The star and creator of FX's series Rescue Me, Denis Leary, has joined the cast of Marc Webb's reboot of the Spiderman franchise. Indiewire is reporting that he's in talks to grab the role of Emma Stone's father. Remember, Stone isn't playing Mary Jane Watson, but Gwen Stacy.
This weekend, Universal announced that the prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing will not be released in April 2011 as planned. In fact, the status of the film has been changed to 'not yet ready.' Everyone knows when a film gets shelved, or the release date pushed back, it never means anything good. Remember The Weinsteins and John Hillcoat's The Road? Does The Thing suck? Are the effects horrible? Bad acting?
Jean-Luc Godard received an honorary Oscar at the Governor's Ball in California. And he didn't bother to show up. Why? Godard says, "I don't have a visa for the U.S. and I don't want to apply for one. And I don't want to fly for that long." And when he was asked what the award means to him, he replied, "Nothing. If the Academy likes to do it, let them do it. But I think it's strange. I asked myself: Which of my films have they seen? Do they actually know my films? The award is called The Governor's Award. Does this mean that Schwarzenegger gives me the award?"
I'm all about Angelina Jolie. When she picks the right projects, she can really shine (A Mighty Heart comes to mind here). So when she announced she'll be directing a love story that takes place during the Bosnian war, I became excited about the project, and just plain hopeful she doesn't embarrass herself (Beyond Borders and Original Sin come to mind here).
The giant monsters movie genre, at least in the most nostalgic terms, is nearly extinct. Sure, Peter Jackson’s King Kong was pretty good. And Cloverfield saw a good bit of success financially and critically. But it seems as if the movie-going public’s imagination is uncapturable, by any good measure, by the idea of enormous, loud, dangerous creatures (Rush Limbaugh doesn’t count). But rumors swirling through the festival mills about an indie gem called, unceremoniously, Monsters held great promise for the movie niche. And, it seems, these rumors are well founded. Gareth Edward’s feature film is charmingly ethereal and, at times, staggeringly beautiful.
The relationship between director and leading man/woman, is one that has fascinated me for quite some time. There are several that I was aware from the beginning of my film awakening. But the idea became most prevalent while watching Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre. I was in awe of the fact that Bergman chose to stick with the same actors for the most part, and it worked. It worked really well.
It's not often that one medium of artful expression can get me so excited about another one but Howl managed to do just that. This is, perhaps, the film's best, and most delightful trait. The words of Allen Ginsberg are turned into a vibrant world of self-expression, and not just lines in a book with no countenance of their own to speak of.
If there was ever a two minute opening credit sequence that could grab me by the balls, it's from Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void. I'm confident it will have that effect on most people. You can see it here if you don't believe me. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's a strange beginning when considering the way it contrasts with the rest of the film. This hyper-frenetic, psychedelic introduction is the star of a film running around two and a half hours, and you'll feel every minute of its run time.
Kristin Stewart is continuing on her crusade to try and distance herself from the Twilight series, and establish herself as a serious actress. Last year she did it with Adventureland, and this year, she had a couple more serious films at Sundance. In one, she plays Joan Jett, and in it has a lesbian love scene with Dakota Fanning. In the other, Welcome to the Rileys, she plays a 16 year old, runaway, making ends meet in New Orleans as a part-time exotic dancer, and part-prostitute. Okay, we get it Kristin, you’re a serious actress. Fortunately, she has some great company in Rileys that makes her look pretty good.
