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Telluride 2008 line-up reactions

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Under discussion:

Zodiac (2007)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Adam Resurrected (2008)

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

I've Loved You So Long... (2008)

There seems to be some consensus around and abouts on the Interwebz that this year’s Telluride Film Festival line-up is a non-starter. Its collection of foreign films, documentaries and classic films - along with a smattering of the more usual fare - seems to fly in the face of the perception of the festival as a launching pad for the next great independent-minded-but-mainstream-accessible crossover hit. Considering last year’s festival included first looks at Juno, There Will Be Blood, The Savages and others that went on to some mainstream success, such reaction is to be expected.

But the - let’s generously say “oddly” - formed 2008 list doesn’t mean a crossover success is completely outside the realm of possibility. Let’s look at five movies that could wind up getting some decent buzz coming out of Telluride and heading into the remainder of festivals and awares season.

Happy-Go-Lucky: Anything from director Mike Leigh is sure to come with some expectations around it and this is likely to be no exception. While the odds are good this will be somewhat lighter in tone than some of Leigh’s previous films I wouldn’t bet on it being any less a sharp character study. And never underestimate the power of a powerfully perky female lead, which could help Happy-Go-Lucky become a feel-good hit in the non-entertainment areas of the country that are looking for an endearing story featuring a strong love story.

Adam Resurrected: The perception - at least among the staffers at here at Spout HQ - is that a good deal of Jeff Goldblum’s appeal comes from his unpredictability. So with a career that’s had him saving the world, dodging dinosaurs and turning into a fly his latest turn is as a Jewish entertainer in Nazi Germany who survives because of his ability to entertain the children being held at the concentration camps. Combine that with the fact that he and co-star Willem Dafoe are directed by Paul Schrader and you have a film that could make a decent splash with audiences and awards voters.

I’ve Loved You So Long: Kristen Scott-Thomas stars in a story about the members of an estranged family who find themselves coming together after one of them spends 15 years in prison. The emotional arc the story is sure to take Scott-Thomas on is one that is, at least on paper, seemingly tailor-made to please critics (there’s a lot of “Best Actress Oscar” talk from those who’ve seen it). While not a crowd-pleaser it could turn out to be something along the lines of There Will Be Blood should enough critics get behind it and turn the story of someone who might not be completely likable into a must-see movie.

Youssou Ndour - I Bring What I Love: Known primarily in the U.S., I’m guessing, for his work with Peter Gabriel in the late 80’s, Youssou Ndour’s story is certainly a compelling one. There’s usually one documentary that breaks out from the pack and earns a place in the queues of people who don’t normally watch them and since the subject matter here is a tad more accessible than that of some other docs, this could be that one.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: No, it’s not actually screening at Telluride, but a sneak peak of it is being included in the presentation of Zodiac: The Director’s Cut that’s happening. If the footage that’s shown of the movie, which stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages in reverse, is any good at all, Telluride could become the launching pad for a lot of buzz going into the remainder of the year.

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 5:02 PM by SpoutBlog | with 0 comments

Obama Speech vs. Zohan Movie Night

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EXT. HALFWAY HOUSE-NIGHT.
Dressed business casual, messenger bag bouncing at his side, STEVE runs from the 3 train subway station up to the house.

INT. HALFWAY HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR-NIGHT.
Out of breath, Steve enters a living room area crowded with bunk beds and several MEN standing and sitting around a 13-inch TV set. They are watching Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Onscreen, Zohan (Adam Sandler) and other Israeli men are playing hackysack with a cat.

The men in the room bust out laughing.

Steve sets down a newspaper with the headline OBAMA TO SPEAK…

STEVE
(laughs)
Oh, Zohan. Yeah, that shit is retarded.

Some of the men turn toward him and say, “What up, Steve?”

STEVE
What they watching downstairs?

BIG BISWAS shrugs his shoulders.

BIG BISWAS
Prolly a game…?

Steve glances at his watch: 9:48PM.

CUT TO:

INT. BASEMENT.
Steve comes down the stairs to find MR. OCTOBER, DIVA, and TOTAL LOSS sitting on the well-worn sofa. Behind them, SLIM sits on a weight bench. The big 30-inch TV set is showing commercials.

STEVE
Fellas, whatup?

The fellas grunt or mutter feeble responses.

STEVE
What y’all watching?

DIVA
Wrestling.

STEVE
Not gonna watch the speech?

DIVA
Speech?

STEVE
Obama.

DIVA
Obama’s speaking tonight?

STEVE
Yeah, at the convention.

DIVA
What convention?

STEVE
Any minute now…

DIVA
(laughs)
Now, you know better than to come down here and
ask if we’re watching something like that.

MR. OCTOBER
The BULL-shit.

STEVE
Yeah, but this is history. First black man to…

Steve trails off as the wrestling program comes back on and the men look lively at the screen.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. HALFWAY HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR-NIGHT.
Steve returns to the room. Zohan is still playing.

BIG BISWAS
(to Steve)
What they watching down there?

STEVE
Wrestling.

BIG BISWAS
Told you. What you trying to see?

STEVE
The speech.

BIG BISWAS
What speech?

STEVE
Obama.

BIG BISWAS
Obama’s speaking tonight?

STEVE
Yeah, at the convention.

BIG BISWAS
What convention?

HEF
He won?

STEVE
Sorta. He got the nomination.
He’s making his big speech.

HEF
We don’t get cable up here.

Steve glances at his watch: 10:05PM.

STEVE
I know. Who’s got a radio?

BIG BISWAS
Check in the back.

CUT TO:

INT. BACK ROOM/LIVING ROOM-NIGHT.
Barack Obama’s VOICE [Production note: to be performed by a Malcolm X vocal impersonator] wafts in from somewhere, muffled but strong. From the doorway, Steve looks around and finds all but one bunk empty. On a top bunk, SALAAM lies with his back to the door and a small AM RADIO nestled under his cheek.

Behind Steve, the Zohan-watchers are visible in the living room, laughing at Adam Sandler’s hijinks.

OBAMA’S VOICE warbles some beautiful promises, stern admonitions, visions, dreams, nightmares, reminiscences, folk tales…

Steve leans on the doorway, craning his head to listen.

The sound of a DOOR opening and SLAMMING.

Steve turns to the living room. SANTANA, the floor captain, enters and approaches his bunk.

Steve lights up.

STEVE
Oh, shit!

He rushes past the Zohan party, which is breaking up as the credit roll, and goes to Santana.

STEVE
Yo, you got a radio!

SANTANA
How can you ask me that. You know I got music.

STEVE
I mean that gets radio stations, AM FM.

SANTANA
‘course.

STEVE
Turn that shit on. Obama’s speaking.

SANTANA
What? He won? What station?

STEVE
Any station. 1010 WINS, any station.

Santana goes to his bottom bunk and reaches past a clutter of prescription bottles, diabetes testing kit, blood pressure monitor and mountains of papers to turn on a BOOM BOX. The LOLLIPOP SONG blares from the speakers. He quickly turns the dial.

After a moment, OBAMA’S VOICE comes out of the speakers in crystal FM fidelity.

In the kitchen area, Big Biswas and Hef stop what they’re doing and listen.

Obama invites John McCain to debate on who’s better fit to lead the nation. He makes iron-hard pronouncements like “EIGHT IS ENOUGH” “DON’T TELL ME WE CAN’T…” and “WE ARE THE PARTY OF ROOSEVELT AND KENNEDY!”

The room falls silent. The men take seats on plastic crates, bunks, kitchen stools, etc.

DISSOLVE TO:

Much later. Steve’s watch reads 10:50PM. Obama is wrapping up his speech, voice trembling a bit. The stadium crowd roars.

Big Biswas nods approvingly at Steve.

BIG BISWAS
He made it through.

STEVE
Yeah.

HEF
They didn’t shoot his ass.

STEVE
Cool.

Radio commentators chime in.

And then—BLAAAAMMMM!!!!!!! EXPLOSIVE BURSTS.

Big Biswas jumps. Everybody in the room looks at everybody else.

HEF
-the ****?

RADIO HOST
Yes, those are fireworks you are hearing,
as Obama and family join the Bidens…

Everybody in the room looks at everybody else.

FADE OUT.

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 4:00 PM by SpoutBlog | with 0 comments

Dubya Meets Laura. Clip of the Day

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Under discussion:

The Doors (1991)

W. (2008)

I’m not expecting to learn anything from Oliver Stone’s Bush biopic, W., but it’s possible that I will. After watching this clip depicting the first encounter of the future President (played by Josh Brolin) and the future First Lady (Elizabeth Banks), I’ve already learned something I didn’t previously know: that Laura was a Democrat, one who even campaigned for ‘68 Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, before meeting the conservative, Barry Goldwater-reading man of her dreams at a backyard barbecue.

Surprisingly, Stone’s portrayal of how George and Laura met is accurate. At least, it is if Wikipedia is to be believed. And I guess that only guarantees me that the setting is correct. The dialogue is probably only based on speculation. Not that I mind. I still love Stone’s The Doors and have no problem with the romantic fabrication of how Jim Morrison and Pam Courson meet in the film, and as a Doors fan, I know how ridiculously false it is.

[via Cinematical]

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 2:01 PM by SpoutBlog | with 0 comments

Obama Speech: Cribbed From Aaron Sorkin?

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Under discussion:

The American President (1995)

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m a bit addicted to MSNBC, mostly because it’s where loose-canon conservatives go to fade away. So I’ve been watching it, like, a lot. And I know they’re working live without a script, but is that really an excuse for the whole team to fall back on the Chris Matthews gold standard of dragging metaphors out of movies? In the past 12 hours, I’ve heard Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell and Joe Scarborough all compare Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech to The American President, the Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin political romantic dramedy starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning.

Mitchell and friends have been breathlessly fawning over that line from Obama’s speech where he was all, “If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.” They seem to think parallel is to the above scene, where Douglas’ president shows up at a press conference and, out of nowhere, takes a stand on an issue and dares his critics to essentially talk their shit to his face. They’ve been trying to sell the similarities as though it was a word-for-word lift, although of course they’d never cry “plagiarism”––they make it sound more like Obama fell asleep watching TNT and lines from Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay seeped into his brain and just came out with the candidate unawares.

In fact, it’s not that similar, either in tone or in actual content, and it makes me wonder whether the Sorkin comparison would have been a talking point no matter what Obama actually said. Maybe America’s middle-of-the-road lefties have been fantasizing about living in an Aaron Sorkin movie for so long that they’re now actually––consciously or otherwise––willing it to happen.

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 12:00 PM by SpoutBlog | with 0 comments

FilmCouch #85: Death Race, Crispin Glover’s What is It?

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Under discussion:

Death Race 2000 (1976)

What Is It? (1996)

The Big Lebowski (1997)

Death Race (2008)

Some movies are violent, some are disturbing, and others are just plain wrong. Paul W. S. Anderson’s Death Race is a fun ride with some gnarly crashes, but it can’t hold a candle to its demented predecessor, Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (1975).

Cinema’s favorite weirdo, Cripsin Glover, is taking his film across the country, personally hosting a series of screenings. The film, What Is It?, is dense and provocative filmmaking, but not necessarily in a good way. Glover describes his opus as a critique of corporate-controlled studios’ fear of taboo. It’s either that, or just a whole lot of snails being killed, mixed with porn, mixed with possibly exploitative uses of actors with downs-syndrome.

For a more upbeat take on the absurd, we take a look and some the fun being had in Spout’s Movie Games group. Specifically, what happens when scenes from our favorite movies are digitally translated to another language, then back into English. The result: surreal hilarity. Our dramatic reading proves that The Big Lebowski could have been a whole lot weirder.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro

3:05 - Death Race, then and now

16:30 - Crispin Glover’s What Is It?

31:29 - Fun with online translators, Big Lebowski style

filmcouch-85

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 9:01 AM by SpoutBlog | with 0 comments

2008 Telluride Film Festival line-up announced

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Under discussion:

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Lola Montès (1955)

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

The Great Sacrifice (Opfergang) (1944)

An Italian Straw Hat (Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie) (1927)

The Emigrants (1971)

A New Land (Nybyggarna) (1972)

Nightmare Alley (1947)

Seconds (1966)

Pirosmani (1969)

The Fall of Berlin (Padeniye Berlina) (1950)

Philanthropy (2002)

Zodiac (2007)

Adam Resurrected (2008)

Helen (2009)

The Rest is Silence (Restul e Tacere) (2007)

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

I've Loved You So Long... (2008)

Revanche (2008)

Learning Gravity (2007)

Flame & Citron (2009)

Gomorrah (2009)

Waltz With Bashir (2008)

The Good, the Bad and the Weird (2008)

O'Horten (2007)

Tulpan (2008)

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story (2008)

See You In Denver (Sejdeme se v Denveru) (2007)

Daddy and Lili Marlene (Tatícek a Lili Marlén) (2005)

With a Little Help From Myself (Aide-toi le ciel t'aidera) (2007)

Kisses (2008)

Firaaq (2008)

Pirate for the Sea (2008)

Private Century (2008)

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (2009)

The 2008 Telluride Film Festival list of movies was revealed this afternoon. Our team on the ground is going to be back with more commentary on the selections but it looks to be an exciting and eclectic festival this year as usual. You can also stay up to date here on SpoutBlog or join in the conversation that develops around these movies on our Telluride Film Festival Group page.

The full lineup is after the jump.

SpoutBlog on spout.com

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