Get your lean on.

Can’t. Stop. Laughing. At these.

Thx Bos!

The Fall film flurry is well underway – but the biggest of the big have yet to appear. The Academy chose an odd year to introduce their new 10 film Best Pic category as it seems this year’s crop is a bit leaner than years past. Here is my take on what’s headed our way (and a bit of what’s already out there). Click the title to peep the trailer and look for more mini-reviews as I check the flicks off my must see list.

OUT NOW

Coco Before Chanel
Audrey Tautou (Amelie) stars in this very pretty looking period biopic about Coco Chanel’s early years.
(Sony Pictures Classics 9/25)

Bright Star
This period drama from Jane Campion (The Piano ughh) is the awards films that I am least likely to see this season.
(Apparition 9/18)

The Burning Plain
Guillermo Arriaga’s (writer of Babel, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros) directorial debut starring Charlize Theron is still limping along – but don’t expect it to be around much longer.
(Magnolia 9/18)

Pandorum
I am a bit surprised that this film didn’t catch on. What isn’t to like about Ben Foster in an intense sci-fi actioner? I liked the script and hope to catch the film before it disappears. Whoops! Too late.
(Overture 9/25)

A Serious Man
I’ll post my full review in the next few days, but in the mean time you gotta watch the trailer for this Coen Bros Jewish period dramedy immediately. It is maybe the most original trailer I’ve ever seen (and is far better than the movie).
(Focus 10/2)

Whip It
I’m not sure if you would call Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut a failure – but it’s no hit. I guess not that many people want to see a movie about rollergirls.
(Fox Searchlight 10/2)

Afterschool
Antonio Campos’s indie high school psychological thriller hasn’t quite broken out yet, but it might find an audience on VOD.
(IFC 10/2)

An Education
This coming of age story of a girl in 1960s London is a run away fave for early awards consideration. I guarantee it gets a Best Pic nom and Carey Mulligan gets an Best Actress nom. Go see it!
(Sony Pictures Classics 10/9)

Adventures of Power
Ari Gold’s Sundance hit comedy about air drummers opened on two screens and then shrunk down to one. Is this one DOA?
(Variance 10/9)

The Damned United
Every time Peter Morgan writes a screenplay it becomes one of my favorites of the year (Last King of Scotland, The Queen, Frost/Nixon) and any time Michael Sheen stars in it his performance is one of my favorites as well. Well the duo is back this awards season with this film about SOCCER! As long as Tom Hooper (John Adams) stays away from the crazy camera angles, this film is bound to be one of my faves of the year.
(Sony Pictures Classics 10/9)

Trucker
There has been some buzz about Michelle Monaghan’s performance as a mother trucker. But with a crowded Best Actress field, will this ultra indie find enough votes?
(Monterey Media 10/16)

New York, I Love You
We’ve seen the format before. This city love letter sports shorts from Shunji Iwai, Mira Nair, and Brett Ratner.
(Vivendi 10/16)

Black Dynamite
Yeeah sucka! This blackspoitation martial arts send up is one of the funniest flicks of the season. I hope a few people go watch it. You betta aks somebody.
(Apparition 10/16)

Where the Wild Things Are
Look for my write-up of Spike Jonze’s impressive fantasy tale here soon. I liked the film a lot, even if it doesn’t fit the normal narrative formula.
(Warners 10/16)

Amelia
This year’s big awards biopic stars Hilary Swank as Ms. Earhart and is directed by Academy sweetheart Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding).
(Fox Searchlight 10/23)

Antichrist
Chaos Reigns!! This divisive film from Lars Von Trier is certainly going to make people talk… But how many will go see it?
(IFC 10/23)

Untitled
Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton star in this pretty silly looking send up of the New York art scene.
(Samuel Goldwyn 10/23)

Week of October 30

Gentlemen Broncos
Ho boy this wacky comedy from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) is well worth seeing for Jemaine Clement’s performance alone. Plus it features a tiny role by Josh Pais. Josh Pais!
(Fox Searchlight)

Week of November 6

Precious
People have been talk talk talkin about this Harlem drama since it took every award at Sundance last January.
(Lionsgate)

The Box
I have very little in the way of hope for Richard Kelly’s (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales) new film starring Cameron Diaz. …or for his career while we are at it.
(Warners)

The Men Who Stare At Goats
Reviews have been a bit mixed for actor turned director Grant Heslov’s George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey and Ewan McGregor black comedy. But there’s no denying the trailer is great.
(Overture)

That Evening Sun
Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild) stars in the “Southern gothic” tale of an old man who just wants to see out his remaining years on his farm. The film did very well in the Southern festival circuit (heh).
(Freestyle Releasing)

Splinterheads
There is something that struck me as kinda charming about this little indie romantic comedy that no one is likely to see. I figured I would at least give it a shout.

The Other Side of Paradise
This is the first time I have heard of this ultra-indie comedy – but judging form the laurels flash at the beginning of the trailer it at least played at a bunch of fests. The trailer shows some promise from lead actress Arianne Martin.

Week of November 13

Fantastc Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson gets a lot of criticism for not trying anything new in his films. Well how about a stylistically animated film based on a Roald Dahl book? This will at least be something new.
(Fox Searchlight)

The Messenger
Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson star as Army officers charged with notifying family members – one played by Samantha Morton – when a soldier has been killed. This film is the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who you probably know as the writer of the hit SKE film Married Life.
(Oscilloscope)

Pirate Radio
Phil Hoffman and Bill Nighy star in this film about 1960s radio DJ who broadcasted from a ship to bring Rock N Roll to England. This film is written and directed by Richard Curtis who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral and then went on to write every other film like it (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’, Love Actually, etc.).
(Focus)

Uncertainty
I think this JGL starrer is about some sort of alternate realities, but the trailer is too schizophrenic to tell for sure. I did spot Olivia Thirlby though! Good enough.
(IFC)

Week of November 20

Red Cliff
Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro star in this year’s big Chinese costumer actioner from “Legendary” director John Woo (seriously you can’t find John Woo written anywhere without Legendary before it, jeez man). The sequel is already out in China.
(Magnolia)

Broken Embraces
Almodovar returns with a another celebration of the talent and beauty of Penelope Cruz.
(Sony Pictures Classics)

Week of November 25

Ninja Assassin
From director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), comes the craziest English language Ninja movie ever made. Could be cool. Could be quite lame.
(Warners)

The Road
Viggo stars in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic (and post punctuation) novel. The film is directed by John Hillcoat whose film The Proposition I was quite impressed by. The scenery is sure to be striking, but can the sparse and downer story sell the film?
(Weinstein Co.)

Week of December 4

Up In The Air
Jason Reitman follows up Juno with this George Clooney starrer. Apparently Jason Reitman is the real deal because anyone who has seen it is already talking Best Pic as well as Best Actor noms for Clooney and Supporting noms for Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga.
(Paramount)

Brothers
Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In America) directs Tobey, Jake and Natalie in this pretty awful looking family-war-romantic drama. It looks bad – but I can’t imagine it is as bad as that awful, awful trailer.
(Lionsgate)

Week of December 11

The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson returns with his first movie since Titanic… wait… no, since Lord of the Rings. The film stars Marky Mark and Rachel Weisz and I’m sure it is great, but I gotta say the trailer makes it look pretty pedestrian.

A Single Man
Julianne Moore and Colin Firth star in this film from fashion designer Tom Ford. After making a big splash at Venice, the film has people talking noms in all categories.
(Weinstein Co.)

Week of December 18

Avatar
James Cameron returns with his first film since Titanic and it stars blue people!
(20th C. Fox)

Did You Hear About the Morgans?
Now how is this for a premise: two New York city slickers (SJP and Hugh Grant) are having marital problems. But when they witness a murder they are forced to go into the witness protection program together and work out their differences on a ranch in Wyoming. The trailer was pretty funy… so I say Yee Haw!
(Sony)

The Young Victoria
Emily Blunt stars as Queen Victoria in this British costume drama. I caught an early screening of this pretty but rather average film and will post more thoughts in due time. You pretty much get the idea from the trailer (which ends by saying the film comes out in March 2009, heh).
(Momentum)

Week of December 25ish

Sherlock Holmes
Quite a lot to be excited about with Robert Downey Jr starring as the famed detective. Setting him next Jude Law and Rachel McAdams and then letting Guy Ritchie call the shots is just all the better.
(Warners)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Check out my Fantastic Fest write-up for my thoughts on Terry Gilliam’s Heath Ledger et al starrer.
(Sony)

It’s Complicated
With a cast of Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin, it really doesn’t matter that this is a middle aged romantic comedy. Plus no one knows middle aged romantic comedies better than director Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give).
(Universal)

Sometime before January

Nine
No one seems quite sure when this is coming out, but it will be a big awards film no matter when this musical unspools, just for sheer number of great actresses in it. Rob Marshall (Chicago) directs Daniel Day Lewis along side Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, and (breathe) Judi Dench.
(Weinstein Co.)

Invictus
Here is what we know: Clint Eastwood directs Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman in a film about Nelson Mandela and rugby. Cool.
(Warners)

The White Ribbon
Michael Haneke’s (Cache, Funny Games) stylish period Palme d’Or winner will surely make it out in time for a potential Oscar nom.
(Sony Pictures Classics)

Get Low
Robert Duvall and Bill Murray star in this tale of a man who wants to attend his own funeral. There is Buzz around a possible nom for Duvall (it would be his seventh) – if it can make it out this year.
(Sony Pictures Classics)

That’s it for this Fall’s films – but there are a few holdovers that have a shot at getting Oscar noms – namely: The Hurt Locker, The Informant, Inglorious Basterds, and Up.

Looking forward there are a couple flicks coming out in January that have me pretty excited. I have already talked quite a bit about Youth in Revolt. The other January film with a lot of promise is the Hughes Brothers’ The Book of Eli. I loved this post-apocalyptic script which should provide a lot more ass kicking than The Road. And the casting of Denzel, Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis gets an A Plus from me.

This list doesn’t cover much in the way of docus or foreign films. I’ll have more on this year’s crop Oscar contenders in those categories here soon.

The AFI Film Festival rolls out next weekend and they are trying something quite new this year. Namely, they aren’t charging for tickets (they have also moved the location from Arclight to the Mann Chinese) . You can still buy a festival pass which guarantees entry to screenings – but they aren’t selling any regular screening tickets. Instead they are asking festival goers to either sign up for the free showings the want to attend or just show up and stand in line. The order form for free tix is here – but whoops… looks like I posted this a bit late and the free tix are pretty much all gone. Well if anyone is interested in trying to wait in line for the following screenings, let me know.

Highlights

The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fri. Oct 30, 7:00 pm
The fest opens with the premiere of Wes Anderson’s puppet-astic tale that hits theaters Nov 12.

City of Life and Death
Sun. Nov 1, 1:00 pm
This arty Rape of Nanking drama premiered at TIFF to great reviews.

Precious
Sun. Nov 1, 7:00 pm
Everyone wants to see the festival darling of 2009 before it comes out Nov 6th – and you can see it for free at AFI.

Youth In Revolt
Tue. Nov 3, 10:15 pm
This Michael Cera starrer is sure to have a fun little run in the theaters – but apparently not until January.

The Road
Wed. Nov 4, 7:00 pm
Scary scary Viggo comes to theaters at the end of November – but he’ll be in person a few weeks early for this Gala tribute to him.

Transcendant Man
Thu. Nov 5, 4:00 pm
This documentary about inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil sounds quite interesting – and I don’t imagine it will have too long of a line.

Looking For Eric
Thu. Nov 5, 7:00 pm
How about a light hearted euro flick from the normally serious Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley)?

A Single Man
Thu. Nov 5, 7:00 pm
The closing night film is Tom Ford’s surprise hit from TIFF, set to hit theaters on Dec 11.

I’m love love loving this sick new spot for the upcoming FIFA 10. In a week I hope to be love love loving the game too.

This is actually the UK version. The USA version is the same except they throw Blanco and Donovan at the end instead of Benzema and Xavi.

I just spent five great days at Austin’s Fantastic Fest and the experience was awesome. Aside form the 17 films I watched, the festival had plenty of other cool events on offer. This year founder Tim has opened up a bowling alley/party space called The Highball next to his amazing Alamo Draft House Cinema which offered the perfect place for the late night hanging and unlimited free skee-ball! The Fantastic Fest Debates were especially hilarious as after each debate (or roast) the contestants literally duked it out.

The cinema itself is something to behold. A 6 screen stadium theater with seats and sound on par with Arclight. But the real innovation is the full service restaurant built in. They have figured out the perfect system to keep the wait staff unobtrusive – you just write down your order on a little flag and they come by and pick it up. There is a long narrow table in front of each row to set your beer or burger and a little aisle below each row where the wait staff walks. I don’t know why no one has tried this in LA, but the formula is a winner.

All things considered it was a real blast. A world of thanks to Dan for making it happen. We’ll definitely do it again next year.

Now on to the film round-up (in order viewed):

FIRST SQUAD – Rating: 4 out of 10

This Russian animated feature is by the Japanese team behind Animatrix. The animation is cool but the horribly implemented documentary device of bad actors pretending to be history experts totally ruined the movie. This isn’t Waltz with Bashir, it is an action cartoon. There were a few cool story elements, but overall they weren’t enough to keep me awake.

GENTLEMEN BRONCOS – Rating: 9 out of 10

This new film from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) is as wacky as possible and genuinely HILARIOUS. Everything works, especially Jemaine Clement as one of the best characters of the year. It slowed down a tiny bit after the very strong opening, but the ridiculous fantasy sequences go a long way to smooth out the pace. This film certainly exceeded my already high expectations.

REC 2 – Rating: 6 out of 10

I was quite impressed by this horror-thriller’s clean look. The story works and there are some good thrills, but what is most remarkable is the first person narrative device that the filmmakers fully commit to with great success. More than any movie I’ve ever seen, this film feels like a videogame – and it is fun.

KAMOGAWA HARUMO – BATTLE LEAGUE IN KYOTO – Rating: 6 out of 10

This film is about college students who train little supernatural creatures to battle teams from other colleges. While it may have a pretty bizarre premise, it is actually a quite traditional story about a loser guy who falls for a girl who is out of his league. All things considered, the film works and is pretty fun.

HARD REVENGE MILLY – Rating: 5 out of 10

This is a super low budget Japanese blood and guts actioner. The skeleton of a story doesn’t provide much to chew on, but the film does succeed at finding new ways to splatter the camera with watery blood.

ZOMBIELAND – Rating: 8 out of 10

This flick is most definitely the top of the zombie movie heap. It is maybe not quite as hilarious as Shaun of the Dead, but it certainly provides a lot more zombie killing thrills. The film has some great set pieces, an amazing cameo, and Emma Stone is Bodacious.

VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL – Rating: 8 out of 10

This is a really enjoyable wacky Japanese high school flick with some good acting and pretty decent effects. However, the real star of the film is the biting criticism leveled against fringe elements of Japanese society.

K-20: THE FIEND WITH 20 FACES – Rating: 3 out of 10

This big budget Japanese superhero film borrows heavily from every other superhero film you’ve ever seen. There may be some fun stunts and wire work, but the plot is just plain horrible. Worst of all, this film is sloooow and is far far too long.

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN – Rating: 3 out of 10

Two annoying kids save New Zealand from evil underground aliens whose story doesn’t make any sense.

YATTERMAN – Rating: 9 out of 10

Yet another genre mastered by Miike! This time it is the comic superhero comedy. The story is awesome with a lot of genuine emotion. The CG is top notch (as compared to the disappointingly low budget look of The Great Yokai War). The action sequences are fantastic and reminded me of playing the Dreamcast classic Powerstone. Overall this film in f*ing fun!

CLIVE BARKER’S DREAD – Rating: 5 out of 10

There wasn’t a whole lot wrong about this very indie thriller – but there wasn’t that much right either. I’d call it pretty damn mediocre and it is not helped by the generally unsatisfying ending.

VAN DIEMEN’S LAND – Rating: 7 out of 10

This story of a grueling prison camp escape in 18th century Tasmania is a bit slow and cerebral, but overall it is a well told story with some very nice cinematography.

MANDRILL – Rating: 8 out of 10

Mandrill is the Chilean James Bond and it is amazing! Ernesto Diaz-Espinoza follows up Mirageman by again directing the incredible Marko Zaror – who has got to become an action star around the world. The film is fun and funny and really does everything right. On top of that, the filmmakers and stars very approachable and cool guys. Way to go.

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS – Rating: 6 out of 10

Terry Gilliam’s Heath Ledger swan song was the only “secret screening” I caught. I liked the performances and the way it all came together but was turned off by the very cheap CGI (where were the magic visual effects of Brazil?) and overall I was unconvinced by the plot.

DISTRICT B13 ULTIMATUM