Remember Occupy Wall Street? Remember how popular support for the protest soared and then dwindled as organizers proved to be disorganized and ineffectual? In his new film, The Company You Keep , Robert Redford examines why so many movements like OWS fail. “They don’t always succeed, they tend to evaporate,” Redford notes. “I was curious about why. And what was the cost [for] those people that so believed?” In addition to looking back at generations of history, The Company You Keep also showcases several generations of acting talent: From Julie Christie to Stanley Tucci to Shia LaBeouf. Redford’s most contemporary casting choice is America’s Got Talent wunderkind Jackie Evancho, who makes her acting debut in the film. “Acting and singing are actually very similar,” says Evancho. “Because they’re both telling a story.” Check out my full interview from the NY Premiere below: Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
I’ve never been much of an obituary-writing guy, but Roger Ebert deserves to be celebrated. So, rather than add to the hundreds of thousands of words that are about to be spent reexamining his remarkable life and career following his death today, I’m going to make one observation about his contribution to movie culture and then leave you with a clip that, I hope, will make you smile when you think of him. My introduction to Ebert, and his equally mouthy partner in movie criticism, Gene Siskel , came via their thoroughly enjoyable syndicated television show At The Movies , which began as a PBS series in 1975, Sneak Previews , and eventually became Siskel and Ebert and The Movies from 1986 until 1999. (The year Siskel died.) And though I’m quite aware that a) these guys were operating on television and b) blog culture was a long way off, there’s a real argument to be made that Siskel and Ebert are the real forefathers of the movie blog culture that exists today. Siskel and Ebert: Proto-Movie Bloggers Each week, they candidly curated a subjective list of movies that were opening that week. They told the television audience which films were worth seeing and why, which ones should be ignored, and which movies were worth actively seeking out at the video store if they weren’t shown at the local cinema. And, by the way, their thumbs up or down system of rating movies was the proto-Rotten Tomatoes . As Roadside Attractions tweeted on Thursday afternoon: “Siskel & Ebert almost single-thumbedly made Hoop Dreams a thing. If they’d never done anything else, they’d still be indie film legends.” Siskel and Ebert lavished attention on obscure movies; they taught their audience how to look at crowd pleasers with a critical eye, and they fought and bickered with each other in a way that made great television. Their TV show had all of the elements of a great blog: curation, information, perspective and entertainment. And they did it better than a lot of bloggers are doing it now. Rest in peace, Roger Ebert. You, too, Gene Siskel. This is how I’ll remember you: bickering brilliantly like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Siskel and Ebert At Each Other’s Throats Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
As mystifying as his 2004 sci-fier, Primer , albeit for entirely different reasons, Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color is a stimulating and hypnotic piece of experimental filmmaking. It’s also a poem about pigs, a meditation on orchids, a cerebral-spiritual love story, an intensely elliptical sight-and-sound collage, and perhaps a free-form re-interpretation of Thoreau’s Walden . Surely the most challenging dramatic entry at Sundance this year, this unapologetically avant-garde work regards conventional narrative as if it were a not-especially-interesting alien species; the mainstream will take no notice, but adventurous auds are in for a strange and imaginative trip. Primer fans and hardcore art-film devotees will likely be the sole takers for this long-anticipated sophomore effort, which again finds Carruth taking on writing, directing, acting, producing, scoring, lensing and editing duties. He’s even serving as his own distributor this time, with plans to release the picture in L.A. and Gotham in April, followed by a quick transition to repeat-viewing-friendly smallscreen play. At the center of Upstream Color is a young woman, Kris ( Amy Seimetz ), who finds herself an unwitting participant in some exceedingly bizarre experiments. First a thief (Thiago Martins) attacks her and forces her to ingest a bio-engineered worm that brainwashes her into handing over her savings. When the critter starts to replicate inside her body, in scenes that give the picture a brief horror-movie spin, she’s rescued, after a fashion, by an older gentleman identified in the credits as Sampler (Andrew Sensenig), who subjects her to a bizarre respiratory treatment involving one of his many farm pigs. Left with little to no memory of what has happened, Kris finds herself drawn to a young man ( Carruth ) who seems to have experienced the same ordeal. The two walk and talk, ride the subway, make love and at one point cradle each other in a bathtub. They wander a nondescript-looking city, exchanging dialogue laced with random repetition and impenetrable non sequiturs. Even as their actions and circumstances defy comprehension, a troubling and poignant idea rises to the surface: the universal human compulsion to construct a sense of identity and ascribe meaning to one’s life, to impose order on disorder. The futility of such a thing may well explain the befuddling, pretzel-like contours of the story; even the most attentive viewers may be hard-pressed to comprehend the significance of the women harvesting orchids, or why Sampler walks around using sound-recording equipment. Peculiar as it all may sound in outline, it’s even stranger to experience onscreen, arranged by Carruth in a complex symphonic framework that variously invokes Malick and Lynch in its narrative illogic, tactile lyricism and possible transmigration-of-souls subtext. The picture is so densely edited (by Carruth and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints helmer David Lowery) that no single shot seems to last more than mere seconds, which combines with the shallow-focus compositions to produce an experience of near-continual disorientation. Factor in the almost omnipresent synth score, layered under tinkling piano chords, and the film seems to be attempting to induce a state of synaesthesia. Walden , a frequent reference point here, provides a clue as to what Carruth is up to: In its intense levels of visual-aural stimulation, the film is at once transcendent and meditative, and in some ways a call for the sort of inner detox Thoreau prescribed. And since exalted literary works seem to be on the interpretive agenda, the transference of illness to a herd of pigs calls to mind nothing so much as the gospel accounts of Jesus casting out Legion by the Sea of Galilee. Pretentious or sublime, these ineffable spiritual overtones are finally what make Upstream Color so approachable, for all its mysteries: This is a warmer, less foreboding picture than Primer , not moving in any conventional sense, but suffused with emotion all the same. One can only imagine what directions the actors were given in order to inhabit roles that seem to splinter and reassemble themselves at will, but Seimetz supplies a quietly haunting presence, particularly in the film’s tender closing fade. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
As mystifying as his 2004 sci-fier, Primer , albeit for entirely different reasons, Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color is a stimulating and hypnotic piece of experimental filmmaking. It’s also a poem about pigs, a meditation on orchids, a cerebral-spiritual love story, an intensely elliptical sight-and-sound collage, and perhaps a free-form re-interpretation of Thoreau’s Walden . Surely the most challenging dramatic entry at Sundance this year, this unapologetically avant-garde work regards conventional narrative as if it were a not-especially-interesting alien species; the mainstream will take no notice, but adventurous auds are in for a strange and imaginative trip. Primer fans and hardcore art-film devotees will likely be the sole takers for this long-anticipated sophomore effort, which again finds Carruth taking on writing, directing, acting, producing, scoring, lensing and editing duties. He’s even serving as his own distributor this time, with plans to release the picture in L.A. and Gotham in April, followed by a quick transition to repeat-viewing-friendly smallscreen play. At the center of Upstream Color is a young woman, Kris ( Amy Seimetz ), who finds herself an unwitting participant in some exceedingly bizarre experiments. First a thief (Thiago Martins) attacks her and forces her to ingest a bio-engineered worm that brainwashes her into handing over her savings. When the critter starts to replicate inside her body, in scenes that give the picture a brief horror-movie spin, she’s rescued, after a fashion, by an older gentleman identified in the credits as Sampler (Andrew Sensenig), who subjects her to a bizarre respiratory treatment involving one of his many farm pigs. Left with little to no memory of what has happened, Kris finds herself drawn to a young man ( Carruth ) who seems to have experienced the same ordeal. The two walk and talk, ride the subway, make love and at one point cradle each other in a bathtub. They wander a nondescript-looking city, exchanging dialogue laced with random repetition and impenetrable non sequiturs. Even as their actions and circumstances defy comprehension, a troubling and poignant idea rises to the surface: the universal human compulsion to construct a sense of identity and ascribe meaning to one’s life, to impose order on disorder. The futility of such a thing may well explain the befuddling, pretzel-like contours of the story; even the most attentive viewers may be hard-pressed to comprehend the significance of the women harvesting orchids, or why Sampler walks around using sound-recording equipment. Peculiar as it all may sound in outline, it’s even stranger to experience onscreen, arranged by Carruth in a complex symphonic framework that variously invokes Malick and Lynch in its narrative illogic, tactile lyricism and possible transmigration-of-souls subtext. The picture is so densely edited (by Carruth and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints helmer David Lowery) that no single shot seems to last more than mere seconds, which combines with the shallow-focus compositions to produce an experience of near-continual disorientation. Factor in the almost omnipresent synth score, layered under tinkling piano chords, and the film seems to be attempting to induce a state of synaesthesia. Walden , a frequent reference point here, provides a clue as to what Carruth is up to: In its intense levels of visual-aural stimulation, the film is at once transcendent and meditative, and in some ways a call for the sort of inner detox Thoreau prescribed. And since exalted literary works seem to be on the interpretive agenda, the transference of illness to a herd of pigs calls to mind nothing so much as the gospel accounts of Jesus casting out Legion by the Sea of Galilee. Pretentious or sublime, these ineffable spiritual overtones are finally what make Upstream Color so approachable, for all its mysteries: This is a warmer, less foreboding picture than Primer , not moving in any conventional sense, but suffused with emotion all the same. One can only imagine what directions the actors were given in order to inhabit roles that seem to splinter and reassemble themselves at will, but Seimetz supplies a quietly haunting presence, particularly in the film’s tender closing fade. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
You know you’re in Hobbit -land when Peter Jackson turns a mind-numbing question from Stephen Colbert about the Elves of Mirkwood into an observation about whether the coffee mugs on The Colbert Report are sanitary. Just in time for April Fool’s Day, Colbert makes the appearance at the 1:28 mark in this excerpt of a Q&A that Jackson conducted with fans who bought the Blu-Ray version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey last week. The clip also includes a first look at the second film in Jackson’s planned trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug , but the hight point is Colbert’s slightly unhinged appearance. If he is not the number-one Tolkien geek on this planet, then he sure has me fooled. Jackson demonstrates that he’ s capable of being funny, too, and responds to Colbert’s multi-part question with a simple “yes,” before raising his own geeky question about The Colbert Report coffee mug that he used on his last appearance. The moral of the story: If you appear on The Colbert Report , bring your own mug. Stephen Colbert’s Very Involved Question About ‘The Desolation Of Smaug’ [ Deadline] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Finally, an April Fool’s joke that actually sells something. This clips starts out like a half-assed so-bad-it’s-good sequel to Pineapple Express with Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride and eventually reveals itself to be a clip within a clip to one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the summer: The funny actor apocalypse movie, This Is The End . I can’t wait to see this movie, although I’m already bummed that Michael Cera dies in the movie. Not A Trailer For Pineapple Express 2 Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Roland Emmerich likes the Air Jordans scene in White House Down . As you may have heard, Emmerich and the leading men of his movie, Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum , gave moviegoers in New York and London a sneak peek of about eight minutes of footage from their Washington-under-siege movie on Tuesday, and, at the risk of sounding like Chance the Gardener, I had the unexpected opportunity of watching the director watch his handiwork from the audience. Emmerich and Foxx appeared before a hyped-up crowd at a Regal cineplex in Manhattan’s Union Square and were joined via satellite by Tatum, who was at a screening in London. Audiences in both locations were first shown the trailer for White House Down (posted below), then Good Morning America ‘s Sam Champion asked a lot of how-did-it-feel-type questions of the trio and their respective roles. Tatum plays John Cale — screenwriter James Vanderbilt must be a Velvet Underground fan — a cop who is on a tour of the White House with his daughter when it is attacked during a coup attempt, and President James Sawyer, portrayed by Foxx, is taken hostage. The two men team up to battle the paramilitary forces — homegrown, based on Emmerich’s comments — that are attempting to take control of the country and, on a more human scale, to rescue Cale’s daughter. After Emmerich admitted to some reservations about showing an extended look at his work-in-progress, the lights went down a second time and the crowd was treated to approximately eight minutes of footage that better established Tatum and Foxx’s characters. Prior to the White House tour, Cale is shown apologizing to his daughter for not being a better dad and lifting her spirits by telling her about the White House tour they’re going to take right after his interview for a plum Secret Service gig. That interview which is conducted by a tough-talking Maggie Gyllenhaal, goes terribly, and, based on the footage shown, implausibly. Gyllenhaal is shown quoting evaluations by Cale’s law-enforcement superiors and there are enough negative ones that, given that the job involves protecting the president, it’s unlikely the interview would have even been scheduled. But things picked up considerably from there. Just before all hell broke loose, a White House tour guide refers to the part of the White House “that got blown up in Independence Day ,” which the crowd loved. That was followed by extended footage of another national monument, the Capitol Building being destroyed in spectacular fashion. (Trust me, it’s more memorable than the short version you see in the trailer.) By then, Emmerich had left his seat next to Foxx at the front of the theater and plopped down on the floor in the middle of the theater next to yours truly — there were no seats to be had at this point — presumably to watch the footage from the crowd’s perspective. As the Capitol Building imploded, I watched Emmerich out of the corner of my eye to see if the German filmmaker was looking impressed with himself or particularly gleeful at the cinematic destruction of an iconic American image. He wasn’t. He watched the footage intently but without any evident emotion. The scene that got an obvious rise out of Emmerich was one in which, after Cale and Sawyer make their way to the president’s living quarters, the Commander-in-Chief breaks out a pair of sweet Air Jordans. The director laughed out loud at that scene, and also appeared to enjoy another bit of comic relief later in the picture where Foxx kicks a terrorist who’s grabbing at his feet and says, “Get your hands off my Jordans!” (Foxx told the crowd that he was not playing a fictional version of Barack Obama, but that he did do “Obama-type things” in the movie, and the Jordans certainly seemed to reference our actual president’s love of basketball.) Eight minutes of footage does not a movie make, but if Emmerich can maintain the level of humor, action and drama that his sneak peek demonstrated, White House Down could potentially dwarf the $30.5 million opening weekend that Olympus Has Fallen notched and become another Independence Day-sized hit for Emmerich. At the very least, it will earn him the distinction of the filmmaker who blew up by blowing up the White House — twice. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
After a six-second ‘Tweaser’ anda 20-second preview of The Wolverine , Marvel unleashed almost four-and-a-half minutes of adamantium goodness in the form of two trailers on Wednesday, and it sets up at least part of the storyline for Hugh Jackman’s latest outing as the cigar-smoking mutant. It looks like a scientist whom Wolvie saved from what looks like a nuclear explosion wants to repay the favor: The mutant gave him life, so Mr. Big Brain wants to give Wolverine the ability to die by taking away his regenerative powers. Or is it all a diabolical trick? That beautiful blond assistant in the lab coat is Svetlana Khodchenkova , who plays the villain Viper in the movie. Below are both the domestic and international trailer. The latter does a much better job of telling the story. You might want to watch that one first. In this context, The Wolverine reminds me of one of the themes that Anne Rice grappled with in her Interview with the Vampire novels: Is immortality as alluring as it seems? ‘The Wolverine’ Trailer (Domestic) : A Life Saved The International Trailer Reveals More Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
It’s only Monday and James Franco is already having a good week. And that could translate to a good week for Florida rapper Dangeruss, too. Despite Franco’s much-maligned performance in Oz The Great and Powerful , the movie was the top performer at the box office this past weekend, earning $42.2 million domestically, and the blogosphere is already championing him for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work as the drug dealer Alien in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers . Meanwhile, that picture, which opens wide this weekend, racked up the best per-screen average of the year so far — $90,000 — in limited release at three theaters. So, how is that good for Dangeruss ? For one thing, the tattooed and dreadlocked rapper inspired the actor’s meth-dealing Alien character in Spring Breakers, which is a big reason the actor is in the spotlight again. Better yet, Franco directed Dangeruss’ “Hangin’ With Da Dopeboys” video below, which is featured on the movie’s heat-seeking soundtrack, and that could mean that the media soon stops referring to the rapper as an “underground” artist no matter how crusty he looks. Granted, the track and the video don’t exactly break new ground, but in this digital world, good enough is more than enough to blow up. Check out “Hangin’ With Da Dopeboys,” then compare Dangeruss to Franco’s Alien, who’s featured in the second clip. [ Huffington Post ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Edward who? Robert Pattinson has made some smart post- Twiligh t choices. After working with David Cronenberg in the memorably weird Cosmopolis , the heartthrob actor has now gone completely off-road for Animal Kingdom director David Michod’s gritty, violent follow-up, The Rover , which is shooting in the unforgiving Australian desert. And judging from this first still from the set, the bedroom-eyed actor’s sparkly vampire days are well behind him. In this shot, Pattinson is oozing blood, not drinking it and looking a little hot under the collar as he is threatened by an even grungier looking Guy Pearce . According to Hey Guys.co.uk , the movie is set in the near future where “a worldwide financial collapse has sent people to the mines of the Australian desert.” Pattinson is described as a “troubled and damaged soul” who’s a member of the gang that has run afoul of the “dark, dangerous and murderous” Pearce. Here’s the official synopsis: Eric (Pearce) has left everything, everyone and every semblance of human kindness behind him when a gang of desperate criminals steals his last possession. Eric sets off on a ruthless mission to track them down, forced along the way to enlist the help of Rey (Pattinson), the naïve and injured junior member of the gang who was left behind in the chaos of the gang’s most recent robbery. The movie is expected to hit theaters in 2014, and it also features the very talented Scoot McNairy who played memorable characters in Killing Them Softly , Argo and Promised Land last year. [ Hey Guys ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
