George Clooney Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Theatrical Reviews », 20th Century Fox », Family Films »
By Todd Gilchrist (reprint from 11/3/09 -- AFI Film Festival)
It's not hard to like any movie that uses the Beach Boys' music, but Wes Anderson makes it especially easy. As Hollywood's foremost purveyor of hipster drama, his pedigree as a reliable selector of appropriately wistful, poignant and all-around unforgettable songs is virtually unrivaled, but Fantastic Mr. Fox exceeds even the work of his earlier films, using "Heroes and Villains," and later, "I Get Around" as populist punctuation that manages to be both specifically relevant and substantively rousing.
As an animated opus, the film is by necessity his most controlled to date, a painstakingly-designed dollhouse where he no longer controls just the music, sets, and costumes, but the performers themselves. Ironically, however, it feels like his loosest as well - a gloriously unwieldy comedy of manners submerged in the minutiae of Anderson's madcap creativity. All of which makes Fantastic Mr. Fox a celebration both of its stop-motion medium and Anderson's aesthetic, while still managing to fully document the spectacular fun in original author Roald Dahl's daffy, distinctive imagination.
Jason Reitman's Interview Pie Chart
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », New Releases », Paramount », Fandom », Movie Marketing », George Clooney », Images »
Jason Reitman, whose next film Up in the Air comes out on December 4th, posted a very funny image on Twitter recently – a pie chart detailing the different things that people have asked him in recent interviews. The top three were about George Clooney (111 people), the economy (96 people), and his next project (78 people). The fourth is a little more confusing, as it just reads "Real People," so apparently 77 people asked him about real people. Maybe they wanted to know if the people being laid off in the movie were real people? Who's to say what goes through the murky depths of the mind of a journalist?
I humbly ask Jason Reitman to make a pie chart of his answers. Here's what I picture it to look like.
111 people: "Clooney is such a prankster! But he's also a great serious actor. He's the Cary Grant of our times. Sometimes we have moustache contests."
96 people: "The economy sucks. Seriously though, I've never been laid off, but if I had to be laid off, I'd hope George Clooney would do it."
78 people: "My next project will be with George Clooney. Actually, it will be catching up on all the sleep I lost talking to you people and answering the same damn questions over and over again."
In one jpeg, Reitman manages to sum up the exhausting paces that filmmakers, actors, musicians, et al are put through to get their names and faces and projects out there, the laziness of some journalists, and the terror that faces every journalist that wants to be good at what they do and engender an interesting discussion that is hopefully pleasant and/or illuminating (but at the very least not boring) for everyone involved, including the reader.
If you could ask Jason Reitman anything, what would it be?
'Up in the Air' Songs Pulled from Oscar Race
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Awards », Paramount », RumorMonger », Oscar Watch »
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Well, it's November, which means the awards contenders are steadily coming out of the woodwork, and just as we have the Academy Awards to look forward to, we also have their fine print to tolerate. The first of this year's disqualifications naturally come from the music end of things, the same category that didn't see fit to honor the tremendous original scores composed for The Dark Knight last year and There Will Be Blood the year before that.According to Kris Tapley over at In Contention, both "Up in the Air" and "Help Yourself" from Jason Reitman's Up in the Air have been pulled out of the Best Original Song race. The former was written by Kevin Renick before he met Reitman (the song is presented in the film as it was presented to the filmmaker, with homemade introduction and all), not to mention that it comes halfway into the credits when only the first song over them can qualify. (Really, AMPAS?)
And a portion of the latter had existed earlier in Sad Brad Smith's career and thus means the song itself was not created in full for the film. It's an earnest and catchy tune, used prominently in the trailers and well in the film (and now available on iTunes, cough), but it now looks like those are two more slots left to be dominated by Disney's latest...
Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats
Filed under: New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », George Clooney »
We're told at the beginning of The Men Who Stare at Goats that "more of this is true than you would believe." But the story of the U.S. Army's attempts to harness psychic powers to create super-soldiers is so bizarre it almost HAS to be true, in accordance with the "how could anyone make this up?" principle. In fact, I believe more of this admittedly fictionalized story than I do of The Fourth Kind, which claims to be 100 percent true. Surely there's a lesson in there.
Based on Jon Ronson's nonfiction book, The Men Who Stare at Goats stars Ewan McGregor as Bob Wilton, a journalist covering the Iraq War in 2003. Bob meets a man named Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a private contractor with an unusual past: He claims to have worked for the government as a psychic spy. Bob once met a man, back home in Michigan (played by Stephen Root), who made the same claims, and who named Lyn Cassady as one of his colleagues.
You can see why the military would be interested in psychic spying. Surveillance is a lot less dangerous when you can do it entirely with your mind, rather than having to actually sneak up and eavesdrop on people. And if we could harness things like telekinesis, well, forget about it! We'd beat the Russkies for sure!
A Peek at George Clooney Voicing 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
Filed under: Action », Animation », Comedy », Fox Searchlight », Family Films », George Clooney », Trailers and Clips »
Yahoo! has posted an incredibly cool video of George Clooney acting out his role as Mr. Fox in the freakin' adorable Fantastic Mr. Fox. The video shows cool side-by-side comparisons of Clooney acting out different scenes on a farm with costar Wallace Wolodarsky, who voices loopy sidekick Kylie, as well as just running around pretending to be Mr. Fox, down to rolling around on the ground and doing his super cool whistle. This behind-the-scenes peek at Mr. Fox also offers mini-interviews with director Wes Anderson, producer Allison Abbate, and Bill Murray (Badger) about working with Clooney on the film. The funniest part shows an argument between Mr. Fox and Badger, which involves growling and swiping, split-screened against the actors themselves doing the voices in an office.
As Abbate notes, "There couldn't be a more perfect Mr. Fox, because he has the Cary Grant suave, debonair sparkle where he can talk his way out of any situation, which is so our Mr. Fox character. He's just got a great voice."
Clooney's got a rather full docket this season, with The Men Who Stare at Goats coming out this week, Fantastic Mr. Fox coming out at the end of November, and Up in the Air out on Christmas day.
Click through to see the video itself, then let us know which Clooney feature you're going to be lining up for at the theaters this season, by cuss!
Discuss: Which Trailers Are You Sick Of?
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Drama », Mystery & Suspense », Paramount », Focus Features », George Clooney », Trailers and Clips »
I'm grateful for this Friday, because that's the day that The Men Who Stare at Goats comes out and I can stop seeing its trailer relentlessly attached to anything and everything I see (and given that I try to see most anything and everything out there, it's really only a 'me' problem, I suppose). One night, I had myself a triple feature and saw the preview not one, not two, but three times; as a pal put it, he had "more than a feeling" that I was getting sick of it.Before that, it was a summer of Taking Woodstock time and time again, and it would already seem that Shutter Island's move to February will insure that I'll be sitting there, trying to piece the thing together for the next three months when not perfecting my New England Leo impersonation.
So, whether currently or in your own formative years, what trailers have you been just absolutely burnt out on? Did you and your friends quote along with them as they played? Were you actually ever turned off from seeing a film because you had it advertised to you too much? Come on, let it all out...
Exclusive 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' Character Posters
Filed under: Comedy », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Posters »
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Click below to view the full versions of all posters
Cinematical has just received these four exclusive character posters for The Men Who Stare at Goats, which hits theaters this Friday, November 6th. And yes, we freely admit that it sorta freaks us out to see four dudes eerily staring down goats in the above (and below) posters, partly because we never ever thought we'd be premiering posters that feature George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey all staring at goats, but also because, well, Spacey looks like he wants to make out with the animal.
Based on the book by Jon Ronson and directed by Grant Heslov, The Men Who Stare At Goats follows a reporter (Ewan McGregor) who stumbles across a fantastical story about a secret unit in the US military that employs paranormal powers in their missions. Reviewing the film from Fantastic Fest, Cinematical's William Goss called it "unpredictable" and "amusing", and after you scope out the four character posters below, feel free to check out the trailer after the jump.
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AFI Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Festival Reports », Fox Searchlight », George Clooney », Other Festivals »
It's not hard to like any movie that uses the Beach Boys' music, but Wes Anderson makes it especially easy. As Hollywood's foremost purveyor of hipster drama, his pedigree as a reliable selector of appropriately wistful, poignant and all-around unforgettable songs is virtually unrivaled, but Fantastic Mr. Fox exceeds even the work of his earlier films, using "Heroes and Villains," and later, "I Get Around" as populist punctuation that manages to be both specifically relevant and substantively rousing.
As an animated opus, the film is by necessity his most controlled to date, a painstakingly-designed dollhouse where he no longer controls just the music, sets, and costumes, but the performers themselves. Ironically, however, it feels like his loosest as well - a gloriously unwieldy comedy of manners submerged in the minutiae of Anderson's madcap creativity. All of which makes Fantastic Mr. Fox a celebration both of its stop-motion medium and Anderson's aesthetic, while still managing to fully document the spectacular fun in original author Roald Dahl's daffy, distinctive imagination.
George Clooney in Talks for Alexander Payne's 'The Descendants'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Casting »
While he's one of the main men of superstardom, George Clooney also keeps one foot firmly in the world of quirk and strangeness. He may be Mr. Ocean, but he's also the dude who was in Return of the Killer Tomatoes and The Men Who Stare at Goats. Clooney knows how to be ridiculous, and now he's jumping into a whole new world of quirk.Variety reports that the actor is in talks to star in the new Alexander Payne dramedy The Descendants. His first feature since Sideways, the film got cooking back in August and follows a rich landowner and father who decides to grab his two hard-to-handle daughters and search for his wife's lover in an attempt to keep his family together -- while she's in a coma after a catamaran accident. ...I still can't fathom the logic behind this one.
This is definitely one of those it's about time! collaborations. Clooney has skirted around the world of Payne with the likes of David O. Russell and Grant Heslov, while Payne grabbed the likes of Matthew Broderick and Paul Giamatti. It's surprising that this didn't come sooner. While Payne's I want to be a little person story still sounds a touch more tantalizing, it's hard to resist the idea of George getting into the mind that brought us Election and Sideways. But the real magic will depend on who gets cast alongside him...
Depp, DiCaprio and Clooney Eye Scorsese's 'Sinatra' Biopic
Filed under: Drama », Music & Musicals », Casting », Universal », RumorMonger », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Johnny Depp », George Clooney »
Frank Sinatra is still what many (if not all) red-blooded man aspire to be. Playing him in a Martin Scorsese biopic is not only a dream job for any actor, it's wish fulfillment on the highest level. Is it any surprise that the some of the biggest names in Hollywood are said to by vying for the role of Old Blue Eyes? The Guardian reports that Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and George Clooney are in fierce competition to land the part, with Universal executives allegedly pushing hardest for the marketable Depp.It's a tough thing to cast someone like Sinatra. While I certainly like all three men as actors in their own right, I think their own fame makes it impossible for them to disappear under the skin of an icon. This isn't exactly Howard Hughes or John Dillinger, figures that an actor can shape from facts and bits of footage, but still make their own. This is a man we're all familiar with from countless movies, concerts, albums, and television appearances. How do you portray that honestly with Depp, DiCaprio, or Clooney? If forced to choose from the three, I'd pick DiCaprio purely because of the physical resemblance, and politely suggest Clooney play Dean Martin.
Personally, I hope Scorsese finds a semi-unknown for the part (someone on the level of Tom Hardy -- who might actually be really good now that he's sprung to my mind) and steers clear of the A-List. The actor lucky and brave enough won't have to sing, as Universal and Mandalay spent 2 years clearing the rights to Sinatra's catalog, but he still has to be someone you believe to possess that voice. Would you cast one of the Big Three above? Or do you have someone else in mind?
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
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