TheAirIBreathe Tagged Articles at Cinematical
A Depressing, Star-Studded Trailer for 'Fireflies in the Garden'
Filed under: Berlin », Distribution », Trailers and Clips »
Let's see: a serious, multigenerational, semi-autobiographical family drama starring Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson and Julia Roberts -- it sure sounds like Oscar buzz for Fireflies in the Garden should have gotten turned up to 11 by now. There hasn't really been any; the bad reviews from the film's out-of-competition premiere at Berlin probably didn't help. Still, that cast is tough to beat (there's also Ryan Reynolds, Carrie Anne-Moss and Hayden Panettierre), and the movie should be able to land with at least a minor splash if its eventual US distributor puts in a bit of effort.There's now a full international trailer up at one of the film's websites. If the movie does indeed suck, the trailer doesn't telegraph the suckage -- it makes the film look solid, respectable. The reviews, on the other hand, make it sound embarrassing, with the sort of logistical difficulties (Texas failing to stand in for Chicago; implausible casting of younger and older versions of the same characters) that shouldn't really plague a production this high-profile.
Director Dennis Lee is making his feature debut after directing a well-received short film called Jesus Henry Christ. It's a heck of a pedigree for a first film, though the scenario and the reviews (and the director's last name) make me think of Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe -- a feature debut by a director with a strong short on his resume, and a spectacular cast, that turned out to be completely unwatchable.
Review: The Air I Breathe
Filed under: Drama », Independent », ThinkFilm », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »
It is interesting to learn that filmmaker Jieho Lee has a fondness for the ending of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. However, it is not so interesting to realize that he can't let go of this fondness enough to create a genuine film moment of his own. For instance, there is one significant scene in Lee's The Air I Breathe that plays so much like an homage to the final shot of Cabiria that it takes away from the actual film it is a part of. The scene involves a major character's death, so it's hard to go into detail without spoiling it for you, but I can say that recognizing the blatant tribute may cause you to feel less for that character than you should otherwise during that scene. After all, it is difficult to care about a character that comes off as simply a tool for Lee's unnecessary acknowledgment, or re-creation, of a part of a favorite film.
Maybe I just shouldn't read a film's press notes prior to watching it (I don't usually), as I might not have caught the homage without noting Lee's mention of Cabiria in his director's statement. And perhaps I wouldn't have been thinking about Lee's other influences, from The Wizard of Oz to Samuel Fuller's The Naked Kiss, and unfairly comparing The Air I Breathe to them. But it doesn't matter, because The Air I Breathe would still feel completely derivative without knowledge of the exact works that inspired Lee. To me, despite what I learned from the press notes, the film was mostly reminiscent of Inarritu's Amores Perros, and not only because of where it was filmed, how it interconnects multiple stories or the fact that it features a bank robbery, a female celebrity confined to an apartment and an obligatory car accident of some kind.
Trailer Park: But Is It Funny?
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Drama », Horror », Trailer Trash », Trailers and Clips »
While going through all the new trailers this week I came across an interesting handful that might seem to be humorous, but may in fact be something else. The week on Trailer Park we ask "But Is It Funny?"
Teeth
The tale of a girl with a carnivorous vagina? That must be a work of high camp, right? Apparently not judging from both the trailer and Scott Weinberg's review in which words like "witty, intelligent and darkly insightful" were bandied about. A teenage girl named Dawn, still finding out about her body and her own sexuality, discovers that she has teeth in her nether regions. In the preview we see Dawn giving her gynecologist a nasty surprise. This looks fascinating and original and it goes into limited release in February.
'The Air I Breathe' Trailer Hits the Net
Filed under: Drama », Distribution », Trailers and Clips »
Almost two years ago, back in January of 2006, Cinematical first posted about the upcoming film called The Air I Breathe. While it went away for a bit, the film is finally gearing up for limited release in January, and a trailer has made its way online, courtesy of Aglet Productions. Coming from writer/director Jieho Lee (and co-written with Bob DeRosa), Breathe is a drama based on the Chinese proverb that says life is based on four emotional elements -- happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love. Sure, this sounds like a film with four unrelated vignettes, but it's actually looking to be a rather dark story where each emotion intertwines with the others.Lee uses them to tell the stories of a businessman who bets his life on a horse (Forest Whitaker as Happiness), a gangster who can see the future (Brendan Fraser as Pleasure), a popstar who falls victim to a crime boss (Sarah Michelle Gellar as Sorrow), and a doctor trying to save the love of his life (Kevin Bacon as love). As if that wasn't enough for a solid starter cast, the film also boasts the likes of Andy Garcia, Emile Hirsch, and Julie Delpy. All of these people are interconnected through a dark and seemingly desperate backdrop. The only thing that's funny about all of this is that Gellar is playing a woman famous for her singing and dancing (she sings when she has to, but as Once More with Feeling will attest, she's no an American Idol). Still, it's a good trailer, and if these clips are any indication, it should be one heck of a film. And at the very least, it's got to be better than Southland Tales!
[via Empire Online]
Mark Helfrich to Direct 'Five Killers'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Lionsgate Films »
Lionsgate must be very happy with its upcoming comedy Good Luck Chuck. The movie is the directorial debut of Mark Helfrich (unless you count his second-unit work on Critters), who is better known as Brett Ratner's editor of choice. According to Variety, the studio has already signed Helfrich for a follow-up, this time trusting him with an action-thriller titled Five Killers. The movie is yet another hitman story, and it sounds like a lot of other movies we've seen before. You know the plot: a perfect hitman or assassin becomes the target of other hitmen. Let's see, there's The Bourne Identity, Assassins, Grosse Point Blank, Road to Perdition, this weekend's new release Shoot 'em Up and the upcoming Hitman. And there's certainly more indie neo-noirs that I didn't bother to see and so can't cite as examples (feel free to list them in the comments section -- I know I'm forgetting some classics). This one was written by Bob DeRosa, who co-scripted Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe, which screened earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. DeRosa is currently co-writing Lee's next movie, an adaptation of the video game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. I have a feeling that Five Killers will be heavily influenced by Ratner, because Helfrich probably has the guy's style imprinted in his brain after editing all three Rush Hour movies, as well as The X-Men: Last Stand, After the Sunset, Red Dragon and others. Actually, Helfrich has worked on a lot of bad action movies, such as I Come in Peace, Striking Distance, Stone Cold and Action Jackson. It would be great if he learned something from John McTiernan back while editing Predator or even from Tony Scott while working on The Last Boy Scout, but it's doubtful. Five Killers will be produced by Christopher Pratt (The Air I Breathe) and Chad Martin. We will get our first chance to see Helfrich's worth when Good Luck Chuck is released September 21. As for The Air I Breathe, with which we can judge DeRosa, the film currently has no release date in the U.S. (it opens in the UK on December 14.
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