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Stuart Gordon Programming Film Series at LA's New Beverly
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Quentin Tarantino, Retro Cinema
Starting January 15, 2009, Stuart Gordon will launch his programming series at Los Angeles' New Beverly Cinemas. The revival house, which is owned by no less than Quentin Tarantino himself, successfully launched several director and actor-driven programs over the last several years, including series by Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, Patton Oswalt, Diablo Cody, and Tarantino himself, and cult director Gordon joins their ranks with an odd and irresistible collection of films. Additionally, Gordon's festival will be followed by one programmed by Up in the Air and Juno director Jason Reitman.
Gordon fans looking for autographs or public appearances should know that the programming filmmaker, not to mention special guests, often attend these screenings to offer insights about each film or production. Also, the New Beverly also recently implemented online ticketing through their website at www.newbevcinema.com, so you can purchase seats in advance and pick them up at the box office. Most amazingly, tickets for all double features are only $7, and their concession stand is a marvel of affordability.
Gordon, of course, is the writer-director of Re-Animator, easily one of the greatest horror-comedies ever made, so bring your zombie cats and disembodied heads and come on out!
The Schedule:
Shelf Life: Magnolia
Filed under: Fandom, Quentin Tarantino, Home Entertainment, Shelf Life
Last week in my "Making the (Up) Grade" column, I featured Boogie Nights, and confessed my longtime love for the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. The Blu-ray for Boogie Nights looks glorious, and although its bonus materials don't add anything to the slate that existed on standard-definition editions, it's a must-have for almost any film fan, much less an Anderson acolyte. This week, Magnolia is being released alongside its predecessor, and rather than devote more time to saying that all that extra stuff is the same if not purely secondary, I figured I'd see if the film still fares as well as it did a decade ago, when the contact-high of Boogie Nights kept audiences intoxicated enough to ingest anything that Anderson might offer.
Mind you, I've seen Magnolia almost as many times as Boogie Nights, although its sheer girth – not to mention emotional impact has kept me from quite immersing myself in it as often. But with There Will Be Blood looming large as one of the best (if not the best) films of the '00s as people hash out their favorites from the last decade, and the post-coital glow of a recent Boogie Nights screening lingering in my immediate memory, it seemed only appropriate to make Magnolia the subject of this week's "Shelf Life."
Director's Guild A Little Too 'Precious' In Their Choices
Filed under: Awards, Quentin Tarantino, Oscar Watch
The Directors Guild of America have spoken and the Oscar experts have agreed. At least on four of the nominees. There was little doubt that the list would contain Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), James Cameron (Avatar), Jason Reitman (Up In The Air) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds). And the DGA did not disappoint or throw in an 11th hour snub of these favorites. Who would be the fifth man or woman to make the list? Would it be the story of a man either serious or single? The education of a teenage girl from London or the inner city? Aliens from Africa or the Final Frontier? Or something about Nelson Mandela's obsession with Rugby? Well the results are in and your fifth DGA nominee is:
Lee Daniels (Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire)
Serves me right for changing my prediction from Daniels to Blomkamp at the last minute. So much for guessing on the director with talent. This is the second part of the PGA/DGA/WGA trilogy that we all look towards into making our final guesstimates over what is going to be nominated for an Oscar. And it is this Guild that has maintained the best track record in steering those predictions. Since 1999, 42 of the 50 DGA nominees have seen their film nominated for Best Picture. As in most cases this year, they have a far greater chance of going 5-for-5 with this batch given that there are now 10 nominees for the grand prize. There are still only five director slots available at the Oscars though and the DGA is hitting 78% (39-of-50) in that realm the last ten years. Only twice since 1982 have the DGA directly matched the Oscar list (1998 & 2005). Does that mean bad news for Lee Daniels? Fingers and toes crossed.
WGA Disqualifies Nearly Everyone, Opens Door For Surprises
Filed under: Awards, Scripts, Quentin Tarantino, Oscar Watch
More than a few major contenders for the two Screenplay Oscars are going to miss out on their chances for one of the biggest award precursors. The Writers Guild of America will announce its nominees for Original and Adapted Screenplays on Monday and a solid batch of contenders have been deemed ineligible. This is knowledge we should have known by now, but is starting to get reported so us Oscar prognosticators don't dismiss their eventual chances.
Those of us who belong to critic groups know when a studio has dropped faith in their product for year-end accolades. They simply don't send screeners. Granted, some groups get a little more favoritism than others from the Academy on down, but one look at any studio's "For Your Consideration" site and you begin to get the picture that films like Angels & Demons don't exactly fit into their awards plans. So when Movieline reported that Harvey Weinstein failed to send out screeners to the WGA (a group that, unlike the Directors' Guild, allows such promotional refresher courses), the assumption was one that he had given up on a number of his titles. Harvey give up? The man who got The Reader nominated over The Dark Knight? The hell you say.
Todd's Top 10 of 2009
Filed under: Fandom, Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney, Best/Worst
It's absolutely true that 2009 was a great year for movies, but I'm not altogether sure that 2009 was a year for great movies. The difference, some might argue, is negligible, since there probably shouldn't be any sort of division between smarter and more substantive fare and populist entertainment. In a year like, say, 2008, that might have been true, at least where its biggest blockbuster, The Dark Knight, was concerned. But in '09, it seemed like about five people saw the "serious" movies, while everyone else was watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
That said, the value of being entertained isn't necessarily less than that of being enlightened or inspired, and box office success isn't automatically antithetical to quality. (I actually kind of liked Revenge of the Fallen, after all.) Ultimately, however, making a Top Ten list for 2009 has seemed like a more ambiguously-defined process than in previous years, because I realize that many of the movies I enjoyed were not the most meaningful or deep, and ones I admired or respected were not always the ones that readily thrilled or excited. As such, here's a list of my top ten favorite films of the year, arranged in deliberate but basically arbitrary order. By all means discuss, debate, and disagree, but I'd love it if I could get folks to see even one or two of these that they haven't already, even if it's to fortify their arguments why I'm wrong.
Scenes We Love: Inglourious Basterds
Filed under: Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I have never been the biggest Quentin Tarantino fan. Don't mistake me, I respect the guy, I admire his work, and I'm glad that he's in the world making movies -- but for reasons even I don't fully understand his movies have always left me a little cold, at least until I saw his WWII genre bender Inglourious Basterds (I know, I'm a little late to the game, but sometimes when movies are your job, you get very little time to watch them). There were so many scenes to choose from that could demonstrate just what it was about this movie that had me so hooked: Shosanna meeting her would-be murderer, Colonel Landa (*Christopher Waltz), the introduction to *Hans Stieglitz (Til Schweiger). But if forced to choose, I'm going to have to go with the scene in that little French tavern when Operation Kino comes to a grinding halt.
In one of Tarantino's best moments of on-screen tension, the audience can only watch helplessly as years of plotting to end the madness of Hitler hinges on a German movie star (Diane Kruger) and a British film critic in service of the queen against a Nazi officer with an ear for accents. If you haven't seen the movie I won't reveal how it all turns out, but lets just say Tarantino gets to put one of his best known traits as a filmmaker to good use: a (very) bloody resolution.
*Correction: Proving that typos can get the best of anyone: Schweiger played the Nazi-killing Hugo Stiglitz and Landa was brought to life by Christoph Waltz.
After the jump: "We ain't in the prisoner-taking business..."
Cinematical Seven: Best Mayhem of 2009
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Foreign Language, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Lionsgate Films, Magnolia, Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, The Weinstein Co., Family Films, Dreamworks, Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Cinematical Seven, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Lists, Best/Worst, War
At this time last year, I was proudly tasked with chronicling 2008's finest moments in "big-screen mayhem, violence, destruction and other such shenanigans." I've still opted to sort these sequences out by specific manner of cinematic excess, and I've swapped out a category for "Most Tasteless Slaughter" (think effectively restrained moments of off-screen violence) for "Most Ridiculous Action" (think the exact opposite of that).
As usual, your comments/suggestions are welcome, and as usual, we didn't intentionally leave any titles off. Besides, if we went ahead and listed every single action or horror flick from 2009, what fun would that be?
Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 12/15
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Independent, New on DVD, Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
What will you buy, rent, or skip this week?
Inglourious Basterds
Creating even more of a talk-fest than usual, Quentin Tarantino rewrote history and plundered World War II iconography with his customary breezy aplomb. Christoph Waltz steals the show as a thoroughly charming, incredibly evil Nazi, overshadowing ostensible star Brad Pitt. Tarantino's films always reward multiple viewings. (Read more: Todd Gilchrist's review for Cinematical.) Buy it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
The Hangover
Raucously funny, Todd Phillips' version of "one crazy bachelor party night in Vegas" is smutty as a freshman dorm room, enlivened by pleasantly off-key performances by Ed Helm and Zach Galifianakis. Appearances by Mike Tyson and a tiger add spice. (Read more: Eric D. Snider's review for Cinematical.) An unrated version is now available. Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Taking Woodstock
Ang Lee's period recreation took a critical drubbing, but even the director's least successful offerings have provided a modicum of redeeming virtues. (Read more: Jenni Miller's review for Cinematical: "I was surprised at how much I liked this little movie.") Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
G-Force
Guinea pigs gone wild! Producer Jerry Bruckheimer ventures into animation with an all-star voice cast. (Read more: Eric D. Snider's review for Cinematical: "In 2009, you can watch animated rodents save the world and still think, "Meh. What else you got?") Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Also out: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard; The Other Man.
More after the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray, and Collector's Corner.
Cinematical Seven: The Coolest Jewesses On Film
Filed under: Fandom, Quentin Tarantino, Cinematical Seven
Hanukkah is upon us, but before I go steal gelt from small children and bet money on the dreidels before passing out into a latke-induced coma, I've cooked up a small slice of Jewy goodness for you to enjoy and/or argue about. Although it's apparently cool to be Jewish these days, some of these ladies made it work even when it wasn't, bringing their savvy and sexy ways to the screen one way or another. While some particular laddy mags point out that Jewesses are so hot now because of more "exotic"-looking ladies like Mélanie Laurent (she's blonde!), I think they're just behind the times. But no matter how hard or easy the road to fame was for them, all of these ladies make me wanna bust out a giant gold Chai necklace and drink some Manischewitz in their honor. There are plenty I had to leave out for the sake of time and space, so add your faves in the comments.
The Best of the Decade: Action Flicks
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Disney, Lionsgate Films, Magnolia, New Line, Paramount, Sony, Sony Classics, Universal, Warner Brothers, Focus Features, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Johnny Depp, Peter Jackson, James Bond, Lists, Miramax, Best/Worst, War, Daniel Craig
Cinematical is about to launch into our best-of-the-'00s series, with a different writer tackling a different genre over these last few weeks of the aughts (or whatever it was we decided to call this decade). Yours truly has been tasked with sifting out the most exciting action flicks these years have had to offer, and in the list-making equivalent of flinching, I've decided to divide them up by superlative instead of ranking them in order of awesomeness.
Oh, and before you comment away about what's missing (which we do want), I have left off The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, X2: X-Men United and The Incredibles, so they may be included in any superhero or animated list to come. If those movies are left off those lists, then by all means, give them hell. I might even join you.
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
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