TwoLovers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As last year, I want to use this space to highlight some terrific films that came down the pike in the first six months of the year -- and merrily continued down the pike without anyone giving much of a damn. This happens to a host of deserving movies every year; given how much of a miracle it is when an indie actually takes off, there's no avoiding it. But these seven are eminently worth your time; at the very least, I promise they're interesting. Give them a shot.

1. Two Lovers (James Gray) -- Actually my favorite film of the year, this melancholy character study is carried out with such painstaking attention to detail that it becomes akin to one of Henry Selick's stop-motion miracles -- watching it inspires a sort of awe. This is James Gray's follow-up to We Own the Night, and Gray has announced himself as one of our most important newcomers, a master at creating living, breathing, populated, real universes for his characters to inhabit. [Now on DVD.]

2. Julia (Erick Zonca) - This movie barely saw theaters at all -- I saw it in a one-week run courtesy of our local Film Society -- but it might have been a decent investment for an actual distributor. Though it has someone profoundly unpleasant at its center -- the perpetually drunk and nasty title character, played by the incredible Tilda Swinton -- it eventually turns into a remarkably tense little thriller, complete with a classic kidnapping scenario and a chance for the rotten protagonist's redemption. [On DVD August 18th.]

"Slim pickings" is the best way to describe this week's releases. Isn't anyone planning to stay home and watch DVDs?

Two Lovers
Joaquin Phoenix can't decide between Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw. Directed by James Gray, this suffocating drama is dark, thoughtful, and "more true to real human existence than most of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood studios," wrote Kim Voynar. I wasn't quite as impressed by it as she was, but it's still my top pick in a slow week. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

12 Rounds
Wrestler John Cena stars in Renny Harlin's latest train wreck (as I described it in my review), a sober drama that resolutely refuses to embrace its loonier plot elements (fire engine smashing through New Orleans, an out-of-control street car). Aidan Gillen (The Wire) provides one of the few pleasures as an exceptionally-nasty master criminal. Also on Blu-ray. The "Extreme Cut" adds less than three minutes of footage. Skip it.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
I was hoping against hope that this might provide some cheesy fun, but Nick Schager slammed that door shut: "Fighting sequences are dreadfully lethargic ... their choreography is of a dull, unimaginative sort." Not even Kristin Kreuk can save this one. Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

Also out: Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience.

After the jump: "Indies on DVD" provides several good rental choices, a landmark film by Spike Lee hits Blu-ray, and a long-dismissed effort by director Hal Ashby gets dusted off.

Have you been secretly sneak previewing films before they open in theaters? I'm not talking about illegally downloading a big Hollywood flick like X-Men Origins: Wolverine or buying cheap pirate DVDs on the street. Indie distributors IFC Films and Magnolia Pictures have been pioneers in making their releases available via video on demand (VOD) systems, as reported by Anne Thompson at Variety last summer. IFC releases some titles direct to VOD, bypassing theaters entirely, while others are released to theaters and VOD at the same time.

Magnolia first experimented with the so-called "day-and-date" model in 2005, with Steven Soderbergh's Bubble, and has since made a few titles available several weeks in advance of a theatrical release as "sneak previews." (That's how I was able to see James Gray's Two Lovers two weeks before it opened locally.) Soderbergh's latest film, The Girlfriend Experience, will be available via VOD on April 30 before hitting theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 22. James Rocchi caught the "work in progress" secret screening at Sundance and described it as "an intimate and yet honest movie about honesty and intimacy." Set in the days leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, porn star Sasha Grey plays a high-end Manhattan call girl meeting the challenges of her boyfriend (Chris Santos), her clients, and her work. You can check out the fabulous, alluring poster in the gallery below.

Have you sneak previewed films via VOD? Is it worth the expense so you can see a film in advance of its theatrical release? Or is it just more convenient? Would you consider doing so on a title-by-title basis? Would you pay to see this Girlfriend early?

In this week's Indie Roundup: The reverberations in the indie film world continue from yesterday's announcement about Geoff Gilmore's job change. (See Festivals below.) One person really can make a difference!

Deals. John Travolta may have put away his dancing shoes year ago, cinematically speaking, yet his role in Saturday Night Fever continues to be influential. Pablo Morrain's Larrain's * disturbing Chilean drama Tony Manero was picked up by Richard Lorber for his new Lorber Films label, according to indieWIRE. The film follows a 50-year-old man who is obsessed with the title character played by Travolta in the 70s disco sensation. Lorber Films plans a quick release in April or May. The trailer is embedded below.

IFC Films acquired US rights to Bruce McDonald's Pontypool, described by iW as a "Canadian zombie horror-thriller." The film will be released for VOD on May 27 and will also get a theatrical release beginning on May 29.

Box Office. An Italian mob movie and a Brooklyn romantic drama made noticeable impressions at the box office last weekend. Gomorrah scored $15,540 per screen at five theaters, and Two Lovers did $13,569 at seven, per Box Office Mojo. Did Joaquin Phoenix's appearance on David Letterman's show help or hurt the movie? Advertising Age wonders.

Festivals. Anne Thompson of Variety says that Geoff Gillmore has been talking about leaving Sundance for quite a while; the native New Yorker told Eugene Hernandez of indieWIRE: "I really want to move to New York." Gilmore will be exploring "the ways that festivals become platforms for new enterprises." The Wrap claims that "In the industry, the consensus was that however Gilmore changes Tribeca, his efforts will better the organization." I'm waiting for the first comparison of Gilmore to President Obama.

The Indie Spotlight is a weekly feature intended to remind you of new films that aren't playing on 2,000 screens and that haven't been advertised to you on TV a hundred times in the last week. For the most part, these titles are opening only in New York and will expand from there. But those of us who live elsewhere can keep an eye out for them, if not at the local art house then on DVD.

Here's what opens today:

• Two Lovers, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a man who comes home to Brooklyn and falls for Vinessa Shaw, while his parents want him to marry Gwyneth Paltrow. It's mostly raves at Rotten Tomatoes, including a glowing review from Cinematical's Kim Voynar (who saw it at Cannes last year), calling it "thoughtful, evocative, and more true to real human existence than most of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood studios."

• Gomorra, an unglamorous look at modern-day organized crime in Italy, won the top prize at Cannes and has hauled in several wins at other festivals, too. It was Italy's submission for this year's foreign language category at the Oscars, but the silly-heads at the Academy failed to nominate it. (It was nominated for a Golden Globe, but honestly, what wasn't?) Cinematical's James Rocchi contributes to the film's 87% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes by comparing it to TV's The Wire and calling it "a sweeping, stirring film that has the shoot-and-loot tension of the best crime cinema but also has the scope and serious intent of great drama."

• The Caller, a corporate mystery thriller starring Frank Langella and Elliott Gould. Both actors are earning praise, but nine of the ten reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are scathing. It's only playing at one theater in Manhattan and will show up on DVD in a few weeks anyway. But, just for the record, here it is on the list.
  

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game you can totally give your girlfriend for Valentine's Day. Last week we asked you to chuck out a caption for a photo from He's Just Not That Into You, and luckily three of you stepped up with a little somethin' somethin' we were all into. Congrats to you ...

1. "You wanna know why he's not that into you? Because you spell your name Ginnifer. Not Jennifer, like us." -- Timmy B.

2. "No, really. Then they rip the wax off, and the hair comes with it." -- Charles P.

3. "After a few years of subpar movie paydays, this was the moment Jennifer Aniston realized that maybe a "Friends" reunion movie wouldn't be that bad." -- Eric W.

See full image and all captions

This week, in honor of Valentine's Day (which is tomorrow!), we're celebrating the much buzzed-about (for several different reasons) Two Lovers, starring actor-turned-rapper Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw. While we prepare for the onslaught of Joaquin-related jokes, let me tell you what's at stake: One Grand Prize winner will slide away with two Two Lovers American Express gift certificates for a romantic dinner, ten Two Lovers Landmark ticket comps and three Magnolia produced DVDs, while two runner-ups will each receive six Two Lovers Landmark ticket comps and three Magnolia produced DVDs. This is a good one, folks, so give us all you've got in the comments section below ...



Read the official rules for this contest

It's so exciting -- literally exciting; pulse-quickening -- to watch a monumental new talent emerge and begin to edge toward what will eventually be his rightful place among the filmmaking greats. After watching his fourth film, Two Lovers (which opens this weekend and which I'll just comment on obliquely here) I'm ready to call it: James Gray is the next... well, the next something. I'm tempted to say Scorcese, which seems absurdly hyperbolic, but I'm kind of serious. He's that good: that ambitious, that interesting, that attuned to the details of human behavior. Watch this guy. He's gonna be important.

Almost no one saw The Yards (though you should), even I haven't seen his debut feature Little Odessa, and Two Lovers hasn't seen release yet, so I'll talk about We Own the Night: plot-wise a fairly ordinary cops-and-mobsters drama, but one that's pitched at the emotional wavelength of an epic Greek tragedy and as finely observed as any work of arthouse "naturalism" you can think of (Chop Shop? Flight of the Red Balloon?). Scene after scene, the film teeters on the edge of becoming corny and laughable, but it never quite tips over. Part of it is Gray's total conviction, completely committed to an almost absurdly grandiose screenplay. Even more important is how real the movie feels, how almost tactile: 1988 Brooklyn comes alive in front of you; the club scenes seem populated with hundreds of real human beings, not just extras; there's an important scene in a cavernous church that just deposits you in that church in an extraordinary way I can't quite articulate. It's the attention to detail, the rich sound design, the sense of geography and space -- in other words, skilled filmmaking. And then there's that justly renowned car chase in the pouring rain. Wowza.

So what's up with Joaquin Phoenix? It started when he announced that he was quitting acting to pursue a music career, then got stranger when said music career became a rap album. After we began to prepare ourselves for the new hip-hopped Phoenix, along came word that he and Casey Affleck would be shooting an "art project" (aka documentary) about Phoenix's journey from acting to music ... and then a little while after that we got word that the whole thing could, in fact, be one big joke, a la some Borat-style shenanigans.

However, while out doing press for his new film Two Lovers, I've heard from several different journalists that Affleck has joined Phoenix at each stop -- going so far as to interview each person who interviews Phoenix, claiming it's for an "art project" and it's not a joke. Finally we get Phoenix's appearance on the David Letterman Show, where the dude is a complete mess. Not only does he wear dark sunglasses and chew gum, but it's pretty obvious he couldn't give two sh*ts about being there as he barely answers Letterman's questions and doesn't even know which clip they brought. Letterman, mind you, is either pissed or going along with the act, and Phoenix just sits there looking like the Unibomber's twin brother. Yeah, you're getting some great publicity out of this guy.

So what do you think is going on here? Is Phoenix just playing some big practical joke? Does he want people to hate him (though I kinda think he's a riot)? Does he want to ruin his career on purpose just to see how long it will take to build back up? Is that the "art project"? Thoughts?

UPDATED to add full interview



[Thanks Dennis P. for passing this along]

Many of this year's foreign and indie releases showed up on some of the more obscure top ten lists of 2008, and will no doubt be rolling out across the country in various irregular patterns all year long. For example, Steven Soderbergh's Che turned up on more than half a dozen lists that I saw (including our own James Rocchi's), yet most people haven't seen it yet. I have seen it, and I doubt it'll be sticking around long, though I greatly admire it. It's a deliberate attempt to subvert the current biopic formula, and though it's somewhat cold and ultimately a bit one-sided, it's also endlessly mesmerizing. Silent Light, the newest drama by the great and peculiar Mexican director Carlos Reygadas (Battle in Heaven) is also due to show up this month. Matteo Garrone's Italian gangster movie Gomorrah and Steve McQueen's British based-on-a-true-story drama Hunger have also placed well on several top ten and awards lists, and will be turning up in February and March.

The two-time Cannes champs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have a new one, Lorna's Silence, which I haven't seen, but that has a very nice poster. (It's supposed to be coming around in June.) And James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night), who for some mysterious reason is quite beloved in France, opened his new film, Two Lovers -- starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix -- there to great acclaim. It's due here in February. And one of my contacts tells me that Roy Andersson's outstanding deadpan Swedish comedy You, the Living, which I saw early in 2008, will finally open to theaters sometime in 2009. I'm still waiting for a release date for Kathryn Bigelow's war film Hurt Locker, but it has enough buzz that I'm not worried. I'm a little more concerned about John Woo's Chinese epic Red Cliff, which will hopefully return that master to his former glory; so far there's no U.S. release date -- and no indication that the entire, uncut film will make it over here.

G-Force
Guinea pigs in the employ of the FBI? Well, why the hell not? This is a live action film with digital rodents voiced by Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi, and Tracy Morgan. I have to imagine this one got green lit after Alvin and the Chipmunks started pulling in the bucks. The concept has a certain goofy charm, but the trailer has surprisingly few laughs. Judge for yourself on July 24.

Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
When I hear "Streetfighter" I think more of the Sonny Chiba film The Street Fighter and its sequels, but that's a different franchise entirely. This film is of course based on the long running series of video games (the first of which was released in 1987 as an arcade game) and stars the lovely Kristin Kreuk of Smallville fame. The trailer is a little hard to follow since the narration is in Japanese. What we've got is basically high kicking martial arts action with a sort of comic booky mysticism. Watch for this on February 27.

From Paris With Love
I've got to admit John Travolta with a shaved head and a bazooka makes for an eye catching image. He's a cop, things blow up. No U.S. release info yet.

Two Lovers
Joaquin Phoenix stars as a man torn between the woman his parents have fixed him up with (Vinessa Shaw) and his unpredictable neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow ) who is dating a married man. Feel the love on February 13.

Crank 2: High Voltage
This adults only trailer is easily the most foul-mouthed trailer I've ever seen and it's also entertaining as hell. Jason Statham is back and this time he's had his heart swapped out for an artificial model that requires periodic jolts of electricity. This one hits on April 17.

New trailers on AOL Moviefone:

• X Men Origins: Wolverine - The X-Men's adamantium clawed mutant strikes out on his own in this tale of Wolverine's origin. Check it out right here:
  
  
  
• Night at the Museum 2 - Ben Stiller returns in this sequel in which some of the living museum displays from the first film have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institute.
• I Love You Man - Paul Rudd plays a man about to wed who is seeking a new guy friend to be his best man. Here's the trailer:
  
  
• Echelon Conspiracy - A man receives a package containing a cell phone that can provide him with unlimited wealth.
• The Pink Panther 2 - Second trailer for the sequel starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau.
• Knowing - Nicholas Cage plays a teacher who discovers a decades old code that predicts major calamities.