Check Out the Trailer

From watching this film one would not expect that it was made by the same director who made THE FRENCH CONNECTION and THE EXORCIST. William Friedkin’s name in the credits lured me into watching the film on a lazy vacation day afternoon. Mr. Friedkin must have made the film on a lazy vacation day afternoon.

Phil (Dwier Brown, FIELD OF DREAMS) is an ad man from Chicago who gets a job in L.A. He and his wife Kate (Carey Lowell, LICENSE TO KILL) find a house in the hills to rent, where the famous architect Ned Runcie (Brad Hall, TROLL) who designed the house even drops by to make repairs. Kate drops the news on their first night in the house that she is pregnant. When the baby is born, Kate needs to go back to work, so they decide to hire a nanny. Camilla (Jenny Seagrove, MOONLIGHTING) came with great references, but Kate is worried that this English woman is too good looking to be a governess. Turns out she’s really a druid priestess who travels the country stealing babies and offering them up as sacrifices to an ancient tree in the forest. When I think of the Santa Monica mountains, I always think of ancient druid trees that imbed babies into their trunks like ghastly sculptures.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Ever since it opened the Cannes Film Festival, Fernando Meirelles’ BLINDNESS has been getting love it or hate it reviews. The premise has the world going blind and the infected are put in a closed-off hospital. One might expect allegories for seeing people for who they are and not what they look like. But the story, based on José Saramago’s novel, tackles much harsher, bleak and nuanced issues than simple racism, ageism and the like. I haven’t seen a mainstream non-horror film go to such dark places before. I foresee many expecting a simple thriller, walking out, demanding their money back. But for the more thoughtful and/or strong-willed viewer, this devastating and powerful film will have you talking for days.

In a very existential move, the characters have no proper names. The first blind man (Yusuke Iseya, CASSHERN) is driving when all of a sudden everything goes white. Everyone he encounters afterward and then everyone they encounter suffers the same fate. The one exception is the wife (Julianne Moore, BOOGIE NIGHTS) of his eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME), who is the first to be put into quarantine by the government. His wife claims she is blind and comes along with him. Soon more and more people are quarantined. No doctors or staff are there to help. Men in hazmat suits drop off food each day and don’t take kindly to infected coming toward them. Scared of the increasing chaos, the doctor’s wife keeps her sight a secret.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

M. Night Shyamalan followed up his monster success on THE SIXTH SENSE with this moody take on the superhero origin story. How many days were you sick last year? How many sick days have you taken in the past three years? After walking away from a train crash without a scratch, David Dunn (Bruce Willis, DIE HARD) starts asking these questions. Is there something special about him that he has never noticed?

Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION) thinks so. Price has a disease that makes his bones extremely fragile. Breaks happen often. As a child the other kids teased him with the name Mr. Glass. He has been looking for someone like David his whole life. His mirror opposite. David doubts that he is anything more than a security guard. His marriage to his high school sweetheart Audrey (Robin Wright Penn, THE PRINCESS BRIDE) is nearing its end. He was on the train coming back from another failed interview in New York. He’s feeling anything but special. But his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark, GLADIATOR) becomes obsessed with the idea that his dad might be a real life “superman.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

The Coen Brothers’ follow-up to their Oscar-winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a quirky spy spoof that mixes the genre satire of FARGO with the dark whimsy of their films like O’ BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? Secret CIA documents. Plastic surgery. Alcoholics. Adultery. Sexaholics. Are the elements of the plot random events or building to something bigger? What’s being constructed in the basement? Who is following me in that car? Did the Russians kill my friend? We watch to find out the answers and along the way laugh out loud.

Osborne Cox (John Malkovich, DANGEROUS LIASONS) is a mid-level CIA analyst who is demoted due to his drinking problem. Offended by the implication, he quits to write his tell-all memoir. His wife Katie (Tilda Swinton, MICHAEL CLAYTON) doesn’t like this at all. She’s been finished with Osborne for quite some time, sleeping with Treasury employee Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney, OCEAN’S ELEVEN), who uses dating services to cheat on his wife. One day, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt, SEVEN), a clueless personal trainer, comes across a disk with CIA “stuff” on it. Discovering it was created by Osborne, he and his co-worker Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand, BLOOD SIMPLE) devise a hair-brained plan to blackmail the former agent. Linda wants to use the money on four cosmetic surgeries she believes she needs. Their manager Ted (Richard Jenkins, THE VISITOR) thinks its all a bad idea and believes Linda looks great just they way she is. As the plot boils, the various players will cross paths in various ways. Left to sort it all out is a CIA supervisor (J.K. Simmons, JUNO).

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Along with SHOTGUN STORIES, FROZEN RIVER makes 2008 a good year for independent film debuts. An expansion of her short film, Courtney Hunt won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for this original story set in the world of the working poor. Hunt crafts a thriller that surprises because it never loses sight of its central purpose — telling the stories of two desperate mothers. Melissa Leo and Misty Upham play these characters in remarkably subtle and touching performances.

Ray Eddy (Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA) is the mother of a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old and her gambling-addicted husband has just run off with the down payment for the doublewide trailer. In the small New York town along the Canadian border where she lives, she can only get a part-time job at the Yankee One Dollar store. Out looking for her husband at the bingo parlor, she catches Mohawk Indian Lila (Upham, SKINS) driving off in her husband’s car. While Ray is trying to take back her car, Lila says she knows a human smuggler who will buy the car for more than it’s worth. Desperate, Ray bites and ends up involved in smuggling Chinese over the border via the frozen river that separates the Mohawk reservation on the U.S. and Canadian sides.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Based on the American crime novel by Harlan Coben, TELL NO ONE is a French thriller from actor/director Guillaume Canet (starred in the Oscar-nominated JOYEUX NOEL), which harkens back to before crime stories became relegated to the CSI and LAW & ORDER TV franchises. This innocent man yarn would make Hitchcock proud as it weaves intrigue and murder and a mysterious missing woman into a touching love story. While it provides its fair share of twists and turns, the true driving force is a simple tale of a husband who truly loves his wife.

Dr. Alex Beck (Francois Cluzet, STORY OF WOMEN) and his wife Margot (Marie-Josee Croze, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) have been together since they were children. One summer day, they go to their private lake where they skinny dip. Alex’s father has recently died in a hunting accident and he is in disagreement with his sister, an equestrian star named Anne (Marina Hands, THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS), about selling the farm. This spurs an argument with Margot and she leaves Alex on a floating dock as she heads back to the car. She screams and he swims back to the dock, where he is struck unconscious.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Alan Pakula’s ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN is essentially a crime procedural that replaces cops with reporters. Winning four Oscars and nominated for four more, the Watergate investigation film was added to the 10th anniversary edition of the AFI Top 100 American films list. Bolstered by subtly in every aspect, the production is a marvel in that it works at all. At 138 minutes, it’s dialogue driven, dozens and dozens names are thrown around constantly. But William Goldman’s Oscar-winning screenplay keeps us on track and Pakula and editor Robert Wolfe (both nominated for Oscars) keep the pacing crisp and exciting. Additionally, it’s what Hitchcock always said — an audience will always sympathize with a character that does their job well. Woodward and Bernstein did their jobs very well.

The Watergate break-in story began as a local Washington D.C. report. Newbie reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford, THE STING) thought it was strange that burglars would have high-paid lawyers. He writes up the item, but it’s taken off the copy editor’s desk and rewritten by Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman, THE GRADUATE), who has more experience. Metro editor Harry Rosenfeld (Jack Warden, 12 ANGRY MEN) fights to keep the two young reporters on the job when bigger implications grow. Exec publisher Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards, MAGNOLIA) sticks his neck out for the boys, excited by a major story that could take down a president.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

The epic Oscar-winning blockbuster that captured the hearts of teenage girls for months upon its initial release, making Leonardo DiCaprio a modern-day matinee idol. James Cameron’s passion project paid off to the tune of $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office. No film since has come close to its success. Mixing a love story with a disaster tale attracted both women and men. It’s beautiful young stars brought in the young viewers, while the historic true-life disaster tale brought in older movie watchers. It was a spectacle that truly had something for everyone.

Against an epic backdrop, the story is simple. Rose Bukater (Kate Winslet, LITTLE CHILDREN) is a 17-year-old girl engaged to the wealthy heir Cal Hockley (Billy Zane, SILVER CITY). She doesn’t love him, feeling trapped in a life that was not of her choosing. Her mother Ruth (Frances Fisher, L.A. STORY) needs her to marry rich so that their future is secure, since her husband left them with nothing but debt upon his death. In total desperation, she decides to jump off the back of the ship. But third-class passenger Jack Dawson (DiCaprio, THE DEPARTED) convinces her to rethink her decision. This begins a whirlwind romance much like Romeo and Juliet, however the sinking ship will put their happily ever after in jeopardy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

The dark and cheeky comedy puts a new spin on the story of an assassin. Pierce Brosnan sheds his James Bond persona completely as a foul mouthed, boozin’ hitman. The other unique twist is how the average Joe reacts to meeting a paid killer in real life. Would you freak and lock yourself away, or would you be curious and ask what his gun looks like?

Julian Noble (Brosnan) is a flashy dresser for a man who doesn’t want to be seen killing people. He travels the globe doing hits for his bosses, because he’s one of the best. But recently he’s gotten sloppy and his drinking and whoring is becoming habitual. At the hotel bar in Mexico City, he meets struggling business man Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear, AS GOOD AS IT GETS), who is banking on a big deal. During their conversation, Noble says everything wrong offending Danny up and down, so the next day he invites Wright to the bull fights, where Danny asks that seemingly innocent question — so what do you do for a living, Julian?

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Recently named by Entertainment Weekly as the best film of the past 25 years and by the American Film Institute as the 7th best gangster film of all time, director Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece, PULP FICTION, is not unaccustomed to accolades. Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary won an Oscar for their innovative screenplay. Stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman were all nominated for acting by the Academy, which also gave nods to Tarantino as director, editor Sally Menke and producer Lawrence Bender for Best Picture. To say PULP FICTION is beloved is truly accurate, ranked near the top among movie fans on IMDB. But for filmmakers, the most important distinction is its influence. No film since has been more influential to the world of cinema.

The interlocking stories move forward and backward in time, telling the tale of wayward criminals. The story begins with low-level thug Ringo (Tim Roth, THE INCREDIBLE HULK) and his girl Yolanda (Amanda Plummer, JOE VS. THE VOLCANO) planning an impromptu robbery of a diner. As they spring to action, we spring to another story. Hitmen Vincent Vega (Travolta, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER) and Jules Winnfield (Jackson, JACKIE BROWN) are headed to an appointment. On the way, they discuss the delicate issue of foot massages as it applies to their rash gangster boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames, BABY BOY) and the feet of his wife Mia (Thurman, KILL BILL). This interchange sets up the tension of Vincent’s next assignment — taking Mia out and showing her a good time. However, the good time ends with Vincent rushing an overdosing Mia to the house of his dealer Lance (Eric Stoltz, MASK).

Read the rest of this entry »