Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
2009 Frightfest Films Unveiled, New Images and Details
Posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
The line-up for this year’s August Bank Holiday Film 4 Frightfest has been unveiled and it looks like a bumper crop for the gorehounds of London. After the break I’ll post the full list of what’s planned, point out my top five picks and share some new images from a couple of the most keenly anticipated horror pictures of the year. All that, and details on Andy Nyman’s 100 Best Kills coming right up…
Not familiar with George Hardy’s work as an actor? Click here to watch a packed audience reacting to him on screen . It’s totally worth it.
About a week ago, while drinking slushies on a beach, I attempted to brainstorm a hyperbolic-geek intro for this interview that was impossibly cheesy and awful, yet aptly expressed my sentiments about the subject. As follows: It would be very difficult indeed to find a dentist who has contributed to more smiles around the globe than would-be actor, Alabama dentist, and newly-championed cult icon George Hardy.
For those who don’t know, Hardy was one of the lead human stars of 1990’s Troll 2; over the last few years, the shittastic fantasy-horror movie has rocketed in cult status and is a viable contender for a next-gen Rocky Horror Picture Show. Made for MGM by a crew of non-English speaking Italians, Troll 2 ironically exists today as an innocent, warped time-capsule of 1980s’ American summers, American culture, and genre films. In the role of the movie’s aloof dad, Michael Waits, Hardy is renown for the silly parental anecdote, “You can’t piss on hospitality!!” His performance is regarded by a growing number of cult cineastes to be one of the worst and most cherished of all time. Patton Oswalt, the Alamo Drafthouse, and Edgar Wright are counted as huge fans. The basic storyline is that of a generic Vacation knockoff meets slime and plot holes worthy of a drug trip: Hardy hauls his family (and a grandfather’s ghost) in a van to spend a summer in a dusty, desolate town called Nilbog. Goblin spelled backwards, Nilbog is populated by devilish country-folk and vegan Druid non-Trolls. In the end, the Waits fam defeats them and their leader, an STD-plagued witch, using a mystical bologna sandwich. Or do they?
Best Worst Movie, the new documentary about the reunited cast of Troll 2 and its international fandom, is a 2009 favorite of the /Film and /Filmcast staff. Directed by Troll 2’s former “child star,” Michael Stephenson, much of Best Worst follows Hardy as he temporarily leaves his life as a small-town dentist to encounter the ups and downs of modern fame and his performance’s excavated notoriety. Thanks to a compelling story and the sharp twists and turns of real life, Best Worst can be enjoyed with or without having viewed the flick that spawned it. George called me from his lake house to discuss all of this while eating a sandwich. For our interview with Michael Stephenson, click here.
Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air Aims For Toronto Premiere; ShadowPlay Animating Opening Title Sequence
Posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
Jason Reitman, director of Thank You For Smoking and Juno, joined Twitter a few days ago to provide a few updates about his post-production work on the forthcoming Up in the Air, starring George Clooney. “A brief chronicle of my attempt to finish my film in time for the Toronto Film Festival,” he calls it. (I’m continually pleased by the evolving capabilities of the Internet to allow me to observe creators at work while making me feel as is I’m working at the same time.) So while the film may well still have a December release date, it could well premiere at Toronto (editors note: or sneak premiere at Telluride), just like Juno did.
The two posts that followed had some good, if brief info. First, that he’s nearly done with the first edit, which currently clocks at 2′04″. (Though I generally hate even reporting this; anyone who isn’t a distributor or exhibitor shouldn’t care about running time before seeing the movie.) The other is that Shadowplay, the outfit that animated the titles to his first two features, is doing the same for Up in the Air. Read More »
Andrew Lancaster’s Accidents Happen Teaser Trailer
Posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Australian composer (Alex Proyas’ Garage Days) and short film filmmaker Andrew Lancaster makes his feature directorial debut with Accidents Happen, an indie dramedy that premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
There are dysfunctional families… and then there are the Conways. After a family tragedy, 15-year-old Billy Conway (Harrison Gilbertson) has become the de facto glue between his bitter mom (Geena Davis), distant brother (Harry Cook), and stoic dad (Joel Tobeck). But when Billy starts to act out, everything changes for him and his family.
Based loosely on Brian Carbee’s autobiographical book and one-man theater production, the film is set in 1980’s New England, but was shot in Sydney. The film was named by New York Post as one of the five films to look out for at Tribeca, and the Examiner called it “a promising feature debut (by director Andrew Lancaster and writer Brian Carbee) that isn’t shy in its examination of a nasty-yet-funny family dynamic.” Check out the teaser trailer after the jump.
More Clips From The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Posted on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Three new video clips from Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus have appeared on the Comme Au Cinema site and have also been embedded below the break in this story. One of them features a scene we’ve seen already - twice before, in fact - but now finally in what would appear to be the correct aspect ratio. The others are new, however, and show us both storylines and special effects that the first clip didn’t even hint at.
As well as showcasing Heath Ledger as Tony, the clips give us a very good look at Andrew Garfield as Anton, Lily Cole as Valentina and - best of all - Christopher Plummer as the titular doctor.
Early Buzz and New Clip: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus has finally premiered in Cannes. Reviews have been surfacing all day and most of them, unsurprisingly, focus on two key factors - that this film contains Heath Ledger’s final performance and that a Gilliam film is somehow difficult or appeals only to a few. I can’t argue with the first part, but the second doesn’t add up.
Below the break you can see a scene from the film that clocks in at just under a minute. It has been circulated as a promotional piece for the Cannes fest by Canal Plus and as such has French subtitles ‘burnt in’. The short clip we saw last week comes from this longer piece, so you can now get more context, more Ledger and more of Gilliam’s magic.
I know I might be stating the obvious, but the bad economic times have hit every industry, including the movie industry. Earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, it was a very different scene than previous years. I don’t have the exact figures but it appeared that a lot fewer films were acquired compared to previous years. This of course left many films in a questionable state. Earlier this week, the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor comedy I Love You, Philip Morris finally got bought.
If a Jim Carrey comedy is having that much trouble, you can imagine where this leaves the true independents, regardless if they might be the most marketable indie at the festival or not. Thankfully, good things come to those who wait. Derrick Comedy’s Mystery Team has finally been acquired by Lionsgate’s indie label Roadside Attractions.
Cinematical described it as “Encyclopedia Brown meets Napoleon Dynamite with a pinch of Ace Ventura” and CinemaBlend called it “the Rocky Horror Picture Show of mystery movies.” Film School Rejects called it “perfect comedy for the internet generation.” And we said it is ” funnier and more original than 99% of the comedies Hollywood releases now-a-days.” No word yet on an exact release date, but we’ve heard the words “this fall” and “Nationwide.” Read the full press release after the jump.
Lars Von Trier’s latest film Antichrist has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and according to Reuters, the film “elicited derisive laughter, gasps of disbelief, a smattering of applause and loud boos.”
I have rounded up some of the reviews, which range from “I think I might have loved it, I’m not sure” to “this film needs to be burned”. Check out the excerpts after the jump.
Read More »
Paris, Not France is a “controversial” 68-minute documentary about model/actress/businesswoman/heiress Paris Hilton that premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Before the festival began, the film’s three scheduled screenings were reduced to one, with rumors running rampant over lawsuits or various legal concerns from the Hilton camp.
But the film itself was not the exposé that most people were hoping for or expecting, and was actually panned by most critics for being uninteresting and whitewashed. The trailer has now been released online. Watch it now after the jump.
First Video From The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Other Cannes Films Online
Posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
The website of French TV station Canal + is playing host to a video of the entire Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony. Easily the most exciting section is a long montage of clips from different films that will be playing there over the next couple of weeks though you might enjoy the rest, perhaps most particularly Bryan Ferry’s tidy performance of She.
The film clips section starts at around the 15 minutes and 40 seconds mark, and lasts for seven minutes or so. Most films get a 15 to 30 second showcase, which might not seem like much, though in many cases this is the first footage of the films to have turned up online at all. While I found a lot of the material quite exciting none of it compared to the giddiness I have for the 18 seconds of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. The clip focuses on Heath Ledger, dressed in the costume shown in the picture at the head of this post, and addressing the audience of the traveling Imaginarium. I want to see this film right now.
After the break, a list of other films presented in the montage that I think will be of particular interest to /Film readers.
Early Buzz: Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro is “Unsatisfying”
Posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a mixed to lukewarm response. It seems like most critics aren’t too impressed with Coppola’s first original screenplay since 1974’s The Conversation. Here is a quick round-up of the early festival buzz:
Variety: “Tetro is still a work of modest ambition and appeal.” … “Coppola’s gradual lifting of the dramatic lid over the course of more than two hours frankly feels old-fashioned and labored.” … “Coppola lacks the writerly flair to make the big scenes soar or resonate with multiple meanings and dimensions; rather, they more often than not seem abruptly curtailed and somewhat unsatisfying.”
More after the jump.
The Expendables Billboards and Posters On Display at Cannes?
Posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Promotional billboards and posters for Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables are on display at the Cannes Film Festival. I have compiled a collection come of the photos and even cleaned some of the images up (like above) for better web presentation. There is some discussion that these photos are fan created, and I understand why people would think that. But I have been sent some of these photos by a publicist from the film, so… who knows? Check out all the photos after the jump.
