I decided against buying the new Twilight Time Broadway Danny Rose Bluray because it’s just not worth $30 bucks. $20, okay. I love Gordon Willis‘s black-and-white cinematography, which I’m sure would look extra-luscious in high-def. But you have to put limits upon yourself. It’s 30 years old now, this film…whoa.
An industry friend who’s spoken to a couple of attorneys about Michael Egan‘s sex-abuse lawsuit against X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer has been told that the case is weak or, to put it more bluntly, “shit.” The 15-year delay in filing. Egan’s 2000 lawsuit that didn’t mention Singer. Singer’s contention that he was absorbed in pre-production in Toronto in the early fall of 1999, which is when the alleged abuse happened in Oahu at the Mitchell resort. Not to mention the ability of Singer and his attorney Marty Singer to spend their opponents to death with delays and motions and whatnot. Not to mention attorney Singer’s announced intention to countersue.
My friend suspects that the reason Egan’s attorney Jeff Herman staged a press conference two days ago (i.e., Thursday) was that he was looking to “shake the tree” in hopes of getting “more plaintiffs” — i.e., twinks who may or may not have “been” with Singer under similar circumstances — to come forward. Egan joined by a fresh twink means a stronger case against Singer; Egan plus two or three twinks means an even stronger case, and so on. Herman said Thursday that Egan’s lawsuit is the first of several that will be released next week in hopes of ending “pedophile rings” he said exist in Hollywood. “Hollywood’s got a problem,” he said at the press conference. “Since filing this lawsuit yesterday, I’ve heard from many people who allege that as children in Hollywood, they’ve been abused.”
It is an understatement to say that Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes, directors of Two Days and One Night, enjoy emeritus kiss-ass status at the Cannes Film Festival. After they finish a new movie, it (a) always plays in competition and (b) is almost always praised by kowtowing Cannes critics as being a quiet little masterpiece. The only negative thing you’re allowed to say about a Dardennes film is that it’s “minor,” as I said three years ago about The Kid With The Bike. I would go so far as to say the Dardennes are almost feared in a certain way. I’m not calling them the Sonny and Michael Corleone of Belgian directors, but if you mention their names a kind of hush falls over the room.
Exclu : la bande-annonce de «Deux jours, une… by Telerama_BA
The total tanking of Wally Pfister‘s Transcendence ($4.8 million Friday earnings plus C+ Cinemascore rating = a likely $11.5 million dollar weekend) is the second huge flop in a row for Johnny Depp in the wake of The Lone Ranger. Depp himself didn’t flop, of course — the movie did. For the 17th or 18th time, nobody is hot to see a Johnny Depp film on the strength of his name. He’s obviously been lucky and is financially loaded beyond belief, but on his own terms he’s just another engaging middle-aged actor with offbeat tastes. He’s never been a money machine in and of himself.
Four and a half months after the 7.1.09 opening of Michael Mann‘s Public Enemies, I reminded everyone about how brilliantly it ends. I just found a new YouTube clip today and it still delivers. Excerpt: “Say what you want about Public Enemies, but the finale — the one-on-one between Marion Cotillard‘s Billie Frechette and Stephen Lang‘s Charles Winstead, a brief jailhouse conversation that ended with the words ‘Bye-bye, Blackbird’ — was the most penetrating of 2009. The best, the most memorable, the most oddly affecting.” Lang is the guy — he says every word with precisely the right tone and emphasis. If he’d delivered with just a little bit less or more, the scene wouldn’t have worked half as well.
“Anyone who’s read HE for any length of time knows I genuinely admire comedies that I call no-laugh funny — i.e., consistently clever, amusing and witty but never quite eliciting actual laughter. Nicholas Stoller‘s Neighbors (Universal, 5.9.14) is not that — it’s heh-heh funny. I was never that giddy or tickled but I never felt bored or irritated or disengaged. I got ten or twelve heh-hehs out of it, and the rest is at least fast, punchy and lewd. It’s not exactly a routine culture clash comedy but the basic set-up — a 30ish couple with a baby (Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne) vs. a party-animal college fraternity (Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) that moves in next door — is familiar. But Neighbors is agreeably tight and vigorous and scattershot, and Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien‘s script (augmented, I’m sure, by nonstop improv) is a cut or two above. A likely hit.” — filed from Cinemacon in Las Vegas on 3.26.