I know many of us were prepared to accept that Lincoln would dominate come awards time, but we made an oversight: we didn’t let Tom Hooper speak his piece. And now he has. Today, Universal Pictures has released a four minute clip of behind the scenes footage from Hooper’s upcoming adaptation of legendary musical Les Misérables (via Regal Cinemas’ Youtube channel). Put simply, the production looks and sounds spectacular, but watch the clip below yourself and see what you think: The foremost element of the clip is the heavy focus on the live singing, which makes sense. Eschewing prerecorded tracks in favor of letting the cast belt out their own…
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Sweet 2nd Trailer…'The Hobbit'
We’re wading further and further into Tolkien week, and as each day goes by, that venerable rogue Peter Jackson continues releasing new media for the upcoming first entry in his latest Middle Earth venture, The Hobbit. A day ago, we were treated to a bevvy of hi-res images from the film; today, we have a new trailer on which to feast our eyes. While the clip released earlier this year played a bit broadly, this latest bit of footage focuses much more on establishing tone, and it should be to no one’s surprise that Jackson appears to have nailed it. The Hobbit represents the lighter side of Tolkien’s fantasy; humorous…
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Sweet Trailer…'Lincoln'
I’m asking, in earnest, for someone to explain to me the “trailer for a trailer” phenomenon that’s gaining more and more popularity as days go by. What’s the point? What’s the purpose? Is the intended effect one that truly lives up to the word “tease”? Do studios think that teasing upcoming trailers will ensure that those clips receive more hits than they would otherwise? There are few things that bug me to the point of needing to simply kvetch about them openly when it comes to film, and this trend happens to be one of them. But that’s maybe besides the point. DreamWorks teased out footage from the full trailer…
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G-S-T Double Take Review…The Words
Editor’s note: The Double Take series has been on hold for a while now, but today marks the return of this two-sided format of perspectives. Here, Bill Graham and Andrew Crump both offer their two cents on the freshly released literary drama, The Words. By Bill Graham: The lesson in The Words isn’t that first-time writer/directors can get in over their heads but that a solid editor might make the difference between a film that gets sidetracked in its own convolution and something worthwhile. The bulk of the narrative plays out with struggling writer Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) trying to make ends meet with his wife Dora (Zoë Saldana) rooting him…
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G-S-T Review…Oslo, August 31st
For most of us, a day out in the cities we live in doesn’t represent a strictly dangerous prospect. From street to street, familiarity engulfs us and fosters in us a sense of mundane security; the haunts and locales we visit and patronize become so commonplace that we could never construe them as harmful to our well-being. For Anders, the principal character of Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s sophomore effort, Oslo, August 31st, a single twenty four hour span of time is fraught with the perils of temptation, populated with ghosts from his past, and resonant with the echoes of his guilt and shame. Such are the circumstances of a recovering…
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G-S-T Review…Hit & Run
So, shocking news: Hit & Run is kind of a blast…go figure. Dax Shepard has, in fairness, made a movie before (2010’s Brother’s Justice, which sounds delightfully, suspiciously odd), so the man isn’t totally green in the realms of screenwriting and directing. All the same, permit me my surprised reaction. It’s late August, the film co-stars Tom Arnold, and Shepard remains best-known for his role in the MTV series Punk’d and Without a Paddle. Those aren’t exactly the kinds of credentials that inspire confidence in the jaded, but Shepard and co-director David Palmer use the aces hidden in their sleeves to great effect. Color me tasteless– Hit & Run works.…
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G-S-T Review…Klown
Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen, the stars and writers of Denmark’s Klown, should find themselves in good company among the most prominent members of the raunchy comedy pantheon. Alternately, the remorselessly profane Danish duo might repulse their peers just as easily. Klown, the cinematic evolution of the television show Hvam and Christensen created and featured in together for four years, pushes every boundary of good taste with a smirk and a cackle; there’s gleeful deceit to how the film frequently builds toward redemptive kindness before pulling the rug out from under our feet. But if the film’s primary interest lies in taking the mickey out of Frank, Casper, and the audience, its…
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Sweet Trailer…'Seven Psychopaths'
It’s been four years since Martin McDonagh directed his first feature-length picture, but the wait between In Bruges and McDonagh’s next project is almost over. Today, Seven Psychopaths gets its first trailer, which should blow away any preconceptions you may have formed about the film in your head based on the title. For me, this is nothing but good news; with one two and a half minute clip, McDonagh’s placed his sophomore effort firmly on my radar for the fall season. Put more simply, Seven Psychopaths looks hilarious and deranged, but what else can you expect from a filmmaker with such a black sense of humor and a cast containing everyone from Walken to Rockwell to…
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G-S-T Review…The Campaign
For a film enjoying its theatrical run as the 2012 presidential election race draws closer and closer to the finish line, The Campaign feels supremely out of date. It’s worth mentioning right away that regardless, the film is frequently hilarious; from little, quiet, unexpectedly odd moments to much grander and more orchestrated fits of pure lunacy, The Campaign works on a strictly comic level. That’s half the battle, of course, maybe more depending on how you like your comedies, but it’s impossible to shake off the frivolity on full display right next to the movie’s prominent absurdities. How does one make a picture about politics in a politically aware era and at…
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G-S-T Review…The Bourne Legacy
We’re at a point in franchising history where three films will no longer do. Series from Die Hard to Indiana Jones have been expanded beyond their trilogy borders to include a fourth entry; meanwhile, the future third film in the Hunger Games saga is already being split into two parts. Traditionally, conventional wisdom marks the third film in a trilogy as the lesser installment of the series, but as three-parters get expanded to four, so too is that adage stretched out– and if The Bourne Legacy has anything to add to the discussion, then the fourth film is the new third. Call it tepid, call it slack, call it pointless;…