Ginger and Rose Trailer

The latest from unique writer / director Sally Potter (Orlando, Yes), starring an ever sophisticated Elle Fanning as titular Ginger and newcomer Alice Englert as Rosa; two smart, free spirited young girls facing their friendship off against their responses to the nuclear threat in 1960s London. Sports a grand supporting cast of Annette Bening, Christina Hendricks, Oliver Platt, Timothy Spall and Alessandro Nivola.

The Place Beyond the Pines - Trailer

It's Drive meets Blue Valentine! What could be better? 

Catching up on the Sight & Sound Top 10 - in trailers

1. The Master

2. Tabu

3. Amour (Palme d'Or winner at Cannes)

4. Holy Motors

5. Beasts of the Southern Wild

6. Berberian Sound Studio

7. Moonrise Kingdom

8. Beyond the Hills (Best Screenplay & joint Best Actress winner at Cannes)

9. Cosmopolis

10. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

11. This is not a Film

Tyrannosaur - Trailer

The directorial debut of quietly brilliant british actor Paddy Considine (In America, Dead Man's Shoes) with raved performances by Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman. Is there room in the Best Actress race? Probably not.

Beginners - Trailer

From Thumbsucker director Mike Mills, with Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent & Christopher Plummer - funny, lyrical, literate & messy: Beginners.

One Day - Trailer

I don't usually post posters & trailers for romantic dramas with terrible, cheesy voice overs, based on 'Best Selling' chicklit novels, but I have a good reason for doing so: Lone Scherfig.

One Day is directed by Danish director Lone Scherfig, whose Italian for Beginners - is possibly the only happy film made under Lars Von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg's Dogme 95 rules for 'purified' filmmaking (no props, no soundtrack, only natural lighting...) - & is perfectly charming without losing its intelligence. Scherfig also made 2009's great, Oscar-nominated, An Education. 

In both films, Scherfig showed a gift for bringing to life both the joy and the folly of her characters. An Education also sported warm period details that felt more lived in than your average period wardrobes / sets.

One Day seems to chart the relationship between Emma and Dexter over 20 years, by meeting up with them on only one day per year - the anniversary of the first day they met. Sounds a bit mushy, but Sturgess and Hathaway are good actors, even though Hathaway will be risking a british accent & asking us to 'take her seriously' because she looks bookish. We hope for the best, at least.

One Day - Trailer:

Italian for Beginners - Trailer:

It's Kind of a Funny Story - Trailer

Rubber - Trailer

Quentin Dupieux's bonkers film about a killer tire. For real. The IMDB.com plot synopsis is a fantastic read: When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession. 

I dunno, it could be a good, trashy night in, or it could be unbearable. Classy poster, though.

Our Idiot Brother - Trailer

Sundance hit starring Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer & Steve Coogan.

Dysfunctional family comedy. Little Miss Sunshine lite. 

Sean Penn goes goth for This Must Be the Place

Reviews have been lukewarm since its premiere at Cannes, but any film where Sean Penn gets to play an aging goth rock star still dressing the part & living off royalties in Dublin until he decides to track down the ex-Nazi refugee who humiliated is late, estranged father, in New York, is worth a watch.

Also, any film where Sean Penn & Frances McDormand get to share the screen is worth a watch.

Kind of hoping Sean Penn is not this monotonous throughout, though...

The Help -Trailer

Based on Kathryn Stockett's Best Seller about racism in 1950s suburban America, The Help follows in the footsteps of last year's Made in Dagenham - serious subject matter, light tone.

It's a pity that you have to go through 6 cast members before you find a black name on IMDB.com, but at least they no longer have to use separate toilets... 

Starring the lovely & hilarious Emma Stone as Skeeter, a young white suburbanite (you can tell she's smart because she has glasses & unkempt hair) who teams up with local maids Aibileen (Oscar-nominee Viola Davis) & Minny (Octavia Spencer) to write an exposé on how 'the help' really feel about their snooty madams & the class systems that rule their Southern town.

Also starring Bryce Dallas Howard as the town bitch who writes a law forcing all homes to have a separate toilet for 'the help', Alison Janney as Skeeter's mother, and the ever-reliable Sissy Spacek.

Trailer:

Black Butterflies - preview

South African poet Ingrid Jonker gets the big screen treatment in Dutch director Paula Van der Oest's literary biopic, Black Butterflies.


Jonker was a passionate and unconventional woman whose poetry challenged the conservative norms of 1960's South Africa. Raised by her grandparents after her mother died in a mental hospital, she first met her father, Abraham Jonker, when she was 11 and, although she & her sister moved in with Abraham, his third wife & their children, their relationship was strained for life. 

As a member of the National Party & the national censorship committee, Abraham Jonker's political & conservative ideals constantly clashed with those of his daughter, and she was not afraid to publicly oppose them. He, in turn, disowned her in parliament, and opposed the publication of her poetry. After hearing of her ocean suicide, he reportedly said: 'They can throw her back into the sea for all I care.' 

This strained relationship with her father, as well as her affairs with several high profile writers of her time, make up the bulk of Paula Van der Oest's film, although she seems more interested in Jonker's internal yearning for love & security than in the melodramatics of her strained relationships.

Chief among her lovers in the film is Jack Cope, a famous South African writer who tried very hard to understand & love her, but couldn't quite manage to live with her. Cope wrote reams about Jonker in his journals, as he tried to fathom her impulsive nature - including compulsively flirting with any man in sight whenever Cope was around - and it is from his journals that screenwriter Gregg Latter drew most of his insights into Jonker. After Jonker's death, Cope made sure her work lived on through the Ingrid Jonker Trust.


As a poet, Jonker started writing at age 6 and had produced her first collection by 13, although her father would not allow it to be published. Strongly opposed to Apartheid, Jonker was celebrated by Nelson Mandela, who read her poem 'Die kind wat doodgeskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga' (The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga) in Afrikaans at the opening of the first democratically-elected parliament in 1994. 

Mandela called her a transcendant Afrikaner woman who became 'a South African and an African'. Not everyone gets to be publically praised by the legendary Madiba. 


Dutch actress Carice Van Houten (Black Book) won Best Actress at the Tribecca Film Festival for her portrayal of Jonker. The judges explained their decision as follows: 'There are a million colors in this complicated performance. We award this honor for bravery and fragility, and for showing tremendous range and strength throughout.' 

Abraham Jonker is played by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his iconic, heart-breaking performance as Roy Batty in Blade Runner, and Jack Cope is played by Irishman Liam Cunningham (The Wind that Shakes the Barley).  


Unlike Christine Jeffs' 2003 Syliva Plath biopic, Paula Van Der Oest had full access to Jonker's poetry and, wisely, swathes the film in as much of it as possible. 


The verdict is still out on the film itself, but it's always good to see recognition for South African stories, especially ones where poetry beats Apartheid.


Trailer:

Die kind wat doodgeskiet is by Nyaga - poem after the cut:

The Switch - Review

The year's most surprising not-so-gross-out grown up romcom. Honestly.

When my sister recommended the Jennifer Aniston / Jason Bateman semen-swap movie to me, I was disgusted & shook my head at her in judgment. When my wife decided to watch it, I rolled my eyes in disdain, and only begrudgingly watched from the corner of my eye.

But from the opening monologue and score, it is clear that directors Josh Gordon & Will Speck are going somewhere quite different than the marketing & premise of The Switch would suggest.

The premise - Kassie (Aniston) is 40 & single & decides to have a baby by artificial insemination, Wally (Bateman) is her neurotic, spade-calling best friend who, well, sort of accidentally swaps his 'seed' for that of Kassie's chosen donor.

Honestly, I know how bad that sounds, but Gordon & Speck play it pretty straight & serious, and though you know where it is headed, they manage to make the journey all about the characters, and their plight is surprisingly heartfelt & believable.

With a great central performance by the underrated Jason Bateman, as endearing cynic, hypochondriac & life-critic, Wally, and an incredibly adorable Thomas (& Bryce) Robinson as Kassie's neurotic kid, Sebastien, this has far more smart dialogue & character development than it does gross-out slapstick (in fact, the inevitable awkward moment is refreshingly downplayed & contained to fulfill only its necessary plot duties).

There's always something impressive about a director who can take material that should be rubbish in other hands, and turn it into something solid & authentic. There's also something great about a romantic comedy with the smarts to make the 'other guy' (Patrick Wilson) just as nice (nicer, actually) as the guy you know she should end up with.

Its's not quite Broadcast News, but it's smart where it could be typical, and heartfelt where it could be schmaltzy, and that darn kid almost made me cry. I'd watch it again.

Brides Maids - Preview

It feels like the most talked-about film on Twitter (by the Tweeps I follow, anyway) is the Judd Apatow produced, Paul Feig directed Brides Maids.


Starring Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig (the single, 30-something maid of honour) & Maya Rudolph (the bride), Gilmore Girls' hilarious Melissa McCarthy (the groom's sister), a bunch of other funny ladies (bridesmaids) & a very smartly cast against-type Rose Byrne (the competition).

So it's The Hangover with girls, but don't let that scare you off - this is where ladies get to be funny & keep it real, instead of just being some guy's love interest.

Rude, but with heart, I give you Brides Maids:

The Artist - Trailer

This is the coolest thing I have seen in a while.

An actual silent film about the transition from silent film to talkies in 1920s California - premiered at Cannes to glowing reviews. Looks awesome:

Miranda July's 'The Future'

Since her 2005 indie hit, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July has kept herself busy with performance art, multimedia projects (like 2006's Things We Don’t Understand and Definitely are Not Going To Talk About), publishing short stories and writing / directing her latest quirky gem, The Future.


I'll tell you one thing - indie Hollywood sure has a massive lead on mainstream Hollywood when it comes to creating intriguing trailers & posters. This may be a matter of necessity for the indie scene, or it could be thanks to Hollywood's assumption that audiences are stupid & possess only pre-packaged expectations, or perhaps it comes down to whether creatives or  executives are behind the decision-making.


Either way - enjoy:




More The Future artwork + clip from Me and You and Everyone We Know AFTER THE CUT.

Midnight in Paris - Preview

Woody Allen's latest, Midnight in Paris, has won over the early critics in Cannes, although mostly everyone seems to agree that they don't dislike it.

'Allen had made one of his best, probably without giving it too much thought' - Sasha Stone

Allen's whimsical Parisian fantasy is being called silly and sweet but also delightful. The consensus seems to be that it is one of Allen's most focused and entertaining efforts of the past 10 years and, thankfully, it features no older men making it with young girls.

A romantic and nostalgic love letter to the City of Lights, it follows Owen Wilson as unlikely - but reportedly charming - Woody Allen surrogate, Gil, a dissatisfied Hollywood screenwriter / wannabe novelist drawing inspiration from & engaging - quite literally, thanks to a handy time-travel mechanism - with Paris's cultural history.


Midnight in Paris boasts a typically impressive cast, but while the real-world characters are said to be written as broad stereotypes (Rachel McAdams & Michael Sheen are wasted as annoying fiancé & stuck up snob, respectively), the fantasy-world offer more complex and beguiling character - Kathy Bates as a straight-talking Gertrude Stein, Adrian Brody as Pablo Picasso, Marion Cotillard as a mysterious beauty with a taste for seducing artists, and most notably Corey Stall as scene-stealing, contradictory Ernest Hemingway.

Allen has commented lately on his disappointment in his own work as an artist and, in Midnight in Paris, he seems to be contemplating the flawed human personalities that create great art, particularly great literature, and the nostalgia that imbues greatness on the ordinariness of the past.

Allen has worked in Paris before (as writer / actor in 1965's What's New Pussycat, and briefly in 1996's Everyone Says I Love You) but this is the first time the city has taken center stage. New European locations seem to be Woody's creative Viagra, making their mark on his titles and box office returns, but repeat visits seem to yield diminishing returns (London revived his career with Match Point, but not so much with Scoop & Cassandra's Dream). Curiously, Allen has yet to explore America beyond the borders of Manhattan - Republican America may be far more foreign to him than the artists of Europe. 

Europe also holds obvious travelogue appeal, and cinematographer Darius Khondji is unsurprisingly being celebrated for shooting the Paris of everyone's imagination.  

Thor - Trailer

You have to get excited about at least one big 'event' movie per year -with Kenneth Branagh behind the camera, Natalie Portman in front of it, awesome-looking sets & rated 93% fresh by critics so far, Thor looks like a good bet.

The Adjustment Bureau - Trailer

Looks a bit silly but plenty fun.

Submarine - Trailer

From the talent-spotting Weinstein Co & Ben Stiller's Red Hour Films, 'The IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade's adaptation of Joe Dunthorne's novel, Submarine, has gotten good reviews coming out of the Toronto Film Festival & had director Ayoade dubbed 'the british Wes Anderson'. High praise in my book.



Looks pretty awesome.