A Single Man

A Single Man is the directorial debut from Yves Saint Lauren's Tom Ford and provides fantastic performances from Colin Firth and Julianne Moore but very little else worth its time. The story follows Colin Firth whose male lover of 16 years has passed away as he deals with his day to day life. To represent his depression Ford employs the color technique of making his face so dulled it is practically gray, until moments of joy when he miraculously within a shot becomes Florida spray tan orange. The film doesn't really go anywhere until he meets with his best friend Charlie, played spectacularly by Julianne Moore who in playing an English woman shows her Meryl Streep like versatility to do practically anything. We are then graced with a moment when we learn more about his character than just he misses his companion and is sad but as soon as the door closes as he leaves Charlie's house, so does the door close on any form of actual story. With several shots of rippling male back muscle and rear nudity you can be forgiven for expecting text of 'a new fragrance by Fendi' to appear on screen. Whilst Ford creates a beautiful landscape on the screen he lacks the knowledge of film to present it in a way that tells story above your average film student technique level. When attempting to create a flashback to a romantic moment jump cuts pull you away from ebracing it. This film is simply a case of filmmaking 101 but with a higher production budget mixed with high end commercials. If you are simply in love with films which look beautiful then this will provide an enjoyable moment but it gives little more than this. Much more to the point it is overstyled to the point where the film does not look like it is lived in. Julianne Moore's characted is somebody who is unhappy with her life and doesn't get out of bed most mornings yet not a single hair clip will be found out of place visually. All in all this film proves to be a huge disappointment considering the calibre of actors.

A Single Man has been picked up by the Weinstein Company and is expected to have a rush release in time for awards season this December providing the Weinstein's follow through on their promises....

White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights

This documentary follow Jack and Meg White as they tour Canada throwing in an impromptu show at every location.  The performances as always are fascinating and shot on 16mm film stock it has a beautiful grainy appearance appropriate to its subjects.  However, the big question is how much of this is actually documentary.  Jack White enjoys preaching the chaos theory but some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt.  Even the fact that during his and Meg's interview portions there is a man lying on a bed in the background of set surely preconceived by none other than Jack himself.  They talk about the impromptu performances on their tour claiming that they just show up and figure out where would be fun to play a couple of hours before.  In reality this is just not possible with public performance licenses being required for such gigs and the staff to run crowd control, not to mention sourcing electricity for amplifiers and microphones.  Additionally there is talk of how they never have a set list and don't know what they're going to do until it happens on stage.  They may not write it down but surely they will have some pre conceived notion especially when we see bagpipers on stage part way through a show, again another thing which has no choice but to be planned.  Additionally there is Jack mentioning how him and Meg are brother and sister when in fact they are not, they were simply once married.  To add to the deceit of this three people are cited as 'Jack and Meg's distant cousin' and his title in the credits is Jack White III which by this point you just don't know anymore.  Regardless of how reliable a source Jack himself is there is also the pre meditated shots and scenarios such as Jack and Meg standing posed in front of aeroplanes.  This may be a masterful piece of filmmaking but whether or not it is a documentary is highly questionable.

Butterfly

Butterfly is a film which catches you without you even noticing. There are moments that it appears nothing interesting is occuring yet you cannot help but remain attached. The ending grabs you unexpectedly as the emotion of the film culminates in a beautifully subtle manner. A large part of this films worth lays in that of it's lead, a child actor able to convey depth and realism to an extraordinairy degree. The premise of this film revolves around him growing up and starting school where he becomes attached to his teachers knowledge through his learning. At the same time he is learning to become a musicican alongside his older brother. There are political moments within the film but it never forces them upon you or preaches any sort of opinion. All in all a stunning piece of subtlety in film making.

Kinamund

This gentle Danish film tells the story of Keld who receives no respect from anyone in his life, including his son. His wife leaves him and wants him to admit to adultery to speed up the process. In lamenting his life he begins eating at the local Chinese grill where he chronologically orders the different meal numbers day by day. Eventually he befriends the owner of this family business, Feng when the pipes burst and he begins work to fix them. Feng is in seach of someone to marry his sister Ling so that she can remain with the family in Denmark. In order to earn the money for his divorce settlement Keld agrees and despite the language barrier they develop a soft presence with each other. This movie offers what appears as a predictable point a to point b story but successfully takes its audience in unexpected directions.

Spring Forward

Spring Forward tells the story of Paul (Liev Schreiber) and Murphy (Ned Beatty) developing a bond as they work together for the parks and recreations department. Paul has just been released from prison and Murphy is an older vet whose son is dying. Through the time they spend with each other they learn from each other and form a close bond. Both Beatty and Schrieber offer admirable performances, neither exceptional but the script does not allow for this. Overall Spring Forward is an enjoyable gentle film.

Scorsese and Depp for Sinatra biopic?

Reports are beginning to roll in of an authorized Sinatra biopic (with his daughter at the helm of making it happen) with Johnny Depp set to star. It definately sounds like an interesting project and will utilize Sinatra recordings rather than attempts to impersonate his singing. The obvious question has to be that if Sinatra was so well known for his blue eyes will Depp be changing that for the role? Even with Depp's undoubted acting ability and breadth of skill he still just doesn't seem imageinable as Sinatra for now. Since its Scorsese you know he must have seen something good to put him there though so for now all trust in this project lies with the man with the most famous eyebrows in the industry.

Deliver Us From Evil

Sadly this documentary highlights just how big a problem child abuse within the church has become. Over 100,000 victims of clergy abuse have come forward in America alone. Father O'Grady was trusted by those around him because of his authority, much like a teacher and on several occasional violated the trust of the families he worked with by molesting their children. The daunting facts which become apparent are how aware the church were made yet their efforts were focused solely on keeping things quiet and moving him onto another parish where nobody would know of his past. Eerily even in testimony he never seems connected to the abuse. In deposition he is even asked if he has ever been told that he may have dissasociative disorder and he replies that he probably has. Even when discussing the specifics of what he did to the children, there seems to be a presence of joy in his voice, although that could just be the jovial sounding Irish accent. Within his eyes you never see any true aknowledgement of what he has done despite the fact he openly discusses it to the camera. Although this documentary could have been crafted slightly better it still plays an important part in raising awareness of the all to common practice of clergy abuse and the churches resistance to deal with the problem, even the Pope is listed as one who has worked to avoid public scandal.

Another Wuthering Heights in the works.....

Wuthering Heights is very much like Pride and Prejudice. They will never stop making new versions of it. Unfortunately the newest Wuthering Heights comes bearing the presence of Gossip Girls Ed Westwick as Heathcliff. Since Heathcliff is supposed to be the rugged type this just doesn't seem like the best possible pairing of actor and character. Natalie Portman was previously linked to the project but left and is said to be being replaced by Bond girl Gemma Arterton.

The Outsider

The Outsider focuses on filmmaker Jim Toback (Black & White, Two Guys and a Girl) as he shoots a film called When Will I be Loved in just twelve days. The initial synopsis forges the impression of a behind the scenes as they mad dash a movie together in such a short space of time. In the end it becomes a mix of shooting the movie and a retrospective on who Toback is from people in the industry who know him. He is definately a film maker with an interesting how I came to make films story. As a Harvard Student he ended up on a drug trip which lasted eight days causing him to insist he was never the same again. This documentary serves more as background watching. You don't need to be fully invested as it never goes so deep in Jim Toback or the Behind the Scenes to fully realize its potential in either direction. A complete focus on one of the other with simple snippets of other elements perhaps could have produced a more interesting view in the end.

Overnight

Overnight is a documentary offering a glimpse into what can become with quick success and how fragile it all is. Troy Duffy was a bartender who all of a sudden was being taken under Harvey Weinstein's wing. Weinstein offered him a deal unlike others that you hear of including purchasing the bar he worked in so they could own it between them. If Harvey did that for every film he made, he would own half the bars in Hollywood by now. Duffy believes Weinstein to be the big bad bully in this movie never realizing that he has been the cause of his own downfall. Anyone who thinks that they will be treated with kid gloves and able to do whatever they want at Miramax because their so great is headed for trouble. His band, who were included in the deal to record the soundtrack are on the verge of also procuring a record contract when things go awry. Troy Duffy relishes in the fact that he doesn't work the same as others in the industry but at the same time his method is far too juxt aposed to have ever sat well with Hollywood. When you scream down the phone at people and ask someone to let William Morris know that you are unhappy and will leave them unless they get things together then clearly you don't realize where you sit in the grand scheme of things. A movie deal is never finalized to be made until the cameras are rolling. The sadness of this documentary is that Duffy's ignorance prevents him from ever realizing that he simply failed to play nice and thought that the studio needed him since he was the new kid in town. In Hollywood, they can make you as fast as they can break you. An interesting hypocricy is his mention of ass kissers growing by the minute, yet early on we see footage of him hanging around Patrick Swayze, Mark Wahlberg and others.
Anyone who has ever heard tales of the Weinstein brothers ought to know never to risk pushing them the wrong way and this will show you exactly why.
Ironically after a proclamation that he doesn't plan to make any more movies, the sequel the Bondock Saints (the focus of this documentary) is currently in production. In watching Overnight though, you do have to question the reasoning behind it, presumably after being offered the too good to be true deal he simply wanted his friends to chronicle his rise to the top.