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I noticed this a couple of months ago and I’m still pissed off about it. I thought of it again while listening to a /film podcast rant on overly revealing trailers. The trailer for Boy A (2008, John Crowley) is absolutely terrible! It gives the entire film away and that’s a real shame because one of the best things about this movie is the way that the backstory unfolds.

John Crowley did a great job of telling this story. You meet the character, and just as it often is in real life, you slowly begin to learn about who they are and how they came to be that way. I saw this film at TIFF last year (and of course have not mentioned it until now, almost a year later) and it was one of my favourites. The storytelling is very sensitive and Andrew Garfield’s performance is really something to remember.

Check the film out (it was in limited release as of 23 July, 2008) but if you are just interested in the story, you might as well check out the ridiculously revealing trailer below.

p.s. When looking for a movie poster to include in this post, I found one that gives a lot away, too! Why didn’t The Weinstein Company let this film tell the story itself?

I don’t have much to say about The Happening except that it was really, really bad. Mark Whalberg’s constant look of disbelief was maddening. Zoey Deschanel was as horrid as always. The premise was cool but it totally tanked from there. I wasn’t expecting much but this is ridiuclous!

It felt like I was watching a soap opera; both the dialogue and its delivery were so forced. Deschanel is really, really bad - how does she keep getting parts? And there’s this one guy, a botanist or something, who looked weird and said really odd things, at the worst possible times, but nobody seemed to notice. Anyway, I can go on forever about how bad this movie is, so I’d better stop now.

You can clearly see in the picture above that Zoey and Mark are bad and annoying.

Interestingly, after receiving unanimously negative advance screening reviews, Shyamalan decided to call this film “the best B movie ever” or something like that. Come on, man! You made a crappy movie - it’s okay. Just promise to do better next time, okay?

The Happening: written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

I grew up reading C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles Of Naria and was, like everybody else, greatly looking forward to the “good” big-screen adaptations. I really enjoyed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and had high hopes for Prince Caspian. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with it.

It was a huge production and it looked amazing. The battle scenes were awesome - but they also took up the majority of the screen time, which is one of the films biggest problems. The novel is full of story and character, but the filmmakers seemed to have traded in plot and character development for really cool looking creatures. Even though I know the story very well, I wasn’t at all convinced while watching it on the big screen. I also felt that Peter and Susan (William Moseley and Anna Popplewell) had become worse actors - perhaps it’s a good thing that their characters are basically finished with.

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It felt to me like they thought that since the story is simpler, it could be breezed over. For example, I generally don’t care to see a big huge battle if I haven’t been presented with any real reasons to care about which side wins. Of course I’m not saying that they made me feel ambiguous - the Narnians are obviously the ones that I am supposed to want to win - I just feel like the filmmakers took that fact for granted. But if I was only looking for a big, loud, violent (but relatively bloodless) and huge-scaled battle/adventure film, it did the trick.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - based on the novel by C.S. Lewis; Screenplay by Andrew Adamson & Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely; directed by Andrew Adamson.

I went to see Cloverfield (written by Drew Goddard; directed by Mat Reeves) on opening night with Colin, Ian and Steve. I’d been looking forward to it since I saw the vague but extremely exciting teaser months and months ago, in front of Transformers (which was a terrrrrrrible movie). Although I followed a bit of the relatively elusive online marketing campaigns (such as Slusho and 1-18-08), I managed to steer clear of anything that would ruin it for me.

I did, however, read a couple of spoiler-free reviews over at Twitch and I’m glad I did. I didn’t know what I would see, and after reading the reviews I realized that I shouldn’t go in expecting a full-out “monster movie“. Yes, there’s a big monster (and friends) invading New York, but we all knew that already. What I was glad to know in advance was that this is not simply a story about the monster.

I gotta say, I loved this movie. It was a lot of fun and a great 85 minutes of entertainment. Lots of bangs and creatures and running around and things blowing up and blood and long shots and improvised-style acting… plus it was nice and noisy. Sure, it was a bit cheesy at times, and the handheld-camcorder type of filming has been done before, but I think they did an amazing job. I was alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) gripping the armrests and getting goosebumps! I loved the crazy-shakey-handheld-”camcorder” camera work and the CGI was great. (As far as the camera goes, here’s a little post about it.) I have a strong stomach so I was fine, but some people were clearly uncomfortable with the jerky camera movements.

It’s been a while since I’ve been so hyped for a movie and not have it disappoint me. It was damn cool.

Here’s an interview with director Matt Reeves. It’s got a fair bit of interesting stuff in it. And here’s one of many Cloverfield blogs.

This was our first TIFF film of the year, and it was a nice way of easing us into a fairly busy 9 days. Les chansons d’amour was directed and co-written by Christophe Honoré, and co-written by Gaël Morel. After looking these guys up, it would appear that I am quite a fan. Of the films that Honoré has written and/or directed, I have seen Le clan, Ma mère, Novo and Tout contre Léo. Morel co-wrote Le clan and I have seen one of the films he directed, À toute vitesse.

Les chansons d’amour is a musical, and a rather unconventional one. Honoré wrote the film around songs that Alex Beaupain had already written. Also, the musical numbers kind of float in and out of the story - and actually feel quite natural - as opposed to being grand productions. Of this, Honoré explains that “this film is a musical because the characters can only express their feelings by singing.”

We’re introduced to Ismaël (Louis Garrel) a few weeks into a newly-evolved relationship with his girlfriend, Julie, as they have recently adopted a third person to their mix: Alice. This situation is quite funny and introduces us to some of the film’s questions: What is love? Who can I love? Who could love me? What kind of love do I want?

Things happen and Ismaël finds himself alone. Well… almost alone. He now has a stalker, a young student named Erwann (played by Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, first seen four years ago in André Téchiné’s Les Égarés). This young man’s advances cause Ismaël to ask himself the same questions as he did in the beginning of the film, but out of an entirely different situation. Or maybe it’s not so different…?

I really enjoyed this movie. It was very charming, and I found myself smiling almost the entire time. It was a combination of the songs, the characters, the stories, the actors… and maybe also by watching them run around Paris…

Here are the films that I am seeing this year, in screening order:

1. Friday, Sept 7, 7:15pm
Le chansons d’amour (Love Songs) (France, Christophe Honoré)

2. Saturday, Sept 8, 9:00am
Control (UK/USA, Anton Corbijn)

3. Sunday, Sept 9:15am
Boy A (UK, John Crowley)

4. Monday, Sept 10, 2:00pm
Silent Resident (Weisse Lilien) (Austria/Germany/Luxembourg/Hungary, Christian Frosch)

5. Monday, Sept 10, 9:45pm
El Pasado (The Past) (Argentina, Hector Babenco)

6. Tuesday, Sept 11, noon
Vexille (Japan, Fumihiko Sori)

7. Tuesday, Sept 11, midnight
Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan, Takashi Miike)

8. Wednesday, Sept 12, 9:45pm
Import/Export (Austria, Ulrich Seidl)

9. Thursday, Sept 13, midnight
Flash Point (Dao huo xian) (Hong Kong, Wilson Yip)

10. Friday, Sept 14, 12:15pm
Déficit (Mexico, Gael García Bernal)

11. Friday, Sept 14, 5:00pm
Hengbok (Happiness) (South Korea, Jin-ho Hur)

12. Friday, Sept 14, 9:30pm
Chrysalis (France, Matteo Botrugno, Daniele Coluccini, Julien Leclercq)

13. Saturday, Sept 15, 6:30pm
Shadows (Koski) (Republic of Macdeonia, Milcho Manchevski)

14. Saturday, Sept 15, 10:00pm
Ex Drummer (Belgium, Koen Mortier)

The only film that I didn’t get tickets for yet is Jar City (Mýrin). I’ll be checking the box office but may need to rush it on Thursday afternoon.

My boss is kind enough to allow me to make up time for daytime weekday screenings. I can’t see anything in the afternoon or evening of this weekend (Sept 8 and 9) because of my comp tickets to Virgin Fest. Regardless, I’m seeing at least 14 films this year and Seana and I are going to have a blast!

I finally found a trailer of Michel Gondry’s next film, Be Kind Rewind! It stars Jack Black and Mos Def and looks absolutely amazing. I love Gondry’s very hands-on style of directing and how he is able to give us what I’m sure is just a glimpse into his vivid imagination. I can’t wait to see how his two leads re-enact these classic (or not-so-classic) films of the past twenty-five years or so (including Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2 and Driving Miss Daisy). It seems as if one of Gondry’s goals is to show us that the wonders of filmmaking can be experienced by the average person (whether Jack Black and Mos Def count as “average”, I don’t know…).

I’ve never even heard of this movie and it opens in a couple of weeks (August 17). It looks like this could be an awesome teen comedy… and with all of the episodes of Arrested Development that I’ve been re-watching recently, it’s nice to see Michael Cera again!

Here’s a hilarious R-rated clip - catch it while it’s still up! (Mom, you might not want to click on it.)

Thanks to /film for the link.

I saw Red Road (2006, written by Andrea Arnold with characters devised by Anders Thomas Jensen and Lone Scherfig; directed by Andrea Arnold) back in September as part of TIFF, and it was definitely one of my favourites. The director was on hand to explain the concept behind “The Advance Party“, a project/concept for a trilogy of three films of which Red Road is the first.

I didn’t know anything about The Advance Party before seeing the film, nor did I realize that Lars von Trier was involved at all, so that was a pleasant surprise. It is an intense, riveting piece and I really enjoyed how the themes and plot slowly rolled out. It was especially interesting afterwards, too, to read the character descriptions/restrictions that Arnold and the next two films’ directors were given to work with.

As the film is concluding its festival tour, Indiewire has a short article which details Red Road’s success and also sheds some light on The Advance Party, including some challenges that Arnold faced working within its structure.

I’m pretty excited to meet my friends Ryan and Jay this evening to check out A Tribute to François Truffaut at the National Film Board Mediatheque, which is right around the corner from where I work. For only $6 there is a screening of Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows) (1959), a Q&A with a Truffaut expert and then a 78 minute documentary! I’m very excited as this is one my favourite films.

What’s weird is that Ryan and I have been meaning to watch the entire series, of which I have only seen the first two installments and he hasn’t seen any of yet. We had made plans to watch The 400 Blows tonight, and then I got an email announcement from NFB that this event was happening: the same movie on the same night!