While the first half of 2009 has seen a taste of the great - Greg Mottola's Adventureland; a bit of the slightly above average - J.J. Abrams' Star Trek; and a decent slavering of the bad - the rushed for production X-Men, Origins; the second half of the year holds a few promising possibilities for movies that may manage to break the Hollywood mold. I'm not holding my breath on all of these - in particular the last two - but we can always hope. Some of these films have already been released, but if they have, they have not recieved very much attention, and thus probably have a somewhat limited audience, therefore justifying this 'preview'.
Away We Go - directed by Sam Mendes, written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph
You almost don't need to look beyond the credit line to see that this should be a quality movie - at the very least, it will be worth seeing. Sam Mendes, the British director of the stunning American Beauty (1999), which won five Academy Awards including best picture, doesn't usually dissapoint. His past also includes 2008's Revolutionary Road, which wasn't that bad, and Jarhead, which was pretty good. Dave Eggers, the co-writer, is one of America's preeminent nonfiction authors, his book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius earning him a position on the final round of consideration for the Pulitzer Prize. Vendela Vida is his wife and is also a writer. Considering this movie is a romantic comedy, that seems like a great idea.
John Krasinski is, in my opinion, one of the best young actors of his generation, but has unfortunately only been given one good script: the American version of The Office. In the hands of a writer like Eggers and a director like Mendes, it seems like the perfect chance for him to shine. His co-star is Maya Rudolph, who married film genius Paul Thomas Anderson (director of There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love), and is best known for her career at Saturday Night Live. Though technically unproven in film, there has been a recent streak of performers translating very well from other mediums to the silver screen, most notably Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog. Who saw that coming?
It has thus far garnered a 7.7 rating on imbd.com, which on the whole tends to be a decently fair judge of general critical response to most movies. I'm guessing it will surpass expectations. It has already been released, but I have yet to see it. Plot-wise it is billed as a soul searching movie of an offbeat couple searching for the right place to start a family. The previews evoke hints of movies like Juno and Garden State but with a distinctly Mendes-like influence of anti-capitalist themed films American Beauty and Revolutionary Road.
The Informers - directed by Gregor Jordan, written by Bret Easton Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki, starring an ensemble cast including Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Billy Bob Thornton, and Kim Basinger
This is an adaptation of Easton Ellis' short story collection of the same name. Ellis is the same mind that brought the world American Psycho. Although little has been released regarding plot detail, the story collection is widely respected in literary circles. It follows the lives of seven different people in Los Angeles who are all, in one way or another, "morally challenged." Easton is a known for his brilliant parody, dark humor, and thinly veiled distaste regarding contempory American urban life. The lines from the trailer: "You can't really make it in this town unless you're really willing to do some awful things", and "You can do anything, be anything...but happy" seem to capture the more serious, Sun Also Rises-side of the film. It seems like it will deal with the consequences of a depraved world, focused on one of the filthiest (literally and morally) cities in the world - L.A.
It has earned a 7.5 thus far on imdb.com, and was featured at the Sundance Film Festival. Certainly worth seeing. I have high expectations. Jordan doesn't have any outstanding experience as a director, but certainly has potential. Mickey Rourke is in the midst of a career turnaround after an Oscar-nominated performance in The Wrestler last year. Winona Ryder performs well even in movies that she should have never agreed to perform in - and is one of the most unnoticed and underrated actresses around today. Not to mention she likes to read J.D. Salinger in her spare time and makes small appearances in movies like Star Trek for what seems like nothing more than the experience. Not sure how you can't be a fan. Old Billy Bob has his ups and downs but with a good script he is excellent. This could be really good or it could be really bad. I think it will be really good.
The Soloist - directed by Joe Wright, written by Susannah Grant, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
The second recent movie inspired by a newspaper column - the other being last year's suprisingly entertaining Marley and Me - The Soloist is the more serious counterpart. It seems to have all the ingredients to produce excellent performances, but may not have the narrative focus to back it up into something of true greatness. Joe Wright is best known for his work on somber, sobering Keira Knightley vehicles Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, and that seems to be the exact aura which this film will attempt to convey.
The plotline follows a cello musician who becomes schizophrenic and homeless, and is befriended by a journalist who writes about him for his column. The movie bills itself as evocative of the transformative and reformative powers of music.
The Education of Charlie Banks - directed by Fred Durst, starring Jesse Eisenberg
This movie first caught my eye when I was searching for what Adventureland star Jesse Eisenberg was up to after his first big hit. Although this film only recieved a limited release back in March, I suspect that it was because of lack of funds, not lack of interest or lack of critical praise. It's earning of a 7.1 off of 440 votes on IMDB indicates that Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst's directorial debut is certainly something worth seeing.
The plotline follows college student Eisenberg, who encounters on his college campus his high school bully with whom he shared a particularly gruesome encounter. The previews and reviews indicate that this could be something of a cross between Alpha Dog and Finding Forrester, at least from what I have been able to glean.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - directed by David Yates, written by Steve Kloves, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter
The sixth installment in the Harry Potter series is packed with potential - but then again so were the five that came before it.
My hope for this movie is that finally starts breaking the conventions that have made the rest of the series so mind-numbingly ordinary. The good thing about pentultimate films in a saga are that they are dark by neccesity - and I say that as a good thing because by and large, dark films tend to be more honest, and honesty is one trait that the Harry Potter films have failed to pick up on thus far. The first five movies had a few moments of clarity, most of which came in third installment, but by and large they sacrificed quality for popularity. They refused to be daring, refused to create anything new, for the sake of making the feel-good family flick. They followed portions of the novels to a 'T', and when they expanded, it was never anything unique.
The movie creators never seemed to realize that adaptation of a book to a film is never as simple as following plotline and conversation. Like Charlie Kauffman experienced when trying to adapt Susan Orleans' The Orchard Thief, and later dramatized in the Academy Award nominated Adaptation, the process is an art form in and of itself. I'm not saying it's easy, nor am I trying to trash the Potter filmmakers for failing. Turning something as great as the Potter book series into an equally compelling film will inevitably be difficult. It is not that the writing was so bad - Steve Kloves is a talented screenwriter - it just was not nearly on par with Rowling's books, certainly not in the way Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy did for J.R.R. Tolkien. Nor is it a case of the acting being bad - in fact the acting is quite good. The actors which the producers found for Harry, Ron, and Hermione fill their roles effortlessly. When I go back and re-read the books, I find that the faces of the actors have come to replace the rough sketch created by own mind.
But still there is that x-factor, that fire of true creativity, that indefinable something which separates truly great films, like Lord of the Rings, from truly average films, like the entire Harry Potter series with the exception of Alfonso Cuaron's Prisoner of Azaban (which showed surprising originality) missing from the equation. Don't you ever wonder what the Potter saga would look like under the direction of a Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth director)?
With Half Blood Prince, however, you have the pentultimate, and accordingly, darkest chapter of the Potter tale. In a best case scenario, the heartbreaking events of the book will propel a more honest, realistic, and therefore emotionally moving script, that better conveys the power of the novels. Empire Strikes Back, the pentultimate episode in the Star Wars saga, is widely recognized as the greatest science fiction movie of all time - it was also by far the darkest of the original trilogy. It saved the Star Wars franchise name from later calamaties such as the Attack of the Clones, and if we really want to get high and mighty, the entire prequel trilogy itself. My hope is that Half Blood Prince can do the same for the Potter universe - by avoiding a Disnified ending and writing dangerously for the sake of the story, not for the sake of the money it is guarenteed to make.
Taking Woodstock - directed by Ang Lee, written by James Schamus, starring Demetri Martin, Liev Schrieber, Emile Hirsche
From the makers of Academy Award winning films Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain comes the tale behind the creation of the world's most infamous music festival - the free concert that inspired a generation and reflected the enormous uniting power of the art of music. It has enormous potential, to both fit into the mold of typical artsy 'rebellious' films that try to be deeply moving and funny at the same time, or to artistically capture a crucial moment in American cultural history, with a human backstory at its heart. I lean towards somewhere in the middle - Lee and Schamus are a proven team, and this script is in good hands. They have compiled a group of beyond competent actors, and Comedy Central's Demetri Martin seems perfect for the role of the manager of the farm property where the concert itself is held. Also starring is Eugene Levy. This does not seem to be so much a movie about the actual music of the concert, as it is about how the concert happened and what Woodstock meant to people at the time. From the trailer, I see it as a cross between Old School and I'm Not There - and that's really pushing it. Whatever comes out of this, it will be unique. 7.9 rating on IMDB, will be released August 14th.
Song of the Day - 'Black Sand', with a video just released by Jenny Lewis, is the first song on her 2008 album Acid Tongue and the second single from the album. The video itself is just as noteworthy as the song - a very interesting ghost-like visage of Lewis floats across the screen amidst shots of seaside cliffs and a broiling Pacific Ocean. The song is starkly evocative of the Pacific Coast. While the song has drew much criticism for it's repetition of the line "on the black sand", I see this as a device to enforce the idea that the black sand which she refers to is something more than just darkly colored loose dirt, but rather the larger world around us, slowly being turned into ashes by some kind of natural disaster. I imagine the song presupposing a postapocalyptic scene - a world ruined by perhaps environmental neglect, or some unnamed phenomona as in Cormac McCarthy's The Road - and turned to ash. This is backed up by shots in the music video of a weather map of the country, and a green and red storm moving across it. She asks: "Who is going to mind, when the end is nigh?" Though there is no buildup to this line to explain it, it seems to be a subtle reference to the comparative unimportance of what many consider to be vital, in the wake of disaster. When the world is covered by black sand, the love of the song's characters fades away - a lost love made even more poignant by Lewis' high pitched, mournful voice throughout. A beautiful song and a beautiful music video, very evocative regardless how it is interpreted.
Black Sand
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