2010 in Film, Condensed

The year in cinema. Quickly.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

My Summer Sonic 2010 review is coming as soon as I finish getting distracted by things.

In the meantime, here's a neat new trailer for 127 Hours, a fall movie I'm a bit squeamish about.

In it's favor: Oscar-bedecked director Danny Boyle and the always-interesting James Franco.

Not in it's favor: Danny Boyle's visually sadistic side, and the true story of how Aron Ralston got himself out of that rock and a crevasse pickle the trailer ends with.



It may end hopeful, but I'm betting it won't get there pretty...

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...

Now this is interesting, an Allen Ginsberg biopic of some sort based around his seminal poem, Howl.



This looks like trippy fun with James Franco and Jon Hamm. It's an interesting way to celebrate one of the key American voices of the 20th Century, and to recall the cultural earthquake that was Howl.

Micmacs

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is back with what looks to be a thoroughly eccentric tale about a gunshot victim bent on revenge, and the motley crew he enlists along the way.

Micmacs is clearly not Quentin Tarantino revenge, but an odder, goofier version. It sounds just about right from the guy who gave reinvented the romantic comedy with Amelie.



Micmacs starts rolling out this weekend on the art-house circuit, so check your local listings this summer!

What up son?

I know. Two Star Wars posts in one week.

But the force is absolutely with this kid's little Lego recap:



I know more than a few people who are, as of seeing this, thoroughly jealous of this guy's little Jedi brick collection.

Attack of the Homophobic Oranges

Forget the Mormons, the real threat to global gays may be as close as your local produce section.

Once you see the spectacle that awaits in the following, MAYBE NOT SAFE FOR WORK, film short from Spain, I promise you'll never look at oranges the same again.



Thanks to Homoneurotic for the heads up on this brilliant film "trailer" that will likely lead to the boycott of innocent Florida produce.

We're not looking for where we belong.

So, in all the rush of big spring blockbusters I planned to see, but managed to miss (yeah I'm looking at you Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans... let me introduce you to my blu-ray player) there's one that I won't be missing when it opens this weekend. And it's likely out of blind faith that I do, because after Stardust, I'm piqued to see what Matthew Vaughn will do next.

Besides, early buzz seems say that Kick-Ass lives up to it's name.

So there we go, superheroes with foul mouths, a great director and great buzz. What more can you ask for?

How about a thoroughly catchy title tune by Mika to tie it all up:



And here's the THOROUGHLY AND COMPLETELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK restricted trailer for the movie, lest you come away with the impression from Mika that this might be a film to take the kiddies to...

I've been thinking 'bout something...

You'll never guess who this is, and they'd probably be the last people I would ever imagine would pay such great homage to The Blues Brothers...

But here it is, they're Thinking 'Bout Somethin and it's something perfectly fun for a late springtime jam.



Give up?

Think MmmBop.

Apparently those precocious Hanson brothers stuck to their guns long enough to grow up and have a fifth album put together. Not bad at all!

This time around, I think Ray Charles would likely approve.

On a blog sidenote:
I know, I know... It's been like a desert around here. So expect a a bunch of stuff in the next few days that I'd lined up the past month or two and never got around to post up. Call it a spring music dump, if you will.

Want to be a Superhero?

Longtime readers may recall my fervor for a little movie called Stardust a few years back. You still all need to see it.

But for those of you still stubborn enough to avoid the serious charm of a modern fairy tale romance, you're in luck. Stardust director Matthew Vaughn has set his sights on another genre, and it looks, well, um, Kick-Ass.



I know I always wanted to be a superhero. Didn't you?

Hit the accelerator!

Star Wars rebooted for the short-attention-span fanboy. I love it!



This is clearly a popcorn-worthy train-wreck in the making. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

The Legacy of Lightcycles

It's funny how on a night where I think I may have lost that sparkle for big budget computerized special effect explosiveness, I get home and find there's hope (if a bit of nostalgia) yet!

We wasted money tonight to finally see the new Transformers trainwreck on glorious IMAX, and -- memo to IMAX -- I want my money back. There was nothing on that screen that begged for bigger and better.

There was no sweeping vista to get lost in. There was no lingering image enveloping you.

Just even bigger examples of plastic toys smashing each other. Which I guess is the point, except that the jumbo screen just made it clearer what a convoluted pixelated mess it really was.

So here I am a few minutes ago, saying that we should have just gone for the quiet comedy tonight, when this flashes on my screen:


And suddenly the inner geek in me gets all giddy again.

The movie that, in a way, was the real precursor to all things digitally animated. The movie that was way ahead of it's time with it's computerized flying discs and lightcycles.

It's back for it's own dip in the electronic pond, and I can't think of anything better than a revisit to the very start of the digital era.

The Tron reboot is an odd, but fitting, sign of the times.

Are you Rudo or Cursi?

Amidst the big budget blockbusters that start exploding onscreen in the coming weeks (think Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation, Up, etc...) there's Rudo Y Cursi, a little Mexican movie that will be moseying along too, hoping for a few scraps.

Why does this little south of the border flick matter?

It reunites the creative team behind 2001's brilliant coming of age road trip movie, Y Tu Mamá También. That film's stars, Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, The Science of Sleep) and Diego Luna (The Terminal, Milk) have since, of course, spread their wings, as has their director, Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter, Children of Men).

The whole gang is back together for another Mexican tale, this time directed by Cuaron's screenwriting partner, his brother Carlos.

It's a tale of two country brothers, lured to the big city with dreams of soccer goals and songs of praise.

Hopefully this team has another ace up its sleeves, because you rarely get the sheer magic in a bottle that was Y Tu Mamá También. Keep an eye out for Rudo Y Cursi at the arthouses near you this summer.



UPDATE 5/5/09: The film is scheduled to open in Denver on May 15 at both the Mayan and Greenwood Village Landmark Theatres.

The Darkest Hour...

I know May is full of blockbusters I'm excited to see. But lets not forget July and a certain spectacled wizard...

Wild Thing, I Think I Love Ya.

What happens when you take the warped mind of Spike Jonze and crash it right into the dark imagination of classic children's author Maurice Sendak?



You get the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are. Clearly there's a wild thing in me, waiting to see where this adventure goes!

No, no. There is no risk! They never come back…. As boys!

I should have known there was something I had forgotten when the Pinocchio anti-smoking public service announcement showed up before the film.

My memories of the film were definitely on the more innocent side: Noses growing, wishing upon stars and having no strings.

What I didn't remember was the truly warped world Walt Disney and his co-conspirators created 70 years ago.

Seen now, the movie seems almost revolutionary in it's darkness. Boys being kidnapped to a place where they don't come back from as boys, smoking as evil salvation, people making an ass of themselves (literally) and a killer whale nipping at the hero's limbs.

It seems odd that perhaps the song most-identified with the Disney mystique comes from such a twisted, twisted tale.

When You Wish Upon a Star, indeed.

Somehow, Walt Disney's Pinocchio is still a movie for all times. It's a story made to be told just as it was.

Even in this era of digital animated toy stories, this hand-drawn traditional tale of morality resonates as strongly as ever.

Kudos to Disney for such a lovingly restored re-release. If you have a Blu-ray player, you need to get this in high definition.

Beam Me Up, Harry Potter (with claws)

The battle of the summer blockbusters is starting to rev up. Case in point, three trailers of note:

Take a new peek at the big Star Trek reboot, the delayed-so-we-can-milk-the-summer-vacation-crowd Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as well as the who-cares-about-all-the-other-X-Men Wolverine flick. All three look pretty spiffy in my book....

You Should Know Upfront This is Not a Love Story

Following on the success of Slumdog Millionaire, the folks at Fox Searchlight may have another quirky indie flick to grab our attention later this year.

Pay close attention to some of the details in this trailer for (500) Days of Summer. This Sundance Film Festival selection may just be a clever post-modern take on romance.

If my memory of her has an expiration date, let it be 10,000 years...

I'm a relative latecomer to the HD revolution, but baby, let me tell you: Now I'm a believer.

All it took was the right gear together.

Once in place, there is nothing quite like rediscovering a classic movie you love explode on the screen in technicolor.

That's what Wong Kar-Wai's classic, Chungking Express did for me tonight. It's like falling love with an old friend, all over again. Criterion did an sublime job transferring a movie long neglected -- you should see the grainy junk Asian copy I had!

Wong's meandering camera and Christopher Doyle's stunning cinematography are a perfect match for high definition. The movie isn't meant to be sharp, clear and booming at all times, like some of the other more notable HD movies out there.

What the experience does for this film is allow the colors to pop, the soundscape of chaotic Hong Kong to shine and the subtle, wonderful performances of the actors to shine through.

It was a reminder of what I love about cinema. I look forward to rediscovering my old favorites anew as they start appearing in HD as well.

May they all be so lovingly presented as Chungking Express tonight.

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

The dialogue's stilted, the whole thing's geared toward the under-12 crowd and it's way too long.

So how is it that the Speed Racer movie, box office poison a year ago, won me over tonight?


Chalk it up to an immensly likeable cast (including Emile Hersch, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci and John Goodman) and stunning visuals that gave our Blu-ray player a real workout.

There's way too much set-up, and a lot of the kiddie stuff should have been cut (sorry Spritle and monkey). Once you get past all that, it's a surprisingly hip update to the stilted classic I've long loved. While the early stuff sticks in first gear, the Wachowski brothers are just revving up for the big races later on -- a splendid technicolor extravaganza.

Sure, this movie probably deserved to flop at the box office. That just makes it strangely under-rated.

I can already see myself watching it again.

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Life must go on!

Put together master of darkness Tim Burton and Russian vampire action director du jour Timur Bekmambetov, and you're bound to get something interesting.

Animated, even.

Here's the trailer for their upcoming collaboraton, 9.