Noses Don't Look Good On Reptiles

Had to pull down the earlier "leaked" TMNT images because people were getting C&D's from Paramount (which is stupid - you can't fight this stuff getting out, the era of non-plot-related movie "secrets" is dead); but now ComicBookTherapy has a snap up of a merchandise standee that let's the new turtles out of the bag pretty definitively.

Verdict? Same as before: Like `em, with reservations. The differing body-types work (Leo and Raph are bruisers, Mike is small, Donatello is slimmer) and the personalized gear/clothes/etc are a good idea - I even like Don wearing glasses over his mask. A detail I like: Leo and Raph's weapons are actually kind of small for them, proportionally, implying that their using "actual" katanas/sais that would've been designed for humans. I imagine this won't be the case for Mike and Don, since nunchucks and staffs can be more easily made from scratch.

Leo and Don have better looking heads, because the more humanoid nose/palate don't look right at all on Raphael and Michaelangelo. I've never understood the modern creature-animation conceit of giving nonhuman characters human-like lips. I understand the "logic" behind it, i.e. in reality they'd need human lips to form human syllables when speaking, I've just never really heard from anyone who cared. Movie-monsters spoke "muppet style" (mouth open for any sound, closed otherwise) for decades and I don't recall that ever being a widespread complaint.

We may or may not see them moving around and talking in a Super Bowl ad, though right now Paramount is onlying officially touting a TRANSFORMERS 4 spot.

Escape to The Movies: "THAT AWKWARD MOMENT"

It's still January.

Here, read this instead.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : That Awkward Moment

WINTER SOLDIER Super Bowl Clip

Super Bowl ads for movies that already have proper trailers generally feel kind of pointless, since they're just short action-beat reels, but this one features what looks very much like a shot of Captain America being back in his proper costume at some point in the present day so I'm glad to have seen that. Also really like how "wing-shaped" Falcon's wings are:

MacBook Pro in Gone, (2012)

MacBook Pro 13"

MacBook Pro 13"

MacBook Pro 13"

MacBook Pro 13"

MacBook Pro 13"

iMac 27" in Elles, (2011)

iMac 27"

iMac 27"

iMac 27"

MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro

2014 César Awards - Les Révélations Selection

Today the César Awards nominations were unveiled and there were no big surprises with the actors nominated as Newcomers in the female and male categories. Perhaps the most predictable César category is Best Female Newcomer as we all know Adèle Exarchopoulos HAS TO and WILL win; but I'm sure that if she was not nominated the award would have gone to Marine Vacth for her incredibly good performance in Jeune & Jolie.  But then Pauline Etienne and Golshifteh Farahani also have excellent performances.

I am not crazy about L'Inconnu du Lac but have to recognize that Pierre Delandonchamps performance is outstanding so I hope he wins the César category; if he does think will be the first time that two newcomers performing LGBT characters win.

César nominees are in *BLUE.

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1/16
Last Monday was the Soirée des Révélations in Chaumet where the Révélations photo exposition was inaugurated. The Révélations list was released last November 2013 with 32 actors that made the selection for this year Newcomers. Now French Academy members will vote to select the nominees in the 2014 César Awards Best Female Newcomer and Best Male Newcomer categories.

Actresses
Margot Bancilhon in Les Petits Princes
Flore Bonaventura in Casse-­‐tête chinois
Pauline Burlet in Le Passé
*Lou de Laâge in Jappeloup
Laetitia Dosch in La Bataille de Solférino
*Pauline Etienne in La Religieuse
*Adèle Exarchopoulos in La vie d’Adèle Chapitres 1 & 2
*Golshifteh Farahani in Syngué sabour – Pierre de patience
Esther Garrel in Jeunesse
Ariane Labed in Une place sur la terre
Charlotte Le Bon in La Marche
Chloé Lecerf in Vandal
Anamaria Marinca in Un nuage dans un verre d’eau
Pauline Parigot in Les Lendemains
Vimala Pons in La fille du 14 juillet
*Marine Vacth in Jeune & Jolie

Actors
*Paul Bartel in Les Petis Princes
M'Barek Belkouk in La Marche
Swann Arlaud in Crawl
Zinedine Benchenine in Vandal
*Pierre Deladonchamps in L'inconnu du Lac
Alain-Fabien Delon in Les rencontres d’après minuit
Idrissa Diabaté in La Cité Rose
Youssef Hadji in Mohamed Dubois
*Paul Hamy in Suzanne
Tewfik Jallab in La Marche
Ibrahim Koma in La Cité Rose
*Vincent Macaigne in La fille du 14 juillet
Hamza Meziani in Les Apaches
Driss Ramdi in Je ne suis pas mort
Jules Sagot in Tu seras un homme
*Memo Schiffman in Elle s'en va

Les Révélations 2014 by Antoine Carlier - The Video


Les Révélations 2014, par Antoine Carlier .

Les Révélations 2014 by Antoine Carlier - The Album

System 7 in "The Truman Show", 1998

The Truman Show (System 7)

The Truman Show (System 7)

iMac 27" in "Josephine", 2013

iMac 27"

Red-Band "A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST"

I think I've figured out what it is that makes Seth MacFarlane "hard to take" as a persona. I mean "overall," of course - whether he's not your cup of tea because of the subject matter of his humor (or choice of target) is another matter entirely. I'm talking more about why even I, as someone who thinks he's a real comic talent, can agree that a little of him goes a long way:

He's just a little too conventionally-handsome, a little too well spoken and a little too outwardly-confident about it for a comedian.

A modern comedian, anyway. His only semi-ironic affection for the Rat Pack era of lounge-act emcees makes an alarming amount of sense when you consider how well his look, delivery and sensibility would fit in that milieu; i.e. in the era where The Entertainer was The Alpha of the room, with the audience and (especially) "The Other" as his lessers to be humorously judged. The main difference is target: Frank & Dean basked in their superiority over both "squares" and (explicitly at first, implicitly later) the "lower" classes/races, while MacFarlane works basically the same act (right down to the "you think I'm smug now, just wait till I back it up with these pipes!" shift to songman) but with Middle America and/or religious-conservatives as the targets of choice. He's a completely different animal from the self-effacing post-60s face of modern comedy, for better or worse, save that he shares their penchant for self-hate... it's just that he seems to hate his advantages instead of his foibles.

Case in point: The new trailer for "A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST," his Western-spoof follow-up feature to "TED," which features MacFarlane as his own lead in full-on Brian Griffin only-smart-man-in-a-world-of-morons smug mode and also in full-on Brian Griffin douchebag-who's-too-happy-about-being-the-only-smart-man smarmy mode; but here as a snarky Eastern transplant in The Old West cursed with a modern eye-view of the horrible shittiness behind the myth of the Cowboy Era. Looks funny, but I also remember how "WAGONS EAST" failed to stretch the same basic joke to feature-length...

PULP CATHOLICISM #053

Big Picture: "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW - PART I"

Oh yeah, hey - this went up yesterday afternoon:

The Escapist : The Big Picture : The Devil You Know - Part I

More TMNT: Leonardo, Donatello and SHREDDER Revealed!

UPDATE: The studio has been hitting peopel with cease and desist letters regarding the photos, so they're down for now.

Yup. Consider me onboard, Michael Bay.

As I said re: the earlier image of the maquettes, I'm not "in love" with the jacked-up-badass Turtles as a concept, but this is the best version I can think of FOR said concept. Leonardo looks especially great (love the homemade Japanese fencing-armor look) but then he was always my favorite. The "tech-gear clotheshorse" look for Donny looks a lot less extreme than reported, though we can't really see his shell:

(IMAGE REMOVED)

(IMAGE REMOVED)

But Shredder, on the other hand? Holy shit. Shredder looks fantastic! Not nuts about the overly-busy faceplate (nothing is known about where this Shredder comes from, other than that he'll start out as an American businessman named "Eric Sachs" played by William Fichtner instead of Japanese "Oroku Saki," possibly to avoid Chinese movie distribution skittishness over Asian villains in otherwise western-dominant movies) but everything else looks fantastic. In many ways it's an extreme realization of Eastman & Laird's original "human cheese-grater" concept for the armor - even his cape is made of knives, for fuck's sake!

This is could, of course, all change when we get our first look at how the mocap CGI and voicework used to bring these guys to life works out, which will supposedly be during a teaser set to debut during The Super Bowl.

Here Are (Probably) Your New NINJA TURTLES:

Via ComicBookMovie.com, these are apparently Michael Bay and Johnathan Liebesman's new "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES;" looking about like you'd expect (i.e. like the originals but on HGH) with Raphael displayed most prominently. Don't immediately hate, but will need some time to process:

64th Berlin International Film Festival Competition Selection - Final

This morning in Berlin fest organizers had the press conference to announce the complete festival selection and there are some changes to my best guess a few days ago. First the opening film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is In Competition and second, La belle et la bête is Out of Competition. Worth mentioning that out of the 23 films, eighteen (18) are World premieres.

Hope that soon we will learn the movies that will be competing for 2014 Teddy as right now the program section only lists a few short films and no feature films; still to easy access will leave the link to Teddy official site here.  Oops program is out, great will do post immediately.

Also announced today is that Berlinale Camera 2014 will honor Karl Baumgartner, one of Germany's leading producers and independent distributors.

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1/15/14
Today Berlinale organizers announced via press release the titles that complete the main competition selection and even if the films in competition and out of competition are not clearly identifiable, will do my best to deduce them. Seems is not that easy but know that 20 of the 23 films will be in Competition so what follows is my best guess. Festival will run from February 6 up to February 16.

The following countries are participating: Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, People’s Republic of China, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Uruguay and the USA.

The Competition program includes 18 world premieres and three feature debut.

Post will be updated if necessary when films are listed in the official site.

In Competition

Opening Film: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, UK and Germany

*'71, Yann Demange, UK
Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley), Alain Resnais, France
Aloft, Claudia Llosa, Spain, Canada and France
白日焰火 Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice), Yinan Diao, China
Boyhood, Richard Linklater, USA
小さいおうち Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House), Yôji Yamada, Japan
Die geliebten Schwestern, Dominik Graf, Germany
*Historia del Miedo (History of Fear), Benjamín Naishtat, Argentina, Uruguay, Germany and France
Jack, Edward Berger, Germany
Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance), Hans Petter Moland, Norway
Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross), Dietrich Brüggemann, Germany
La Tercera Orilla (The Third Side of the River), Celina Murga, Argentina, Germany and Netherlands
La voie de l'ennemi (Two Men in Town), Rachid Bouchareb, France, Algeria, USA and Belgium
*Macondo, Sudabeh Mortezai, Austria
Praia do Futuro, Karim Aïnouz, Brazil and Germany
Το Μικρό Ψάρι To Mikro Psari (Stratos), Yannis Economides, Greece, Germany and Cyprus
推拿 Tui Na (Blind Massage), Ye Lou, China and France
無人區 Wu Ren Qu (No Man's Land), Hao Ning, China
Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds), Feo Aladag, Germany

(*)Qualify for Best First Feature Award along 4 films from Panorama, 4 films from Forum, 4 films from Generation and 2 from Perspektive Deutches Kino, for a total of 18 films competing for the award. If you wish to learn the 18 films names go here.

Out of Competition
La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), Christophe Gans, France and Germany
The Monuments Men, George Clooney, USA and Germany
Nymphomaniac Volume I, Lars Von Trier, Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium and UK

International Jury
President: James Schamus, screenwriter and producer, USA
Barbara Broccoli, producer, USA and UK
Trine Dyrholm, actress, Denmark
Mitra Farahani, director, Iran
Greta Gerwig, actress, USA
Michel Gondry, director, screenwriter and producer, France
Tony Leung, actor, China
Christoph Waltz, actor,Austria

There are many films that could be VERY interesting, like Claudia Llosa first English-language film, the remake -with different perspective- of very famous La belle et la bête with none other than Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel, the English-language film by Rachid Bouchareb with Forest Whitaker, Ellen Burstyn and more, the new film by Yannis Economides, the new film by Ye Lou when haven't seen Mystery yet..., newest film by Hao Ning also known as Western Sunshine -remember Mongolian Ping Pong?-, and the second film by Feo Adalag after her incredible outstanding debut Die Fremde.

Watch some available trailers @MOC

THE B-LIST: 5 FRANKENSTEIN POSTERS BETTER THAN I, FRANKENSTEIN

For Aleteia this past week I reviewed the new pro-life drama, Gimme Shelter. Despite the glowing reviews from Bishops around the world, I have to admit I was hesitant to watch it because of a few reasons, not the least of which was the presence of Vanessa Hudgens in the lead role. Fortunately, though, it turns out she can actually act, so it all worked out. Besides, my only other choice for the week was I, Frankenstein. I know, you’re probably thinking that sounds like just the kind of movie I’d want to watch given the nature of this blog. But really, take a look at the one-sheet for the movie…

Now, does that hunk of photoshopped crapola inspire anyone in anyway to want to see I, Frankenstein? No, it didn’t me either. What in the world happened to fun movie posters? It used to be that a decent poster alone could be enough to make you want to empty your pockets and buy a ticket. Just take a look at the following Frankenstein posters and you’ll see what I mean.

Frankenstein Conquers The World (1965)

Frankenstein Island (1981)

I Was A Teenage Frankenstein (1957)

Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1973)

Frankenstein Meets The Space Monster (1965)

Now those are real posters! They make these films look like a blast. Who wouldn’t want to see these movies after looking at those things. I know I did, because I’ve seen them all now. My only regret is that I didn’t get a pair of them there space shield eye protectors the last poster promised. I could sure use those for some of the movies I watch around here.

Now I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Well, for the most part it’s true. I don’t know exactly how many people shelled out a few bucks to see any of these epics but it has to be more than went and saw I, Frankenstein this past weekend. That movie bombed hard. And I would have to guess that part of the reason is because the advertising for the thing was joyless. Look at that poster for I, Frankenstein again. Could it make the film look any more like a slog than it already does? I don’t know, maybe if they added a picture of Bill Maher standing in the background or something.

People respond to a joyful presentation. Just ask Pope Francis. In a homily back in May 2013, The Pontiff poked a little fun at Christians who look dour all the time. “Sometimes these melancholic Christians' faces have more in common with pickled peppers than the joy of having a beautiful life.” His Holiness noted. “If we keep this joy to ourselves it will make us sick in the end, our hearts will grow old and wrinkled and our faces will no longer transmit that great joy, only nostalgia and melancholy which is not healthy.”

Of course, Pope Francis wasn’t implying we should walk around all the time grinning like an idiot. “If we want to have fun all the time, in the end it becomes shallow, superficial, and also leads us to that state where we lack Christian wisdom.” he explained, “It makes us a little bit stupid, naive, no?… Joy is something else. Joy is a gift from the Lord. It fills us from the inside.” And being filled with that joy, it should show up on our faces whenever possible. And in those sad times when it’s not, it can still be expressed in our demeanor. Trust me, just like with the movie posters, people will respond better to a happy package.

"ZERO THEOREM" Looks Like "BRAZIL 2" And That's A Good Thing

By all accounts Terry Gilliam's "ZERO THEOREM" is polarizing as hell, which is of course unsurprising. Pitched as the internet-age successor to his masterwork "BRAZIL," the story finds Christophe Waltz as a dystopian data-entry drone who goes batty(er) when he's assigned to crack a mathematical paradox whereby 0 must equal "100%" - presumably proving that nothing matters:

Mutant? More Like Meh-T... oh, forget it

If Bryan Singer were an X-Man, his codename would be "DIAL-BACK" - born with the amazing power to lower expectations at superhuman levels.

EMPIRE has been doing a goofy day-long promo where they're revealing 25 "character reveal" covers for "X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST" once an hour. They look... universally terrible, thus far (we're up to 14 as of this writing); save for the obvious caveats of Jennifer Lawrence hitting my fairly specific fetish for women in bodypaint looking like they'd rather be anywhere else and also who isn't happy to see Patrick Stewart?

Thus far, the only "important" reveal has been QUICKSILVER, looking (to your right) like either the mascot for a line of off-brand Sega controllers from a mid-90s GamePro ad or the leader of the Burger King Kids Club.

Quicksilver, of course, is mainly important as a curiosity item since he's the first instance of a Marvel character being in both the "official" Cinematic Universe ("AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON" next year) and in another film played by two different actors in two different contexts: In this version, he'll keep his comics' backstory as the son of Magneto, while the version who turns up in Avengerswill presumably have either a different or unspoken parentage (prevailing fan theory is that he and sister Scarlet Witch will be refitted as the children of Thomas Kretschman's Baron Von Strucker.)

Originally, Quicksilver's role was said to be minor - possibly only one or two scenes (that may be par for the course - despite appearing in the first trailer, Anna Paquin's Rogue has since been cut entirely by the removal of a single scene) - but gossip swirls that his screentime has been beefed up to try and make the character's role in "AVENGERS: AOU" problematic for Marvel Studios. And yes, by all accounts the relationship between Disney and Fox really is that childish.

Here's a Sentinel From "X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST"

From Bryan Singer's personal Twitter account, which just promised to join the cast in tweeting all 25 Empire Magazine covers promoting the film:

First up, here's a look at the #Sentinel Mark I, circa 1973. #XMen #Empire25 @EmpireMagazine pic.twitter.com/gNcwwc68FX
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 27, 2014

This is, apparently, The Sentinels as they'll appear in the 1973-set portions of the film - which is good to know since, if you go by the film's marketing thus far, you might've assumed the film was comprised entirely of slow dissolves between closeups of returning familiar actors, Z-list Mutant barrel-scrapings nobody asked for ("OMG! Blink and Warpath in the SAME MOVIE!!??") and unsettling reminders that Singer can't really direct action or scale to save his life.

"X-MEN: DOFP" will be out in the U.S. on May 14th. For those of you playing along at home, this will be the sixth of seven movies centered on a subset of the Marvel Universe comprising almost (probably more-than, really) 700 characters that short-shrifts basically everybody to focus on Hugh Jackman With Muttonchops.

2013 MOVIE LIST -- The Top 129 So Far

THE STANDOUTS (20) - This should go without saying, but these are all must-sees.

Her ****
Fruitvale Station (fka Fruitvale) ***1/2
Lone Survivor ***1/2
Captain Phillips ***1/2
Dallas Buyers Club ***1/2
The Wolf of Wall Street ***1/2
Twelve Years a Slave ***1/2
Nebraska ***1/2
The Spectacular Now ***1/2
American Hustle ***
Enough Said ***
Don Jon's Addiction ***
The Silence ***
This Is The End ***
Stories We Tell ***
Short Term 12 ***
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ***
Behind the Candelabra (HBO) ***
Blue Caprice ***
We Steal Secrets ***

THE GOOD (27) - These represent quality filmmaking all-around.

The Butler ***
Prisoners ***
Gravity ***
Rush ***
Saving Mr. Banks ***
Out of the Furnace ***
Mud ***
The Hunt ***
You're Next ***
Blackfish ***
The World's End ***
The Heat ***
Drinking Buddies ***
In a World... ***
Prince Avalanche ***
Philomena ***
Side Effects ***
August: Osage County ***
Delivery Man ***
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ***
The Call ***
V/H/S/2 (fka S-VHS) ***
Sightseers ***
Mistaken For Strangers ***
The Kings of Summer ***
Jobs **1/2
Warm Bodies **1/2

THE GOOD... BUT SHOULD'VE BEEN BETTERS (19) - Why weren't these good movies better? I don't really know. But they should've been. Hence, the name of this section.

Monsters University ***
The Fifth Estate ***
Elysium ***
World War Z **1/2
Inside Llewyn Davis **1/2
All Is Lost **1/2
Blue Jasmine **1/2
The Dirties **1/2
Now You See Me **1/2 
The Wolverine **1/2
Pacific Rim **1/2
The Iceman **1/2
The East **1/2
Phil Spector (HBO) **1/2
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman **1/2
Oblivion **1/2
Mama **1/2
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files **1/2
Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (HBO) **

THE GUILTY PLEASURES (17) - These are movies that I shouldn't like but I do, for one reason or another. I only feel ashamed because the Internet tells me I'm supposed to.

Furious 6 ***
21 and Over ***
The Internship ***
Ass Backwards ***
Dealin' With Idiots **1/2
Snitch **1/2
Lovelace **1/2
Olympus Has Fallen ** 
We're the Millers **
Grown Ups 2 **
The To Do List **
Bullet to the Head **
A Haunted House **
Crystal Fairy **
Escape From Tomorrow **
Delivery **
Paranoia **

THE UNDERWHELMING DISAPPOINTMENTS (35) - Chalk it up to expectations but these movies just didn't cut it for me.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues **1/2
The Way Way Back **1/2
Trance **1/2
Man of Steel **1/2
The Conjuring **1/2
The Hangover Part III **1/2
Star Trek Into Darkness **1/2
Clear History (HBO) **1/2
Only God Forgives **
Pain and Gain **
Kick-Ass 2 **
The Great Gatsby **
Gangster Squad **
Iron Man 3 **
White House Down **
2 Guns **
Europa Report **
Maniac **
Spring Breakers **
Kill Your Darlings **
Dead Man Down **
Broken City **
Identity Thief ** 
The Evil Dead ** 
Breathe In **
Stoker **
Black Rock **
Antiviral **
A Teacher **
Welcome to the Punch **
Dark Skies **
The Last Stand **
Sweetwater **
Ain't Them Bodies Saints *1/2
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III *1/2

THE BAD (10) - For better or worse, I just don't know what these movies were thinking.

Carrie *1/2
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone *1/2
The Purge *
A Good Day To Die Hard *
Oldboy *
Stand Up Guys *
Adore (fka Two Mothers) *
Movie 43 *
Berberian Sound Studio *
Upstream Color *

IN PROGRESS (4) - I've started watching these but I'm not quite done yet.

42 (75 minutes)
The Grandmaster (30 minutes)
Kink (18 minutes)
Top of the Lake (2 hours)

DOESN'T REALLY COUNT (1) - Re-releases don't count unless it's my first time seeing the movie.

Jurassic Park 3D ****

OOPS, I MISSED (82): 20 Feet From Stardom, 47 Ronin, About Time, The Act of Killing, Admission, After Earth, The Armstrong Lie, At Any Price, The Attack, Bad Grandpa, Beautiful Creatures, Before Midnight, Beyond the Hills, Big Sur, The Bling Ring, Blue Is the Warmest Color, The Book Thief, The Canyons, Citadel, Closed Circuit, Computer Chess, The Counselor, Despicable Me 2, Diana, Dirty Wars, Emperor, Ender's Game, Epic, Escape Plan, Filly Brown, Free Birds, The Gatekeepers, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Ginger and Rosa, Girl Most Likely, I Give It a Year, Grudge Match, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Here Comes the Devil, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Homefront, How I Live Now, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, Jack the Giant Slayer, Knife Fight, Kon-Tiki, Labor Day, The Last Exorcism Part II, Last Vegas, The Lone Ranger, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Machete Kills, Man of Tai Chi, The Monk, Mr. Nobody, Much Ado About Nothing, No, No Place on Earth, Oz the Great and Powerful, Parker, The Past, Pawn Shop Chronicles, Phantom, Red 2, Red Flag, R.I.P.D., Rubberneck, The Sapphires, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Sound City, Starbuck, Stuck In Love, Supporting Characters, The Sweeney, Texas Chainsaw 3D, Thor: The Dark World, Turbo, Unhung Hero, The Wall, The We and the I, Wrong, Zero Charisma

January Expiration Watch: D�j� Vu All Over Again (2014)

Another month's end, another round of expiring titles, some leaving for the first time, others zipping past on a lazy Susan of cinematic temptation. Here comes Coppola...there goes Coppola...no, wait, he's back, and... Darn, gone again. Is that Buckaroo Banzai appearing on the horizon? By gum, I think it is. Oh, never mind�there he goes, zooming off in that crazy jet car, tossing fellow '80s stalwart Flesh + Blood into the back seat then extending one arm to snag Last Tango in Paris before crashing through a wall into the 8th dimension of streaming limbo. Rutger and Marlon, we hardly knew ye! But you'll be back, right? Pretty please?

Along with Coppola and Last Tango's Bertolucci, the seemingly obligatory monthly loss of movies by big-name directors continues, with a few titles more well-known than others. The most significant would be Robert Zemeckis' equally praised and reviled Forrest Gump (1994), Robert Redford's Ordinary People (1980)�which I'll never forgive for stealing the Best Picture Oscar from Raging Bull�Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), and Fred Zinnemann's classic, High Noon (1952), starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. None of these needs me to sell its virtues (or faults) before it's gone on February 1�unlike Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune (1999), a pleasant, small-town crime comedy that was one of the director's better films during a lull in creative highs between Short Cuts (1993) and Gosford Park (2001). Four generations of actresses�Patricia Neal, Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, and Liv Tyler�are up to shady doings as a family of eccentrics with their reputations at stake when one of them takes her own life.
Read more �

2014 Robert Awards Winners

Today the Danish Academy had the awards ceremony and as I was hoping great The Hunt was the BIG winner of the night. The Hunt is such an exceptional film that I'm concern other great movies will prevail in Oscar, but definitively it is my favorite Danish movie of 2013, even do was in 2012 Cannes.

By the way what is happening to The Hunt and Oscar is what could happen next year if France sends Blue is the Warmest Color to Oscar, the momentum is lost and other movies have their 15 minutes of fame, no matter if they deserve it or not.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go official site.

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1/9/14
2012 was an outstanding year for Danish cinema and a movie produced in that year that was released in 2013 made it another outstanding year for this great cinema; I'm talking about The Hunt that leads the Bodils race and also the Robert's race as got fourteen (14) nominations. Also with 14 nods Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Keeper of Lost Causes following close by Christoffer Boe’s Sex, Drugs & Taxation with 13 and Michael Noer’s Northwest with 11.

Already infamous Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac was seen by critics but does not qualify for this year awards, so we will have to wait until next year to see if gets some local recognition from the Danish Academy. As we know Part 1 will be world-premiered at the Berlinale and early buzz claims that part 2 will go to Cannes, but maybe not as film will have its release in USA via VOD before it opens in theaters and before Cannes.

These are the nominees' that the Danmarks Film Akademi announced today.

Best Film
*Jagten (The Hunt)
Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Nordvest (Northwest)
Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
Spies & Glistrup (Sex, Drugs & Taxation)

Best Feature for Children and Youth Audiences
*Antboy
MGP Missionen (The Contest - To the Stars and Back)
Olsen Banden på dybt vand (The Olsen Gang in Deep Trouble)
Otto er et næsehorn (Otto the Rhino)

Best Director
Michael Noer for Nordvest (Northwest)
Mikkel Nørgaard for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Nicolas Winding Refn for Only God Forgives
Nils Malmros for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
*Thomas Vinterberg for Jagten (The Hunt)

Best Actress
*Helle Fagralid for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
Kristin Scott Thomas for Only God Forgives
Lene Maria Christensen for Nordvest (Northwest)
Sofie Gråbøl for I Lossens Time (The Hour of the Lynx)
Sonja Richter for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)

Best Actor
Gustav Dyekjær Giese for Nordvest (Northwest)
Jakob Cedergren for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
*Mads Mikkelsen for Jagten (The Hunt)
Nikolaj Lie Kaas for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Pilou Asbæk for Spies & Glistrup (Sex Drugs & Taxation)

Best Original Screenplay
Nikolaj Arcel for Kvinden I Buret (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Nils Malmros and John Mogensen for Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy)
Rasmus Heisterberg and Michael Noer for Nordvest (Northwest)
Simon Pasternak and Christoffer Boe for Spies & Glistrup (Sex Drugs & Taxation)
*Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm for Jagten (The Hunt)

Best US Feature
Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass
Before Midnight, Richard Linklater
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
*Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russel

Best Non-US Feature
*Blue Is the Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche, France
The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy
Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK
Rush, Ron Howard, UK
Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard, France

To check nominees in all categories go here, available only in Danish or here for English. I'm so glad that Nicolas Winding Refn got recognition for Only God Forgives as was feeling that I was the only one that liked/enjoyed the movie that absolutely makes you recall Gaspar Noé style. Not to bore you reader but you already know that my one of my favorite 2013 films is here, The Hunt, and Best Actor HAS to go to Mads.

66th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards Winners

Last night the Directors Guild of America had their awards ceremony and there are no surprises as Alfonso Cuarón won the top award which makes him the most likely to win an Oscar director and yes, puts again Gravity in the Best Picture contention. But for me, Gravity has always been a contender along with American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave.

Award history says that for the last 65 years of the 85 in which the Academy Awards have been presented, the DGA has presented awards too; over the course of that time, the winner of the guild's top award has gone to win the best director Oscar on all but seven (7) occasions and his/her film has gone to win best picture Oscar on all but thirteen (13) occasions. So, truth is that Oscar best picture race has become tight and interesting.

Winners are in *BLUE and to check winners in all categories go official site.

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1/7/14
Today the DGA announced the nominations for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film for 2013 and there are no real surprises as we all know that there are only five slots and the question was which directors will make it and which will not.

“To be chosen by your peers in a year full of incredibly well-crafted films is the true marker of outstanding directorial achievement,” said Paris Barclay, guild President. “The passion and vision of each of the nominees resulted in tremendously diverse films that kept audiences mesmerized. Congratulations to each of the nominees on a job very well done.”

Winners will be announced at the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

The Nominees

Feature Film Award

*Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell for American Hustle
Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street

We can predict that the above five movies will be nominated for Best Picture and that all directors, except one, will get a nod in Best Director category. To read press release go here.

Documentary Award

Zachary Heinzerling for Cutie and the Boxer
*Jehane Noujaim for The Square
Joshua Oppenheimer for The Act of Killing
Sarah Polley for Stories We Tell
Lucy Walker for The Crash Reel

To read the press release with the documentary nominations go here.

This Took Long Enough...

I needed this.

Shades of Gray: ABDUCTION OF EDEN

I wasn't sure what to expect from Abduction of Eden (called simply Eden in its theatrical run). I knew it received excellent reviews and that it was directed by emerging Seattle filmmaker Megan Griffiths, whose last movie was the micro-budgeted, nicely observed The Off Hours. But the subject matter�true-life* story of Korean-American teen abducted into human trafficking ring�was a tough sell, loaded as it was with predictable melodrama and potential agendas. I knew from reviews that Griffiths was taking a restrained, less exploitative approach, but that also gave me pause: how do you tell a story of forced teenage prostitution without getting a little down and dirty? It's like watching those American actresses (they know who they are) play strippers who don't actually, you know, strip�Hollywood prudishness at its least believable.

Still, despite this and the unfortunate title change, I remained intrigued by the film for the obvious intelligence and vision Griffiths brought to The Off Hours, a small-town slice of life that paved little new territory yet captured its characters and milieu with an admirable confidence and empathy. I was curious to see what the director would do next.

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Escape to The Movies: "I, FRANKENSTEIN"

You, not so good.

Better? "RETURN TO NUKEM HIGH."

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : I, Frankenstein

Slow News Day

Since I don't get to go to Sundance ::grumble:: this is a slow news week here. So have you seen what The Game OverThinker has been up to lately? Well, it's about Nintendo... and it ain't happy times.

New TMNT Look Revealed... Sort Of

I understand the nostalgia that some filmmakers have for being able to turn things like "what does so-and-so look like?" into the equivalent of a plot-twist... but I really don't know why anyone bothers today except in cases where a character's appearance actually IS meant to be a surprise. There are too many moving parts to big movies now, and trying to keep something like what your main character(s) look like secret isn't practically feesible: It's going to get "revealed" by merchandising materials or production art or a thousand other things, and suddenly you lose control of your all-important "first-impression" moment and instead people's first exposure is a potentially subpar version.

Case in point: According to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fansite, the thing at the right is a children's Halloween costume-kit for Michaelangelo in the new Michael Bay-produced TMNT movie... and if so, it now gets to be the way we'll be introduced to Bay's (and director Johnathan Liebesman's) version of the heroes:

First reaction: Not loving the basic idea of the head - too human, too much from the school of "people can't relate without a humanoid face to focus on" creature-design - but a plastic Halloween mask is no way to judge that. The rest of the suits (the fansite claims to have pics for the other three), apparently, are a stretch-fabric onesie with a "stuffable shell" that functions as an attached backpack - making these the most utilitarian-useful Halloween costumes ever ("Just put the candy in my shell!")

Otherwise? It's instantly recognizable as "Mikey" orange mask and all but with extra accountremants (workout shorts, a sweater worn as a belt, sunglasses, tattoos, surfer/skater neck jewelry) that reflect his familair personality. I don't hate this at all. I'm fond of the "identical but for colors/weapons" look from the comics etc for how it ties in with the Japanese/American fusion aspect of the characters, but as an alternate take this makes sense. And the DIY-grubbiness of it fits - I like the implication that these guys have "scavenged" their own personal looks.

The look also lines up to-the-letter with a written description of toys from awhile back, which also matched up with most of what I'd been hearing about the production post-"Alien" script: That the aim for the look was to keep the masks, weapons and standard looks but further differentiate them by body-type (Mike being smaller than the others, Raphael being a "tank," etc) and clothing/gear choices. This Mikey looks exactly as described, so I imagine subsequent pics will confirm the others: Leonardo wearing Japanese/samurai-style fencing gaurds to some extent, Donatello wearing/carrying lots of tech and gadgets, Raphael in Muy-Thai style cloth/rope padding, etc.

PULP CATHOLICISM #052

Hey, everybody! Believe it or not, this post marks the 52nd Pulp Catholicism cartoon. That means I’ve been posting one of these things every Wednesday for a year now. They haven’t all been great, but at least they’ve been consistent, right? As I mentioned in a previous post, if page hits are any indication, Pulp Catholicism is actually one of the more popular things I do here at The B-Movie Catechism, which is kind of odd since this is ostensibly a movie/television blog and not a web-comic. But hey, if you like’em, I guess I’ll keep cranking them out till the well runs dry (or until enough people beg me to stop). My thanks to you all for putting up with me while I scratch my cartooning itch. I’ll see you next time.

Expiration Watch: THE PUBLIC EYE

I'll go ahead and predict right now that this will be among the least viewed�and least searched for�of my blog posts. But, hey, no one said trumpeting the obscure is about getting attention, right?

One benefit of the high licensing fees Netflix pays to stream popular movies is that a lot of lesser-known (and thus, cheaper) titles are acquired which get to make a case for themselves long after their initial release. These can be anything from last year's Drinking Buddies, a low-gauge indie charmer starring Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde, to films from 30 or 40 years ago that have somehow faded into obscurity. Case in point: 1972's The Public Eye (released in England as Follow Me!)

Along with being the final movie by British director Carol Reed (The Third Man, Our Man in Havana, Oliver!), The Public Voice was written by playwright Peter Shaffer (future scribe of Equus and Amadeus); stars Mia Farrow�between high-profile roles in Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Great Gatsby (1974)�and Topol, Oscar-nominated the year before for Fiddler on the Roof; and boasts a score by John Barry, who was already well on his way to legendary composer status by virtue of his James Bond films. In other words, A-level talent across the board.

So, what happened? Why has this amusing, and occasionally trenchant, comedy-drama been almost completely forgotten?
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Big Picture: "Blecch, Dull Tests"

Huh. Knew I forgot to post something today...

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Blecch, Dull Tests

WEEKLY NEWSREEL

Good evening Mr. & Mrs. Catholic, and all you other Christians at sea, welcome to another edition of the Newsreel. Despite all the budget cuts around the globe, some scientists are still securing grants to conduct studies. Let’s take a look at a few, why don’t we.

DATELINE: LONDON - According to a semi-serious study published in the British Medical Journal, “James Bond's famous catchphrase ‘shaken, not stirred’ may have stemmed from his inability to stir his drinks due to an alcohol-induced tremor affecting his hands.” Basing their assumptions on Bond’s alcohol consumption in Fleming’s original novels, the researchers determined that 007 drank more than four times the recommended limit of alcohol and probably had the shakes because of it. “We have shown that Bond's alcohol intake is of sufficiently high frequency and duration to cause such cerebellar damage,’ the researchers said. ‘He was unlikely to be able to stir his drinks, even if he would have wanted to.” We suppose that’s just another reason the Catechism suggests we cultivate the virtue of temperance to help us “avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine.” After all, we wouldn’t want a vice to cause us to develop the shakes right as we’re trying to disarm that nuclear warhead in the depths of Fort Knox.

DATELINE: QUEENSLAND – By comparing the demographics of the survivors of the Titanic and the Lusitania, researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have determined that “the time people have during survival situations might affect whether they behave selfishly or socially.” According to the study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, male passengers who had a longer time to consider their impending doom tended to act more chivalrously and in line with social expectations, whereas those who had little time to think things over seemed to follow an every man for himself course of action. As the article explains it, “when facing danger, a person's brain creates a surge of adrenaline, helping them to react quickly. This fight-or-flight reflex may last a few minutes. Not until the immediate threat has passed or the brain hormones stabilize do higher-order thoughts, such as social considerations, come back into play.” From a Catholic standpoint this seems reasonable, as the Church, following Aquinas, recognizes self preservation as a fundamental good. The Catechism notes that “love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder.” But quoting the Gospel of John, it also reminds us that “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In short, while the men who abandoned ship on the Lusitania shouldn’t be judged too harshly, those who remained on the Titanic so women and children might live are to be praised.

DATELINE: THE INTERNET – A massive online survey of 39 people indicates that humans may use the same aural clues to determine the emotional states of babies as they do that of dogs. According to the results, “shorter calls—whether human or dog—were regarded as more emotionally positive than longer calls; and higher pitched samples were rated as more emotionally intense than lower pitched sounds for both species.” Why bother testing the obvious, you might ask? Well, “by following these same simple rules, they conclude, it may be possible to develop easily recognized artificial emotions in social robots.” Yes, it looks like scientists are already doing their best to find a way to make Spike Jonze’s Her a reality. You can read the reviews by Sr. Helena & Catholic Skywalker to find out why that might not be such a great idea.

And on that cryptic note, we’ll leave you, as always, with the immortal words of the great Les Nessman. Good evening, and may the good news be yours.

War Pigs

It's pretty-much impossible for "300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE" to be as good as it's trailers have been, right?

19th Prix Lumières Winners

With what seems was a more serious ceremony, at least from previous years, but unfortunately unlike what happened in previous editions, there was no live streaming the foreign press based in Paris gave their awards and the big winner is excellent La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 that now not only has a Palme d'Or but also a Panther and wouldn't surprise me if movie also gets a César. Great.

The Prix spécial de la Commission supérieure technique de l’image et du son that honors the best cinematographer was given to Thomas Hardmeier (AFC) for L' Extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet de Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

The Jury Special Prize went to Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski.

Winners are not listed yet at official site but eventually will be here as well as the video of the ceremony that yes, obviously will watch when becomes available. I'm listing winners from Prix Lumières Twitter account here and news from Allocine.

Winners are in *BLUE.

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12/18/13
Today the foreign press based in Paris announced the nominations for the current edition that honors French and Francophone films. Award ceremony will be January 20. 2014 at 9:00pm in l'Espace Cardin.

Leading the pack is Quai d'Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier with 5 nominations followed by La Vie d'Adèle and 9 mois ferme with 4 nods each. It is simply fantastic to find Léa Seydoux nominated along great performances by Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve , Emmanuele Seigner as even if her role is less "colorfull" than of her protagonist, she has an outstanding performance in Kechiche's Blue is the Warmest Color.

Perhaps I'm a bit strict but agree with these nods as even when Adèle Exarchopoulos has an extraordinary performance, I can't place her along the Best Actress nominees, so it is great that she is nominated in the Newcomer category, which obviously will win even do there are other extraordinary performances in category, like the ones from Pauline Etienne and Marine Vactch.

Best Film
9 mois ferme by Albert Dupontel
Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski
*La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche
L’Ecume des jours by Michel Gondry
Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier
Renoir by Gilles Bourdos

Best Foreign Film in French
Aujourd’hui by Alain Gomis, France and Senegal
*Les Chevaux by Dieu de Nabil Ayouch, France, Morocco, and Belgium
Le Démantèlement by Sébastien Pilote, Canada
Dead Man Talking by Patrick Ridremont, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg
Gabrielle by Louise Archambault, Canada
Le Repenti by Merzak Allouache, Algeria and France

Best Director
Gilles Bourdos for Renoir
Albert Dupontel for 9 mois ferme
Michel Gondry for L'Ecume des jours
*Abdellatif Kechiche for La vie d’Adèle
Bertrand Tavernier for Quai d'Orsay
Rebecca Zlotowski for Grand Central

Prix Heike Hurst to Best First Film
Au-delà du sang by Guillaume Tauveron, France and, Japan
Comme un lion by Samuel Collarday
En solitaire by Christophe Offenstein
*Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! by Guillaume Galienne
La tête la première by Amélie van Elmbt, France and Belgium
Nous irons vivre ailleurs by Nicolas Karolszyk

Best Screenplay (Original or Adaptation)
Le passé by Asghar Farhadi
Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier
9 mois ferme by Albert Dupntel
La Marche by Nabil Ben Yadir
*La Vénus à la fourrure by Roman Polanski
Arrêtez-moi by Jean-Paul Lilienfeld

Best Actress
Juliette Binoche in Camille Claudel, 1915 by Bruno Dumont
Catherine Deneuve in Elle s’en va by Emmanuelle Bercot
Sandrine Kiberlain in 9 mois ferme by Albert Dupontel
Emmanuelle Seigner in La Vénus à la fourrure by Roman Polanski
Christa Theret in Renoir by Gilles Bourdos
*Léa Seydoux in Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski AND La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche

Best Female Newcomer
Pauline Etienne in La Religieuse de Guillaume Nicloux, France, Germany and Belgium
*Adèle Exarchopoulos in La vie d’Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2 by Abdellatif Kechiche
Alice de Lencquesaing in La tête la première by Amélie van Elmbt
Candy Ming in Henri by Yolande Moreau
Vimala Pons in La fille du 14 juillet de Antonin Peretjatko
Marine Vactch in dans Jeune & Jolie by François Ozon

Best Actor
Michel Bouquet in Renoir by Gilles Bourdos
Guillaume Canet in Jappeloup by Christian Duguay
Romain Duris in L’Ecume des jours by Michel Gondry
*Guillaume Galienne in Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! by Guillaume Galiene
Thierry L'Hermitte in Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier
Tahar Rahim in Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski

Best Male Newcomer
Pierre Deladonchamps in L’Inconnu du lac de Alain Guiraudie
Paul Hamy in Suzanne by Katell Qquillevere
Tewfik Jallab in La Marche by Nabil Ben Yadir
Vincent Macaigne dans La fille du 14 juillet de Antonin Peretjatko
*Raphaël Personnaz in Quai d’Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier AND Marius de Daniel Auteuil
Niels Schneider in Désordres d’Etienne Faure

Have seen a few films but there are some that I'm looking forward to see soon. If you wish to read the news available only in French go here or go to Official Site but nominations are NOT up yet.