With the 2008 Festival de Cannes right around the corner, we thought we'd give you a preview of the films we're most excited about watching at this year's fest. From Indy to Angelina, there's something for everyone this year -- and while Cinematical's James Rocchi and Kim Voynar set up camp in France (daily coverage starts Wednesday), here are the ten films we're looking forward to the most. To get started, just click on any of the images below to find out more about that film ...
DIRECTED BY: Kelly Reichardt STARS: Michelle Williams, Will Patton
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Wendy and Lucy, helmed by Old Joy director Kelly Reichardt, stars Michelle Williams as Wendy, who's traveling by car with her dog Lucy, on her way to Alaska for a summer gig at a fish cannery, when her car breaks down somewhere in Oregon. Wendy's dog is taken to the pound, her threadbare finances start to unravel, and she has to make a series of "increasingly dire economic decisions."
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Reichardt's Old Joy was one of the best films of 2005 and showed her flair for making small feels that delve deeply into intimate relationships. Wendy and Lucy screens in the Un Certain Regard section of the fest and, according to Screen Daily, is the only film in competition that was received by post, unsolicited by the festival. If it stood out enough to the Cannes programming staff to make the cut as an unsolicited submission, we're betting on it being as good, or even better than, Old Joy.
DIRECTED BY: Woody Allen STARS: Scarlett Johannson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Woody Allen's first film shot in Spain uses Barcelona as the backdrop for a tale of two young Americans, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johannson). Vicky's the straightlaced one, Cristina's the "sexually adventurous free spirit." The pair meet an artist (Javier Bardem, sporting a much better hairdo -- and, hopefully, attitude -- than he did in No Country for Old Men) and his lovely but insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). Much sexual trysting, including a reportedly hot sex scene between Johannson and Cruz and a three-way with the two ladies and Bardem, ensues. This being a Woody Allen film, we don't know a whole lot else about the plot at this point, but really, do we need to?
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Aside from the promise of those steamy sex scenes, a Woody Allen film is always intriguing. He can be a little uneven from film to film, sure, but watching a new Woody Allen film for the first time is a lot like opening a Christmas present from your wacky, eccentric old aunt: you never know whether you're going to get something really cool, like a gorgeous piece of heirloom jewelry -- or an olive-drab, hand-crocheted toilet paper cozy. But it's still fun to unwrap it and see what's inside.
DIRECTED BY: Charlie Kaufman STARS: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Tilda Swinton
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes his directorial debut with this film, which stars the ever-excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden, a playwright who finds that his autonomic functions are shutting down just as he begins a new play. We don't know much about it, other than it explores Caden's relationships with the various women in his life around the backdrop of the staging of the play, and that Catherine Keener plays his first wife, Michelle Williams his second wife, and Samantha Morton his lover. Like the previous films Kaufman has written, this one is supposed to explore blurrings of reality, and it's been described as kind of like a horror film, but not really. Trippy.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
With talent like this, what's not to be excited about? Hoffman is consistently good in every film he takes on, the female roles are filled by women who excel in strong roles for women, and the quirky, brilliant Kaufman has penned some of our favorite films ever (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Being John Malcovich). Kaufman wrote the script for Synedoche, NY, and reportedly signed on to direct after Spike Jonze, who was pegged to helm the film, decided to take a walk on the wild side with Where the Wild Things Are. It's going to be interesting to see if Kaufman's directorial eye is as sharp as his pen.
DIRECTED BY: Clint Eastwood STARS: Angelina Jolie, John Malcovich
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort, written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, is a late-1920s period drama about a real-life kidnapping and murder case. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a working-class mother whose 10-year-old son disappears. When her son is "found" some months later, she knows the boy police say is her son is a different child, but no one will believe her, and she can't get police to try to solve the case. The police chief has the distraught mom locked away in a psych ward, and a fiery Presbyterian evangelist, Gustav Briegleb (played by John Malkovich) rallies public support for Collins to find out what really happened to her son.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Eastwood's directorial efforts of late have been solid and satisfying. He had a bit of a directorial lull after 1992's stellar Unforgiven, but since then has made critically acclaimed films with Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. While we're not entirely sure how we feel about Straczynski penning a period drama, his solid character and storyline development with Babylon 5 speaks to his talent as a writer, and Jolie is a solid choice to play the lead. Changeling looks to be one of the most interesting films in the competition at Cannes.
Directed by: Atom Egoyan Stars: Arsinée Khanjian, Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard, Devon Bostick
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
A high school French teacher (Egoyan's wife, Arsinée Khanjian, who has been in many of his films) gives her class an assignment to translate a news story about a terrorist who plants a bomb on his pregnant girlfriend and puts her on a plane. One of her students, Simon (Devon Bostick), becomes obsessed with the story, imagining himself to be the couples' child. He creates a new identity on the internet to allow him to discover the truth about his family.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
The Canadian director is best known for The Sweet Hereafter, which debuted at Cannes in 1997 and earned him duel Oscar nods, as well as Exotica and Ararat. With Adoration, Egoyan returns to making a smaller, more intimate film, after a bigger Hollywood effort with 1995's Where the Truth Lies. The storyline sounds potentially a bit convoluted, but given our own adoration of most things Egoyan, we're excited to see what he does with it.
There's been much buzzing around the Cinematical virtual office over the past few days about Speed Racer. James pretty much liked it (for a kids' movie), Scott pretty much hated it, and Eugene seems, well, a bit disappointed. We just got back from taking the crew to see Speed Racer.
Last week at the same time, we were at Iron Man, and the theater was almost completely packed, with only front row seats left by the time the previews started. This week, same time, exact same theater, even, and there were maybe 20 people total. And I have to say, if the Wachowskis are aiming for the kiddie market with this film, as many seem to think, I think they've largely missed their mark. Aside from the largely empty matinee theater, there were a couple of signs during the screening that this movie wasn't playing well to the kiddie set.
Ever the astute observer, both of movies and of real life, Roger Ebert posted on his shiny new blog today a great post wondering what Hillary and Bill: The Movie might look like. Ebert talks about great political movies of the past, especially noting two of my own faves, Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog and Warren Beatty's fantastic Bulworth (two of the best political movies ever made). He ponders what a movie -- a narrative, not a documentary -- following the private moments of Hillary and Bill Clinton, during the last days of this seemingly endless primary campaign, might look like. Ebert writes:
Yet there must have been private moments of despair. The two realists, as able as anyone to read the trends, must have spoken privately about their shrinking options. And on Tuesday night, as Hillary's double-digit lead in Indiana dwindled to very small single digits, there must have come a time when one of them said, "We've lost this thing."
What were those moments like? What kept them going between themselves? Did they encourage one another, or was there an unspoken pact not to voice the unspeakable? Was there blame when Bill had one of his unwise moments? Did their shared past, of success and scandal, enter into it, or were they absorbed in this moment?
In answering those questions, there you would find the movie.
Hmmm ... well, file this one under "this could be an interesting casting decision." Variety reported yesterday that Ellen Page, who's been one of my favorite young actresses since I saw her in Hard Candy, has signed on to play one of classic literature's greatest (and most adapted) heroines, Jane Eyre, in an adaptation for BBC.
On the one hand, I can see Page physically in the role -- she looks very like the waif-like Jane in the ancient hardcover edition of the book I inherited from my great-grandmother, all narrow-faced and doe-eyed. And she's certainly proven that she has the acting chops to take on a serious role (see her performances in both Hard Candy and An American Crime).
Of late, though, she's become so identified with the snarky, wise-cracking teenagers she played in Juno and Smart People, that it may be a bit hard now to wash the modern, smart-mouthed teen out of our collective viewing palettes. I say this as a fan of both Page and Juno -- and Lord knows, I've taken enough crap here and elsewhere for loving Juno over the last year -- but I'm trying to wrap my mind around Page as one of the most depressing heroines in literature (all right, Wuthering Heights' Cathy is perhaps more depressing, but until the very end of the book, Jane Eyre isn't what I'd call cheery and uplifting).
The Twilight teaser trailer is up over on MySpace, and it's short (oh, so short!), but pretty damn sweet (you can watch it above as well). What we do see of Bella and Edward, and the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson looks good. We get a feel for how Catherine Hardwicke is handling the vampires' ability to move faster-than-life, and see a snippet of the scene where Tyler nearly runs over Bella with his van, only to have Edward zip in out of nowhere and save her. It's one of my favorite scenes from the book -- it's really the first moment when Bella comes to realize that there's more to Edward than what she sees, and it looks like Hardwicke has captured that moment well.
My only real complaints are that it's short (I want more!) and that we don't see Alice or Jacob, or the trio of bad vampires. I know, I know, more will be coming, but I'm impatient. Oh, and also ... is it just me, or do Edward's eyes look too normal? I want to see golden eyes, topaz eyes ... "good" vampire eyes!
Alright, Twilighters, I know you're out there, and you always have plenty to say on everything Twilight. What do you think of this teaser-trailer? Are you liking the look and feel of what you've seen so far? And most importantly, how, oh how, are you going to wait until December 12, when the movie finally hits theaters?
Last night we took the crew to see Iron Man. You can read James's and Scott's reviews of the film, but I'll just add that this movie ROCKS, and in case you're a parent debating whether to bring your kids to see it, I felt that what violence is in the film is mostly cartoonish, Indiana Jones-level stuff, so if your kids can handle those films, they'll be fine. All of my kids were engaged in the film from start to finish, and there was nothing in it that scared them as much and that damn sea lion in Happy Feet.
But I digress. Before the film, of course, they had the usual array of trailers (Speed Racer, Indy 4, Prince Caspian), and one of them was for The Dark Knight. Now, I've generally been avoiding seeing or reading too much about The Dark Knight, so this was the first time I'd seen the trailer. And my reaction to it was ... I don't know if I want to see this film. Much as I love Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart, I just found the scenes of Heath Ledger as the Joker oddly painful to watch.
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's Sugar, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Half Nelson, has finally been picked up for distribution. Variety's Mike Jones reports the film has been acquired for theatrical distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, which seems like a good fit for the film. HBO Films, which financed the film, retains television rights.
Sugar, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, felt at the time like a tough sell after Half Nelson; it still does. The film, which is subtitled, tells the tale of a young baseball star from the Dominican Republic who crashes after getting moved up to the big leagues. It's really very much a coming-of-age kind of tale about this young boy who grew up poor but talented, always believing baseball to be his one ticket out.
Holy Cullens! Hold onto your seats, all you Twilight fanatics. This is the first official ensemble piece with final hair, makeup and costume (those other photos, we believe, were test shots, but this one gives our first official look at the characters inside the Twilight universe) Click on the image for a larger view -- you know you want to -- then let's take a moment to dissect the loveliness, shall we?
We've been covering the various bits of Twilight news, set visit write-ups and behind-the-scenes goodies extensively here, but this is the first time that we've seen the cast in character like this. Aside from the fact that the image looks totally cool and perfectly captures that "Twilight-vibe," can I just say that any doubts anyone out there is still harboring about Robert Pattinson as Edward should be totally laid to rest by this picture?
Who's excited about Iron Man? We are, we are! And we know you, like us, are counting the days -- nay, the hours -- until May 2, when Iron Man hits the big screen. In the meantime, though, we have this little behind-the-scenes tidbit from Moviefone's recent Unscripted interview with the Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr., Jon Favreau and Terrence Howard, interviewing each other with your questions.
The clip above (which is not included in the full interview over on Moviefone) is short, but funny -- how can you not like a video that includes Robert Downey, Jr. talking in a Jersey accent and saying, "What?! You feeling froggy, bitch? Jump!" Oh, yeah. If only I'd been there myself for this, perhaps Downey, Jr. would finally recognize his long unrequited love for me. Oh, wait, I'm the one who's had a crush on him forever ... ah, well.
Oh my, oh Miley. Blogs around the internet are buzzing over these photos of 15-year-old Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. Movie City News' David Poland, writing about the pics on his Hot Blog, said, "People do know that 15-year-old breasts, while they really have no business being shown in public, do exist, whether covered in a sheet or a t-shirt, right?" (Poland has the full picture up on his website, I'm not going to put it up here. You can see it there or on Vanity Fair.)
Well, yes, we know that 15-year-old girls have 15-year-old breasts, but that does that make it appropriate for a magazine to publish photos of a half-naked teenager? Whether because the folks over at Disney, where Cyrus's show Hannah Montana is one of its biggest properties, pitched a bitch about the photos, or because she's genuinely mortified by the photos in retrospect, Cyrus issued a statement to fans that said, in part, "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed."
There's been much buzzing around the Cinematical virtual office over the past few days about Speed Racer. 
Ever the astute observer, both of movies and of real life, Roger Ebert 
Hmmm ... well, file this one under "this could be an interesting casting decision." 
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Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's Sugar, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Half Nelson, has finally been picked up for distribution. Variety's Mike Jones 
Oh my, oh Miley. Blogs around the internet are buzzing over these photos of 15-year-old Hannah Montana star 
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