Inside Llewyn Davis is a week in the life of a musician trying to make it in the Greenwich Village scene of 1961. Set in the years before Bob Dylan hit it big and folk music gained mainstream attention, Davis represents those singers who tried to make it as artists, sticking to traditional folk music. However, he is living hand to mouth, sleeping on other people’s couches, and playing at dive bars to uninterested audiences for tips. Something has got to give. The Coen Brothers write and direct this musical dramedy starring Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis, and Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake as fellow folk musicians Jean and Jim Berkey.
Liberace was a virtuoso pianist, outrageous entertainer, and star of stage and television. He lived lavishly on stage and off with head-to-toe jeweled suits and bejeweled pianos crowned with a candelabra to match. In the summer of 1977, a handsome young Scott Thorson was introduced to Liberace, and despite their age difference and different worlds the two began a secret five-year love affair. HBO Films presented the film based on their true story, Behind the Candelabra, in competition on the Cannes red carpet Tuesday. The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike, 2012) and stars Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson.
This year, Oscar-winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003) returns to Cannes with her out-of-competition entry The Bling Ring. In the fame-obsessed world of Los Angeles, a group of teenagers goes on a crime spree in the Hollywood Hills. The teens track their celebrity targets online and steal more than $3 million in cash and luxury items from their homes. The film is based on actual events, and real-life victims included Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, and Rachel Bilson.
The film stars newcomer Katie Chan as Rebecca, the ringleader of the group who ropes in the new boy in school Marc (Israel Broussard, Flipped, 2010) and rich wild child Chloe (Taissa Farmiga, TV’s American Horror Story). The cast is rounded out by Emma Watson, who plays Nicki, a girl who seeks “status by association” in her tailor-made spirituality taught by her mother, played by Leslie Mann (This Is 40, 2012). The cast members were in Cannes for the red carpet opening, turning heads with their very own (or borrowed) bling.
Baz Luhrmann applies his inventive style to the F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation The Great Gatsby, with Leonardo DiCaprio starring as the title character. The film opened the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival Wednesday. It was preceded by an opening ceremony hosted by actress Audrey Tautou (Amélie, 2001) and presided over by jury president Steven Spielberg. DiCaprio spoke the official words to open the festival, and then the film began.
Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway, a wannabe writer working as a stock broker who lives next to the mythic Gatsby in Long Island. The film begins years in the future where Carraway is being treated in an asylum for alcoholism and drug abuse. His doctor entreats him to write about his past to tease out the depression that haunts him. Carraway narrates (and writes) the story of the brief friendship that spiraled into a web of deceit, sex, and death. Through the writing process, Carraway comes to terms with his part in the story and serves as its moral compass.
Tickets: $8 – 16 (SOLD OUT, possible Rush Line availability)
Series: Spotlight
Eighteen years ago, director Neil Jordan enhanced the horror and fantasy genres with his hit film Interview with the Vampire. After setting the bar high, contemporary audiences were left with the fan-favorite yet aesthetically lacking Twilight series. Well, Jordan has now returned to the genre with Byzantium, a beautifully crafted, emotionally involving, and surprisingly feminist film starring Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, 2008) and Gemma Arterton (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, 2013).
Teenager Eleanor (Ronan) is an introverted, talented writer and pianist who is constantly sheltered by her extra-protective “sister” Clara (Arterton), an extrovert who uses her wild sexuality to provide for the family. Despite their opposing natures they share one thing: a dark secret that they have both been hiding from the world for 200 years. This secret puts them constantly on the move from one English town to another until it lands them in a small, mysterious seaside town where Clara uses her carnal skills to secure a roof over their heads—the run-down but classically built Byzantium Hotel. But this town holds sway over Eleanor as she begins to realize it is the place of their birth, and flashes of history provide Eleanor with a desperate need to share her real story even though it may destroy her and Clara’s lives. As Eleanor develops a strange kinship with a local boy (Caleb Landry Jones, Antiviral, 2012), she confides in him. Clara does her best to clean up her sister’s public revelations, but a secret order of vampires chasing the pair no longer allows any secrets to be contained.
Ronan continues to be a powerhouse actor, imbuing Eleanor with empathy and a strongly focused teenage rebelliousness. Arterton is at her all-time best in Byzantium, perfectly playing the duality of cold-blooded prostitute and caring “sister.” Jordan has once-again proven that he’s an auteur, creating a distinctive look and feel for the film, including tight spaces surrounding Ronan and a darkness engulfing Arterton that provides the viewer with forebodingness. But no worries, there are still enough displays of blood to make this a true vampire film. Coupled with a fantastically original perspective on vampire origins and “feeding” from screenwriter Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre, 2011), Byzantium should pleasure horror and casual fans alike.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Neil Jordan
Genre: Narrative, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Runtime: 118 min.
The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 17 – 28 in New York City.
It’s hard to know where to begin when discussing a film like Upstream Color. Trying to even classify it proves a little difficult, as the film contains traces of differing genres; is it a trippy psychological/paranoia thriller, body horror/science-fiction allegory with environmental concerns, or an indie romance about two lost souls? The truth is that the film fuses all these elements and more, while also bearing the fingerprints of influences from filmmakers as disparate as David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, and Terrence Malick, as well as postmodern literary icons like Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, and Philip K. Dick. Like most of the work these masters have created, Upstream Color is destined to divide viewers into “pro” and “con” camps who will passionately defend or vehemently hate it. Whatever you make of the film, it is impossible to deny the uniqueness of it. The work is a wholly original creation, one that behaves like nothing you’ve experienced in cinema before.
A ravishing ode to the haunting mysteries of love, Terrence Malick’s latest, To the Wonder, is an awe-inspiring sensory experience. Breaking away from a pattern of nostalgia-tinged narratives set in an amber-petrified past, Malick’s most recent work takes place in a modern time period, casting new light on the here and now. This new creative decision seems to have freed other aspects of his imagination, as this piece is also his most esoteric work yet. An opaque tone poem, the film is presented as an assemblage of gorgeous imagery, ponderous voice-over, and classical music, edited together in a style resembling a free-form association collage. Malick’s radical film grammar has developed throughout the course of his career to the point that it’s reached near abstraction. Those that found his Palme d’Or winning masterpiece The Tree of Life (2011) to be dense and obscure will probably have little use for this film. However, those that find those elusive qualities alluring will be richly rewarded. While Malick may leave viewers in a dizzying head-space over the structure, there is little doubt about his sincerity towards the emotional impact his work produces or the quality of feeling he is able to conjure with his nontraditional methods.
Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey is part concert film, part “behind-the-music,” and part unbelievable rags-to-riches story. The documentary follows iconic rock band Journey on tour with new lead singer Arnel Pineda. Pineda’s personal journey from homeless kid in Manila to YouTube-discovered front-man of an American institution is a computer-age tale of the American Dream. The doc will be a hit for Journey fans, who gain intimate access to the band and plenty of opportunities to sing along.
The film starts with Pineda revisiting his elementary school in The Philippines. No one is star struck—in fact, they don’t even know the band Journey—but the rocker humbly takes it all in stride. His humility is the most evident part of his screen presence, no doubt a result of his personal experience. He grew up in poverty and became homeless at 12 when his mother passed away. Pineda sang on the streets for pennies a day. He eventually joined a band in pursuit of a career. After the wild life of a musician, joining various bands and falling into drugs and alcohol, he got sober and joined the band Zoo. The band performed Journey covers, which were often posted on YouTube.
The name Ashley Bell may not spark universal recognition. But horror fans will no doubt remember the poster for 2010′s The Last Exorcism featuring Bell in a back bend.
The 26-year-old actress burst onto the Hollywood scene with her role as the young, innocent Nell Sweetzer, possessed by a demon in the Eli Roth-produced The Last Exorcism. The low-budget-found-footage film earned nearly $70 million worldwide. Bell’s performance garnered her a Best Supporting Female Spirit Award nomination, an MTV Movie Award nomination, and some Oscar buzz—not bad for her first time on screen. The actress will reprise the role in the sequel, The Last Exorcism Part II, which bows on March 1st. She said, “I am a huge horror fan. I love horror movies. And it was the role of a lifetime to get a chance to play Nell in the first movie, and then get a chance to see the continuation of Nell’s story in the second film.”
Already looking to next year’s awards season, The Weinstein Co. has acquired North American rights to Justin Chadwick’s biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, based on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of the same name. The movie, now in post-production, stars Idris Elba as the legendary South African civil rights leader and Naomie Harris (Skyfall) as Mandela’s wife, Winnie.
TWC also snapped up rights to the film in Australia and New Zealand. Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s company announced the deal in tandem with Distant Horizon’s Anant Singh, the film’s producer. Singh began communicating with Mandela when Mandela was still imprisoned by South African authorities, and acquired rights to the autobiography upon its publication in 1996. William Nicholson (Les Miserables) wrote the adapted screenplay.
Mandela, shot in South Africa, started principal photography at the end of May 2012 in KwaZulu-Natal and went on to shoot for 16 weeks in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Mandela’s home province, the Eastern Cape.
The film also features South African stars Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva, Jamie Bartlett, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Deon Lotz and Terry Pheto.
Harvey Weinstein made this statement: “Anant Singh first gave the book to me in 1994, when the first edition came out. We have been talking about making this film since 1999. There have been a number of stop and goes, but sometimes things work out for a reason, and Anant Singh has done a masterful job in producing this epic story of our times. Through Anant and Bob De Niro, I met Nelson Mandela, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.”
