparkles as the blowhard father. Writer/Director Michael J. Weithorn made the very smart decision to hold Fischer's character accountable for the bad choices she has made in her life. If she were instead written as a completely innocent victim, the story would have lapsed into cliche. Instead, it's a pretty good movie and a fine showcase for Jenna Fischer. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ljN1DV8B1w] War Games and the Man Who Stopped Them: This documentary tells the remarkable Cold War spy story of Army Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski. In his service on the Polish General Staff, Kuklinski saw that the Warsaw Pact's war plans for an invasion of Western Europe would inevitably lead to the nuclear obliteration of Poland. To avoid that horror, he passed on the Warsaw Pact war plans to the West so NATO could strengthen its stance and thereby deter the invasion by making it a less attractive option for the Soviets.. Kuklinshi passed over 40,000 pages of secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA - the largest espionage in world history. After the screening, Director Dariusz Jabloński said that Kuklinski considered himself a Polish soldier doing his duty, not a spy for the West. Kuklinski died just before he could be interviewed for this documentary. However, Jabloński did secure interviews with the senior commanders of the Soviet and Polish militaries, former Polish heads of state, CIA officers and Kuklinski's widow, as well as screen shots from Warsaw Pact war simulations. At 110 minutes, it's a little long, but the story is compelling. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGz8PlGxiso] Question in Details: In this unassuming Hungarian film, a man and a woman recognize that their first date is a disaster and decide to keep talking as acquaintances - without the first date tension. They go back to her apartment, and he meets her brother. The three talk, bantering at first and then probing. A previously unknown connection between them surfaces - and it's a big one. The audience cares about the characters (at least two of them) so much that it's easy to forgive a highly unlikely coincidence in the plot. It's a satisfying little movie. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YsKC_xWVcQ] Small Town Murder Songs: So there's part of a good film in here somewhere. Peter Stormare (the hulking brute in Fargo) plays the local cop in a rural Canadian community with German-speaking Mennonites. The cop comes from the traditional Mennonites, but he is ostracized by them (including his father and brother) for a previous act of violence. Now he has adopted a personal religiosity himself. Then there is a murder, and the suspect is the new boyfriend of the cop's ex (Jill Hennessy - very good here). Stormare gives a fine performance as the cop. So far so good. But the movie drags. It's at only 75 minutes, but feels like two hours. Indeed, there are some completely superfluous scenes with Stormare's partner and the partner's 12-year-old daughter. One of the of the film's potential assets is the unfamiliar setting. But after some old Protestant hymns and some stark scenes of northern nothingness, the audience is jarred by very loud and distracting call-and-response music that is completely inappropriate to the time and place. Disappointingly, the story relies on that hackneyed gimmick of using TV and radio newscasts to advance the plot. Finally, writer-director Ed Gass-Donnelly climaxes the story with a Christ-like sacrifice that doesn't fit this heretofore realistic movie. Overall, not a success. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB22oo_f8g0] 3 Backyards: This unbearably pretentious and self-indulgent wannabe art film is constructed around three completely unconnected plot threads. In the best written and acted of the three, Edie Falco plays a woman excited about driving her new celebrity neighbor (Embeth Davidtz) to the ferry. The celebrity is having a personal crisis and deigns not to share her innermost turmoil with the new acquaintance. Because Falco's character had fantasized about gaining a celebrity BFF, she is disappointed. Unless petty disappointment counts as a major theme, this segment is pointless. In the second thread, Elias Koteas plays a man unhappy at home whose business trip is aborted. He wanders around waiting for the unexplained catharsis at the 87-minute mark of the movie. Koteas proves once more that he can furrow his brow and mumble at the same time. The third thread is about a little girl who plays with her mother's precious new bracelet and loses it. By this time, we almost expect the random appearances of a mystical unicorn, but we have to make do with a white poodle instead. Plus there's a masturbating dog killer. In between the three plot threads, there are odd transitional shots of caterpillers and the like. Somehow 3 Backyards won Eric Mendelsohn his second Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival. I like to think that good directors tell stories and make them compelling, so I am baffled by this "achievement". I hated this movie - and it is still pissing me off. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4esd8aYO3vs]

Nora's Will

moviegourmet — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:17:40 +0000

Blogging from Cinequest: Potiche

moviegourmet — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:06:06 +0000

This delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). DeNeuve plays a 1977 potiche, French for "trophy housewife", married to a guy who is a male chauvinist pig both by choice and cluelessness. He is also the meanest industrialist in France - Ebenezer Scrooge would be a softie next to this guy - and the workers in his factories are about to explode. He becomes incapacitated, and she must run the factory. Now, this is a familiar story line for gender comedy - why is it so damn funny? It starts with the screenplay, which is smart and quick like the classic screwball comedy that American filmmakers don't make anymore. And the cast is filled with proven actors who play each comic situation with complete earnestness, no matter how absurd. Director Francois Ozon, best known in the US for Swimming Pool and 8 Women, adapted the screenplay from a play and has a blast skewering late-70s gender roles and both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Gerard Depardieu plays the Communist mayor, who is both the husband's nemesis and the wife's former fling. Two of the very best French comic players, Fabrice Luchini and Karen Viard, shine in co-starring roles as the husband and his secretary. Fortunately, Potiche will have an American releases on April 1. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiRGcExb0E&feature=fvst]

DVD of the Week: Hereafter (and its tsunami)

moviegourmet — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:23:30 +0000

For the first time, Clint Eastwood ventures into the supernatural with the story of three people and their individual experiences with death. It's also a departure for screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United). The most skeptical, nonspiritual viewer (me) finds this to be a compelling film. The question of What Comes Next is unanswered, and less interesting than the film's observations of what happens on this Earth to living humans. Eastwood's genius is in delivering moments of complete truthfulness, one after the other, across a wide range of settings. Young boys enabling a druggie mother. People in a hostel watching for the last breath of a loved one. Experienced, skilled and loving foster parents facing a challenge that they cannot fathom. Every instance of human behavior is completely authentic. Equally realistic is the big CGI-enhanced action sequence at the beginning of the film - an Indonesian tsunami, not overblown in any way, but frightening in its verisimilitude. The sequence lost the special effects Oscar to Inception. Eastwood is an actor's director, and star Matt Damon leads a set of excellent performances. Bryce Dallas Howard gives an Oscar-worthy performance of a woman achingly eager to move past the painful episodes of her life. The child actor Frankie McLaren carries significant stretches of the story with his unexpressed longing and childish relentlessness. Cecile de France ably plays a successful television anchor compelled by events to veer her life in a different direction. Richard Kind delivers a moving portrayal of a man seeking closure after the death of his wife. It's on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFBXzWTL9N4]

The-Music-Never-Stopped-JK-Simmons-Lou-Taylor-Pucci-image-2

moviegourmet — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:37:32 +0000

Coming up on TV: John Wayne as crooked football coach

moviegourmet — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:24:25 +0000

On March 17, Turner Classic Movies is airing Trouble Along the Way (1953). John Wayne plays a gleefully corrupt football coach who buys players in an attempt to build up the football program overnight at a small Catholic school. And he utters the famous coachspeak, “Winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing.” John Wayne wasn't the first to utter that line - it was UCLA coach Red Sanders. But the Duke said it nine years before Vince Lombardi did. I discuss Trouble Along the Way and other football movies on my Best Sports Movies (scroll down for football).

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:09:14 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4547" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Nora's Will"][/caption] The Must See film right now is The Adjustment Bureau, a first rate love story embedded in the action thriller genre. The Music Never Stopped is a crowd pleaser that opens this weekend. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy. Nora's Will is a wry family dramedy, which is also now playing on HBO Signature as Cinco Dias Sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora). The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Oscar winners True Grit, The King's Speech and The Fighter are on my Best Movies of 2010 and are still kicking around in some theaters, as is Oscar nominee 127 Hours. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Hereafter. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV this week include Sleeper, The Natural and Shock Corridor on TCM.

hail conquering hero1

moviegourmet — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:32:22 +0000

hail conquering hero2

moviegourmet — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:33:16 +0000

Americanization of Emily1

moviegourmet — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 23:16:18 +0000

Americanization of Emily2

moviegourmet — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 23:17:05 +0000

Hereafter's special effects and the real tsunami

moviegourmet — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:57:41 +0000

In recommending Clint Eastwood's Hereafter as my DVD of the Week, I mentioned the amazing tsunami scene at the beginning of the film. You can easily find and watch this sequence on YouTube by searching for "Hereafter tsunami". Here's a featurette by Scanline VFX that illustrates how they created the Oscar-nominated special effects for Hereafter. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoAHO4_jPzQ] To compare it with the real thing, here are some real tsunami videos from last week.

Christoph Walz2

moviegourmet — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:19:04 +0000

Coming Up on TV: Another Sam Fuller Trashterpiece

moviegourmet — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:25:17 +0000

On March 23, Turner Classic Movies is airing Shock Corridor (1963). Director Sam Fuller started out as a tabloid reporter and never missed a chance to shamelessly sensationalize a subject (except for war, which he insisted on treating realistically). Shock Corridor is one of Fuller's most sensationalistic films. In Shock Corridor, Peter Breck plays a reporter who gets himself committed to an insane asylum so he can gather facts for an expose. He meets an African-American patient who dons Klan garb and gives white supremacist speeches in the corridor. He meets a fellow patient named Psycho who thinks he's pregnant. He is attacked by a horny mob of women in the nymphomaniac ward, which causes him to yell a truly great movie line, "Nymphos!". And then things don't go so well for him after the electroshock therapy... And, as you can see from the trailer, if Sam Fuller could get a stripper in his movie, he would find a way. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m2RY7ln-wI]

DVD of the Week: The Fighter

moviegourmet — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:26:02 +0000

Here's you chance to see the Oscar-winning performance by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo in The Fighter. Mark Wahlberg stars as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Bale) and his powerful, trashy mom (Leo). As one would expect, Bale nails the flashier role of the addict, deluding himself about both past glories and his importance to his family. Leo is almost unrecognized under her teased hair, and is accompanied by a hilarious Greek Chorus of adult daughters, each trashier than the last. The boxing scenes are very well done, and Wahlberg matches Sylvester Stallone and Hilary Swank in making us believe that he is, indeed, a boxer. See my list of 10 Best Boxing Movies. It's also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIcNP2F8cJg]

Place in the Sun

moviegourmet — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:17:49 +0000

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

moviegourmet — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:18:39 +0000

Elizabeth Taylor - Farewell to a Movie Star

moviegourmet — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:44:14 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4623" align="aligncenter" width="407" caption="A Place in the Sun"][/caption] Elizabeth Taylor was a fine actress and a compelling screen presence. The movies are full of extraordinary beauties, but few could better dominate a camera's attention. She won her Oscar for Butterfield 8, which was entirely her vehicle. But my favorite Elizabeth Taylor performances were in the ensemble casts of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Giant. Although A Place in the Sun is Montgomery Clift's movie, Elizabeth Taylor is essential - if an 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor fell in love with him, what man wouldn't at least think about killing for her? [caption id="attachment_4624" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"][/caption]

Updated Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:10:28 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4575" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Lou Tayor Pucci and JK Simmons in The Music Never Stopped"][/caption] The best bets in theaters now are the combo thriller/love story The Adjustment Bureau and the Baby Boomer-friendly The Music Never Stopped. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy. Nora's Will is a wry family dramedy, which is also now playing on HBO Signature as Cinco Dias Sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora). Oscar winner The King's Speech is on my Best Movies of 2010 and is still kicking around in some theaters. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is The Fighter. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV this week include two all-time greats, Lawrence of Arabia and All About Eve on TCM.

Woman Chaser

moviegourmet — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:58:45 +0000

The Music Never Stopped: sentimental movies can be good, after all

moviegourmet — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:15:36 +0000

Here's a crowd pleasing movie. Parents find their long lost adult son in a hospital, suffering from a brain tumor that has erased his much of his memory (and all of his short term memory). A speech therapist discovers that the son's personality is sparked by music that he remembers from his teens. The father and the son have been estranged since the son left after an argument between them. The father finds that he can reach over the memory disability and re-connect by learning the son's music. The son's music is all from the period 1964 to 1970 - and this music is another character in the film. Dad leaves behind his Big Band sensibilities to embrace Bob Dylan, Donovan, Steppenwolf, Crosby Stills & Nash and, especially the Grateful Dead. Baby Boomers and Dead Heads will really enjoy this movie from the music alone. Indeed, the Dead's Bob Weir and Mickey Hart have been out supporting the movie. The film is a showcase for the excellent actor J.K. Simmons, who plays the father. Simmons is always very, very good (Juno's dad, getting fired in Up in the Air and on TV's Oz and Law and Order). Here, he plays a guy who is secure in his own righteousness, but then sees and accepts his own responsibility for the estrangement, and whose love for his son motivates him to make some big changes. Lou Taylor Pucci is excellent as the son. Julia Ormond does a good job playing the speech therapist. Now I generally hate "disease of the week" movies. Really hate them. But here the real story is about the relationship between father and son, and the rebuilding of the bond between them. The memory disability, along with their past and the father's initial stubbornness, is just another obstacle to their communication. The story is based on an actual case described by Oliver Sacks in his essay The Last Hippie. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdeVAHCIIS8]

Some Carnage to Look Forward To

moviegourmet — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:12:30 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4616" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Christop Walz in his Oscar winning role in Inglorious Basterds"][/caption] Roman Polanski is currently in post-production with his newest film Carnage, based on the popular comic play God of Carnage by the French playwright Yasmina Reza. God of Carnage won the 2009 Tony for Best Play. It is the story of two couples whose sons have tangled in a schoolboy row; the couples meet to discuss the matter, but the discussion keeps veers off into bickering and rants. In Polanski's movie, the couples are played by John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster and Christoph Walz and Kate Winslet. On Broadway, the likes of Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden, James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, Christine Lahti, Jimmy Smits, Dylan Baker and Lucy Liu cycled through the roles. Daniels has played both male roles and Harden won a Tony for Best Actress. Polanski (Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist) is one of the greatest living directors. With last year's The Ghost Writer, Polanski proved that he's still on the top of game. So I'm looking forward to this one, too.

Certified Copy: Hmmmmmmmm

moviegourmet — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:32:06 +0000

Abbas Kiarostami, the critically acclaimed Iranian-born director, presents us with a puzzle set in beautiful Tuscan hill towns. An apparently unacquainted man and woman spend the day together. Then they pretend that they are married. And then they seem to have been long (and unhappily) married. So after watching the film, one may ask if the couple was married and only pretending not to be at first? Or did they instead start pretending to be married and just get more realistic toward the end of the film? Or do different stages of the film depict different realities? If you need to know what is going on in a movie and why, this is not a good choice for you. The couple is played by the Juliette Binoche, and the British opera singer William Shimell. They are excellent. Binoche won the Best Actress award at Cannes for this role. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_8TPLMCOU]

DVD of the Week: Fair Game

moviegourmet — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:34:39 +0000

Ripped from the headlines, this is the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. We already knew the story of Joe Wilson exposing the Bush Administration's false WMD pretext for the Iraq war, and the White House striking back by outing an American covert intelligence operative - Wilson's wife, Plame. But this film adds two more dimensions to the story. First, this screenplay is based on Plame's book, and the first act chronicles Plame's exploits as a CIA officer. She indeed ran undercover operations. The depiction of real life, contemporary spycraft is even more thrilling than a fictional spy movie. Second, the story also explores the excruciating pressure on the Plame/Wilson marriage. Joe is an able and principled guy with a little too much testosterone. His short fuse leads him to act impulsively to pick a fight that has even more severe consequences for his wife. In principle, Joe is right, but Valerie's career is ruined, her family's safety is threatened and her social life is shattered; she is both scared and resentful. And at the moment that they are under the most unbearable stress, each of them wants to react by moving in an opposite direction. Will the relationship survive? This dimension - a study of an adult relationship - makes this film much more than a typical history. It's also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU30DFbjirw]

Coming Up on TV: A Great Sam Fuller War Film

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:00:32 +0000

On April 2, Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting the 1951 Korean War movie The Steel Helmet. It's a gritty classic by the great writer-director Sam Fuller, a WWII combat vet who brooked no sentimentality about war. Gene Evans, a favorite of the two Sams (Fuller and Peckinpah), is especially good as the sergeant. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neFWK-0L7rw]

Movies: Best Bets for April

moviegourmet — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:01:51 +0000

You can see trailers and descriptions of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. I've seen Potiche, which opens April 1. It's a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery, the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine DeNeuve (as if she needs one). DeNeuve plays a 1977 potiche, French for "trophy housewife", married to a guy who is a male chauvinist pig and the meanest industrialist in France. He becomes incapacitated, and she must run the factory. It's smart and quick like the classic screwball comedy that American filmmakers don't make anymore. Jane Eyre also releases April 1. I'm not on the edge of my seat waiting for a Bronte bodice ripper, but many of my readers are. Stars the excellent Mia Wasilova from Alice in Wonderland and The Kids Are All Right. Carancho: Well, they have ambulance chasers in Argentina, too, and that seamy world is the setting for this sexy and violent noir thriller. Stars Ricardo Darin of The Secrets of Their Eyes and Nine Queens. Won Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Will release widely on April 8. Hanna is a paranoid thriller starring Saoirse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father (Eric Bana), and then released upon the CIA. She is matched up against special ops wiz Cate Blanchett. Hanna is directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist). Releases April 8. Poetry: This is the story of a Korean grandmother who goes to a poetry workshop and begins to understand the real characters of the people she lives amongst. Highly praised at Cannes. Releases widely April 8. Restless: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk, Paranoid Park, Last Days, Elephant) directs (from IMDb) “the story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.” The girl is played by the very promising Mia Wasilova, who had a tremendous 2010 with The Kids Are All Right and Alice in Wonderland. Releases April 8. In a Better World/Haevnen releases April 15. This won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture. It was directed by the great Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers/Brodre, After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire). A Danish do-gooder returns from Africa to face family problems with his estranged wife and their vulnerable, bullied son. The Princess of Montpensier: This film, admired at Cannes, is an adaptation of a well-known short story about a young woman who is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves. It is set in late 16^th century France amid the French religious wars. Look for it on April 22. Here's the trailer for In a Better World. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2d528Nh-Kw]

This Week's Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:10:57 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4532" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Catherine DeNeuve has heard it one too many times in Potiche"][/caption] Potiche opens this week, and this delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine DeNeuve (as if she needs one). The Music Never Stopped is a crowd-pleaser, especially for Baby Boomers. Certified Copy is a well-acted puzzler of an art film. The best holdovers in theaters now are the combo thriller/love story The Adjustment Bureau and the fun and unpretentious comedy Cedar Rapids. Nora's Will is a wry family dramedy, which is also now playing on HBO Signature as Cinco Dias Sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora). For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen Jane Eyre. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Fair Game. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week. Movies on TV this week include Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Frankenstein and the great Sam Fuller war film The Steel Helmet on TCM.

Potiche: Funny French Farce

moviegourmet — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:52:32 +0000

This delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). DeNeuve plays a 1977 potiche, French for "trophy housewife", married to a guy who is a male chauvinist pig both by choice and cluelessness. He is also the meanest industrialist in France - Ebenezer Scrooge would be a softie next to this guy - and the workers in his factories are about to explode. He becomes incapacitated, and she must run the factory. Now, this is a familiar story line for gender comedy - why is it so damn funny? It starts with the screenplay, which is smart and quick like the classic screwball comedy that American filmmakers don't make anymore. And the cast is filled with proven actors who play each comic situation with complete earnestness, no matter how absurd. Director Francois Ozon, best known in the US for Swimming Pool and 8 Women, adapted the screenplay from a play and has a blast skewering late-70s gender roles and both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Gerard Depardieu plays the Communist mayor, who is both the husband's nemesis and the wife's former fling. Two of the very best French comic players, Fabrice Luchini and Karen Viard, shine in co-starring roles as the husband and his secretary. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiRGcExb0E&feature=fvst]

Source Code1

moviegourmet — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:36:24 +0000

Source Code1

moviegourmet — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:38:03 +0000

Coming up on TV: An Anti-war Masterpiece

moviegourmet — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:27:23 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4601" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="James Coburn and James Garner in The Americanization of Emily"][/caption] Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting the 1964 The Americanization of Emily on April 7. Set in England just before the D-Day invasion, The Americanization of Emily is a biting satire and one of the great anti-war movies. James Garner plays an admiral's staff officer charged with locating luxury goods and willing English women for the brass. Julie Andrews plays an English driver who has lost her husband and other male family members in the War. She resists emotional entanglements with other servicemen whose lives may be put at risk, but falls for Garner's "practicing coward", a man who is under no illusions about the glory of war and is determined to stay as far from combat as possible. Unfortunately, Garner's boss (Melvyn Douglas) has fits of derangement and becomes obsessed with the hope that the first American killed on the beach at D-Day be from the Navy. Accordingly, he orders Garner to lead a suicide mission to land ahead of the D-Day landing, ostensibly to film it. Fellow officer James Coburn must guarantee Garner's martyrdom. It's a brilliant screenplay from Paddy Chayefsky, who won screenwriting Oscars for Marty, The Hospital and Network. Today, Americanization holds up as least as well as its contemporary Dr. Strangelove and much better than Failsafe. Reportedly, both Andrews and Garner have tagged this as their favorite film. One of the "Three Nameless Broads" bedded by the Coburn character is played by Judy Carne, later of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

DVD of the Week: Black Swan

moviegourmet — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:04:59 +0000

Natalie Portman won the Best Actress Oscar for playing a ballet dancer who competes for the role of a lifetime. Her obsession with perfection is at once the key to her potential triumph and her potential ruin. Barbara Hershey brilliantly plays what we first see as another smothering stage mother, but soon learn to be something even more disturbing. Vincent Cassell (Mesrine) captures the charisma of the swaggering dance master who pushes the ballerina mercilessly. Portman's dancer has the fragility of a porcelain teacup, and, as she slathers herself with more and more stress, we wonder just when, not if, she'll break. The tension crescendos, and the climactic performance of Swan Lake is thrilling. Fresh from The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is another directing triumph. In fact, parts of Black Swan are as trippy as Aronofsky's brilliant Requiem for a Dream. Black Swan is also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs]

New Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:12:14 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4700" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code"][/caption] The gripping sci fi thriller Source Code is the must see in theaters right now. Potiche opens this week, and this delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). The Music Never Stopped is a crowd-pleaser, especially for Baby Boomers. Certified Copy is a well-acted puzzler of an art film. The best holdovers in theaters now are the combo thriller/love story The Adjustment Bureau and the fun and unpretentious comedy Cedar Rapids. Nora's Will is a wry family dramedy, which is also now playing on HBO Signature as Cinco Dias Sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora). For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen Carancho, Hanna or Restless, which open this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Black Swan. Movies on TV this week include A Face in the Crowd and The General on TCM.

Coming up on TV: The General

moviegourmet — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:49:25 +0000

4/11 TCM

DVD of the Week: Le Cercle Rouge

moviegourmet — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:26:14 +0000

Can a French 1970 color film that stars cool guys like Alain Delon and Yves Montand qualify as film noir? You bet, especially when written and directed by a master of noir like Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob le Flambeur, Le Doulos, Le Samourai). A thief gets out of prison, immediately robs his former crime boss and goes on the run. An escaped murderer stows away in the trunk of his car. Now they are both on the run from a very cynical and driven cop - as well as from the gangsters. They hire a dissolute former cop and try to pull off a heist. The honest cop who is chasing them squeezes a shady nightclub owner to betray them. There's a chase and shootings and a heist that takes up the final 30 minutes, but Le Cercle Rouge is not about the action. It's about the nature of these characters, guys who live by their own codes. They know what they're gonna do, and they don't need to think about why. There's minimal dialogue, and they look and act really cool for all 140 minutes. Criterion has just released Le Cercle Rouge on DVD. Take a look. Here's the trailer in French. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWnRWlhhRA]

Carancho: seamy and steamy

moviegourmet — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:31:23 +0000

Well, they have ambulance chasers in Argentina, too, and that seamy world is the setting for this dark and violent noirish thriller. Ricardo Darin (The Secrets of Their Eyes, Nine Queens) stars as a suspended lawyer running insurance scams. (I think of Darin as the Argentine Joe Mantegna.) Set in the gloom of urban nighttime emergency rooms and funeral homes, it's a love story between the lawyer and an equally troubled doctor (Martina Gusman), nestled into a crime thriller. The story is as cynical and dark as it comes. The handheld camera keeps it out of the noir category, but the story is as hard-bitten as Kiss Me Deadly or any of the really nasty noirs. The violence is realistic, and there's lots of it - I had never seen anyone beaten to death with a file drawer before. If you like dark and edgy (and I do), this is the film for you. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiwzmX-8rvE]

Carancho2

moviegourmet — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:03:56 +0000

Best Movies of 2011 - So Far

moviegourmet — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:24:45 +0000

Source Code is a gripping thriller, and I admired both its intelligence and its heart. The key is a breakthrough screenplay by Ben Ripley. The scifi premise is that supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes - over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity? Gyllenhaal is excellent. So is Vera Farmiga as his handler and Michelle Monaghan as a girl you could fall in love with in 8 minutes. Jeffrey Wright chews the scenery with his homage to Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. Director Duncan Jones solidly brings Ripley's screenplay home. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkTrG-gpIzE] Carancho: Well, they have ambulance chasers in Argentina, too, and that seamy world is the setting for this dark and violent noirish thriller. Ricardo Darin (The Secrets of Their Eyes, Nine Queens) stars as a suspended lawyer running insurance scams. (I think of Darin as the Argentine Joe Mantegna.) Set in the gloom of urban nighttime emergency rooms and funeral homes, it's a love story between the lawyer and an equally troubled doctor (Martina Gusman), nestled into a crime thriller. The story is as cynical and dark as it comes. The handheld camera keeps it out of the noir category, but the story is as hard-bitten as Kiss Me Deadly or any of the really nasty noirs. The violence is realistic, and there's lots of it - I had never seen anyone beaten to death with a file drawer before. If you like dark and edgy (and I do), this is the film for you. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiwzmX-8rvE] Poetry: Early in his film, Korean writer-director Chang-dong Lee tells us his theme. Holding an apple, the teacher tells his students that, to write poetry, you must first see, really see the world around you. Mija is a 66-year-old pensioner in his class who works part-time as a caregiver for a stroke victim and is raising her sullen slob of a teenage grandson. She struggles with the poetry, but she does begin to see the people in her world with clarity - and it's not a pretty picture. What she learns to see is human behavior ranging from the venal to the inhumane. The key to the film's success is the performance of Jeong-hie Yun as Mija, a protagonist who spends the entire movie observing. Her doctor tells her that her failing memory is the start of something far worse. Sometimes she doesn't see what we see because she is distracted. But sometimes she doesn't act like she sees because of denial or avoidance. Sometimes she is disoriented. But she has moments of piercing lucidity, and those moments are unsparing. This unhurried film is troubling, uncomfortable and very, very good. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2dfY317-k] In a Better World: How do we respond to violence without perpetuating a cycle of violence? What and how do we tell our kids? Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers/Brodre, After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire) takes on these questions through the stories of two 12-year-old boys and their well-meaning but troubled parents. A schoolboy bully is handled through shock and awe, but the responses to other incidents of violence are far messier. A parent's teachable moment about pacifism doesn't seem effective, and the boys fashion their own disproportionate solution. One of the fathers, a do-gooder doctor who puts in time at a hell hole of an African refugee camp, must face pure evil in the form of a local warlord. It's an often tense drama. In a Better World benefits from outstanding performances, especially by the boy actors, William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen and Markus Rygaard. In a Better World won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture. I didn't like In a Better World as much as Brothers and After the Wedding, but it's still an ambitious and successful film. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2d528Nh-Kw] Potiche, the delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery, is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). DeNeuve plays a 1977 potiche, French for "trophy housewife", married to a guy who is a male chauvinist pig both by choice and cluelessness. He is also the meanest industrialist in France - Ebenezer Scrooge would be a softie next to this guy - and the workers in his factories are about to explode. He becomes incapacitated, and she must run the factory. Now, this is a familiar story line for gender comedy - why is it so damn funny? It starts with the screenplay, which is smart and quick like the classic screwball comedy that American filmmakers don't make anymore. And the cast is filled with proven actors who play each comic situation with complete earnestness, no matter how absurd. Director Francois Ozon, best known in the US for Swimming Pool and 8 Women, adapted the screenplay from a play and has a blast skewering late-70s gender roles and both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Gerard Depardieu plays the Communist mayor, who is both the husband's nemesis and the wife's former fling. Two of the very best French comic players, Fabrice Luchini and Karen Viard, shine in co-starring roles as the husband and his secretary. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiRGcExb0E&feature=fvst] The Adjustment Bureau is a first rate love story embedded in the action thriller genre. A couple meet by chance and are drawn together - only to have scary guys in hats try to enforce different destinies for them. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have excellent chemistry, and the screenplay by director George Nolfi is smart and inventive. Nolfi also wrote the smart and inventive screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum. I'm certainly looking forward to his next project. The supporting players - Terence Stamp, Anthony Mackie and John Slattery - are excellent. Given the scarcity of them these days, it must be pretty hard to write a smart and authentic romance. So all the more credit to Nolfi, and to Damon and Blunt for pulling it off. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZJ0TP4nTaE]

All New Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:41:07 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4754" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Martina Gusman and Ricardo Darin in Carancho"][/caption] The Must See film is Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Carancho is an Argentine love story nestled into a dark and violent noirish thriller, starring Ricardo Darin (The Secrets of Their Eyes, Nine Queens), the Argentine Joe Mantegna. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father and then released upon the CIA. Potiche, a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine DeNeuve (as if she needs one). The Music Never Stopped is a crowd-pleaser, especially for Baby Boomers. Certified Copy is a well-acted puzzler of an art film. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen Poetry or In a Better World, which open this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Le Cercle Rouge. Movies on TV this week include Ball of Fire and The Outlaw Josey Wales on TCM.

Source Code: a gripping thriller with a heart

moviegourmet — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:15:33 +0000

I admired both this gripping thriller's intelligence and its heart. The key is a breakthrough screenplay by Ben Ripley. The scifi premise is that supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes - over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity? Gyllenhaal is excellent. So is Vera Farmiga as his handler and Michelle Monaghan as a girl you could fall in love with in 8 minutes. Jeffrey Wright chews the scwnery with his homage to Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. Director Duncan Jones solidly brings Ripley's screenplay home. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkTrG-gpIzE]

Hanna: girl power to the max

moviegourmet — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:16:19 +0000

Here is a paranoid thrill ride starring Saoirse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father (Eric Bana), and then released upon the CIA. She is matched up against special ops wiz Cate Blanchett. The story relies on two novelties. First, a teenage girl is raised to speak 20 languages fluently and kill people with her hands. Second, the same teenage girl is raised to have no familiarity with electricity, music and other teens. Because Ronan is perfect and the pacing flies along, sthe story works. Hanna is ably directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist). [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zd4zGt13IE]

Best Movies of 2011 - So Far

moviegourmet — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:27:12 +0000

I've starting my running list of Best Movies of 2011 - So Far. So far, I've included Source Code, Carancho, Potiche and The Adjustment Bureau. There are some intriguing candidates coming out soon, including Poetry, In a Better World, Incendies, Meek's Cutoff and The Princess of Montpensier. My top movie so far, Source Code, is in theaters right now. Here's the trailer. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkTrG-gpIzE]

Hanna

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:03:21 +0000

Gettysburg

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:07:12 +0000

Lawrence of Arabia

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:09:22 +0000

Source Code2

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:11:35 +0000

Source Code3

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:12:05 +0000

Source Code2

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:13:11 +0000

Source Code3

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:14:30 +0000

DVD of the Week: Rabbit Hole

moviegourmet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:22:38 +0000

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhardt play a couple that lost their four-year-old son eight months ago, and are grieving in different ways and at different paces. David Lindsay-Abaire's screenplay is based on his Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, and it's as brilliant an exploration of the grieving process as I've ever seen. There is just enough suspense and humor to make the film eminently watchable despite the grim subject. Kidman, Eckhardt, Sandra Oh, Dianne Wiest and newcomer Miles Teller lead an excellent cast. This is an exquisite film and is high on my list of Best Movies of 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq73A-tkJLw]

Updated Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:11:25 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4824" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Saoirse Ronan in Hanna"][/caption] The Must See film is Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father, and then released upon the CIA. Potiche, a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). Poetry is a troubling art film from Korea with a great performance by Leong-hie Yun. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen In a Better World, which opened last week and had won the Best Foreign Language Oscar. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Rabbit Hole. Movies on TV this week include Glory, Gettysburg and North by Northwest on TCM.

Coming Up on TV: The two best Civil War films

moviegourmet — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:54:34 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4826" align="aligncenter" width="598" caption="Jeff Daniels (center) in Gettysburg"][/caption] The Civil War began 150 years ago this month, and TCM is broadcasting the two best Civil War movies on April 25. Ron Maxwell's 1994 Gettysburg is the gold standard of Civil War films. It follows Michael Shaara's superb historical novel The Killer Angels and depicts the decisive three day battle. It was filmed on the actual battlefield with re-enactors. Maxwell took great care in maintaining historical accuracy. Civil War buffs will recognize many lines of dialogue as historical, as well as shots that recall famous photographs. In addition, Gettysburg is especially well-acted, especially by Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger, Stephen Lang, Sam Elliott and Brian Mallon. The other very best Civil War movie is the 1989 Glory, which tells the real-life story of an all-black unit in the Union Army. Glory has tremendous performances by Denzel Washington, Andre Braugher, Morgan Freeman and Jihmi Kennedy.

Poetry: Learning to see what you'd rather overlook

moviegourmet — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 16:16:29 +0000

Early in his film, Korean writer-director Chang-dong Lee tells us his theme. Holding an apple, the teacher tells his students that, to write poetry, you must first see, really see the world around you. Mija is a 66-year-old pensioner in his class who works part-time as a caregiver for a stroke victim and is raising her sullen slob of a teenage grandson. She struggles with the poetry, but she does begin to see the people in her world with clarity - and it's not a pretty picture. What she learns to see is human behavior ranging from the venal to the inhumane. The key to the film's success is the performance of Jeong-hie Yun as Mija, a protagonist who spends the entire movie observing. Her doctor tells her that her failing memory is the start of something far worse. Sometimes she doesn't see what we see because she is distracted. But sometimes she doesn't act like she sees because of denial or avoidance. Sometimes she is disoriented. But she has moments of piercing lucidity, and those moments are unsparing. This unhurried film is troubling, uncomfortable and very, very good. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2dfY317-k]

The Princess of Montpensier: XXX

moviegourmet — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:13:04 +0000

The Princess of Montpensier (La Princesse de Montpensier): This film, admired at Cannes, is an adaptation of a well-known short story about a young woman who is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves. It is set in late 16^th century France amid the French religious wars. This is the 35^th film directed by Bertrand Tavernier (Coup de Torchon). Releases widely April 29. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5JTxLf_K4]

DVD of the Week: Somewhere

moviegourmet — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:28:18 +0000

This is Sofia Coppola’s (Lost in Translation) story of an A-list movie star (Steven Dorff) living at the Chateau Marmont with his expensive toys, booze and drugs and an inexhaustible supply of beautiful, sexually available women. Without any purpose or connection to others, his debauchery is completely joyless. To his surprise and discomfort, his eleven-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) moves in for a few weeks. He slowly finds some connection to her, but then she leaves for summer camp and he is aimless, again. Somewhere is an artsy portrait of a man so purposeless that he can find no pleasure in pleasure. Fanning is great as the kid. Surprisingly, Jackass' Chris Pontius shines as the movie star's best bud. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3cPbxCBGVo]

In a Better World: an ambitious contemplation on violence

moviegourmet — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:11:23 +0000

How do we respond to violence without perpetuating a cycle of violence? What and how do we tell our kids? Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers/Brodre, After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire) takes on these questions through the stories of two 12-year-old boys and their well-meaning but troubled parents. A schoolboy bully is handled through shock and awe, but the responses to other incidents of violence are far messier. A parent's teachable moment about pacifism doesn't seem effective, and the boys fashion their own disproportionate solution. One of the fathers, a do-gooder doctor who puts in time at a hell hole of an African refugee camp, must face pure evil in the form of a local warlord. It's an often tense drama. In a Better World benefits from outstanding performances, especially by the boy actors, William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen and Markus Rygaard. In a Better World won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture. I didn't like In a Better World as much as Brothers and After the Wedding, but it's still an ambitious and successful film. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2d528Nh-Kw]

Gates of Heaven

moviegourmet — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:44:15 +0000

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:42:37 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4834" align="aligncenter" width="275" caption="Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright in Source Code"][/caption] The Must See film is Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Carancho is an Argentine love story nestled into a dark and violent noirish thriller, starring Ricardo Darin (The Secrets of Their Eyes, Nine Queens), the Argentine Joe Mantegna. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father, and then released upon the CIA. Poetry is a troubling, uncomfortable and profound film with a great performance by Koran actress Jeong-hie Yun. In a Better World is an ambitious contemplation on violence by Danish director Susanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding). Potiche, a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen The Princess of Montpensier, which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Somewhere. Movies on TV this week include the nature adventure Never Cry Wolf , the nastily dark noir Kiss Me Deadly and the brilliant Erroll Morris documentary Gates of Heaven on TCM.

Coming up on TV: The great Erroll Morris and Gates of Heaven

moviegourmet — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:52:52 +0000

On May 1, Turner Classic Movies is showing Gates of Heaven (1978), the first masterpiece by documentarian Erroll Morris. It's overtly about a Bay Area pet cemetery, but as Morris interviews the cemetery owners and the pet owners (as well as the guy at the rendering plant), the subjects expose their passions, aspirations and vulnerabilities. And it's hilarious. This is an excellent introduction to America's best documentarian, whose other films include The Thin Blue Line (which freed a wrongly convicted man from Texas' Death Row) and Standard Operating Procedure (which exposed what was behind the abuses at Abu Ghraib). Morris' newest film, Tabloid, will be released on July 15.

Le Quattro Volte

moviegourmet — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:23:36 +0000

goatherd Michaelangelo Frammartino [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKG_Tzk38OU&feature=related]

worst teeth in the movies

moviegourmet — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:22:25 +0000

vampires and zombies don't count Deliverance Herbert Cowboy Coward as Toothless Man http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3644/3685333423_477e72209f.jpg&imgrefurl=http://radaris.com/p/Herbert/Coward/&usg=__CFGg436BkWzeG7YX-p7iADFA_Do=&h=261&w=500&sz=83&hl=en&start=16&zoom=1&tbnid=h7RaYSO24akeyM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=209&ei=y7qsTZ3eJYv4swOE8OjcCQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3DHerbert%2B%27Cowboy%27%2BCoward%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D670%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch0%2C684&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=125&vpy=355&dur=811&hovh=154&hovw=296&tx=121&ty=86&oei=o7qsTf2uE5KisQP__53OCQ&page=2&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:16&biw=1152&bih=670 Bill McKinney as Mountain Man http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2637/3686140542_c7c2ef74bf.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikturz/3686140542/&usg=__faJulz96-vnQAhA9FiWJsbZqosU=&h=261&w=500&sz=92&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=LNzfvU0qdILLyM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=220&ei=jbysTa_8AZOgsQPWnYDaCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbill%2Bmckinney%2Bdeliverance%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D670%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=556&vpy=331&dur=5765&hovh=162&hovw=311&tx=93&ty=96&oei=S7ysTfG8CYm2sAOvlO3FCQ&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0 Gus Visser and his duck Mike Myers Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1995) tim curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown It (Stephen King clown) toothless and braces? Steve Buscemi Richard Kiel as Jaws/Zbigniew Krycsiwiki in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker or most awesome teeth Harry Shearer as Mark Shubb in A Mighty Wind The joke is that Shubb is unusually finicky about his skin care, while his teeth could use some whitening. Mike Tyson in Tyson Parker Posey as Meg Swan in Best in Show Terry Jones as Brian's mother in Monty Python's Life of Brian

teeth Deliverance1

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:32:41 +0000

teeth Deliverance2

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:36:45 +0000

teeth Life of Brian

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:43:05 +0000

teeth Austin Powers

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:45:05 +0000

teeth Spy Who Loved Me

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:48:39 +0000

teeth tyson

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:52:37 +0000

teeth Best in Show

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:57:02 +0000

teeth It

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:58:56 +0000

Buscemi

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:01:29 +0000

Hurt Locker

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:06:49 +0000

I've Loved You So Long

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:07:35 +0000

Away from Her

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:08:46 +0000

Little Children

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:10:43 +0000

Crash

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:11:23 +0000

Y Tu Mama Tambien

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:12:11 +0000

Lost in Translation

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:12:57 +0000

The Dreamers

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:13:47 +0000

Best Movies of 2002-2009

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:15:35 +0000

2009 [caption id="attachment_4943" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="The Hurt Locker"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2009: 1) The Hurt Locker; 2) Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains; 3) Precious; 4) Broken Embraces (Abrazos Rotos); 5) Goodbye Solo; 6) Up in the Air; 7) Up; 8 ) Gomorrah; 9) Sin Nombre; 10) Away We Go. Continuing with my list of 2009′s best films: Still Walking, Adoration, Paris, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Crazy Heart, Inglorious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man, Invictus, In the Loop, (500) Days of Summer, The Last Lullaby, Five Minutes of Heaven, Lymelife, The Soloist, The Damned United, Where the Wild Things Are, Me and Orson Welles, The Maid, District 9, Revanche, An Education, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, I Love You Man, The Invention of Lying, Every Little Step, The Way We Get By and Tyson. 2008 [caption id="attachment_4944" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="I've Loved You So Long"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2008: 1) I’ve Loved You So Long; 2) Rachel Getting Married; 3) Paranoid Park; 4) Reprise; 5) The Visitor; 6) Tell No One; 7) Shotgun Stories; 8 ) In Bruges; 9) Standard Operating Procedure; 10) Happy-Go-Lucky. Continuing with my list of 2008′s best films: Milk, Wendy and Lucy, Gran Torino, WALL-E, Snow Angels, Slumdog Millionaire, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Young@Heart, The Wrestler, Frost/Nixon, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Frozen River, Transsiberian, Boy A, The Traitor and Shine a Light. See Ten Recommended 2008 Movies. 2007 [caption id="attachment_4945" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Away From Her"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2007: 1) Away from Her ; 2) After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet); 3) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; 4) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead; 5) Juno; 6) Into the Wild; 7) Across the Universe; 8 ) Zodiac; 9) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; 10) Things We Lost in the Fire . Continuing with my list of 2007′s best films: Starting Out in the Evening, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Once, The Savages, Waitress, American Gangster, Breach, The Lookout, Gone Baby Gone, Michael Clayton, No Country for old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Bourne Ultimatum, Paris Je T’Aime, Disturbia, Knocked Up, Red Road, Enchanted, Man in the Chair, Black Snake Moan, Sicko and In the Shadow of the Moon. 2006 [caption id="attachment_4947" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Little Children"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2006: 1) Little Children; 2) Children of Men; 3) Babel; 4) The Departed; 5) The Lives of Others; 6) 49 Up; 7) Pan’s Labyrinth ; 8 ) Prime Suspect 6: The Final Chapter; 9) Deliver Us From Evil; 10) An Inconvenient Truth. Continuing with my list of 2006′s best films: Little Miss Sunshine, Volver, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, Dreamgirls, Venus, United 93, Blood Diamond, Casino Royale, The Queen, CSA: The Confederate States of America, Borat, Keeping Mum, Half Nelson, The Heart of the Game, For Your Consideration, The Inside Man, After Innocence, Illusion, A Prairie Home Companion, Curse of the Golden Flower, Thank You for Smoking, Sir! No Sir!, Who Killed the Electric Car? and The Painted Veil. 2005 [caption id="attachment_4948" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Crash"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2005: 1) Crash; 2) The Best of Youth ; 3) Brothers; 4) The Upside of Anger; 5) Junebug; 6) A History of Violence; 7) Separate Lies; 8 ) Grizzly Man; 9) Syriana; 10) The Constant Gardener. Continuing with my list of 2005′s best films: Mysterious Skin, Nine Lives, Saraband, Sin City, Machuca, Downfall, Brokeback Mountain, Look At Me, Mad Hot Ballroom, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, Layer Cake, Cinderella Man, Pride and Prejudice, The Aristocrats, Kontroll, Capote, Cronicas and I Walk the Line. 2004 [caption id="attachment_4952" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Dreamers"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2004: 1) The Dreamers; 2) Sideways; 3) Bad Education; 4) Million Dollar Baby; 5) Garden State; 6) Maria, Full of Grace; 7) Vera Drake; 8 ) The Woodsman; 9) Metallica: Monsters of Rock; 10) Red Lights . Continuing with my list of 2004’s best films: Hotel Rwanda, The Sea Inside, Baadasssss!, Aviator, Born into Brothels, Fahrenheit 9/11; A Very Long Engagement, Twilight Samurai; Finding Neverland, Intermission, Monsieur Ibrahim, Shrek 2, The Return, Napoleon Dynamite, Tokyo Godfathers, Touching the Void, Riding Giants and The Clearing. 2003 [caption id="attachment_4951" align="aligncenter" width="485" caption="Lost in Translation"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2003: 1) Lost in Translation; 2) Mystic River; 3) Monster; 4) 21 Grams; 5) American Splendor; 6) Whale Rider; 7) The Son ; 8 ) In America; 9) Man on a Train; 10) The Station Agent . Continuing with my list of 2003′s best films: The Barbarian Invasions, The Human Stain, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World; Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Ring; Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary, Girl with a Pearl Earring; The Fog of War; The Company; Finding Nemo, Matchstick Men, Touching the Void, Thirteen, Spellbound and Shattered Glass. 2002 [caption id="attachment_4950" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Y Tu Mama Tambien"][/caption] Here’s my list of the best films of 2002: 1) Y Tu Mama Tambien; 2) Talk to Her; 3) Minority Report; 4); The Pianist; 5) Secretary; 6) Spirited Away; 7) About a Boy; 8 ) Chicago; 9) One Hour Photo; 10) Sunshine State. Continuing with my list of 2002′s best films: The Good Girl, The Quiet American, Adaptation and Rabbit-Proof Fence.

Longest Movie Titles

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:23:56 +0000

There are other Longest Movie Titles lists that include longer-titled obscure industrial films, but these are widely released films that people have actually seen. [caption id="attachment_4975" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Those Magnificent Men Yada Yada Yada"][/caption] 1. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965) 2. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) 3. The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993) 4. Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) 5. Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) 6. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) 7. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) 8. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 9. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) 10. Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains (2007) 11. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) 12. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) 13. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) 14. Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

Austria Airpower 09

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:27:56 +0000

A Bleriot XI aircraft from the year 1908, performs during the Airpower 09 airplane show in Zeltweg, Austria, on Friday, June 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Magnificent Men

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:30:01 +0000

Worst Teeth in the Movies

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:46:16 +0000

Vampires and zombies don't count. 1. Deliverance [caption id="attachment_4927" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Herbert "Cowboy" Coward as Toothless Man in Deliverance"][/caption] 2. Gus Visser and His Singing Duck [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwQ6v_nYPMs] This is a 1925 test of talking film. Watch Gus' right hand, and you'll see how he makes the duck quack. 3. Deliverance (again) [caption id="attachment_4928" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Bill McKinney as Mountain Man in Deliverance"][/caption] 3. Monty Python's Life of Brian [caption id="attachment_4929" align="aligncenter" width="431" caption="Terry Jones as Brian's mother in Monty Python's Life of Brian"][/caption] 4. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery [caption id="attachment_4930" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery"][/caption] He's got the whole British dentistry thing goin' on. 5. It [caption id="attachment_4937" align="aligncenter" width="355" caption="Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in It"][/caption]

As if a Stephen King child-killing clown weren't scary enough.

6. The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker

[caption id="attachment_4933" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Richard Kiel as Jaws/Zbigniew Krycsiwiki in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker"][/caption] This could also make the list of Most Awesome Teeth. 7. Tyson [caption id="attachment_4934" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Mike Tyson in Tyson"][/caption] 8 and 9. Best in Show [caption id="attachment_4935" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Parker Posey as Meg Swan in Best in Show"][/caption] Michael Hitchcock plays Posey's hubbie Hamilton Swan, and these uptight yuppies are adorned with matching adult braces. 10. Steve Buscemi in everything (Reservoir Dogs, Living in Oblivion, Fargo, Ghost World, Coffee and Cigarettes, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire). [caption id="attachment_4938" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Steve Buscemi"][/caption] Buscemi's a great actor, and he's secure enough to choose not to get his teeth fixed. Gotta dance with who brung ya. Good for him!

Movies: Best Bets for May

moviegourmet — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:07:55 +0000

You can see trailers and descriptions of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, Incendies, releases widely May 6. Upon their mother's death, a young man and woman learn for the first time of their father and their brother and journey from Quebec to the Middle East to uncover family secrets. Meek's Cutoff is especially promising because it is directed by the excellent Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy). The route of the Oregon Trail was not yet well established in 1845, so a covered wagon train hires a mountain man who claims that he has found a shortcut through the Cascades. However, it becomes clear that the mountain man (Bruce Greenwood) is unreliable, and there is a new option of following an Indian of unknown motives. The men (Will Patton, Paul Dano) must figure out what to do while their wives (Michelle Williams, Shirley Henderson) eavesdrop and guess their fate. Releasing widely on May 6. And now for a lowbrow guilty pleasure on May 27: The Hangover Part II. The buddies return - this time losing a little brother on a wild night in Bangkok. Here's the trailer for Incendies: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDf-XuYid1A]

Blogging from SFIFF: Attenberg

moviegourmet — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:31:51 +0000

Attenberg is a winningly offbeat original from Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari. It's about a 23-year-old who grudgingly decides it's time for her sexual initiation. Her oversexed friend (who dreams of trees fruited with hanging penises) gives her some pointers. Hilariously awkward attempts at intimacy ensue. She has a poignantly close relationship with her single dad, and their love of sarcasm and animal documentaries help them cope with his cancer. As if this weren't enough, the film is randomly interspersed with Silly Walks by the gals that would impress John Cleese. As the lead, Ariane Labed won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2582qyfXOSs]

More Best Bets for May

moviegourmet — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:59:25 +0000

I need to add some upcoming films to Friday's post on Best Bets for May. Cave of Forgotten Dreams opens this week. Werner Herzog explores the 33,000-year-old cave paintings in Chauvert, France. Herzog knows what he is doing (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Grizzly Man), and he says that this needed to be shot in 3D, so I believe him. Also opening this weekend is Queen to Play. Sandrine Bonnaire plays a hotel maid who is taught chess by chess expert Kevin Kline and learns that she is gifted, which shakes up her family's life. Jennifer Beals shows up in the film and, hey, Kevin Kline acts in French! Midnight in Paris: In Woody Allen's latest, Owen Wilson accompanies wife Rachel McAdams to Paris, where she is intrigued by pretentious Michael Sheen, leaving him to explore midnight Paris and discover his muse (Marion Cotillard, perhaps?). Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates and French first lady Carla Bruni all pop in. Releases widely May 27. You can see trailers and descriptions of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. Here's the trailer for Cave of Forgotten Dreams. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDiQ1lvBbr0]

DVD of the Week: Moguls And Movie Stars

moviegourmet — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:52:51 +0000

Moguls And Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood is a 7-part series from Turner Classic Movies , which originally broadcast the series last fall. Most histories of cinema emphasize the technical and creative evolutions of film. Instead, Moguls traces the business story - how mostly Jewish immigrants started with the early peep shows in old Eastern cities and wound up building monopolistic empires in the sun and glamor of Hollywood. It's a great story, and this series tells it very well. The DVD set is now available for purchase for about $28. Here's the original TCM promo. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuShcXwzoRM]

Princess Montpensier

moviegourmet — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:47:17 +0000

The Robber: robbing and running, but why? and who cares?

moviegourmet — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:01:17 +0000

The title character in The Robber/Der Rauber finishes a six-year prison term for bank robbery and immediately and compulsively robs a bank. He doesn't care about the money, he is simply driven to rob banks. He has spent his six years in prison obsessively training, and he wins the Vienna Marathon when he gets out. Along the way, his running ability helps him make dramatic escapes. The role of the robber is very physically demanding, and he is well-played by Andreas Lust (Revanche). It's a well-acted and at times beautifully shot movie, but the story by writer-director Benjamin Heidenberg lets us down. Why is the robber so compulsive? How did he get to be so alienated? Since he shows no emotion or human connection, why should we care? There exists an excellent German bank robbery drama with lots of running, plus a great character, so I recommend Run Lola Run on DVD. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgT3RVsZHQ]

The Princess of Montpensier: a woman who is loved too much

moviegourmet — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:05:52 +0000

Set in late 16^th century France amid the French religious wars, a young noblewoman is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves. Her new husband is unhealthily jealous and for good reason - various members of the Court fall in love with her and she is too immature to handle it well. The 35^th film directed by Bertrand Tavernier (Coup de Torchon) is often exquisite. There is brutal 16th century warfare set against the beautiful French countryside, gorgeous costumes, thundering horses, swordplay in the Louvre and heaving bosoms. It's a good film that could have been great. Unfortunately, Melanie Thierry doesn't live up to the great role at the center of this romance. Instead, Lambert Wilson steals the picture with an exceptional performance as the husband's mentor and the Princess' confidant. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5JTxLf_K4]

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:34:11 +0000

[caption id="attachment_5017" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="The Princess of Montpensier"][/caption] Don't miss Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Poetry is a troubling, uncomfortable and profound film with a great performance by Koran actress Jeong-hie Yun. In a Better World is an ambitious contemplation on violence by Danish director Susanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding). Potiche, a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). The Princess of Montpensier is an exquisitely beautiful romance about a 16^th century French noblewoman who is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves; her new husband is unhealthily jealous and for good reason - various members of the Court fall in love with her and she is too immature to handle it well. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father, and then released upon the CIA. The Robber is about an emotionless, compulsive bank robber who doesn't care about the money, and you won't care about him, either. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Incendies or Queen to Play, which open this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Somewhere. Movies on TV this week include the epic Lawrence of Arabia on TCM, which will look great on your wide screen HDTV - more on that tomorrow.

Coming up on TV: Lawrence of Arabia

moviegourmet — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:51:12 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4828" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia"][/caption] It's time to revisit a spectacle. On May 9, Turner Classic movies is broadcasting Lawrence of Arabia. For decades, many of us watched this epic squeezed into tinny-sounding TVs. In 1989, I was fortunate enough to see the director's cut in an old movie palace. Now technology has caught up, and modern large screen HD televisions can do this wide screen classic justice. Similarly, modern home sound systems can work with the great Maurice Jarre soundtrack. Nobody has ever created better epics than director David Lean (Bridge Over the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago). Peter O'Toole stars at the moment of his greatest physical beauty. The rest of the cast is unsurpassed: Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, thousands of extras and entire herds of camels. The vast and severe Arabian desert is a character unto itself. Settle in and watch the whole thing - and remember what "epic" really means.

DVD of the Week: Hail! The Conquering Hero

moviegourmet — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:26:36 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4588" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Eddie Bracken and his new Marine comrades"][/caption] This brilliantly funny movie is one of Preston Sturges’ less well known great comedies. Eddie Bracken plays a would-be soldier discharged for hay fever – but his hometown mistakenly think that he is sent home a war hero. Hilarity ensues. All the funnier when you realize that this film was made in 1944 amid our nation’s most culturally patriotic period. Turner Classic Movies broadcasts Hail! The Conquering Hero several times a year, and a new DVD has been released today.

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:03:06 +0000

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Incendies, Queen to Play Don't miss Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. In a Better World is an ambitious contemplation on violence by Danish director Susanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding). Potiche, a delightful French farce of feminist self-discovery is the funniest movie in over a year, and another showcase for Catherine Deneuve (as if she needs one). The Princess of Montpensier is an exquisitely beautiful romance about a 16^th century French noblewoman who is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves; her new husband is unhealthily jealous and for good reason - various members of the Court fall in love with her and she is too immature to handle it well. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father, and then released upon the CIA. The Robber is about an emotionless, compulsive bank robber who doesn't care about the money, and you won't care about him, either. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen the promising Meek's Cutoff which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Hail! The Conquering Hero. Movies on TV this week include the classic French heist film Rififi and one of my favorite Sam Peckinpah Westerns, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, both on TCM.

DVD of the Week: Diabolique

moviegourmet — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:30:18 +0000

The headmaster of a provincial boarding school is so cruel, even sadistic, that everyone wants him dead, especially his wife and his mistress. When he goes missing, the police drain the murky pool where the killers dumped the body, and the killers get a big surprise. Now the suspense from director Henri-Georges Clouzot really starts. A master of the thriller, Clouzot was nicknamed the French Hitchcock. In an achingly scary scene from Clouzot's The Wages of Fear, two truck drivers try to get a long truck around a cliff side hairpin curve - and the truck is filled with nitroglycerin. If you like Diabolique, you'll probably also like another domestic murder - this time set in Paris - Quai des Orfevres. Criterion has released the Diabolique DVD. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzbGtjtfZwA]

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:03:50 +0000

The Must See film is Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father, and then released upon the CIA. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Diabolique. Movies on TV this week include the underrated Sam Peckinpah classic Junior Bonner and the campy Giant Mutant Bunny horror film Night of the Lepus on TCM.

DVD of the Week: Kings of Pastry

moviegourmet — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:49:02 +0000

This documentary chronicles the physically grueling and emotionally draining three-day competition for the MOF, the highest designation for French pastry chefs. Amid impossibly towering sugar sculptures and delectable cream puffs and layer cakes, we see the essential cores of competition - aspiration, ambition, perseverance, commitment, desperation, heartbreak and victory. Kings of Pastry is directed by the brilliant documentarians Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker (The War Room). It has earned a spot on my list of 10 Food Porn Movies. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ANUMYH07-Q]

Movies to See Right Now

moviegourmet — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:04:41 +0000

The Must See film is Source Code, a gripping scifi thriller with intelligence and heart, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan. Hanna is a rip roaring girl-power thriller starring Saiorse Ronan as a 16-year-old raised in the Arctic Circle to be a master assassin by her rogue secret agent father, and then released upon the CIA. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. I haven't yet seen The Hangover Part II, which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I'm Looking Forward To. My DVD pick is Kings of Pastry. Movies on TV this week include the timeless drama The Best Years of Our Lives on TCM.

DVD of the Week: Kaboom

moviegourmet — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:00:51 +0000

And now for some sexy silliness. Director Gregg Araki created the brilliant and searing Mysterious Skin, but here he's just having fun. In the first hour of Kaboom, I lost track of how many characters had sex with each other - it's just about non-stop and guy-on-guy, girl-on-girl, guy-on-girl, guy-and-girl-on-guy, etc. I would characterize the sex as casual, but that would make it seem that the characters were having even a modicum of difficulty in finding partners. Anyway, the chaotic sexathon is very funny. The last twenty minutes takes the film into a campy version of a paranoid apocalypse film, before an abrupt (and I mean abrupt) ending. Did I mention the bad guys in the animal masks? It's fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. Have two cocktails and then pop in the DVD. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu9NkMCElMk]