Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Movie Clip and Trailer of the Day
Hey everyone, I'm posting this here in hope that you'll follow the new feature of FilmOutsider. Everyday, on my Twitter feed, I'll be posting a Movie Clip of the Day and a Trailer of the Day. These will range in time period, in content and mood but everyday these will be happening! Keep a close look at twitter.com/kevinsimpson for each day's update!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Trailer: Public Enemies
So, here we have it: the first real glimpse at Michael Mann's newest. Immediate reactions? Not sure if I like the more modern feel of the music but I'm told that the music in the film is much more period-accurate, i.e. songs from the 20's and 30's. Visually, it looks like Michael Mann: arresting and innovative. However, the digital look is different for a period piece. It could just be my initial reaction but that look seems to put forth a certain type of modernity, even futuristic quality at points. It was perfect for the bright lights of Collateral and Miami Vice. How will it affect a period piece? It worked well for Che though so I have faith in Mann's technical expertise. Acting look spectacular as does the plot. Word has it (even those who have seen previews and not enjoyed the film) that Depp is tremendous and from this, I don't doubt it. This is my most eagerly anticipated movie of the summer, perhaps, year.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Other Side of the Wind at Cannes
This is interesting and intriguing to say the least. We're talking about a legendary lost film, an unfinished supposed masterpiece from one of the true geniuses of cinema. If the prospect of an Orson Welles project with the description of "an aging Hollywood director attempting to revive his career by making a trippy movie filled with sex and violence" doesn't excite you, well, then, you're just not much of a cinephile.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Trailer: Funny People
It can't be embedded but here is the first trailer for Judd Apatow's follow up to Knocked Up, Funny People.
Predicting the 2010 Oscars
The day after the big show, the blogosphere is up and raring to go for 2010. Here's a glimpse from Kris Tapley, at InContention, and Jeffery Wells, from Hollywood Elsewhere, as to their opening salvo of guesses for what might be the big winner a year from now.
First Glimpse of Public Enemies!
For those who stuck through the credits of the Oscars last night, you caught a glimpe of Public Enemies, Michael Mann's newest creation. As a Mann devotee, the footage looked tremendous, especially the shot of Christian Bale unloading a tommy gun at the camera. A classic Mann composition. July can't come quick enough. Look for a trailer in the coming couple of weeks.
Oscar's Wrap Up
As last night's Academy Awards ceremony came to a close, so did the cinematic year that was 2008, a span of 365 that many felt was underwhelming, while others reveled in the releases. As I've written before, 2008 was underwhelming for me, save for some stone cold and could-be classics. The depth wasn't there, the variety didn't quite match 2007. Still, I look forward to the Oscars like a junkie to a fix so Sunday's ceremony was a welcome treat and with that said, all in all, I enjoyed the broadcast, although not always agreeing with it although I'm not sure there is anything on par with the Crash fiasco of a few years back.
Highlights:
-James Franco, Seth Rogen and Janusz Kaminski (!) in Judd Apatow's wonderful montage of the year in comedy, which including a brilliant skewering of some of the big Oscar bait. Franco is an immensely talented guy who I feel like we've only seen shades of what he can really do. 2008 was a great year for him between his film redeeming performance in Pineapple Express to his excellent work in Milk and this seemed like a good way for it to end.
-Tina Fey, Steve Martin and the Screenplay Nominees. A brilliant moment from two of the world's funniest that was topped off by Dustin Lance Black's immensely deserved win for Best Original Screenplay. Black's script is brilliant and heartbreaking, a timely portrait of pivotal figure that is frequently forgotten by the general public. Black's speech was heartfelt, moving and all too true, the best of the evening.
-Sean Penn's win for his impressive work in Milk. While I would have been content with either Penn or Rourke (and I think Rourke's speech would have been more moving and entertaining), Penn's performance is too good to miss. It's a subtle, moving portrayal that deserves all the accolades it has received. Rourke's work is equally as impressive but this was Penn's award and he rightfully came out on top. Also, I try to avoid politicizing here but his remarks about Prop 8 were dead on. Those who wish to discriminate against gays are no different than those who tried to destroy the civil rights movements of the 1960's. We look back at those people as uneducated bigots and I believe that, in due time, those with anti-gay agendas will appear no different.
-Penelope Cruz's win for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a transcendent performance in a criminally underseen and underrated film. She's a talented, charismatic performer and her performance in VCB is her best to date.
-Heath Ledger's win for The Dark Knight, the only win of note for the biggest film of the year. This is the last time the Academy will be able to award an actor who seemed to be becoming of his generation's best and thankfully, it doesn't have to go to a sub-par performance. Even the most TDK haters have issues trying to critique Ledger's brilliant, searing and disturbing work.
Letdowns
-The overwhelming Slumdog victory. I believe that Boyle deserves it but the rest of it rings hollow to me as I've noted here before. It went 8 for 10 on the evening and very few of those were the right choices. I hate to sound like a fanboy hitting back at a film I wasn't crazy about but this was not the best film of 2008 by any stretch of the imagination and nothing anyone will say will convince me that it was any greater than any number of films, including most of the other Best Picture nominees, most particularly Van Sant's Milk.
-The length was a bit much. It seemed like it was moving along pretty well at the half way point but the second half of the show began to drag a little bit, not enough for me to want to turn it off but enough for me to understand non-cinephiles tuning out.
-A general lack of surprises. The only award that stunned me (and seemingly the film community) was Best Foreign Film, which many felt was a shoe-in for Bashir or The Class. It appears that very few people have seen Departures (hell, even A.O. Scott at the NY Times admitted to not having seen it) so I believe it's win was a stunning turn. The category was already one of controversy with the snub of the supposedly tremendous Gomorrah and I'm not sure this isn't more ammunition for the complainers.
Overall, as I said earlier, I enjoyed the evening but with the Oscar's, it doesn't take much to keep me interested. It's unfortunate that Slumdog's big night will obscure the other winners but many have pointed out this morning that it's win may signal a new path in Hollywood. As the recession bores down and studios have less money to make the big Oscar contenders, 2009 may be a year of small films making big splashes next February. Until then, thanks for reading! Enjoy 2009!
Highlights:
-James Franco, Seth Rogen and Janusz Kaminski (!) in Judd Apatow's wonderful montage of the year in comedy, which including a brilliant skewering of some of the big Oscar bait. Franco is an immensely talented guy who I feel like we've only seen shades of what he can really do. 2008 was a great year for him between his film redeeming performance in Pineapple Express to his excellent work in Milk and this seemed like a good way for it to end.
-Tina Fey, Steve Martin and the Screenplay Nominees. A brilliant moment from two of the world's funniest that was topped off by Dustin Lance Black's immensely deserved win for Best Original Screenplay. Black's script is brilliant and heartbreaking, a timely portrait of pivotal figure that is frequently forgotten by the general public. Black's speech was heartfelt, moving and all too true, the best of the evening.
-Sean Penn's win for his impressive work in Milk. While I would have been content with either Penn or Rourke (and I think Rourke's speech would have been more moving and entertaining), Penn's performance is too good to miss. It's a subtle, moving portrayal that deserves all the accolades it has received. Rourke's work is equally as impressive but this was Penn's award and he rightfully came out on top. Also, I try to avoid politicizing here but his remarks about Prop 8 were dead on. Those who wish to discriminate against gays are no different than those who tried to destroy the civil rights movements of the 1960's. We look back at those people as uneducated bigots and I believe that, in due time, those with anti-gay agendas will appear no different.
-Penelope Cruz's win for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a transcendent performance in a criminally underseen and underrated film. She's a talented, charismatic performer and her performance in VCB is her best to date.
-Heath Ledger's win for The Dark Knight, the only win of note for the biggest film of the year. This is the last time the Academy will be able to award an actor who seemed to be becoming of his generation's best and thankfully, it doesn't have to go to a sub-par performance. Even the most TDK haters have issues trying to critique Ledger's brilliant, searing and disturbing work.
Letdowns
-The overwhelming Slumdog victory. I believe that Boyle deserves it but the rest of it rings hollow to me as I've noted here before. It went 8 for 10 on the evening and very few of those were the right choices. I hate to sound like a fanboy hitting back at a film I wasn't crazy about but this was not the best film of 2008 by any stretch of the imagination and nothing anyone will say will convince me that it was any greater than any number of films, including most of the other Best Picture nominees, most particularly Van Sant's Milk.
-The length was a bit much. It seemed like it was moving along pretty well at the half way point but the second half of the show began to drag a little bit, not enough for me to want to turn it off but enough for me to understand non-cinephiles tuning out.
-A general lack of surprises. The only award that stunned me (and seemingly the film community) was Best Foreign Film, which many felt was a shoe-in for Bashir or The Class. It appears that very few people have seen Departures (hell, even A.O. Scott at the NY Times admitted to not having seen it) so I believe it's win was a stunning turn. The category was already one of controversy with the snub of the supposedly tremendous Gomorrah and I'm not sure this isn't more ammunition for the complainers.
Overall, as I said earlier, I enjoyed the evening but with the Oscar's, it doesn't take much to keep me interested. It's unfortunate that Slumdog's big night will obscure the other winners but many have pointed out this morning that it's win may signal a new path in Hollywood. As the recession bores down and studios have less money to make the big Oscar contenders, 2009 may be a year of small films making big splashes next February. Until then, thanks for reading! Enjoy 2009!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Looking to 2009
Apologies for a lack of reviews. I was holding off on re-starting them until 2009 releases hit the pipeline and have had no desire to see any of the dreck that is being released now (Gomorrah hasn't hit CT yet).
Still, with the Oscars only a few days away, here is The Playlist's look at 2009. Films I'm looking forward to?
Public Enemies (Mann)
Ashecliffe (Shutter Island) (Scorsese)
The Human Factor (Eastwood)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson)
Adventureland (Mottola)
The Road (Hillcoat)
The Tree of Life (Malick)
Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino)
Funny People (Apatow)
Where the Wild Things Are (Jonze)
The Hurt Locker (Bigelow)
Green Zone (Greengrass)
The Informant (Soderbergh)
Taking Woodstock (Lee)
Watchmen (Snyder)
Avatar (Cameron)
500 Days of Summer (Webb)
Star Trek (Abrams)
Thats just a sampling. Of those, Public Enemies is about as excited for a film that I get. A recent test screening brought some positive buzz which is hopeful but from an ardent admirer of Miami Vice, Mann's follow up should be worth the price of admission.
What are you looking forward to?
Still, with the Oscars only a few days away, here is The Playlist's look at 2009. Films I'm looking forward to?
Public Enemies (Mann)
Ashecliffe (Shutter Island) (Scorsese)
The Human Factor (Eastwood)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson)
Adventureland (Mottola)
The Road (Hillcoat)
The Tree of Life (Malick)
Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino)
Funny People (Apatow)
Where the Wild Things Are (Jonze)
The Hurt Locker (Bigelow)
Green Zone (Greengrass)
The Informant (Soderbergh)
Taking Woodstock (Lee)
Watchmen (Snyder)
Avatar (Cameron)
500 Days of Summer (Webb)
Star Trek (Abrams)
Thats just a sampling. Of those, Public Enemies is about as excited for a film that I get. A recent test screening brought some positive buzz which is hopeful but from an ardent admirer of Miami Vice, Mann's follow up should be worth the price of admission.
What are you looking forward to?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Finally. Inglourious Basterds: Trailer
At a time when all war films feel the same, QT rides in to save the day.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
And the Best Director Oscar Goes To...
Danny Boyle. Congrats man, you're a hell of a talent who is the sole reason for Slumdog working at all. With his Directors Guild win last night, Boyle has more or less locked down the Oscar win, which is too bad for David Fincher, who's work on Benjamin Button is nearly as impressive.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Newsweek's Oscar Roundtable
A nice, yet kind of awkward (given Sally Hawkins got screwed out of a nomination) roundtable from a talented group of stars: Langella, Pitt, Hathaway, Downey Jr., Hawkins, Rourke. If you've got the time, watch all 8 parts for a solid 45 minutes of entertaining talk. Perhaps NSFW due to some coarse language. Click on the big play button to start the vids.
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