The impossible happened. Patrick Süskind’s “unfilmable” novel, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, was adapted for the big screen (2006). This was no easy feat because scent, the book's theme, is difficult to portray cinematically.  

Some critics have pointed to the film's political undertones, even interpreting it as an allegory of the Third Reich. The producer, Bernd Eichinger, is no stranger to this subject, having gained international acclaim for The Downfall, a Hitler biopic. Apparently, Eichinger had been bugging Süskind to let him at Perfumesince its publication in 1985.  His perseverance paid off. 

The film does an impressive job with a difficult concept. Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola Run), no stranger to frenetic subject matter, had a tricky job with this tale of a homicidal perfume maker. The result is a charmingly bizarre hybrid that plays like the love child of Chocolat and Silence of the Lambs.

In this nightmarish fairytale, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) is born, despite his mother’s efforts to the contrary, in a filthy fish market.  The scene of his birth is perfectly executed and particularly striking; the pressure mounts as the baby’s heart struggles to pump amidst the many pounding elements of the market, climaxing in Grenouille's only real achievement— his own life.  

Years later, on a rare outing, he comes upon his first victim (Karoline Herfurth).  The camera masterfully highlights the pieces of her that obsess him; she is all bosom, shocking red hair, and plums. The search to preserve this experience through scent starts as a troubling fixation and leads to the composition of his master scent, the essences of 25 virgins, finishing with the lovely Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood). 

Perfume is an ode to the nose; it opens with a dark shot of Grenouille’s face, with only his sniffer eerily lit. The film is slow in many places, but the result is a disturbing  examination of the horrors and pleasures of the senses. 

WTF!!! That's all I kept saying as I watched this movie.  This is not a horror or suspense film.  It's also not for the faint of heart.  For anyone expecting another Paranormal Activity, you are in for a rude awakening.  

The Fourth Kind is not scary.  Or terrifying.  It is deeply disturbing.

It is a unique set up.  The film is a reenactment of actual events, with the real audio and video clips woven in.  There are times when they are played side by side: real footage on one side, the film version on another.  It adds a different feel for the viewer, as if to drive home the point that what you are watching really happened.  Milla Jovovich plays Dr. Abbey Tyler, a psychologist who conducts a sleep study in Nome, Alaska, where they have been countless missing persons cases and reports of strange activity.  You also get to see the real Dr. Abbey.  And what a sight that is....

At the screening I went to yesterday, not everyone was convinced.  There were some who actually booed when the credits came up.  I think they were expecting your run of the mill scary movie.  All I know is that I left that theater extremely disturbed by what I had just seen.  This is not a film I will ever see again.  

Once is enough.

Is it really true?? Did all these events actually take place??? As the director says at the end of the film, that is for us to decide.

-Frances Illa

As I’m watching the pregame show for football on Fox, I am surprised to find out that the world premier of the new Avatar trailer will be shown before the game.  Now I’m excited by any Avatar news, so I was anxious to see what new footage would be shown.

I was not disappointed

OMG!!!!

We were given a deeper look at the story surrounding the action of the film.  The military is looking to gain access to a key source of a resource that’s worth tons of money.  Sully (played by Sam Worthington) is sent in to infiltrate the Na’via and gain their trust.  He soon realizes that he is on the wrong side and the battle begins.

If anyone knows how to tell a great story, it’s James Cameron.  If I wasn’t super psyched to see this before, I can’t wait for December.  The best part: my brother now wants to see Avatar. 

Watch below and feel the excitement!

Avatar - Theatrical Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

The portrait that he paints of the comedian is not, as he puts it, a “happy-go-lucky” one. He stresses that the jester’s role is one of hard work, copious preparation and the attitude of a disbeliever--a trust no one sensibility that keeps the mind sharp.

In his assessment of the methods behind his success, we start to recognize the degree of thought that goes into each gag; but his greatest gag is his transformation in the name of humor. The soft-spoken, brainy guy in the interview emerges onstage as the pimped-out, loud-mouthed purveyor of the “N” word.  Yet, when he describes the 5-blunt rotation of chilling with Snoop as a “ghetto track meet,” we see Williams the wordsmith again.

This guy is darn funny, and the intelligence that crouches behind his façade of inanity makes him darn funnier. His quips are built on a keen understanding of sociopolitical issues that is framed as an ignorance of them. Pimpadelic reveals Williams to be what all of the best comics are, an irreverent cultural commentator. 

The book tells the story of five sisters whose lives, and subsequent suicides, obsess a group of teenage boys who have appointed themselves custodians of their memory.  Like detectives, they piece together “the effluvia of so many young girls becoming women” through interviews and bits of evidence. Although they may not complete the Lisbon puzzle, their lifetime of obsessive dedication does result in quite the tale.

The conservative community is appalled when the youngest Lisbon girl, Cecilia, is found floating in the family bathtub after her first suicide attempt. The tragedy isolates the sisters, turning them into the intriguing outcasts of their conformist community.  As a result of Coppola’s respect for Eugenides’ creation, the plot and structure of the movie are almost identical to that of the book. Early on, the voice-over  (Giovanni Ribisi’s spot-on man-boy rumble) tells us that “Cecilia was the first to go,” as we are confronted with the image of a young girl’s body floating in a tub of bloody water. 

From costume and décor, to gossipy dialogue, Coppola deftly depicts both the small-town feel of the 1970s community and the Lisbon girls' personal world; but it is with the more personal aspects that she excels.  With its whimsical explosion of girlish possessions, the set of the Lisbon home is packed with symbols of the girls’ budding womanhood and imminent deaths.  Cinematographer Edward Lachman’s shot of the house in all the different phases of light between day and night captures perfectly the inert sadness of the creatures within.

Most importantly, Coppola's treatment of the suicides is tasteful rather than exploitive. When the boys get inside the mythic house, a hanging saddle oxford is all that we are shown of the suicides. Just as the inaccessibility of the sisters makes them more desirable, withholding visual access creates a morbid curiosity in us. The image is more powerful because we are forced to imagine the upper hanging parts of a dead girl we cannot see.

Although there are some serious issues that the movie doesn’t broach--with all its focus on downy limbs and sublimated desire, it can gloss over the book’s commentary on race and class, for example—in many ways, it picks up where the words leave off. Its use of voice-over capitalizes on the evocative qualities of the text by coupling them with the aural and visual power of film. Coppola's intuitive grasp of the material draws the audience into the tragic and dreamy world of the film so effectively that, regardless of sexual preference, you'll find yourself obsessed with the Lisbon girls, their world, and why they left it.

While I was there, I caught the film committee’s presentation of Donald Boggs’ striking documentary, “A Ripple of Hope.” The film traces the tense moments before and after Robert F. Kennedy’s speech announcing the death of Martin Luther King Jr.  The showing was followed by lively conversation led by the committee’s effervescent chairwoman, Sharyn Grossman.

Boggs’ expert interweaving of the importance of King and Kennedy culminates in a shot of the Landmark for Peace Memorial that shows the two dead idols reaching out to each other from their metal confines. At the film's end, the audience was filled with the faces of people who had just relived a powerful slice of history. 

--Caroline Hagood

I wanted to love this movie.  It had such great characters and an entertaining story.  But something was missing.  There were times when the story got disjointed and seemed to veer off course.  And the ending?  Extremely disappointing.  

Yet, I find myself trying to focus on the positive.  Why?  I really liked the characters.  Chris Massoglia was great as Dan, the 16 year old who gets caught up in the world of freaks.  And it's great to see John C. Riley as a vampire.  He really is a jack-of-all trades.  There were funny points, especially when Willem Dafoe was on screen.  It was an entertaining ride and I felt the story was building up to something great.  It just fell short.  

I know this was based on a series of books, so I can't judge it from that perspective.  But I do feel the way it was advertised was misleading.  Each promo bills it as something different: a teenager is bored with his life and seeks adventure or said teenager is destined to stop a war between vampires.  That's not the movie that I saw.  I wish it was.  

-Frances Illa

It does seem like we're being overrun by the living dead.  Bloodsuckers, brain eaters, and all things hairy are all the rage in Hollywood.   We've seen the release of Zombieland (which I loved), Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant opens Friday (I'm seeing a screening tonight. My review will be up Friday) and the highly anticipated (especially by me) Twilight Saga: New Moon is just four weeks away.  

So what is up with all the monster love??  

Werewolves are a classic creature in cinema.  An American Werewolf in London is one of my favorite examples.  There is something about transforming into a fierce creature that resonates with audiences. A part of us wishes we could tap into that kind of power.  With the release of New Moon, werewolves will become an important part of the vampire-centric series.  In February, we get an updated take on The Wolfman, starring Benecio del Torro.  Even the hairy creatures want the spotlight!

Monsters of all shapes and sizes will continue to excite and horrify us for many years to come.  Because who can resist a good scare every once and awhile?  (or a sexy vampire???)

-Frances Illa

There is no director like him.  He has this unbelievable talent and a seemingly endless imagination.  What he puts on screen is nothing short of art at it’s finest.  And it just so happens to bring out my inner child. 

My favorite Miyazaki films after the jump

Sprited Away - This is animation at it's highest level.  Masterful storytelling accompanied by beautiful images (the walk through the flower garden in the beginning is breathtaking).  As I am a HUGE fan of Alice in Wonderland, I loved Miyazaki's retelling, with Chihiro as the heroine who must overcome a witch and the spirit world in order to save her parents.  There is a reason this won the Oscar for Best Animated Film.  

Howl's Moving Castle - A young woman is cursed by an vengeful witch and is turned into an old woman.  In order to free herself, she must find a way to free Howl (a handsome wizard) from his fire demon Kalcifer.  I smile every time I watch this.  While the story was a little confusing towards the end (it took a second viewing to really understand it), I love the characters.  If only my life was full of magic...

Princess Mononoke - The message woven throughout the story is the lament for industrialization at the cost of our environment.  Miyazaki is such a wonderful storyteller.  Ashitaka is a young prince who must leave his village in order to alleviate a curse brought upon him by a demon.  He encounters the gods of the forest and a women who's quest for power leads her on a dangerous hunt.  And there are cute little forest creatures called Kodama.  For the longest time I wanted a little doll of one, but could not find it. 

What is your favorite Miyazaki film?  If you've never seen one, start with these.  I'm sure you'll love them as much as I do.  

-Frances Illa

I was lucky enough to catch "That Evening Sun" last year at the Independent Film Festival Boston last spring. It's written and directed by first timer Scott Teems, based on a short story by William Gay, and it's incredible. The trailer paints it very loosely, but the film clips along at an amazing pace, never letting up on the tension, never dragging or seeming superfluous in any way. Hal Holbrook stars as a curmudgeonly southern farmer looking to protect what he feels is rightfully his, facing off against the younger generation exemplified by the family currently residing on his land.

The film is taut and gives the expression "slow burning" a whole new meaning. I simply cannot recommend "That Evening Sun" highly enough.

"That Evening Sun" was recently picked up for distribution by Freestyle Releasing, and is set for a limited release November 6. If you get the chance, definitely check out Scott Teem's "That Evening Sun." Indie film making at it's finest.

-Mitchell Geller

A few of the reviews have taken cracks at Spike Jonze’s re-imagining (directing and co-writing the screenplay with Dave Eggers) of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.  In doing so, they miss the film’s most visionary aspect—its vivid study of storytelling. With painful acuity, Jonze captures how authors (Sendak, Jonze, Eggers), but also all people (Max, his mother, the audience members), must construct stories about their world so that they can live in it. 

“Where the Wild Things Are” ushers the audience into the inner world of Max (Max Records), the little boy from Sendak’s story who runs off to a wild island of his own imagining after being naughty to his mother (Catherine Keener). The process of story making is ingeniously captured in a shot of Max’s mom, shown from his perspective, telling him she could “use a story,” and then typing up the fanciful tale he tells. In this instance of good mothering, she honors his creations by requesting and recording them.

When Max arrives on the isle of the Wild Things to be their king, they ask him to build them a world without pain. Max’s failure to protect his wild new family from suffering serves as a reminder that no matter how well-constructed the utopia, the dystopian inevitably creeps in. In keeping with this, Jonze spares us nothing, not even the pile of human bones that is all that remains of the previous kings.

In short, the bad reviews are humbug. The film’s motor is Max’s imagination and its potential for transformation; in a comic, meta-moment, even the Warner Brothers emblem has been drawn over with wolf ears. 

Every shot and line of dialogue reflects Max’s creative methods of confronting the rage, hope, and heartbreak of childhood. With characteristic whizzing speed, Jonze refracts Sendak’s story through the whip-smart, aggressively beautiful  prism of his own cinematic storytelling, while still maintaining its original light.

--Caroline Hagood

Is there a better way to pay homage to a great city and the idea of love in one fell swoop then in film?   I think not.  So when I hear that the producers of Paris, J’taime where taking that concept to the Big Apple, I was very excited.  After seeing the trailer, I’m even more so.

 See why after the jump

Just look at the cast!!!  It's like they assembled the Dream Team for Cinema: Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Cloris Leachman, Christina Ricci, Bradley Cooper, James Caan, Julie Christie.  Even Andy Garcia!! It's like they read my mind!  And don't even get me started on the directors. What a pool of talent. I can't wait to see what Natalie Portman was able to do behind the camera.  (I just love her).  

I think the concept is brilliant.  Assemble a mass of talent both in front and behind the camera.  Give them 2 days to shoot, 1 week to edit, and a 5 minute window to give their interpretation of love, with NYC as their background.  

That is film making.

-Frances Illa

Marc Webb’s “500 Days of Summer” (2009) reveals the anatomy of a failed fantasy. The doomed days of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) are presented out of order, yet the trajectory will be all too familiar to any man who has ever had his heart stolen.  One scene in particular captures the sting of amorous expectation squelched: when Tom reunites briefly with Summer, a split screen shows his expectations on one side and the reality on the other.  This clever construction captures onscreen that sinking feeling that comes when soaring hopes go splat.  But there’s something else that happens when romantic dreams descend: the rise of the gorgon. 

The Summer character has been labeled what film critic Nathan Rabin calls the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,”(MPDG) and Jezebel’s Sadie Stein deems the “Amazing Girl." Rabin coined the phrase to describe that cheerful, mysterious, compulsively loveable, but ultimately empty, female filmic creature sent to awaken the potential and happiness of somber male protagonists everywhere. 

The Manic Pixie figure is merely a projection of the longings of the male lead; but there’s something else at play in the various articles written on this gal, be she Amazing or Manic Pixie: anger and resentment.  The male writers have had their hearts broken by her and the female writers have lost men to her. In her piece, Stein is open about her jealousy of the real-life Amazings she has known.

Yet, the emotions surrounding the MPDG run deeper than mere resentment. They are Amazing Manic Pixies only while they are loved. Before that, they are merely everyday women, and afterwards, they are harpies. It seems that the MPDG is just the vamp, the tramp, the femme fatale before she destroys the fantasy of the male lead (as in the “expectations” versus “reality” scene). When Summer is loved, she is the normal woman imbued with paranormal significance, but when she trashes the romantic comedy formula of boy meets girl, boy marries girl—and let’s not forget that co-writer Scott Neustadter is open about the fact that he’s out for romantic vengeance—she starts to resemble those fatal women of film noir.  

Ultimately, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is the flipside of the man-eater—just another invention to protect the frightened male mind from female potency. If you squint your eyes, you can see snakes starting to peek, Medusa-like, out of Summer’s 1950s hairdo after she dashes Tom’s dreams.

--Caroline Hagood

If you look close enough all the way to the left in the picture, I'm pretty sure that's me.  Yes, I was one of those dorks who got in line 2 hours early to make sure I got prime seating for the 16 minute preview of Avatar.  My excitement for this film knows no bounds, so, to me, it was a no brainer to do whatever it took to get in.

Read all about my little adventure after the jump

In order to get the magical golden ticket to the screening (or maybe I should call it blue, in honor of the Na’vi), I had to log on to the Avatar website at 3pm a week or two before the screening.  Naturally, as with all modern technology, there were glitches.  You would think that the studios and webmasters would know that thousands of people would be clogging the site at the same time, but no.  Lucky for me, I was smart enough to go on the AMC website, since they own the IMAX theater here in NYC.  Two tries later, I signed up and was anxiously awaiting my confirmation email.  And waiting…..and waiting…..

Fast forward to the next day and I had to sign up all over again (more glitches).  But finally I got that long awaiting email.  I was in!

I’ve seen 8 films in IMAX, so I know that the best seats in the house are in the middle, up top.  That’s why I got in line so early.  It was pretty funny being the only female in line for a while.  Did I care? Hell no!  I’m a film geek and proud of it.  James Cameron is a genius, so the opportunity to see a glimpse of the first film he’s made in 10 years was an honor (wow, I really am a dork!).  As with any free event, there were a few technical issues.  OK, just one that really pissed me off.  They only allowed 5 people to go inside the theater at a time while they checked people in downstairs.  AND IT WAS RAINING.  Needless to say, I was soaked and lost my prime spot in line because people bum rushed the door. 

All was not lost, as I was able to get my prime seat: in the middle, third row down from the top.  Score!!!  The theater was buzzing with excitement.  Once it went dark (and with our 3D glasses on) James Cameron appeared onscreen to introduce the footage.  Everything would be taken from the beginning of the film, so no major plot point would be revealed.  Then, it was 16 minutes of pure wonder.  It was like looking into a View Finder.  The images just blew me away.  The colors were so vibrant and the world of the Pandora (home planet of the Na’vi) was just beautiful.  Plus, seeing Sam Worthington in 3D was truly a wonderful sight. 

James Cameron has truly outdone himself.  For anyone who criticized the trailer online, this is a film that was meant to be seen in 3D.  When you see that clip of a monster chasing Worthington’s avatar through a jungle in a theater with 3D glasses, it’s movie watching elevated to another level.

-Frances Illa

It’s never clear whether Alicia is innocent victim or scheming manipulator, a little girl playing house with a handsome father figure or a destructive force. As is often the case in this kind of scenario, Henry’s fatherly impulses get confused with his sexual ones, and Alicia’s asking to sleep in bed with him and Susan because it would be “like a family” doesn’t help. Moreover, Henry uses the phrase “okay, but just for tonight” on altogether too many occasions, as if something happening but once makes it okay.

Henry’s claim that “everyone dreams of a life that they don’t live” could be the tagline for this dark, well shot, if a little short of Dantean depths, thriller.  In the end, its deepest strength is its restraint.  That the protagonist seems to be a basically decent guy (at least in comparison to the moral ingrates who have historically been faced with the Lolitaesque in film and literature) makes his state—holed up in the middle of nowhere, engaging in a strange relationship with the recovering Alicia while his wife dies in the bed upstairs--all the more intriguing.  

Serioulsy, this has to stop.  Has Hollywood really become void of all creativity?? Does not a single person there have an orginial thought in their brain?? Or have studios just become chicken shits, with no balls to back a truly brilliant new idea???

I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!!

Ok, I know I've vented about this before, but the news that Robert Rodriguez is rebooting Predator just put me over the edge.  I freakin LOVE that movie.  I watched it with my dad and cousin a million times.  It was another great 80's movie that just got better with every viewing.  Why would anyone want to go an make another one?? Especially when it's a perfect blend of sci-fi and action with a steller cast (who can really replace Jesse "The Body" Ventura????).

The whole Alien vs. Predator was a bad idea, so why are we rehashing this again? I'm not being overdramatic when I say a little part of me just died inside.  First it's Red Sonja, now Predator. Why Rodriguez, why?

-Frances Illa

Flashes of Marian’s gloriously created world are scattered throughout the film.  In it we find Humkin (Michael Chernus) and Mopekey (Dallas Roberts), two childlike men who live on a ship in the middle of a field. They often stand on their diving board, but never jump off because they are isolated from the outside world and there is no water beneath their boat. The hip soundtrack is well-integrated, with apt musical selections popping up in the midst of surreal scenes, like Humpkin’s escape from his fictional world in nothing but neon undies. These moments spring from a script that will cause the aspiring screenwriter to shed a tear of envy. In one scene where Mopekey bathes Humkin in a tub full of breakfast that somehow represents both therapy and love, Humkin wonders aloud whether therapy is supposed to be “so cold and full of cereal.”

 In the real world sector of “Lovely by Surprise,” is Bob (Reg Rogers), the car dealer whose recent loss of his wife has left his young daughter (Lena Lamer) mute. Bob lives off the charity of his ever-patient boss, Dave (Richard Masur), because although Bob is many things—a calming, accepting figure who reminds people of what matters, urging them to go home and be with their family instead of buying a car they don’t need—it is clear from the start that he will never, under any circumstances, sell a car.  At one point, the long-suffering Dave politely reminds him that telling customers that cars won’t save them from evil and death is counterproductive because it robs them of the supposition that sells the darn things in the first place.  Yet all Dave asks is that Bob talk to someone without scaring them to death. The problem, however, is not that people look scared when they leave, but that they look too relaxed.  Somehow, even though he is suffering himself, Bob cures them of the angst that marketers tell them they need a car to quell.

The childish manner of Marian’s characters is both precious and wise. They like to eat cereal, take milk baths, don green facial masks, luxuriate in the lilt of wonderful words, like “asparagus,” and appreciate their author-given ability to see things as they are not.  They particularly like to suddenly turn together and simultaneously pee off the side of their vessel into the dry grasses beneath. Their author (and here I refer to both Marian and Kirt) loves them deeply, and it shows.  The peculiar logic under which they were created echoes in their every interaction: they know that the membrane between real and make-believe is permeable; and this teaches us that other barriers we have erected in our own lives may be similarly porous. 

--Caroline Hagood

I was lucky enough to get a pass to an advanced screening of Zombieland last night.  I knew I was in for a treat when I saw people dressed as zombies in line waiting to get in.  Once we were seated, more and more zombies showed up, some in really great makeup and costumes.  The highlight: Woody Harrelson himself showed up, addressed the adoring crowd, and sat down to watch the film with us.  If that’s not a great build up, I don’t know what is.

My take on Zombieland after the jump

There was no lull in the action, not even during the opening credits.  Seeing people being chased by zombies in slow motion is a great way to start a film.  Add to that everyone screaming and laughing in the theater, and it just amplified the experience.  Woody Harrelson was hilarious as zombie killing machine Tallahassee (and the audience when nuts when he first appeared on screen).  The rest of the cast rounded things out quite nicely: Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin (it was so great seeing her wield a shotgun!).  Once scene in particular was my (and the crowds) favorite, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.  You’ll know it when you see it. 

Zombieland was a non stop thrill ride, filled with great gags, make-you-jump moments, and of course, the gross out shot of a zombie chowing down on a dead corpse.  A must see for for zombie fans everywhere!!

-Frances Illa

Caroline Hagood: Your talent and breadth of experience would be impressive for any age, but to have delivered 25 strong performances in films and television by the age of 10 is astounding. You must have a talent and energy secret stored away somewhere.  Do you have any advice for other young actors?

Who knows what my career will be in the future. Hopefully I will still be acting and doing some directing and producing, but when I go to college I might totally change my mind and want to be a physicist or video game designer or something; so I don’t really know yet. I’m only 10 so I guess I have some time to think about it. Right now, I’m having so much fun that I would say I will be acting until the day I die, and then come back from the dead and do a little bit more!