comment #1

actionman says ...

does anyone know when/if this movie expands nationwide?

comment #2

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Christ alive. I hope the film isn't that precious.

I like Dave Eggers and I like Sam Mendes, but by God, the marketing on this film is making me want to vomit. Williamsburg bollocks.

comment #3

MickTravisMcGee says ...

Off-topic, I realize, but David Carradine was apparently found dead in his Bangkok hotel room earlier today.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5is2oJh-PXCbC-Hy5C61CoUOalTngD98JTAS80

comment #4

George Prager says ...

This sucks. The first thing I thought about was his meltdown at the BOUND FOR GLORY screening. R.I.P.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/03/back_to_the_aer.php

comment #5

EdHavens says ...

Actionman, I have a weekly Early Report on my site which tracks the upcoming releases and expansions, which currently includes an expanded list of theatres opening Away We Go tomorrow and the first wave of expansions next Friday.

comment #6

actionman says ...

sweet, thanks Ed!

comment #7

raygo says ...

I finally watched Revolutionary Road last night. I honestly almost turned it off several times, not caring one bit what happened to The Wheelers. And they called that Kate Winslet's "better" performance last year? Obviously high quality, but too fussed over and stoic. My favorite scene (not kidding) was the last where Kathy Bates husband turns down his hearing aid.

Really disappointed in RR.

comment #8

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Rev Road is a strange one that seems to really divide people into love it or hate it camps. I for one loved it.

It's also strange how many people seem to hate it based on the subject matter. The amount of people who've said it's "depressing" or "I hated the characters". It's weird because there are loads of other depressing movies with unlikeable characters, but some reason this particular one really seems to have rubbed people up the wrong way. Is it because it's more mainstream than yer typical indie depressionfest like that Michelle Williams dog movie, or Candy with Heath Ledger? I mean those films were grim as fuck, but you didn't seem to hear as many people hate the film for that very reason.

I dunno. I've personally really liked every film Mendes has done and find them all really easy to rewatch, perhaps because they look so nice and whatnot. He's become a hate figure in some critical circles which is odd to me. He makes good movies. I think it's because after he won the Oscar for his debut, people expected him to be some kind of Orson Welles style wunderkind, but really he's just a very good, very competent director of strong material. I think people hate him for what he isn't and didn't turn out to be, rather than what he is and the career choices he's taken.

I am rambling. But I will probably go see this movie on the weekend, hoping and praying that the twee hipster marketing campaign is just an attempt to get some of the Garden State trendy crowd to see it and not too evident in the film itself.

comment #9

Lost_Contacts says ...

raygo-- I agree with you wholeheartedly about Revolutionary Road. The film was so somber in tone, and it carried an air of predetermination. You just knew going in that one of them was going to die by the end. (In a sense, it reminded me of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, which was another suburban dystopia film...) The last scene sure was funny, though.

The trailer for Away We Go looks incredible. Just the right micture of humor and poignancy. This is one of my big must-see films for the summer.

comment #10

BurmaShave says ...

That is exactly where I would want him to be when he died. Too soon obviously, but Carradine to the last. Like Marlene said, "he was some kind of a man".

comment #11

raygo says ...

I'm not dissing Mendes when I say I don't like Revolutionary Road. I thought Jarhead was brilliant. And enjoyed Road to Perdition as well. I felt (my opinion) that RR started out with the characters in an unsympathetic mode, and left them there almost the entire duration. Hence I found it hard to care about them. The Paris talk seemed silly. The kids ... where were they through those epic battles? April seemed like such a whiner and complainer. And as a kid who grew up in the 60s with a "crazy" sister, they got some of that right with the over-protective mother et al, but that's about it. In fact, you would never drag a mentally ill family member out if you didn't have to ... it was an embarrassment to the family that was usually hidden and never dicussed.

As a comparison, I popped in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf afterwards, just to remind myself what Mendes was going for.

comment #12

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I personally hate -- okay, dislike -- Mendes because it's always seems like it's style over substance with him, and in movies that really shouldn't be.

I'm sure you've all heard the old cliche, such-and-such's movies are art-decorated within an inch of their life. Among mainstream filmmakers, I seem to hear this most often about Burton and Mendes. I think the difference is when you're directing something like Mars Attacks! or Sleepy Hollow, diving headfirst and fully embracing the pulpy superficiality is kind of the point. But when you're tackling more historical subjects -- like the Gulf War or 1950s Americana -- and attempting to be taken seriously, all that clutter can (in the immortal words of Christian Bale) be fucking distracting.

And just how many times is he going to revisit alienation of the American life in suburbia? Good God, he's only directed 5 features, and this seems to be an overarching theme in three of them. It's as though he's an apprentice architect and Ordinary People is still the only blueprint he really feels comfortable with.

I wouldn't call him a hack (although I wouldn't be surprised if someone else did) -- there's too much good stuff in American Beauty (which hasn't aged well, IMHO) and Road to Perdition (great performances, even Jude Law!). The early critical comparisons to Kubrick were far too hasty, but the guy undoubtedly does have a superb eye for composition.

But do any of his films have any real thematic weight to them after you leave the theater? I realize this is a pretty tough way to judge a filmmaker, but stacking his pictures up against a comparable contemporary visual master like Fincher, they certainly seem pretty insubstantial to me.

comment #13

actionman says ...

Jarhead is very underrated. My favorite film from Mendes is still Road to Perdition. Away We Go looks like a nice change of pace for summer movie fare.

comment #14

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Yeah, Jarhead is really good. Easily the second best Iraq film after Three Kings (haven't seen Hurt Locker yet). Some great lines from Dennis Haysbert about his turds in that film.

I agree with actionman - it's nice to have some quieter stuff in amongst the summer fare. Not that The Hangover will be "quiet," as such, but I think it was a wise move to release it now to audiences a bit burned out after Explosions May.

comment #15

George Prager says ...

please....need new post....don't care about Sam Mendes....need David Carradine blog post....please post...the lights are getting dim...I blame society for what I am...

comment #16

televisiontears says ...

Wow, Prager. Someone needs some time away from the computer.

comment #17

p.Vice says ...

Yeah, water is wet, the sky is blue, Mendes stinks... who gives a fuck?

comment #18

KC says ...

A.O. ethered the living shit out of this thing. I was so ready to defend it against miserable aging hipster cannibalism but I have to admit most of what I've read sounds pretty unappealing

comment #19

Steven Kar says ...

Citizen:

I was going to post something similar to your comment #12, but you beat me to it.

However, I will have to disagree with you about the performances in Perdition. I didn't buy for one second Hanks in that part playing that character. I still don't know what to think of Law's character or performance, but I'm not going to say that it was bad. Newman was great.

Also, regarding your last paragraph, aren't Fincher and Mendes the same? Because the criticism you directed at Mendes can be used for Fincher perfectly. Great looking movies, fantastic composition, a great eye for detail, but then what? This is how I feel about both guys.

comment #20

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Interesting, Steven.

Yeah, I didn't particularly have Hanks in mind while praising the acting in RtP. I did, however, have Law in mind. That's a pretty singular performance, and I haven't anything like that from him since (or probably ever again).

I'd normally be really hesitant to give Mendes too much credit for that, but it's not exactly the first time I've witnessed a who the fuck is this guy? moment in his films. There's also Wes Bentley in AB, and Michael Shannon in RR (although that guy is pretty much the new Chris Walken -- he'll give you those kind of vibes in pretty much anything. Also, Jason Leigh, D. Craig, Newman (as you noted) are all pretty good, too. So are most of the child actors.

As for Fincher, he showed me a helluva lot with Zodiac. That is easily a top 10 picture of the decade for me. I mean I am probably prejudiced towards his work in the first place because I am a big fan of his sensibilities, but that is not the kind of movie someone who is uninterested in the history and aesthetics of cinema is even capable of making. Here's a guy who also really knows how to use special effects to serve his story. Have you seen the sfx documentary on the Zodiac DVD/BR? Pretty impressive.

I'm not exactly sure what to think of TCCoBB (it's certainly a step down from Zodiac), but I think it's fair to say that he's transcended his roots as a music-video cum style-over-substance (Alien 3, The Game, Panic Room) guy.

He also tends to choose challenging subject matter that aims to provoke -- at least in one way or another. If Stanley Kubrick got his start in the '90s instead of the '50s, I bet the early results wouldn't be too different from Seven or Fight Club. SK died months before the latter was released, I would have been really, really curious to hear his opinion on that film...

comment #21

Steven Kar says ...

Citizen,

Oh man, you are definitely a Fincher fan, but are you the type that would defend him to the death? Are you a Fincher apologist?

(Somebody once accused me of being Oliver Stone's last defender, but opinions change over the years and I'm no longer such a person.)

Anyway, I too was a fan of Fincher's a few years ago, when I was younger, but since 2007, I've grown out of that phase. Nowadays, I can tear his movies to shreds whenever someone asks for my thoughts on them.

I like Seven and Fight Club, but that's it. And over the years I began to realise just how childish, simple-minded, ridiculous, and insubstantial Fight Club is. Now I enjoy it for the comedic movie that it is.

And Benjamin Button and Zodiac? Don't get me started. I watched the director's cut of Zodiac at the Lincoln Center and it was like being trapped inside a police file cabinet for 3 hours. But I should stop now before my blood rises.

comment #22

raygo says ...

Zodiac is perhaps the finest detective procedural film ever. Certainly this decade. I could watch his opening sequence every day. It was criminally overlooked at award time. And as much as I avoided Button ... when I finally saw it I was stunned at how much I enjoyed it ... the end perhaps is the weakest part, but considering the story, I expected that.

comment #23

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I used to really like Stone -- I was even defending him up until U-Turn, which I find to be a really solid genre pic, and fascinating in its lack of political commentary (it maybe be his only film ever to contain almost no political text or subtext.

But since that, he's really become boring, which is sort of the last thing I would have ever expected from him. Outside of some batshit crazy scenes in Alexander, it seems his filmmaking fire is about extinguished. That is too bad.

I guess I'm somewhat confused on your take on Fight Club. You seem to understand that it is a comedy -- a lot of its detractors seem to mistakenly take its values at dramatic face value -- but then you call it "childish" and "simple-minded," when it was clearly intended as a satire of these prevalent values in '90s America.

I'd be less inclined to argue with "ridiculous" and "insubstantial," especially as it is very much a film of its time. But I am generally a fan of films that are able to capture the zeitgeist. On the commentary track, films like The Graduate and A Clockwork Orange are referenced, and I don't think it would be inappropriate to place FC in that company. And not to go all "actionman" on you, but it is also very much a cinematic tour-de-force in direction. I'm not sure I can name 10 movies in the '90s that felt as fucking cool and sexy to watch.

I think all that would be somewhat of a moot point if I didn't think he's grown incredibly over the past decade. We're far too apart on our opinion on Zodiac for me to even attempt to breach some sort of middle-ground on that one. I guess if that makes me a Fincher apologist, so be it.

comment #24

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Also -- and you can take this as a challenge if you want -- I would be really, really interested to see exactly how a review "tearing Zodiac to shreds" would end up looking.

comment #25

Steven Kar says ...

Citizen,

I would love to accept your challenge in comment #24. I had a feeling you were going to ask me about Zodiac.

I've noticed that some people on this site have a back-and-forth argument over a movie by posting something and then waiting for a rebuttal and then posting a reply for the rebuttal and so forth.

It's difficult for me to do that. That's why you were confused about my Fight Club comments, because I was trying to make a point as quickly as possible without ending up with a rambling essay, so I used 2 or 3 words to describe my feelings about the movie but it was by no means a thorough review.

Also, I think I've criticised Fincher so much lately that I'm finding it difficult to find the energy for one more anti-Fincher rant.

But we shall meet again on H-E and we shall duel to the finish.

comment #26

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Fair enough, Steve.

Still kind of licking my wounds after a couple brutal Benjamin Button threads (many of which made valid points, of course) on here last winter, anyway, so it's probably all for the best.

Thanks for the discussion :P

comment #27

George Prager says ...

I saw REVOLUTIONARY ROAD last night. I liked it.

comment #28

lipranzer says ...

I saw AWAY WE GO this morning. I've never read Eggers before - is his writing always so facile and unfocused, or is it just this movie? The first half especially came off as someone's idea of an indie movie, Krasinski has no idea if he's supposed to play his character for laughs or take him seriously, and Allison Janney, Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels are all stuck playing one-note characters. The film does get better as it goes along, and Maya Rudolph, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Melanie Lynskey (who does a pole dance almost as heartbreaking as the one Marisa Tomei does near the end of THE WRESTLER) are all good, but you can definitely wait for the DVD on this.