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Film Review: Numbingly Stupid ‘Piranha 3DD’ is BaDD

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:08:22 -0400

CHICAGO – “Piranha 3D” was a flawed film to be certain but it looks like a horror/comedy masterpiece compared to the dull mess that is the virtually straight-to-DVD follow-up, “Piranha 3DD,” opening on a whopping 75 screens today and also available On Demand. The effects are significantly worse, the tone is less consistent, and the sense of gorey fun that made the first movie a silly blood-soaked ride has been replaced by a movie that barely registers at all. Not scary, not funny, not clever, “Piranha 3DD” is just a waste of time.

Rating: 0.5/5.0

People seem to think that movies with extreme gore and nudity are easy to pull off. Watch Alexandre Aja’s 2010 gore-stravaganza and then follow it up with John Gulager’s brain-dead virtual remake in “Piranha 3DD” and spot the differences. As I wrote about Aja’s film. “It’s far-from-perfect and could have been with a few tweaks but “Piranha 3D” is off-the-rails crazy in all the ways that someone buying a ticket to a three-dimensional gore-o-rama wants what’s presented to them to be off-the-rails crazy.”

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Piranha 3DD” in our reviews section.

The producers of “Piranha 3DD” seem to think that more of the same is all audiences want out of a sequel and that an increase in body parts, bad jokes, and faded star cameos will suffice for a completely lack of originality. I’m a gorehound when it’s presented well. I appreciate a film that doesn’t pull any punches in terms of taste but you can’t just shoot a scene where a guy cuts off his own dick after getting a piranha attached to it during sex or another where a decapitated head motorboats a blood-soaked chick and think your job is done. Believe it or not, even in goofy junk like this, you need to have a bit of filmmaking skill to keep it interesting, engaging, and entertaining. “Piranha 3DD” is none of the above.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Piranha 3DD” review.

“Piranha 3DD” stars Danielle Panabaker, Matt Bush, David Koechner, Chris Zylka, Katrina Bowden, Gary Busey, Christopher Lloyd, David Hasselhoff, and Ving Rhames. It was directed by John Gulager. It is not rated and opens on June 1st, 2012. It is also available On Demand.

Piranha 3DD
Photo credit: Dimension Films

Blu-ray Review: Tilda Swinton Captivates in ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:22:46 -0400

CHICAGO – Many critics failed to take Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” seriously, dismissing it as an art house retread of “The Omen.” Such a simplistic label fails to take into account the film’s carefully textured portrait of a deeply fractured mother-son relationship. Though the film takes its premise to melodramatic extremes, it does harbor considerable insight into the repercussions of a disconnect between parent and child.

Eva (Tilda Swinton) is the sort of mother who causes strangers to wince while passing her in the supermarket. She can barely contain the intense dislike that she feels for her child. Motherhood is a form of entrapment in her eyes, and her attempts to care for her young son lack any sense of genuine compassion. When she snaps on a hollow smile to calm her crying son, the moment is both chilling and darkly funny. It only gets funnier and more disturbing when Eva finds momentary peace when her child’s incessant screams are drowned out by the sound of street drills.

Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Yes, “Kevin” is over-the-top, but that is its precise intention. There isn’t a frame in the picture that’s meant to take place in a grounded reality. Time doesn’t exist in this heightened vacuum, as evidenced by the repeated image of a clock blinking 12:00. For the entire film, we are lost in the mind of Eva as she struggles to come to terms with a devastating tragedy for which she feels complicit. There’s little suspense as to what tragedy eventually befalls her—it’s clear that her son, Kevin, is a ticking time bomb. What makes the film so riveting is its psychological battle between an unwanted son and his perpetually aloof mother. The film’s use of surrealistic metaphors is reminiscent of Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” but Ramsay and her cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (“Atonement,” “The Avengers”) have a greater gift for visual poetry.

Some of the most striking imagery draws provocative parallels between Eva and Kevin, such as how the boy’s habit of biting his nails is directly reflected in his mother’s curious disposal of egg shells. A shot aligning Eva’s reflected face with that of her son pays homage to Ingmar Bergman’s depiction of blurred identities in his great 1966 masterpiece, “Persona.” Indeed, as Kevin grows into a teenager (played by Ezra Miller) he starts to resemble a mirror image of his mother. Though the film contains no onscreen violence, the color red is prevalent throughout—witnessed in everything from jam and tomatoes to the splashes of paint that vandalize Eva’s house. When Eva encounters someone whose life was shattered by Kevin’s reprehensible deeds, it’s no coincidence that she chooses to hide behind a shelf stocked with tomato soup. Wherever she goes, the color of blood marks her like a scarlet letter.

Tilda Swinton stars in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Photo credit: Oscilloscope Laboratories

What Swinton has done here is provide audiences with a brilliant complement to her work in Luca Guadagnino’s captivating 2009 romance, “I Am Love.” In both films, she plays a woman desperate to escape her suffocating domestic life at the expense of her family (in both cases, her son suffers the worst). Emma in “Love” and Eva in “Kevin” experience such overwhelming emotions that it’s difficult for them to differentiate between their dreams and reality. Whereas “Love” is fueled by Emma’s mounting exhilaration as her senses are reawakened to the possibilities of life, “Kevin” reverberates with brooding unease as Eva comes to the sickening realization that she has created a monster. The ravishing beauty and grace of Swinton’s features that lit up the screen in “Love” are entirely drained of their vitality in “Kevin.” It’s as astonishing an immersion as any in Swinton’s magnificent career. When two men with briefcases knock on Eva’s door to ask where she’s spending the afterlife, she replies with matter-of-fact assurance that she’s going “straight to hell.” Though it’s one of the film’s funniest lines, the caustic self-loathing in Swinton’s deadpan delivery causes any potential laughter to become lodged in viewers’ throats.

The film’s weakest link is Miller, who’s proven in the past to be a tremendously gifted actor, but here overplays his character’s diabolical nuances to a near-fatal degree. This is especially disappointing since Miller’s debut performance as a budding sociopath in “Afterschool” was remarkably subtle. Yet perhaps Miller was merely taking his cue from the script by Ramsay and Rory Kinnear, which portrays its characters not as they exist but as Eva perceives them. This stylistic approach both enhances and limits the film’s overall impact. In Eva’s mind, her painfully sweet husband, Franklin (John C. Reilly), is a naïve pushover unwilling to view his son in an unfavorable light. His endless attempts to smooth over any emotional rupture in the household cause him to emerge as an object of contempt in the eyes of his son. Reilly’s performance is affecting, but the one-note nature of his character becomes flat-out maddening.

We Need to Talk About Kevin was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 29, 2012.
Photo credit: Oscilloscope Laboratories

Another distraction is Ramsay’s overuse of upbeat American pop tunes during brutally grim scenes. In the past, Ramsay has excelled at this ironic juxtaposition. Who can forget her stunning use of The Chordettes’ “Lollipop” in “Ratcatcher,” or her spellbinding montage set to The Mamas and the Papas’ “Dedicated to the One I Love” in “Morvern Callar”? It’s great to see Ramsay back in the director’s chair after an eight-year absence, but in “Kevin,” some of her signature stylistic techniques are beginning to feel distressingly like overkill. Yet for all of its visual flash, “Kevin” is most effective during its final, nakedly honest moments that oddly culminate in the most hopeful ending of any Ramsay film to date.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio) and includes Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film packaged in a typically sublime case courtesy of Oscilloscope. Extras include 27 minutes of interview snippets with the cast and crew. Miller makes the most insightful observations, saying that the film depicts motherhood like a “primordial wound,” while arguing that Eva and Franklin’s tendency to “hide the truth for the sake of being happy” is a characteristic prevalent in many American families. Swinton says that it was exciting to explore the taboo psyche of a woman whose maternal instinct doesn’t kick in after giving birth to her first child.

It’s a shame that the film’s excellent Cannes press conference isn’t offered on the disc, since it included many intriguing theories from the ever-eloquent Swinton, who suggested that Eva “gave birth to her own violence.” Instead, this set offers a 17-minute Swinton interview that never once mentions “Kevin,” but still provides great insight into the actress’s technique. It’s the disconnect between thought and speech that most interests Swinton, thus allowing her face to convey what her inarticulate mouth cannot. In an all-too-brief interview, “Kevin” author Lionel Shriver insists that she wanted to take a hands-off approach to the film adaptation in order for Ramsay to present her own distinctive vision. Rounding out the extras are bonus trailers for A-grade Oscilloscope releases such as James Whitaker’s “Rebirth” and Lance Daly’s “Kisses.”

‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ is released by Oscilloscope Laboratories and stars Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell, Rock Duer, Ashley Gerasimovich and Siobhan Fallon. It was written by Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear and directed by Lynne Ramsay. It was released on May 29, 2012. It is rated R.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

Film Review: ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ Dwarfed By Comatose Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:18:47 -0400

CHICAGO – If you can stomach forgiving the film’s uneven acting, inconsistent pacing and a higgledy-piggledy script that feels like it’s still in draft mode, just zero in on the only newsworthy question about “Snow White and the Huntsman”: Who are those “dwarves”?

Rating: 2.5/5.0

And why are there eight of them? Most important of all, why aren’t ANY of them real, you know, dwarves? Has HBO’s “Game of Thrones” made you too famous, Peter Dinklage?

Admittedly, these eight dwarves steal the show in this otherwise drab and lackluster film. But examining them further leaves us with a double-edged sword of both loving and loathing them. Debut “Snow White and the Huntsman” director Rupert Sanders is very uppity about his casting decision to round up a who’s who of British acting masters.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “Snow White and the Huntsman”.

“It was almost like casting a British gangster film,” Sanders recalls in the film’s production notes. “I needed to find tough guys with big hearts.”

Sanders seduced the cream of the British acting crop to play the film’s dwarves. Through an amalgamation of special Hollywood effects and old-fashioned trickery, you will believe their diminutive size. Sanders panhandled each potential dwarf separately with drawings of them as the characters as well as elaborate back stories for these warriors.

“Snow White and the Huntsman” stars Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Eddie Marsan, Sam Claflin, Sam Spruell, Bob Hoskins, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Johnny Harris, Brian Gleeson, Vincent Regan and Liberty Ross. The film is directed by Rupert Sanders and written by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini. “Snow White and the Huntsman” is produced by “Alice in Wonderland” producer Joe Roth. The film, which has a running time of 127 minutes and opened on June 1, 2012, is rated “PG-13” for intense sequences of violence and action and brief sensuality.

Continue for Fendelman’s full “Snow White and the Huntsman” review.

Kristen Stewart as Snow White in “Snow White and the Huntsman”.
Image credit: Universal Pictures

Continue for Fendelman’s full “Snow White and the Huntsman” review.

Film News: Gene Siskel Film Center, CFCA to Hold ‘Castles in the Sky’ Retrospective

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:15:28 -0400

CHICAGO – Fans of the legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and his magnificent Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli, have a cinematic treat in store this summer. The Chicago Film Critics Association has teamed up with the Gene Siskel Film Center at 164 N. State St. to present “Castles in the Sky”: a 15-part retrospective showcasing the studio’s best work to date.

HollywoodChicago.com’s own Patrick McDonald is one of seven CFCA members scheduled to lead post-film discussion at one of eight select screenings. Movie buffs eager to join in the discussion are welcome to attend the Japanese-language versions of Miyazaki’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke,” as well as the English-language versions of “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Ponyo.” Additional films included in the screening series are Isao Takahata’s “Only Yesterday,” “Pom Poko,” and “My Neighbors the Yamadas,” Yoshifumi Kondo’s “Whisper of the Heart,” Hiroyuki Morita’s “The Cat Returns,” Tomomi Mochizuki’s “Ocean Waves,” and, of course, Miyazaki’s “Castles in the Sky” and “Porco Rosso.” The series runs from Friday, June 8, through Thursday, August 2.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away will be screened July 13 at the Siskel Center.
Photo credit: Studio Ghibli

Here is the complete list of the screenings followed by post-film discussions:

“Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” (1984)
Friday, June 8, 6pm
Discussion led by Peter Sobczynski of eFilmcritic.com.

“My Neighbor Totoro” (1988)
Saturday, June 16, 4:45pm
Discussion led by Jeffrey Westhoff of The Northwest Herald.

“Kiki’s Delivery Service” (1989)
Friday, June 29, 6pm
Discussion led by Steve “Capone” Prokopy of Ain’t It Cool News.

“Spirited Away” (2001)
Friday, July 13, 6pm
Discussion led by Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.

“Princess Mononoke” (1997)
Friday, July 20, 6pm
Discussion led by Locke Peterseim of Hammer & Thump at Open Letter Monthly.

“Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004)
Thursday, July 26, 7:30pm
Discussion led by Tasha Robinson, Associate Editor of The AV Club.

“Ponyo” (2008)
Friday, July 27, 6pm
Discussion led by Lee Shoquist of Mindful Metropolis and N:Zone.

For more information on the “Castles in the Sky” program, visit here.
For information on the Chicago Film Critics Organization, visit here.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 60 Pairs of Chicago Passes to Emily Blunt’s ‘Your Sister’s Sister’ With Director Q&A

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:49:57 -0400

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 60 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of the new comedy “Your Sister’s Sister” starring Emily Blunt! After the screening, there will also be a Q&A with writer and director Lynn Shelton!

“Your Sister’s Sister,” which opens in limited U.S. theatres on June 15, 2012 from IFC Films, also stars Mark Duplass, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mike Birbiglia, Mel Eslyn, Jeanette Maus, Jeremy Mackie, Dori Hana Scherer, Jennifer Maas, Kate Bayley, Norman Tumolva, Steve Snoey, Evan Mosher, Kate Jarvis and Nathan M. Miller from writer and director Lynn Shelton.

To win your free passes to “Your Sister’s Sister” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, get interactive with our unique Hookup technology directly below. That’s it! This advance movie screening is on Monday, June 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago. The more social actions you complete below, the higher yours odds of winning!

Before entering, make sure you allow pop-ups.
If viewing this on your phone, click “Go to Full Site” at the bottom of the page to enter.
Deadline: Entries can continue being submitted through Saturday, June 2, 2012
at 5 p.m. CST. These Hookup winners will be awarded via e-mail that night.
If necessary: To see your entry count on a repeat visit, submit your name and e-mail again.

Here is the synopsis for “Your Sister’s Sister”:

The fourth feature from Sundance award-winning filmmaker Lynn Shelton, “Your Sister’s Sister” is a tale of grief, romance and sibling rivalry that continues to showcase Shelton’s extraordinary ability to portray human stories with remarkable humor, sensitivity and warmth.

A year after his brother Tom’s death, Jack (Mark Duplass) is an emotionally unstable slacker. When he makes a scene at a memorial party, Tom’s ex-girlfriend, Iris (Emily Blunt), offers up her family cabin on an island in the Pacific Northwest so Jack can seek catharsis in solitude. Once there, however, he runs into Iris’ sister, Hannah. As she is reeling from the abrupt end of a seven-year relationship and finding solace in the affable Tom’s unexpected presence, the two bond over a long night of drinking.

The blurry evening concludes with an awkward sexual incident made worse by Iris’ sudden presence at the cabin the next morning. This sets into motion a twisted tale of ever-complicated relationships. With raw, funny and emotional performances from an all-star cast, Shelton once again honestly explores the complexities of interpersonal relationships while gently poking fun at her character’s predicaments.

The “Your Sister’s Sister” movie poster starring Emily Blunt.
Image credit: IFC Films

The “Your Sister’s Sister” movie trailer can be watched now below.

This HollywoodChicago.com Hookup is simple! Just get interactive in our unique Hookup technology above. We will award 60 admit-two tickets based on social entry numbers and/or randomly via e-mail for our “Your Sister’s Sister” Hookup. Good luck!

Disclaimer
Winners need to arrive early as seats are consumed on a first-come, first-served basis. Since advance screenings are overbooked to ensure a full house, winners are not guaranteed entrance and must arrive early. We recommend arriving 45 minutes before the screening’s scheduled start time. Winners are typically e-mailed our advance-screening passes two days before the screening date. HollywoodChicago.com LLC is a promotional partner with the studio and its partners and doesn’t assume any liability for this giveaway. Note: Comments are closed in this Hookup.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Film Review: ‘I Wish’ is Moving Portrait of a Broken Home

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:36:53 -0400

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Hirokazu Koreeda is one of the most interesting and acclaimed international filmmakers alive and his latest drama is one of lingering power, a film that moves a bit too slowly for its own good but has remarkable cumulative strength by its emotional finale. “I Wish” is about those days in which scope is subjective. The smallest things – physical and emotional – can be given life-changing importance. And a kid can convince himself that a miracle can happen.

Twelve-year-old Koichi (Koki Maeda) and younger brother Ryunosuke (Ohshiro Maeda) are products of a newly-broken home. Their parents have divorced after their mother has tired of their musician father’s lack of focus. While mom has moved in with her parents with Koichi, Ryunosoke and his father live hundreds of miles away. Ryu is young enough that he seems mostly unfazed by the situation (and Koreeda smartly draws parallels between Ryu and his more lackadaisical father and Koichi and his more serious mother) but Koichi dreams about his family being reunited.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “I Wish” in our reviews section.

Koichi lives in a small town in which an active volcano dominates the horizon. It spews ash, which litters the town and leaves many of the buildings covered in black soot. As Koichi wanders how everyone is OK with the potentially deadly volcano (a symbol for how the young man can’t believe that his parent’s separation is as much a fact of life as the likelihood of lava), he hears a story about how people can wish for a miracle at a unique point on a train track. The story goes that as two bullet trains pass each other, a wish can be made. Koichi plans with Ryu and his friends to trek to the spot where the trains pass and make a wish for a volcanic eruption. If his mother’s town is covered in lava, she’ll have to move back in with her husband and Koichi’s brother.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “I Wish” review.

“I Wish” stars Koki Maeda and Ohshiro Maeda. It was written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. It opens at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago on June 1, 2012.

I Wish
Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures

TV Review: Interesting Behind-the-Scenes Drama of Ballet Company in ‘Breaking Pointe’

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:20:29 -0400

CHICAGO – It’s like “Black Swan” meets “The Real World”! While that pitch line may seem a bit silly, it does get to the heart of The CW’s new reality series, “Breaking Pointe,” a modest offering that seems unlikely to register at all in the ratings (as few CW shows do lately) but should work for its target audience.

TV Rating: 3.5/5.0

The producers of “Breaking Pointe” were allowed behind-the-scenes access to the young dancers of Ballet West in Salt Lake City, UT. Luckily for them, they found a number of interesting dynamics like the brothers who happen to be from a family of dancers, the couple concerned that only one may get a contract and they might therefore end up in different cities, the newcomer who may take down the seasoned veteran as the leader of the troupe, and the artistic director who knows that the best dancer is one who knows she’s expendable.

Breaking Pointe
Photo credit: The CW

If it all sounds a bit melodramatic, don’t worry too much. One of the most notable things about “Breaking Pointe” is the producers’ lack of forced drama. I was worried about quick cuts that never showed us actual dancing, MTV-style editing and music cues, scripted interviews — “Breaking Pointe” has a surprisingly natural feel and rarely falls into those traps. The dancers don’t feel nearly as scripted as they might in a reality show on another network (I’m looking at you E!) and the production has a palpable respect for the skills and personal lives of these people. They are undeniable athletes, people who train like Olympians for that beautiful dance move in the spotlight. And the broken hearts, sore bodies, and wounded egos are just part of the job.

Having said that, some of “Breaking Pointe” is a bit dull. Some of the personalities are more dynamic than others and I found myself not caring when, for example, one dancer was helping another pick out outfits. I know it’s against the CW bylaws but there’s a stronger version of “Breaking Pointe” that is a bit more focused and only half an hour a week instead of an hour that doesn’t drag out the episodes with a bit too much of the same over an hour.

Despite the sometimes repetitive nature of the premiere, I found “Breaking Pointe” much more impressive and interesting than I was expecting. The key difference between it and most shows like it is the lack of artifice. We don’t feel like people are playing up for the camera like so often happens on shows like this one. We want to be a fly on the wall in a world in which we would never otherwise happen. That’s the main draw of a show like “Breaking Pointe,” a surprisingly engaging reality show drama about people who can do something that you probably cannot. Unlike so many reality stars (I’m looking at you Kardashians), these people actually have skills and how they hone and develop them makes for good TV.

“Breaking Pointe” premieres on The CW on May 31, 2012 at 7pm CST.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: ‘50/50’ Director Jonathan Levine Appears at CineYouth Festival in Chicago

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:23:25 -0400

CHICAGO – Thursday, May 31st, marks the beginning of the CineYouth Festival, sponsored by the Chicago International Film Festival. And what better way to kick it off than with a Q&A featuring director Jonathan Levine, coming off of his 2011 hit film, “50/50.” The appearance will take place at the AMC River East 21 Theater in Chicago.

Levine began his career with a short film called “Shards” in 2004, and then broke out with his feature debut, “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” in 2006. He followed that up with “The Wackness” – starring Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck – two years later, which he directed from his own screenplay. It was a chance letter to the production team of “50/50” that got him that film, and the poignant comedy was a notable hit in 2011. Levine has just finished post-production for “Warm Bodies,” which is scheduled to be released next year.

Jonathan Levine (center) Directs Joseph Gordon-Levitt (left) and Seth Rogen in ‘50/50’
Photo credit: Chris Helcermanas-Benge for Summit Entertainment

The CineYouth Festival celebrates younger filmmakers – 21 years old and under – and is part of the year round activities of the Chicago International Film Festival. The festival runs from Thursday, May 31st through Saturday, June 2nd with workshops, panel discussions, screenings and awards ceremony. In anticipation of his appearance at the festival’s opening night, Jonathan Levine talked to HollywoodChicago.com via phone from Los Angeles.

HollywoodChicago.com: Why is it important for you to make an appearance on behalf of the CineYouth festival?

Jonathan Levine: I often made movies that are more sophisticated for younger people. Those are the people who I’m talking to in the making of films. Beyond that, I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker from a very early age, and I didn’t have many resources available. So this is a good opportunity to talk to young people and be a resource for them.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was your breakthrough moment as a young filmmaker, the moment you knew that everything could possibly change and evolve your career?

Levine: When I made ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ in 2006, and presented it at the Toronto Film Festival. The screening that night ignited a bidding war, and I thought it was a practical joke that people wanted to buy the movie. I felt my life kind of change, that was my movie moment night.

HollywoodChicago.com: You have done two films from your own screenplays, and two with other writers. What are the essential differences in a directorial approach between working from your own screenplay versus working with another person’s adaptation?

Levine: I don’t approach the material any differently, although I think there are far more pitfalls when you’re writing a film yourself. From my perspective, when I approach a scene, as in how the actors will directed and shot, that is all the same whether I wrote it or if someone else did. It’s nice, in the instances where I didn’t write the script, that I had the writer on set as a resource. I adapted the last screenplay I wrote [‘Warm Bodies’] from a novel, and I think it’s really important to surround yourself with people who will question what you’re doing when you wrote it yourself. When you haven’t written it yourself, I think it’s important that you’re the person who questions the material.

When you have written the screenplay, you can tend to get a bit precious about the material, even if you don’t want to. You sometimes forget your original intention, so it’s nice to have other people around to help sort that out. Whether it’s a producer or a script supervisor as a double check, it’s invaluable.

HollywoodChicago.com: Regarding your evolution as a director, what are you more comfortable with now that panicked you when you were first starting out?

Levine: My interaction with actors has gotten a lot easier. I didn’t understand the language in talking to actors or how they think when I was younger. That’s one part of it, and the other part is that you go to film school and they scare the sh*t out of you in regards to talking to actors. There are rules, but I felt handcuffed by those rules rather than developing them myself, and now they are much more instinctive. The most important thing that a director has to do is stay calm while the sun is setting, it starts raining or the location is f**ked. I’ve gotten slightly better at that, but it’s the next thing to work on.

Jonathan Levine (left) Sets up a Shot in ‘50/50’
Photo credit: Chris Helcermanas-Benge for Summit Entertainment

HollywoodChicago.com: You had a cast at a gold medal level with the film ‘50/50.’ What riches did you want to tap into regarding that cast, and in which performance do you see that your influence came out in the final result?

Levine: Seth Rogen was involved from the beginning, then we got Joe [Gordon-Levitt], Anna [Kendrick] and Anjelica [Huston], and it blew my mind. With all those actors, you just want to give them the freedom to do what they do best, and just be a bit conscious of them not rehashing what they’ve done before – with Seth especially, since he’d been doing a similar character for a while. I wanted to find some sweetness in his character.

It was such a good script that Will [Reiser] wrote, and with Joe I just wanted to make sure he had an environment where he felt comfortable. He thinks in a filmmaker way, so I didn’t have to think about it for him.

HollywoodChicago.com: I felt the composition of ‘50/50’ was interesting because at the moment Gordon-Levitt’s character finds out about his condition, you used a series of wide shots to make him seem more alone. What is your philosophy as a director in using shot composition to further a story’s reach?

Levine: ‘50/50’ was interesting one, because there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to use visual storytelling. The montage you are pointing out was one of the few. The mandate of that movie was to have the actors drive the camera. I didn’t want to lock them into any blocking, because they would improvise something then walk to a different side of the room, and I had to let it organically stem from the performance.

Having said that, in that montage I wanted to put him into the context of other people. I wanted him small in the frame, insignificant, and then the lobby of hospital, with long lens shots of him walking through the crowd. That was me thinking about him in the context of the larger world.

Director Jonathan Levine in 2008
Photo credit: Robin Holland for Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve done two films in which heavy pot smoking is involved. With those films and others, there seems to be an inevitable loosening of standards when it comes to depicting marijuana use in film. Do you think that cinematic art speaks for the rest of American society when it comes down to the prohibition of pot?

Levine: I don’t really know. Living in Los Angeles, it’s essentially been legalized, and there are a lot of creative people who like to indulge in that and have their medical reasons. [laughs] To me, it’s interesting to feature in films because it is transgressive. If and when it becomes ubiquitous, like drinking, it may not become as interesting to me.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which directors are you most influenced by and have you ever paid tribute to them with either a secret camera movement, script point or scene composition within any of your films?

Levine: I don’t know about paying tribute, I’ve certainly ripped people off. [laughs] When I first met Seth and Evan [Goldberg] about ‘50/50,’ we talked about a lot about Hal Ashby [prominent 1970s director]. The movie we talked most about in regards to ‘50/50’ was ‘The Last Detail.’ Another influence was James L. Brooks, and we had the opportunity to show him the movie, and he gave us some great feedback.

HollywoodChicago.com: Warm Bodies’ is in post-production for next year. What challenges were on that movie that you hadn’t encountered before and what can the audience expect in anticipation of the film?

Levine: For me, it was the biggest palette I ever got to paint on, and it’s a really interesting tonal challenge as well. It’s a film about a corpse coming back to life, and what it means to be alive in that way. It’s really fun, and for me it’s a very unique movie that is based within the troupes of many different genres and plays with the audience expectations of it. It also allowed me to do a lot more visually than I’ve had the opportunity to do in awhile.

I’m so happy with the performances of all my actors – especially Nicholas Hoult, Dave Franco, Teresa Palmer and Analeigh Tipton – for me it was an opportunity to work with a younger generation of actors and introduce audiences to them. It’s pretty cool, and I’m pretty psyched for it.

The CineYouth Festival, presented by the Chicago International Film Festival, runs from Thursday, May 31st through Saturday, June 2nd. Opening night festivities on May 31st begin at 7pm, and features a Q&A with director Jonathan Levine, at the AMC River East Theaters – 322 E. Illinois Street in Chicago. For more information, click here.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Film Review: Wes Anderson’s ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ Delights with Clever Tale of Young Love

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:38:47 -0400

CHICAGO – Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” is a true delight — a fun, clever, and, of course, whimsical tale about the days when love seemed worth running away from home over and getting a scout badge meant the world. Easily Anderson’s best film since “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Moonrise” is arguably the most tonally consistent film he’s made to date, a thoroughly enjoyable endeavor that one would have to be pretty cynical to dismiss entirely. While Anderson’s distinct style will be off-putting to some, most who have fallen under his spell before are likely to do so again by the light of “Moonrise.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Anderson & Roman Coppola’s beautifully streamlined script wastes no time with set-up for what is essentially a very simple tale – two kids run away from home. Well, sorta. One runs away from the Khaki Scouts Camp at which he lives and actually has no home to return to as his foster home parents decide not to take him back. Sam (Jared Gilman) runs away from “no home.” And he does so to find the gawky girl that he’s had a penpal relationship with for the last year, the sweet Suzy (Kara Hayward), and head off into the wilderness. Neither Sam nor Suzy are what you would call the most popular kids in school. He faces abuse by foster home brothers that look like they’re practicing for “The Outsiders” and she seems ignored by a family in which she has three younger brothers and two distant parents (Frances McDormand & Bill Murray). It makes sense that these two social outcasts would be drawn to each other.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Moonrise Kingdom” in our reviews section.

And so, a year after spotting her at a church show about Noah’s Ark, Sam breaks free from the Khaki Scouts Camp run by Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and crosses an island to find her. They run away together, tracing an old Indian path, reading her favorite books, listening to records on a battery-powered player, and being chased by an increasing number of people, including the rest of the Scouts, Suzy’s parents, and a sad-sack police officer named Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis). Eventually, Social Services (Tilda Swinton) has to get involved. (Yes, her character’s name is “Social Services.”) Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel, and Bob Balaban are hilarious in small roles.

Wes Anderson’s best films have always channeled his whimsy through the eyes of children or simply adults who never grew up. One can easily draw a straight line from Dignan in “Bottle Rocket” to Max Fischer in “Rushmore” to Sam Shakusky in “Moonrise Kingdom.” Anderson’s recent work seemed to replace that innocence, that sense of committed wonder, with pretension. He’s back to doing what he did so well with his first three films here.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Moonrise Kingdom” review.

“Moonrise Kingdom” ‘stars Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel, and Bob Balaban. It was written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola and directed by Anderson. It is now playing in New York and Los Angeles and will be released in Chicago on June 1, 2012.

Moonrise Kingdom
Photo credit: Focus

Blu-ray Review: ‘Perfect Sense’ Offers Drab Yet Touching Metaphor for Death

adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman) — Thu, 31 May 2012 09:51:01 -0400

CHICAGO – For a film that promises steamy scenes between two stars who share a fearlessness for performing in the nude, “Perfect Sense” is a doozy of a downer. It’s a fine showcase for the oft-underutilized talents of Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, but the plot is one slow descent toward doom that leaves viewers with very little to contemplate besides the sickening tragedy of death.

This curious little drama by David Mackenzie (“Young Adam”) is, in many ways, the drab underside of Lorene Scafaria’s upcoming apocalyptic comedy, “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.” Both films explore the romance that blossoms between two strangers just as life on Earth is drawing to a close. It’s an intriguing concept, but Mackenzie does little more than follow the premise toward its inevitable conclusion. Since the characters are powerless to prevent the obstacles that lead to their undoing, there’s little suspense or drama, just an ever-deepening well of despair.

Blu-ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

As the film opens, a virus is sweeping around the globe that kills off mankind’s sensory perceptions, one by one. Each attack of the virus is preceded by an irrational burst of impulsive feeling—extreme sadness, hunger, rage, etc. The characters are well aware of these warning signs, and yet they are helpless when succumbing to them. One wishes that the protagonists would at least find ways, however feeble and ineffective, to combat the virus and attempt to awaken each other out of their trance. I naively suspected that chef Michael (McGregor) and scientist Susan (Green) would combat their overpowering emotions through sex. You know it’s the end times when sharing a bed with either of these people would inspire anything other than elation.

There are moments when Mackenzie attempts to portray how the human spirit continues to press on even in the worst of circumstances, and at its best, “Perfect Sense” recalls similar passages in Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece, “The Road.” Susan and Michael are both flawed people who may have found lifelong happiness with one another, but the sudden catastrophe has left them with little to do but grasp at each other in the darkness. Joy passes by all too fleetingly, but lingers long enough for viewers to appreciate Green’s sharp wit, such as when she dryly utters, “Oh dear,” as Michael makes a failed attempt at tossing her a lighter. Here’s hoping producers finally realize that Green’s luminous screen presence is on par with her more famous peers like Emily Blunt.

Perfect Sense was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 22, 2012.
Photo credit: IFC Films

Both stars are easy on the eyes but they can only intermittently sustain audience interest during the film’s sluggish 92-minute running time. Green solemnly narrates throughout the film to the point of distraction, while skimming over many of the story’s most interesting aspects. When all of mankind loses its sense of smell, they are surprised to find that it is easily forgotten, thus allowing their remaining senses to become increasingly heightened and cherished. Yet instead of finding cinematic techniques to convey the characters’ altered senses, Mackenzie merely cuts to glib montages of various humans sharing similar experiences in order to give his picture a more sprawling scope. These montages interrupt the intimate narrative rather than enhance it. When the characters start losing their hearing, it appears as if Mackenzie will play out the rest of the picture in silence, but he quickly loses his nerve and resorts back to his brooding score and narration.

It’s impossible to not be moved by McGregor and Green’s beautifully conveyed heartache and sense of loss, but this film ultimately doesn’t have anything interesting to say about the human spirit. As a metaphor for the natural decline of one’s life in light of its impending demise, the film is sad and touching but also dull and repellant. Perhaps the only scene guaranteed to resonate in viewer’s minds is the nauseating hunger montage where humans are struck with the impulse to ravenously devour everything in sight. One women munches on her lipstick while a guy grabs a live rabbit out of a cage in order to feast upon it. The reaction one has to this undeniably potent scene is indicative of the film’s overall effect: with the apocalypse staring you in the face, sometimes all you can do is wince. And yet the characters insist that life goes on, and indeed it does…until, alas, it doesn’t.

“Perfect Sense” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English and Spanish subtitles, and includes a so-called “featurette” that has a shorter running time than the theatrical trailer. This is one of the rare cases where a disc with no extras would’ve been an improvement.

‘Perfect Sense’ is released by IFC Films and stars Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Connie Nielsen, Stephen Dillane and Ewen Bremner. It was written by Kim Fupz Aakeson and directed by David Mackenzie. It was released on May 22, 2012. It is rated R.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com