A lot has been made of Shame, the controversial second film—or rather, the second controversial film—from British filmmaker Steve McQueen, way before its release.
A journey into the life of a sex addict named Brandon, played by Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, 2009) who came to fame in McQueen’s award-winning first feature Hunger (2008), we were told to imagine uninhibited scenes of sex and masturbation, the graphicness of which is odious depending on your sensibilities (more on that later). On another front, there was some concern that the only woman Brandon tries to have an actual relationship with is African-American (Nicole Beharie, The Express, 2008), as black audiences don’t want to see her get “turned out” (for lack of a less pejorative term) or for Brandon to find his soul in between a black woman’s legs, as happens pretty often in cinema (more on this later, as well).
The Descendants is the latest quirky comedy from writer/director Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt). It is based upon the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, which finds Matt King, a white descendant of Hawaiian royalty, dealing with several life-defining scenarios, including his family’s inheritance of Hawaii’s most valuable land; his wife’s coma-inducing boating accident; and the fact that he doesn’t really know—and therefore, cannot handle—his children. His life is further complicated once he learns that his wife was having an affair at the time of her accident, which drives him to embark on an impulse-driven journey to find his wife’s lover, and possibly closure. George Clooney plays King in this coming-of-middle-age comedy that touches on the true meaning of family.
Martha Marcy May Marlene is a psychological thriller about a young woman’s reintegration with society after escaping a farm-based commune with cult tendencies. Martha, who is renamed Marcy May by the cult in a common indoctrination tactic, escapes the commune physically, but is trapped mentally and emotionally by the cult’s brainwashing. Throughout the story, Martha’s past haunts her present and loosens her hold on reality.
Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when “Marvel’s The Avengers” assemble in summer 2012.
Expect audience reactions to the film Drive to be wildly polarized. From the advertisements and marketing, viewers are probably expecting to see the new Ryan Gosling actioner as a slightly repackaged, art-house reworking of The Transporter (2002). However, when I saw the movie recently, the audience was clearly (and in some cases, loudly) baffled, laughing at odd moments while shifting uncomfortably during others. Indeed, the film is set to confound expectations, for Drive is a fever-dream neo-noir film masquerading as cheap, commercial multiplex fodder. It is a mysterious, subversive work of art, veering close to the edge of self parody while also playing its material in ardent sincerity. With this essay, I want to explore Nicolas Winding Refn’s new film Drive as a metatextual exercise, and as such, will reveal spoilers along the way.
Drive is a highly stylized pulp noir action-drama from acclaimed Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising, 2009). Ryan Gosling plays Driver, an inscrutable loner who is a stunt driver for Hollywood by day and the wheel man for armed heists by night. He instantly falls in love with his neighbor Irene, played by Carey Mulligan, and soon becomes part of her son Benito’s life. When Driver learns that Irene’s ex-con husband Standard, played by Oscar Isaac (Robin Hood, 2010), will soon return home from prison to reunite their family, Driver is willing to step aside. Unfortunately, Standard’s past follows him home and Driver agrees to drive for one last job to settle Standard’s debt. Nothing is what it seems, and Driver sets on a course to keep Irene and Benito safe at all costs.
Once I’m sitting down in front of that big screen (or even small screen), I tend to forget what I’ve read or seen about a movie. It’s like clockwork. I forget the trailers, the commercials, the music, and sometimes aside from the big stars and directors, who’s even supposed to be in it. I just let it wash over me. All that said, when watching Restless I couldn’t help but compare newcomer Henry Hopper’s character to the film’s director Gus Van Sant.
See, Hopper plays Enoch Brae, a young man who has dropped out of the business of living by crashing funerals and hanging out in cemeteries after a car accident claimed the life of his parents. It’s at one of these funerals where he meets Annabel Cotton, a lively and charming naturalist with an affinity for Charles Darwin and a deep love for the world despite having terminal cancer, played by the delightful Mia Wasikowska (more on her in a minute), and they develop a unique and quick personal bond, despite their worlds crashing in on them.
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!
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.
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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.
Warrior is poised to do for mixed martial arts (MMA) what The Karate Kid did for local karate gyms everywhere. After 14 years apart, estranged brothers Tommy’s and Brendan’s paths collide in a once-in-a-lifetime MMA event.
Tom Hardy (Inception) plays Tommy, an ex-Marine who escaped his abusive, alcoholic father, played by two-time Oscar nominee Nick Nolte, with his mother. Fourteen years later, he returns to Pittsburgh—without warning—and enlists his father to train him for the largest MMA event in history, Sparta, which holds a $5 million purse. Tom Edgerton (Animal Kingdom) is Brendan, an ex-fighter-turned-school teacher and father of two who is hit hard in the economic downturn. He returns to fighting for extra cash and sees Sparta as the long shot that could change his life.
In his short films, director Rashaad Ernesto Green was never reluctant to tell difficult stories, and his first feature film pushes that personal aesthetic of his even more.
In Gun Hill Road, Green tells the story a family in transition — in more ways than one. Esai Morales plays Enrique Rodriguez, who unceremoniously returns home from his latest three-year stint in prison to find not only his wife rejecting his attempts to reassert himself as head of the household, but a son about whom something seems seriously off. Not helping is a deep secret that Enrique is living with that constantly consumes his thoughts, but he chooses to focus on re-forging his relationship with his wife and son.
