Joseph Kahn’s Detention had me from its first knowingly self-aware trailer, and while word out of SXSW was polarizing — a love it or hate it kind of deal, by many accounts — it’s one of my more anticipated films of the spring. True, the competition this season isn’t too stiff, but still! Watch Josh Hutcherson (of next months The Hunger Games , perhaps you’ve heard of it?) as a cute hipster kid get ready to take a beating from the school tough guy while an actual killer runs rampant through town and tell me this isn’t worth putting on the calendar for April. Here’s the film’s full trailer, to give you a sense of what we’re in for. Admittedly, the nonstop pop culture references schtick has been almost fully exhausted by now but good, clever high school comedies never get old. Call it Not Another Not Another Teen Movie , if you will/must. Adding to the intrigue: Detention was shot half a year before Hutcherson was cast as Peeta in The Hunger Games , so the timing of release here is obvious. Will Hunger Games fans flock to the R-rated horror comedy to see a new side of Hutcherson in what may be the edgiest/darkest/ballsiest project since he graduated from family flicks? Detention will be released in select theaters on April 13. [via Badass Digest ]
*: As determined by Movieline’s Institute For the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics after crunching 23 weeks of data from the awards cognoscenti and beyond. Thank you for reading; our work here is done. The Final 9: 1. The Artist 2. The Help 3. The Descendants 4. Moneyball 5. Hugo 6. The Tree of Life 7. Midnight in Paris 8. The Daldry 9. War Horse What’s to say? The die was cast long ago, and unless all those old-ass , inactive white dudes who apparently make the Academy magic happen suddenly decide they want to recognize The Help (or come around on Moneyball a la some latecoming pundits or at least one old-ass, distaff counterpart ), then you might as well just plan to go out on Sunday night to take advantage of the quiet restaurants and/or grocery stores. (And maybe follow our livetweeting here if/when the urge strikes.) The Final 5: 1. Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist 2. Alexander Payne, The Descendants 3. Martin Scorsese, Hugo 4. Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life 5. Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris Did we ever settle on how many of these guys are actually going to show up to lose to Hazanavicius in person? The Final 5: 1. Viola Davis, The Help 1. Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady 3. Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn 4. Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 5. Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs Sasha Stone wrote a few days ago about the “general consensus” solidifying around some shakier frontrunners; Davis seems the most locked-in of that class. Anything could still happen this weekend, which is fine by me as long as it happens fast and we can get on with our lives. The Final 5: 1. Jean Dujardin, The Artist 2. George Clooney, The Descendants 3. Brad Pitt, Moneyball 4. Demi
The most polarizing films are often those that dare to push the envelope farther than is expected or comfortable, whether audiences are ready for them or not, and for this reason I tend to find the divisive films more interesting than those with universal praise or derision. Simon Killer , from Afterschool director/ Martha Marcy May Marlene producer Antonio Campos, reminded me of this rule when it debuted Friday at Sundance and left critics and bloggers somewhat split. Simon Killer marks the return of Borderline Films partners Campos, Sean Durkin, and Josh Mond to Sundance after debuting their Martha Marcy May Marlene last year (which was directed by Durkin), and like MMMM it focuses on a seemingly lost young twentysomething searching for their identity and place in the world while said world grows increasingly sinister. Here, however, that creeping menace doesn’t come from an outside threat but rather from within protagonist Simon (Brady Corbet), a recent college grad who’s drifted to Paris after a bad break-up. Taking up with a local prostitute (Mati Diop), Simon insinuates himself into her life driven by loneliness and longing, but piece by piece the portrait he paints of himself, to her and to the audience, starts to feel jarringly and disturbingly false. Campos presents his sophomore feature as an exercise in perception cued by Simon’s intellectual fascination, as he describes to pretty strangers and acquaintances alike, with the way the eye and the brain interact. Seeing is believing, but it’s not necessarily knowing; is this a young man nursing heartbreak in completely normal human ways — or a sociopath in the making? Campos employs a striking visual flair and bold use of sound and music, cleverly using diegetic sound, voice-over, and strobing effects to evoke Simon’s internal experience to allow us to tap into Simon’s psyche, bit by bit. The problem is that by the film’s midpoint Simon is so unlikeable and so morally detestable that you find yourself wondering why it is you should root for this miserable little slug, or care what happens to him, or, perhaps, even stay to the end. But the end is where Campos brings it all back together and leaves us to ponder the new picture we have of our protagonist, an unreliable narrator minus the narration. You’re not supposed to like Simon, or root for him, or care if a happy fate befalls him; he is, potentially, a monster in the making — possibly even one damn well fully formed — and Simon Killer only seeks to explore what he is and how he operates, how he, or someone like him, could operate in the world around us without giving off the slightest of clues to his true nature. [Campos, after the film’s premiere, offered a chilling bit of explanation: He was inspired by the case of Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch man suspected in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway who was convicted of murdering a woman five years later in Peru.] While I’m on the subject of polarizing Sundance 2012 films, I also caught Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie , a comedy feature spin-off of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s cult series which is itself a pretty “take it or leave it” kind of property. More on that and its critical reception here in Park City, to come. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
This weekend on Twitter, most of our tweeting luminaries avoided addressing the obvious ( Paranormal Activity 3 ) and instead talked about Martha Marcy May Marlene , The Three Musketeers , and — my word — Johnny English Reborn . To the tweet machine!
Where have America’s sweethearts gone? Seventeen-year-old Dakota Fanning is charging hard towards adulthood, with Abigail Breslin (15), Chloe Moretz (14), and sister Elle (13) hot on her heels. Enter 11-year-old Bailee Madison ( Bridge to Terabithia , Conviction , Just Go With It ), a young actress who’s already been acting for half of her life and shows it by holding her own opposite Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes in the Guillermo del Toro -produced horror thriller Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark .
Keeping with the trend of bringing movies to the stage , London’s musical adaptation of Ghost — the embarrassingly awesome ’80s classic featuring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg and the most erotic pottery wheel scene in the history of cinema — will hit Broadway this spring. Matthew Warchus, who is directing the Piccadilly Theatre production of Ghost will shepherd this one overseas, though no word yet if stars Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy will come along. Ghost , Dirty Dancing , the Red Dawn remake — what Patrick Swayze property will get re-done next? Road House ? [ NYT ]
The glamorously screwball Kristen Wiig, who celebrates her 38th birthday today, is now a burgeoning screen star who is successfully elevating the zany and/or downtrodden aspects of her SNL characters into full-fledged performances. What’s her most underrated moment on the screen so far?
In Gavin O’C onnor’s Sept. 9 MMA drama Warrior , Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are estranged brothers who find themselves on competing paths towards the same mixed martial arts championship, both fighting desperately for something different. Find out more about what motivates one brother to risk it all in two new stills from Warrior , debuting exclusively on Movieline.
In Gavin O’C onnor’s Sept. 9 MMA drama Warrior , Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are estranged brothers who find themselves on competing paths towards the same mixed martial arts championship, both fighting desperately for something different. Find out more about what motivates one brother to risk it all in two new stills from Warrior , debuting exclusively on Movieline.
