A somber, colorful period drama…Peter Weir-ish, handsomely shot, assured direction…what’s not to like? Four years after the slaughter of Australian soldiers in Gallipoli, an Australian farmer (Russell Crowe) travels to Istanbul to discover the fate of his sons who may have been killed in battle. On top of which Crowe apparently falls in love (i.e., has it off) with Olga Kurylenko, playing a Turkish woman owns the hotel in which he stays. Directed by Crowe, written by Andrew Anastasios and Andrew Knight. Cinematography by Andrew Lesnie, the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit dp who won an Oscar in ’02 for The Fellowship of the Ring. Opening in Australia and New Zealand on 12.26.14. The only dicey thing about it is the title.

“It’s a work of chilly wit and bleak metaphor, an artifice that invites the kind of analytical response where we pull on our chins and discuss how other people, more naive than we, will receive it.” — from Andrew O’Hehir‘s Salon review of Gone Girl, which I saw again last night…perfect, deadly, as exquisitely made as a mainstream thriller can be but at the same time a reflection of everything we are (or are afraid to admit that we are)…a laugh and a gulp…”that’s marriage.”

A pompous asshole flaunting his entitled worldliness in an asinine fashion. Didn’t Christopher Walken create this guy several years ago on Saturday Night Live? That aside, Jeff Goldblum takes possession with style.

It was obvious to everyone except the brainiacs at Focus World that the marquee value of David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars would be enhanced if Julianne Moore could attract some Best Actress heat for her manic meltdown performance as an aging movie star. Focus World would not be moved….no! No late-December Oscar-qualifying run (a journalist friend told me that Focus World’s decision was set in stone), no Best Actress campaign. Mainly because they don’t have the money. And yet two days ago Cronenberg declared that shafts of light have broken through, the stone has cracked and Focus World has changed its mind. “They’re going to do a qualifying run — I think it’s in New York and L.A. — so that it will legitimately qualify for the Golden Globes and the Oscars,” he told Vulture‘s Jenna Marotta. “There was a lot of discussion. You know, they really felt that they could do a better job releasing the film in 2015, in January or February. And then, of course, the discussion was, ‘Yeah, but wouldn’t it be great if Julianne got an Oscar nomination, since she won Best Actress at Cannes?’” Moore will benefit from a two-pronged effort, of course — the Maps qualifying run plus a semblance of a Best Actress campaign, Sony Classics-style, on behalf of her Alzheimer’s performance in Still Alice.

The coolest thing about John Wick (kionsgatee/Summit, 10.24) is that Keanu Reeves‘ rampage is over a dead dog. It would be 18 times cooler if his deceased wife hadn’t given him the dog as a gift…if he was simply pissed beyond belief that the bad guys killed his four-legged friend. But of course it’s not on that level. The people who made it (co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, screenwriter Derek Kolstad) obviously aren’t that hip. John Wick is clearly another serving of undisciplined revenge porn in the Taken/Equalizer vein. Or so says the trailer, at least. No restraint, no Tombstones coolness. The gunshots in the trailer alone blow HE’s Ten-Shot Rule all to hell. My non-scientific estimate is that at least a couple of thousand rounds will be fired.

David Leitch is a director’s name; Chad Stahelski is the name of an electrician, a pool-maintenance guy, a surfer.

From Greg Ellwood‘s Hitfix report about yesterday’s viewing of Exodus footage plus a q & a with Christian Bale: “While I was still trying to wrap my head around it I went and rented The Life of Brian, which is a favorite film of mine,” said Bal. “The point being that not only do I enjoy that film a great deal, but anything you are approaching from a very earnest point of view can unintentionally be the Life of Brian very quickly. It was sort of a guiding light for me. And I must confess that ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ is always humming in the back of my head.

“And then immediately after that I rented Mel Brooks‘ History of the World, Pt. 1 because you have to get that out of your system. You have to understand, ‘What is it we could make funny?’ You have to have humor. With something that is as earnest as this. And this heavyweight as this you have to have an element of comedy in your every-day shooting or it just becomes exhausting.”

We’re all presuming that Interstellar, Unbroken and The Imitation Game will be Best Picture nominees when all is said and done, but something in me rebelled when I saw this montage. It sits at the top of a Kris Tapley-authored Hitfix piece about the Best Picture race. These are the presumed default hotties that lazy mainstream softies have been predicting for many weeks. Maybe but from my obviously ignorant vantage point, having seen The Imitation Game but not having seen Interstellar or Unbroken, I don’t see what’s so inherently wonderful about the latter two. Consideration #1: Surviving a brutal wartime ordeal is not necessarily a great story or the ingredients of a great film — it’s merely an endurance test. Consideration #2: You can’t save the residents of a dying, dust-choked planet by travelling to another planet or exploring it or whatever the fuck Matthew McConaughey and his space homies are up to, and yet losing out on witnessing and sharing in the various stages of your children’s lives would be a heartbreaker for any parent. All I know is that I vaguely resent being told that these are the Big Three. I’m not saying I won’t fall for them when they’re screened — I very well might. But I resent being told over and over by Oscar-blogging bend-overs that these are the Hot Babies to Beat. Make way, they’re coming!

I promised the other day that I would no longer refer to Liam Neeson as a paycheck guy, but here we go again. I can tell you that the low-rent under-40 males who made cracks about A Walk Among The Tombstones being a “dad film” will probably show up for this in droves.

In my mind Montgomery Clift, the first method-y actor to punch through the studio system and become a major star, peaked from Red River through From Here To Eternity — a seven-year run. From the early to mid ’50s Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean were the reigning acting gods…legendary figures then and, I thought, still iconic figures today. But two days ago it hit me that Clift is no longer regarded as a major figure, or is certainly not regarded in the same light as Brando or Dean. My older son Jett, to whom I showed classic films all through his early youth and who knows the cinema realm fairly well, had to be reminded who Clift was when his name came up in conversation, and he couldn’t name a single film that Clift starred in, not even Red River or I Confess or A Place In The Sun or Eternity. His girlfriend Caitlin, a whipsmart marketing professional, knows Clift’s name but couldn’t remember any of his films. I’m presuming these two are canaries in the GenY coal mine. If they don’t know who Clift was, nobody does. Am I wrong? I’m not talking about serious GenY film hounds — I’m talking about casual Netflix/Hulu viewers and people who go to maybe two or three films a month. It’s a shock. For the under-35s Montgomery Clift might as well be John Ireland or Wendell Corey or Burgess Meredith.

(l. to r.) Clift, Marlon Brando, Dean Martin during filming of The Young Lions.

2014 is a big year for solo drumming in movies with the much-hailed Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics, 10.10) about to hit and an exciting all-percussion score about to be savored when Alejandro G. Inarritu‘s Birdman (Fox Searchlight, 10.17) opens a week later. Birdman‘s drummer-composer is Antonio Sanchez, who routinely plays and tours year-round with Pat Metheny. A little while ago we spoke and kicked things around. Sanchez and Inarritu hail from Mexico — that’s one connection. Inarritu introduced himself to Sanchez after a Metheny group concert in Los Angeles and proposed an all-percussive score. It was recorded in New York during filming last spring. Curious Anecdote #1: Twice during Birdman a drummer is seen playing drums but it’s not Sanchez (who was away touring) — it’s Nate Smith. Curious Anecdote #2: Not only has Sanchez still not seen a finished cut of Birdman (he caught a rough version last year) but probably won’t see it until November when he returns from his latest tour. Here’s a taste of Sanchez’s score; here’s another. But you have to hear it loud and crisp and slampbangy with a great theatrical sound system. Here’s a link to the soundtrack’s Amazon page. It streets on 10.14. Again, the mp3.

Antonio Sasnchez, composer of Birdman‘s all-percussion score.