kelly macdonald Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've never read Laurence Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," and apparently, that's no small feat anyhow. After all, Sterne's protagonist starts out just before his birth and spends his time describing so many tangents of his existence that the book ends by the time his life has barely begun.

But I was delighted by the approach with which director Michael Winterbottom and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce adapted the seemingly unfilmable novel -- by making a movie about making the movie, which itself never quite gets around to unfolding. Steve Coogan plays a version of himself who's trying to keep his supporting actor/co-lead down and his girlfriend and newborn happy, in addition to juggling the production and the press and the pressures that come with the shoot as a whole.

It's all so delightfully twisty and sly, and I suspect that it's very much keeping in spirit with Sterne's work. I'm not sure that I could pick one favorite scene (actually, maybe the bit where an exceptionally perky Gillian Anderson gets hired), but YouTube has cut my work out for me. There's only one full scene I can embed here, but it's as much a doozy as most, as Coogan acts like he's coping with a hot chestnut in his trousers, only to then try it with an actual hot chestnut (or did he?).

As for the entire movie -- which also stars Dylan Moran, Kelly Macdonald, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Northam, and Naomie Harris -- at least I can promise it'll only run about ninety minutes. Talk about making a long story short....

Watch the video after the jump

Cinematical has just received this exclusive trailer for The Merry Gentleman, starring Michael Keaton and Kelly Macdonald. Not only does Keaton star here, but it's also his directorial debut -- and with it he gives us a story about a suicidal hitman (Keaton) who forms an unlikely friendship with a woman he finds underneath a Christmas tree. In his positive review from last year's Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical's Scott Weinberg called The Merry Gentleman a "crime drama that brings a strange sense of warmth, dark humor, and even some odd romance to a potentially dreary tale" -- adding that Keaton does "a fantastic job on both sides of the camera," creating "a straightforward "people" story, albeit one with a little more brains than usual."

On a personal note, we're all huge Michael Keaton fans here at Cinematical -- we're pumped to see the man back in action and honored to premiere the trailer for his directorial debut. The Merry Gentleman arrives in theaters on May 1.



To view a larger version of this trailer, click here.

Good lord, Tim Roth is doing a lot of morphing lately. He de-aged himself in Youth Without Youth, became a weird ol' monster in The Incredible Hulk, and now he's getting his wings.

Variety reports that Roth is taking the title role in Skellig -- a UK production that will hit television screens next spring before getting a theatrical release. Based on the novel by David Almond, Skellig focuses on a boy in northern England who makes a surprising discovery. His parents have just bought a rundown house, and while investigating the shed out back, he finds a man/creature lying in the darkness who he decides to help. "Feeding him Chinese food and beer, the boy nurses the creature, who possesses magical powers, back to health."

It definitely sounds like an interesting story (read more about it here), and it's hard not to get intrigued at the thought of Roth as an angel, alongside the likes of Kelly MacDonald, Bill Milner (the cutie from Son of Rambow), and John Simm. The film has just started shooting in Cardiff.

Finally Josh Brolin received an award for his excellent performance in No Country for Old Men. He and the rest of the film's actors won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best ensemble cast Sunday night, giving No Country its second big win of the weekend (Joel and Ethan Coen received the top Directors Guild of America award Saturday). Along with Brolin, trophies went to cast-mates Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Garret Dilahunt, Tess Harper and Javier Bardem, who also won the SAG award for best supporting actor. While I'm not sure how many of No Country's performers actually received their own trophy, I'm hoping that both Kelly Macdonald and Barry Corbin were also included. No Country is one of those movies that wouldn't be the same without all of its main and supporting actors, and it is certainly fitting for it to have picked up this honor.

Other film winners from Sunday night include Daniel Day-Lewis, who surprised no one by being honored with the leading actor trophy. Even I'm getting a little bored with all of his awards, despite my agreement that his is the best performance of the year. I didn't even notice if any of the other nominees (George, Emile, Viggo and Ryan) showed up to the ceremony, which was one of the first red carpet awards events of the season. Picking up the award for leading actress was Julie Christie, further cementing the fact that I really need to see Away From Her already. The supporting actress honor went to Ruby Dee, who deserves it just for being the cutest old lady on screen last year, let alone for going up strong against both Denzel and Brolin in American Gangster. Finally, The Bourne Ultimatum won the new SAG award for best stunt ensemble and Charles Durning -- one of Cinematical's favorite character actors ever -- received a lifetime achievement award. Be sure to check out Moviefone's coverage of the awards for plenty of red carpet and ceremony photos.

The title of Michael Keaton's directorial debut -- The Merry Gentleman -- is meant to be pretty ironic, because the only true gentleman in the movie is anything BUT merry. He is, as a matter of fact, a cold-blooded assassin who contemplates suicide after completing every contract. Even the normally perky Kelly Macdonald is generally quite miserable too, here playing a woman on the run from an abusive husband -- and a woman who just (unknowingly) became friends with that assassin guy.

Professional hitman Frank Logan is at the end of his rope. Clearly fed up with a life spent taking lives, Frank finishes up his latest contract, and then hops onto a rooftop ledge and considers a long plunge. At that same moment, on street level, a sweet young lady named Kate looks up to appreciate the new snowflakes -- and catches a glimpse of Frank. She screams, he slips and falls (backwards), and when the cops show up they find pretty much nothing. But the next morning (once a corpse is found in an upstairs office) two smart detectives pop up to ask Kate a few questions about the man she saw.

Needless to say, a killer of Frank's expertise is already well-aware of what the witness saw.

Last month, Jessica Barnes threw up the first official still to come from the production of Choke -- the feature adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel. In case you're not a fan of all things Chuck, the film follows a dude called Victor Mancini. After a childhood where his troubled mother would steal him from foster families, Victor grows up into an honorable man -- one who makes a living as a historical reenactor and choking con man. Basically, he goes to restaurants, chokes on his food, and then preys on the kindness of those who "save" his life. Oh yeah, and he also frequents sexual addiction workshops.

Now, it's crunch time. Will the film be able to find the magic that Fight Club did, or was that adaptation a one-hit Palahniuk wonder? It was adapted by, directed by, and co-starring Clark Gregg (The Human Stain, or the Miranda's dirty Catholic on Sex and the City), so I'm expecting good things. The film is gearing up for its premiere at Sundance, and Collider has thrown up a whole slew of images. If these pictures are any indication, we should be in for a sweet, Choke-filled ride. Most of the images have Sam Rockwell in his period garb, and there's peeks at Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Gregg, and two great shots of Anjelica Huston, who plays Victor's crazy mom. There's one image of her with V as a kid, and another after she's hospitalized. Check out the images and then stay tuned for Cinematical's review from Sundance!

Well it may be dark and it may not be the most jaw-dropping image, but since this is the first official still from Chuck Palahniuk's Choke (one of my favorite books of all time), to me it's just as awesome as any photo of the Joker. Twitchfilm.net has posted the first still from Clark Gregg's (What Lies Beneath) big-screen version of Palahniuk's novel about sex-addiction, Alzheimer's, and a man who makes a living by pretending to choke in crowded restaurants. Sam Rockwell stars as Victor Mancini, the sex-addicted con man who is struggling to pay his mother's medical bills -- it almost sounds sweet if you leave out ... well, practically everything since usually when people think Palahniuk they definitely aren't thinking 'aww' (its usually more along the lines of; 'eww').

This seems to be my lucky day, since Erik just brought us the news that I Am Legend's Francis Lawrence is planning on bringing Palahniuk's novel Survivor to the screen as his next project. Like most of Palahniuk's novels, Choke is not going to be an easy sell to a lot of audiences. Let's just say that it takes a certain sense of humor to see comedy in lines like; "A good addiction takes the guesswork out of death. There is such a way as planning your getaway." Luckily, I think Rockwell and company just might be able to pull this one off. Gregg has long been a big fan of the book and has been pretty dedicated to making a feature film, combined with Rockwell's ability to play people just a little off center and I think it just might work. Choke will show at Sundance and is set for release in 2008.

No Country for Old Men, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, is an unquestionable return to form. It is scary, funny, moving, violent, and meaningful, in pretty much equal measure. The Coens' take on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name is a pairing as successful, as seamless, as delicious as that of chocolate and peanut butter.

Josh Brolin gives the finest of his four excellent performances this year as Llewelyn Moss. Moss is a struggling everyman who stumbles upon a circle of trucks and dead Mexicans in the desert -- a heroin deal gone bad. Real bad. The lone survivor asks Moss for some agua, and Moss ignores the request. He surveys the scene and eventually comes upon a suitcase filled with $2 million dollars. Moss' response upon finding the money? A simple "Yeah." It's a perfect moment in a movie packed with them. Moss takes the money and returns home to his trailer and his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald). Soon, his conscience begins to nag at him, and he decides to head back to the scene of the crime to give the dying man a drink. A compassionate decision, but not, as you can probably imagine, an intelligent one.

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh (start to say Chicago and then growl and you're close to the pronunciation). I'll leave his specific involvement in the proceedings up to you to figure out, but just know that he really wants that $2 million. Moss will come to refer to Chigurh as "the ultimate badass," and that's about right. Chigurh is a classic screen villain, the kind we haven't seen in far too long. Every time he appears on screen, cattle stunner in tow, it just makes your heart sink -- somebody is going down. Much like Hannibal Lecter, the guy is a vicious, remorseless killer, but he has a strangely sensible logic and one can't help but be seduced by him. Bardem, sporting a Prince Valiant haircut, gives a flawless performance here, one that will likely be noticed come Oscar time. He completely disappears into Chigurh.