James Franco has become an interest creative force in Hollywood the past few years. From producing documentaries about BDSM porn to acting in films like Pineapple Express to now directing a William Faulkner adaptation. His film As I Lay Dying premiered today at Cannes and recieved mixed to less than rapturous praise. Check out the reactions after the jump! Read more on First reactions to James Franco’s ‘As I Lay Dying’ pour in!…
Categories: Festivals, News
Tags: 2013 Cannes Film Festival, 2013 releases, Ahna O'Reilly, As I Lay Dying, James Franco, Jim Parrack, Logan Marshall-Green
Tags: 2013 Cannes Film Festival, 2013 releases, Ahna O'Reilly, As I Lay Dying, James Franco, Jim Parrack, Logan Marshall-Green
Comments: 1 Comment |
With Star Trek into Darkness, director J.J. Abrams has not only made one of the most action packed Star Trek films to date, he’s also made the most compelling case yet for him to successfully cross over into the world of Star Wars. This is a space adventure, pure and simple, so Trekkies may take issue with certain things, though regular audiences members are likely in for a rollicking good time at the movies.
I can’t say that I cared much for ‘How Sweet It Is’, but at the same time I find myself strangely unhappy that I’m not able to give it more than two stars as I write this review (I briefly considered an extra half star, but felt that it wasn’t fair to give one essentially out of pity). It clearly aims to please and co-writer/director Brian Herzlinger obviously wants you to feel the joy for musical theater that he feels, but it just never comes off. This movie just sort of unspools in front of you without ever getting anything out of you. Now, Herzlinger did get a decent enough cast for this flick, led by a solid Joe Piscopo, but it almost feels more like a student film than something that’s an actual theatrical release. Herzlinger, along with his co-writer Jay Black are trying for something that crosses ‘Bullets Over Broadway’, ‘Chicago’, and ‘Guys and Dolls’ in a way that honors them (specifically that Woody Allen flick, I feel), but it’s a definite misfire. It completely failed to bring out any passion on my end, but I always recognized the effort being put forth by the filmmaker. It just never happened, plain and simple.
I may be alone here, but I’m eagerly awaiting the next movie that filmmaker turned actor (yet still filmmaker) Eli Roth writes and directs. Of late, he’s been acting and writing, but not stepping behind the camera, and the B level disaster movie ‘Aftershock’ is an example of that. Roth is a more talented filmmaker than he often gets credit for, and his skills would have been useful here behind the camera. Sure, he co-wrote and has a prominent part in this flick, but his directorial tastes would have given this an edge that it just doesn’t have. Co-writer/director Nicolás López is not unskilled, but he doesn’t have a light touch at all and he handles things rather matter of factly when a little more fun was needed. There are a few interesting choices on display here, but by and large it’s the type of thing that plays better on cable than in a movie theater. I didn’t have a bad time at all with the film (and the first third is actually pretty well done), but it’s not exactly something you all need to rush out and see. Genre fans will have some fun, but it’s not something that anyone should take seriously in the least.
Baz Luhrmann sure knows how to bring the bombast to his take on The Great Gatsby, but in the end he’s just the latest filmmaker to fail in his attempt to bring the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald to life. Luhrmann, along with co-writer Craig Pearce, relishes in trying to both bring the period setting to the screen in glorious 3D and giving it a vibrant modern feel. Visually, they’re certainly successful, and much of what you see and hear is suitably garish and loud, but the screenplay just can’t deliver. The plot of the novel is there, but it doesn’t express nearly the same thing. Luhrmann isn’t at all interested in the decline of this particular American period of excess and often seems to be celebrating it instead. Luckily for him, he’s got a real good performance from Leonardo DiCaprio in his back pocket. I’m not as indifferent to this latest adaptation as some will be, but a Best Picture contender, this is not. It’s far too artificial and without an emotional center to be anything more. 
Last week, right before the opening of the new film 
I’m not completely sure that filmmaker Mark Mann knew what type of movie he was setting out to make with Generation Umm…, and quite frankly, it shows. Mann utilizes star Keanu Reeves in a way that maximizes his skills, but there’s really not much else of interest on display here. Mann’s nearly humorless approach to the material as both a writer and a director makes this the type of super serious independent film that’s easier to mock at times than appreciate. Reeves is better than he’s been in a while, but can’t save this production. Scenes go on for way too long, confessions and monologues that should be profound come off as trivial, and overall this just is the sort of flick that probably reads better on the page than it does when unspooling on the big screen. I always appreciate an artist trying to do something different, but I can’t excuse a lack of successful execution. Despite barely being more than 90 minutes, this is often a hard movie to sit through, both in terms of pacing and content. Without Mann himself sure of his goals here, an audience member really doesn’t stand a chance of satisfaction.
There’s no two ways about it…What Maisie Knew is an often depressing film. Some of that certainly has to do with the source material, an adaptation of the Henry James novel of the same name, but the team of directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, doing something very different from their last film, along with scribes Carroll Cartwright and Nancy Doyne definitely aren’t shying away from the tough nature. 
For someone like Oscar-winning filmmaker Susanne Bier, the romantic dramedy Love Is All You Need can easily be seen as a light romp. For most other filmmakers, this would lean more on the side of drama, and that’s where the issues begin to crop up. It’s almost as if the movie seems lighter than it is due to the history that Bier has behind the camera. Yes, there are moments of humor, and a warm feeling does radiate, but there’s more than a bit of melancholy in the story of love lost and potentially found. 
Anyone who looks at a new Alexander Payne film and doesn’t assume that the Academy will nominate it in some way is honestly just blind to history. Aside from Payne’s feature debut Citizen Ruth, every single one of his movies has received at least one Oscar nomination, and a pair of them have won the filmmaker himself an Academy Award for screenwriting. His latest flick Nebraska could very well continue that trend, with an upcoming debut at the Cannes Film Festival our first hint, though the people at Paramount seem to be confident about the work, as they’ve opted to begin its limited release rollout on November 22nd, right in the heart of the awards season. Not only that, but they’ve allowed him to release the picture in black and white as well. A little more after the jump.
If you ever wondered what filmmaker Michael Bay considered to be a low budget character piece, I suppose Pain & Gain is literally your answer. A dim witted and only sporadically amusing action comedy, Bay still makes things as flashy and vapid as usual, just this time he’s attempting to do something that’s tongue in cheek. The problem is, there’s no sense of irony here and it’s about as subtle as a root canal, leaving you with the distinct feeling that you’re supposed to identify with these loathsome characters populating the film. To be fair, there are attempts at making them more than just imbeciles, but it rarely succeeds. The main trio of Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne (formerly The Rock) Johnson, and Anthony Mackie are having a good deal of fun here, and Bay is as well, but the script they’re utilizing from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely is not nearly good enough to make the movie work. This is an overstuffed, overlong, and immature flick that probably has more in common with the ‘Transformers’ franchise than it’d ever want to admit. This is Bay’s best film in a number of years, but that just means that it’s severely mediocre instead of downright dreadful.
Though not quite on the same level as his directorial debut ‘Choke’ (at least for me), actor/filmmaker Clark Gregg shows us that he’s a real multi-hyphenate with his sophomore project ‘Trust Me’, a Hollywood satire with a lot going for it. Gregg has cast the film quite well, including placing himself in the lead, a place I wish the actor found himself in more often. He’s not shy about making a character at least somewhat unlikable, and a film looking to skewer tinsel town really needs to have that. Gregg is specifically looking at the world through the eyes of a talent agent, notably in terms of child stars, and that also gives this flick a different angle. For about an hour, this is a really strong black comedy, and even if the final third goes in a different direction that I didn’t like nearly as much, this is still a very solid movie and one of the better things to have screened so far at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s very hard not to be a fan of Gregg, and he’s only making it more difficult here. The man is quickly becoming more than just a character actor, and that delights me to no end.
The humor tinged drama ‘The Pretty One’ had a lot of ways in which it could have turned out poorly. It’s got a high concept of sorts that requires top notch execution and a dedicated lead performance, at the very least. Luckily, writer/director Jenée LaMarque was able to get Zoe Kazan in the main role(s), and she knocks this one completely out of the park. Kazan owns the screen playing twins with incredibly different personalities, so much so that they’re always two separate characters, even during the many moments in the first act where they share the screen. LaMarque gets one of Kazan’s three best performances to date, and that goes along with a strong supporting performance from Jake Johnson as well. By carefully balancing tragedy and lighthearted identity issues, ‘The Pretty One’ has managed to be the best thing I’ve seen at the Tribeca Film Festival so far (not counting ‘Before Midnight’, which I already saw back at the Sundance Film Festival), and not by a little either. Kazan is worth the price of admission alone, but the movie is good even without her. She just manages to elevate to something nearly touching greatness. Right now, this is the surprise awards contender out of the festival in my eyes. Kazan deserves recognition for this work.
People in this line of work like to joke that documentaries only focus on incredibly downbeat or somber subjects. While that’s not 100% accurate, downer docs do tend to be in the majority, so when you come across one that doesn’t make you want to sit quietly in the corner and fight back tears, it’s definitely a welcome change of pace. That being said, it doesn’t mean that the film gets a free pass, and this non-fiction film from the Tribeca Film Festival suffers in that regard. Amusing at times, even with its own incredibly short running time, Little Bub & Friendz is a harmless little film that scores points for positivity but winds up not giving you enough interest to sustain.
