Looking at this fall’s movie releases, it doesn’t take much to get excited. Some of today’s best and brightest filmmakers have their latest works hitting theaters, many of which primed for Oscar consideration and box office dominance. I mean, look at this list. LOOK AT IT!
It’s not often that this many top filmmakers release their films so close together. It’s a bit overwhelming, so let Limité guide your movie list for this fall. This is going to be a great season.
Note: All non-authored pieces’ loglines are courtesy of IMDb.com.
Michelle Williams stars as Marilyn Monroe in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, which is slated for a November 4 release.
Logline: Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
CONTAGION
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet
Logline: An action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.
by Curtis John, with contributions by Daniel Quitério
Age: 13
From: Conyers, GA
Credits:Super 8 (2011), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
While JJ Abrams’s Super 8 wasn’t the blockbuster that many were expecting, the true success of it is that it put Elle Fanning squarely on the Hollywood map. It’s not as if she hasn’t appeared in other flicks or that we don’t look twice at her surname and realize that her sister Dakota has the coolest of movie credits to her name at only age 17.
It’s not that.
It’s that a look in her doe-like eyes tells us that there is still innocence and no (at least not yet) annoying precociousness that imbues many young Hollywood actresses.
In her still young career, Fanning has managed to step out of her older sister’s shadow, taking on some demanding parts and proving herself as a formidable actress, in her own right. Among them is the title role in 2008’s Phoebe in Wonderland, in which she starred opposite Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, and Bill Pullman as a troubled girl in a school play. Two years later, she starred in Sofia Coppola’s fourth feature, Somewhere (2010).
As she continues to build her career, let us enjoy the skill with which young Elle amuses us and treasure its pureness, and hope that she can be the star she’s destined to be as she appears next in Twixt with Val Kilmer and We Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon, both of which are slated to release later this year.
For our second year, Limité presents its two-part “Young Hollywood” series, which honors filmmakers under the age of 35 and actors under the age of 30. The talented individuals featured here bring Limité back to its roots — as a forum for presenting what’s next in the world of popular and underground culture. In this series, we present you with some of the youngest and freshest talent making its mark in film. Some names are established, while others are on their way up. These are the people who will shape the future of film. It’s worth remembering their names and faces.
The film industry is bursting with fresh, young talent. We encourage you to add to this list by leaving a comment, describing which young talent you think deserves recognition.
Richard Ayoade
by Stephanie Dawson
Age: 34
From: London, England
Credits:Submarine (2011), The IT Crowd (TV)
British comedian, actor, writer, and director Richard Ayoade is best known in the UK for his role as Maurice Moss on The IT Crowd, a sitcom based on the trials and tribulations of an under-valued computer technology staff. Ayoade studied law at Cambridge, but his love of performing lead him to Footlights, the University’s famed drama club, for which he served as president for one year. He acted and wrote many shows while there.
Ayoade co-wrote the stage show Garth Marenghi’s Fright Knight and its sequel Garth Marenghi’s Netherhead, which won a Perrier award in 2001. In 2004, the UK’s Channel 4 aired Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a continuation of the character Ayoade and his partners originated. Ayoade directed and performed in that series, as well as the short-lived The Mighty Boosh.
Ayoade directed music videos for Arctic Monkeys, Super Furry Animals, Vampire Weekend, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. His live concert video for Arctic Monkeys’ At the Apollo won Best DVD at the New Musical Express.
Submarine is Richard Ayoade’s feature directorial debut and is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne. Ayoade also wrote the screenplay for the coming-of-age comedy. While the independent film had a modest box office return, it gained some critical acclaim for Ayoade’s imaginative, visionary directing. Ayoade is a multi-threat and definitely one to watch in the coming years.
If you know anything about Limité, you know that we don’t follow the norm nor do we care what the ‘others’ glorify. Awards are usually given out to those who’ve sold a certain amount of music albums or for their performance in a big budget movie in the last fiscal year, but what about celebrating someone’s entire career and being recognized. That’s what we’ve done in our 2nd Annual Limité Honors Awards. The individuals below have entertained us on more than one occasion and we deem it necessary to give respect when respect is due. Enjoy!
Josh Brolin
by Stephen Cocchiara
“Heeeey youuu guyyys!!!” Most 80’s babies will remember Josh Brolin as Brandon Walsh the older brother of Mikey Walsh (Sean Astin), in the The Goonies. Brolin is a truly versatile actor and for the past few years he has been on an amazing run, earning much deserved recognition and awards for his roles in movies such as, No Country for Old Men, W., American Gangster, True Grit, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dan White in the movie Milk.
After his first two films Brolin turned to television where he came close to snagging the role of Tom Hanson in 21 Jump Street, but lost the spot to Johnny Depp. A few years later he took the role as gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok in the wild west TV series The Young Riders, one of his most acclaimed roles as a young actor.
What many people might not know is that after Brolin’s second movie, Thashin’, he stepped away from the big screen to work in Rochester, NY performing in and directing plays at the GeVa Theatre. He has said that, “If I’m any kind of actor now it’s because of Rochester.”
Brolin will show his versatility as an actor again next spring, starring in the action sci-fi comedy Men in Black III as a young Agent K.
Tony Clomax
by Curtis John
We’ve all had that horrible break-up with the woman or man of our dreams, idealized or not, and had good friends give us bad advice and schemes on how to fix it, but director/producer Tony Clomax took that usual concept and developed a funny, romantic, and solidly crafted Web series called 12 Steps to Recovery (12StepsWebseries.com). Having premiered last summer, the series immediately took the Internet by storm, followed by screenings at film festivals, and a current run on Verizon FIOS’s Black Broadcasting Network. This success has quickly propelled Clomax into the national spotlight.
While this isn’t the first successful Web series, it is the first starring a diverse amount of Black talent that most anyone can relate to. Much credit is due to Clomax’s vision of using the comedy of real-life situations and taking the funny from that — something that sounds easy to do until you try to do it, according to the director.
Having a relaxed-yet-efficient set, to which the filmmaker credits his favorite director Clint Eastwood with inspiring him to establish, helped endear Clomax to his cast and crew, which include a lot of up-and-coming New York and bi-coastal talent (including musicians) who all successfully helped spread the word about this series on all platforms.
What’s next for this breakout director? An upcoming webisode starring the legendary comedian/actor Paul Mooney as the protagonist’s father, the culmination of season one of 12 Steps, and then the filming of the second season. Clomax is making it happen. Indeed.
Shepard Fairey
by Morgan Goldin
From skater punk to world renowned artist, Shephard Fairey has achieved a level of success and prominence that few of his peers can claim. The way he’s presented in the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop suggests that he is right behind Banksy in the pantheon of great street art. It would appear that his transition from street art sensation to major player in the art world seemed to happen almost effortlessly. Yet he never compromised his aesthetic for a taste of mainstream acceptance. If anything, his work seems to have slightly transformed the mainstream, where now even the most commercial of works will flirt with a side of subversion. Continue reading “2011 Limité Honors” »
Like fellow NYU Tisch alumni Jim Jarmusch and Ang Lee, Cary Joji Fukunaga, 33, is an artist who’s hard to pin down. He’s a young filmmaker who takes chances, goes the unconventional route, and doesn’t conform to expectations. If his body of work (though small, thus far) is any indication, his career will go down unpredictable paths. The one thing anyone can assuredly say about Fukunaga is that he’s a remarkable talent. Continue reading “2011 Faces to Watch” »
It seems rarer and rarer that we’re able to look back at the previous year and delight in knowing that we just experienced a strong, healthy year in film. Last year was one of those years. And as we now venture into the 2011 awards season, we recognize those movies for what they did for the industry and for their enthusiastic audiences. Will 2011’s crop of releases garner the same enthusiasm, or will they be vanquished by more discerning moviegoers and critics? Here is just a selection of what 2011 has in store for the silver screen.
Note: Since many of these films are still in production, release dates and details may change.
THE WAY BACK
by Janice Y. Perez
Director: Peter Weir
Writers: Keith R. Clarke, Peter Weir
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan, Dragos Bucur, Gustaf Skarsgard
Distributor: Newmarket Films
Genre: Drama
Release Date: January 21 (limited)
Based on the memoir The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz, The Way Back narrates the dangerous escape of a small group of multi-national prisoners who flee a Siberian Gulag (the government agency that administered the main Soviet penal labor camp systems during World War II), traversing thousands of miles across five hostile countries.
With a collaboration between screenwriter Keith R. Clarke and Peter Weir, the story narrates the treacherous journey of Janusz (Jim Sturgess) and his band of fallen soldiers who travel the wasteland of the cold Siberian front through the endless miles of the Gobi Desert, until their final destination at the bustling British Empire that is India.
Known to be one of the most stylistic filmmakers of his time, Weir returns to the big screen with this epic seven years after his last, grand undertaking, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Although Rawicz’s book has been the subject of controversy for its authenticity since it was released in 1997, Weir decided to take on this gargantuan novel and translate it into something just as majestic with an amazing ensemble cast. Continue reading “Guide Into 2011: Movies” »
It’s been a long year and 2010 definitely had its memorable music moments. Some good; some amazing; and some moments were downright horrendous. But with a new year just around the corner it’s time to turn our ears towards “the next big thing” or more likely what mass media will try to sell us as “the next big thing”. But, I’m not going to try and sell you anything, instead, I’m just going to turn you on to some good music and let YOU decide. My pick for 2011 is Brooklyn’s own The Drums.
I first heard The Drums back in late 2009 when a friend sent me a link to the video for their single “Let’s Go Surfing”. I was hooked from the first bars of this infectious catchy song and I craved more. The band’s mixture of guitars, drums and synthesizers recalls the days of 80’s synth pop and the radio was ruled by bands like Joy Division, The Smiths and Depeche Mode.
Following the release of their Summertime! EP, the band started to attract the attention of the UK music scene and the landed on the coveted BBC Sound of 2010 list, and shortly thereafter was booked on the 2010 NME Awards Tour. In June 2010 the band finally released their self-titled debut album and the album landed on the UK, Ireland, Australian and Belgian music charts
But The Drums’ journey has just begun and come 2011 this is band that you’ll be hearing a lot more of and they’ll be hard to avoid. I hate using the term “Buzz band” as it’s a phrase that turns me off and the band is a letdown in the end. Thankfully that’s not the case here. Bands like The Drums are what make me love finding new music. When I find that new band that gets me excited the first thing I want to do is turn my friends onto as soon as possible. Well my friends, The Drums are a band that you not only want to listen to, but YOU NEED TO listen to!
The Drums are on tour overseas but will back to tour the States in 2011. The self-titled album is out now on Moshi Moshi/Island Records.
“The new member in the argument of who’s better,” couldn’t be a more accurate self-assessment from Joell Ortiz himself. For many of us, pre-Slaughterhouse inception, Joell Ortiz was as random a name as Bernie Madoff was before his Ponzi scheme indictment. Now, Joell is as synonymous with hip-hop as Madoff is with credit default swap. At first listen, he seems to be just another punch line rapper: a glorified verbsmith. But adjust the volume and his and his ingenious concepts, cultural depth, and bold charisma, will resonate deeply.
My introduction to Joell came on the initial Slaughterhouse record that leaked featuring Nino Bless in the winter of 2009. The hardest 24 spit that year blew me away.
“Yall be making up stories the little kids is buying/ I do ever thing my Penn State like a Nittany Lion”
He was nice, but still the next six months were spent trying to figure out who was the best in hip-hop’s new supergroup. At the time, Joe Budden was the most well-known thanks to his Billboard hit “Pump It Up.” Next came Royce da 5’9”, his notoriety notably because of his falling out with Eminem’s hip-hop group, D12. Joell might be recognized if he was standing next to the former two, but Crooked I was a myth. They all eventually proved their lyrical prowess, and Joell was permanently a part of the “Who’s nicest?” conversation. Barbershops littering the East Coast had people swearing personal allegiance to their favorite Slaughterhouse titan.
Until Joell flooded the Internet with freestyle after freestyle, YouTube clip after YouTube clip.
Demonstrating the work ethic of a Chilean miner, shooting and releasing more than 30 videos in the last three years, Joell has also diversified his musical profile in collaborations with Atlanta-based soul singer Novell, Phonte from Little Brother, West coast rapper Blu, and Colin Munroe. Joell has successfully defined himself as an artist, instead of just a rapper — a notable distinction in today’s music world.
Maybe he’s a generation late, spitting with the ethos of the 90s East Coast. Or maybe he’s right on time, with the public divide of the mainstream and underground worlds, and the upsurge of fresh new talent. His skill set and musical conscientiousness, rooted in the era of Carhart jackets, side-cocked ski goggles, and Hifliger rugby shirts, wasn’t welcomed by the industry in 2003 when snap music chauffeured hip-hop. But Joell told Combat Jack during a PNC Radio interview that the preservation of his craft and integrity started in the early 90s, when Das EFX — from the heart of the Golden Era of hip-hop — was another local BK group at hip hop’s forefront.
“I was putting out 12-inch records [without a deal] on Rawkus records” in 1999, when Rawkus was harboring hip-hop greats such as Black Star duo Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Cocoa Brovaz, Big L, Pharoahe Monch, and Kool G. Rap. Surprised? Before Aftermath,” I spent years just making music. No stress, no deal, just really sharpening my skills. At this point I’m not ready for a record deal.”
In an era when artists have to build their own followings guerilla-style, through mixtapes, appearances and Internet channels, that statement is genuinely refreshing, reassuring the public that some rappers still take their craft seriously.
His first mixtape, Who the Fuck is Joell Ortiz? was released in 2004, followed up with the answer to that question in album form. His debut studio album, The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, which featured Maino, Immortal Technique, Akon, Styles P, and Big Daddy Kane, was released on Koch records in 2007 spawning a specific cult-like following, and the fruits of a European tour. Showing off his lyrical talent on songs like BQE and Hip Hop, the album provided insight to his firm sociological grasp on reality with songs likes “Modern Day Slavery” featuring Immortal Technique. The response was astronomical. Fast forward to 2010, Joell’s blue collar industrial-age work ethic has shown fruitful, releasing an impressive six mixtapes, two solo studio albums, and one collaboration album within a two year time period, making him one of the most talked about emcees of the year. His Hot 97 freestyle-turned-single “Sing like Bilal” and Just Blaze-produced record “Battle Cry” have created much angst around his Free Agent album. While its available on Amazon.com, its official release has been pushed back until 2011 for unknown reasons.
Bono and Ali Hewson announced an exciting collaboration between their clothing line EDUN and Louis Vuitton at the “Africa Rising” Art Exhibition in Paris back in October. The exhibition showcased five leading artists from Africa, whose work is integrated into the EDUN / Louis Vuitton recently unveiled luggage line. Additionally, the artists’ work is intended to articulate the individual as the key figure in a rising Africa. Their portraits, their world view and their music illustrate the many faces of the dynamic and creative Africa of today.
With this art exhibition, Louis Vuitton joined Ali Hewson and Bono in promoting an optimistic vision of the continent. The contemporary art exhibition, entitled “Africa Rising”, was on display to the public from October 6th to 18th 2010 at 1, Rue du Pont-Neuf in Paris. Continue reading “Guide Into 2011: Fashion” »
An accidental visit to a sleek new boutique hotel in the old part of town.
By Leslie Long
We found ourselves in the Serbian capitol of Belgrade due to an airline connection on our way to Montenegro. Not content to simply change planes, I planned a few days in this city that I mostly knew as home to a couple world-class tennis players. The airport had a feeling of somewhat modern disrepair with small, cramped gift shops, cafes emulating Italian ones, piles of unused items shoved in corners and something I’d never seen before: energy-efficient escalators that only run when someone alights.
We’d asked the airport tourism desk the typical cost of a taxi into the old part of town where we’d reserved a hotel. Upon reaching the curb, a mob of drivers offered to take us at twice the price. When we offered the suggested price, a lone wolf stepped forward and happily led us to his car for the lower fare.
Passing an aerospace museum virtually on the airport grounds, we were soon speeding down a highway into the city center. Blocks of communist era apartments lined the roads with terraces full of stuff that wouldn’t fit inside. As we got off the bigger road and drove through the new part of the city, occasional modern multi-use complexes in bright primary colors with bold architectural designs showed signs of new vitality.
Little by little, the buildings started to take on a patina and soon our driver was wending his way through the narrow, maze-like streets of Belgrade’s old town. He located our street, Marsala Birjuzova, dropping us in front of Townhouse 27, a boutique hotel we’d chosen because it had nothing but accolades on Trip Advisor. One step inside and I knew the reports had sent me in the right direction. Continue reading “Guide Into 2011: Travel” »
Tehran has a drug problem. On the streets, in back alleys, and in small, crumbling, low-cost apartments, Iranian crack addicts are finding their fix in steadily rising numbers. The crack—a term used to describe many types of crystallized narcotics—currently flooding the streets of Tehran is different from that found in the West in a significant way: the “black crack” in Iran is made from heroin, not cocaine.
With neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan still ranking as world leaders in the production of poppies and their derivatives, and the demand for these products increasing daily, the flow of these drugs into Iran have been hard to stem. Despite severe consequences for possession, distribution, and trafficking, new customers are picking up needles and pipes at an alarming rate. Intent on documenting the plight of these masses of addicts, Aslon Arfa struck out into the underbelly of modern Tehran, camera in tow. The results of his mission, compiled here in Black Crack in Iran, are devastating images of men and women in the midst of a downfall. Some, including a young man with glazed eyes and infected burns stretching across his torso, are closer to the bottom than others.
Creating an accurate picture of daily life in Iran is a difficult task, and depicting addicts even harder. Due to strict religious and moral codes, even photographing a woman inside her home without a scarf covering her head is all but impossible. Add to the equation the shame of addiction, the misunderstanding and disapproval of drug use by outsiders, and the lack of trust from suffering people whose sickness is also a crime punishable by death, and the massive difficulties in completing this project become apparent. Yet, after months spent in the trenches, Arfa has succeeded astoundingly with Black Crack in Iran. The results are raw and humanizing, offering hope through exposure for an otherwise hopeless group of people.
The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis
The Day After Tomorrow takes readers on a journey to bear witness to the environmental destruction that is currently plaguing our planet; from a forest in West Virginia devastated by mountaintop removal mining, to a region in Florida left in ruins by the phosphate mining industry, J Henry Fair presents hard evidence that our unchecked consumerism is leading the way in the destruction of our planet, one natural resource at a time.
Primarily through the use of aerial photography, Fair captures spellbinding vistas of pools of toxic hog waste, streams of paper mill runoff, and the remains of hollowed-out mountains. These environmental abstractions lure the viewer in with unique asymmetrical shapes and striking colors; however, fascination quickly turns to horror, as the viewer realizes what lurks beneath the surface of the image.
Fair is a consummate environmentalist and after years as a corporate and portrait photographer he turned his lens on the industries that sustain us—oil, fertilizer, coal, and factory farming, to name a few—eager to uncover the dirty little secrets that he knew were well hidden there. It turns out the secrets, and the “dirt” they produce, are far too large to hide. For example: the factory farming industry is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history, wherein a hog waste lagoon burst, causing 25 million gallons of highly toxic sludge to flood the New River in North Carolina, killing ecosystems, animals, and infecting water supplies. Just before Christmas in 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority power plant was responsible for sending a billion gallons of coal ash waste into the Tennessee River; this spill was 40 times larger than the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Coal ash is toxic, containing a laundry list of hazardous substances such as uranium, mercury, lead, and arsenic. These are only two examples of the endless calamity we inflict on our environment daily. Now is the time to take action and make change. Continue reading “Guide Into 2011: Books” »
