Day: August 12, 2015

Update: I earlier wrote that Anton Corbin‘s Life more or less bombed with critics at last Feburary’s Berlinale. What I should have said, more fairly and accurately, is that the reaction was on the mixed or lukewarm side. Pic opens in France on September 9th, and then in Belgium on 9.21, in Germany on 9.24, and in England on 9.25. Cinedigm will reportedly release Life sometime in the fall.

This is an overworked thread but three or four days ago Cinemaholic‘s Amal Singh posted a list of the worst films by ten top-tier directors. Here’s Singh’s list along with my own choices or disputes, followed by a few career-worsties of my own. My heart isn’t really in this but I thought I’d post it out of boredom.

1. Oliver Stone‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Alexander. HE disputes: Savages, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Heaven and Earth.
2. Tim Burton‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Planet of the Apes. HE disputes: Agree on Planet of the Apes but also Alice in Wonderland.
3. Steven Spielberg‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: 1941. HE dispute: Always, The Terminal.
4. Ridley Scott’s‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Exodus: Gods and Kings. HE dispute: Prometheus, G.I. Jane
5. Coen brothers‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: The Ladykillers. HE agrees.
6. David Fincher‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Alien 3. HE agrees.
7. Clint Eastwood‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Hereafter. HE dispute: Firefox.
8. David Lynch‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Dune. HE agrees.
9. Woody Allen‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Scoop. HE agrees but feels Curse of the Jade Scorpion is just as bad.
10. Francis Coppola‘s worst according to Cinemaholic/Singh: Dracula. HE disputes: Jack.

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Tom Hiddleston seems to offer a near-perfect physical reincarnation of the late Hank Williams in Marc Abraham‘s I Saw the Light (Sony Pictures Classics, 11.27). He’ll most likely be impressive in other respects. Directed, written and produced by Abraham and based on “Hank Williams: The Biography” by Colin Escott, George Merritt and Bill MacEwen. The question is when & where will I Saw The Light start to be seen…Telluride, Toronto or you-tell-me?

Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams in Marc Abraham’s I Saw The Light (SPC, 11.27)

Hank Williams sometime in the late ’40s.

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Only two small things gave me pause in this trailer for Jay Roach‘s Trumbo (Bleecker Street, 11.6) — Dean O’Gorman‘s portrayal of Kirk Douglas [explained in previous item] and John Goodman‘s Frank King (the real-life producer of Gun Crazy, The Brave One, Gorgo) violently swinging a golf club in defense of Mr. Trumbo’s honor. Otherwise it looks and sounds terrific — smart, stirring, well-written. You can feel it. I’ve been offering presumptions that Bryan Cranston will be a likely Best Actor contender for his performance as the legendary screenwriter-director; this offers concrete evidence that such a scenario may come to pass. Diane Lane, Elle Fanning, Louis, C.K. and Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, etc.

I nearly had a heart attack as I watched and listened to Dean O’Gorman portray Kirk Douglas in the new trailer for Jay Roach‘s Trumbo. Why use an actor who conveys a certain movie-starrish machismo but who mainly looks like an older Ryan Gosling? Douglas wore his thick blondish-reddish hair swept back and didn’t starting parting it until the early to mid 60s, and Douglas hired Trumbo to write Spartacus in late ’58 or early ’59. Why didn’t they give O’Gorman a more distinct hole in his chin? And why didn’t they hire an actor who could do a decent impression of Douglas’s voice and then dub O’Gorman, like Tim Burton did when Vincent D’Onofrio portrayed Orson Welles in Ed Wood? I’m sorry but O’Gorman’s Douglas impression just doesn’t cut it — it takes you right out of the film.

(l.) Dean O’Gorman as Kirk Douglas in Trumbo; (r.) Kirk Douglas in the early to mid 60s.

 HE to Roach, producer Michael London: Please fix this. It’s not a tragedy in and of itself but why hurt the move with something that clearly doesn’t work? Dub O’Gorman with someone who sounds like Douglas — can’t be that hard. Trumbo also features Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson and David James Elliott as John Wayne, and I’ll tell you right now I’m scared shitless of what may be in store.

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In a just-released Franklin Pierce-Boston Herald poll of likely Democratic voters, Bernie Sanders is leading Hillary Clinton 44% to 37% with Vice President Joe Biden running third at 9%. In other words 53% of the respondents chose somebody other than Clinton. And yet a majority expects Clinton to win the Democratic nomination. Big deal — who would say otherwise at this stage? Pretty much everyone is depressingly resigned to the Clinton inevitability but nobody likes her much…nobody. Clinton stands for the right semi-progressive things but is inspiring no great love except from women in love with the metaphor of a female president. Will I vote for her? Yes, but with a sagging heart and no special enthusiasm.

The new teaser for Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight (Weinstein Co., 12.25) tries to suggest that a fair-sized portion happens outdoors. Maybe the first 10 or 15 minutes but this is mostly a sittin’ around and talkin’ shit indoors movie. After attending the 4.19.14 read-through in downtown L.A., I called it “a fairly minor and almost dismissable thing — a colorful but mediocre Tarantino gabfest that mostly happens on a single interior set (i.e., Minnie’s Haberdashery, located in the Wyoming town of Red Rock during a fierce blizzard), and which unfolds in the vein of The Petrified Forest.” But oh, that Ultra Panavision 70 photography! For the record the aspect ratio of this teaser is 2.74 to 1 whereas classic Ultra Panavision 70 is 2.76 to 1…but no biggie. Good thing that Minnie’s is the size of the first-class lounge on HMS Titanic. Gives the actors room to spread out, swagger around.

In an 8.11 N.Y. Times piece about F. Gary Gray‘s Straight Outta Compton (Universal, 8.14) and more particularly about a screening of the Universal film last night, Michael Cieply observes that “those who have already seen the film have been quick to make a connection with the recent unrest in cities including Baltimore and, again this week, Ferguson, Mo.” On 7.31 I posted the following: “Apart from it being a tight, satisfying, straight-ahead telling of the N.W.A. saga (roots, breakout, success, conflict and falling apart, concluding with the death of Easy E.), it’s quite an indictment of police racism and brutality. And what a time for this to arrive in the wake of a string of video-captured police shootings and unwarranted arrests, the most recent being the shooting of Samuel Dubose. ‘Fuck Tha Police’ and then some. Expect highly charged reactions.”

Rod Lurie was asking for Best All-Time Top Ten Albums on Facebook two or three days ago. I didn’t post in time so I thought I’d tap out a few. These are the first albums that came to mind and in this order, but ten is ridiculous — gotta make it 25. Obviously I stopped discovering or even listening to new stuff eons ago, but just as obviously (or at least arguably) music was much, much better between the late ’60s and mid ’90s. So here we go, starting with stuff that came to mind without any research or second guessing, the standard being albums I’m most likely to listen to on a long car trip (if I’m not in a random song mode).

1. Excitable Boy — Warren Zevon; 2. Aftermath — Rolling Stones; 3. So — Peter Gabriel; 4. Nevermind — Nirvana; 5. Rubber Soul — Beatles; 6. Smile — Beach Boys; 7. The Nightfly — Donald Fagen; 8. Hejira — Joni Mitchell; 9. Heroes — David Bowie; 10. Disraeli Gears — Cream; 11. Velvet Underground & Nico — Velvet Underground; 12. Revolver — Beatles; 12. Synchronicity — The Police; 13. Colour By Numbers — Culture Club; 14. Full Moon Fever — Tom Petty; 15. Nirvana Unplugged MTV in New York; 16. The Town and the City — Los Lobos; 17. The Band — The Band; 18. Sticky Fingers — Rolling Stones; 19. Brothers in Arms — Dire Straits; 20. My Aim Is True — Elvis Costello; 21. Truth — Jeff Beck Group; 22. Permanent — Joy Division; 23. Learning to Crawl — Pretenders; 24. Trouble in Paradise — Randy Newman; 25. Emotional Rescue — Rolling Stones.