Sam’s Top Ten of the Year
You can listen to us discussing these films at length on the podcast on the show, but please do check out the list below for perpetuity. Sam’s list is annotated and included below, Tom’s is not annotated and its right here. This just means you will have to check out the podcast to hear Tom’s viewpoints. So check out Sam’s choices after the jump, along with a few choice thoughts and honourable mentions. Enjoy!
Why 3D Isn’t Needed, Briefly
Writing for The Guardian in the past week, Dave Eggers ran down the movies of his life and provides some information on how they fit into his make-up. It caught my attention partly owing to our recent autobiographical season on the podcast but also because of one small comment he makes which seems so beautifully to illustrate why I have such an aversion to 3D movie-making.
Talking about Days of Heaven, the elegiac and drop-jaw beautiful Terence Malick film, Eggers writes that Malick’s films ‘are 3D without being actually 3D, if that makes any sense’. That is such a great way of describing why 3D is completely pointless to the artistic process. Not everyone in the world can be Terence Malick, but great films do tend to have a sense of place and time, a texture to them in the way they are film, the juxtaposition of lighting, sound, performance and style. Putting a film into 3 dimensions seems pointless if you have the ability and understanding of how important it is to put films into their spatial context.
Just think about the great films you have seen and how they transport you to a place and time, then consider why on earth any of them would need to be shorn of that extra modicum of imagination.
Edinburgh Film Festival Line-Up Announced
The line-up for the Edinburgh International Film Festival has been announced with a few reasonably big hitters to join in the fun, including Steven Soderbergh and the world premiere of Shane Meadows’ new film, Le Donk.
The latter, which stars Paddy Considine, with whom Meadows worked on Dead Man’s Shoes, is being heavily anticipated given the reuniting of the two and the brilliance of Meadows’ last two films, This is England and Somers Town.
Soderbergh will come to show The Girlfriend Experience, starring adult film star Sasha Grey, while Sam Mendes will also make an appearance to open the festival with Away We Go.
Mendes’ film comes from a script by Dave Eggers and The Believer-founder Vendela Vida and follows the travails of newly-pregnant couple John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph.
The festival is to be closed by Adam, a romantic drama from Max Meyer following the burgeoning relationship between a man with asberger’s syndrome and a young lady, the latter played by Damages’ Rose Byrne.
Other notables include Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, Duncan Jones’ Moon, Vincent Cassell in Mesrine and Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna in Rudo y Cursi.
The announcements also notes some interesting in-depth interviews to take place, including ones with Darren Aronofsky, Joe Dante and Local Hero-director Bill Forsyth.
The Anti-Hipster Issue
A recent post on Screener. Movie Stuff raises some very interesting issues as regards the treatment of so-called ‘hipster’ stylistic values in cinema. It’s sparked by the reviews to have been put forward for the Where the Wild Things Are trailer, noting reviews which seems to identify the two key creative protagonists behind the adaptation, director Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers, as ‘hipster kings’.
This kind of criticism, and the wider snarking over the use of so-called indie hallmarks (animated title sequences, specifically independent musical soundtrack etc.), does seem to serve to place independent cinema of this kind into a separate negative category of filmmaking, that of ‘hipster movies’ which are made to appeal to the better-than-thou intellectual pretensions of this stereotyped crowd. In doing so, they identify the film within an exclusive sub-genre which is unlikely to appeal to anyone outside of the New York crowd and often damage the sentiment towards the films before they even come out. It’s something which is spreading into popular journalistic circles, having previously been the surfeit of the populist cinema sector in the dubbing of movements like ‘mumblecore’.
I understand the need for critics to take on issues they feel strongly on, but damaging the reputation of a movie through a reactionary critique based entirely on face style and a two-dimensional viewpoint seems to negate the place of critics entirely. Screener argues quite rightly that, especially with Where the Wild Things Are, you have two legitimately talented people behind the project, making what appears a beautiful adaptation of a beloved children’s book.
I would add, in minor defence of those not fond of the trailer, that maybe they are in love dearly with the book and feel a fanboy-like reaction to any even minor criticisms. A work like Maurice Sendak’s will inspire devotion and will be envisaged in different ways by film critics and commentators around the world. To me, it looks inspired. To others, it may well look all wrong. No arguing with opinion, folks.
Where The Wild Things Are Trailer
The first full trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, the live-action adaptation of the popular children’s book by Maurice Sendak, has been premiered at the end of the Ellen Degeneres show. The trailer is now online and you can check it out here.
The film follows the story of Max, a young boy who is punished by his parents for ‘making mischief’ and set to bed without supper. Max when escapes into a fantasy world where he wears a wolf suit and encounters a number of magical, mystical creatures.
It also marks the return of Spike Jonze to the directing business seven years after the brilliant Adapatation. Additionally, it’s the first of two screenplay credits in this year for Dave Eggers, the precocious author and founder of McSweeney’s. His other will be the Sam Mendes-directed Away we Go, about a young couple who embark upon an expedition around the US to try and find the perfect place to start a family.
Away We Go will be coming out first, you can check out the trailer here, but Where the Wild Things Are, following numerous delays and production difficulties, is easily the most anticipated and, from the looks of the trailer, could be something quite special indeed.
New Images from Where The Wild Things Are
You can check out some more of the new images over at USA Today, but until then, just bathe in how wonderful this film looks like it may be.
Trailer for Away We Go
The trailer has arrived for Away We Go, the new film from Sam Mendes starring The Office’s John Krasinksi and Maya Rudolph, incidentally, not of the Office. It follows a young married couple, played by the aforementioned, who travel around the US seeking a place to raise their first-born prior to its birth. On the journey, the two encounter their respective, likely eccentric but overally loving families It’s written by the genius Dave Eggers alongside Vendela Vida.
Its looks pretty interesting and any Mendes project should evoke at least some excitement. Yes, Revolutionary Road was oppressively depressing, but he still drew some good performances out of his cast and maybe could do the same with Krasinski, a man filled with man-crushability who has yet to really step out of the shadow of adoreableness his hangdog expression encapsulates. Check it out below.
Where the Wild Things Are Stuff
Where the Wild Things are has both a poster and trailer bating the online world. At present, this intriguing work, directed by Spike Jonze, written by Dave Eggers and based on the classic children’s book by Maurice Sendak, is coming out by the end of the year, meaning it is currently my most anticipated movie for this year.
The poster, which looks pretty cool and is above you, is courtesy of one of our newest Twitter buddies, Empire Movies. The trailer, scheduled to be shown ahead of Monsters vs Aliens at the end of March, will surely be online with a ridiculously short amount of time and will come immediately from us to your eyes.
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