defiance Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Clockwise from upper left: Revolutionary Road, Defiance, He's Just Not That Into You, The Graduate, Anaconda, Fletch.

Revolutionary Road
Leonardo DiCaprio re-teamed with Kate Winslet, Michael Sheen Shannon * in a blistering supporting role, Sam Mendes examining suburbia, an adaptation of a classic American novel by Richard Yates; what could possibly go wrong? "In truth, it's both relentlessly grim and nearly pointless," wrote Jeffrey M. Anderson. "The only thing it does really well is create a feeling of suffocation." Also on Blu-ray. My choice: Rent it.

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He's Just Not That Into You
Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper and Scarlet Johansson star in a movie that will rot your brain. Put more kindly by William Goss: "This film feels more like a one night stand than anything else: you'll enjoy taking it home overnight, but when tomorrow comes, it's less a matter of calling it as merely recalling it." Also on Blu-ray. My choice: Skip it.

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Defiance
Daniel Craig drinks martinis protects fellow Jews from the Nazis in Edward Zwick's drama, based on a true story. "An uneasy mix of action and suspense with meaningful themes, of emotion and adrenaline," opined James Rocchi. "You sincerely hope it sends people to the truth even as it fails as fiction." Also on Blu-ray. My choice: Rent it.

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After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and a "legendary" Collector's Corner!

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

The Oscars are on Sunday and awards season is almost over. The flavor of the month this season has been almost all war movies and biopics, as it has been roughly since 9/11. Though this year we have the occasional mention of Hurricane Katrina (which kind of falls in both categories). For example, Baz Luhrmann couldn't bring himself to make pure entertainment like he did with Moulin Rougue. This time he had to make Australia (110 screens), which starts out as a lightweight entertainment, and then morphs into a heavy war movie, and drags on too long in the process.

At least three movies managed to combine biopic and war elements: Edward Zwick's Defiance (442 screens) managed to please some viewers, but most critics as well as the Academy voters couldn't get past its awkward filmmaking to embrace the powerful true story hidden somewhere deep inside. On paper, Steven Soderbergh's Che (20 screens) seemed tailor-made for Oscars. Both the director and star (Benicio Del Toro) are former Oscar-winners, and the film runs four hours and encompasses both war elements and a true story. Many critics went bonkers for it, but Academy voters resisted it, possibly because of the length, but more likely because it doesn't spell out precisely what it wants you to think. It's a hugely complex, very intelligent, slightly aloof essay-like film rather than an emotional rise-and-fall story like most biopics.

How Kevin James managed to open a movie called Paul Blart: Mall Cop to the tune of $39 million in the middle of January may become one of those cosmic mysteries, like the origin of the universe and what the "Frost Glacier Freeze" flavor of Gatorade actually is. It's kind of astonishing, and a little disturbing. What drew people, exactly? Was it the part in the trailer where he tries a rolling maneuver but misses and has to painfully drag his fat self behind a mall billboard?

Two halfway-decent newcomers languished in third and fourth, though I would think that both My Bloody Valentine and Notorious are happy with their circa-$24 million 4-day bows. Notorious, in particular, opened on just over 1,600 screens, giving it the best per-screen average on the chart. Hotel for Dogs landed just below the two with $22.5 million -- also pretty good for a fairly anonymous little family film opening against a higher-profile family film.

As a footnote, $19.7 million of My Bloody Valentine's $24.24 million came from its pricier 3-D playdates, showing that 3-D is a considerable draw (and perhaps also that filmgoers are savvy to the fact that these films play in 3-D in some theaters and in 2-D in others).

Defiance expanded into wide release, ending up with a $10.7 million holiday weekend, which seems roughly commensurate with its failed Oscar hopes. Gran Torino and Slumdog Millionare both held up well, with the latter actually seeing a gain compared to last weekend, even if you don't count Monday (and even though its screen count dropped slightly).

The full 4-day top 10 after the jump.

A lot of the time, watching a movie, we recoil or start at something in it: That's fake, we say, and dismiss the whole film. On many occasions, that impulse is correct because the film is fake, but on rare occasions, we feel that sensation of dislocated wrongness not because the film is fake but because our world is; we can't wrap our heads around the facts and ugly truths of what we see, can't comprehend how such things are possible, and recoil from them out of refusal to believe, not because they aren't believable. This is one of the challenges Defiance, the newest drama from Edward Zwick (Glory, Blood Diamond) faces as it tells the true story of the Bielski brothers, three Belorussian Jews and outlaw petty criminals who, during World War II's pogroms and purges, protected hundreds of Jews from the Nazis, some surviving and others actively fighting back.

We witness Tuvia Bielski (Daniel Craig) make the decision to kill his horse so it can be eaten, and we cannot imagine such hunger. We watch Zus Bielski (Liev Schrieber) fight alongside Russians who hate him to stop Germans who hate him, and we cannot imagine such a grim choice. We watch Asael Bielski (Jamie Bell) fall in love, or a quick quip between two supporting characters, and we cannot imagine love, or laughter, in such a place. But there must have been such hunger; there must have been such anger; there must have been laughter, and love, in the years of exile. It's hard to imagine, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

What's happening in Hollywood? Does no one have a day planner? Can nobody stick to a schedule? Pushing a film's release date back a week or two isn't a big deal, but when you move it to an entirely different calendar year, that changes everything -- especially its Oscar chances.

As we've already mentioned, rumors are swirling that the Weinsteins' The Road won't be done in time for its November release, and maybe not for December, either. Now we have three more titles on the move. Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere is reporting that the Weinsteins' Hurricane Season, an Inspiring Sports Drama® about a high school basketball team composed of displaced Katrina survivors, is "not ready" for its planned Christmas Day release and is being pushed back to March. And at Paramount, two Oscar hopefuls, Defiance and The Soloist, are being bumped to 2009, too, according to Variety.

The Soloist move is the one that should raise the most eyebrows. A true story starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. (pictured), it has all the hallmarks of a feel-good Oscar contender, and that's how Paramount and DreamWorks (which produced it) were positioning it. But now it's being moved from Thanksgiving to March, which is basically Paramount's way of saying they don't have much confidence in its Oscar potential after all. At the very least, it means they think its chances of making a lot of money (which are higher in March than in the crowded holiday season) are greater than its chances of winning awards. Which might actually be a very smart financial move, so good for them.

Maybe it's just me, but is it really a good idea to start promoting a Holocaust drama smack dab in the middle of the summer movie season? I guess you can't blame the makers of Defiance for wanting to start their promotions a little early, though. The new poster for Daniel Craig's WWII flick has been released (click image to enlarge), and it is about as dark and sombre as you might expect.

Defiance was written and directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond), and tells the true life story of the Bielski partisans. The Bielskis were three brothers who escaped into the Belarus forests while on the run from the Nazis and banded together to form a resistance group to save other Jews during WWII. Jamie Bell, Liev Schreiber, and Craig (who is the only face that made it to the poster) portray the three brothers, and The Mist's Alexa Davalos also stars as a fellow escapee and love interest for Craig.

Defiance wrapped production back in 2007 (as we all know, Craig has been a tad busy working on a certain spy film ever since) and there hasn't been much hoopla surrounding the film -- with the exception of a small trailer release back in January. So even though the next three months are all about blockbusting fun, we can't forget that Oscar season is merely months away; I'm sure Zwick hasn't.

Defiance will arrive in theaters on December 19th, 2008.

Granted, Daniel Craig has already made sure that he won't be playing James Bond for the rest of his career; but that hasn't stopped him from signing up for a variety of parts that are as far as you can get from the suave super spy. Paramount Vantage has just released the trailer for the WWII drama, Defiance. The film is the latest from 'bleeding-heart' action director Ed Zwick, whose last feature, Blood Diamond, managed to snag the director an Oscar nomination. Judging by the orchestral swell in this trailer and tag lines like "from desperation comes defiance," it would seem like he might be angling for another nomination this year.

Defiance is based on the true story of three Jewish brothers who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland to join up with the Russian resistance in the forests of Belarus. Zwick's screenplay is based on Nechama Tec's book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. Tuvia, Zusia, and Asael Bielski established a large partisan camp in the forests of Belarus during World War II and ultimately helped to save the lives of over 1,200 Jews. Craig will play Tuvia Bielski and he is joined by Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell as Zusia and Asael.

Despite my lack of love for some of Zwick's previous work, I'll admit that so far this one looks pretty good. Although to be fair, it might have a lot to do with the talents of Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber rather than Zwick's skill behind the camera. Defiance has yet to find a release date, but is expected to arrive sometime in '08.

[via ComingSoon.net]

There's lots of small casting announcements popping up over the last few days -- some of which might make you oooo, ahhh or possibly convulse in repulsion:

• Back in May, I told you that John Turturro was going to be the Evil Mouse King in the upcoming film, Nutcracker: The Untold Story. Since then, it seems that the name has been changed to Nutcracker: The True Story (I guess they weren't getting enough cred with the untold version), Variety reports that Odyssey Entertainment will take care of international sales and the cast has been completed. When word first came out, Turturro was joined by Nathan Lane and Elle Fanning. Now the list includes the wonderful Richard E. Grant added as Father, and Frances de la Tour added as the Rat Mother/Fraulein Eva.

The Hollywood Reporter also has a slew of casting updates up, check these out:

• Autumn Reeser, Taylor from The OC, has been added to the cast of the much-feared Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. If you remember, this film is going to deal with vampire surfers, and rumor was that both of the Coreys were going to be in it. In a bit of unoriginality, she'll play a girl who moves with her brother to Trinidad, California and is seduced by the leader of the vamp surfers. Can she live up to the likes of Jason Patric and Jami Gertz?
• Jessica Walter, who you might remember as Lucille Bluth* on Arrested Development, is going to play Luke Wilson's mother in the upcoming Henry Poole is Here. The film is about a depressed and terminally-ill man whose life is changed by a miracle -- seeing a stain on the wall that looks like the face of Christ. Jesus shows up in the strangest of places.. I imagine Lucille making the poor guy's life hell, but it seems that this mom is more focused on Wilson's lack of ambition and interest in other people. Anyhow, you can check out more info on the film in our posts here, here and here.
• Rounding things out -- Mark Feuerstein, Mia Wasikowska and Ravil Isyanov have joined Defiance, the Holocaust drama, Lindsey Kraft has signed on to See You in September and Melissa Keller is joining Brian Austin Green in an indie thriller called Breaking Point. (How exciting is that?)

* Good lord, I have no idea how or why my fingers typed "Booth!" Thanks for the catch, dear readers! -MB

One of my favorite young actors, Jamie Bell, will be playing little brother to Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber in Ed Zwick's next project, Defiance. The war film, based on a true story, tells of Jewish brothers who escape Nazi-occupied Poland in order to fight alongside the Russians in the forests of Belarussia. We'd previously heard about Craig's involvement -- something that must have excited fans of both James Bond and Munich -- but despite Variety's story today focusing on Bell, I think this is also the first time we're officially hearing about Schreiber's involvement (over at The Hollywood Reporter the casting news spotlights both actors).

Although these three guys don't really look like they'd be related -- though they could pass better than the fraternal trio of The Darjeeling Limited -- each is a terrific actor, and together they should prove an enjoyable team to watch. And while the subject matter and the filmmaker are sure to warrant their own usual Oscar buzz, I'm really hopeful about the prospects of these three guys getting recognition, themselves. Zwick has directed a few actors to nominations (DiCaprio; Hounsou; Watanabe; Denzel Washington even won for Glory) and his resume as producer also features plenty of Oscar notices.

In addition to Bell and Schreiber, two others have joined the cast in supporting roles. Alexa Devalos (The Chronicles of Riddick) will play Craig's (much younger) love interest, a fellow Polish refugee, and Tomas Arana (Gladiator) will play a leader of Russian resistance fighters. However, I'm mostly excited for Bell, who I've been a fan of since his precious debut in Billy Elliot.

He has had a few starring roles beyond that film, but nothing that has gotten him the same acclaim. He almost makes Chumscrubber and Dear Wendy tolerable, and he is fine -- though underused -- in Peter Jackson's terrible King Kong. But if you want to see him give another great performance in another great film, you have to go back to David Gordon Green's Undertow, which also admittedly may be too much an acquired taste for mainstream audiences. He also co-starred in last year's Flags of our Fathers, but I still haven't seen it and so can't judge his contribution. Hopefully, Defiance will allow him to break out more in terms of getting more prestigious gigs. Even if the film itself is as badly paced and as forcefully harrowing as Zwick's last, Blood Diamond, it will at least be, like that film, entertaining for its performances alone.

ScreenDaily is reporting today that Daniel Craig has added yet another role to his upcoming slate of projects that already includes Bond 22, The Golden Compass and Blindness. According to them, he's been cast in Defiance, the upcoming Ed Zwick film that will follow four Jewish brothers who leave occupied Poland and join freedom fighters in Belarus. There's not much more information besides that, and I'll be interested to see if this is quickly confirmed by Variety and HR, or if it turns out to be one of those 'castings' that Craig ends up denying at press junkets, like with I, Lucifer. Next up for Craig will, of course, be the much-discussed remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was invaded by the Wachowskis and more or less re-shot, and is now apparently test screening to less than impressive results.

As for Defiance, I personally can't understand what the attraction to working with Ed Zwick would still be at this point -- the guy hasn't made a good film since at least 1998's The Siege, and even that was more weirdly entertaining than just plain good. I have to give credit where credit is due for that scene where the terrorists blow up a Broadway play, though. Zwick's signature, of blending action with bleeding-heart politics, never quite seems to gel on screen, and the less than stellar box office for Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai bear that out. Zwick must bring his pictures in on time with little fuss, though, since he keeps these things greenlit, so bully for him. If the guys from Commanderbond.net read this post, I hope they leave a comment answering this question -- doesn't Craig have to report to work soon on Bond 22? Surely he won't be fronting a big war epic until after that's wrapped.