This week’s Low(brow) choice may have been a box-office-record-smashing mass-appeal hit, but it’s also a genre classic that sneaks a healthy dollop of wit and even subtlety into its comic-book storyline. On the High side: two swoony love stories from a modern master . With movies this good, labeling almost seems beside the point. HIGH: Wong Kar-Wai Blu-Ray Double Feature: Fallen Angels and Happy Together (Kino Lorber; $49.95 Blu-Ray) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Both films: Written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Casts: Leon Lai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Karen Mok ( Angels ); Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung ( Happy ). WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Fallen Angels tells a tale originally designed to be part of Wong’s Chungking Express , about a lovesick hit man (Lai), a mute guy with a talent for breaking and entering (Kaneshiro) and a girl named Blondie (Mok). Although, as with most films by this auteur, what happens to these characters is less important than how they’re lit and what music they listen to. In the ironically-titled gay romance Happy Together , Lai (Leung) and Ho (Cheung) travel from Hong Kong to Argentina in an attempt to repair their thoroughly dysfunctional relationship. It doesn’t help. (The Tony Leung Chiu-Wai of this film starred in John Woo’s Hard-Boiled and Wong’s In the Mood for Love , and is not to be confused with Tony Leung Ka-fai from The Lover .) WHY IT’S SCHMANCY: Wong and his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, create heartbreaking visual tone poems that are unique among contemporary movies. These aren’t the kinds of films where you ask “What’s it about?” or “What happens?” Instead, you have to let them take you where they want — on their terms and at their own pace. But if you’re patient enough, Wong will guide you into his characters’ hearts and heads, and the rewards are immeasurable. In this context, a glance, a pop song or even a color can speak volumes. WHY YOU NEED TO BUY IT (AGAIN): Not every director’s work makes a big leap in going from regular DVD to hi-res Blu-Ray, but Doyle is one of the great visual artists in film right now, and the crisper you can see his amazing images, the better. (All the more reason to get psyched about the upcoming In the Mood for Love Blu-Ray coming next month from The Criterion Collection.) This double-feature collection doesn’t skimp on the extras, either: Angels offers three behind-the-scenes featurettes and an interview with Dolan. Happy Together includes a making-of doc ( Buenos Aires Zero Degree ) and a 2008 conversation with Wong from the Museum of the Moving Image. LOW: The Avengers (Walt Disney Home Entertainment; $29.99 DVD, $39.99 Two-Disc Blu-Ray Combo, $49.99 Four-Disc Blu-Ray Combo) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Written and directed by Joss Whedon, from a story by Whedon and Zak Penn, based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; starring Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Oh, like you don’t know: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finally gets his hands on the Cosmic Cube that’s been bouncing through most of the previous Marvel superhero movies, and it takes the combined might of Iron Man (Downey), the Hulk (Ruffalo), Thor (Hemsworth), Captain America (Evans), Black Widow (Johansson) and Hawkeye (Renner) to save the planet from alien invasion. WHY IT’S FUN: Whedon gets the appeal of superhero comic books in the same way that Raiders of the Lost Ark demonstrated Lucas and Spielberg’s instinctual understanding of what made old-school adventure serials so fun. (For all the successes of the Spider-Man movies, for instance, you’d never know that the comic-book character was a one-liner-spouting sarcasm machine.) While Whedon never underplays the high stakes of the plot, he lets these characters be funny, bitchy and untrusting of each other before they bond through their shared adventures. It’s an epic, breathtaking pop thrill ride that doesn’t spare the smarts or the endorphins. WHY YOU SHOULD BUY IT: Seeing as how it’s one of the most successful movies ever made, The Avengers comes to home video in a number of different incarnations, including a four-disc set that includes a 3D Blu-Ray option. The extras themselves are plentiful, if not earth-shaking, and include a Whedon commentary, star-packed making-of shorts, a look at the visual effects, deleted scenes, a gag reel and a Soundgarden music video. And if you’re springing for the 3D set, you’ll get Item 47 , the first of a promised series of Avengers-related short films. Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap , Salon and MSNBC.com. He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What The Flick?! (The Young Turks Network) . He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
This isn’t your average mary story! After 20 years of research, a pair of scientists have found proof that sticky-icky doesn’t just help ease the pain for those going through chemo treatments…it also prevents the cancer from spreading! For those opposed to using Mary because of the “effects”, they can have a good nights sleep; the form of CBD scientists used is non-toxic and non-hallucinogenic…so you won’t have to worry about your loved ones trippin’ while they’re on their treatments. According to The Huffington Post… “It took us about 20 years of research to figure this out, but we are very excited,” said Pierre Desprez, one of the scientists behind the discovery, to The Huffington Post. “We want to get started with trials as soon as possible.” Desprez, a molecular biologist, spent decades studying ID-1, the gene that causes cancer to spread. Meanwhile, fellow researcher Sean McAllister was studying the effects of Cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-toxic, non-psychoactive chemical compound found in the cannabis plant. Finally, the pair collaborated, combining CBD and cells containing high levels of ID-1 in a petri dish. “What we found was that his Cannabidiol could essentially ‘turn off’ the ID-1,” Desprez told HuffPost. The cells stopped spreading and returned to normal. “We likely would not have found this on our own,” he added. “That’s why collaboration is so essential to scientific discovery.” “We started by researching breast cancer,” said Desprez. “But now we’ve found that Cannabidiol works with many kinds of aggressive cancers–brain, prostate–any kind in which these high levels of ID-1 are present.” Desprez hopes that clinical trials will begin immediately. “We’ve found no toxicity in the animals we’ve tested, and Cannabidiol is already used in humans for a variety of other ailments,” he said. Indeed, the compound is used to relieve anxiety and nausea, and, since it is non-psychoactive, does not cause “high” associated with THC. While marijuana advocates will surely praise the discovery, Desprez explained that it’s not so easy as just lighting up. “We used injections in the animal testing and are also testing pills,” he said. “But you could never get enough Cannabidiol for it to be effective just from smoking.” Furthermore, the team has started synthesizing the compound in the lab instead of using the plant in an effort to make it more potent. “It’s a common practice,” explained Desprez. “But hopefully it will also keep us clear of any obstacles while seeking approval.” Hopefully ignorant politicos opposed to using maryjane as a form of treatment will be more open-minded in this case. If we can help at least one family member who’s fallen to this destructive disease we’ll take that for progress! Images via shutterstock
The Hamptons International Film Festival released its 2012 slate with a lineup of festival circuit notables as well as World, U.S. and East Coast premieres. HIFF released its Opening Films, including Love, Marilyn , Silver Linings Playbook , Argo and Not Fade Away recently. Today’s list includes the festival’s Spotlight Films section including Tim Burton ‘s latest, Frankenweenie and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Amour . And The Girl with Toby Jones , Sienna Miller and Imelda Staunton will have its worldwide debut at the upcoming event. Also in the roster are five films each competing in the Hamptons’ Narrative and Documentary feature competitions. The 20th anniversary edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival takes place October 4 – 8 in East Hampton, NY and other towns in Long Island’s East End. The lineup follows with descriptions provided by HIFF: Spotlight Films Frankenweenie Director: Tim Burton Cast: Martin Landau, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, Charlie Tahan, Frank Welker From Tim Burton, the visionary filmmaker behind Beeteljuice , The Nightmare Before Christmas , and Alice in Wonderland , comes Frankenweenie , a feature-length adaptation of his debut 1984 short film. Budding young scientist Victor Frankenstein loses his beloved dog Sparky in an accident. Soon after, Victor’s science teacher, Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau) conducts a class experiment showing the effects of electricity on a dead frog. In a flash of inspiration, Victor vows to bring Sparky back to life––with unexpected, monstrous consequences. Heartwarming and hilarious, this 3D stop-motion animated feature is a ghoulish good time for the whole family. Amour Director: Michael Haneke Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert Legendary French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva deliver career-capping performances as Georges and Anne, octogenarian retired music teachers living in a lovely Paris apartment. When Anne suffers a stroke, her condition rapidly deteriorates as George tries his best to cope and care for his ailing wife, all while his promise to never place her in a nursing home strains his relationship with his daughter (Isabelle Huppert). Director Michael Haneke ( The White Ribbon ) won an unprecedented second Palme d’Or in four years for this uncompromising and masterful drama about the true meaning of growing old together. The Details , East Coast Premiere Director: Jacob Aaron Estes Cast: Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, Kerry Washington, Dennis Haysbert Playing against type, Toby Maguire delights as the morally ambiguous Dr. Jeff Lang in this dark comedy with no shortage of laughs and gasps. When he attempts to rid his suburban Seattle backyard of raccoons, quickly earning the ire of his eccentric neighbor (Laura Linney), Jeff sets off a chain of events that leads to domestic rifts, adultery, blackmail, and murder. As his marriage to Nealy (Elizabeth Banks) and his life teeter dangerously on the brink of destruction, he seeks redemption by helping a friend in need, but it may be too late to stop the dominos in Jacob Aaron Estes’ offbeat dramedy. The Girl , World Premiere Director: Julian Jarrold Cast: Toby Jones, Sienna Miller, Imelda Staunton Alfred Hitchcock is not only perhaps the most famous film director of all time, creator of such classics as Vertigo and Psycho , but among the most controversial, plagued for years with accusations about his personal treatment of his frequently blonde leading ladies. The Girl stars Toby Jones as Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as actress Tippi Hedren, delineating their on- and off-set relationship while filming the seminal horror film, The Birds . Director Julian Jarrold stages the filming of many of The Bird ’s most famous sequences with wit and flair, and the central performances of Jones and Miller dig into the lives and personas of two icons of cinema in this penetrating docudrama. A Late Quartet , US Premiere Director: Yaron Zilberman Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener As the world renowned Fugue Quartet celebrates its 25th anniversary season, their patriarch Peter (Christopher Walken) discovers he may be forced into retirement by illness. Long held resentments surface, leaving the musicians to contemplate not only their future, but whether the quartet has trumped all other personal relationships. Tempestuous fights, long held rivalries, and adultery are offset by timeless, beautiful classical music in first time fiction director Yaron Zilberman’s engrossing drama, with pitch-perfect performances from Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Mark Ivanir, and a lovely turn from Imogen Poots. Lay the Favorite , East Coast Premiere Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Hall, Joshua Jackson, Vince Vaughn Beth Waymer, played with humor and radiance by Rebecca Hall, is a dancer who heads to Las Vegas with dreams of becoming a cocktail waitress. When she meets Dink (Bruce Willis), a professional sports gambler, he notices her considerable talent for numbers amidst her bubbly demeanor. Pulling herself up by her wit instead of her bra straps, she discovers the lofty highs and sobering lows of the professional and underground gambling world. Based on a true story, Stephen Frears ( The Grifters , The Queen ) directs a star-studded cast in this smart, fast paced, and entertaining comedy set in Sin City. Rust & Bone , East Coast Premiere Director: Jacques Audiard Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts From the BAFTA Award-winning director of A Prophet , Jacques Audiard’s Rust & Bone is a compelling and gritty drama starring Oscar® and BAFTA winner Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts ( Bullhead ). Stephanie trains orca whales, and Ali is an emotionally broken, unfit single father and aspiring boxer. When Stephanie is crippled after an accident with one of her beloved whales, they begin an intense romance that doubles as an examination of human weakness and strength. Schoenaerts and Cotillard deliver sharp and subtle performances that drive this drama to powerful emotional heights. The Sessions , East Coast Premiere Director: Ben Lewin Cast: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy One of the most surprising and winning films of the year, The Sessions follows the true story of Mark O’Brien, childhood polio survivor paralyzed from the neck down and confined to an iron lung. Far from melancholy, Mark, a poet and journalist by trade, vows to fulfill a lifelong goal: to have sex with a woman. To lose his virginity, Mark contacts a professional sex surrogate (the effervescent Helen Hunt) with the help of his therapist and his priest (William H. Macy). John Hawkes stars as Mark O’Brien in his best performance yet, more than matched by Hunt and Macy. Seven Psychopaths Director: Martin McDonagh Cast: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, Woody Harrelson Martin, a morally conflicted screenwriter played by Colin Farrell, battles writer’s block on his new feature, Seven Psychopaths . Writer’s block is the least of Martin’s worries when his best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) places ads seeking psychopaths in the paper. Billy’s side job of kidnapping dogs is no less of a nuisance when he and his partner Hans, played by a startlingly on-point Christopher Walken, accidentally snatch an L.A. crime boss’ prized pooch. From director Martin McDonagh ( In Bruges ), Seven Psychopaths subverts the traditional psychopath genre by infusing it with humor, self-awareness, and pitch-perfect performances, while still maintaining an absurd body count. Shadow Dancer , East Coast Premiere Director: James Marsh Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson, Domhnall Gleeson Shadow Dancer , directed by BAFTA Award-winner James Marsh, is a brilliant spy thriller set in the politically volatile Northern Ireland of the early ‘90s, is gripping from its intense opening sequences to its shattering climax. A guilt-ridden young Irish woman, Colette (Andrea Riseborough), has devoted her life to the IRA cause since her traumatic childhood. An MI5 agent (Oscar® nominee and BAFTA winner Clive Owen) intercepts a planned bombing attack in London, and Colette is handed a devastating ultimatum: to go to jail as a terrorist and be separated from her small son, or return to her family as a police informer and spy. Smashed , East Coast Premiere Director: James Ponsoldt Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Mary Kay Place Mary Elizabeth Winstead delivers a career-making performance as Hannah, one half of an alcoholic couple with Aaron Paul (TV’s Breaking Bad ). After Hannah hits an all time low—puking in front of her first grade students—her colleague Dave (Nick Offerman, TV’s Parks & Recreation ) encourages her to seek help with his AA group. Making progress, she bonds with Jenny, a fellow alcoholic turned baker played by Academy Award® winner Octavia Spencer ( The Help ). However, her new sobriety places her marriage in peril. A surprisingly funny and honest look at addiction and recovery, director James Ponsoldt breathes new life and poignancy to an oft-told story. Whole Lotta Sole Director: Terry George Cast: Brendan Fraser, Colm Meaney, David O’Hara BAFTA nominee, Oscar®-winner and Hamptons resident Terry George ( Hotel Rwanda ) brings his immense talents to this entertaining comedy of errors set in Belfast. Jimbo Reagan owes local gangster Mad Dog Flynn five thousand dollars, but when he robs a fish market to secure the cash, things go from bad to worse, and he ends up with multiple hostages in a local antique shop currently run by the American cousin (Brendan Fraser) of its proprietor. With amusing turns by Colm Meaney as a cantankerous detective and David O’Hara as Flynn, this delightful comedy is a joy for film fans on both sides of the pond. Golden Starfish Award: Narrative The Almost Man (Mer eller mindre mann), US Premiere Director: Martin Lund Cast: Henrik Rafaelsen, Janne Heltberg, Tore Sagen, Per Kjerstad, Tov Sletta Thirty-five-year old Henrik and his girlfriend Tone still act like teenagers, pulling pranks and having impromptu dance parties in their new apartment, but the responsibilities of adulthood are finally beginning to loom. When Tone becomes serious about a new career, Henrik pulls in the opposite direction by partying with his hard drinking buddies and playing hooky from his job. Preoccupied by that familiar “Peter Pan” longing for perpetual adolescence, Henrik navigates his state of arrested development in increasingly oddball ways in this fresh and charming Norwegian comedy. Dead Man’s Burden , East Coast Premiere Director: Jared Moshé Cast: Barlow Jacobs, Clare Bowen, David Call, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Richard Riehle New Mexico, 1870. A lone rider gallops through the New Mexico terrain and a troubled young woman looks on. She aims her rifle. A shocking scene sets the stage for Jared Moshé’s first feature, a pitch-perfect Western about the bonds of family and the slow, inevitable tide of progress. The young woman, Martha, and her husband find a ticket to a better life in San Francisco when they ready the sale of her family’s land to a mining company. Riding in from the horizon, though, is her oldest brother Wade—whom she had thought killed during the Civil War. The siblings reunite, but tensions, mysteries, and suspicions bubble to the surface. La Demora , US Premiere Director: Rodrigo Plá Cast: Roxana Blanco, Carlos Vallarino, Oscar Pernas Agustín forgets things; he is aging and he knows it. María is never alone: she watches over everyone, sleeps very little, and works too much. She’s increasingly overwhelmed. One day, on impulse, María decides to abandon Agustín. The tightening grip of old age and the guilt of familial responsibility loom over this absorbing drama from rising director Rodrigo Plá. With an exacting gasp of the internal and external struggles María must endure, Plá explores the challenges of a timeless issue and society’s conflicted responses to life’s central questions. Kuma , US Premiere Director: Umut Dag Cast: Nihal Koldas, Begum Akkaya, Vedat Erincin, Murathan Muslu, Alev Irmak From debut director Umut Dag comes the powerful yet quiet family drama KUMA, which explores the relationship between Fatma, a dying woman clinging to old traditions, and her husband’s 19-year-old second wife, Ayse. As their close-knit Turkish family living in Vienna is forced come to terms with this new addition, friendships, jealousy, and hidden passions take unexpected turns. Heightened by strong performances, the film captures the complexities of a closed-circuit world living in a modern society. One of the most acclaimed films out of the Berlin Film Festival, KUMA is the story of different generations and cultures intersecting. Lore , US Premiere Director: Cate Shortland Screenwriters: Robin Mukherjee, Cate Shortland Cast: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina Lardi, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Mika Seidel In the twilight days of WWII, Lore’s Nazi parents have disappeared into the vortex of Allied retribution, and she must shepherd her younger siblings to safety on the grey edge of the Baltic Sea. In breathtaking images of damaged luminosity, LORE makes us see the dawning realization of WWII’s atrocities as though we had never known them before. It is the story of a tentative coming-of-age set in a maelstrom of brutality; it is a profound meditation on the insidiousness of evil and the transformative power of love; and it is nothing short of extraordinary. Golden Starfish Award: Documentary : Bay of All Saints , New York Premiere Director: Annie Eastman Filmed over six years, Annie Eastman’s debut is a lyrical portrait of three women who live on the palafitas, or shacks built on stilts, in the biggest bay in Bahia, Brazil. As the government threatens to reclaim the land for ecological reasons, generations of families, most of them single mothers, will be displaced. With Narato, the neighborhood refrigerator repairman as our guide, we meet Geni, Jesus, and Dona Maria, women with different mindsets but all compelled––in their own way––to fight for their family’s future and survival amidst the state’s urban development blunders and broken promises. Colombianos , New York Premiere Director: Tora Mårtens With a subtle and captivating storytelling style, Tora Mårtens’ documentary feature meanders gingerly, yet thoughtfully, through the relationship of two brothers, making her debut feel almost like a fable. At his mother’s behest and struggling with substance abuse, Fernando moves from Stockholm to Medellin for six months, hoping the change of scenery and his brother Pablo’s support will help him get clean. Pablo, a college student, tries different tactics to help Fernando but nothing seems to stick. As each brother begins to reassess his own path, they learn when to let go and when to take charge. El Huaso , US Premiere Director: Carlo Guillermo Proto Carlo Guillermo Proto directs this intensely personal documentary, interviewing his father and tracing the bonds and expectations of four generations of his family. Growing up in Chile, Gustavo Proto (director Carlo Proto’s father) always wanted to be a huaso—a rodeo cowboy—but instead he became a businessman and brought his family to Toronto for a better life. Now retired and convinced that he will develop Alzheimer’s like his mother and depression like his father, he plans to live out his dream in Chile before ultimately committing suicide, a decision he announces to his family amidst general protestation. Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet , New York Premiere Director: Jesse Vile Jason Becker was a musical prodigy, picking up the guitar at five years old, performing virtuoso solos at sixth grade talent shows, and signing a record deal at 19. But the following year, about to go on tour with David Lee Roth, Becker started limping and falling during performances. He was eventually diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and was soon no longer able to hold a guitar. He lost the ability to speak and was given three to five years to live. But, as Jesse Vile’s award-winning first film reveals, that was not the last we would hear of Jason Becker. Not Dead Yet is must-see cinema and a testament to a true musician. Rising From Ashes , World Premiere Director: T.C. Johnstone Narrator: Forest Whitaker Recovering from one of the worse genocides in history, the Rwandan people find something to root for in this inspiring and beautifully shot documentary. Transcending the differences that once divided them — and with the help of the first American to ride in the Tour de France — five cyclists come together to form the first Team Rwanda while racing for spots in the 2012 Olympics. Cycling has long been a national pastime in “the land of a thousand hills,” and Rising From Ashes not only gives us a glimpse of this country’s changing landscape, it invites us to share in its epic comeback story.
La Blohan wants to see Amanda “The Slizzard Swirler” Bynes in an orange jumpsuit. Pretty hilarious since Bynes previously got upset when compared to Blohan . According to RadarOnline : As actress Amanda Bynes continues to spiral out-of-control, she isn’t getting much love – or sympathy – from Lindsay Lohan, who’s had more than her own fair share of troubles with the law. On Sunday, Lohan tweeted, “Why did I get put in jail and a nickelodeon star has had NO punishment(s) so far? +,” and then continued by saying, “These are the moments that I appreciate my life experiences, living without regrets and Disney for supporting me as an actress-night all*” Lohan’s tweets follow word that Bynes, 26, was pulled over and cited for once again driving on a suspended license in Los Angeles on Sunday morning, which ultimately got her car impounded. Days before her car was taken away from her, Bynes was photographed last Tuesday driving illegally on that suspended license and allegedly smoking drugs from a pipe in her car. The actress was charged last week by the Los Angeles City Attorney with two hit and run charges and was arrested on April 6 for a DUI after sideswiping a police car. As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, Bynes friends are worried she’s “not in touch with reality.” “Amanda is refusing to go to rehab or seek any form of psychiatric treatment or diagnosis, because it’s clear something is up with her,” a close pal exclusively told RadarOnline.com. “She has been told by her agent and her dad Rick that she has substance abuse issues and needs to get help. She’s a lost little girl right now.” SMH. She definitely needs help. Kid Cudi got her azz strung out on “that stuff” then left her alone to cope. But really Blohan? Lindsay needs to have a seat with that isht. Acting like she’s seen any real jail time. GTFOHWTBS!
Just a couple of days into the Toronto International Film Festival this year, a curious commonality was noticeable in a number of the documentaries that I screened – re-enactments. While I only managed to see just under half of the nearly 50 documentary features in the TIFF line-up , it was surprising to see the storytelling approach — where significant past events are recreated via actors and, sometimes, animation — relatively widely employed. While some notable non-fiction films have made effective use of the practice — such as The Imposter or The Thin Blue Line — re-enactments more often feel in line with television productions of the Unsolved Mysteries variety. They remain a controversial element of documentary making, potentially challenging a film’s authenticity by introducing an outside, fictional element. It’s significant that the practice of re-enactment is the singular focus of one of the festival’s most-discussed docs, The Act of Killing , making this challenging film an appropriate place to begin. Director Joshua Oppenheimer, together with Christine Cynn and other anonymous co-directors, turn Indonesian gangsters into would-be Hollywood stars. The former death-squad leaders, responsible for the massacre of more than a million undesirables in 1965-1966, gleefully go along with Oppenheimer’s unusual plan, re-enacting the techniques they used to torture and murder suspected Communists, from off-the-cuff demonstrations of the cleanest way to strangle a victim to more elaborate set pieces involving interrogations and the destruction of a village. Verisimilitude is not the intent here. Although these over-the-top re-enactments push the limits of documentary ethics, they also shed light on the outsized personalities of the main subjects and reveal their histories and character. This conflation of a horrific reality with stylized fantasy also challenges the viewer and the perpetrators and becomes an unexpected form of therapy for the latter group. Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God More literal examples of re-enactments are present in Alex Gibney’s Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God , the prolific Oscar-winner’s exploration of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Focused around a Milwaukee priest who abused countless boys at the deaf school he ran, the film features the American Sign Language testimony of a number of men, spoken aloud by the likes of Ethan Hawke and John Slattery, but not distractingly so. Despite the forcefulness of the now-grown victims’ anger, expressed via their demonstrative signing and reinforced by the actors’ delivery (itself a form of re-enactment), Gibney decides to go one step further, recreating key sequences from their stories: silent scenes in which the priest prowls through the dorms ready to pounce on a sleeping young boy, or abuses the sanctity of the confessional booth. These sequences lack in subtlety and while they don’t undermine the strength of the film as a whole, they seem entirely superfluous. [ Editor’s Note: Gibney talks about his reasons for using these re-enactment sequences in an upcoming Movieline interview. ] Even more conventional is the use of re-enactments in Janet Tobias’ N o Place On Earth , the story of Ukrainian Jews who spent nearly a year and half living, literally, in caves to avoid capture during World War II. The majority of the film consists of actors portraying the circumstances of their flight from persecution and the conditions of their underground existence. Still-living survivors offer commentary in intermittent talking-head sequences, but the intended weight of the film is in the re-enactments which at times break from simply illustrating the story to feature actual scripted sequences. In the process, No Place on Earth ventures a step too far into docudrama. Given that the film is a production of the History Channel, it will likely connect with TV viewers, but, personally, scenes with the survivors re-visiting their cave sanctuary late in the film carried far more emotional resonance than the recreations.
Ending nearly a year of speculation, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced two replacements for long-serving Program Director Richard Peña, who is set to step down at the end of 2012 after serving 25 years in the post. Kent Jones will be the new Director of Programming for the annual New York Film Festival , while Robert Koehler will serve as Director of Programming, Year Round. The Film Society of Lincoln Center said that appointing two directors to the programming team will allow the organization, which not only produces the annual NYFF but a host of other programs throughout the year, to “better serve the needs of an organization that has recently expanded its operations with the opening of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film.” Jones began in programming with Bruce Goldstein at Film Forum, and served as the American representative for the International Film Festival Rotterdam from 1996 to 1998. He was an assumed heir to Peña, serving as Associate Director of Programming at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and from 2002 to 2009, including the New York Film Festival selection committee from 1998 to 2009 after departing under the organization’s previous Executive Director, Mara Manus. He has also served on juries at film festivals around the world, including Rotterdam, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Venice and Cannes. In 2009, he was named Executive Director of The World Cinema Foundation. Koehler is a film critic and festival programmer and has served as an instructor and programmer for UCLA Extension’s Sneak Preview program from 2003 to 2007. In 2003, he developed the innovative film program, “The Films That Got Away,” an ongoing series presenting significant recent work that has previously not screened in Los Angeles. Institutions with which the series has collaborated include UCLA Film Archive, the American Cinematheque and the Los Angeles Film Festival. In 2009, he was appointed director of programming at AFI Fest Los Angeles, where he helped create a new and focused competition section titled “New Lights,” as part of AFI Fest’s programming concept as a festival-of-festivals. “Richard Peña has played a fundamental role in defining our organization and its commitment to discovering and supporting the best and most important cinema in the world,” FSLC Executive Director Rose Kuo said. “Kent Jones and Bob Koehler, whose thinking and writing about cinema I deeply respect, are the perfect team to build upon Richard’s vision and carry it forward.” “The New York Film Festival has always been a beacon to me – when I was young and pouring over the yearly schedule in the Sunday Times, when I moved to New York in my 20s and started to actually attend the festival, and later when I served on the selection committee” said Kent Jones in a statement. “It means a lot to me to be entrusted with its stewardship after Richard Peña, to whom I owe a lot – I’m far from alone on that count. I’m excited to be working with Rose Kuo, with Bob Koehler, with Scott Foundas, with Gavin Smith, with Marian Masone, and with the whole team at the Film Society, many of whom are old friends and work colleagues. We’ll be working together to keep our part of cinema culture alive and thriving.” Added Robert Koehler, “I’m delighted and honored to join the country’s finest cinema presentation organization. Especially at a time when it is embarking on a new, exciting and innovative chapter in its history.” Richard Peña will continue his involvement with the Film Society of Lincoln Center after departing his duties as Programming Director at the end of the year, helping to design and organize a new educational initiative. The 50th edition of the New York Film Festival will take place September 28 – October 14.
Lionsgate is doing its damnedest to make “Lethal Geezers” into a film genre. Yahoo! just posted the trailer to Stand Up Guys , which the studio will release on Jan. 11, 2013. The Fisher Stevens-directed film stars Al Pacino as Val, a gangster of a certain age who’s released from prison and reunites with his former partners in crime, Doc ( Christopher Walken ) and Hirsch ( Alan Arkin ). Judging from the trailer, the men reminisce, take their hypertension meds and make up for lost crime while Walken struggles with an order from on high to cap his friend. Hoo-ah! The film should make a complementary double feature with the highly entertaining Red , which Lions Gate-owned Summit Entertainment released in 2010. That film, an adaptation of the DC Comics series of the same name — an acronym that stood for Retired, Extremely Dangerous — starred Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren , John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman as decommissioned spies of a certain age who prove that they can still kick ass. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
There’s a scene in the Paul Thomas Anderson’ s enthralling new film The Master where Lancaster Dodd ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) — founder and leader of a cult-like movement called The Cause — instructs his “guinea pig and protege,” the aptly named Freddie Quell ( Joaquin Phoenix ) to face another man hurling taunts and insults at him without losing his hair-trigger temper. I felt like I was being put through a similar test on Tuesday night when, after being invited to a hastily arranged 70-millimeter advance screening of The Master at the wonderful Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan, I arrived at the will-call table to find a crowd that, had they been carrying torches, would have been at home in the angry villagers scene of Frankenstein . The reason for their anger became apparent shortly after I joined the throng: A woman with bold eyeglass frames and a nervous look on her face announced to the mob that there were simply no more tickets left to hand out. Those who did not make the cut were instructed to sign up for a Thursday screening of the film. I managed to get Eyeglasses’ attention and explained that, as instructed on Monday, I had confirmed my attendance. She shrugged her shoulders and replied that the screening had been overbooked and my tickets had simply been given away. To add insult to injury, just a few seconds before Eyeglasses’ you’re-shit-out-of-luck announcement, one of Arianna Huffington’s minions slunk up behind me, invoked the HuffPo priestess’ name, and received an envelope with tickets. As a longtime observer of the Harvey Weinstein school of stealth marketing, I found the scenario more fascinating than infuriating because in New York preventing a large group of culture addicts from seeing a movie that everyone’s been talking about is actually a sneakily smart way of building interest in the all-important New York market. Now, I’m not saying the Weinstein Company hosed all those people on purpose, but New York is all about access, and last night, getting into The Master became a bit like getting into Studio 54 in the late 1970s. For most Gothamites, rejection is a tonic: When someone tells us we can’t do, see or experience something, we redouble our efforts and, better yet for people like Weinstein, in our quest to succeed, we recruit our friends and infect them with the same passion. Without going into details, that’s exactly what I did, and after seeing The Master , I’m glad I didn’t take no for an answer. (And, by the way, for a screening in which all of the tickets had been given out, I didn’t have any trouble finding a primo aisle seat at the front of the balcony.) To use a term from the film, I am still processing The Master. It’s an intelligent and emotionally complex film that doesn’t provide any easy answers the way that so many films do today. But if I can’t quite commit to saying it’s a great film, I can say that it has more than a few moments of greatness — and those usually occur when Joaquin Phoenix is onscreen. Phoenix gives the performance of his career so far as the feral Freddie Quell, a naval veteran, who can make moonshine out of torpedo fuel and anything else on hand. (“You can’t take this life straight, can you?” Dodd’s wife, played by Amy Adams, tells Quell at one point.) Freddie is the product of an alcoholic father, an institutionalized mother and a traumatizing war, and Phoenix literally embodies these psychic wounds while portraying a lost soul who is menacing, heart-breaking and darkly comic — sometimes all at once. The New York Times reported that Phoenix studied films of animals in captivity to prepare for his role, but his performance, which is pure id, brought to mind other references. The hunched, arms-akimbo way in which Quell stands recalled Martin Short’s Ed Grimley character from Saturday Night Live , and Groucho Marx. His squinting, sneering tomahawk-like face made me think of Hammerhead from The Amazing Spider-Man comics. When I wasn’t marveling at Phoenix’s performance, I found myself thinking that all of this talk about The Master taking on Scientology is a marketing MacGuffin. Yes, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a L. Ron Hubbard-like character, but this movie is really about the relationship between two kindred spirits who, in some respects, are Freudian polar opposites. Quell is pure id, while Dodd is mostly superego, and each seems to yearn for some of what the other man has. For me, one of the key lines of the movie comes near the end when Dodd tells Freddie that if he can find a way “to live without serving a master –any master,” he should report back. Like I said, I’m still processing The Master , and I plan to see it again as soon as I’m able. Thanks to Harvey Weinstein, I suspect I’ll be waiting in a long line. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter
Let us find out these kids are pushin’ bath salts on the POTUS’ children Malia And Sasha Obama’s Private School Involved In Sex Drug Scandal President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle shell out a whopping $70,000 a year to send their two daughters to an elite private school, but the academy has been embroiled in a shocking cocaine scandal! Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., is also involved in a stunning court battle that threatens to expose even more sordid sex and drug secrets, according to a new report in the National Enquirer. The First Parents publicly support the school where Malia, 14, is a freshman, and Sasha, 11, is in sixth grade, but the Enquirer has exclusively learned they’re concerned by the school’s disgraceful problems, according to an Obama family insider. “Certainly, the trouble at the school has upset both Barack and Michelle,” reveals the source. “Some friends have suggested the girls be tutored privately at the White House, but the Obamas are keen to have the girls’ educational experience be as normal as possible. They don’t want them home-schooled.” The Enquirer has learned drug and alcohol use is rampant among students – 71 percent of Sidwell students said they at tended parties where drugs and alcohol were available, ac cording to an official study published in the school newspaper, “Horizon.” What’s more, nearly 25 percent of the senior boys polled admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol! “I have seen kids snorting coke, smoking pot, getting high and boozing,” the former stu dent, now an adult, told the Enquirer. “There’s huge money at the school and the older kids host parties at their private residences. Many of them live in big mansions in Washington, or in affluent suburbs where drugs and booze are common.” B-b-but wait it gets worse… Meanwhile, a $10 million lawsuit against Sidwell threatens to rip the lid off an alleged sleazy sex scandal in volving the school’s former staff psychologist, James Huntington, who’s been fired. According to bombshell court papers obtained by the Enquirer, Huntington was allegedly carrying on an affair with the mar ried mother of a 5-year-old female student he was counseling. The amorous shrink allegedly took his three children, the mother and her two kids to a Washington, D.C., hotel, where he booked ad joining rooms so the couple could “fool around” while the children slept, according to the suit. The source said: “For all the money the Obamas are spending to send their girls to Sidwell, the school is rife with the same scandals they’d hoped to avoid at a public school.” Not for nothin’, but shouldn’t the Secret Service been up on this kinda thing from the gate?? Image via WENN
