Our post-modern age makes it easy (indeed, possibly too easy) to find takes or spins or twists on traditional stories or genre films; what's often harder is finding well-executed examples of those genres in the first place. (Put more bluntly, we've all seen plenty of recent ironic crime films or teen comedies -- but how few of those actually work as crime films or teen comedies?) The British film The Escapist, which made its North American debut at Sundance this year, not only works as a brilliant, twisting existential expansion of the traditional prison break film; it also works as a crackerjack example of the traditional prison break film. Brian Cox stars as Frank, a convict serving a life sentence; after hearing of his daughter's second overdose, he determines that he has to get out, he has to see her: "I have to make things right."

As played by Cox, Frank's hard to understand, but easy to like -- and the other way around, too. Cox is one of our best actors -- he's great in both high art and high trash, and The Escapist offers him a chance to work both ends of that divide. We watch, riveted, as Frank tries to break through the metaphorical wall around his feelings; we watch, riveted, as Frank tries to break through the literal walls keeping him from the outside. Frank's demeanor is pure prison -- a hot-forged alloy of defiance and resignation tempered by time -- but he's also more than just that facade.

Now that I know how the Harry Potter franchise ends (I got the scoop off Wikipedia, not the new book), I don't seem to care about the movies. Does anyone else feel the same way? I didn't think so. Anyway, I figure my lack of interest in the next movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, also has something to do with the fact that I stopped reading the books after Order of the Phoenix. As for you guys, I'm sure you are still interested, or else you wouldn't be reading. So, yeah, sorry to disappoint you all, but Naomi Watts is apparently not actually signed on to play Narcissa Malfoy. And Joseph Fiennes will not be playing Tom Riddle, Sr., or anyone else, apparently. Also, Stuart Townsend won't be in the movie either, apparently. This is what reps for the actress and each of the actors, respectively, are saying. According to MTV Movies Blog, all three camps have given a simple statement of "not true."

I guess everyone can now stop debating whether or not Watts is technically British or Australian, as well as whether or not the Potter movies can allow for a non-English or non-British person to join the cast (obviously the commenters didn't read the source article, in which Watts defended her British roots -- in an old, non-Potter-related quote -- and even pointed out that she lived there her first 14 years). Even though I don't care anymore about Harry Potter, I have to admit that I'll always salute the movies' great casting choices. So, I must offer my sympathy for the fans (and MTV) who were excited about Watts playing Mrs. Malfoy. Even though I'm not familiar with the character (even if she was in Order of the Phoenix, which I did read), I see how she would fit in genetically with the other Malfoy Family actors (Jason Isaacs; Tom Felton). I also think the idea of casting Voldemort's brother as his father makes perfect sense. If I was Joseph Fiennes rep and I knew he wasn't cast, I'd at least look into getting him the part rather than quickly shooting the idea down completely. Of course, all the denials could be Warner Bros' doing -- maybe they don't want the info confirmed just yet.

Though it's still early in the festival and I have yet to see a few of the films in competition, I feel pretty confident in saying Goodbye Bafana will win the Golden Bear award this year. Every once in a blue moon you stumble across a perfect movie -- one that gets it all right -- and flows slow smoothly from start to finish, you almost wish it could go on and on ... and on. This year, in Berlin, Goodbye Bafana is that film. Not only is it an important real-life film based on two important men, but it's sincere, emotional and inspirational -- to a point where you just want to reach out and give Joseph Fiennes a hug, he's that believable. Pic, which is primarily set on Robbin Island, a prison off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, begins in 1963 and spans 27 years. But, unlike La Vie en rose (which confused the audience with its jumping here, there and everywhere), Goodbye Bafana gracefully and seamlessly fades from one year to the next ... with each moment in time becoming increasingly more significant.

Story documents 27 years in the life of James Gregory (Fiennes), a prison guard looking for a way to move up the ranks during one of the most critical times in his country's history. With two young children and a wife to support, Gregory lands a job where is to take charge of the censorship office on Robbin Island -- a position that could easily lead to a promotion or two -- seeing as one of his main responsibilities is to look after South Africa's most feared terrorist, Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert). Gregory, a severe racist (not because he chooses to be, but because he has to be), is to inspect all incoming and outgoing mail, while keeping an eye on Mandela and his cohorts. Because Gregory grew up on a farm, in which he was best friends with a black boy named Bafana, he knows how to speak Mandela's African dialect and proves useful in that he can play spy for the higher-ups.

It's official. Berlinale has announced the six contenders in their film competition. Those in the running include some Berlin favorites as well as American repeats. Here is the list of nominees:

• The Good German -- which has received mixed reviews in America -- is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars George Clooney (a Berlinale regular), Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire. The film takes place in a post war Berlin where an investigative reporter finds himself in the center of a murder mystery. The controversy continues when unexpected people from his past become inconveniently intertwined.

• The Good Shepherd is an interesting pick to say the least. Robert DeNiro both stars in and directs a film that has yet to receive any noteworthy appreciation. Matt Damon (not my favorite) and Angelina Jolie (strangely miscast) play a couple who is ultimately torn apart by Damon's occupation with the CIA. It also takes place in the 1930s; maybe Berlinale is dwelling in this era a bit this year?

• German director Christian Petzold will be showing his second Berlinale nominated film Yella. The storyline profiles a woman who wishes to escape a life that refuses to stop following her no matter where she relocates.

• Irina Palm starring Marianne Faithful is the second film made by Belgian director Sam Garbarski. Faithful plays a struggling widow who takes a sex position in order to survive.

• Goodbye Bafana is an intriguing true-life story about the prison guard who protected Nelson Mandela during his internment. Billie August directs as Joseph Fiennes plays James Gregory, the prison guard.

• Last but not least is a film from South Korean director Chan-wook Park. I Am A Cyborg But That's Ok tells the story of a woman living in a psychiatric hospital who believes she is a cyborg (this may be about me soon due to my recent obsession with Battlestar Gallactica). During her stay she falls in love with a man suffering from mental ailments of his own.

If you didn't know better, you might find it hard to believe that the things that happen to young Augusten Burroughs in the film Running with Scissors actually happened -- and yet, they did. The film opens at a pivotal point in Augusten's life: His mother's decline into madness. When your mother is mentally unstable, your father is an emotionally walled-off alcoholic, and the two of them spend most of their time together embroiled in violent fights that end in threats of murder or suicide, it doesn't make for the most stable of childhoods. Augusten, who worships his mother and tries patiently to get the attention of his father, compensates by being a painfully neat child.

He obsesses over his hair being perfectly conditioned and styled, he dresses nattily in jackets and sweater vests, he decorates his mother's dog, Cream, with aluminum foil, and he boils his allowance and then polishes it with silver polish. When you're a kid whose adult support system is out of control, you take your stability where you can find it, and so Augusten carefully controls those things that are within his limited power.

Continuing the long string of real-life inspired films that have been rolling into theaters recently, Danish director Bille August is set to direct a movie about Nelson Mandela's relationship with the white prison guard who was his personal warden during Mandela's long incarceration on Robben Island. Entitled Goodbye Bafana, the film is based on a memoir of the same name by the guard, James Gregory (adapted for the screen by Greg Latter). 'Bafana Bafana' is the nickname by which the South African soccer team is known; one assumes the word 'Bafana' is a fond general reference to the country itself, but if someone knows for sure, please let us know in the comments.*

The multinational cast will be anchored by the wonderful Dennis Haysbert as Mandela, with Joseph Fiennes as his guard and German actress Diane Kruger in the role of Gregory's wife. Playing an icon like Mandela is an unimaginably huge responsibility - I can't even fathom the pressure that Haysbert must feel. He is, however, one of the must dignified, underrated screen presences we have right now (not to mention by far the best spokesman an insurance company has ever had); if anyone can do it, he's probably up to the task.

The film has a budget of about $25 million, and is expected to start shooting next month in South Africa.

*Thanks to Serena for clearing things up: "Eh, the name Bafana, in the context of this story, has nothing to do with football or the nation. This is supposed to be James Gregory's story, and when he was a kid he had a zulu friend named Bafana. When Mandela was released, Gregory embraced him and said, "goodbye, Bafana", recalling the friend from his childhood."

[via Dark Horizons]

There are films you want to like, but don't. The opposite is even more rare: Films you don't want to like, but do. The Darwin Awards, the new film by Finn Taylor, is one of the latter. It's episodic, scattershot, uneven and lurches about in the most ungainly fashion imaginable … but at the same time, there are flashes of weird, off-kilter humor in it. Put bluntly? It's a train wreck, but there are some interesting bits and pieces in the wreckage. …

San Francisco Police Department homicide profile Joseph Fiennes has a steady eye and a jumpy stomach. He can look at a crime scene and find amazing clues that lead to the killer … but the sight of blood makes him faint. His mixture of genius and tics mean that he catches – and then loses – the North Beach Killer, and with a student documentary filmmaker trailing his every move, the embarrassing flub is public knowledge. Washed-up, thrown off the force and depressed, he retreats into his obsession: The internet-spread, quasi-urban legends known as The Darwin Awards, people who commit errors in judgment so severe they're removed from the gene pool by them permanently. Fiennes has the idea to take his research into the private sector – by finding Darwin contenders both pre- and post-mortem and using that understanding to save money for a large insurance company.

(More after the jump. ...)

A few hours after leaving last night's press screening of Finn Taylor's The Darwin Awards, my phone started blowing up with the news that the thing had been bought. Rights were picked up by Bauer Martinez – the new kids on the block, who came out of relative obscurity to pick up Harsh Times at Toronto – in a deal brokered sometime after the pic's Wednesday night public premiere. Darwin has an all-star cast, including Winona Ryder, Joseph Fiennes, the late Chris Penn, poet laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Metallica as Metallica. The film, a takeoff on the website which "awards" those unlucky enough to get themselves killed in idiotic ways, was shot on video in and around San Francisco. Variety had no financial details to report, but we'll pass them along as soon as we can.

Two things you can be sure to see at Sundance (well, besides rich celebrities loaded down with tons of free swag we mortals will never lay eyes on) are snow - lots of snow - and films. Lots of films. Over the next 11 days, each of us on the Cinematical Sundance team will be watching films until our eyeballs burn, and faithfully reporting on what we think about them, which films score the hottest buzz, and which ones have the biggest walkouts. I considered a couple ways of compiling this list, including choosing a film from each category, so as to cover a wide spectrum, and just randomly opening the film catalog with my eyes closed and pointing. Ultimately, though, although there are lots of films on my "want to see" list, these seven are the ones I'm really psyched about.

Come Early Morning - The directorial and writing debut by Chasing Amy's Joey Lauren Adams stars Ashley Judd as a woman in her 30s searching for love. The catalog description isn't terribly descriptive: Come Early Morning is about life transitions, the search for love, and the burdens we carry with us", which could describe pretty much anything from Brokeback Mountain to The Wedding Crashers, so I'm not really sure what to expect from this one. The film stars Ashley Judd, who can be a talented actress given the right material, with a supporting cast including Jeffrey Donovan, Tim Blake Nelson, Diane Ladd and Stacey Keach.

 (more after the jump)