New Prometheus Teaser

The marketing for Prometheus is amazing. If we are not building up to a new Sci Fi classic, the marketing team deserves all kinds of awards (and a punch in the face). But I have all confidence that Sir Scott's film will live up to the very considerable hype.

The latest teaser continues to establish the Prometheus universe, without giving away the Prometheus plot. Michael Fassbender is, as always, inspired. His hesitation before "distressing... unethical..." is filled with suggestion and dread:

Prometheus - Full Trailer

Cannot. Wait. Ridley Scott returning to the iconic franchise he started back in 1979, with far more technology, budget & experience at his disposal; aliens vs humans & science vs faith in an epic battle for life & death; one heck of a hot cast. Cannot. Wait. It's good to see a proper Sci Fi outing for Charlize Theron (after, um, Aeon Flux & Hancock), and Michael Fassbender as, possibly, a pre-Ash-era android, but this movie is going to belong to Noomi Rapace, the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Did I mention I. Cannot. Wait?

Shame - Trailer

Shame - Clip

Clip of Michael Fassbender being a slick, creepy bastard in Steve McQueen's Venice Best Actor winning Shame. There is a painful desperation to his shameless pursuit, and a clear sense that the woman, although clearly enticed by Brandon's advances, knows she is narrowly escaping a snare.

Best Actor Contenders

Serious Contenders:

George Clooney - The Descendants

George Clooney has been on fine form since winning his Oscar for Syriana, turning in one grippingly understated performance after the other. The Descendants is the latest from dramedy legend Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways), and Clooney's performance as suddenly-single dad Matt King, trying to connect with his daughters and confront the news of his wife's affair, while taking a trip through Hawaii, is said to be one of his best and most heartbreaking. Oscar nomination assured.

Leonardo DiCaprio - J Edgar

No-one has seen Clint Eastwood's J Edgar Hoover biopic, but based solely on the strong reputation of its Director and Star, as well as the persona and reportedly sordid private life of the famous FBI Director, as penned by Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk), the Best Actor Oscar is already considered his to lose. Of course its far too early to make such predictions, performance unseen, and early hype can be difficult to live up to, but provided the film delivers, the match of character and actor should play right into Oscar's hands.

Jean Dujardin -The Artist

The Cannes Best Actor winner is the charming centre of a film the Academy is sure to love - a sweet, old-school black-&-white silent film about show business & movie making. He won over the french and, unless the film flops in the States, is sure to charm his way onto many Academy voters' ballots.

Gary Oldman - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Simply because George Smiley is such an intriguing literary character, Cold War espionage dramas are so easy to like and because Gary Oldman, despite shifting from raging psychos (Leon) to gentle law-enforcers (The Dark Knight), has never been an Oscar nominee. Not once. Not even for Sid & Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, JFK or The Contender, not to mention his long-list of iconic crazies & oddballs. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy gives him the chance to lead a large, fantastic cast with a subtle complex performance. Time will tell if it will be enough.

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

I frankly don't know why Brad Pitt's performance in Moneyball is being considered Oscar-potential. He has made good movies post-Troy, and has stretched himself as an actor, but this true story of a Baseball manager's apparently revolutionary endeavor to select players based on computer-generated statistics, and upset the order of the Baseball world, seems highly underwhelming. The only things backing up the excitement is the involvement of Capote director Bennet Miller and last year's Oscar-winner Aaron Sorkin, as co-writer. Pitt will, of course, bring on the charm, the winning determination & the legendary smile and Terrence Mallick's Tree of Life will ensure he is already on everyone's radar, but I still don't see it being one of the year's strongest performances.

Ryan Gosling - Drive / The Ides of March

Gosling's intense, understated & largely silent performance in Drive seems destined to be an iconic standout in his already-impressive resume, but it could be too edgy / subtle / cool for Academy voters. His lead performance in George Clooney's political thriller Ides of March is yet to be seen but has all the makings of an Oscar-friendly journey from idealism to compromise. Gosling is an exceptional young actor who was overlooked for his astonishing performance in last year's Blue Valentine but is fast becoming impossible to ignore.











Michael Fassbender - Shame / Dangerous Method / Jane Eyre

Michael Fassbender burned his way to critical acclaim as Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's 2008 hunger strike drama, Hunger, and into the public consciousness as slick, doomed Lt Archie Hicox in Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. And he has been very busy since. Just this year, he has impressed critics as the bitter man who becomes Magneto in X-Men: First Class, an intense and untamed Rochester in Jane Eyre, and groundbreaking psychoanalyst Carl Jung in David
Cronenberg's psychological drama,
A Dangerous Method. But it was his turn as Brandon, a troubled sex addict negotiating endless sexual escapades & his complicated relationship with his troubled sister (Carey Mulligan) in Steve McQueen's latest, Shame, that saw him win Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and step into the Oscar golden circle. Provided voters can stomach the edgy subject matter, his performance in Shame is sure to put him on the map.   


Maybe Contenders:

A Dangerous Method - Trailer

Viggo Mortensen. David Cronenberg. Michael Fassbender.

Three very good reasons to put this on your must-see list. But if you need more, it also stars Keira Knightley & Vincent Cassell and concerns the friendship and psychological constructs of Carl Jung (Fassbender) & Sigmund Freud (Mortensen). And Jung's exploration of his methods through an affair with one of his patients (Knightley).

Cronenberg is never light watching, but he is on a career high. His last two films with Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) were powerful, violent and intensely constructed films, so tackling a period romantic psychological drama is an intriguing next move. Knightley seems on the borderline of overacting, but I doubt that Cronenberg would allow that, so it should be a good vehicle for her.

Trailer:

Alternate Poster:

X-Men: First Class - Review

Although it can't escape the occasional silliness of, you know, pretty girls with dragon fly wings or redhead boys flying by, um, screaming at a really high pitch, Matthew Vaughn's X-Men prequel is a solid comic book adaptation, and an even better period drama.

With a very smartly picked young cast led by heavyweights James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender, as Charles Xavier (soon to be Dr X) & Erik Lehnsherr (soon to be Magneto), respectively, Vaughn makes sure the action is grounded in well-developed characters and a very well-plotted finale.

James McAvoy shows the future Dr Xavier's greatness, but also the young Charles Xavier's arrogance & stubbornness.

Michael Fassbender, on the other hand, does Ian McKellen proud with a fully relatable soon-to-be villain. He makes you understand the pain behind the cold intensity & haunted eyes that burn up the screen. Although we know his fate, Fassbender makes us feel the battle for Erik's soul as if it may end well.

Kudos also to Mad Men's January Jones who manages to add at some depth to blonde ice queen, & comic book sex symbol, Emma Frost.

A decent comic book action film but, even better, a great character drama.

Jane Eyre - Review

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre has been adapted for the screen no less than 20 times, so one may wonder why Cary Fukunaga (2009's Sin Nombre) has made another. 


Track it down, though, & be grateful that he did.

As quietly tense & gloomy as the poster suggests, Fukunaga's adaptation is an artful, unhurried piece of cinema perched somewhere between Hitchcock's Rebecca and Campion's The Piano. 


Screenwriter Moira Buffini plots out Charlotte Bronte's substantial plot with a flashback structure that lends a sense of foreboding and inevitability to Jane's story, and the technical elements, from the period costumes and sets, to Dario Marianelli's sumptuous, awards-worthy score, are top notch. But the highlight is Adriano Goldman's misty, smoky, often candle-lit cinematography, casting a sense of perpetual possibility over the whole film.  


Jane Eyre is essentially a character study and a fairly heavy social commentary on the limited opportunities and value of women and the working class in nineteenth century England, but it is also a gothic mystery, and is at its best as an unconventional love story.  


Mia Wasalowski (interpreting another classic literary incarnation after Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland) stretches herself as Jane, restricted by the boundaries drawn for her by society, and withdrawn due to love that was withheld from her, but refusing to quieten the passion & unconventionality within. A passionate and strong-minded heroine unsure of her future, director Fukunaga's style allows her time to explore Jane's moods & inner world beyond the constrains of the plot. 


Wasalowski is young, though, and at times the depth of the character feels more acted out than genuine, as if Wasalowski cannot quite carry the full weight of Jane's life, but it is nevertheless a strong performance and, in its best moments, a startlingly powerful one. 


What brings out the true power in Wasalowski's performance is her co-star, the ever-brilliant Michael Fassbender, as the cold and eccentric Rochester. Fassbender's creation is a truly original one that feels like it couldn't possibly be improved on. He feels fully in command of Rochester's every word and gesture, and brings a sharpness and vitality to him that is at once off-putting and alluring. One of the male performances of the year.

The chemistry between Jane and Rochester is electric, while their conversations are never less than thrillingly unpredictable. He is erudite, confrontational & wildly enigmatic, while she is refreshingly direct, otherworldly and egoless.  

This is no lace and love letters period romance, it is a dark and broody tale of two very unlikely people drawn into a strange and complex courtship with a hard-earned conclusion. Their central relationship fuels the film with an offbeat pulse.

I have never read the book, so I can't vouch for the faithfulness of the adaptation, but Fukunaga's film is a fully formed piece of cinema that never feels rushed or incomplete, and manages to sustain its dreamy mood and and authenticity through major plot and genre coils.

But, of course, one cannot review a movie starring Judi Dench without reviewing Judi Dench. Dame Judi plays Mrs Fairfax, Rochester's devoted, if simple-minded, housekeeper - who believes that the answer to Jane's yearning for the adventures of men - is fresh air & physical exercise. With Judi Dench it is never a question of good or bad, but rather of good or Oscar-worthy. Here she is very good, but not Oscar-worthy. She admirably takes quite a backseat to the passion of the central relationship, but naturally commands attention and brings nuance in all her scenes.  


All in all highly recommended.

Short clip - Mia Wasalowski, Judi Dench & Adriano Goldman's camera work: