It was kind of a boring weekend, so I thought I'd have a chat with two of my good pals and then foist it off as an actual article. Our topic of discussion was An American Carol, its reception from film critics and moviegoers, and the aggressive ways in which people often communicate through the internet (our review is currently up to well over 100 comments). Joining us today are my esteemed colleagues Eric D. Snider and William B. Goss. Let's listen in, shall we?
Scott: You both saw and reviewed An American Carol. What can you tell us about readers' reactions to your articles?
Will: Reader reaction was, for the most part, violently contrarian, with many equating the lack of laughter on my part to some sort of deep-seated anti-American sentiments, and not due to David Zucker's anti-humor stance.
Eric: Mostly the same for me. A lot of comments were posted within a very short span of time, and they said basically the same thing as each other, making me wonder if there was an organized effort somewhere urging people to make their voices heard.
Scott: Would you say you walked into the film with any prejudice or bias?
Eric: I was predisposed to liking David Zucker. I even liked (for the most part) the last two "Scary Movie" films, which he directed, which I think put me in the minority. I was wary of how good a comedy would be when it was made with such a specific goal in mind -- usually you gotta let the humor come first, then the ideology, not the other way around -- but I was curious to see what would happen.
Will: While I LOVE Airplane!, really like the first Naked Gun, and genuinely enjoy Scary Movie 3, I didn't laugh during the trailer and couldn't recall if I was ever pleasantly surprised by any film that went unscreened for press.
Eric: Good point... Not screening is almost always a bad sign. I'm sure that dampened my expectations somewhat.
If you happen to already be of the opinion that Michael Moore is not the lovable man of the people he appears to be, then this news probably won't be changing your feelings about him anytime soon. One month after Moore offered up free downloads of his latest documentary, Slacker Uprising, Torrent Freak reports that "In a letter dated September 25th, lawyers representing Westside Productions LLC, owner of the Slacker Uprising copyright sprang into action, demanding the removal of a torrent linking to the movie from any and all international sites."
Moore's latest was compiled of footage from his recent college tour -- a tour in which he traveled to colleges in the so-called 'swing states' to speak to students in an attempt to energize young voters. The film is a re-edited version of Moore's 2007 doc, Captain Mike Across America, which screened at TIFF in '07 to lukewarm reviews. Moore initially said the reason behind the free download was both a reward to fans who have supported him over the years, as well as a way to get out his message prior to the upcoming presidential election.
The download was offered only to those living in the US and Canada, but it didn't take long for the film to start popping up on numerous torrent sites outside of North America. Moore's lawyers inexplicably sent their letter to the DNS service (easyDNS) of one of the international sites pirating the flick, which is not required to comply with US law. A co-founder of easyDNS responded to Moore's lawyers with the following: "...Anybody with half a clue knows the net doesn't work like that. In any case, I've sent them our standard 'we're not the web host, we're just the lowly DNS service', but I did point out this seeming contradiction in Michael Moore's message vs. his lawyer's actions."
So while Moore may have every right to control how his film is distributed, maybe someone should have explained that old saying about the internet and pee in a pool.
In Miracle at St. Anna, four African-American soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines in Italy near the end of World War II; caught between indifferent leadership and hostile troops, the four fight to survive -- and protect the Italian villagers they've come to know during their exile. Director Spike Lee spoke with Cinematical from New York about the challenges of film financing in modern Hollywood ("it's hard to get stuff made today that's not superhero, comic-book, TV show, sequel stuff. ..."), shooting in an 800-year-old Italian town (" ... all we had to do was take down the satellite dishes ...") and the challenges his new film faces (" ... historically, women do not run to see, or even walk to see, or even crawl to see World War II films ..."), The Wire ("'Omar's Coming!'"), sequel possibilities for Inside Man and more.
Lee even touched on politics and race in the here-and-now: "I'm optimistic. We're going to have a Black president. The 44th President of the United States is going to be a Black man ... I think this is a definite indication of how far America has moved in how it views race. ..."
Cinematical: I was very curious if you could talk a little bit about the genesis of what brought you specifically to Miracle at St. Anna as a film?
Spike Lee: I needed something to read; I went into my wife's office; looked up on her shelf upon shelf of books (laughs) and the spirit told me to go to this one book -- all the time my head is twisted to the side, trying to read the titles -- read this title, Miracle at St. Anna; that sounds interesting; take the book off the shelf, see the cover of a Black soldier with a young Italian kid, World War II, said "Let me read this. ..." After the first chapter, I said "I want to make this into a film, called up James McBride, we met ... and here we are. That's the abbreviated version. ...
I guess when you make a movie about the Irish Republican Army and Northern Ireland's infamous "Troubles," you're bound to court some controversy. Fifty Dead Men Walking, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival despite legal threats from the man whose life it's based on (he has since dropped his suit), has now drawn more fire because of comments made by one of its stars, Rose McGowan.
During an interview in Toronto last week, McGowan, who plays an IRA operative in the film and whose father is Irish, said: "I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100 percent have been in the IRA.... My heart just broke for the cause. Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it."
This has caused a bit of a hullabaloo in that part of the world, where the IRA was officially classified as a terrorist group. (Its proponents saw themselves more as freedom fighters, striving to throw off the shackles of British rule.) Martin McGartland, the British secret agent whose infiltration of the IRA is the basis of the film, said, "Rose McGowan's comments were insulting to victims of IRA terrorism and she should apologize. It's easy to say this sort of thing when you live in L.A." A victims' advocacy group leader said, "She may as well add that she would have joined al-Qaeda and flew those planes into the Twin Towers had she been born a disgruntled Muslim."
The film is based on Jon Ronson's book of the same title, and follows his investigation into the secret wing of the U.S. First Earth Battalion, a paranormal research unit created in 1978. Its goal was to create "Warrior Monks," supersoldiers who could do all sorts of comic-booky things like walk through walls, become invisible, read minds, and kill creatures by staring at them long enough. One soldier in Ronson's book claims he killed a hamster and a goat doing just that.
The adaptation is already switching things around a bit -- it's set in Iraq (where some of the supersoldiers have been reportedly deployed), and McGregor will be playing a stand-in for Ronson named Bob Wilton. He's desperate for a story, and stumbles upon the craziest one of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, played by Clooney, who claims to be a secret psychic soldier, reactivated after 9/11. As they travel through Iraq, investigating the story, they meet Bill Django, played by Bridges, who is the founder of the program and Cassady's mentor. Spacey will play Larry Hooper, another former psychic who is running a prison camp in Iraq.
While the topic of psychic supersoldiers seems to lend itself to comedy, Iraq and prison camps don't, so who knows what tone this will strike. Every actor in this can switch effortlessly from dramatic to quirky -- it's going to be a treat seeing them all in one film. Especially one with psychics and goat murders.
When Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate, people were quick to name the lookalikes who could play her in a movie. But it took Matt Damon to tell us what kind of movie it would actually be. Fearfully predicting that McCain will die in office, the actor says Palin's advancement to the presidency would be like the plot of a bad Disney movie. He even imagines a scene from the movie involving Palin's showdown against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink." Basically he's described something along the lines of King Ralph, only with a hockey mom president instead of an American slob turned British monarch.
Of course, Damon's snide comments are probably meant to be a joke, even if he looks 100% serious while saying it. But the thing he fails to realize is that America loves these kinds of "bad" Disney movies involving fish out of water stories and simple folk characters who rise to the top. "The Hockey Mom" would certainly be a bigger hit than Damon's non Ocean's and Bourne movies. So, his attempt to humorously describe a bad scenario may in fact be welcomed as a heartwarming and crowd-pleasing possible future. Either way, his intended criticism of Palin is just the latest in useless political commentary from celebrities, something we can't get away from listening to, whether because of the media's attention to it or due to our own obsessions with what's on movie stars' minds.
To hear the rest, check out the clip after the jump. And to see Gina Gershon portray Palin in new Funny or Die spoof, click here.
Well, she's done it again. Yesterday I overheard two people talking in the street about "the actress who went topless in a Declare Yourself bondage billboard" ... and I immediately thought of Jessica Alba, who's made a name for herself lately more for the wacky photos she's posed for than her actual movie roles. First, there was Jessica Alba re-enacting classic horror movie moments, then it was Jessica Alba posing as Charlie Chaplin -- and now we have my personal favorite: Jessica Alba posing as the victim of a serial killer for a billboard that's supposed to get people to vote. ("It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.")
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for voting. By all means, please vote and have a say in who our next elected officials are. (And check out the Declare Yourself website for info on how to do that) But really? The last presidential election brought us P-Diddy's Vote or Die (another brilliant slogan that made no sense), and now here's Alba straight out of Saw VI. What's next? [Insert A-list actor here] with his throat slashed holding up the bloody spine that's just been ripped from his body, with the phrase, "Vote Now You Spineless American Moron" underneath?
Can't we just get the folks behind The Dark Knight's viral campaign to come up with something a little more clever ... and less freak-ish?
The Hurt Locker sees director Kathryn Bigelow craft a big, booming tale of tension based on journalist Mark Boal's experiences and interviews with bomb disposal experts in the streets of Iraq. Toronto didn't just see The Hurt Locker earn raves from many critics; it also saw the film get picked up by Summit Entertainment for distribution. Cinematical spoke with Bigelow and Boal in Toronto about breaking the audience's unconscious link between an actor's salary and a character's destiny, whether or not their film is really apolitical, the fun and excitement of blowing things up on-set, how making the movie yourself is the best way to be sure you make the movie you want to and much more.Cinematical's podcast content is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Even after debuting Religulous, his new docu-comedy about faith in the modern world directed by Larry Charles (Borat), Bill Maher still has plenty of questions of his own:"I was saying to Larry in the car on the way over here: I suddenly realized that I don't know the relationship between the Devil and the Antichrist. Do you? I mean, we both know those terms, but they're not the same guy, I don't think. I'm not sure if the Devil works for the Antichrist? Or the Antichrist for the Devil? Or is it like the Joker and the Riddler -- neither of them work for each other, but they gang up on Batman ...?" Maher spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about the difference between 'changing your mind' and 'flip-flopping,' what wound up on the cutting-room floor, getting in harm's way for the sake of a great scene, why it's doubtful he'll follow Religulous with another feature film and much more.
Cinematical's podcast content is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
I contend we are both atheists; I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. -- Stephen F. Roberts
In Religulous, stand-up social commentator Bill Maher doesn't just assert how he believes in one less god than many of us, and he doesn't just craft bold, bizarre and hilarious moments of comedy and discussion with the help of director Larry Charles (Borat). More importantly, and more intriguingly, Maher states the film's thesis in an introduction filmed at Megiddo, the prophesied location of the final battle of Armageddon as written in Revelation; Maher, much like author Sam Harris does in his excellent (if dry) book The End of Faith, proposes that religious belief, in an age of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, actively endangers humanity through encouraging conflict, promising rewards for irrational behavior, justifying artificial divisions and enabling other unfounded and unkind forms of thinking. Or, as Maher succinctly puts it early on, "When Revelations was written, only God had the power to destroy the world. ..."
And then the opening titles kick in, a montage of Maher globe-trotting in search of people to talk to, and as the guitar riffs of The Who's "The Seeker" ring out, we recognize that we're going to get plenty of sizzle along with the steak in Religulous, lots of showbusiness to liven up the soul-searching. Like most documentaries dealing with weighty matters, though, the concern in Religulous isn't that there'll be no sizzle with the steak but rather if there'll be steak to go with the sizzle; does Religulous have the right ratio of factual points to funny punch lines, a balanced mix of context and comedy?
The New York Post ran a little piece yesterday about hearing a rumor that Mark Cuban's Magnolia pictures has signed to distribute Steven Soderbergh's Che, which James and I saw at Cannes and very much enjoyed. I emailed Cuban earlier to ask whether the rumor is true, and got back from him "working on it," which to me sounds very promising. Cuban's a smart guy and he's not afraid to take risks; now he'll just have to figure out how to package and market the damn thing.
Many of us who loved the film at Cannes pondered over drinks after that screeing who would be brave enough to pick it up for distribution, and whether if it did get picked up it would show in one part in its entirety with an intermission, as we saw it at there, or two separate films, or perhaps one greatly edited shorter film. I'm glad to hear that someone's going to pick it up, and I'm curious now to see which way Cuban will play the release of the film. Any thoughts from those who've seen it as to which you'd prefer?
The latest documentary from Michael Moore will be released exclusively online beginning September 23. FOR FREE. Yes, that's right, and it's a dream come true for both Moore's fans and those millions of anti-fans that despise him. For the followers it's obviously good because they don't have to wait very long to own a copy of the movie. For the enemies it's good because they can check out the movie without giving the man a dime. Or be witnessed buying a ticket.
The 97-minute film is titled Slacker Uprising (formerly Captain Mike Across America), and it's about Moore's 62-city tour during the 2004 presidential election, as he attempts to rally young "slacker" voters. The premise doesn't sound quite as intriguing as his last election-year release, Fahrenheit 9/11 -- which may be part of the reason this one is not receiving a proper theatrical opening. But Moore also says this method is particularly to thank his fans as the 20th anniversary of Roger & Meapproaches.
I probably don't have to explain this poster too much, since, ya know, all anyone has been talking about for the past couple days is how Governor Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter was knocked up. The Juneau stands, of course, for Juneau, Alaska, which makes this whole thing that much easier to spoof. And how can you not love that tagline ... "A comedy about running for president ...and the bumps along the way." (It's a joke! Lighten up Pubs and enjoy your convention!) The poster, however, is slightly behind the ball -- from what I understand, we do know who the babydaddy is; he has curly hair and looks like every single male lacrosse player I've ever met. They play lacrosse in Alaska? Right on! We here at Cinematical wish these two younger-than-they-should-be parents a long and prosperous life together. (And let us know when we should start blaming the film Juno for this pregnancy. Damn you Hollywood! You done it again!)
Update: Thanks to Goss for pointing us toward two more funny posters, located in the gallery below.
The date has been set for Warner Bros and Fox to go head to head -- and it should soothe the fearful. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studios will be going before the judge on January 6th. There's plenty of time, even at a snail's pace, for the issue to be resolved before the March 6th opening. (It's like the court is going along with the movie marketing -- we'll get a video journal the same day. There really is no such thing as bad publicity in Tinseltown!)
Furthermore, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allan Feess says that Fox shouldn't attempt to file a preliminary injunction against Warners to stop the release of the film because the issues surrounding the case were too complex to be solved in an interim basis. Instead, both studios are being ordered to put their cases together, and start expedited discovery and depositions. This thing could get quite big -- as the New York Times pointed out, Paramount, Legendary Pictures, and even Universal could get hauled into it, alongside Lawrence Gordon, who's really the man in question in all this.
And remember, this is if it actually makes it to court. This could easily be settled before Christmas, with Warners handing over a nice chunk of The Dark Knight change just to be done with it. (How appropriate that Bruce Wayne help out other costumed vigilantes.) It depends how fierce the studio is feeling, and how certain they are of their case -- but all signs point to you keeping your March 6th moviegoing plans.
You really have to feel bad for the cast and crew on this one, though. All that happy buzz of ComicCon panels and promo posters squashed under a heap of legalese. Oh well, at least Fox can't take away what we've already been given. Check out our Watchmen gallery below.
Starring the brilliant combination of Viggo Mortensen and Jason Isaacs, Good is in danger of becoming one of those "What the heck ever happened to " films that's been in limbo for too long. Though it's fate is still in doubt (I think it's heading to TIFF 2008), at least we now have a trailer via JoBlo. It has been floating around the Internet for weeks, but never in a working embed -- let's all thank JoBlo for pinning it down.
Based on CP Taylor's play, the story follows John Halder, a literary professor in 1930's Germany, who's book on compassionate euthanasia draws some interest from the new Nazi government. Halder's professional and political career rises, and he continues to make more moral compromises -- much to the dismay of his Jewish friend, Maurice, who suffers at the hands of the regime. It's been a pet project for Isaacs for a few years, and saw numerous actors come and go from the part of Halder. Thankfully, the always-perfect Mortensen stuck. I'm dying to see these two onscreen together in what promises to be an excellent and heartbreaking film. I hope we have an American release date soon.
If you happen to already be of the opinion that 
I guess when you make a movie about the Irish Republican Army and Northern Ireland's infamous "Troubles," you're bound to court some controversy. 
Do you remember a George Clooney project, green-lit in May, 
When Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate, people were quick to name the lookalikes who could play her in a movie. But it took Matt Damon to tell us what kind of movie it would actually be. Fearfully predicting that McCain will die in office, the actor says Palin's advancement to the presidency would be like the plot of a bad Disney movie. He even imagines a scene from the movie involving Palin's showdown against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink." Basically he's described something along the lines of .jpg)
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The New York Post ran a little piece yesterday about hearing a rumor that Mark Cuban's Magnolia pictures has 
The latest documentary from Michael Moore 
The date has been set for Warner Bros and Fox to go head to head -- and it should soothe the fearful. According to 
