A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)'s Recent Activity - Spout

Film:A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:01:05 GMT

Title: A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)
Year: 2008
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Plot: Abel and Junon had two children, Joseph and Elizabeth. Victim of a rare genetic condition, Joseph's only hope was a bone marrow transplant. As they and Elizabeth were incompatible, his parents conceived a third child in the hope of saving their son. But little Henri too was unable to help his brother, and Joseph died at the age of seven.

The Vuillard family has never recovered. Many years have passed, and family relationships are more strained than ever. In particular, those between Elizabeth, authoritarian head of the family and Henri, a cynical drop out who divides his time between women and drink. After a violent argument, Elizabeth banishes her feckless brother, cutting him off from his nephew, her son Paul - a tortured adolescent beset by serious mental problems.
Times Tagged: 5
Number of Lists: 7
Number of blog posts: 8
SpoutRating: 3

Spout Post: Oscar Predictions: Yours

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:01:05 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 1/19/2009 5:01:05 PM
Body: With a few more days left before the Oscar nominations are revealed, it is time to look at what the non-professionals anticipate will be among those contenders announced Thursday morning. Last Monday, we posted our own predictions for the Academy Award nominees and invited readers to weigh in with their own forecasts. A lot of comments concentrated on what shouldn’t happen, like The Dark Knight shouldn’t be nominated for Best Picture and Dustin Lance Black shouldn’t be nominated for his screenplay for Milk. And apparently The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could be this year’s Dreamgirls. However, there were some interesting trends among the many who chimed in. Check out some highlights after the jump. GRAN TORINO for Best Picture? With a strong wide release, Clint Eastwood’s second film of 2008 has been gaining a lot of Oscar buzz in the last minutes before the nominations are announced. JonathonSaia says it might even make the top category: “I would be hard pressed to believe that Gran Torino will not sneak in the Picture or Direction category. Yes, they will give him an actor nod, but the Academy loves his work. I expect either The Dark Knight or Christopher Nolan to be nominated, but not both. The other will be Gran Torino.” THE WRESTLER for Best Picture? The other strong major category candidate missing from our predictions for Best Picture is The Wrestler, which may indeed be another possibility, yet not an “upset.” Says Paul DeBenedetto: “No real love for the Wrestler in the Best Picture or Best Director categories? It was my favorite movie of the year and I think Aronofsky in particular really knocked it out of the park. It could really step in and ruin both the Dark Knight and Boyle’s evenings. That being said at the very least I don’t think noms in those categories would be an upset.” Nuttylichee agrees that the film will make the top five. Her reasoning: “simple story, a fantastic lead, great direction, better than revolutionary road (dear god, please don’t let revolutionary road get a best picture nod).” ARNAUD DESPLECHIN for Best Director? Anthony88 thinks David Fincher will be snubbed in favor of a foreign filmmaker, specifically the director of Un Conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale): “I know Desplechin is an out there pick but those few who have seen A Christmas Tale will surely agree. It has topped an impressive amount of critics’ lists. There is usually a room for a great film that is ineligible for best Foreign film (Letters From Iwo Jima, Talk To Her, Amélie, Vera Drake, Pan’s Labyrinth, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, City of God, and Cache).” [editor’s note: both Amelie and Pan’s Labyrinth received nods for Best Foreign Film; neither had a nod for Best Director. And Cache got no Academy love at all. But we get and agree with your point, Anthony.] JOSH BROLIN for Best Actor? Brolin’s portrayal of George W. Bush did make my wishlist for the Oscar nominations, but I think he’ll get snubbed in favor of his supporting performance in Milk. Michael disagrees: “Has everyone forgotten about JOSH BROLIN! His performance in W. was fantastic, say what you will about the overall film, he was brilliant and deserves a nod. He was a better Bush, than Langella was as a Nixon.” THE CLASS for Best Adapted Screenplay? Anthony88 really does have an argument for the Academy having a greater love for foreign films in the directing and writing categories. Here he foresees Francois Begaudeau and Laurent Cantet being recognized for adapting Begaudeau’s book: “Being a weak category this year there shouldn’t be any surprises here other than Cantet’s The Class, which is a shoe in to win Best Foreign Film. It should garner enough love to go the extra mile.” TROPIC THUNDER or THE WACKNESS or WALTZ WITH BASHIR for Best Original Screenplay? Another possible surprise upset could come from one or more of the following nominations in the Original Screenplay category: Tropic Thunder (predicted by jeremy); The Wackness (predicted by Aaron); Waltz with Bashir (predicted by Nic). On the latter idea, though, Anthony88 disagrees; yet he acknowledges that it deserves the honor: “Unfortunately, Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir will be dismissed as a documentary screenplay. IT’S STILL A SCREENPLAY!!” Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Karina’s Favorite Films of 2008

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:01:43 GMT

Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 12/17/2008 12:01:43 PM
Body: As I hinted at a bit yesterday when I posted about some of the best undistributed films of the year, I have a love/hate relationship with the idea of movie ranking. The idea that any of us––critic, blogger, professional, amateur…to the extent that any of those words mean anything anymore––could be indisputably “correct” in our individual execution of such an activity is insane; and of course, any attempt to draw each of our subjective takes on The Year in Movies into a consensus waters down everything that makes an individual list idiosyncratic and thus interesting. But in the end, I do believe that what’s valuable about these activities is valuable enough to outweigh what’s annoying: if you read this blog regularly and have come to draw a bead on my tastes in relation to your own, maybe seeing a list of my favorite New York theatrical releases of 2008 will help jog your memory about films you meant to see (or avoid), and now that many of these are available on DVD, maybe you’ll make it happen (or not). My full ballot is posted at indieWIRE now. I chose not to rank the titles from 1-10, but they did reel out of my brain in a particular order, and that has to mean something. Below the jump, my theatrical favorites, with links back to previous coverage, and notes on where/how each film can currently be seen. A Christmas Tale Reviewed on November 11, 2008: “A Christmas Tale reunites [Emanuelle] Devos and [Mathieu] Amalric as an oil and water romantic unit, as if giving their doomed lovers from Kings the last chance that narrative logic wouldn’t previously let them have. Devos is a sideline character in Christmas, but an important one: her unfathomably calm tolerance of Henri’s uncontrollable impulse for destruction is an emblem of Desplechin’s unique humanism.” Where can you see it? It’s currently in limited release, and on IFC On Demand. Synecdoche, NY Reviewed on October 23, 2008: “[It's] about the fear of death, the impossibility of romance in the absence of longing, the instinct to project our desires on to others and to seek answers about ourselves in mirror images. In other words, as theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) says of his own life’s work, ‘It’s about everything.’” Where can you see it? Currently on about 100 screens nationwide, it should be out on DVD in the spring. Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness Reviewed briefly on February 7, 2008: “Laurin Federlein’s highly-improvised, Hi8-sourced, sorta-doc/sorta-musical…is the kind of balls-out, so independent it’s essentially handmade work of art that’s notably missing from festivals like Sundance.” I also discussed it on this episode of FIlmCouch. Where can you see it? Good question. It screened for one week in New York almost a year ago. Now, Netflix has a page for it…which says its DVD release date is unknown. My Winnipeg Reviewed on June 13, 2008: “One could be generous, and praise [Guy] Maddin for effectively tapping into the muddied logic of the small town in endless winter, where physical numbness from the inhuman external elements often leads to a kind of booze-aided intellectual numbness. There, so many frigid anti-socials rock a kind of mutual indifference that, when it gets really bad, borders on inhumane (I’ve never been to Winnipeg, but I did spend three winters in Chicago). One could also recalibrate that as a pejorative: you could just say that Maddin directs like a drunk.” Where can you see it? A UK DVD is already out; Amazon suggests that a US version is on its way. Woman on the Beach I never reviewed Hong Sang Soo’s release, which opened at the very beginning of 2008 after the indieWIRE Critics’ Poll declared it the best undistributed film of 2007. But Manohla Dargis did: “As usual in Mr. Hong’s films, everyone will consume too much alcohol, insults will be exchanged, and confessions will be made. A man and a woman will have fumbling, embarrassed and terribly sad sex, the memory of which will haunt them and the story and probably you. Only the rooms will be shabby, never the sentiment.” Where can you see it? New Yorker will release a new DVD on December 30. Rachel Getting Married Reviewed on October 3, 2008: “[Anne] Hathaway’s vulnerability in this tricky role is stunning, but slyly so: as a viewer you can loathe her presence, as some of the personalities in the film speace seem to, and then with a single cut realize that she’s gone from a scene and not only miss her, but actually, actively worry about where she is and what she’s up to.” See also notes on The Liberal Guilt Thing. Where can you see it? On 150 screens after nearly three months in release, if Hathaway gets her expected Best Actress nomination the release will likely expand. La France Reviewed on July 9, 2008: “It’s a musical with just one song, performed by non-performers in a handful of mutations throughout the film. And it’s a love story, soaked in romantic delusion but ultimately fatalist in regards to the actual odds that love can overcome existential crisis….Is this France––or was it? An empty space on which the lonely and lost draw their own impossibly romantic fantasies, only to wander towards inevitable disappointments with heads and hearts infected by the deceptively simple beauty of pop?” Where can you see it: There is a French DVD. Again, Netflix has a page, but it’s unclear when there will be a US release for them to do something with it. Mister Lonely Reviewed on March 16, 2008: “Making movies just seems to be an extension of [Harmony Korine's] primary goal of slipping in and out of identities, of nailing us before we can nail him. I know this, and yet I throw up my hands and give in to it, because with Mister Lonely, the process and the product seem to fuse. Consider me suckered. Where can I see it? It’s available on DVD. Flight of the Red Balloon I saw Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s dreamy take-off on the children’s short The Red Balloon once in 2007 and once in 2008, but somehow I’ve never written about it. That’s okay, because Andrew O’Hehir has: Where can I see it? It’s on DVD. Encounters at the End of the World I caught Werner Herzog’s travelogue some time after Paul reviewed it at its Telluride premiere, so I didn’t publish my own review, but over the months I’ve become convinced that, in producing a not-very-thinly-veiled work of autobiography about insanity and the human instinct to conquer unknown worlds and make them their own, Herzog has wittingly or not made a companion film to his friend Harmony Korine’s Mister Lonely. More on that theory in 2009, perhaps. Where can I see it? It’s on DVD. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth

Spout Post: Karina’s Favorite Films of 2008

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:01:26 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/17/2008 12:01:26 PM
Body: As I hinted at a bit yesterday when I posted about some of the best undistributed films of the year, I have a love/hate relationship with the idea of movie ranking. The idea that any of us––critic, blogger, professional, amateur…to the extent that any of those words mean anything anymore––could be indisputably “correct” in our individual execution of such an activity is insane; and of course, any attempt to draw each of our subjective takes on The Year in Movies into a consensus waters down everything that makes an individual list idiosyncratic and thus interesting. But in the end, I do believe that what’s valuable about these activities is valuable enough to outweigh what’s annoying: if you read this blog regularly and have come to draw a bead on my tastes in relation to your own, maybe seeing a list of my favorite New York theatrical releases of 2008 will help jog your memory about films you meant to see (or avoid), and now that many of these are available on DVD, maybe you’ll make it happen (or not). My full ballot is posted at indieWIRE now. I chose not to rank the titles from 1-10, but they did reel out of my brain in a particular order, and that has to mean something. Below the jump, my theatrical favorites, with links back to previous coverage, and notes on where/how each film can currently be seen. A Christmas Tale Reviewed on November 11, 2008: “A Christmas Tale reunites [Emanuelle] Devos and [Mathieu] Amalric as an oil and water romantic unit, as if giving their doomed lovers from Kings the last chance that narrative logic wouldn’t previously let them have. Devos is a sideline character in Christmas, but an important one: her unfathomably calm tolerance of Henri’s uncontrollable impulse for destruction is an emblem of Desplechin’s unique humanism.” Where can you see it? It’s currently in limited release, and on IFC On Demand. Synecdoche, NY Reviewed on October 23, 2008: “[It's] about the fear of death, the impossibility of romance in the absence of longing, the instinct to project our desires on to others and to seek answers about ourselves in mirror images. In other words, as theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) says of his own life’s work, ‘It’s about everything.’” Where can you see it? Currently on about 100 screens nationwide, it should be out on DVD in the spring. Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness Reviewed briefly on February 7, 2008: “Laurin Federlein’s highly-improvised, Hi8-sourced, sorta-doc/sorta-musical…is the kind of balls-out, so independent it’s essentially handmade work of art that’s notably missing from festivals like Sundance.” I also discussed it on this episode of FIlmCouch. Where can you see it? Good question. It screened for one week in New York almost a year ago. Now, Netflix has a page for it…which says its DVD release date is unknown. My Winnipeg Reviewed on June 13, 2008: “One could be generous, and praise [Guy] Maddin for effectively tapping into the muddied logic of the small town in endless winter, where physical numbness from the inhuman external elements often leads to a kind of booze-aided intellectual numbness. There, so many frigid anti-socials rock a kind of mutual indifference that, when it gets really bad, borders on inhumane (I’ve never been to Winnipeg, but I did spend three winters in Chicago). One could also recalibrate that as a pejorative: you could just say that Maddin directs like a drunk.” Where can you see it? A UK DVD is already out; Amazon suggests that a US version is on its way. Woman on the Beach I never reviewed Hong Sang Soo’s release, which opened at the very beginning of 2008 after the indieWIRE Critics’ Poll declared it the best undistributed film of 2007. But Manohla Dargis did: “As usual in Mr. Hong’s films, everyone will consume too much alcohol, insults will be exchanged, and confessions will be made. A man and a woman will have fumbling, embarrassed and terribly sad sex, the memory of which will haunt them and the story and probably you. Only the rooms will be shabby, never the sentiment.” Where can you see it? New Yorker will release a new DVD on December 30. Rachel Getting Married Reviewed on October 3, 2008: “[Anne] Hathaway’s vulnerability in this tricky role is stunning, but slyly so: as a viewer you can loathe her presence, as some of the personalities in the film speace seem to, and then with a single cut realize that she’s gone from a scene and not only miss her, but actually, actively worry about where she is and what she’s up to.” See also notes on The Liberal Guilt Thing. Where can you see it? On 150 screens after nearly three months in release, if Hathaway gets her expected Best Actress nomination the release will likely expand. La France Reviewed on July 9, 2008: “It’s a musical with just one song, performed by non-performers in a handful of mutations throughout the film. And it’s a love story, soaked in romantic delusion but ultimately fatalist in regards to the actual odds that love can overcome existential crisis….Is this France––or was it? An empty space on which the lonely and lost draw their own impossibly romantic fantasies, only to wander towards inevitable disappointments with heads and hearts infected by the deceptively simple beauty of pop?” Where can you see it: There is a French DVD. Again, Netflix has a page, but it’s unclear when there will be a US release for them to do something with it. Mister Lonely Reviewed on March 16, 2008: “Making movies just seems to be an extension of [Harmony Korine's] primary goal of slipping in and out of identities, of nailing us before we can nail him. I know this, and yet I throw up my hands and give in to it, because with Mister Lonely, the process and the product seem to fuse. Consider me suckered. Where can I see it? It’s available on DVD. Flight of the Red Balloon I saw Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s dreamy take-off on the children’s short The Red Balloon once in 2007 and once in 2008, but somehow I’ve never written about it. That’s okay, because Andrew O’Hehir has: Where can I see it? It’s on DVD. Encounters at the End of the World I caught Werner Herzog’s travelogue some time after Paul reviewed it at its Telluride premiere, so I didn’t publish my own review, but over the months I’ve become convinced that, in producing a not-very-thinly-veiled work of autobiography about insanity and the human instinct to conquer unknown worlds and make them their own, Herzog has wittingly or not made a companion film to his friend Harmony Korine’s Mister Lonely. More on that theory in 2009, perhaps. Where can I see it? It’s on DVD. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Enhanced trailers and so much more

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:00:52 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/4/2008 1:00:52 PM
Body: Last week our Design team put in place a significant upgrade to Spout.com’s Trailers home page. The upgrade brings in a ton of additional content for each movie (when available, of course) that significantly expands each movie’s video footprint on the site. If you look at the trailers tab for A Christmas Tale you’ll see an example of what the upgrade looks like in its simplest form. The movie only has one trailer, which is shown right there with options on viewing quality to choose from below the screenshot. But then something like Quantum of Solace, you’ll see, has listed a bevy of behind the scenes featurettes and clips from the film in addition to the trailer. You could stick around there for quite a while if you were looking to get your Bond fix for the day. All of these enhancements - both in terms of quanity and quality of video content - are meant to make the user experience here on Spout that much better. Hope you enjoy. –Chris Thilk, Director of Marketing. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Porno, Dungeon, Paris: 10 Toronto Films We’re Betting On

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:01:36 GMT

Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 9/4/2008 12:01:36 PM
Body: The 2008 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival begins today, and Kevin Kelly and I will be there for the next ten days reporting back. What follows is not exactly an iron-clad preview of our Toronto coverage––in addition to some of the films below, I’m definitely planning to see new works by Claire Denis, Agnes Varda, Jonathan Demme and Richard Linklater, and would of course recommend that anyone on the ground see some of my favorites from past festivals, including Medicine for Melancholy and A Christmas Tale. This is more of a list of predictions of what everyone else is going to be talking about, while I’m pushing my glasses up my nose and rushing to to the next screening of the a South Korean movie about drunken lonliness. Enjoy! If you have your own predictions for what will catch fire in Ontario, let us know in the comments. 1. Zach and Miri Make a Porno (TIFF screening info) Obviously, anything with “porno” in the title has a certain automatic contingent (hello, Google searchers! Sorry to disappoint!) But then, so does anything with the credit “written and directed by Kevin Smith.” And then there’s the leading man. Some perspective: Smith’s last three films have grossed an average of $26 million each; the last three films starring Seth Rogen have grossed an average of $117 million each. With Jay and Silent Bob finally retired (we think/hope), and Rogen in tow for the usual, MPAA-baiting Smithism, Porno could––however ironically––become what Jersey Girl was supposed to be: the tipping point that expands the Smith fan base beyond the longtime Clerks faithful. 2. Slumdog Millionaire (TIFF screening info) Crowdpleasers make me itch. But then, to borrow a line from David Fincher, I’m an asshole. Assuming you are not, you might be interested to know that Slumdog Millionaire shows all the symptoms of becoming The Next Juno. Like Juno, Slumdog premiered in a TBA slot at Telluride, where reaction from all but our own Kevin Buist was enthusiastic, even hyperbolically so. Also ike Juno, it’s a music-fueled piece of pop art in which young love results from unlikely circumstances. And, thanks to Warner Brothers’ loss of faith in this tier of the distribution market, it’s now being distributed by Fox Searchlight––just like Juno. If looking for The Next Juno is now part of our jobs, at least Searchlight is taking all the arduous work out of it. 3. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (TIFF screening info) Speaking of two devils…Michael Cera, of course, had a pretty great 2007 as an associate of both Judd Apatow and Diablo Cody, and I think at this point, he’s star enough to guarantee some festival buzz on his own. But even more interesting is his paring in Nick and Norah with Kat Dennings, the actress who played Catherine Keener’s daughter in the 40 Year-Old Virgin, who is quickly becoming a target of fan worship on YouTube. In a video called Kat Dennings sexiest woman alive, YouTube user concedes that inkamagonkhpjacki Dennings might actually be second to Angelina Jolie, which is fitting; like the young Jolie, Dennings is a little busty, a little reckless-looking, maybe even a little goth, but––and this is *not* like the sometime Gia impersonator––at the same time kind of goofy and totally unintimidating. In the most recent video on her own YouTube channel, she puts a blanket on her head, wraps stuffed animals around her shoulders like a fur stole, then grabs a guitar and shrugs: “I don’t know, I like reading.” More, please. Also: I’m pretending like the character names (based on a book of the same name) are a Thin Man reference. 4. The Dungeon Masters (TIFF screening info) The pedigree: Director Keven McAlester, whose last film was the festival hit Roky Erickson doc, You’re Gonna Miss Me; and Lee Daniel, the cinematographer of Miss Me as well as much of Richard Linklater’s filmography. The hook: a year-long glimpse into the lives of three adults who are really into Dungeons and Dragons. The verdict: irresistible bait for both indie film nerds and nerd nerds, and, if McAlester’s previous work is any indication, likely more probing and sensitive a portrait than the logline might at first glance indicate. 5. Pedro (TIFF screening info) Produced by Wash Westmoreland (whose Quincinera won the grand prize at Sundance in 2006), Nick Oceano’s first feature is an examination of the birth of reality TV as factory for both new celebrities and cultural attitudes, via the life and early death of Pedro Zamora, AIDS activist and cast member of the Real World San Francisco, The Movie. Which sounds very important, as does the fact that this is (I believe) the first fictional film that will ostensibly reenact moments from reality TV. But we’ll excuse you if you read the above and thought only, “OMG, Puck! OMG, the peanut butter fight!!!” 6. Religulous (TIFF screening info) Why anyone takes Bill Maher’s Borscht Belt-to-Venice Beach schtick seriously I don’t know (I suspect that if he didn’t have a Bush Jr to play off, his primary cause would be Legalizing It), but Religulous hardly needs to convert me, or anyone else. In a year in which Ben Stein’s Expelled has become the top grossing non-fiction film––beating Martin Scorsese and the Stones––by playing in non-traditional venues and appealing strictly to an audience already in its “give intelligent design a chance” wheelhouse, and in which a Republican presidential candidate picks a running mate whose conservative social politics seem like bait for the neo-conservative party wing said presidential candidate used to claim he wasn’t beholden to, it seems clear that faith is the sleeper issue of the day. I may take issue with his cringey jokes, but I still see no reason to underestimate the impact Maher and his Religulous director/savvier comic provacateur Larry Charles will have on the large portion of the typical film festival audience with which their choir overlaps. 7. Valentino: The Last Emperor (TIFF screening info) Reviews out of Venice grumbled about a lack of depth in Valentino’s setting but offered praise for the poignancy of the characters. For those of us who have been longing for a fully-realized epic fashion doc since Unzipped––or, a semi-serious, semi-guilty pleasure celebrity doc full of cheap but completely satisfying La Dolce Vita references since Truth or Dare––Valentino, directed by Vanity Fair reporter Matt Tyrnauer, shouldn’t disappoint. 8. Che (TIFF screening info) Steven Soderbergh’s troubled epic might have placed higher on the list had its once-dire distribution situation not recently began to look up, but it’s still by all means impossible to argue against its status as a must-see. Che will have one screening in Toronto in its 262 minute incarnation; Parts 1 and 2 will then screen twice on their own. Just having the ability to Choose Your Che should cause a certain amount of chatter. I’m imagining (and sort of fearing) the arguments from Che completists over The Right Way To See It as we speak. 9. The Hurt Locker (TIFF screening info) One of a number of films at TIFF dealing with soldiers either in, just returned from, or on their way to Iraq (see also 3 Blind Mice, Lucky Ones). The Hurt Locker has an obvious advantage within a micro-genre of films that have tended to fall pretty flat with both audiences and critics: it’s essentially a big-budget action thriller. And it’s directed by Kathryn Bigelow of Strange Days and Point Break fame, so it’s got a good chance of putting action above ideology without being totally brainless. 10. Paris, Not France (TIFF Screening info) As Charles Aaron used to say, I give. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth

Spout Post: Porno, Dungeon, Paris: 10 Toronto Films We’re Betting On

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:01:21 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 9/4/2008 12:01:21 PM
Body: The 2008 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival begins today, and Kevin Kelly and I will be there for the next ten days reporting back. What follows is not exactly an iron-clad preview of our Toronto coverage––in addition to some of the films below, I’m definitely planning to see new works by Claire Denis, Agnes Varda, Jonathan Demme and Richard Linklater, and would of course recommend that anyone on the ground see some of my favorites from past festivals, including Medicine for Melancholy and A Christmas Tale. This is more of a list of predictions of what everyone else is going to be talking about, while I’m pushing my glasses up my nose and rushing to to the next screening of the a South Korean movie about drunken lonliness. Enjoy! If you have your own predictions for what will catch fire in Ontario, let us know in the comments. 1. Zach and Miri Make a Porno (TIFF screening info) Obviously, anything with “porno” in the title has a certain automatic contingent (hello, Google searchers! Sorry to disappoint!) But then, so does anything with the credit “written and directed by Kevin Smith.” And then there’s the leading man. Some perspective: Smith’s last three films have grossed an average of $26 million each; the last three films starring Seth Rogen have grossed an average of $117 million each. With Jay and Silent Bob finally retired (we think/hope), and Rogen in tow for the usual, MPAA-baiting Smithism, Porno could––however ironically––become what Jersey Girl was supposed to be: the tipping point that expands the Smith fan base beyond the longtime Clerks faithful. 2. Slumdog Millionaire (TIFF screening info) Crowdpleasers make me itch. But then, to borrow a line from David Fincher, I’m an asshole. Assuming you are not, you might be interested to know that Slumdog Millionaire shows all the symptoms of becoming The Next Juno. Like Juno, Slumdog premiered in a TBA slot at Telluride, where reaction from all but our own Kevin Buist was enthusiastic, even hyperbolically so. Also ike Juno, it’s a music-fueled piece of pop art in which young love results from unlikely circumstances. And, thanks to Warner Brothers’ loss of faith in this tier of the distribution market, it’s now being distributed by Fox Searchlight––just like Juno. If looking for The Next Juno is now part of our jobs, at least Searchlight is taking all the arduous work out of it. 3. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (TIFF screening info) Speaking of two devils…Michael Cera, of course, had a pretty great 2007 as an associate of both Judd Apatow and Diablo Cody, and I think at this point, he’s star enough to guarantee some festival buzz on his own. But even more interesting is his paring in Nick and Norah with Kat Dennings, the actress who played Catherine Keener’s daughter in the 40 Year-Old Virgin, who is quickly becoming a target of fan worship on YouTube. In a video called Kat Dennings sexiest woman alive, YouTube user concedes that inkamagonkhpjacki Dennings might actually be second to Angelina Jolie, which is fitting; like the young Jolie, Dennings is a little busty, a little reckless-looking, maybe even a little goth, but––and this is *not* like the sometime Gia impersonator––at the same time kind of goofy and totally unintimidating. In the most recent video on her own YouTube channel, she puts a blanket on her head, wraps stuffed animals around her shoulders like a fur stole, then grabs a guitar and shrugs: “I don’t know, I like reading.” More, please. Also: I’m pretending like the character names (based on a book of the same name) are a Thin Man reference. 4. The Dungeon Masters (TIFF screening info) The pedigree: Director Keven McAlester, whose last film was the festival hit Roky Erickson doc, You’re Gonna Miss Me; and Lee Daniel, the cinematographer of Miss Me as well as much of Richard Linklater’s filmography. The hook: a year-long glimpse into the lives of three adults who are really into Dungeons and Dragons. The verdict: irresistible bait for both indie film nerds and nerd nerds, and, if McAlester’s previous work is any indication, likely more probing and sensitive a portrait than the logline might at first glance indicate. 5. Pedro (TIFF screening info) Produced by Wash Westmoreland (whose Quincinera won the grand prize at Sundance in 2006), Nick Oceano’s first feature is an examination of the birth of reality TV as factory for both new celebrities and cultural attitudes, via the life and early death of Pedro Zamora, AIDS activist and cast member of the Real World San Francisco, The Movie. Which sounds very important, as does the fact that this is (I believe) the first fictional film that will ostensibly reenact moments from reality TV. But we’ll excuse you if you read the above and thought only, “OMG, Puck! OMG, the peanut butter fight!!!” 6. Religulous (TIFF screening info) Why anyone takes Bill Maher’s Borscht Belt-to-Venice Beach schtick seriously I don’t know (I suspect that if he didn’t have a Bush Jr to play off, his primary cause would be Legalizing It), but Religulous hardly needs to convert me, or anyone else. In a year in which Ben Stein’s Expelled has become the top grossing non-fiction film––beating Martin Scorsese and the Stones––by playing in non-traditional venues and appealing strictly to an audience already in its “give intelligent design a chance” wheelhouse, and in which a Republican presidential candidate picks a running mate whose conservative social politics seem like bait for the neo-conservative party wing said presidential candidate used to claim he wasn’t beholden to, it seems clear that faith is the sleeper issue of the day. I may take issue with his cringey jokes, but I still see no reason to underestimate the impact Maher and his Religulous director/savvier comic provacateur Larry Charles will have on the large portion of the typical film festival audience with which their choir overlaps. 7. Valentino: The Last Emperor (TIFF screening info) Reviews out of Venice grumbled about a lack of depth in Valentino’s setting but offered praise for the poignancy of the characters. For those of us who have been longing for a fully-realized epic fashion doc since Unzipped––or, a semi-serious, semi-guilty pleasure celebrity doc full of cheap but completely satisfying La Dolce Vita references since Truth or Dare––Valentino, directed by Vanity Fair reporter Matt Tyrnauer, shouldn’t disappoint. 8. Che (TIFF screening info) Steven Soderbergh’s troubled epic might have placed higher on the list had its once-dire distribution situation not recently began to look up, but it’s still by all means impossible to argue against its status as a must-see. Che will have one screening in Toronto in its 262 minute incarnation; Parts 1 and 2 will then screen twice on their own. Just having the ability to Choose Your Che should cause a certain amount of chatter. I’m imagining (and sort of fearing) the arguments from Che completists over The Right Way To See It as we speak. 9. The Hurt Locker (TIFF screening info) One of a number of films at TIFF dealing with soldiers either in, just returned from, or on their way to Iraq (see also 3 Blind Mice, Lucky Ones). The Hurt Locker has an obvious advantage within a micro-genre of films that have tended to fall pretty flat with both audiences and critics: it’s essentially a big-budget action thriller. And it’s directed by Kathryn Bigelow of Strange Days and Point Break fame, so it’s got a good chance of putting action above ideology without being totally brainless. 10. Paris, Not France (TIFF Screening info) As Charles Aaron used to say, I give. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Cannes: Two Lovers

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:01:23 GMT

Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 5/21/2008 9:01:23 AM
Body: I don’t entirely buy James Grey’s Two Lovers, and typing this having just walked out of the far superior Un Conte De Noel, I feel strange even praising it. I freely admit that even as certain elements are effectively thrilling in their depiction of tortured passion, it’s all put to the service of a narrative that is occasionally offensive in its total lack of surprise. But, but, but: after dozing on and off for the film’s first twenty or thirty minutes, I awoke to see Joaquin Phoenix breakdancing his way into the arms of Gwyneth Paltrow, and for whatever reason, from that point on I was sort of into it. About an hour later I became totally sucked in, when that moment of dance floor silliness met its dissonant counterpoint with a second, far more desperate scene of Phoenix dancing his way into Paltrow’s arms. It’ll be too little too late for some, but in its final third, Two Lovers becomes an extremely strong parable about the madness of romantic love, and maybe even its impossibility. That scene…it looks like a classic romantic high, until you realize that there’s almost no color on the screen beyond the white-gold wisps of Paltrow’s windblown hair dusting the frame. It hits you that the characters think that what they’re doing is going to save them both when in fact (and maybe this is where the generic story arc becomes a bonus), we know it’s only going to make everything worse. It’s bleak. It’s beautiful. Two Lovers is implicitly concerned (and this should be familiar to most New Yorkers) with the way romantic relationships give us an opportunity to slide back and forth across class lines. Both Paltrow and Phoenix play adults who allow older men to pay their rent. For Paltrow, it’s a stock slimeball married guy who keeps her, a well-bred bad girl, stashed in an apartment in The Old Neighborhood––part easy alibi (his mama lives nearby), part obvious fetishistic class regression/emotional slumming (his mama lives near by). In Phoenix’s case, the older man is his father, an Israeli-born dry cleaner who wants to ensure his own comfortable retirement by making sure his wannabe photographer son hooks up with the daughter of a business partner. Too bad Phoenix is constantly running off to answer text messages from Paltrow, whose bought-and-paid-for pad is visible from Phoenix’s childhood window. Leonard begins relationships with both women simultaneously, and much of the film is devoted to the ways in which he immerses himself in the pleasures offered by one to ameliorate the disappointments of the other. The dry cleaner’s daughter (Vinessa Shaw) says she wants to “take care” of Phoenix, but she probably shouldn’t––at worst creepily unstable and at best just something of a bore, he’s a 30 year-old boy who has moved back in with the ‘rents after a failed engagement and at least one suicide attempt. In turn, Paltrow (more impressive than she has been in years cast against type as a roiling ball of need) exploits Leonard’s proximity (emotional, physical) as a salve for the constant pain wrought by her married boyfriend’s distance. The film’s tone can be fatally contradictory, and it’s hard to say whether Grey thinks that his obviously troubled protagonist’s ability to seduce two gorgeous women (and, most problematically, that he stuns both ladies into a state of love via swift administration of his dick) makes for comedy or tragedy. It doesn’t help that Phoenix himself, starting at the moment of seduction and carrying through to the end of each scene, seems like he’s playing a completely different person. A comment on the transformative nature of sexual attraction, or inconsistent filmmaking? I can’t decide, but ultimately, I didn’t mind. In the film’s second to last shot, Phoenix locks a single, tortured eye on the camera from behind the embrace of the woman who he’s just, by default, given a diamond ring. It’s a single shot that undercuts any possibility that this apparent traditional romantic happy ending is in fact what it seems. It would be difficult to look at that image and still believe that anyone in this movie has actually been in “real” love since they stepped on screen, to not feel a cynical, momentary jolt that romantic love itself is never really more than a collision of circumstance and impulse, a way of taking care of a need via the most readily available means. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but that’s not to say it doesn’t bear repeating. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth

Spout Post: Cannes: Two Lovers

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:01:12 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 5/21/2008 9:01:12 AM
Body: I don’t entirely buy James Grey’s Two Lovers, and typing this having just walked out of the far superior Un Conte De Noel, I feel strange even praising it. I freely admit that even as certain elements are effectively thrilling in their depiction of tortured passion, it’s all put to the service of a narrative that is occasionally offensive in its total lack of surprise. But, but, but: after dozing on and off for the film’s first twenty or thirty minutes, I awoke to see Joaquin Phoenix breakdancing his way into the arms of Gwyneth Paltrow, and for whatever reason, from that point on I was sort of into it. About an hour later I became totally sucked in, when that moment of dance floor silliness met its dissonant counterpoint with a second, far more desperate scene of Phoenix dancing his way into Paltrow’s arms. It’ll be too little too late for some, but in its final third, Two Lovers becomes an extremely strong parable about the madness of romantic love, and maybe even its impossibility. That scene…it looks like a classic romantic high, until you realize that there’s almost no color on the screen beyond the white-gold wisps of Paltrow’s windblown hair dusting the frame. It hits you that the characters think that what they’re doing is going to save them both when in fact (and maybe this is where the generic story arc becomes a bonus), we know it’s only going to make everything worse. It’s bleak. It’s beautiful. Two Lovers is implicitly concerned (and this should be familiar to most New Yorkers) with the way romantic relationships give us an opportunity to slide back and forth across class lines. Both Paltrow and Phoenix play adults who allow older men to pay their rent. For Paltrow, it’s a stock slimeball married guy who keeps her, a well-bred bad girl, stashed in an apartment in The Old Neighborhood––part easy alibi (his mama lives nearby), part obvious fetishistic class regression/emotional slumming (his mama lives near by). In Phoenix’s case, the older man is his father, an Israeli-born dry cleaner who wants to ensure his own comfortable retirement by making sure his wannabe photographer son hooks up with the daughter of a business partner. Too bad Phoenix is constantly running off to answer text messages from Paltrow, whose bought-and-paid-for pad is visible from Phoenix’s childhood window. Leonard begins relationships with both women simultaneously, and much of the film is devoted to the ways in which he immerses himself in the pleasures offered by one to ameliorate the disappointments of the other. The dry cleaner’s daughter (Vinessa Shaw) says she wants to “take care” of Phoenix, but she probably shouldn’t––at worst creepily unstable and at best just something of a bore, he’s a 30 year-old boy who has moved back in with the ‘rents after a failed engagement and at least one suicide attempt. In turn, Paltrow (more impressive than she has been in years cast against type as a roiling ball of need) exploits Leonard’s proximity (emotional, physical) as a salve for the constant pain wrought by her married boyfriend’s distance. The film’s tone can be fatally contradictory, and it’s hard to say whether Grey thinks that his obviously troubled protagonist’s ability to seduce two gorgeous women (and, most problematically, that he stuns both ladies into a state of love via swift administration of his dick) makes for comedy or tragedy. It doesn’t help that Phoenix himself, starting at the moment of seduction and carrying through to the end of each scene, seems like he’s playing a completely different person. A comment on the transformative nature of sexual attraction, or inconsistent filmmaking? I can’t decide, but ultimately, I didn’t mind. In the film’s second to last shot, Phoenix locks a single, tortured eye on the camera from behind the embrace of the woman who he’s just, by default, given a diamond ring. It’s a single shot that undercuts any possibility that this apparent traditional romantic happy ending is in fact what it seems. It would be difficult to look at that image and still believe that anyone in this movie has actually been in “real” love since they stepped on screen, to not feel a cynical, momentary jolt that romantic love itself is never really more than a collision of circumstance and impulse, a way of taking care of a need via the most readily available means. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but that’s not to say it doesn’t bear repeating. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Tag:family

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:39:08 GMT

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