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!

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.

Public Enemies Poster

Sweet.

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.

Worth Revisting

In the wake of Kate's win on Sunday.

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!

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?

Zodiac Appreciation Pt. 1

As perfect a tone- and mood-setting opening as there is in recent memory.

Finally. Inglourious Basterds: Trailer

At a time when all war films feel the same, QT rides in to save the day.

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.

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.

Watchmen: Trailer

Fincher Discussion

For all the Fincher-heads out there, here's an excellent discussion of the guy's work. Stick around for the comments, which are nearly as interesting as the actual, formal discussion, and provide a stellar defense of Fincher's latest "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".

Slumdog Thoughts

Having seen Slumdog alittle over a month ago, I've had time to sit back and really think about it. Being a HUGE fan of Danny Boyle and his previous work (28 Days Later, for my money, is as good of a horror film as any other released in the past 25 years), I have to say that I continue to be disappointed with Slumdog. I can understand why people like, even love it, but I have to think that some of those people find the film overly original or fresh. I also have to think that those people have not seen City of God or City of Men (either the TV show or feature length film companion), both of which deal with extreme poverty in massive cities and the attempts to escape the harsh nature of live in poor areas.

Both of the Meirelles projects (he directed the former, produced the latter) seem to bristle with a constant vitality. This isn't to say that Slumdog doesn't feel alive at points as it most certainly does, perhaps as much as any other film this fall, but never does it match the sheer rush of either of the Brazillian films. City of God may be more violent in its drug trade narrative focus but it also features a greater range of emotion. The more gut-wrenching scenes in Slumdog (the torture and mutiliation scenes come to mind) don't match the sheer heart in the throat points of City of God (there is nothing remotely close to the power of this scene, apologies for the sound being off and in another language). Slumdog never wants to take the real horror of those situations to their logical endpoint. Rather, it wants to stay as an almost Dickensian fable about poor kids in the big city. However, the inclusion of these thin line walking scenes which are too in your face to label the film as an audience pleaser, too reserved to actually make a true impression. It seemed to me that Slumdog didn't know what it wanted to be.

For those who think of City of God as being only a violent exploration of favela life, there are more than enough moments of genuine joy and exuberance that break through the darkness. Yet, City of God's blend seems more cohesive and fleshed out. Where as the horrific moments of City of God seem earned and necessary to the film, those moments in Slumdog seem so much more forced, so much less a necessity.

It's unfortunate that, as I believe Boyle to be a true master, Slumdog seems to be the film he's most remembered and adored for. His previous works (28 Days Later, Trainspotting, Millions, hell, even Sunshine in it's flawed glory) struck a much deeper chord with me than Slumdog ever did. It's not to say that Slumdog isn't a good, noteworthy work that adds to Boyle illustrious filmmography but to have it sweep the major awards and dominate critic circles best-of-lists seems like overpraise of the highest order.

The Outsider's Oscar Nominations

When the Oscar nominations were announced last week, there was a fair amount of crying about different categories. In the spirit, here are my own personal nominations for the Oscars. In the coming weeks, I'll mark down who should win my nominations, who should win the real nominations and then the night of the Oscars, who will win the Oscars.

Best Picture
The Dark Knight
Wall-E
Milk
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Actor
Sean Penn – Milk
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Benecio Del Toro – Che
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon

Best Actress
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Cate Blanchett – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Angelina Jolie – Changeling

Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Phillip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
Emile Hirsch – Milk

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Frances McDormand – Burn After Reading
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Rosemarie DeWitt – Rachel Getting Married

Best Director
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant – Milk
Sam Mendes – Revolutionary Road
Steven Soderbergh – Che

Year in Review: Addendum

I have just been able to see Che and The Wrestler, both of which feature tremendous, transcendent lead performances that jump off the screen. Both easily are some of the year's best, probably clocking in the top 10. With that said, consider my new top ten something like this.

10. The Wrestler
9. Rachel Getting Married
8. Che
7. Paranoid Park
6. Revolutionary Road
5. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Wall-E
2. The Dark Knight
1. Milk

This knocks Man on Wire and Doubt just out of my top 10 of the year.

Che's brilliance lies in its refusal to play by typical biopic conventions. It may rub some the wrong way that it doesn't have the big emotional payoff that one typically likes after 4 hours and 20 minutes (no lie) but the depth of ideas pervade the film. It's first half (which details Guevara's role in the Cuban Revolution) works better than the second but both are wonderful returns to form for Steven Soderbergh and are easily his best work since Traffic. Benecio Del Toro is absolutely amazing, giving a soulful, intelligent performance that has been terribly overlooked due to the film's length, which has prohibited it from being shown outside of major cities up to this point. As someone who finds Che a fascinating figure, the film gripped me from the outset, with Soderbergh's guerilla style filmmaking beautifully complementing the narrative and themes.

For The Wrestler, its easy to see why everyone is so crazy for Mickey Rouke's performance which is wonderful in every way. Humorous, heartbreaking and entirely human, Rouke brings a vitality to the screen that was only matched by Sean Penn's work in Milk and perhaps Del Toro in Che. A resonant drama that holds something for many, this is much more than just a wrestling film and in many ways, is the Raging Bull for wrestling. In other words, one need not be interested in the sport (or entertainment depending on how you view it) of wrestling, only in in-depth examinations of human struggle. Rourke deserves every bit of his Globe win and Oscar nomination. If the Oscar ends up going to either him or Penn, consider this writer content.

Finalists for Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film

After last year's disastrous snubbing of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by the Oscar Foreign Language committee, it seems like the group has done it again. Conspicuously absent from this year's finalists is Gomorrah, by director Matteo Garrone, one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. The blogosphere is up in arms over this, as the Academy proves again that more often than not, their Foreign Language category isn't always the best barometer when truly determining the best Foreign film of the year. Here are the finalists, from which the five nominees will be selected:

Revanche (Gotz Spielmann, Austria)
The Necessities of Life (Benoit Pilon, Canada)
The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Uli Edel, Germany)
Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, Israel)
Departures (Yojiro Takita, Japan)
Tear This Heart Out (Roberto Sneider, Mexico)
Everlasting Moments (Jan Troell, Sweden)
3 Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey)

Courtesy of Variety.