Day: December 16, 2016

I remember going “yeah, not great but not bad” when I saw Martin Brest‘s Going In Style (’79). Gentle and melancholy in tone, it waded into old-age anger and loneliness and despondency while throwing in occasional gags. George Burns, who costarred with Art Carney and Lee Strasberg, gave the standout performance. The new version, directed by Zach Braff and costarring Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin, appears to go light on the melancholy, and seems to be into broad humor more than anything else. Warner Bros. will open it on 4.17.17; it was originally set for 5.6.16.

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“Snatched at gunpoint by a gang of kidnappers deep in the Amazonian jungle”? Yep, that’s the sort of thing that might just happen when an emotionally distraught 30something woman (Amy Schumer) takes a vacation in Ecuador with her mom (Goldie Hawn). Obviously a programmer. No one is allowed to mention anyone’s facial “work” (just ask Owen Gleiberman what happens when you do) so I guess I can’t say anything. Written by Katie Dippold (The Heat, Ghostbusters); directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies, The Night Before), and costarring Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes and Christopher Meloni. 20th Century Fox is opening Snatched (originally Mother/Daughter) on 5.12.17.

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I began my 12.13 Rogue One review by saying “there are two aspects of Garth Edwards and Tony Gilroy‘s film that I was really and truly impressed by, and I can’t mention either of them. Well, I could but it would be shitty of me. The first weekend crowd is entitled to be surprised as much as I was last night.”

One of those admired elements, I can now say, is the film’s stunning digital reanimation of the late Peter Cushing, who “returns” as Grand Moff Tarkin, the highly mannered senior commander of the Death Star.

Why am I revealing this information on Friday afternoon with most Star Wars fans yet to see Rogue One? Partly because Variety‘s Kris Tapley and Peter Debruge have posted an article this afternoon (at 4:07 pm Pacific) about the Industrial Light and Magic CG that allowed for Cushing’s rebirth.

At least three fanboy sites (Cinema Blend, Screen Rant, Bustle) have also spilled the beans.

Hilarious graph from the Variety story: “A Lucasfilm rep tells Variety that the filmmakers will not be discussing the nuts and bolts of what went into Cushing’s reprise until January, in order for audiences to see the film and enjoy it without being spoiled by details. But the implications raised by the bold achievement, and others like it, are another thing entirely — and they’ve been ringing throughout the industry for decades.”

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Updated on 1.1.17: The following is an update of a piece I originally posted on 12.9: With the addition of Alfonso Cuaron‘s Roma and a few others, Hollywood Elsewhere’s grand tally of high-end 2017 releases now comes to 80.

Of these I’ve listed 6 likely Best Picture contenders, a trio of high-end galactic thrillers, 23 pick-of-the-litter films from brand-name directors, 26 films of alternate interest plus 22 others of somewhat lesser distinction for a total of 79.

At least five of these have the traditional earmarks of Best Picture contenders — Kathryn Bigelow‘s Untitled Detroit Riots Drama, Chris Nolan‘s Dunkirk, Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Charles James ’50s period drama, Alexander Payne‘s Downsizing and Joe Wright‘s Darkest Hour, a Winston Churchill vs. Nazi war machine drama.

I would add Cuaron’s film, a Spanish-language Mexican family drama set in the ’70s, for a total of six, but the Academy will most likely consign it to the Best Foreign Language category.

Alfonso Cuaron during the Mexico City-shooting of Roma.

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Most people feel that home is where the heart is, but what they usually mean is a structure, a traditional provider of comfort and security…a two-story colonial, front porch, rose bushes, freshly mowed lawn, white picket fence, two-car garage, mounted basketball net. Yes, I have a home that I feel good about and invested in, and many other places, things and regular experiences (daily challenges, festivals, visits to great cities and exotic lands) that make me feel good about my life, but I swear to God this image here is the closest and most intimate representation of comfort for me. Where my heart is, my life is. I feel as close to this image as James Stewart‘s George Bailey felt about Bedford Falls.

The night before last I read Elyse Hollander‘s Blonde Ambition, the top-rated Black List script about Madonna‘s struggle to find success as a pop singer in early ’80s Manhattan. It’s going to be a good, hard-knocks industry drama when it gets made — basically a blend of a scrappy singing Evita with A Star Is Born — and if the right actress plays Madonna the right way, she might wind up with a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Maybe. Who knows?

This is a flinty, unsentimental empowerment saga about a tough cookie who took no prisoners and was always out for #1. No hearts and flowers for this mama-san.

Madonna and producer-mixer Jellybean Benitez, sometime around the release of her 1983 debut album.

The success of Blonde Ambition will depend, of course, on who directs and how strong the costars are, particularly the guy who plays Madonna’s onetime-boyfriend John “Jellybean” Benitez, whose remix and producing of her self-named first album launched her career, as well as her Emmys bandmate and previous lover Dan Gilroy. (No, I’m not referring to the director-writer who’s preparing to shoot Inner City with Denzel Washington in March — Madonna’s ex is/was a totally different guy.)

A Star Is Born‘s logline was basically “big star with a drinking problem falls for younger ingenue, she rises as he falls and finally commits suicide, leaving her with a broken heart.” Blonde Ambition is about a hungry, super-driven New York pop singer who, like Evita Peron, climbs to the top by forming alliances with this and that guy who helps her in some crucial way, and then moves on to the next partner or benefactor, but at no point in the journey is she fighting for anything other than her own success, and is no sentimentalist or sweetheart.

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Congrats to Mark Harris for having written what I presume will be a diverting essay about Hal Ashby‘s Being There — his first Criterion Bluray essay. The disc — a new and restored digital 4K transfer, supervised by Caleb Deschanel — will pop on 3.21.17.

I’ve just tweeted my feelings about this exceedingly dry, droll film, and I have to say that while Being There felt just right in ’80, I’m not so sure about now. In high places a man who speaks only in metaphors and parables would eventually be asked to speak bluntly, plainly, like a cab driver or a beat cop. You can play your Zen cards only to a certain extent — sooner or later people of substance and consequence would demand that you put up or shut up. Which is why at the end of the day, the single, solitary joke at the heart of Being There wears thin.

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