So many movies are about a loss of innocence. A main character faces trials and tribulations, and their eyes are opened to the cruelty of the world before they overcome it. Moonrise Kingdom, the seventh movie by director Wes Anderson, is definitely not that sort of story. The film teaches a lesson through the positives in life. For Anderson, that’s something new. He’s rebelling against loss of innocence, and discovering it instead.
Anderson’s past films have all hinged on a cynical point of view: Max Fischer flipping the bird, Richie Tenenbaum attempting suicide, Steve Zissou hunting sharks. Even the fantastic Mr. Fox is, on the surface, a thief. Rarely is true innocence Anderson’s chief focus.
But with Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson uses his signature visual cues and oddball sense of humor to tell a story that completely lacks cynicism and is almost palpably sweet. It’s a step forward for the filmmaker. However, by entering this new territory, the balance between message and humor, so expertly handled in his previous films, shifts ever so slightly. Read more after the jump.
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A bunch of huge movies have been showing at Cannes this year and the latest is David Cronenberg‘s Cosmopolis starring everyone’s favorite sparkling vampire, Robert Pattinson. Based on a novella by Don Delillo, the film centers on a 28-year-old billionaire’s 24 hour trip across Manhattan to get a haircut as his entire fortune crumbles with each passing second. This is Cronenberg, though, so of course it’s not a movie about bad traffic. Wild happenings are a foot here including characters played by Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti, Mathieu Almaric, and Jay Baruchel.
But is it any good? After the jump, we’ve grabbed some quotes and tweets from the Cannes press corps that attempts to answer if Cronenberg is back in prime form or not. Read them after the jump. Read More »
Want to see some more banners and promotional materials for The Dark Knight Rises? How can you mix your own Avengers themed cocktails this holiday weekend? What show will you have to watch to see some brand new Dark Knight Rises footage? Is The Amazing Spider-Man a good hand model? Does Wolverine do well with the ladies? How do trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man and Lego Batman 2 video games look? And what is The Dark Knight like with only Heath Ledger scenes? Read about all this and more in today’s Superhero Bits. Read More »
Tell me if you had a similar experience. Every year when I was a kid my father would wait until I was having the most fun during Memorial Day weekend – I’d either be mid-chomp on a hot dog or about to leap off a diving board – when he’d remind me that, “this weekend isn’t just about having fun, it’s about honoring the dead!”
He was right, of course, and this no doubt could inspire me to guilt you into watching more movies about brave soldiers dying so you can enjoy your freedoms. I thought, however, I’d widen the margin and use this week’s TBMYPHS to discuss cinematic portrayals of grieving.
There, I’ve done it – I’ve out-downered my own father. Have a gloomy, depressing weekend, everyone! Read More »
If you’ve ever really wanted people who handle your mail to know you’re a film fan, the US Postal Service has the answer. They’ve just created four new stamps featuring four of the greatest directors of all time: John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra and Billy Wilder. Designed by Derry Noyes and Gary Kelley, each stamp portrays one of the director’s best known works. For Ford, it’s The Searchers. Huston, The Maltese Falcon. Capra, It Happened One Night and Wilder, Some Like It Hot. Check them out below. Read More »
The final scene of The Sopranos has become something of TV legend. After six seasons of drawn out brilliance, creator David Chase places his star family in a New Jersey diner. Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ is playing on the jukebox. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) orders some onion rings for the table as the camera moves to several suspicious people. His daughter, Meadow, is awkwardly trying to park her car outside. The tension is unbelievable because we all know this is the final scene in Sopranos history and something epic is about to take place. Every moment could be the last one. The Journey cresendos, the door of the diner opens, Tony looks up, silence and cut to black. In that instant, about twelve million people checked their cable box to see if it had malfunctioned. Then the credits rolled.
Chase’s ending was controversial, legendary and is debated to this day. One Vanity Fair reader, however, has a simple, almost brilliant interpretation of the ending and you can read it below. Read More »
Does Chris Hemsworth think Thanos will appear in Thor 2? Want to see some new images from The Dark Knight Rises? How did the visual effects for the interfaces in The Avengers work? Could Bill Murray have been in Iron Man? What happens when The Hulk meets The Kardashians? Do new toy images blow a character reveal in The Dark Knight Rises? And what do The Avengers look like reimagined as Hello Kitty? Read about all of this and more in today’s Superhero Bits. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2012 by Angie Han
You’d think that Battleship‘s dismal $25.5 million opening this past weekend would make Hollywood in general and Universal in particular wary of making more movies based on toys, but no: Universal is now in talks to acquire movie rights to Hero Factory, Lego’s line of robotic toys.
While no director has been named at this point, Predators scribes Michael Finch and Alex Litvak are already negotiating to write the script for the live-action feature, with Mike Gordon, Ben Forkner, and Dean Schneider on board to produce. More details after the jump.
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