mystic river Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Longevity, much less watchability, seems to be the last priority of filmmakers these days, thanks in no small part to the importance of opening-weekend grosses, the increased prominence of DVD and Blu-ray bonus materials, and the fact that more movies than ever seem to occupy space in our collective consciousness. But when a movie is really, truly good, none of that should matter, right? We should be able to watch and revisit and indulge and enjoy just as much every time we see it, from here until the end of time - or at least that's the thinking.

Unfortunately, that simply doesn't seem to be the case, whether it's because the movie is too weighted with importance to make it casual viewing, its effectiveness is directly linked to our discomfort or unease watching it, or maybe we just appreciated all there was to enjoy the first time and don't need to see it again to "get it." As such, we've put together a list of personal favorite films that we really don't want to see again, those titles that you go, yeah, it's great alright, but you don't need to subject yourself to repeat viewings to know or remind yourself. In order of ascending importance:

Oh look, a Clint Eastwood movie with an Oscar-friendly release date. That's new. Actually, it is relatively new, if you look over the man's directorial career. Sure, he's had a number of films come out in the fall time, but not with the same consistency we've seen since 2003, when Mystic River arrived in a few theaters on October 8 then went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following winter.

Then in 2004, his Million Dollar Baby opened in limited release December 15 and went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Finally, in 2006, two of his films were released in the fall, Flags of Our Fathers in October and Letters from Iwo Jima in December. Both went on to receive Oscar recognition, the latter garnering major noms, such as Best Picture and Best Director.

Mark Ruffalo probably just sent an expensive bottle of something to his agent -- he's got a plum role in the new Martin Scorsese flick. Ruffalo will co-star with Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's 2004 novel. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ruffalo plays "U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, who travels with his new partner (DiCaprio) to the eponymous Massachusetts island in 1954. As they investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, they encounter a web of lies, a hurricane and a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island." Oh good Lord, can't wait for this one! But...

Does anyone else wish the Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration would come to an end? Scorsese is my favorite director, and DiCaprio is a talented actor, but we're not talking about the second coming of DeNiro here. Shouldn't Scorsese share the wealth a bit, spread the love around? I don't think the pairing has gotten stale yet, but why push it until it does? Oh well, anything that keeps Marty from movies about Tibetan monks is okay by me. Laeta Kalogridis (writer of -- uh-oh -- Alexander, Pathfinder and the Bionic Woman pilot) will adapt Lehane's book, which I will be reading on an airplane in about three hours. Lehane is mighty hot in Hollywood these days. He writes for The Wire -- the best show on television, and his books have been turned into Oscar winners (Mystic River) and Oscar hopefuls (this fall's Gone Baby Gone, which was great baby great). Shutter starts shooting this March.

The most fascinating part of this newly-released trailer for Gone, Baby, Gone is that at no point do they advertise the fact that Ben Affleck directed. Yup, Ben Affleck. And for those of you wondering where the hell Affleck has disappeared to, well, he's been off piecing together what looks to be a gem of a film. Based on a Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) novel, Gone, Baby, Gone tells the story of a little girl who goes missing and the intense (but possibly corrupt) police investigation that follows. Affleck seems right at home with this flick (literally), as it's shot in Boston and stars his kid brother, Casey (in a role that will either make or break his career as a lead actor). I guess you can say I came away with a Good Will Hunting meets The Departed vibe, and if the film excels in one particular area, it's in the acting.

Right off the bat, Ed Harris looks phenomenal (as always) in the role of Detective Remy Broussard. Morgan Freeman also shows up hoping to deliver another solid performance. I love Freeman just as much as the next guy, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that he's beginning to bore me just a bit. Michelle Monaghan stars as the worried girlfriend who's there to cough out lines like, "I think you're getting in a little too over your head." Amy Madigan plays the missing girl's mother in a supporting role that's about as juicy as they come. Also showing up in one way, shape or form are John "Taggart" Ashton and Robert "The Other, Other Brother" Wahlberg. I have to say the film looks pretty damn good, and not what I would expect from Affleck's first directorial effort (he also co-wrote the script along with Aaron Stockard). Let us know what you think; Gone, Baby, Gone hits theaters on October 19.

I haven't picked up an issue of Premiere Magazine in quite some time, but a friend of mine recently recommended I visit the publication's newly refurbished website. So I did. Pretty solid content across the board, I'm happy to opine -- but one particular article caught my eye, tickled my fancy, and squatted in my brain long enough to recommend it here.

Basically, a bunch of the Premiere writers were asked to come up with their picks for Most Overrated Film of All Time -- and while most of the sacred cows slaughtered here are pretty darn obvious ones, the opinions and explanations as to why each film was chosen, well, I thought they were fairly compelling. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see someone call Field of Dreams "just too on the nose," because it absolutely is.

Fully prepared for the onslaught of How Dare YE!! hate mail, the Premiere posse has wisely decided to add an equally pithy rebuttal in defense of each movie. So when someone has the audacity to impugn The Wizard of Oz, we sane people have a defender who'll say Dude, Please. I've placed the 20 titles under the jump, just to help spark discussion, but do not let that stop you from reading through the whole article. It might make you think a little differently about some of those Unquestioned Classics that everyone's afraid to admit they don't really dig. (Yep, 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated; I said it and I'm proud.)

• Bukowski: Born in to This - There is a morbidly fascinating fly-on-the-wall vibe that pervades John Dullaghan's profile of the late Beat writer Charles Bukowski, a base familiarity that parallels the Ham On Rye author's own inimitable hard-lived life and style. Epic in scope (and length), first-time director Dullaghan compiles dozens of meticulously screened hours of archival footage, coupling the best of it with new interviews with Bukowski survivors to present a terrifically real character study of a little-studied real character. The watchable Chuck-alike Happy Hour, starring Anthony LaPaglia as a booze-addled writer, is also just out.

Novelist Dennis Lehane, whose Hollywood career once seemed to have begun and ended with the successful adaptation of his Mystic River, has seen his star rise rather dramatically over the past few months. It's already been announced that Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone, Baby, Gone, is based on a Lehane novel (from Clint Eastwood to Affleck - I'm sure he's so proud), and now comes the news that Oscar-nominated A History of Violence scribe Josh Olson has written and will direct Until Gwen, a film based on a short story by Lehane. The story, which Olsen describes as "one of the best...I've ever read," is "a dark crime drama that explores a relationship between a father who is a con man and a son who has been raised on the edges of society." Among other things, the story deals with the issue of identity, which is one of the reasons for Olsen's interest.

Olsen's screenplay is already finished and has won praise from Lehane; the movie is about to star casting and will shoot later this year with a budget of less than $10 million.