The Hurt Locker

Rather than explain the tardiness of this post I shall say only a few words. If you haven't seen this film already I suggest you get off your couch and watch it straight away. One of the best movies I've seen all summer. Absolutely amazing. Had me on the edge of my seat, literally, the whole time. Movie was amazingly executed by Kathryn Bigelow, who her keeps proving how amazing she is time and time again. A tour de force of outstanding performances by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty. With a peppering of spledid appearances by the likes of Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Guy Pearce. I am adding this hyperlink to Moving Pictures Magazines video interviews with the main cast, director, and writer, Mark Boal. It just goes to show how amazing this feature is because of how proud the cast is even to be apart of it in a small capacity. Take a look and enjoy!

There is a holiness to the hearts affection…

Oh Jane Campion…what a marvel this women is. Her newest cinematic release, Bright Star, which premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival and is slated for limited release for September 2009, looks absolutely stunning. This film follows a three-year romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. The synopsis, written by Campion which appears in a most amazing website for the film says this:

“London 1818; a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet, John Keat, and the girl nest door, Fanny Brawne, an out spoken student of high fashion.
This unlikely pair began at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she was unimpressed not only his poetry but also by literature in general.
However, when Fanny heard that Keats was nursing his seriously ill younger brother, her efforts to help touched Keats and when she asked him to teach her about poetry he agreed. The poetry soon became a romantic remedy that worked not only to sort their differences but also to fuel an impassioned love affair.
When Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’ best friends finally awoke to their attachment the relationship already had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept deeply into powerful new sensations, “ I have the feeling as if I were dissolving,” Keat wrote to her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that only deepened as their troubles mounted.
When Keats fell ill a year later, the two young lovers faced not marriage but separation. In Keats’s own poignant words “forever panting and forever young.” ”

How beautiful; Campion wrote the screenplay at which the title of this post belongs to. Watch the trailer below. There is no way anyone should miss this.

Keep an Eye Out For...

Tron Legacy (2011)

Hold the gasps, but this might actually be a pretty awesome remake. This trailer is proof that this one will surely be aesthetically pleasing. Despite that I am the first to opt for less remakes, sequels and prequels I must say I am rather impressed by this trailer and am quite excited for this to come out. Writer Sam Lanckton wrote an article for Moving Pictures Magazine called "Revenge of the 80s" you should check it out. Hopefully it might help you make up your mind about your feelings on the upcoming remakes slated for the next few years(which incidentally hail from the 80s for the most part). All in all Tron Legacy looks pretty cool and I want to see it based purely on this trailer above...and some zen Jeff Bridges ever now and again isn't gonna hurt anyone either. ;)

Live long, prosper, and keep movie-going!

Can We Please Get Excited for This...ASAP

Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox

adapted from Roald Dahl novel of the same name.

SUPER EXCITED!

New Hayao Miyazaki! Ponyo Coming Out Soon.

New Hayao Miyazaki! Based upon the Hans Christian Andersen favorite The Little Mermaid. Miyazaki brings to you, again, something like we've never seen. Disney ain't got noting on Mr. Miyazaki. Watch the trailer here. The video is in Italian but it's the best quality I could find. I'm super stoked for it. Hope you are too!

Le Notte di Cabiria

Per l’amore di Dio. Fellini does this to me every time; every single time. He’s proven to me again why he’ll forever be my favorite director.

So I haven’t posted in a while and I thought to myself which film should I watch to review for the blog after almost two months absence? What would prove to be so emotionally bountiful that it would have me writing for an entire afternoon? Eureka! Fellini I tell myself. Put some Fellini on. Since I have collected a plethora of used Criterion Collection Fellini picks I put one of them on. One I haven’t seen. Le Notte Di Cabiria.

Unsure of it’s premise—as I refused to read the backs of DVD’s anymore—it begins. My notes for the beginning of this film consist of, mentioning the music as it’s pure Nino Rota magic. *Side note: Something needs to be written about the collaboration with these two men because it’s one of legend. Anyways, back to my notes on Cabiria. So I mention the music, Gieulietta Masina’s height (as she’s ever so tiny and lovely I might add), her eyebrows, which are a marvel unto themselves in this film, and small aesthetic things, like the lighting, the compositions, and such(which I’ve added pictures for as examples of how brilliantly this is executed). But really by the forty-minute mark, I wasn’t quite sure if I had picked the emotional opus I was hoping for. Let me say one thing, and this is why I never walk out of movies, this impatience I had throughout the whole film ended up kicking my ass into a blubbering fool by the end. I was in ruins by the end of this film, crying and sobbing like a child. Giulietta Masina is phenomenal and she will melt your heart with one look. Really her and Fellini, (and I’ll repeat it) had me in ruins by the end of the movie.

I just realized that this is the first Fellini movie I’ve written about since I started this blog. I don’t think I am out of line to say that this movie is remarkable and I can see why it is considered one of Fellini’s very best. It's a black and white marvel. If you have the chance to go out and watch this film please do. It will definitely leave you a bit shaken. Watch it and make up your own mind. One thing is for sure though, there nothing else out there like it. And above all else what better reason should one have to watch movies than that?

Milk

Just watched Milk. Despite what I’ve heard about it-that it’s more of a character study than a feature film-I just watched Milk. I just watched Milk and I don’t even know what to do with myself.

Unfortunately I was hesitant to watch this film cause I was afraid it would be boring, however I was proved very wrong. Sure this film, in terms of basic form and style, is not one of the best but what I can assure you is that it goes beyond this because of the time it was released and what it represents to the public today. Was Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song a “good film” maybe not but it was important and pertinent for the time it was released and what it represented to its public. Yes. With an incredible script, and an outstanding cast, which shows superb acting from some of our prime veterans to some of our young and brightest, Milk for me is exceptional. As a film lover and scholar, Milk presents another example of a film that is significant and will be spoken about for years to come because of—very importantly—it’s timing.

Right now we are in a period of unrest. Sadly on November 5th 2008 millions of people voted YES for Prop 8 in California, they said YES to bigotry, YES to discrimination and YES to second-class status for same-sex couples. What difference does Prop 8 have in comparison to Prop 6 that Harvey Milk was fighting? Everyone deserves the same rights and the fact that Prop 8 passed is sickening!

On noonprop8.com there is a quote from activist and writer Anne Lamott, she says “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” Milk will be a representation and message of what some of the film community was trying to say about Gay rights during this period. It’s message is a hopeful one. A reminder saying never to give up, never give up, because if you never give up you’ll never fail and things will get better. No matter who’s eyes are watching we are all created equal. It’s quite simple, don’t be small and closed minded. Don’t support bigotry and discrimination. We all deserve the same rights.