Where the Wild Things Are Trailer

Wow.

I stopped my list at the end of July the other night.  Where the Wild Things Are doesn't open until October 16th.  But I can't keep this trailer from you.

When I heard last year that Spike Jonze was directing this movie, I was psyched--I felt that of all the filmmakers active today, few if any stood a better chance of bringing this book to life.  If the two or so minute sample below is any indication of the final product--if the movie is anywhere near as beautifully constructed as this trailer--Where the Wild Things Are could wind up being the best movie of 2009.  Mark my words.

[Please don't even consider watching this trailer without going full-screen.  Trust me.]

Coming Soon(ish)

[05.01 UPDATE: Official Moon trailer linked.

 04.26 UPDATE: Added All the Boys Love Mandy Lane(07.17) and The Cove(07.31).]

I know I've said it before, but I feel compelled to say it again: Savannah, GA's film-exhibition scene is less-than-ideal.  And that's putting it mildly.  You would think that the hometown to one of the biggest (if not the biggest) film schools in the United States could support at least one art-house movie theatre (and probably it can), but no such institution exists as of this writing.

Many of the movies I am most eager to see at any given time only ever see limited releases.  So, once everybody in New York, L.A., and the rest of the major film markets get their fill, the little-films-that-can essentially disappear until the DVD-release months later.  And little old me, well, I'm left in everyone else's dust.

But I shall not be deterred!  Despite the debilitating lack of access, I cannot help but keep my ear to the ground, hunting down the latest and greatest films coming soon to a theatre hours and hours from me!

What am I looking forward to between now and the end of July?  So glad you asked...

Now Playing (in certain places)

• Hunger (opened 03.20, apparently, but seems to have one of those goofy staggered/incremental release schedules)  This looks terrific.  Can't wait to see it.
  
• Forbidden Lie$ (just opened in NY; opens Friday in LA)
  
• Gigantic (just opened in NY)  I'm not sold on this one.  But Zooey's in it!  And John Goodman, too!  And Zach Galifianakis plays a homeless guy!  Seriously, who didn't see that one coming?!
  
• Lymelife (just opened in NY & NJ)
• Sugar (just opened in NY & LA) I don't like baseball, but the sport does seem to lend itself pretty well to film.  The Natural, Field of Dreams, A League of Their Own(yes, I like A League of Their Own), The Sandlot...the list goes on.  And Sugar may very well be the next movie to make the cut.  From the fine folks who brought us Half Nelson a couple years back.

04.24

• Fighting  Dito Montiel's second film, the first having been A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.  Here's hoping Channing Tatum's first lead turn measures up to his great supporting role in the aforementioned Saints.
• The Soloist
• Tyson  Mike Tyson documentary.  Disgusting though he often is, Tyson is a fascinating character.  Should be interesting.

05.01

• The Limits of Control  Jim Jarmusch and Christopher Doyle together?!  HO-LY COW!
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  

05.08

• Adoration
• Next Day Air  I don't expect this to be a good movie.  But Mos Def and Donald Faison are pretty rad.  And it looks funny.  Thus, I wanna see it.
• Star Trek  I'm not a huge Star Trek guy, but this movie looks great.

05.15

• The Brothers Bloom (Wide Release: 05.29)  Directed by Rian Johnson, who previously made Brick.  Looks a little goofy, but I'll certainly give it a shot.
• Management  This movie looks pretty dumb.  But c'mon, Steve Zahn's awesome!

05.21

• Terminator Salvation

05.29

• Up

06.05

• Away We Go  After watching the trailer one time, I'm really looking forward to this movie.
• The Hangover  The second of three movies on this list featuring Zach Galifiankis.  Dude's been getting a ton of work!
• Land of the Lost

06.12

• Moon  Starring Sam Rockwell!  Directed by David Bowie's son!

06.19

• Year One  Because I like to laugh.

06.26

• The Hurt Locker
• Surveillance  Produced by David Lynch, directed by his daughter, looks creepy and good.

06.01

• Public Enemies  Definitely a list-topper.  Channing Tatum's in this one too, by the way.  Dude gets more work than Zachy G!

07.10

• Bruno  I'm a little worried that Sacha Baron Cohen might wear out the welcome of Da Ali G Show's characters and comedic style.  I hope he didn't peak too soon.

07.17

• (500) Days of Summer
  
• All the Boys Love Mandy Lane  Added this movie for one reason: Jonathan Levine, the man behind The Wackness, directed it.  Horror/slasher movies generally don't do much for me, but The Wackness is so good that I'll give anything Levine made a chance until further notice.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince  Only music-hating Muggles aren't excited about this.  Easily my most anticipated Summer 09 movie.
  

07.24

• All Good Things
• G-Force  Because nothing says instant classic like Will Arnett and Zach Galifianakis commanding a team of rodent special agents.

07.31

• The Cove
• Funny People

2 Weeks in Review(s)

It's been almost two weeks since my last post.  (That sort of sounds like the opening words of an AA meeting, doesn't it?)  I've been focusing more on my other blog lately, but I've also been slacking off pretty severely in my movie-watching endeavors.  Anyway, here's a brief rundown of most of the films I've watched over the past couple weeks.  I'll try my best to stay more up to date going forward.

- - -

Changeling

Watched this movie a couple nights before the Oscars.  It's less-than-great, to put it kindly.  Bits and pieces were compelling and thought-provoking, but at 142 minutes, the strong bits are too few and too far between to make the movie as a whole enjoyable.

Chop Shop

If you know my very well (or read my Wackness blog), I'm a big fan of New York City.  But given my financial shortcomings, I've only been able to spend a cumulative 15 days in the city.  So anytime I find a movie which shows me a side of the place I've never seen before, I eat it up.  Chop Shop is one of those movies.

The movie is about Alejandro, a 12-year old street kid, apparently orphaned, who works (and lives) in a Queens auto shop.  He struggles to make some sort of life for himself, and the results are decidedly mixed.  But it's a gritty slice of life story, and it feels real without being exploitative.  Check it out.

Baby Mama

I saw this movie in New York, FYI.  I'd been looking forward to it for a while, so when it hit theatres I had to check it out.  I was disappointed.  I watched it again last week because my sister and brother-in-law got it from NetFlix.  They fell asleep while we watched.

The movie wants to be funny, but its jokes only work every sixth try or so.  And there's nothing sadder than watching people trying to get laughs and failing.  I'm sure it would have been much funnier and more watchable if Tina Fey had written it instead of just acting in it.

It's not a terrible movie, by any means, it just feels forced.  To its credit, I think I found more good jokes in it the second time around.  But not enough to change my prevailing opinion.

Stop-Loss

There are a number of good documentaries about the Iraq War, but I have yet to see a good narrative film dealing with it.  Stop-Loss is no exception.  I remember deciding not to see it while it was in theatres.  But I eventually learned that not only is the very capable Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the film, it was also directed by Kimberly Peirce (of Boys Don't Cry fame).  I had to at least give it the benefit of the doubt, right?

Wrong, apparently.  Almost everyone involved with this movie seemed to be phoning it in.  Stop-Loss possesses none of the art or grit which Peirce lent to Boys Don't Cry.  And Gordon-Levitt's performance is remarkably one-dimensional.  In fact, only Victor Rasuk's turn as Pvt. Rico Rodriguez is worthy of note.  (And it is worthy.  He is injured by an RPG during the film's opening sequence and is paid a visit later in the film; blind, multiple amputations...very impressive acting.)

But on the whole, Stop-Loss is a pretty disappointing exploration of the great injustice of the titular institution.  Stop-loss is serious business.  If you're going to make a movie about it, the least you can do is make it a decent, believable one.

In sum: Changeling, Baby Mama, and Stop-Loss all have their redeeming qualities, but all are definitely skippable.  Chop Shop, on the other hand, deserves a look by everyone.

- - -

[I hope you'll forgive any poor grammar and ugly wording.  It's way past my bedtime and I really wanted to get this post up tonight.]

Starting over, catching up.

So Film Year 2008 is officially wrapped. Two months after the year itself came to a close. For the past three or so years, I've regarded the Oscars both as my Film Year capstone and my cue to compile and reflect upon the best films of the previous year. It's a pretty goofy deal, I guess, but its fun for me.

The post-Oscar period is notorious for being the time of the year when all the crap movies are rolled out by the studios. There are a couple movies in theatres I'd like to see right now: Coraline and The International. But beside those two, I have only Watchmen to look forward to in the next few weeks. And I'll be honest, I'm still fretting over the potential for severe disappoint that movie holds for me. I'll still go see it in IMAX, if I can help it.

I'm sure there are a few good limited releases coming up on the next few Fridays, but Savannah is a pretty small film market. We get the mainstream stuff pretty promptly, but the good small-budget and foreign stuff pretty much stays away. Woe is me.

There is a bright side to the big-screen drought, of course. It gives me a chance to catch up on my backlog of DVD movies. And, perhaps unwisely, I'll be spending a bit of time re-watching some of my favorites from last year--Flight of the Red Balloon, The Wackness, and Paranoid Park are near the top of my NetFlix queue, The Band's Visit has already been delivered. I guess all my blabbering about my favorite films only made me want to see them all over again.

I'll also be catching up on the movies I missed last year. I feel pretty darn good about the quantity and variety of movies I was able to see in 2008, but that doesn't mean I saw every film I'd hoped to. Which 2008 films am I still working on? To name a few:

• Ballast
• Trouble the Water
• Che
• Chop Shop
• My Winnipeg
• Role Models
• Cadillac Records

And that's just a taste. Ugh. I've got my work cut out for me. But the uphill battle is nothing new. New, interesting films come out far faster than anyone can hope to watch them. But am I gonna complain about a glut of (potentially) good movies? No way. If my biggest problem is too much of my favorite thing, I think I'm doing all right.

[Quick note about the future of this blog. I'll keep posting as frequently as I can muster anything interesting to say. You can probably expect to find some brief notes about whatever I've been watching, a recommendation or two, perhaps the occasional slam, and a couple of heated rants and raves, no doubt. Whatever happens, I'll try to keep it consistent and fun. I hope you'll keep reading. Thanks.]

Final score: 19 out of 24

That's right, folks. Either I am more of an Oscar prediction expert than I thought, or the awards were just that predictable. I'd err on the side of the latter.

My five missteps were in the following categories:

• DOCUMENTARY FEATURE. I gambled on Trouble the Water and lost. Obviously, I should have trusted my head and gone with the favorite (and, ultimately, the winner), Man on Wire. But goddamn it, I had a hunch! I knew the Academy would have at least a couple of surprises up their sleeves and I really thought this would be one of 'em! But hey, like I've already said at least twice before, Man on Wire is a great movie and deserved the win.
• SOUND MIXING. Okay, I knew Slumdog was (unfortunately and wrongly) the prohibitive favorite in essentially every category it was nominated, but I genuinely believed Sound Mixing would be one of the categories to elude its manic grasp. I was even more convinced that another movie would win Sound Mixing once The Dark Knight took down the Sound Editing award, thus killing any chance of a sweep by Slumdog (big-ups, TDK). But lo and behold, "the Oscar for Sound Mixing goes to...Slumdog Millionaire!" BOO! Ben Burtt and the rest of the WALL-E sound team had to create an entire environment and lend audible emotion to a host of non-human characters. And Slumdog wins for recording the sounds of Mumbai streets? Nonsense.
• ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY. I was surprised enough when Dustin Lance Black took home the Best First Screenplay prize at the Spirit Awards the day before the Oscars. So when he beat out WALL-E, Happy-Go-Lucky, Frozen River, and In Bruges on Sunday, I was absolutely shocked. I maintain that WALL-E ought to have won, but I don't have a big problem with Black taking home the statue. The guy gave a good, important speech about the great, important film he wrote (he gave an even better one at the Spirit Awards), and since Milk had little to no chance at any other award beside Best Actor, I'm happy it was recognized here.
• FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM. Wow. Biggest shock of my night, by far. Either Departures is incredible, or the Academy made a big mistake. Waltz with Bashir is a great movie, with an extremely important story to tell. I thought it was a lock for the win. I'll reserve judgment until I've seen Departures, but I'm afraid my dad may have been right; the Academy might not be open-minded enough to give an otherwise indispensable film its due just because it's animated.
• SUPPORTING ACTRESS. Okay, so I started reading a few days before the awards that Penelope Cruz was favored to win this award for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Which I found incomprehensible; she didn't even deserve a nom, in my mind. VCB is not a good movie. And, though Cruz is a good actress, her performance in this film was equally lackluster. Taraji P. Henson was the cream of this category, but any of the other nominees were more deserving than Cruz. The award went to the worst of the five. Disgusting.

All in all, though I wasn't surprised by many of the winners, I was disappointed by the results of this year's Oscars. Only five of 24 categories went to the nominee I thought they ought to have gone to. (To wit, Sean Penn for LEADING ACTOR; Heath Ledger for SUPPORTING ACTOR; WALL-E for ANIMATED FEATURE; Man on Wire for DOCUMENTARY FEATURE; and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for VISUAL EFFECTS.) It almost goes without saying that I don't think much of Slumdog Millionaire. It is a decent film, at best, and even that minimal commendation deserves qualification. Suffice it say that I have fundamental problems with the movie. I promised myself I wouldn't rant about it here, but if you're really curious, it likely wouldn't take much prodding to get a rise out of me.

Thankfully, the ceremony as a whole was one of the best I've ever seen. I'd heard rumors that they had some new and unconventional ideas for this year's broadcast, and it was a bit different, but I loved it. I thought the way they moved from pre-production to principal photography to post-production, giving away the relevant awards as they went, was a wonderful way to structure the show. The award presentation for the acting awards was maybe a bit cumbersome and slow, but I think it probably meant a lot to the nominees.

And maybe I was just in a good mood, but I found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions. Tina Fey and Steve Martin were great, naturally. The Judd Apatow spin on Pineapple Express was hilarious, but I thought it even funnier when James Franco butchered the pronunciation of Spielzeugland only to have Seth Rogen crack up in a fit of embarrassed laughter. But my absolute no-contest highlight of the show was Japanese animator Kunio Kato's acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for ANIMATED SHORT, in which he thanked a number of people and things (including his pencil) and ended by saying, "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto." All with a heavy accent that turned every "th" into an "s". Hilarious. Genius.

Anyway, I'm bummed that the next Oscars are another year away. Even when the awards don't fall the way I want them to, I still love to watch. And if it was the recession which prompted the Academy to put on a cool new show like yesterday's, then I hope the economy continues to suck for a while. But next year, let's shoot for just the one song-and-dance number, okay?