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Trailers
09/10/2007
"There Will Be Blood" Trailer #2
In June, we posted the intriguing first "trailer" for P.T. Anderson's upcoming There Will Be Blood. I use the quotation marks because that clip was more of a beguiling short tone poem than a typical teaser. Nonetheless, it got us excited.
The new clip, which began making the rounds on the Net last week, is substantially more informative. It's also amazing. There's blood, there's oil, and there's Daniel Day-Lewis, who eats up every frame of screen time as a greedy prospector in early 20th Century California. There's also Little Miss Sunshine's Paul Dano as a fanatical preacher who locks horns with DD-L.
The clip may only be two and a half minutes long, but this has multiple Oscar nods written all over it. Paramount Vantage releases the film Dec. 26.
08/22/2007
Bob Dylan(s) in "I'm Not There"
There’s an old dictum in the movie business that while it’s always exciting to see one actor play multiple parts in the same film, it’s merely frustrating and confusing to see multiple actors play the same part. History has largely born this adage out, giving us films like Kind Hearts and Coronets and Back to the Future Part II in the case of the former, and the 1967 version of Casino Royale in the case of the latter. Leave it to indie maverick Todd Haynes to say “eff that” and make a biopic about Bob Dylan in which the famous singer/songwriter is alternately played by Batman, The Joker, Richard Gere, a twelve-year-old black boy, and Galadriel Lady of the Galadhrim.
Stunt casting aside, this first full trailer for I’m Not There really goes out of its way to bow down and kiss Bob Dylan’s folksy ass. I have to confess that, unlike everyone else I know, I was not baptized at the First International Church of Dylan. I think Dylan is fine and all, but I can’t really get on board with the slavish Dylan worship that this trailer seems to be pushing. The fact that Haynes has taken such liberties with the casting gives me hope that maybe the film has a more irreverent approach to the subject than is let on here. After all, this is a movie from the same guy who made a biopic about Karen Carpenter and her battle with anorexia using stop-motion animation and Barbie dolls. It would be a real shame if he started taking himself, or Bob Dylan, too seriously.
08/16/2007
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Co-starring a nearly unrecognizable Jenna Fischer, Walk Hard appears to have considerably more visual flair than producer Apatow's previous films (due, one assumes, to the direction of Jake Kasdan, who also co-wrote the script). Whether the world really needs a parody of music bio-pics isn't clear -- but with an original soundtrack of catchy tunes and Reilly singing them, it's suitable entertainment for all the Millers out there. Maybe even the Joneses, too. Not the Smiths, though. Screw those guys.
08/09/2007
Be Kind, Rewind
When I first heard about the concept for this Jack Black vehicle -- a man accidentally erases all the movies at his friend's video store, and together they must remake the films themselves -- I thought it just sounded like an amusing setup for Black to run around and be silly for a couple of hours. Nothing wrong with that, either. But I was wrong.
To begin with, Be Kind, Rewind is brought to us by Michael Gondry, director/co-writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Second of all, Black's co-star is the immensely appealing Mos Def, who not only has Emmy-nominated dramatic chops, but has also pulled off comedy flawlessly in everything from Chapelle's Show to Hitchhiker's Guide. So there's that.
But the big thing is, it looks good. Instead of a simple farce about two guys bumbling around with a camcorder, we seem to be getting a funny, charming fairy tale about two guys who remind everyone how to fall in love with movies again. Which is a lot more exciting than just a movie with Jack Black getting earing a dress and getting smacked in the face a lot.
Although it also has that.