If you thought you’d heard the last of the Batman, you were wrong. The epic finale to director Christopher Nolan’s Bat-films made its debut back in July, but trailers are popping up everywhere once again and for a very good reason. Its time for The Dark Knight Rises to be released to DVD and Blu-ray. Let’s not forget about digital download either. Continue reading
If you like Rosamund Pike, you’ll also like today’s casting news. The actress, along with Aussie co-star Sam Neill, just signed on for the adaptation of Long Way Down.
You’ve heard of Man on a Ledge, but what do you think about four strangers on a ledge? That’s what happens in this story about four lonely souls who collide on New Year’s Eve atop a London city skyscraper, each intending to leap to his or her doom! What are the odds? Instead of committing suicide, all four form a pact to support each other. This sounds like a morbid version of AA, no?
French filmmaker Pascal Chaumeil will direct A Long Way Down as his English-language debut. That title sounds really funny now that we know what the film is all about.
I have to say, the premise and the cast have me pretty excited about this one. Pike and Neill join Pierce Brosnan (Can I get a woo woo?) Toni Collette, Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots. The original work was the dark comedy and best seller of the same name by Nick Hornby. Filming just began in Europe.
One of the four folks down on their luck is an American. You can bet actor Aaron Paul will take this role. Paul and his blue eyes should be recognizable, as he’s Jesse Pinkman in the addictive AMC series Breaking Bad. For many, this will be another cause for excitement!
My favorite film based upon a Nick Hornby novel is About a Boy. He penned the screenplay for the noted picture An Education, starring Carey Mulligan. Speaking of which, Rosamund Pike does appear in that film, too. His last novel, circa 2009, is called Juliet, Naked.
Pike’s recent work includes shooting the Christopher McQuarrie directed thriller, Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise, and work on the Edgar Wright directed film, The World’s End. The Jack Reacher film was based on the novel One Shot by Lee Child. The film debuts in December. The World’s End is also an adaptation and it must be funny because in it Pike co-stars with funny men Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Oh dear. In fact, she will re-team with Pegg on a project called Hector and the Search for Happiness. That’ll be interesting because thus far in her career, I prefer Pike in serious roles. My favorite Pike film is still Fracture, with Ryan Gosling.
The former Bond girl rocked her blonde tresses on the set of Wrath of the Titans, which is currently on Blu-Ray and DVD. I hated the initial re-make, but surprisingly, the action sequel was pretty darn entertaining. Never mind that Pike plays Andromeda in Wrath, a part acted by another actress in the Clash of the Titans remake. As if we wouldn’t notice.
As for Sam Neill, you may have caught him in The Vow and in the J.J. Abrams series, Alcatraz. He did a great job even in his small role in The Hunter opposite Willem Dafoe.
A Long Way Down will be produced by Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey via Wildgaze Films.
Many would say creativity and fantasy work go hand in hand. HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones certainly proved as much last Saturday at the creative arts Emmy Awards.
The addictive series based on the works of George R. R. Martin lead the pack, receiving a total of six statuettes at the weekend ceremony. Somewhere, several dire wolves are howling with joy. This was more trophies than any other winning show took home. If you’re a fan, I know you’re not really surprised. These awards, by the way, were designed to recognize technical achievements and give honor in categories not mentioned in more main stream awards programs.
The biggest winner of the night; however, was the Game of Thrones network, HBO, which earned a whopping 17 creative arts Emmys. How did the other networks fare? Well, CBS garnered 13 wins, PBS gathered 11, Discovery won six times, NBC earned five, and ABC and the Cartoon Network both took home four trophies each. Fox won twice.
A few of those categories Game of Thrones was recognized for were best special visual effects, outstanding costumes for a series, outstanding sound editing for a series, and outstanding art direction for a single-camera series. In that last category, Thrones actually tied Boardwalk Empire, but I suppose that was okay since both series belong to HBO.
Game of Thrones will being a drool-worthy third season beginning March 31st, 2013.
If you are wondering about the Emmys we are more familiar with, the telecast with 26 categories, which include acting, writing and directing, will air live on ABC at 8 p.m. EDT next Sunday. It’ll be the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards and Jimmy Kimmel is hosting.
As for the creative arts ceremony, there was at least one major upset of the night. It happened when actor Jeremy Davies won for his guest appearance on the gun-slinging FX series, Justified. Davies plays Dickie Bennett, who is a rival for main character, Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant. Raylan gave Dickie a permanent injury in their younger days and the two are practically mirror images of each other, one light (if not willing to bend the rules more than just a little), and the other dark. I’m a fan of the series and of Davies’s character.
Davies joked,
I have redefined the meaning of flabbergasted. [This] means that I think I’m officially getting away with my misfit self in this business. Is this actually happening? Is it too late for a recount?
Though Davies got the award for best guest on a drama, comedy series Two and a Half Men also shocked by earning a trophy. But it was guest star and long time acting talent Kathy Bates who took home the award for the CBS show. Comedies get a separate category for guest appearances. Though her series, Murphy’s Law was recently cancelled, she’s been nominated for her work there in the category of best drama actress. The results, as I mentioned, will be televised at the Primetime Emmy Award ceremony to air Sept. 23rd.
Moments I personally applaud from the creative arts list of winners are Hatfields & McCoys taking Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie and Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series, which went to So You Think You Can Dance. The latter is in my opinion one of the most dynamic reality show contests on the air.
If you dig political thrillers and history, today’s headline is definitely for you. VS Entertainment, helmed by Vincent Sieber, has just acquired the rights to adapt Blood’s A Rover. It’s the latest novel by James Ellroy, also the writer behind L.A. Confidential, which you’ll recall also got the big screen treatment.
Sieber is already hard at work serving as producer for The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag, which began as a novella by Robert A. Heinlein. Sieber will produce Rover with Clark Peterson. Paterson just finished up work on a crime film called Devil’s Knot, another novel adaptation. Ellroy, the author of Rover, will executive produce.
The story is set in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and centers around Joan Rosen Klein, nicknamed the “Red Goddess”. She’s on a mission of vengeance and won’t be hindered by the mafia or political enemies either. Characters clashing with Joan include Dwight Holly, a thug who works for J. Edgar Hoover; Wayne Tedrow, a drug runner connected to the Dominican Republic; and Don Crutchfield, a P.I.
The book was the final one in Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy.
The author has had this to say about his piece:
My most recent novel is — not surprisingly — also my best. The story is no less than the psychic inventory of America from 1968 to 1972. I have no doubt that Clark Peterson and Vincent Sieber will fashion a splendid motion picture from this noir epic.
Ellroy is represented by literary manager Joel Gotler.
The book’s title is taken from the poem, Reveille by A. E. Housman:
Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;
Breath’s a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad; when the journey’s over
There’ll be time enough for sleep.
If the story telling is anything like it was in L.A. Confidential, this could be an A-list film. When it comes to crime thrillers, Confidential remains one of my favorites. It’s built like a web connecting numerous memorable characters. The film version starred Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell and David Strathairn. I’m hoping 2013’s Gangster Squad, starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn will be just as awesome.
Ellroy also wrote The Black Dahlia. That film adaptation, of course, featured Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. It was interesting material, but not my favorite execution by any means. Story and film were based upon a real life murder.
Human dramas are among the most affecting films, no matter which culture they spring from. In that spirit, we invite you to consider The Patience Stone, an adaptation recently acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Now that Sony owns U.S. distribution rights, we can hope to enjoy the film over here.
The novel of the same name was written by Atiq Rahimi and was awarded the 2008 Prix Goncourt award. The adaptation was directed by the author and showed at the Toronto International Film Festival. We can expect Sony to release the picture in the U.S. next year.
The film takes place in a nameless Middle Eastern country in the grip of war. Golshifteh Farahani has garnered tons of praise for her central role as a meek woman trying to cope with her husband’s hospitalization. He’s in a comma, in fact, thanks to a bullet wound, and for this reason she is forced to send her two children away to live with her aunt. Though the focus of others is the war, Farahani’s character only struggles to keep her husband alive.
The twist comes when Farahani’s character falls for a young soldier. All she can do then is talk to her husband, unsure as to whether he can hear her. She tells him everything, things she probably wouldn’t say if he were well.
Do you think you could it? Explain to your wounded husband that you love someone else? Would any amount of one-sided conversation ease your guilt?
The picture is already being compared to the critically acclaimed picture A Separation. Reviewers call it profoundly moving. A Separation, if you have yet to see it, is also from Sony Classics and follows a married couple living in Tehran, who are faced with the impossible choice between moving to a different country for the betterment of their child’s future, or staying in Iran to care for the husband’s father, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
Michael Gentile, Studio 37, Corniche Pictures and Razor Films produced The Patience Stone.
It’s title is derived from a Persian myth of a mystical rock, which absorbs the troubles of those who confide in it.
Golshifteh Farahani has also appeared in Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly, Marjane Satrapi’s Chicken With Plums, and Body of Lies. The beautiful Iranian actress has been called absolutely captivating.
A&E has gone Hitchcock creepy, but not without a sense of style. The network is going to deliver to the masses, a new series called Bates Motel. The material is considered a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s notorious 1960 film, Psycho. Today we unveil the horrific new poster art for the series.
The sign says there are vacancies, but the nighttime imagery says you’d do well to spend the night someplace else. You can cue the iconic stabbing music and be sure not to shower until you leave the Bates Motel.
The prequel story is so fascinating that A&E decided to skip the usual pilot stage for a show in development and picked up the order for episodes right out of the gate, so to speak. If that doesn’t get your attention, maybe actress Vera Famriga will. The big screen actress will claim a small screen gig to act as Norma Bates, who is, of course, Norman’s mother.
The Oscar nominee’s part is being called
complicated, passionate and compelling woman who is smart, multidimensional and…surprising.
In fact, the show will focus upon Norman’s relationship with his mother, revealing to viewers how the serial killer came to be.
You know Farmiga from The Departed, Up in the Air, and Source Code.
Driving the proverbial bus are Lost‘s Carlton Cuse and Friday Night Lights‘ Kerry Ehrin. Look out American Horror Story, you’ve got competition.
Cuse said,
We are incredibly excited to start production on Bates Motel. We think our take on the Bates family will both be surprising and subvert expectations. We can’t wait for people to check in.
In the original Psycho, Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh was his co-star.
Alfred Hitchcock is a hot topic in Hollywood right now. I’m very pleased because the director was one of a kind. I still watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Netflix.
Aside from the Bates Motel A&E series, fans of the portly fellow will want to look out for The Girl, Hitchcock, and Rebecca. The Girl is an HBO movie depicting the not so easy-going relationship between the director Tippi Hedren, who starred in The Birds. In that one, Toby Jones will act as Hitchcock and Sienna Miller is Hedren. Imelda Staunton will play Hitchock’s patient and almost oddly understanding wife, Alma.
As for Hitchcock, that’s the title of Fox Searchlight’s upcoming film. It also deals with Psycho, in that it shows how that film was made. In this one, Anthony Hopkins is Hitchcock and Alma is played by Helen Mirren. Scarlett Johansson is Janet Leigh. That’s some seductive casting. If you need more seduction, Jessica Biel will be Vera Miles.
Lastly, Hitchcock material is finding its way onto Broadway. His creepy, 1940 picture, an Oscar winner, by the way, is going to be a Broadway musical. This makes me want to watch the original very soon. Rebecca unfolds as the title woman marries a rich widower. Once she moves into his mansion; however, things are far from being a fairytale. Her husband’s deceased first wife has a very palpable presence in that place.
What if mega director James Cameron had directed Jurassic Park? Would the love story between Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant and Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler gotten a little more star-crossed? Would the film have been three hours long? Would Jeff Goldbloom’s Dr. Ian Malcolm have tested his chaos theory by taking a wild ride atop a pterodactyl? It is an interesting question to ponder, and here’s why. Cameron has revealed that he was very interested in the Jurassic Park script.
Don’t get me wrong, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is a classic. I’ll never forget the kitchen scene, as our heroes are relentlessly hunted by a pair of Velociraptors. The Jurassic Park ride at Universal’s Islands of Adventure is one of my favs. It’s just fun to ask ‘what if’?
Anyway, James Cameron shouldn’t waste any tears. He says,
I tried to buy the book rights and [Spielberg] beat me to it by a few hours.
The director of Terminator 2 and Avatar was very candid at the Titanic Museum in Belfast. This museum just so happens to be the place where the historical ship was first designed.
For Cameron, Jurassic Park may be the one that got away, but Cameron adds,
When I saw the film, I realized that I was not the right person to make the film, he was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been fair.
Dinosaurs are for 8-year-olds. We can all enjoy it, too, but kids get dinosaurs and they should not have been excluded for that. His sensibility was right for that film, I’d have gone further, nastier, much nastier.
Can you imagine the dinosaurs getting any nastier? I suppose rather than the camera kindly panning away when Wayne Knight is devoured, trying to escape the island, we may have witnessed the gore instead. He’s right. That doesn’t sound quite as family friendly.
Titanic, is, of course, the highest-grossing film of all time. It won an Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. So, there’s really no downside in this debate. The picture has been recently released to Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray 3D, which included two extra documentaries illuminating the history of Titanic and the making of the film.
And did you know that 15 years later, some fans are still angry that Jack and Rose didn’t share that floating bit of driftwood, to prevent Jack from freezing to death? Recently, the director said this in defense of the iconic scene,
It’s not a question of room. It’s a question of buoyancy. When Jack puts Rose on the raft, then he tries to get on the raft – he’s not an idiot, he doesn’t want to die – and the raft sinks, and it kind of flips. And so it’s clear that there’s really only enough buoyancy available for one person. So he makes a decision to let her be that person instead of taking them both down.
There’s even a rumor floating around the interwebs (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun), that Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters will tackle the question head on, to figure out whether the pair could have shared the bit of flotsam or not. Cameron has expressed a desire to help out if and when they do so.
If you follow the hot young adult books fast becoming films, then you already know that Divergent is on that list. Summit Entertainment has the distinct privilege of making Veronica Roth’s novel into something for which we all want to get midnight screening tickets. The project’s latest news is the release of a release date. Mark your calendars for March 21, 2014. Maybe March will be a lucky month. If memory serves, The Hunger Games was released this March. Of course The Hunger Games adaptation starring Jennifer Lawrence did very well. Here’s to hoping the Divergent movie will be as highly anticipated.
The premise of Divergent is pretty darn creative. The action-adventure is all about the most important decisions we make and their impact on our lives. The story takes place in a vision of the future where America is divided into five ideological factions. Each and every citizen must choose a permanent faction by the time they turn 16. Then, once the decision is made, there’s a grueling initiation process. For our heroine, Beatrice, her initiation is especially difficult because of the faction she has chosen. To top things off, there’s a conspiracy at play which will threaten everything the girl holds dear.
The five factions are 1. Candor (the honest) 2. Erudite (the intelligent) 3. Amity (the peaceful) 4. Dauntless (the fearless) 5. Abnegation (the selfless). What does the title mean? That’s the word which describes Beatrice. It means she isn’t just suited to one faction, like most people. The fact that’s she’s Divergent is meant to be a secret.
Divergent‘s author, Veronica Roth is only 23 years old and this was her debut book. I’m so jealous. Divergent is a New York Times Best seller. It’s followed up by the sequel, Insurgent, which is also a best seller. Divergent has been praised for it’s quick pace.
Summit Entertainment is also the studio behind the Twilight films. The screenplay writer is Evan Daugherty. He also wrote the screenplay for Snow White and the Huntsman. No director has been announced yet. Summit Entertainment purchased film rights to the novel before the book was released to the public. Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing the film through Red Wagon Entertainment with Pouya Shahbazian.
It’s an exciting time for book adaptations. I’m looking forward to Breaking Dawn, part two, The Host, Beautiful Creatures (The Caster Chronicles), Fahrenheit 451, City of Bones (Mortal Instruments series), The Great Gatsby, The Seventh Son, Robopocalypse and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Which book would you like to see made into a movie?
Icons will be developed into a major motion picture thanks to Alcon Entertainment. And just what is Icons? It’s the forthcoming novel from author Margaret Stohl. If her name looks familiar, that’s because she’s part of the New York Times bestselling duo, consisted of herself and co-author Kami Garcia. Together they wrote the Young Adult paranormal hit, Beautiful Creatures, but Icons is Stohl’s solo debut.
If you enjoyed Stephenie Meyer’s The Host, which is also soon to become a film, starring Saoirse Ronan, then the plot of Icons may also be of interest to you. The story takes place is dystopian future Earth, where aliens reign supreme.
Over at Goodreads, I discovered a great little synopsis of the novel, which read this way:
Your heart beats only with their permission.
Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol’s family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn’t know it was fighting.
Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside — safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can’t avoid.
She’s different. She survived. Why?
When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador’s privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn’t a coincidence. It’s a conspiracy.
Within the Icon’s reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions — which they’ve always thought to be their greatest weaknesses — may actually be their greatest strengths.
Bestselling author Margaret Stohl delivers the first book in a heart-pounding series set in a haunting new world where four teens must piece together the mysteries of their pasts — in order to save the future.
I must say I kind of dig the idea that emotions, especially as wielded by angst-riddled teens, is an advantage in the science fiction flavored world, not a disadvantage. Icons sounds like a pretty wonderful thriller.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers won’t release the book until May 7th 2013, but Alcon has already purchases film rights, which is a good sign the material is really good stuff.
Alcon also owns film rights to the adaptation of Beautiful Creatures. The first book in the Caster Chronicles series, Beautiful Creatures is modern-day, young adult, fantasy, which takes place in the south. The other books in the series are Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos, and Beautiful Redemption. There’s also a short story, considered 2.5 in the chronology, called Dream Dark.
In a statement, Alcon said:
We are thrilled with our involvement in Beautiful Creatures and the franchise it promises. “Once we learned of Margaret’s new venture, we jumped at the chance to continue our partnership with her and this amazing series of books.
Director: John Hillcoat
Based on The Wettest County in the World (2008) by Matt Bondurant.
Why are you interested in this adaptation?
Elena-
I want to see this movie because John Hillcoat is directing it. I cannot overstate how profoundly I love The Proposition. I will probably watch every movie the man ever directs just to see if he can match that one, even if the brilliance of his Western was an accident. Lightning can strike twice in the same place, right? But I feel like The Proposition was not accidentally brilliant; I feel like The Road, his other directorial effort, will more likely turn out to be the anomaly in his catalogue of films. That movie was controlled by a studio who did not want to risk a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel’s adaptation on a film with “atmosphere.” R rating or not, they weren’t going to allow any barbecued babies or long, lingering (what they thought the pleb’s would consider “boring”) shots of a burned out world, and that lack of those shots and details were what caused The Road to fail as a film. So I would be interested in seeing it only because of the director.
However. Other reasons: Tom Hardy. Gary Oldman. Guy Pearce. Shia Labeouf. It’s pretty much a man-doberge cake. Yum.
Rachel-
I’m actually not into gangster movies unless they’re directed by Guy Richie. They tend to be a little too much “reality” for me. The “reality” of just how horribly and creatively violent people can be. I also don’t like war movies. (Hyperbolic violence is my flavor. Tarantino. I like it when it is highly choreographed.)
HOWEVER, I’m a sucker for Piedmont movies about hillbillies because it’s where I’m from (ish). I enjoy parsing the accents. This is why I suffered through the bleakness of Winter’s Bone and gained a whole lot of respect for Jennifer Lawrence before the atrocity that was The Hunger Games put her on everyone’s map. Plus Gary Oldman. I’m also willing to let Tom Hardy mumble his way through another movie in my presence and to watch him and Shia mumble at each other while sweating. They’re basically both the same guy, right?
What would make it awesome?
Elena-
It will be awesome if it lives up to my expectations as a proper follow-up to Hillcoat’s debut. The reviews I’ve seen give me hope. “Atmospheric” has been tossed about—a good sign.
So, for those of you who have not seen The Proposition, what I am looking for from this film is a beautifully framed, visually expansive movie with unapologetic brutality and thoughtfully gray morals. No heroes, but no all-black villains, either. And gloriously violent. That combination of elements, well-constructed and well-executed, would catapult it to the top of my best films of the year so far list.
Rachel-
Aw hell, I don’t know! I saw the trailer, and it looks like it’s going to be hillbillies shooting gangsters and drinking moonshine. Sounds great! I take special joy in “period” movies that have really accurate sets and costumes. So, it will be awesome if everyone looks especially smelly.
What would make it suck?
Elena-
It will suck if the movie is all action. What makes any really epic revenge tale (which this one looks like it will be) great is the slow burn. I am patient with films which take the time to breathe but bored by movies that should take the time for character/setting development and don’t. I mean, it’s one thing to give me a movie like The Raid: Redemption which sets up a plot inside of two minutes and proceeds to be nothing but action for the next 90—I’m fine with that. What I’m not fine with is a movie that is more than gimmicky action but doesn’t take the time to develop anything; Public Enemies comes to mind as a recent disappointment in that style.
Rachel-
If all these non-Southerners (and non-American, sheesh!) really SUCK at their regional accents. That shit will send me right over the edge if I have to listen to True Blood style accent mangling. I’m talking Ewan McGregor (whom I love and adore, forever!) in pretty much any movie in which he was required to have an American or American Southern accent. WTF?
Additional thoughts on casting/production?
Elena-
I’m really curious to see how Tom Hardy does playing an American, and if this role is a bit more nuanced for him than most of his recent ones have been…more of a character and less of a smart-ass action hero. He sold me on his acting skills with Bronson and has not done much that required a stretch since. I’m curious as well to see how Shia LaBeouf handles a grown-up part in a film made for grown-ups. I will forgive him any number of Transformers sequels if they enable him to make artistic movies, and he turns out to have a knack for character work.
Nick Cave wrote the screenplay again (he also wrote the screenplay for The Proposition) and will no doubt have a hand in the scoring. That makes me happy. Nick Cave is a weird dude of many talents and perversions, and his involvement ups the odds of my getting what I want from this movie. Also I expect the music will be extra-fab with him arranging it.
Rachel-
Tom Hardy yada yada snore. I’m interested in seeing that kid from Holes do his best to pretend he was never in Indy 4 or Transformers 11. Gary Oldman is always a huge draw; it’s a pleasure to watch an actor like him transform himself. From the trailers I gather he’s going to be rather despicable, that’ll be fun!
Mostly I am seeing this movie because Elena wanted to, and I’m making her watch Dredd later this month so she’s making me see this one. Full disclosure, folks. You like it.
Reaction to film:
Elena-
LOVE.
This movie was what I wanted it to be. It was full of characters, it was richly set with beautiful, lingering shots of the back-hills scenery, it was shockingly violent, it was funny in ways a movie with this storyline has no business being funny…I just enjoyed every second of it and want to see it again already.
Lawless felt like the less awkward, more commercially viable cousin of The Proposition. It had the film-making elements that made me love Hillcoat’s first movie so much, but it was less bleak, and less ambiguous as to who was hero and who villain. And it was set in America in a time that is currently in vogue rather than making a Western out of the Australian outback. So the gorgeous cinematography, the patient pace, the spot-on musical selections, and the unexpectedly quotable script were all there, but in a packaging that the average moviegoer will respond to.
I was surprised to see Rachel call this a gangster movie, because it seemed to me like more of a back-woods resistance fighter movie—if nothing else because the obvious heroes were not gangsters themselves. This instinct turned out to be correct, as the Bounderant brothers were certainly not gangsters. They made charming anti-heroes, of three local boys making good in what was theoretically an illegal operation but which the local law bought into, until they got bought by some townies.
Shia LaBeouf had the traditional coming of age arc, from trembling youth to suave and unrepentant outlaw. He was fine in the role, though it didn’t seem like it held many challenges (nor was it meant to). He shone in the comic moments, but probably the best scene was the climactic ending, perhaps because he was so effective in the more light-hearted moments. Tom Hardy stole the show for me, though, as the taciturn Forest. He said as much with grunts and “hm” as other characters did with monologues and soliloquies. I thought the whole production was well-cast. I didn’t notice anyone’s accent at all, so that tells me they were competently to well-handled, though I confess I don’t know enough about Virginia hill accents to tell you how nuanced the linguistic performances were. I could have used more Gary Oldman just for the sake of more Gary Oldman in pinstripes and bowler hats, but he wasn’t really called for in the story.
As I hoped, the movie runs a slow burn to an epic conflagration, though it does have moments of conflict and action in the run-up that keep layering the tension and upping the ante. Happily, the ending delivers on the promise of those scenes. The violence never feels gratuitously gory, but it is shocking and visceral. You don’t always see it coming, and even when you did the scene plays out in a way that wasn’t how you expected. Hillcoat pulls no punches in those moments, and he excels in making you feel what is happening on-screen. Can’t lie; I squirmed more than once.
Also the music was awesome. Not as weird as I expected, though the score is full of Cave’s consonant sounds to ratchet up the tension, but most of the music was traditional or intentional replicas.
All in all, Lawless succeeded for me on pretty much every level, and it has enough commercially friendly elements for me to give it an unqualified recommendation.
Rachel-
Hot damn, y’all! I liked it!
It’s beautifully filmed in what looks like North Carolina? It’s got old timey cars, rattletrap huts, sweaty hats, hypnotic hymnals, and A MAGICAL CARDIGAN. Yes, folks, this is not a film about bootlegger hillbillies in Virginia as you were promised. IT’S BETTER. It’s a film about a magical cardigan that renders its wearer immortal!
Yup! Mystery Solved! Frodo’s almost forgotten mithril armor has been forged anew! It is now The Cardigan of Immortality!!! Capable of keeping its wearer alive through all manner of plausibly red-neck near death experiences! Never knew a cardigan was standard issue during WWI, did ya?
Why, it is SO impressive that had Joey the War Horse been given a standard issue US Cardigan (oh, England!), the damn horse would have FLOWN around Europe in his search for the boy Albert, and we wouldn’t have had to sit through tedious friend-making in France or tank-vaulting in…Germany?
What was I talking about?
Oh Yea, Lawless. It was good. The accents weren’t half bad. Sometimes they got a little yeehaw, but for the most part I was OK with them. They weren’t exactly Piedmont accents, but they weren’t twangy bullshit noises, either! Huzzah!
Art direction was stellar. Acting was top-notch, though there was very little Gary Oldman (saaadness), and Tom Hardy didn’t have that many LINES, though his physical acting was great…except for when he tromp-walked around like Bane. Is that just how he walks? Shia played the same earnest kid he always does, but with a southern accent. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska’s characters seemed tacked on for plot development, but their scenes were generally welcome respites from the grimy, sweaty gun-toting scenes.
Surprisingly this film has some genuinely funny moments. Tom Hardy’s character “Forest” is a man of sometimes comically few words. Enjoyable and well-made. It IS a little slow…but not tedious. The tension builds and builds and builds some more, and you squirm a little in your seat in horror of what is to come. I checked my watch exactly once at the hour and a half point just to see if I could make it until the end of the film without having to leave my seat. I have a hard time watching movies that keep you in that extended state of tension. Masterfully done.
If westerns and “gritty” anti-heroes with limited vocabularies isn’t your thing, then you can skip it. Gary Oldman makes only one gangster appearance, tommy-gun in tow. Guy Pearce’s villain is tragically forced in a cast of much more nuanced characters, but it has a satisfying ending (a surprise ending for me! I was sure it was going to be bleak) and a lovely romanticizing of 1920s hill country living. Less gangster and more Piedmont Western.
Let’s hope Elena can enjoy Dredd as much as I enjoyed Lawless!
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