stranger than fiction Tagged Articles at Cinematical

White Dog
Samuel Fuller's follow-up to The Big Red One was shelved by Paramount Pictures before its scheduled release in 1982 because of fears that its premise -- a white dog has been trained to attack black people -- would stir up more controversy than box office. Fuller was understandably outraged; in his autobiography, A Third Face, he wrote: "The studio has used me as a scapegoat for their lack of determination and courage." The film, co-written by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), with a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, later received acclaim when it was released in Europe but never received a home video release in the US and has rarely been seen here. Kristy McNichol plays an actress who adopts the dog; Paul Winfield is as an anthropologist who tries to reverse the training. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a featurette with Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow, plus a print interview with the dog trainer and essays by J. Hoberman and Armond White. I'm buying, but even if you're not a huge fan of Samuel Fuller, you'd want to check it out. Rent it.

Step Brothers
Combining Will Farrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, and Mary Steenburgen under one roof, Step Brothers mines familiar territory with sharp timing and plenty of belly laughs. Mine is, admittedly, a distinctly minority opinion. Available on DVD (single-disc rated, single-disc unrated, two-disc unrated) and Blu-ray, with an audio commentary by Farrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay, and a score by Jon Brion. Other features include deleted scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, 'making of,' and a couple of gag featurettes. Rent it.

Much more on Wanted, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after the jump, plus Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner.

Even if you consider Borat (full title not necessary) to be primarily a scripted work, it is still a film that works best in its unscripted sequences. This is debatable, sure, but I would like someone at the Writers Guild to tell me what was so great about the actual screenplay used. Personally, I think the scripted parts, as well as the adherence to the plot, are the weakest elements.

Nonetheless, Sacha Baron Cohen and his five collaborators are nominated for a Writers Guild Award for Adapted Screenplay. And despite my questioning of this recognition, I don't really prefer any of its competition. The other titles in the adapted category are Little Children, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada and Thank You for Smoking. If I had to choose, I'd go with the last of these, but I think the prize will go to the overrated Little Children.

I also don't think the Original Screenplay category is that great, either. The nominees for that award are Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, United 93, Stranger Than Fiction and The Queen. Again, I'd have to go with the last of these, but predict the overrated first.

Hopefully, unlike with other guild awards, the WGA's honors will not reflect the Oscar nominations, which may recognize foreign films Volver and Pan's Labyrinth, which were ineligible here.

I'm not a big fan of top ten lists. For the past couple weeks, a slew of people have bothered me for my top ten films of the year -- a list I've never felt comfortable putting together, regardless of what year we're in. The thing is, I cannot for the life of me throw together such a list when I haven't seen most of the films that probably would have made the list had I managed to catch a screening. Thus, I'd have to call it something like, "The Top Ten Films Erik Watched in 2006 ... But Keep in Mind He Hasn't Seen (insert a good ten titles here)." Now, how much fun would a list like that be?

However, movie trailers are a whole different animal. I don't have to see a film to judge a trailer, and the previews for pretty much every film released in 2006 (as well as a ton to be released in 2007) are available online for me to watch. But how does one go about picking the top ten trailers of the year? Well, first off, your opinion should be based solely on the trailer, and not the film (if you happened to have seen it). And, when you watch the trailer, you should ask yourself two questions: 1) How much does this trailer make you want to see the film and 2) How badly do you want to show this trailer to everyone you know? If the answer to both those questions is, "Holy crap, you have no idea how much I want to see that film, and I definitely need to show my friends this trailer right now!" -- congrats, it's most likely in your top ten.

Well, another year is in the can folks, and what do we movie lovers have to show for it? Actually, we have a lot. 2006 has seen it's highs (Martin Scorsese gives us his best flick since 'Goodfellas'; a "racist" Kazakh reporter draws the fury of thousands, bags Pamela Anderson -- literally -- and scores box office gold) -- and its lows (Sidney Lumet's 'Find Me Guilty' is guilty ... of sucking; all couples who go see 'Date Movie' together break up within two weeks). I was lucky enough to see a whole lot of good flicks and only a moderate level of what we experts like to call crap. Below, I present my picks for the Top 10 Movies of 2006.* My fellow Moviefone editors will be posting their own lists later this week, so remember to check back for those. Happy Holidays!

10. Children of Men
Director Alfonso Cuaron follows up his masterful 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' adaptation with a film about a war-torn future world in which women no longer bear children. Not surprisingly, the flick is bleak and most certainly not for kids. But its hopeful message is more powerful than a hormonal teenaged wizard hopped up on gillyweed.

9. The Descent
This lean, mean thriller about six sexy female spelunkers battling bloodthirsty cave mutants avoids all the classic horror-film pitfalls: lame plot twists, gratuitous shower scenes (OK, I secretly approve of these) and a silly hook-wielding killer. Plus, it oozes with a certain quality lacking from so many horror pics these days: actual horror.

8. Stranger Than Fiction
Will Ferrell tones down his shtick and reaps the benefits in this funny and poignant tale about an IRS agent who awakes one day to find that his life is being narrated by an author bent on killing him. The cornerstone of the movie -- the budding romance between Ferrell and the baker (Maggie Gyllenhaal) he's auditing -- is so sweet you'll want to start dating a baker just so you can bring her "flours."

7. Apocalypto
Say what you will about Mel Gibson, but the guy took a cast of mostly Yucatec-speaking non-actors and a topic (the downfall of the Mayan civilization) that isn't exactly hot-button and made a two-and-a-half-hour film that's gorgeous, captivating, unique, supremely violent and, frankly, awesome.

6. Casino Royale
Finally, a James Bond flick where 007 is a real guy who bleeds when the bad guys cut him, scars when the love of his life hurts him and wins the day with brut force and smarts rather than gadgets. It sounds like blasphemy, but Daniel Craig might be the best Bond ever. Yes, even better than George Lazenby.

5. Thank You for Smoking
Writer-director Jason Reitman has done something awe-inspiring with his adaptation of Christopher Buckley's satiric novel: He's made the smug, self-righteous chief lobbyist for Big Tobacco into a -- wait for it -- sympathetic character. For this, he owes no small debt to Aaron Eckhart, who imbues said lobbyist with equal parts piss, vinegar and vulnerability. Sounds gross, but it goes down smooth.

4. Borat
Despite offending just about every ethnic, religious, political and gender group known to man, woman or goat, Sacha Baron Cohen's improvisational road-trip comedy was a runaway hit and hands-down the funniest flick of the year. By the time the credits roll, you'll want to make sexytime with this moviefilm. Niiice.

3. Little Miss Sunshine
Dysfunctional family dramedies have become something of a cliché these days (damn you, 'Family Stone,' for being the nail in the coffin!), but the yellow-VW-van-driving Hoovers somehow managed to weasel their way into my heart nonetheless. Every performance -- from Steve Carell's gay, suicidal Proust scholar to Alan Arkin's drug-snorting, curse-spewing grandpa with a heart of gold to Paul Dano's mute, Nietzsche-loving pilot wannabe -- deserves an award. And, more importantly, despite their Grand-Canyon-deep flaws, each character is, at his core, good and intensely likeable. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll go wild for the film's finale, set to none other than Rick James' 'Superfreak' -- because they're the Hoovers, bitch!

2. Pan's Labyrinth
Fantasy and reality -- harsh reality, actually -- collide in director Guillermo del Toro's captivating yarn about a 10-year-old named Ophelia (the brilliant Ivana Baquero) who, at the behest of a faun named Pan, undertakes a harrowing quest to protect her family at the tail end of the Spanish Civil War. I'd say it's a fairy tale for adults, but not too many fairy tales feature a peasant being bludgeoned to death with a wine bottle. Still, it's beautiful, hopeful and more heartbreaking than anything I've seen in a long, long while. If you don't cry at the end, you have no heart in your hollow tin chest.

1. The Departed
Martin Scorsese's blood-soaked, cuss-filled urban morality tale about two undercover moles on opposite sides of the law (one a cop infiltrating the mob, the other a mobster posing as a cop) boasts a pitch-perfect script, some of the best actors in the biz (DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson, Wahlberg, Baldwin) at the very top of their game and an ending so powerful it'll knock the wind out of you like a Louisville Slugger to the nards.

Honorable Mentions
Babel
Brick
Half Nelson
The Illusionist
Inside Man
The Last Kiss
The Prestige
Slither
Superman Returns
United 93

*Note: A few films that might have made this list were left off because I was not able to see them in time. These include, but are not limited to, 'Dreamgirls,' 'Notes on a Scandal' and 'Letters From Iwo Jima.'

POST: Do you agree with these picks?

POST: What are your favorite movies of 2006?

While browsing around online this morning searching for a good poll topic, I happened upon The Movie Blog where our buddy John was pondering (when is he not pondering?) the decline of Denzel Washington's career. Sure, Deja Vu opened third this weekend with a respectable $20 million, but there was a time when it was all about Denzel -- you couldn't mention the words 'black actor' without his name coming up, while women everywhere fantasized about Denzel sweeping them off their feet. However, and John points to this as his possible downfall, ever since the man took home a Best Actor Oscar for Training Day, his star power has slowly faded and, now, his appearance in a film does not guarantee it a number one slot at the box office. That's not to say his acting has gotten worse -- in fact, he's one of the only actors who consistently makes good films. But something is missing. Denzel is no longer Denzel.

Personally, I feel we're at an interesting time right now, and those huge, A-list box office champs are slowly fading from power. In its fourth week, Babel has only grossed $12 million, despite the fact that Brad Pitt is in it. Granted, it's only played in over one thousand theaters for two of those four weeks, but that's still a low figure for such a big name. They're offering Will Ferrell $29 million to do Elf 2, but Stranger Than Fiction tanked in theaters (only $22 million). Pretty soon George Clooney will find his way back onto the big screen in The Good German, though there's a pretty good chance that film won't do too well either. And what about Blood Diamond -- will Leo DiCaprio attract a decent audience for that pic? Probably ... not. So, is it that these men are still popular, but only when surrounded by three or four other supposed A-listers? Have we gotten so used to ensemble pieces (Ocean's Franchise, The Departed), that one man just can't carry a film anymore? Or, are our favorite hot shots on their way out?

So, I ask you: Does the power of an A-List actor still exist? Or, does it only exist when it's surrounded by two or three other A-list actors?

Audiences everywhere proved it's not quite time yet for Christmas flicks, as Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan not only held onto first place at the box office this weekend, but it promptly took its lead and used it to beat down those playing catch up -- most notably, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Borat chomped on those numbers and spit out a whopping $29 million, whereas Tim Allen's holiday pic hobbled into second place with $16.9 million. See, your film can have all the buzz in the world heading into its release, but at the end of the day if the final product fails to entertain (ahem, Snakes on a Plane), it's all for nothing. (Oh, and it also helps to screen your flick beforehand. Hint, hint.)

If you took Borat out of the equation, most of its audience probably would have helped propel Will Ferrell's Stranger Than Fiction into the weekend's top spot. However, with the Kazakhstani news reporter wreaking havoc, Ferrell's film fell to third with $14.1 million. Regardless, after a fall full of drama, violence and horror, it's nice to see three comedies dominate the box office. I say bring on the laughs -- we desperately need them. Speaking of horror, Saw III managed a fourth place finish, even if its $6.6 million was a little blah. But what does that say for everything behind Saw? Not much, apparently. Hey, but you have to hand it to Babel ($5.65 million) for beating The Departed ($5.2 million), The Return ($4.8 million), The Prestige ($4.6 million) and Harsh Times ($1.8 million).

Full numbers after the jump.

Usually, when an actor or actress appears in a film alongside a bunch of talking animals it means their career is beginning to take a turn for the worse. (What? No one mentioned the name Eddie Murphy.) Yet, that doesn't seem to be the case for Will Ferrell, who is one of the hottest funny-men in Hollywood at the moment -- thanks, in part, to his various collaborations with writer-director Judd Apatow Adam Mckay, a man who knows all of Ferrell's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to making an audience laugh.

However, I'm not sure what to think of his latest venture, a film called Fly on the Wall for Universal and Landscape Entertainment. Vince Gilligan (The X-Files, Tonight, He Comes) has just been tapped to rewrite the script, in which Ferrell is currently attached to star. Story revolves around an anti-social man whose life remarkably changes for the better thanks to his new best friend, a talking fly. Err, okay. So Ferrell will go from speaking to an invisible voice (Stranger Than Fiction) to conversing with a fly. And, somewhere in between, he'll be ice skating with Jon Heder (Blades of Glory). Not for nothing, but with the exception of Stranger Than Fiction (which looks awesome), I'm not too excited about his next couple films. Could Fly on the Wall be the beginning of the end for Will Ferrell?

So far, the titles that have been announced as appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival have been primarily independent, often foreign films. And while their presence at the Festival is incredibly exciting to film nerds like yours truly, it's hard to deny that anticipation for any festival ratchets up a notch when the high-profile premieres are revealed. For TIFF, some of those titles were announced yesterday.

The most widely anticipated debut is undoubtedly that of Darren Aronofsky's loooooong-await The Fountain, which is now set to have its North American premiere in Toronto. In addition, Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration (in which he finally turns his skewering on Hollywood itself), Tony Goldwyn's remake The Last Kiss (yawn), the tantalizing Stranger Than Fiction, which stars Will Ferrell as a man who suddenly finds his life narrated by Emma Thompson, and El Cantante, the JLo-Marc Anthony movie, will all have their world premieres at the Fest.

And yes, TIFF still runs from September 7 until the 16th.

As I approach 30, I've come to accept the fact I will most likely live out the rest of my life without ever truly understanding women. Also, how is it one sock always manages to disappear after doing laundry? To me, those two are life's greatest mysteries. I don't care where we came from or whether or not God actually exists. Women and missing socks -- that's all I need to understand. Explain them and I'm set for life.

The following films all examine the unique relationships shared between men and women. Boys and girls. Him and her. The dude and his lady. Sometimes a woman can enter a man's life and completely ruin things, turn it upside down and shatter his foundation. However, the presence of a women, so delicate and warm, can also turn into life's most precious reward ... until a sock goes missing. Then it's war. Welcome to this week's Trailer Park:

Yesterday I told you about the FoxFest at Amsterdam's Cinema Expo earlier this week, and it sounds like yesterday was Sony day in Amsterdam. Among the film the studio included on its show reel were the long-delayed All the King's Men, the Will Smith (and son) vehicle The Pursuit of Happyness, Renny Harlin's The Covenant, and a Will Ferrell double-dip, Talladega Nights and Stranger Than Fiction. Frustratingly, I can't find any reports on how those movies were received; it'd be nice to hear, at least, what the audience thought of All the King's Men.

Instead, however, all the news coming out of the Expo is about the last film on Sony's reel: Casino Royale. Yes, that's right: Someone has finally seen the blonde Bond in action. The Cinema Expo attendees got to see 20 minutes of the film, which reportedly features "a grittier Bond, with scenes of more intense, visceral hand-to-hand combat than 007 has tackled in recent pics." Whether this makes you happy or not, it suggest that the footage in the teaser is representative of the rest of the film, meaning that those of us who were excited about its nasty, old-school tone are safe in looking forward to the movie as a whole. Hooray for that.