The first in a series of This Is War billboard capturings in West Hollywood. The images are artful, I feel, when you consider the elements (billboard + neighborhood + natural light + cars) as a single integrated statement. Something very subtle but in some way measurable has happened due to the presence of these posters over the last few days. I can say no more.

Last weekend I finally bought Lorber Films’ Bluray of Bertrand Blier‘s Going Places. What a pleasure in every department. This is one of the great anarchic comedies of any culture or era, and the film-like Bluray made me feel like I was watching it fresh and new. With the exception of a 40-second passage of dupey, sepia-colored footage, the transfer is clean and robust from top to bottom.

From my September 2011 riff called “Going Places Forever”:

“Going Places (’74) is one of the most curiously seductive films ever made about loutish, anarchic, groin-driven swagger. Gerard Depardieu and the late Patrick Dewaere are a pair of easygoing counter-culture brutes who fall into a series of sloppy impulsive adventures, and yet never act in what you’d call an especially harsh or cruel manner. They’re dopey animals in a sense, and in another a couple of social adventurers looking to see what they can get away with.

“Let’s steal this or fuck that…anything we want. We’re young and brash and can always get it up, etc. What else matters? We’re bulletproof. What does her underwear smell like? Aaahh…she’s very young! Well, 16 or so. It’s like she just took them off!

“They steal scooters or cars or food or money, and are constantly on the hunt for poon. They’re careless cads and improvisational jerkoffs, kicking around to kick around and see where whim takes them. And yet they’re boyishly innocent on some level, and are nowhere near smart or mean or ambitious enough to become serious criminals. They’re just playing it by ear. They love sex and chasing after women, but they don’t have the first clue what women are really about or what they want. And, being boobs, everything these guys get into either backfires or turns out unexpectedly or delivers some kind or fake-out surprise.

“The film itself is like Depardieu and Dewaere, ambling along without seeming to have any particular plan, and in so doing it gradually charms you into taking their side or least not wanting to see them get caught. It gives you an idea of what a hooligan high can feel like, to break the law and laugh and not give a damn. It’s quite a trick. I don’t think any American film about small-time bad guys has ever managed the same kind of mood or chemistry.”

In posting this new English-subtitled trailer for The Kid With The Bike (IFC Films, now available), it’s only fair that I include an excerpt from my 5.14.11 Cannes Film Festival review.

“Directors Jean Pierre and Luc Dardennes are first-rate scenarists and straight shooters. Their work is assured — they know exactly what they’re doing every time. And their film ends well. But Cannes critics are, I feel, kneeling forward and kissing the proverbial ring. There’s nothing wrong with that in a general sense as long as there’s perspective.

“Yes, I took an instant dislike to Thomas Doret, the red-haired lead character called Cyrill, when I first saw the trailer. This feeling deepened when I saw the film. I disliked his obstinate-woodpecker personality and the dogged, loon-like tone in his voice. If I ran into a kid like this in real life I would excuse myself fairly quickly, you bet.

“Honestly? While the decision of his youngish kitchen-chef dad to abandon Cyrill and go his own way because he has very little money is reprehensible and pathetic, on a certain level I sympathized. Some men are just weak or selfish or naturally un-gifted at parenting (like my own dad), and some kids are just irksome. My heart goes out to any kid dealing with parental neglect and/or abuse, but on the other hand life is hard and sometimes cruel. Some of us are dealt shitty cards, but we have to play them as best we can.

“Cyrill, it’s clear, is emotionally damaged and heading for some kind of downward swirl, perhaps into crime or becoming an abuser on his own. So on one level it’s admirable when a kind-hearted, fair-minded hairdresser named Samantha (Cecile de France) agrees to become Cyrill’s weekend care-giver, but on another level it’s a bit…puzzling?

“She’s expressing a standard maternal instinct, but I found it curious that a youngish, attractive woman’s life would be so otherwise bereft of passion and commitment that she would leap into this kind of relationship. And I found her willingness to suddenly dump her somewhat selfish-minded, not-especially-bright boyfriend when he says ‘it’s him or me’ too abrupt.

“I felt that the whole film was a bit too simplistic and on-the-nose. I went with it, but I also felt that I was being fed a plate of honest but under-cooked contrivances by a couple of talented but (this time around) under-inspired chefs.”

“Let’s have a moment of silence for the suffering Oscar bloggers as they enter the most trying and mortifying weeks of their labors,” Glenn Kenny tweeted a little while ago. “Pray for @DavidPoland @kristapley @GuyLodge and @AwardsDaily, that they may not be crushed by the inevitable world-weariness. God grant them the serenity to accept the awards results they cannot change, and the temerity to tell the rest of us to shut up about it. And a special prayer for @wellshwood, that he may not be afflicted by spontaneous combustion.”

Deadline‘s Nikki Finke has reported that poor tracking (i.e., ticket-buyer interest and awareness) has prompted 20th Century Fox to jettison the Tuesday, 2.14 opening of McG’s This Means War. The studio will now sneak This Means War on Valentine’s Day and open it on Friday, 2.17, hoping that the sneak will boost interest.

“I don’t get what the moviegoing public’s problem with this pic is,” she wrote. “Chris Pine, Tom Hardy and Reese Witherspoon are cool casting. And the film doesn’t look dumb, which is half the battle with this genre.” It may not look “dumb” but the trailer has the McG stamp — inane, shallow, exaggerated, simplistic.

I’m still wrapping my head around the idea of a brand-friggin’-new Spider-Man origin story coming out only ten years after Sam Raimi‘s 2002 original, also an origin story. Boil them down and they’re more or less the same movie.

This is the second opener in a major franchise to be re-made and released within the same decade, the first being David Fincher‘s 2011 Dragon Tattoo reboot on the heels of the Niels Arden Oplev‘s 2009 original. And both from Sony Pictures, of course.

You don’t want to hear about the lethargy and gloom affecting Sasha Stone and myself during today’s Oscar Poker recording. Here’s a stand-alone mp3 link.

Deadline‘s Pete Hammond attended Monday’s Oscar Nominee luncheon, and noted in his report that Max Von Sydow, Best Supporting Actor nominee for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, got the biggest applause of all when he walked to the podium for his certificate of nomination. An indication of a possible upset victory over the favored Christopher Plummer, or a gesture of respect for a 50-year veteran?

The next two biggest-applause winners, says Hammond, were The Help‘s Best Actress nominee Viola Davis and A Better Life‘s Best Actor nominee Demian Bichir. I’m 94% convinced that Davis has the Best Actress Oscar in the bag, but Bichir’s applause, I’m guessing, was about two things — admiration for his performance and a backslap for having landed a nomination grass-roots style (i.e., on the cheap). I’ll do backflips if Bichir wins. He probably won’t, but what a nice dream.

Update: I’ve heard some disagreement about the level of Von Sydow’s applause. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg puts it as follows: “By my ear, the loudest applause of all went to The Help‘s best actress nominee Viola Davis and best supporting actress nominee Octavia Spencer, both of whom were already regarded as the favorites in their respective categories.

“Also greeted particularly loudly: Albert Nobbs‘ best actress nominee Glenn Close and best supporting actress nominee Janet McTeer; best actor nominee Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy); best actress nominee Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), best supporting actor nominee Nick Nolte (Warrior) and best original song nominee Sergio Mendes (Rio).”

Viola Davis is always playing characters defined by their work — social worker, CIA agent, bad mom, domestic maid, space engineer, nurse, cop, policewoman. Her next two roles will be (a) a librarian helping a couple of kids deal with hauntings in Beautiful Creatures and (b) a genius recruited by the government to help defeat an alien insect race in Ender’s Game. In short, she’s in a rut.

The solution is that she needs to play a woman defined by emotion, preferably by sex and passion. Davis is 46 and if she’s going to play a role of this type, she needs to do it soon.

I mentioned this to Sasha Stone a couple of hours ago as we recorded another Oscar Poker, and it hit me that a great opportunity would be for Davis to play the maid — a sexual maid — in an American remake of Too Beautiful For You. The 1989 French original, directed by Bertrand Blier, is about a BMW car dealer (Gerard Depardieu) cheating on his beautiful wife (Carole Bouquet) with his ordinary looking temporary secretary (Josiane Balasko).

The American remake could star Brad Pitt as the car dealer, Angelina Jolie as the wife and Davis as the maid. The idea wouldn’t be that Davis is “ordinary looking” as much as an attractive but unconventional choice as an extra-marital romantic interest, certainly by classic standards.

From the director whose name is synonymous with soulless flashbang filmmaking of the lowest order, a romantic action-comedy in which Reese Witherspoon has to choose between two hot-shot suitors who happen to be spies. On the left is good-looking smoothie Chris Pine (i.e., Captain Kirk) and and on the right is Tom Hardy, a subtle and intelligent actor who’s nonetheless played three famous animals so far — Bane, Bronson and a hulking MMA fighter in Warrior.

Who is cuter? Who will be the better provider? The better dad?

Does Reese test-drive them both, so to speak, or is this a film about windowshopping? Apart from all the action crap, I mean. Does Witherspoon have it in her contact that her character will only windowshop in films of this nature? She’s a woman and a mom who’s invested in upstanding values so I wouldn’t be surprised. But what kind of traditional-values woman goes out with two guys at the same time?

This Means War opens in only eight days, and on a Tuesday — 2.14 (i.e., Valentine’s Day). I’ve asked about a screening, but it’s unlikely that anything positive could come from my seeing it. I hate all things McG.

“Sam Worthington was attached to star in This Means War, but dropped out and was replaced by Hardy,” the Wikipage says. “Bradley Cooper was also attached to star in the film, but left the project. Seth Rogen also turned down a role.”

One of the most historic red-carpet interviews of all time happened when Bert Parks, a glad-handing showbiz whore, interviewed director Joseph L. Mankiewicz before the June 12, 1963 premiere of Cleopatra, and got these three quotes: (a) “You must know something I don’t” (in response to Parks calling the film “a wonderful, wonderful achievement”), (b) “Everything connected with Cleopatra is beyond my control at the moment” and (c) “I feel like the guillotine [is] about to drop.”

The music used for this Act of Valor trailer is a problem. It tells you that the movie is some kind of amplified power-pop thing aimed at the multiplex Guidos. It suggests insubstantial realism. The film opens on 2.24.