Upcoming films
- Thread starter Maltin
- Start date
Lars and the Real Girl
"Ryan Gosling, one of the finest actors currently working in American independent cinema, is once again outstanding in this offbeat but exceptionally accomplished film. Starting off as funny and quirky, Lars and the Real Girl gradually becomes a riveting yet never heavy-handed psychological portrait of a lost soul who thinks no one loves him."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34522
"When a socially awkward small-town bachelor introduces an anatomically correct silicone doll as his girlfriend, the local community ultimately responds with surprising compassion in "Lars and the Real Girl." Helmer Craig Gillespie's sweetly off-kilter film plays like a Coen brothers riff on Garrison Keillor's "Lake Woebegone" tales, defying its lurid premise with a gentle comic drama grounded in reality. Although well-acted by a name cast, the offbeat subject matter and idiosyncratic tone make it arthouse material."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934677
Battle in Seattle
"A labour of love for actor turned director Stuart Townsend, Battle In Seattle is an uneven but ultimately impassioned recreation of the riots at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle . Documentary footage and fictional drama scenes make for initially uneasy bedfellows but this is a film that seems to grow in stature as it unfolds and matures. The end result is an accomplished political drama in the manner reminiscent of Ken Loach."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34510
Before the Rains
"A bittersweet journey from blinkered loyalty to rueful independence, Before The Rains captures the crumbling of British rule in 1930s India through a doomed love affair and its tragic consequences. In its more obvious moments it strays perilously close to the conventions of romantic fiction and feels as if it might be more suited to the small screen. Overly familiar material is handled with enough skill and conviction by Indian director Santosh Sivan to create a quietly compelling drama."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34519
Blood Brothers
"The closing film at the Venice film festival, Blood Brothers is a dark gangster fable set in 1930s Shanghai - and a stylish but hollow debut for John Woo protege Alexi Tan. For all the film's lush cinematography, spot-on period detail and all-star Asian cast, there's a feeling of deja vu about this story of three young provincial lads – two of them brothers, the third a close friend – whose all-for-one relationship is destroyed by the moral poison of the big city."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34512
"Ryan Gosling, one of the finest actors currently working in American independent cinema, is once again outstanding in this offbeat but exceptionally accomplished film. Starting off as funny and quirky, Lars and the Real Girl gradually becomes a riveting yet never heavy-handed psychological portrait of a lost soul who thinks no one loves him."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34522
"When a socially awkward small-town bachelor introduces an anatomically correct silicone doll as his girlfriend, the local community ultimately responds with surprising compassion in "Lars and the Real Girl." Helmer Craig Gillespie's sweetly off-kilter film plays like a Coen brothers riff on Garrison Keillor's "Lake Woebegone" tales, defying its lurid premise with a gentle comic drama grounded in reality. Although well-acted by a name cast, the offbeat subject matter and idiosyncratic tone make it arthouse material."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934677
Battle in Seattle
"A labour of love for actor turned director Stuart Townsend, Battle In Seattle is an uneven but ultimately impassioned recreation of the riots at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle . Documentary footage and fictional drama scenes make for initially uneasy bedfellows but this is a film that seems to grow in stature as it unfolds and matures. The end result is an accomplished political drama in the manner reminiscent of Ken Loach."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34510
Before the Rains
"A bittersweet journey from blinkered loyalty to rueful independence, Before The Rains captures the crumbling of British rule in 1930s India through a doomed love affair and its tragic consequences. In its more obvious moments it strays perilously close to the conventions of romantic fiction and feels as if it might be more suited to the small screen. Overly familiar material is handled with enough skill and conviction by Indian director Santosh Sivan to create a quietly compelling drama."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34519
Blood Brothers
"The closing film at the Venice film festival, Blood Brothers is a dark gangster fable set in 1930s Shanghai - and a stylish but hollow debut for John Woo protege Alexi Tan. For all the film's lush cinematography, spot-on period detail and all-star Asian cast, there's a feeling of deja vu about this story of three young provincial lads – two of them brothers, the third a close friend – whose all-for-one relationship is destroyed by the moral poison of the big city."
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=34512
Elizabeth the Golden Age
""Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is a follow-up less golden than its 1998 predecessor. Without the pleasure of watching Cate Blanchett continue the role that launched her to stardom, there would be little to recommend this latest of many cinematic and television accounts of the celebrated monarch's life, which is melodramatic, narrowly concerned with portraying her human vulnerabilities, and, thanks to a constantly pounding musical score, bombastic."
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934658.html?categoryid=1263&cs=1
"Queen Bess is back in fine form in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," the second of a potential three-part historical romance about England's Virgin Queen. Cate Blanchett has lost none of the brio that earned her an Oscar nom for 1998's "Elizabeth." Nor has returning director Shekhar Kapur toned down any of the energetic camera moves, pageantry or vivid colors he deployed to reformulate historical drama in the original movie. This is history writ large, presented in terms of larger-than-life personalities rather than changing political, social and religious climates. It's robust historical fiction, designed as movie spectacle, which calls out to toss aside dusty history books and join the fun."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9779
Silk
"The arresting European and Japanese locales, period costumes, sets and props all seem poised for a much richer and more significant movie than "Silk" has to offer. You search its images, which seems to have more to do with mid-19th century methods of international travel than characters or events, for any sort of action to glom on to. Few movies ever have gone to such a length to tell so slight -- and, worse, unengaging -- a story."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9799
Battle for Haditha
"After directing documentaries for the past quarter-century, Nick Broomfield ("Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie and Tupac") has taken on his first dramatic narrative with "Battle for Haditha."
Portraying the events leading to the Nov. 19, 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi noncombatants at the hands of U.S. Marines, the film retains many of the cinema verite qualities of Broomfield's previous works, lending it a powerful, devastating immediacy."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9795
Dans La Vie
"The world could learn a thing or two about getting along from Esther and Halima, the two ladies in question in Philippe Faucon's nicely observed little film about an unlikely friendship."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9791
""Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is a follow-up less golden than its 1998 predecessor. Without the pleasure of watching Cate Blanchett continue the role that launched her to stardom, there would be little to recommend this latest of many cinematic and television accounts of the celebrated monarch's life, which is melodramatic, narrowly concerned with portraying her human vulnerabilities, and, thanks to a constantly pounding musical score, bombastic."
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934658.html?categoryid=1263&cs=1
"Queen Bess is back in fine form in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," the second of a potential three-part historical romance about England's Virgin Queen. Cate Blanchett has lost none of the brio that earned her an Oscar nom for 1998's "Elizabeth." Nor has returning director Shekhar Kapur toned down any of the energetic camera moves, pageantry or vivid colors he deployed to reformulate historical drama in the original movie. This is history writ large, presented in terms of larger-than-life personalities rather than changing political, social and religious climates. It's robust historical fiction, designed as movie spectacle, which calls out to toss aside dusty history books and join the fun."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9779
Silk
"The arresting European and Japanese locales, period costumes, sets and props all seem poised for a much richer and more significant movie than "Silk" has to offer. You search its images, which seems to have more to do with mid-19th century methods of international travel than characters or events, for any sort of action to glom on to. Few movies ever have gone to such a length to tell so slight -- and, worse, unengaging -- a story."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9799
Battle for Haditha
"After directing documentaries for the past quarter-century, Nick Broomfield ("Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie and Tupac") has taken on his first dramatic narrative with "Battle for Haditha."
Portraying the events leading to the Nov. 19, 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi noncombatants at the hands of U.S. Marines, the film retains many of the cinema verite qualities of Broomfield's previous works, lending it a powerful, devastating immediacy."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9795
Dans La Vie
"The world could learn a thing or two about getting along from Esther and Halima, the two ladies in question in Philippe Faucon's nicely observed little film about an unlikely friendship."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9791
This sounds pretty good:Maltin said:
"Expansively, dramatically, magnificently Russian, Nikita Mikhalkov's loose remake of Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men" plays like vintage jazz from a veteran band. Orchestrating his 11 co-actors in virtuoso solos, duets, trios and ensembles, Mikhalkov assures each jury member commands the stage with pathos and panache. Fully exploiting the Chekhov-derived Russian genius for theatricalizing without waxing stagy, "12" marks a triumphant return for the helmer, who received a special Golden Lion for his overall body of work at Venice."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934676
Diary of the Dead
"Scaling back the broad sweep of previous horror opus "Land of the Dead" and largely jettisoning the increasingly comedic possibilities of the concept in favor of pointed, impassioned social criticism and close-in genre thrills, gore's godfather audaciously and successfully reboots his incalculably influential zombie franchise as a lean, mean teen-survival machine in "George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead." Gripping, intimate genre triumph"
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934690
The Girl in the Park
"The proof's missing from the pudding in playwright David Auburn's writing-helming debut, "The Girl in the Park." Starring Sigourney Weaver as a grieving mother who never recovers her equilibrium after her young daughter goes missing on her watch, this tonally disparate New York City-set pic veers uneasily between melodrama and psycho-thriller. Soap opera-like situations, pedestrian dialogue and Weaver's overwrought performance elicited snickers at the Toronto press showing"
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934686
Brick Lane
"Monica Ali's elegant and critically trumpeted debut novel, "Brick Lane," about the travails, conflicting emotions and quiet liberation of a Muslim woman in London, is a far lesser thing in its bigscreen transformation. Depth of character, such a distinctive quality of Ali's book, is sacrificed for simpler strokes and shallower dimensions, with an undue emphasis placed by helmer Sarah Gavron and lenser Robbie Ryan on gorgeous pictures."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934699
Nothing is Private
"Alan Ball goes one for two in his feature helming debut, hitting a double with his provocative script but fouling out with his directing in "Nothing Is Private." Maintaining consistent tone and performances in such a stylized "period piece" (a teenage girl's period is just one of many touchy subjects broached here) is of the utmost importance, and the "Six Feet Under" auteur doesn't have the control to keep it from veering all over the place, to queasy and debilitating effect."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934702
""Nothing Is Private," Alan Ball's feature directorial debut, packs a major wallop.
Alternately disturbing, laceratingly satirical and affectingly poignant, the film, which he adapted from the novel, "Towelhead," by Alicia Erian, is very much a companion piece to the Ball-penned "American Beauty" in its unwavering examination of the dirty little secrets and raging hypocrisies lurking just beyond all those manicured suburban lawns."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9819
The Early Years - Eric Nietzsche Part I
"Danish film poobah Lars von Trier prides himself on being the grain of grit in the well-oiled oyster of world cinema. Sometimes, the result is mere irritation; often enough, it's a pearl. The Jacob Thuesen-helmed "The Early Years -- Eric Nietszche Part I" is more like mother-of-pearl -- or father, since von Trier's screenplay is an apologia for himself. But this rough-hewn comedy is droll enough to entice world cinema fans, established von Trier-ites, budding film students and more, since the world portrayed in this faux biopic is as universal a snake pit as "The Office.""
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934706
Joy Division
"After two features dramatizing the peripheral aspects of Manchester's greatest rock band, the stylish doc "Joy Division" gets to the heart of the matter. Pic takes full measure of the extraordinary unit's music and its unlikely rise to instant-legend status, and has an eye for detail many similar docs simply lack."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934714
Bill
"If this "Bill" ever arrives, duck out on it. A labored screwball comedy about disenchanted people of privilege yearning for fulfillment, pic is full of leaden hijinx directed and played with all the subtlety of a myocardial infarction."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934717
Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who
"Like that greatest-hits collection that gathers material scattered over different labels and lesser works from a band's canon in one convenient package, "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who" is a one-stop, up-to-the-minute overview of a band that's been profiled in docu form on many occasions but is still making music, and headlines, in sporadic bursts. An automatic addition to the boomer fan's DVD shelf, Universal release will find a more challenging path theatrically; a lot of years have passed since 1979's "The Kids Are Alright," and while the band's back catalog is strong, their current draw is an iffier proposition."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934718
"Scaling back the broad sweep of previous horror opus "Land of the Dead" and largely jettisoning the increasingly comedic possibilities of the concept in favor of pointed, impassioned social criticism and close-in genre thrills, gore's godfather audaciously and successfully reboots his incalculably influential zombie franchise as a lean, mean teen-survival machine in "George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead." Gripping, intimate genre triumph"
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934690
The Girl in the Park
"The proof's missing from the pudding in playwright David Auburn's writing-helming debut, "The Girl in the Park." Starring Sigourney Weaver as a grieving mother who never recovers her equilibrium after her young daughter goes missing on her watch, this tonally disparate New York City-set pic veers uneasily between melodrama and psycho-thriller. Soap opera-like situations, pedestrian dialogue and Weaver's overwrought performance elicited snickers at the Toronto press showing"
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934686
Brick Lane
"Monica Ali's elegant and critically trumpeted debut novel, "Brick Lane," about the travails, conflicting emotions and quiet liberation of a Muslim woman in London, is a far lesser thing in its bigscreen transformation. Depth of character, such a distinctive quality of Ali's book, is sacrificed for simpler strokes and shallower dimensions, with an undue emphasis placed by helmer Sarah Gavron and lenser Robbie Ryan on gorgeous pictures."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934699
Nothing is Private
"Alan Ball goes one for two in his feature helming debut, hitting a double with his provocative script but fouling out with his directing in "Nothing Is Private." Maintaining consistent tone and performances in such a stylized "period piece" (a teenage girl's period is just one of many touchy subjects broached here) is of the utmost importance, and the "Six Feet Under" auteur doesn't have the control to keep it from veering all over the place, to queasy and debilitating effect."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934702
""Nothing Is Private," Alan Ball's feature directorial debut, packs a major wallop.
Alternately disturbing, laceratingly satirical and affectingly poignant, the film, which he adapted from the novel, "Towelhead," by Alicia Erian, is very much a companion piece to the Ball-penned "American Beauty" in its unwavering examination of the dirty little secrets and raging hypocrisies lurking just beyond all those manicured suburban lawns."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9819
The Early Years - Eric Nietzsche Part I
"Danish film poobah Lars von Trier prides himself on being the grain of grit in the well-oiled oyster of world cinema. Sometimes, the result is mere irritation; often enough, it's a pearl. The Jacob Thuesen-helmed "The Early Years -- Eric Nietszche Part I" is more like mother-of-pearl -- or father, since von Trier's screenplay is an apologia for himself. But this rough-hewn comedy is droll enough to entice world cinema fans, established von Trier-ites, budding film students and more, since the world portrayed in this faux biopic is as universal a snake pit as "The Office.""
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934706
Joy Division
"After two features dramatizing the peripheral aspects of Manchester's greatest rock band, the stylish doc "Joy Division" gets to the heart of the matter. Pic takes full measure of the extraordinary unit's music and its unlikely rise to instant-legend status, and has an eye for detail many similar docs simply lack."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934714
Bill
"If this "Bill" ever arrives, duck out on it. A labored screwball comedy about disenchanted people of privilege yearning for fulfillment, pic is full of leaden hijinx directed and played with all the subtlety of a myocardial infarction."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934717
Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who
"Like that greatest-hits collection that gathers material scattered over different labels and lesser works from a band's canon in one convenient package, "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who" is a one-stop, up-to-the-minute overview of a band that's been profiled in docu form on many occasions but is still making music, and headlines, in sporadic bursts. An automatic addition to the boomer fan's DVD shelf, Universal release will find a more challenging path theatrically; a lot of years have passed since 1979's "The Kids Are Alright," and while the band's back catalog is strong, their current draw is an iffier proposition."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934718
Honeydripper
John Sayle's latest got mixed reviews.
"John Sayles the storyteller and John Sayles the political progressive haven't always played well together, but, in the endearing musical time-piece "Honeydripper," the indie icon lets his narrative gifts take the lead and the social issues follow like a tight bass line. The result is one of Sayles' best films. The music, a mix of blues, seminal rock and newcomer Gary Clark Jr.'s performance, will be an obvious draw, as will the performances by some leading African-American actors."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934684
"His heart -- and musical soul -- is in the right place, but the film makes you at times uncomfortable with black and Southern stereotypes that may hinder some from fully enjoying an otherwise benign and cheerful tall tale of the Saturday night when rock came to rural Alabama."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9800
John Sayle's latest got mixed reviews.
"John Sayles the storyteller and John Sayles the political progressive haven't always played well together, but, in the endearing musical time-piece "Honeydripper," the indie icon lets his narrative gifts take the lead and the social issues follow like a tight bass line. The result is one of Sayles' best films. The music, a mix of blues, seminal rock and newcomer Gary Clark Jr.'s performance, will be an obvious draw, as will the performances by some leading African-American actors."
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117934684
"His heart -- and musical soul -- is in the right place, but the film makes you at times uncomfortable with black and Southern stereotypes that may hinder some from fully enjoying an otherwise benign and cheerful tall tale of the Saturday night when rock came to rural Alabama."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9800
There is a also a trailer available now for Jonathan Demme's documentary Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains referred to above.
Dhimmi
Half Man Half HobNob
Exodus
Sorry missed this one.
I found it fragmented and confusing, still happy to see it's getting good reviews.
I doubt you're see me, blink and I'm gone. I'm the blood covered beardy bloke helping a child in the school bombing scene, must be on screen for a whole two or three seconds(maybe four!). Amazing when you consider it took five takes over fours hours to shoot that scene, and with a lot of effort on the set dressing.
Best actor in it was the dreaded guy, he was great and a nice geezer to boot.
This is due to be shown on channel four, not sure of the date though
Maltin said:
Sorry missed this one.
I found it fragmented and confusing, still happy to see it's getting good reviews.
I doubt you're see me, blink and I'm gone. I'm the blood covered beardy bloke helping a child in the school bombing scene, must be on screen for a whole two or three seconds(maybe four!). Amazing when you consider it took five takes over fours hours to shoot that scene, and with a lot of effort on the set dressing.
Best actor in it was the dreaded guy, he was great and a nice geezer to boot.
This is due to be shown on channel four, not sure of the date though
