If I have anything further to offer regarding Stoker, South Korean wunderkind Chan-wook Park’s first American venture, it’s marketing praise. Our cultural gatekeepers haven’t overlooked Park’s existence, so to call him an unknown quantity State-side would be something of a falsehood, but his name doesn’t have much meaning to the mainstream. So seeing Fox Searchlight go to work promoting the film, first with two teasers released in the fall, then with the international poster and a promo video in October, is something of a surprise, but the good kind of surprise– perhaps the best kind. Who doesn’t want to see one of their personal favorite contemporary directors get a good…
-
-
Oscar Shortlist For Docs Is Anything But
Get this: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ shortlist for the Best Documentary category is fifteen films long. Fifteen! Sort of makes you question the entire use of the phrase “shortlist”, especially given that their other shortlists are, you know, actually short. We can chalk this up to some pretty significant rules changes to qualification in that particular area, instituted by the Academy this year. It’s not unusual for the AMPAS to alter or fine-tune the rules for submission and eligibility year to year– as the culture of film ebbs, flows, and otherwise changes, it’s likely a necessity, else the Academy is just fickle– but as Deadline reports,…
-
“The CineMagic 8-Ball” – In Theaters 12/21/12
When so many movies are released each weekend and trailers often seem better than the movie itself, what should one do? In this precarious situation, we consult the The CineMagic 8-Ball (TM) to help us see through the nebulous marketing haze. Doing so just might save us all a disheartening trip to the cinema and spare us unnecessarily springing for $7 popcorn. See what the 8-Ball says about this week’s releases… ——————————————————————————————————————————————- THE GUILT TRIP (12-19-12) Andy Brewster is about to embark on the road trip of a lifetime, and who better to accompany him than his overbearing mother Joyce. After deciding to start his adventure with a quick visit…
-
G-S-T Review…This Is 40
Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 puts a hysterical spin on the fact that everyone gets old. In fact, the comedy is so refreshing that it must have taken a lesson or two from his 2009 film Funny People; if you’re gonna make a movie with somewhat depressing subject matter, put some humor in it (especially if the word funny is in the title!). Just because you’re dealing with some very heavy emotions and situations doesn’t mean the audience doesn’t need to laugh. You may know this by now but Apatow doesn’t make rom-com fluff. Instead he gets to the heart of the matter and focuses on relatively down-to-earth people (foul-mouthed though they…
-
G-S-T Review…Les Misérables
There’s little use in trying to disguise my frustration with Tom Hooper’s sluggish interpretation of Les Misérables, though in the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge immediately that I have never seen the musical on which it is based. (And it’s been years since I read Victor Hugo’s original novel.) Put another way, I have no personal ideal of what Les Mis should be, so as far as it concerned me, Hooper– who successfully directed a strong cast of performers to Oscar gold two years ago with The King’s Speech— had the floor here. A shame, then, that he squanders the opportunity by muting his strengths as a filmmaker…
-
Sweet (No, Make That Gorgeous) Trailer…'To the Wonder'
It feels like the book has already been closed on Terrence Malick’s forthcoming release, To the Wonder— the film received nothing but contempt in varying forms and degrees at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. At the same time it’s hard not to watch this clip and be awed. Beautiful, stunning cinematography is Malick’s calling card, of course, so there’s little surprise to how utterly captivating the trailer is, but expectation doesn’t make what we see here any less lovely and magnetic. Of course, if Malick’s style of untethered, free form filmmaking isn’t your cup of tea, you’ve likely already got your mind more or less made about To…
-
G-S-T Quick 5 – Favorite Vigilante Films
vig·i·lan·te: any person who takes the law into his or her own hands, as by avenging a crime. A mainstay in the film world for decades, vigilantes come in all shapes in sizes and work their special brand of street justice for a variety of reasons. In some cases they operate just outside the law and work in secret. But then again there are those who work with the law and are not so secret about their bone-crunching ways. I guess you can say that vigilantes are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get…except the outcome which finds baddies getting what they deserve. Now there are…
-
Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Trailer War’
From the deepest darkest pit of forgotten film reels comes Drafthouse Films’ latest time capsule feature. Trailer War is simply a collection of off-beat, hokey and trailers for some of the film world’s oddest flicks. Although cast off, they are not trash. After all, films like these are what have influenced scores of filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, for decades. War is a patchwork of advertisements for films the likes of which have seen by only a handful of modern day film audiences or people from the time of the film’s release. But this presentation isn’t just a brainless compilation of trailers lined up end to end for 110 minutes. No, there’s a little more to…
-
Franco Nero Lives! or: How You Can Get To Know the Original 'Man with the Silent D'
If you’re not familiar with Franco Nero, now might be a good time as Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Django Unchained (keep your eyes peeled for our review next week) draws ever nearer to its theatrical release. You could also wait to see the film for yourself, but Nero’s brief cameo is a poor introduction to one of the greatest screen gunslingers of all time; if you can set aside six hours between now and Christmas, Keoma (one of the twenty best movies you maybe haven’t seen!), Companeros, and of course the namesake of Tarantino’s picture, Django, should get you far better acquainted with Nero’s legend. Seriously, go watch them, and I’ll wait here until you get back.…
-
Soundworks Collection Profile: Michael Giacchino
Now that the announcement and full teaser trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness have been released, lots of questions have been raised about J.J. Abrams’ sequel. Questions like who is Benedict Cumberbatch‘s character John Harrison? and recently “Are You the 1701?“. But no question is more important to us film score geeks at G-S-T than “What will Michael Giacchino bring to the table for the next Star Trek film?“. Granted Michael already provided the score for the 9-minute prologue (which plays before The Hobbit), but even he admits that that theme may in fact change for the final product. Why? Well because J.J. and the team at Bad Robot are deep in post-production…
