joseph gordon-levitt Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Scanning through my RSS feeds at the end of the weekend, my eye immediately fell on this gem from the BBC: "Talking Shop - Third Rock's Joseph Gordon-Levitt on his new film." 3rd Rock from the Sun. It's been eight years since Gordon-Levitt co-starred in that show, which wrapped just as he got out of his teens. Now he's pushing 30, and has had a multitude of work since then. Mysterious Skin, Brick, Stop-Loss, Miracle at St. Anna, 500 Days of Summer, and even G.I. Joe.

I get the reference -- to a degree. With the exception of G.I. Joe, Gordon-Levitt's work hasn't exactly been mainstream. But is aged mainstream work really more relevant than notable indie work, no matter how well-received said work is? Furthermore, it's hard to say these references are just for the sake of mainstream understanding when one of the questions is: "You're best known for Third Rock from the Sun. Is making the jump back into films tricky?" Apparently this was part of a "BBC Breakfast" interview, so I'm going to assume the question came from someone who didn't even know of the actor's more recent work, or his general roster for that matter. A quick scan of IMDb shows that Gordon-Levitt's been continually working on big-screen fare alongside his past television stints.

One of the most mystifying things about the summer of 2009 has been how, months ago and without any actual information to go on, it became gospel that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was going to be a ridiculous train wreck. This is especially bewildering in light of the moderate-to-positive buzz that preceded the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, also for no apparent reason. Who decided that G.I. Joe would be terrible? When? Why?

I have, as they say, no robotically enhanced dog in this hunt. I certainly do not expect G.I. Joe to be any sort of season's highlight. I don't have any specific expectations for it, to be honest. But here's the information I have: this is a summer action movie directed by Stephen Sommers, whose last three blockbusters have ranged from tolerable mediocrity to delirious fun. Its cast includes character actors like Christopher Eccleston and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as the arch-villain, no less). Its trailer is no more or less ridiculous than you would expect from a movie based on action figures, and actually struck me as lighter on its feet than other recent tentpoles. Why it's fated to be the summer's biggest disaster escapes me entirely.

I mean, look at this USA Today piece about the film's "bad buzz". What facts does it actually contain? Anonymous, generalized "complaints" about elements of the trailer. (Was it really that bad? I just don't see it.) The notion that "the script was hurried into production" to beat the writer's strike -- legitimate, but shamefully vague. And a positive review from Harry Knowles, which I guess some people would consider a bad sign, but I'm not sure that's the point the article was making. The piece doesn't even mention the absurd rumors -- not helpful, though proven false -- that Stephen Sommers was kicked off the project in post-production.

Although conventional wisdom says otherwise, men really do want to watch romantic comedies. Unfortunately, they're not the same ones that women want to watch: for every two dozen movies like The Proposal or the upcoming The Ugly Truth, there's maybe one or two like High Fidelity or Almost Famous. This week, men can add 500 Days of Summer to their shortlist of testosterone-driven rom-coms, thanks to its story of a neurotic twentysomething named Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who falls deeply – and increasingly desperately – in love with a comely young lady named Summer (Zooey Deschanel).

Cinematical recently spoke to 500 Days director Marc Webb via telephone about his experience making the film, which he admits contains more than a few chestnuts of wisdom he wishes he had at Tom's age. In addition to discussing the demands of juggling relationships both off and on screen, Webb spoke about the significance of releasing his Summer film during the hottest months of the year, and offered a few insights about the seldom-discussed but decidedly-substantive legacy of romantic comedies made and marketed to – and for - men.

Cinematical: When you started working on 500 Days of Summer, what was this movie really about for you, or what did you want to explore the most?

Webb: During the process it evolved a little bit, but to me it's a coming of age story masked as a romantic comedy. To me it's about growing up; Summer isn't just a girl, she's a phase of your life. It is something that we've all gone through and all experienced, and there's certainly a romantic element, and there's an examination of the ambiguity of certain kinds of relationships. But at the end of the day, it's how you negotiate that and how you deal with that that's important to me.

Move over Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb! There's a new Sid and Nancy in town -- Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt!

While next week's release of Harry Potter might be getting the most buzz, there's another flick I (along with a lot of you, I'm sure) am dying to see -- Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt's 500 Days of Summer, the film that our Erik Davis called: "a looker and a feeler and way too easy to fall in love with if you give her a little room to work that magic."

In one scene from the film, which you can see after the jump, Summer compares her relationship with Tom to Sid and Nancy. He's shocked to be compared to Sid, but then she clarifies: No, he's Nancy and she's Sid. So what's the best way to have fun with that and create buzz for the film? Why, to have Zooey play Sid and Joseph play Nancy in a little spoof, of course.

Oh yes, you can watch the comedic wonder for yourself over at MSN's Cinemash. Gordon-Levitt is wonderful as the hot-headed and irrational Nancy Spungen (albeit a bit hairier), while Zooey rocks Sid Vicious. In fact, she plays him so straight-faced that it's quite annoying Ms. Deschanel always gets the same roles. She's definitely more than a manic pixie. Check out some stills from the video below.



Hollywood -- Give these two more great gigs, mmkay?

There's a new Japanese trailer for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra making the rounds, and while it contains most of the same footage included in the previous trailer, this one does give us our first look at Cobra Commander (aka The Doctor), as played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in all his weird masked glory. In the screencap above, The Doctor is standing next to Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and the two are plotting to destroy the world and whatnot.

Perhaps it's because this Japanese trailer cuts around a lot and doesn't remain too long on any one scene that I'm digging it more than I did the domestic version. I think Paramount should just cut together a trailer featuring only Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow since those are easily the two coolest-looking characters, and their sword fight will most likely become a highlight of the film. I dunno ... maybe this one will surprise us in some ways and let us down in others ... but isn't that what we've come to accept from all of these based-on-an-80s-toy-line-or-comic-book movies? G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hits theaters on August 7.

Watch the trailer after the jump

Last year, when I interviewed Kimberly Peirce for Stop-Loss, I asked why a relationship played up between Ryan Phillippe's character and Abbie Cornish's in the trailer seemed absent from the final film, not to mention a confrontation between Phillippe and the senator he's driven cross-country to reach coming to a close over the phone and not in person. She explained that about as soon as they had to start editing the film itself, they had to turn over the footage to the promotional department for them to work with simultaneously, and that things don't always match up as a result.

Now, every once in a while, usually in regard to Apatow's oft-tested and whittled-down comedies, absent jokes and alternate takes come as a little surprise. But the year-old teaser for Terminator Salvation capped itself by showing Christian Bale facing off against a robot hiding underwater -- a scene that should appear early on in the film, but doesn't. In Disney/Pixar's Up, our geriatric hero doesn't blow a raspberry as he departs with his house (perhaps for the best), and in 500 Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt does not in fact board a bus filled with Zooey Deschanels (certainly for the worst).

What's the most striking occasion you can think of where a scene regularly flaunted in the trailers or TV spots was nowhere to be seen in theaters, and was clearly part of a scene and not a one-off teaser like Pixar themselves so often indulges in?

Spencer Susser's indie comedy Hesher has attracted a ridiculously likeable cast -- which sounds weird, but do you really know anyone who doesn't like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, or Rainn Wilson? Exactly. It's like the definition of likeable.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story centers around an awkward 13-year-old (is there any other kind?) who finds his life turned upside down by a twenty-something loser named Hesher, who moves in with the boy and his pill-popping father and grandmother. The family is in rough shape after the death of the boy's mother (hence the pill popping) and Hesher ends up having a good and bad influence on the situation. Wilson will play the father, and Gordon-Levitt the title role of Hesher. Portman is playing a supermarket employee who saves the boy from bullies, and becomes an object of his adoration. Portman wll also be co-producing the film with Lucy Cooper, and the film begins shooting next week in L.A.

The concept sounds dangerously close to some of those deliberately quirky comedies that have become so prevalent in the indie scene. But that can be forgiven with the right cast, and certainly will be a nice break for Wilson and Gordon-Levitt, who are fresh off summer blockbusters. Everyone knows you have to do an indie flick after doing a stint with CG and explosions to stay respectable.

Oh, the irony of ironies when the Dennis Quaid serial killer mystery The Horsemen had a tagline that said "Come and see," only to receive an unceremonious dump on something like 75 screens in early March and its first formal review just this week in Variety (and they had to catch it in Paris, apparently!). Box Office Mojo can't even claim any exact figures for what the thing grossed in its very limited run.

In similar straits was the Diane Lane/Mickey Rourke thriller, Killshot, which was formally dumped in Arizona and Arizona alone at the end of January. $18,000 on five screens -- way to capitalize on that Wrestler buzz, Weinsteins. But soon, scarcity will matter not for either film, as Fangoria says that the former film will get its DVD release on July 14th, while Amazon claims a May 26th bow for the latter.

There's no word on special features for Killshot yet, which makes me wonder if we'll see any sign of Johnny Knoxville's reportedly excised character... but maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I'm wary of movies that try to be instant cult/camp classics, with intentionally overdone dialogue and outrageous costumes and actors who are metaphorically winking or even non-metaphorically mugging for the camera. When the characters are in on the joke, it isn't all that funny. And when I learned that the writer-director of Women in Trouble also co-wrote Snakes on a Plane, I grew even more skeptical. But the actresses who populate Women in Trouble tend to play it straight, even when they're wearing assless spandex pants or smoking invisible cigarettes, and that's what keeps this film fun instead of tiresome.

Women in Trouble has a multi-story, anthology-like structure. Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez said before the SXSW screening that he originally had one ten-page sequence that he wanted to shoot, then thought it might be easy to shoot several of them, all with different actresses, to make a good movie quickly. Apparently it wasn't all that easy, but the result is a large cast of mostly actresses playing a variety of the traditional exploitation "women in trouble." These include porn stars, tag-team hookers (one in a Catholic school uniform, natch), stewardesses (they're not flight attendants when we're poking fun at the exploitation genre), unmarried-and-pregnant women, and a very understanding masseuse.

When in the world did it get to be the day before the SXSW Film Festival starts? I've been getting organized and ready, and so have the other Cinematical writers who are coming to town. We are going to be all over this fest like barbecue sauce on Texas brisket. (Don't tell me that you don't think sauce belongs on brisket, I don't want to hear that kind of perverted talk.)

Trying to decide which films to see has been at least as difficult this year as it has been in the past. Sam Raimi or Sacha Baron Cohen? Kathryn Bigelow's latest film, or Tobe Hooper's first? Office Space or Observe and Report? There are documentaries about mushrooms and Martin Scorsese movies, conspiracy theorists and film critics. And of course I want to see some of the big splashy premieres at the Paramount, but can't bear to miss any of the indie films I might not get to see again -- gaaaaaaah. I've made a list of a few of the movies we're looking forward to seeing this week. If you're coming to Austin, I hope I'll see you there.