From Sam Fragoso‘s Sundance review: “Directed by A.J. Edwards, The Better Angels (Amplify, 11.7) dives headfirst into the formative years of a 12-year-old Abraham Lincoln (Braydon Denney). Set in Indiana circa 1817 where little Lincoln –observant and taciturn — aimlessly wanders in the woods, chopping wood, spending the bulk of his time listening to the sage words of his father (Jason Clarke) and mother (Brit Marling). The film represents this as a simpler time when a family could live in a log cabin and spend their days endlessly exploring the beauty of nature.

“Produced by Terrence Malick and clearly inspired by Days of Heaven and The Tree of Life, the black-and-white tale roves from one sequence to the next with an ethereal, meditative quality. If Edwards’ directorial debut is any indication, Lincoln’s abusive patriarch and supportive matriarch played an instrumental role in shaping the man would become one of this nation’s greatest leaders.

Last weekend I was told about a sequence in Liv Corfixen‘s My Life Directed By Nicholas Winding Refn, a Hearts of Darkness-like doc about the making of Refn’s Only God Forgives, in which Refn reads a portion of my Cannes Film Festival pan of Only God Forgives. Here it is. Corfixen offers an honest look at a good filmmaker going through the usual doubt and pain; she’s just as candid in portraying a healthy but less-than-ideal marriage. Honestly? I don’t regret writing that pan in the least but I now feel badly about having possibly hurt Refn’s feelings. Even with Corfixen saying to him after he reads the review, “You brought it upon yourself.” (Or words to that effect.) Then again Refn seems mildly amused as he reads the review. Provoking strong reactions is better than causing people to shrug their shoulders or nod out…right?

In a N.Y. Times profile of the trauma-plagued Warner Bros. team, Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes describe Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Inherent Vice, a WB release that will debut on 10.4 at the New York Film Festival, as “quirky,” “semi-comic” and “a possible Oscar candidate.” That last description argues with everything I’ve heard about the film since last April but whatever…fine.

A series of faux-classic, faux-iconic John Malkovich portraits by Sandro Miller is currently on view at imgur.com. Malkovich’s “Cyrus the Virus” in Con Air is one of my all-time favorite villains. Which is not to be confused with my favorite generic “Malkies” such as Being John Malkovich, Burn After Reading and his “Biff” in the B’way stage version of Death of a Salesman. During a round-table session at the Marrakech Film Festival I tweaked Malkovich about his paycheck roles, and I could tell this touched a slight nerve. A 2003 Telegraph piece contained a quote from a fellow actor that said Malkovich “is so right-wing, you have to wonder if he’s kidding.”

Paramount and MGM’s Christian-friendly remake of Ben-Hur, now in pre-production, is reportedly slated for a 2.26.16 opening. Think about that for four or five seconds. Unveiling a new version of the biggest and most Oscar-honored Biblical epic of all time in late February confirms that this Mark Burnett and Roma Downey production, a downmarket pitch to none-too-sharp Christians, is a metaphor for the general degradation of film culture. Deciding on a February release is an obvious admission that the film won’t be good enough to compete in the summer or post-Labor Day award season. The producers might as well take out a trade ad that says “we’re going low-rent here, guys….forget the upscale, blue-chip William Wyler signature of yore…we’ve hired a low-class Russian ape named Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Abraham Lincoln — Vampire Hunter) to re-shape this tale so it will simultaneously have lots of gratuitous action while appealing to hinterland dimwits.” Consider the guys who’ve been hired to play Judah Ben-Hur and Messala — Jack Huston and Toby Kebbell. Compare their faces and auras to Charlton Heston‘s and Stephen Boyd‘s…sad. Huston was okay in American Hustle but he has small Twee-male shoulders and the face of a blackjack dealer in Atlantic City. Kebbell (Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) appears doomed to play bad guys for the rest of his life. I’m sure that the chariot race will be CG-fortified but the cool aspect of the ’59 version is that it was shot raw and real. Ben-Hur for Christians is going to look so substandard compared to the ’59 version it won’t be funny.

Jack Huston, the new Judah Ben-Hur.

Toby Kebbell, the new Messala. (Note: I hate that his last name is spelled with two “b”s and two “l”s.)

I was under the impression that David Fincher‘s Gone Girl, which will open the New York Film Festival on Friday evening, had been pre-screened only for the trades (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap, Indiewire) for early review. A quick glance at Rotten Tomatoes says otherwise. New York/Vulture‘s David Edelstein has seen it and posted a review (“Elegantly wicked, phenomenally gripping…a world of masks, misrepresentations, subtle and vast distortions”). Time Out‘s Joshua Rothkopf has seen it and reviewed (“The kind of wickedly confident Hollywood thriller you pray to see once in a decade…the stealthiest comedy since American Psycho…a hypnotically perverse film that redeems your faith in studio smarts”). Entertainment Weekly‘s Chris Nashawaty has seen and reviewed. All the big British critics and have seen it and reviewed. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen it except yours truly? I’m sorry but this drains the excitement out of the NYFF debut. I was under an early impression that the NYFF press screening on Friday afternoon would be the cool place to be. Now it’s looking like a last licks clean-up screening — a venue for second-tier journos who weren’t cool enough to be included in the first round.

At the end of last night’s KTVA report on the Anchorage-based Alaska Cannabis Club, on-air reporter Charlo Greene revealed that she was the owner of said club and that she would be using all of her energy to fight for legalizing marijuana in Alaska. Then she said: “And as for this job…well, not that I have a choice but fuck it, I quit.” Obvious lack of impartiality, conflict of interest, etc. The funny part was the deer-in-the-headlights response of Greene’s on-air colleague.

Variety‘s Justin Chang and TheWrap‘s James Rocchi are pretty much over the moon for David Fincher‘s Gone Girl (20th Century Fox, 10.3) but The Hollywood Reporter‘s Todd McCarthy is on one level respectful but another disappointed.

Blackfilm’s Wilson Morales reported today that director Ava Duvernay screened about five minutes’ worth of Selma (Paramount, 12.25), the broad-canvas ’60s-era civil rights drama, last night at the Urbanworld Film Festival. A discussion with Duvernay and star David Oyelowo, who plays Martin Luther King, was moderated by Urbanworld executive producer Gabrielle Glore.

“Based on the two clips presented, which ran a total of five minutes, David is good enough to be in conversation for one of the five Best Actor slots,” says Morales. “He embodies King. If you watch the video, he was asked about being a Brit playing MLK and he said ‘If Meryl Streep can play Margaret Thatcher, then I can play Dr. King.’

A persistent if whispered thought I keep hearing: apart from the sheer brilliance of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s Birdman, the affecting naturalism of Richard Linklater‘s Boyhood and the poignancy of James Marsh‘s The Theory of Everything, 2014 feels like a weak Best Picture year. I realize that a lot of people are serious believers in The Imitation Game. I’m not about to do a 180 on my 8.30 Telluride review — it’s smooth, efficient, well-ordered — but there’s a distinct resistance to its avoidance of any depiction of any aspects of Alan Turing‘s private life as a gay man. Quote from a dinner last night among three film cognoscenti: “If Nebraska had opened in this relatively weak year, it would be in a much stronger Best Picture position than it was last year with 12 Years A Slave and Wolf of Wall Street as competition.” The stage is clearly set for some significant, highly charged film to bulldoze its way into the conversation, elbow Birdman aside and take a commanding lead…but what?

Here’s a portion of Wesley Morris’ review of A Walk Among The Tombstones, a ’70s-style Liam Neeson thriller of a superior caste. Some of the critics called it a “dad movie” (assholes) and the popcorn crowd more or less blew it off this weekend in favor of The Maze Runner, although Tombstones managed a moderately decent $13 million and change.

Remember Fury (Columbia, 10.17), that David Ayer-directed war film that was first mentioned as a potential award-season hopeful in an 8.3.14 N.Y. Times article? Fury “promises to be one of the most daring studio movies in an awards season that will bring several World War II films,” Michael Cieply wrote, by delivering “relentlessly authentic” — i.e., brutally violent — “depictions of the combat realm” that “the popular culture has rarely seen.” But an accelerated post-production schedule kept it out of the fall festival circuit. I thought it might turn up as a special presentation during the upcoming N.Y. Film Festival — this could still theoretically happen. What I know for sure is that press screenings are about to begin so tally ho and saddle up.